Bad Things (Ryeji Au)

40

Flash back*

"Forgive me Father, for I have sinned."

The confessional is a little claustrophobic, dark, and uncomfortable, but there is nowhere else Ryujin can achieve catharsis and get everything off of her chest.

It has been five months since she started murdering, and she has already taken the lives of eight innocent people (not including Karina). Today, she sits in confessional not because she feels guilt or remorse for her actions, but because she has no other outlet for talking about what she has been doing. She has nowhere else to go to admit how many people whose lives have been stolen by her, and how much she has enjoyed taking every single one of them.

Therapists are required by law to report incidents where their client is dangerous to others. Ryujin would never trust any human being with her secrets, and she definitely would not want them to look at her any differently. So, she has resorted to the Catholic act of Confession.

For a murderer, Ryujin is strangely religious. Not to the point where she prays before every meal and attends church weekly. No, it's just that she wholly believes in God and Jesus. She still possesses the faith into which her parents raised her.

As she sits in the tiny confessional about to unload her deepest, darkest secrets to the priest on the other side of the window who is strictly forbidden from divulging even the worst confessions to anyone, she is not doing this for forgiveness in God's eyes either. She is aware that her actions are unforgivable and she will probably burn in Hell when she dies. Going to Confession is simply to get all of the things she has been bottling up off of her chest.

"I killed someone. Eight people, actually," Ryujin continues slowly.

There is dead silence from the other side of the confessional. Part of her wonders whether the priest has fled from his position in the other room to the phone in order to alert the authorities.

She knows that isn't going to happen, though. She wouldn't be here if she weren't one hundred percent sure that the person on the other side wasn't going to snitch. No, she did her research - every single answer said that priests are not allowed speak of anyone's confessions to anyone, no matter how unlawful or dangerous they are.

"I kill them all the same way. I'm not some sadistic monster who's going to gouge their eyeballs out and skin them and wear it as a suit... nah, miss me with that cliché movie psychopathic bullshit. I seduce them at the bar, bring them back to my basement, tie them up... they think they're about to have the best sex of their lives. But instead, they get a knife to the throat," Ryujin laughs darkly at the thought of her murders.

"Do you repent for your sins?" an old, hoarse, male voice asks. His attempts to veil his shock and fear don't work very well.

"You know, actually, I lied. There were a couple where I didn't slit their throats first. I experimented with the first ones," Ryujin completely ignores the priest's question, continuing on her own tangent.

"I played with fire for one of them. Cut open their arms and held a lighter to the wounds. Drowned one and strangled one. But nothing really got me as excited as slitting throats, I don't know why. Watching the blood trickle out, hearing their desperate gurgling, seeing the life fade out of their eyes... it's a thrill."

"Do you repent for your sins?" the priests asks once more.

"I don't think I can stop. I don't think I'm going to. I'm making a name for myself, you know. The 'Seoul Butcher.' Kind of has a nice ring to it but also it kinda makes me picture this big old fat guy with a butcher knife stabbed right into a pig," she chuckles.