Have you ever experienced fear?

 

Not the fear that makes your stomach jump when a spider appears in front of you. The fear that festers in your stomach, that weighs down your limbs like lead.

 

The fear that makes you want to die.

 

Because that's what Byunghun feels. The fear has overtaken and corrupted every inch of his mind. The fear has polluted and desecrated the sacred purity of himself. He cannot escape this fear. This fear has taken hold of him, consumed him, and is now destroying him from the inside.

 

The fear was evident in the way his bloodshot eyes darted left and right, blinking against the light that shone directly over him. It was evident in the way his heart pounded in a violent manner against his rib cage.

 

His pale tongue darted out to at his dry and cracked lips.

 

A strand of hair had fallen over his eyes and it annoyed him to no end. He tried to push it to the side, but he forgot that his wrists were tightly bound to the armrests of the wheelchair he is sitting in.

 

His breathing was shallow, bordering on hyperventilation. He wanted to escape. He tried to. He wrestled with his constraints and thrashed his head to and fro, but he knew that even if he managed to escape, he'd just get dragged back here.

 

He knew.

 

It happened before.

 

His hands, once flawless and nimble, were now caked in dirt and filth. Dried blood was stuck underneath his fingernails from the time he scratched his arms while dealing with the anxiety. He remembered that had he ended up writing strange and nonsensical words on the wall of the padded cell he was detained in with his own blood. Although now he wasn't in his cell. He was in a dark room, but all he knew was that there were dead bodies on either side of him, their bellies gut open and their entrails spilling off the trays and onto the floor.

 

A door banged open, the sound echoing around the deathly quiet room. A figure, dressed impeccably clean, approached him, cocked his head and grinned.

 

"And how are you my little Byeongari? Didn't bleed too much today? Good, I still need you."

 

Byunghun turned his head to face the man that had kept him imprisoned.

 

It was strange. When he first met and talked with the man in front of him, he had seen a warm and welcoming smile plastered on a handsome face. He had gotten no strange vibes from the doctor known as Lee Chanhee, but it appeared that Lee Chanhee was not who he really seemed. The face was now sunken in, but held onto that sadistic smile, those crazed eyes, but most of all, that unstable mind.

 

Lee Chanhee, the doctor that Byunghun now knew for a fact experimented on patients and performed inhumane acts upon all creatures, not caring if they died in the process.

 

Of course an asylum was the best place for such things. No one cared about the mentally insane.

 

Chanhee leaned in close to Byunghun. "I'm going to take you somewhere fun, Byeongari. Isn't that great?"

 

Byunghun didn't answer, couldn't answer, as the crazed doctor began wheeling him away from the dark room and into a dim hallway. There was a strange pounding, but Byunghun realized that it wasn't the usual asylum patients banging against their cells. It was the sound of rain colliding with the roof, a sound he hadn't heard for months. Chanhee pushed him in front of a balcony, allowing Byunghun a perfect view of the world outside; the dark sky was pouring its tears across the land and drowning the weak.

 

"Do you see that, Byeongari?" Chanhee laughed. "I know you haven't been out there in a while. Do you want to go?"

 

Byunghun didn't respond. Lee Chanhee would never let him free without repercussions. It was foolish to hope for something like that.

 

"Go on. Run free. I'm in no hurry." Chanhee said, only momentarily pausing after. "No? Alright."

 

And he continued to push Byunghun away from his slightest chance at freedom. He pushed Byunghun into a bathroom and for the first time, Byunghun saw himself after months of endless captivity. He didn't know what was worse: the numerous cuts and bruises on his face or the fact that he was scared of himself.

 

"Look at yourself, Byeongari." Chanhee cooed, pinching Byunghun's cheeks to the point where his newly healed wounds reopened. "Aren't you beautiful?"

 

What can he say? Nothing. The wisest thing he could do was just remain silent. However, Lee Chanhee was a man who hated silence. He smacked Byunghun across his face, gripped Byunghun's chin and made him look into the mirror.

 

"Answer me, Byeongari."

 

It was now that the tears began, the tears that fell from Byunghun's eyes daily, the tears that made Chanhee overjoyed.

 

"I..." Byunghun began in a raspy voice before swallowing. "I'm beautiful."

 

Chanhee giggled, his signature manic giggle that told Byunghun his torture was not over. Chanhee bent down and the side of Byunghun's cheek, slurping up the blood and tears. Byunghun winced and trembled terribly, but Chanhee would make things worse if he tried to avoid it.

