Surprisingly, sleeping was not hard last night. I fell asleep on the couch and woke up to the sunrays from outside shining onto my face.

It was a bright Tuesday morning, Seojoon was gone.
Good.
My guess was that he had stayed, but I promised myself to not contact him anymore after last night. Apparently, we're not so done with each other as we'd thought. There was no good coming out of meeting him at night at my house, him being all nice and caring, while I knew he would go back to his girlfriend after those short episodes over here. My pride was too big for him to come here whenever he felt or not, while I was kind of clinging on.

I went into the shower. A look into the mirror reassured me that the marks were still all over me, more prominent than ever.
Maybe it was the refreshing shower or the weather, but somehow, I felt quite good today, despite my almost-death experiences and the devil's marks on my body. I thought I'd decided to rather get behind this, instead of letting myself be defeated.

I got dressed and couldn't find a clean turtleneck sweater, so I put on a blouse. If the people wanted to see my marks or not; they would have to now.
Where would you begin to even look for information about a person like this? Clearly, Hyungsik was not normal at all. Something was going on with him. I collected what I knew so far - ice-cold skin, steel-like body, and the shifting back and forth between a passionate human being and a... corpse?
Whatever it was, it couldn't be explained with anything I could think of. Especially since he's claiming that when he was not around, I was in danger. But then again, yesterday, he was the one attacking me in a fatal way.
And always before he starts being scary, his appearance changes into the dull-eyed psycho.
I would have guessed multiple personalities, but with what force had he marked my body yesterday then?

I didn't get it at all.
And the internet wouldn't be a reliable source in this matter, there would only be fantasy tales about demons and ghosts.
...Possessed!
It seemed unrealistic and totally out of the world, but in this case, this was behavior I personally would call possessed.
I paused. Was I really so desperate to believe that there were some demons involved? I wasn't even religious.
But what else could this state of mind be?

I realized that the most logical way would be to go to a doctor and get those bruises checked.
Fifteen minutes later, I headed out the door and made my way to the hospital where I was treated with my back.

I asked for Dr. Hwang specifically when I arrived. He must be quite busy because I waited a while, even though the nurses were slightly scared by the way I looked. I just looked straight back at them, making them pretend to not have seen anything.

Dr. Hwang appeared after twenty or thirty minutes and greeted me with a firm handshake. His gaze went down to my throat and his friendly smile turned into a grimace. "Please, Ms. Choi, follow me."
We went to his office with an examination table. He showed me to sit while he walked around his desk and sat down across from me.
"How are you feelig?", he asked.
"Well, my back is alright. The medication is working well and I can sleep regularly again."
"I'm glad to hear that. I'm guessing you didn't seek me out for that matter?"
His look was resting on the horrendous marks all over my throat. He sensed that those wouldn't be all.
"You're right. I would be very thankful if you could have a look at this", I said while pointing at the area.
"Certainly."

I sat down on the exam table and took off the blouse. Before Dr. Hwang touched it, he walked around it slowly. His face looked puzzled.
He then proceeded to push into the darkest area on my throat. "Does this hurt?", he asked after noticing that I didn't react.
"No, it doesn't hurt."
He tried three or four times, all in different spots. I didn't feel a thing. He sighed and seemed a little lost.
"I have never seen something quite like this. Where did you get this from?"
"There was a man just pushing his hands on my shoulders and then around my neck."
"Do you live in an unsafe environment by any chance?"
"No, not at all."

He looked at it for a long time, pushed his fingers here and there again but couldn't wrap his head around it.
When he was done, I put my blouse back on. He symbolized me to sit again.

"Well, I don't know. I really have no idea what it might be. You say, a man was touching those areas?"
I nodded.
"It looks like heavy bruises, but the fact that it doesn't hurt is very unusual. And the finger prints in the back... It is impossible to create this kind of force by just grabbing someone with bare hands. May I take some pictures of it? I would offer you to research a little bit about it and call you when I find something."
I agreed. After we were done taking the photos, I said goodbye and thought about what I should do next.

The doctor couldn't help me at all, other than apparently it was not possible with human strength to leave this behind.
This was bringing me back to my demon theory.
Should I go to a church and counsel with a priest?
It seemed silly, but I didn't know how to help myself otherwise. I took the subway back to my apartment to go to the church that was not far from it.

The people on the subway were scared of how I looked, one old lady even got up when I wanted to sit down next to her. But I didn't care. Everyone should see what kind of evil forces were in this world. I was at a point where everything just really pissed me off.

I arrived at the church and was lucky enough to find a sister that offered counselling after I asked her for advice. We sat down in one of the benches.

"What brings you here?", she asked in a warm voice. I assumed she was in her mid-forties, with a wise and friendly face. Her body and hair was covered in the usual light grey robe.
"It sounds a bit strange, to be honest. But do you see these marks? A man grabbed me there and ever since, it looks like that."
The sister carefully examined my throat shortly. "That seems odd. But why do you come here? Is this man harming you in any way? Do you know him?"
"It's not about that. I don't know him well but he seems to have weird personality changes all the time. First, he is nice, then he gets violent and threatens me and does this to me. You should see his claws on my back."
"Claws? Would you mind showing me?"
I opened the collar of my blouse a bit and pulled the fabric to the side. The sister's eyes widened upon the sight.
"I see", she said professionally, "this is truly frightening. I think I know what you want to talk about. Do you think, evil spirits are involved?"
"That is why I'm here."
"Evil spirits can possess humans. And it is not uncommon for humans to develop some certain supernatural powers when they're possessed. In this case, however... Demons and other sorts of spirits are usually not able to leave this kind of mark on someone. I haven't come across something like this... But this is not the work of a spirit. This is a different force. If you would allow me, though, I'd like to read into it and if I come across something interesting, I will contact you."
I agreed to her as well and said my goodbye after we finished our conversation.
Nobody could help me but I was turning into a scientifc experiment. What now?

I decided to leave it be for today and strolled back home. I was surprised when I realized that I hadn't seen Hyungsik the whole day. He wasn't following me.
Unsure of how I should feel about that, I entered my apartment complex and called for the elevator.

Before the elevator doors closed to take me upstairs, someone slipped his hands between the doors for them to open.
I didn't look up, it was probably just another tenant.

The elevator started going up. And then I caught a glimpse of the other person next to me.
All in black. Hyungsik.

And then, the elevator got stuck and the light went out.