episode_0019

Late at night, even the moon had hidden itself in the sky, and the mansion, untouched by even the starlight filtering through the windows, was deeply asleep.

A silence, as if all sounds in the world had momentarily ceased, spread through the unbearably still air. The carpet laid along the corridor in a refined pattern swallowed the sound of footsteps, and the curtains hung motionless, as if untouched by even the wind.

But there was something that broke that silence.

“Hmm-hmm… hmm-hmm…”

A faint humming coming from somewhere.

It was so quiet that it was hard to notice unless you strained your ears, but the melody strangely captured attention. It was more like the sound of breathing than a song.

Somewhat similar to a sob… It was a humming that was subtly precarious and, at the same time, contained a fatal allure.

A single small lantern. Its light was as small as a little finger, but it cut through the darkness and swayed gently like a ghost. It was a tremor that made the heart pound as if it were a living creature.

Sierra, holding that light, and I were quietly descending the stairs leading to the lowest part of this mansion.

“Sierra, where are we going down to…?”

As soon as I opened my mouth, my voice was so faint it felt like it would be swallowed by the darkness.

I had lived in this mansion for years, but I had no memory of these stairs we were now descending. It felt as if a place that didn’t exist had been made real by Sierra.

“Surely… as far as I remember… there wasn’t a place like this…”

Just then, Sierra slowly turned her head past the lantern. A familiar smile was drawn on her face, but the emotion contained within it was as cold as ice.

“Of course. This is my own secret space that I created after you, young master, left the mansion.”

Her voice was still a mechanical transmission.

It was a voice that seemed to spit out words without emotional fluctuation, but gave the impression of deliberately suppressing emotions.

Like a cold gray glass wall, her words clearly exuded the feeling that ‘something is being hidden’.

At those words, I faltered in my steps again. This place is not the mansion I know. And this girl… she wore a different face than the maid I knew, Sierra.

“By the way, you seem to have many questions. Don’t ask unnecessary things and just follow me quietly.”

Saying that, she slowly smiled. That expression where her eyes didn’t smile, and only her lips offered a smile. Like a character in a well-crafted puppet show, Sierra’s smile was cold, frighteningly perfect.

In front of that smile, I felt like a dog on a leash. I couldn’t resist, and it was hard to even utter a word. The air grew heavier, and my heart pounded more and more loudly.

“…345…346…347.”

Sierra was counting the numbers every time she stepped on a stair.

That action was strangely precise and regular. The moment her foot touched the last, 347th step, she stopped.

“Mm, we’ve arrived.”

“Arrived at what…? There’s nothing here…”

I looked around, but all that came into view were walls and stairs. The wall was made of old limestone, and when I felt it with my hand, I felt a rough and cold texture.

The smell of bricks, likely decades old, stung my nose. Nowhere could I see anything like a door.

But then, Sierra slowly turned her head and spoke in a very quiet voice.

“I told you to… be quiet?”

Her eyes momentarily, briefly flashed.

Such a rude tone was something utterly unimaginable by common sense.

Especially in a master-servant relationship. Her usual polite demeanor was nowhere to be seen.

But I could do nothing.

She held my weakness, and her grip was firm.

Everything I wanted to hide, she knew, and it clearly appeared in her words, expressions, and actions.

I briefly closed my eyes and mumbled.

“…Yes… I understand.”

At those words, Sierra smiled brightly again. But it was still a cold smile without laughing eyes.

“Alright. Your expression is finally worth seeing.”

And she turned her body and approached the wall that seemed to have nothing on it. Then she began to feel the part touching the 347th step with her fingertips.

“What are you…”

She didn’t answer and tapped the wall three times with her fingertips.

Thud.

Thud thud.

And finally, strongly, once.

Boom.

At that moment, something unbelievable happened.

“Rumble…”

Cracks began to form in the old stone wall.

The cracks spread along the wall like living snakes, and soon after, the entire wall vibrated. A heavy tremor, as if some huge mechanical device was operating inside, traveled through the floor.

And the place where the cracks had formed slowly began to open.

Quietly, as if splitting someone’s heart, yet surely.

It was a door.

A hidden secret door.

