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—aka, broken soldier boys.
INT— PARK ESTATE.
JEJU-DO, SOUTH KOREA— MORNING.
SCENE III.
THE BATHROOM WAS a nice reprieve. It had a nice air (you know the ones that came from the hotel, unused but nicely scented, and everything automated enough that it was on the brink of irritation). The toilet talked to me very nicely about the bidet and flushing situation. It was a good conversationalist whilst I vomited my guts out and curled on the floor, holding the lip edge as if it would save me.
The fake music of thrilling trees and quirky bird chirps were helping tide the new shape of my sleep paralysis demon. My new mother in law whilst I gave birth to three puppets. Lines on their polished faces and slackened mouths asking for my breasts, my leg, my sanity. They mimic each other and demand.
My stomach recoiled and I leaned forward to tip my mouth in the right direction. "Fuck me."
A knock.
I wretched again, forcing my throat. A little came out but it's more saliva and psychological than anything.
Another knock.
Go away, I thought. "Give me a minute," I said.
Two knocks. A firm fist against wood. A person ready to knock it down to get to me.
"Fucking hell, man," I growled, leaping from the toilet as I felt the walls closing in again. It's all in my head but I can't get it out of me. I dove straight for the faucet, trying to rub myself clean while pulling on my tube of lipstick. My hands were shaking. "You're not helping."
As soon as I was sure I looked presentable, I jutted a finger against the mirror. "Get your shit together. You can do this."
It didn't matter if I didn't believe it. I could make it happen. A liar's best lie is always to themselves.
My stomach recoiled in response.
I yanked the door open, a sneer to my mouth at the attendant who was taller than I was expecting, closer to the threshold than I thought that I stumbled back a step. This close and less trying to run away from my new mother in law (as all daughters in law feel, probably)— I absorbed his features.
He was pale with horrible marred marks on the side of his face, skin stretched and crumpled past his jaw and one ear. He had no ear on his left, no lip. Like a portion of his face from his chin to one side had been brutally yanked and twisted.