 

Chanhee finally gave Byunghun some space, a little brief respite before he went off the crazy end again. Chanhee leaned against a sink, pooled to the brim with a shockingly bright scarlet liquid. "I'm upset, Byeongari."

 

"W-Why... Why are you upset?"

 

"He died." Chanhee hissed in a deadly tone. "My experiment died. He wasn't supposed to die. He was weak. Weak. Weak!"

 

Chanhee picked up a pair of rusty bone shears from the array of tools resting on a tray beside him.

 

"But you're not weak are you. Hm? My little Byeongari." Chanhee lifted Byunghun's right forefinger and positioned the shears on the middle joint.

 

Byunghun's mind was blank, like he couldn't comprehend what was happening. After all, the sickening sound of his own bone breaking and the pain that shot through him pushed everything else out of his mind. Chanhee dangled his cut off limb in front of him, cackling at his despair. He moved over and did the same to Byunghun's left ring finger. Byunghun didn't hear the crunch of his bone breaking again only because he was screaming so loud. Byunghun knew that Chanhee liked it when he screamed, so he does, just so that Chanhee will be satisfied and leave him alone that much sooner.

 

"Thats wasn't so bad." Chanhee commented after tossing away Byunghun's fingers. "Wasn't it fun, Byeongari?"

 

Byunghun didn't answer. It was new. Never before did Chanhee cut off any of his limbs. He'd seen it before, watched as Chanhee methodically sawed off a living man's feet, then hands, legs, arms, and neck. He knew it would happen to him too. He just didn't know when.

 

Chanhee dug his thumb against the end of one of the shortened appendages, causing Byunghun to cry out once more. "Answer me, Byeongari."

 

"I-It was f-fun." Byunghun managed to gasp out.

 

"Good. I'm glad." Chanhee rubbed his cheek against L.Joe's. "You won't die, will you Byeongari? You won't leave me like those other worthless creatures, will you?"

 

It was a question Lee Chanhee asked him every day. It was also a question that Chanhee had specifically trained him to answer, like he was a mutt following every command his master gave him.

 

"No."

 

"Good. I wouldn't like it if you left, Byeongari." Chanhee wheeled him out of the bathroom and down the hall. They were on a catwalk overlooking the main room. Byunghun could see Chanhee's current experiments: the director of the asylum with his tongue cut out, a patient with his feet sewn to the ends of his arms after his hands had been removed, a security guard lying motionless on a contraption that had peeled his skin from his midsection, exposing his organs for all to see. Byunghun had seen it all before - the horrors and monstrosities that resided in this asylum.

 

"Here we are." Chanhee sang as they entered the filthy kitchen. Byunghun recognized a patient lying on the counter, his ankles and wrists bound. An assortment of cleavers and saws were lying on a tray beside him. Byunghun thought he was going to watch Chanhee torture someone again. Instead, Chanhee undid his restraints and pulled him to his feet. "Now, Byeongari, it's almost dinnertime for the others. Why don't you help me? You will help me, won't you?"

 

It sounded like Byunghun had a choice, but in reality, he never did.

 

"...Yes."

 

Chanhee grinned his usual sadistic grin. "Good. Start with this." He handed Byunghun a heavy cleaver, one that pained his hands even more.

 

He could use it. He could use the cleaver and kill Chanhee. He could escape, but could he? Chanhee was powerful, an insane God and Byunghun was residing in his realm. Chanhee had already injected the fear into his system, an all-consuming fear that was the force of all his movements. Byunghun was powerless against it.

 

Byunghun walked to the end of the counter, the restrained patient looking at him with fearful eyes, but even that was unrecognizable to Byunghun. He raised the cleaver above his head as the patient began thrashing around as much as he could, muffled shouts rising from his gagged mouth. However, Byunghun was oblivious to both.

 

He brought the cleaver down, the steel slicing messily through flesh and crushing bone. The head rolled off the counter and onto the floor with a dull thud. Chanhee looked on with admiration and pride.

 

"You're almost complete." Chanhee whispered. "You're almost perfect... My flawless experiment."

 

He pulled the scarlet cleaver from Byunghun's grip and placed an uncharacteristically gentle, but menacing kiss next to Byunghun's ear.

 

"My little Byeongari."