What was inside wasn’t visible yet, but a strange energy that sent shivers down my spine was felt just from its presence.

Sierra turned her body sideways, looked at me, and said.

“Welcome. To my mansion.”

I swallowed my breath. And instinctively felt.

That beyond this door, a world from which I could not return awaited.

The secret door, like the jaw of an old monster, slowly opened with a creak— sound.

With an ominous premonition that something would suddenly leap out from within, I instinctively stepped back one pace.

But Sierra stepped inside without an inch of hesitation. The light of the lantern swayed as if being sucked into the dark gap, and then her body was swallowed by the darkness.

I… hesitated for a moment.

“Welcome, master.”

From beyond the darkness, Sierra’s voice was heard. It was deeper than usual, and had a resonance that felt somehow deeply soaked.

Her tone was still polite, but within it was full of something warped affection and twisted conviction.

The thought that I should not step in like this flashed through my mind several times.

But somehow, my feet moved on their own. One step, two steps. I passed through that door as if drawn by a magnet.

And soon, I got to see that room.

I was suffocated.

The darkness that flowed along the walls was no longer a simple ‘shadow’. It was flowing throughout the entire room, like a living organism.

Red and black curtains were spread widely, and an old chandelier hung from the ceiling, but the light was off. The only light was the small lantern Sierra was holding.

Beneath that light, in the center of the room, was placed a large wooden chair that looked like some kind of device.

The backrest was high, and leather straps were attached where ankles and wrists would reach. It was a structure that anyone could see was ‘made to bind someone’.

And next to it, dozens of picture frames filled the wall.

Inside all of them— was me.

Pictures of me smiling, me reading a book, moments of me talking to someone, my sleeping face, and even— my back view looking out the window.

Images that I couldn’t even tell when, where, or how they were taken.

Fragments of time that I couldn’t even remember were all collected inside those frames.

I stared at that scene in silence.

My lips wouldn’t move as if they were frozen, and my fingertips grew chillingly cold.

“Isn’t it pretty?”

Sierra’s voice was heard again.

She slowly, as if gently stroking a pet that had returned after a long time, placed her hand on one frame.

“I tidied it up every day. Just in case dust settled, I was afraid you, young master, wouldn’t like it.”

Saying that, she smiled quietly. Her face looked so peaceful and happy.

However, the obsession and madness, despair and immersion hidden behind that smile were all condensed into that single smile.

“…This… since when?”

I barely managed to open my mouth.

My voice was thin and unstable, like bubbles rising from the bottom of the deep sea.

Sierra answered immediately, as if she had been waiting for that question.

“At first, it was just… because I missed you, young master. When no one was in the mansion, I used to secretly go and watch you sleeping.

Quietly. So as not to disturb you at all. Without even breathing… I just watched for a very long time.”

Her eyes shone red, reflecting the light of the lantern.

“Then one day, a thought occurred to me.

‘If I just keep watching like this, it will all disappear someday. I have to record it. That way, I can keep it by my side forever.’”

“Sierra… you… this is…”

“It’s love, young master.”

She said it firmly. It was a voice so natural, without a single hesitation.

“I loved you more than anyone. Every day, from a place your fingertips couldn’t reach, I watched you, listened, and remembered your breathing. But you, young master… you didn’t know me. You didn’t see me, and you didn’t choose me.”

Her voice trembled for the first time. That tremor was neither anger nor sadness… it was closer to the choked-up cry a child makes when hurt.

“So… I changed it.”

She approached the wooden chair and slowly stroked the backrest with her palm.

That motion contained affection, but at the same time, a strange tension that sought to compel something.

“This place is a world just for you and me. No one can disturb us, no one can peek in… a perfect place.”

“Let’s go back. Sierra, this is… you’re now…”

“I don’t want to.”

She cut in sharply. Her smile spread wider and wider. Like a puzzle piece assembled in the wrong place, her face was smiling, yet it evoked fear.

“If we go back… you, young master, will pretend not to know me again. You’ll ignore me and leave me. I won’t let myself be alone again.”

At that moment, she looked up at me. The hand holding the lantern trembled slightly.

