INSIDE MONSTER. THE FUGITIVE.

PROLOGUE

SEVEN YEARS AGO

It's cold... this floor that I feel under me is cold. They are so cold... the sharp edges of the stone stairs feel like ice, stairs that lead to the second floor of this abandoned warehouse where I will breathe my last breath, being exonerated by sins eventually. I feel them so well under me, even though my brain is dizzy and my soul is numbed after the hammer's hit that I received on the back of my head. And I'm not alone here... My butcher's hand squeezes my right wrist, dragging me behind him... stair by stair... step by step... gasp by gasp. I hear all this so clearly, even though I can't see the face of this heartless man who has decided to turn me into his victim without my agreement. I am his victim now... like a beautiful butterfly that fell prey to the cruel spider with a cross on his back... The one that is considered the butcher of the world... The spider that devours souls... The Tarantula of the Underworld.

Eventually, I opened my eyes and I saw the sky... one made from black stones, which was illuminated by the weak light of something or someone that was behind me. I smiled. „A firefly," I thought, seeing the blink of that light. Then, my soul froze so suddenly, just like the mad flow of the blood through my veins stopped. It happened the moment I heard his killing voice in my ears when he stopped for a few seconds. Why did he stop? I didn't know. I couldn't understand this. I saw only that he stopped and bent above me after that, not releasing my wrist, which he squeezed harder and harder to hurt me, to make me submissive, to let me understand who was the master and who was the servant between us or better said to make sure I knew that I was the prey and he the predator.

Understanding this, I told him, „I know why you are doing this." He smiled, with that demonic smile he had. Then, he approached me more, bending over me to be able to see his face. Yet, not willing to do this, I closed my eyes and squeezed them hard because, for an unknown reason, I was afraid to see his eyes.

Nevertheless, I had to do this in the end, after I winced first and I heard his voice saying, „Why? Why do I do this?" Yet, it was only an illusion: not his voice or what he said, but the fact that I looked into his eyes. What I saw at that moment was the blinding light that pierced my soul, darkening it shortly after this, for a long time, after it entered through my dilated retinas. Yet, after I closed and opened my eyes, several times, and I could see something through that thick darkness, I saw his smile, and this made me shudder because it was a smile I knew once, a smile I got to adore in time and maybe... to love it too.

„Han YuSan?" I murmured. Then... I shook my head, only imaginarily because I felt incapable of moving. Because of this, I stubbornly squeezed my eyes, trying to chase that image away from my mind, convinced that it wasn't real and not Han YuSan hurt me, but someone else... a mad soul... a cruel soul that had chosen me as his victim for a reason known only by him.

Yet... maybe I was wrong and this made my soul freeze inside me again. After that, I shuddered again, from top to toe when something cold dripped from above and touched my cheek. That small drop leaked eventually on my skin, and I felt it running down my neck after this... A sweaty neck... stained with mud and dirt because of the feet that trampled me savagely while my butcher asked me to pay for sins I wasn't aware of. What was that drop that touched my cheek? A drop of blood. I understood this only later when I remembered the wound I made him. Yes, it was a drop of his life that leaked from that wound, one I made to him, even though I had been weak and not strong enough to finish what I started... killing him, turning myself into his victim again when I wanted to be the butcher.

„I'm glad!" He said eventually. „That you understood who I am! Yet, I am not sure if you are aware of the sin you have in your soul, dirty woman you are!" He hissed this through his teeth, releasing my wrist after this.

„No," I yelled in my head while cold tears bathed my cheek again. „No, don't let go of my hand," I murmured, feeling my body sliding on the stairs. Yet, my request was in vain because he had no intention to save me. He only stood up in the end and, from up the stairs, he proudly looked at me, probably feeling himself a God while I started to roll on those stairs... faster and faster, even though I slipped on them before that.