Killer Addiction - (Squid Game)

Chapter 31 - Reawakening

The lights came on and Dae-eun suddenly had the craving for death so she could sleep longer.
The girl felt briefly nauseous as she tried to sit up, eyelids fluttering as her pupils dilated, slowly focusing on her surroundings.
I'm...

Holy shit, I'm back.

Gone was the white limo and the city streets of Seoul, the cushy lifestyle, the plentiful money and the people she cared about.
She'd discarded it, and for what?
A cheap fleece blanket, a lumpy mattress, sea green tracksuit... and the number.
225.

Maybe that voice from the piggybank was right... I should've just stayed in my lane.
Looking around, she noticed other players stirring in the glare of the flood lights.
Some were already walking around below.
Gi-hun.

She glanced to her left.
Then right.
What happened to Gi-hun?

She scrambled out of the bed- and fell.
Flat on her ass.
She flipped her hair up with a huff... she'd gotten slower in her complacency, in her three years of rich living.
How embarrassing...

"Dae-eun?"
A familiar voice greeted her and oh- was his appearance a blast from the past.
Standing over her, wearing that same sunken yet soft expression, was Seong Gi-hun, now dressed in the same tracksuit as her, as well as 456, his old number, being emblazoned on it.

He huffed, helping her to her feet as he peered at her tracksuit.
"They gave you the same number too... eh. These bastards really have a thing for consistency..."
Dae-eun sighed, dusting herself off briskly.
"...I half expected never to wake up again."

"This feels so surreal..." Gi-hun murmured, looking around in a daze, it was as if his mind had already assured him he was still in dreamland.
"It's...weird to be back, isn't it? Being reduced to a number again... a Player."
His dark gaze turned back to her, wiping a few beads of sweat gathering around what remained of his facial hair.

Is he... nervous?
Granted- this was Plan B, but we did plan for this.
AND we've done this before!

"Player 456." An unfamiliar voice chimed.
The two former winners turned, glimpsing a woman bearing the number 044 rounding the corner of the bunk beds, crossing their paths.
She was somewhat aged, frown lines and crows feet pinched her skin as her somewhat long hair was gathered and tied into a low ponytail, held together by an ornate ribbon of multicoloured fabric.

Her eyes, while almost black in colour, seemed like pools of wisdom or faith.
They eerily reminded Dae-eun of the pastor she'd killed during the Marbles game last time she was there, having that same wide-eyed glare of a zealot.
She spoke again, returning the white-haired girl to reality.

"I sense you're holding on to a great many things. You feel frozen, unable to leave or stay. There's no use trying to fight it. Your fate is decided. I see the wandering souls trapped with you, unable to rest in death."
Dae-eun stared, dumbfounded.
The fuck is this woman?

A prophet?
Or- what's a person who sees beyond?
Monk? Shaman?

"You didn't come here of your own volition." She continued, "Those vengeful souls dragged you here."
As Gi-hun was about to speak up, the woman suddenly turned her far-seeing gaze on the girl with white hair, Dae-eun felt her belly twist uncomfortably at the sheer interest in Player 044's eyes.

"You are an enigma, Player 225..." she drawled, leaning closer, as if trying to glean Dae-eun's very soul from her caramel gaze alone.
"There's conviction in your eyes... but I feel a sense of understanding in you, a sense of logic. You understand your mistakes, your bad choices, yet you chose to ignore them in favour of pursuing what you want. You try to cling to the prospect of having it all... when we both know that's an impossibility."