The light created shadows on the wall as if dancing. The ‘me’s in the frames all swayed in unison, giving the illusion that countless versions of me were staring at me from within the room.

“So, here… it’s fine with just the two of us. No one else is needed.”

Her hand set down the lantern, and slowly took something out from her waist.

The sound of metal clashing.

It was a solid, shining chain and lock.

Each time the chain uncoiled from her hand, that metallic, cold sound quietly traversed the room.

Clank. Clank. It was a small sound, but the tension it created crushed everything. It was as if it weighed down even the air in the room.

I bit my lip and took one step back.

“Sierra, come back to your senses. You… this isn’t what you wanted.”

She didn’t respond at all and quietly stopped the hand that was uncoiling the chain. And she looked at me.

Within those eyes, affection and madness, joy and sadness, all emotions were intertwined. It was something that could no longer be simply called ‘love’.

“Why, young master? Are you scared?”

She tilted her head slightly and asked. As if playing a joke, but her eyes weren’t smiling at all.

“Are you scared because I love you so much?”

“That’s… if that’s love, then it’s not love.”

“Is that so?”

She smiled quietly. But that smile gradually began to tremble subtly. And then, she spoke in a whisper.

“Then you, young master… why didn’t you say anything? Didn’t you know I was standing in front of your room every day? If you didn’t know, that’s a lie.”

I swallowed my breath. Her tone, as if she knew something, the accurate memories, fragments of emotion poured down the walls.

“At first, only footsteps were heard. So you probably didn’t pay attention. But later… holding the doorknob, I just stood there for several minutes. Until you, young master, came out. I held my breath and waited, just in case our eyes met.”

Her voice grew lower and lower. An emotion, as if somewhere deeply soaked, seeped in.

“But you, young master… never opened it even once.”

I couldn’t find anything to say in response. Had something like that happened? No, perhaps… perhaps in my unconscious, I had noticed it. That unpleasant feeling. Like someone was standing in front of the room—a vague fear. But memories of having ignored it and moved on.

“So I thought. Let’s not wait anymore. I have to open the door myself.”

Holding the chain in her hand, she slowly walked towards the chair. And touching the leather straps one by one, she said.

“Now you, young master, cannot escape. Here… this is our own space, inside me. Here, only I can see you, only I can touch you, only I can possess you.”

“You’re crazy…”

I mumbled and stepped back. My hand fumbled along the wall. An unconscious action to find an exit. But the secret door I had come through seemed to have already disappeared, showing no trace.

As if she had seen my despair, she smiled and approached me.

“Young master, are you scared? Then I’ll hug you. I’ll give you a tight hug. Then maybe you’ll feel a little better.”

She spread her arms. That appearance seemed infinitely affectionate and warm. But that was precisely the horror of this room.

She speaks of love, but it is merely poison. A sweet and fatal swamp of emotion from which there is no escape.

Only then did I realize. This room is not a prison created by Sierra.

This room— was Sierra herself.

With every step she took towards me, her memories, obsession, and wounds came with her. I trembled in my shoulders and barely opened my mouth.

“Sierra, what is it you truly want…? To tie me up? Are you satisfied by trapping me like this?”

She flinched.

For a moment, a small crack appeared in her eyes.

“…No.”

She shook her head. And soon, a smile bloomed on her face again. But this time, it was trembling.

“What I truly want is… just for you, young master, to look at me. To truly… call me by name. As a person, as a woman… no, just—just me.”

She spoke now almost in a whisper. Within it was mixed desperation, despair, a hint of whimpering like a child.

At that moment, I was being forced to make a choice.

I had to sever this emotion. But, at the same time, her voice held onto me. The lonely heart like a child hidden behind that madness was shaking me.

“So… young master… please don’t abandon me…”

Holding the chain with both hands, she slowly knelt down before me.

She slowly set down the chain.

A small metallic sound struck the floor, echoing just once in the room. Like a warning sound. And soon after, her hand reached down towards her waist. Quietly, very carefully.

I backed away, casting a tense gaze beyond her knees. I wondered if even moving a single finger might change the flow.

But the next moment, what she took out was another weapon. Colder, more merciless.