Mistake? he threw a vase to the wall, over her head.
MISTAKE?!
"HE IS NOT MY SON!"
...
The dark didn't last. And certainly there was no rest and peace that she desperately wanted after a full tired day and a roller coaster she just got off of. There was a harsh, bright light that was stinging through her closed eyelids, burning her eyes until she had to gasp for air.
Se-na opened her eyes and felt a jolt of confusion. She was standing up. And standing up didn't make any sense. She had just been falling to the hospital floor, her knees giving out. But now, her bare feet were flat against cold, white tiles that felt like ice. She blinked, and her breath caught in her throat. Everything looked wrong. Because everything was huge. There was a dark leather sofa that sat in front of her, but it looked like a massive, terrifying wall. The glass coffee table next to it was coming all the way up to her chest. The ceiling was so that high it made her head spin. She felt tiny, and so small like a bug waiting to be stepped on.
She looked down at her hands and almost screamed.
They certainly were not her hands at all. They weren't the long, steady fingers of a surgeon. They were small and soft; and they were shaking so badly and she couldn't make them stop. Then she looked down at her clothes. She was wearing a loose white sleeveless shirt and khaki knickers that hung off her tiny little bony structure.
What is this? Her adult mind screamed in a panic. Where am I? What happened to me?
Before she could think, a terrifying sound tore through the quiet room.
CRASH.
A heavy glass shattered right next to her feet and its sharp, glittering pieces flew everywhere. One jagged chunk even hit her foot, cutting deep into her soft skin.
But then she quickly forgot about the blood, because an even worse sound followed.
It was a woman screaming. It was a raw, broken sound of pure pain that made Se-na's skin crawl. Then came a heavy masculine sob, with a sickening noise; thump, thump, thump, thump…like a man banging his head against a metal door in a blind animal rage while sobbing.
Se-na, the thirty-year-old doctor, was paralyzed witnessing such strangeness before her. She tried to move. She wanted to step back, look at her bleeding foot, and figure out who was hurt.
But she couldn't move at all. This tiny, child's body took total control over her nervous system. A massive wave of fear swallowed her whole. It wasn't adult worry; it was the blind, suffocating terror of a trapped little kid. The tiny heart of the kid was hammering against its ribs so fast like a heart of a bird and it hurt her to breathe. A sickening feeling of hate and panic twisted her small stomach into a knot. Se-na was not understanding at all. These were not her feelings; none of them were only thing in her control was her thoughts and nothing else.
And then, to Se-na's absolute horror, her body simply gave up.
Something warm and wet ran down her little leg. She looked down, her eyes wide with shock. She had peed herself. The little boy was so scared that his body had just lost control.
The warm pee pooled on the white floor. It mixed with the bright red blood dripping from her foot, making a messy pink puddle around her tiny toes.
No, no, no, Se-na thought. She felt a wave of deep shame and embarrassment. She tried to step back from the mess, to hide it. She put her tiny hand to her throat to tell herself to wake up, to stop this nightmare.
"N-no...Ahhhh" she tried to say.
But the voice wasn't hers. It was the high, thin, broken squeak of a little boy. MY VOICE!!! She panicked. it wasn't her strong voice but a high pitch voice of a little kid.
What is wrong with my voice?What is happening to me?!
She wanted to scream in anger, but her body wouldn't listen to her. The little boy's bottom lip has started to shake. Her chin wrinkled, her throat closed up tight, and hot, thick tears started pouring down her cheeks. She tried to stop crying. She tried to take a deep breath. But the little boy's sadness was just too heavy, to the point that it crushed her. She tried to use her hands to wipe her tears and calm her chest and her throat but then a voice cut threw…
"I don't know what to do with you!" a man's voice roared from down the hallway. "I regret ever marrying you!"
Loud, gasping sobs answered him. "What did I do?!" a woman cried back, her voice breaking into a high screech. "Tell me, Do Hyun-joo! What is my fault?!"
Do Hyun-joo?
That name hit Se-na like a physical blow. That was Do Ra-ik's father if she was remembering correctly. The famous, powerful man even respected by some great politicians.
She didn't want to go near the noise, but the child's terror pulled her toward the screaming. Her little legs started walking on their own, trembling with every step. She left a trail of tiny, wet, red footprints on the white tiles.
She peeked around the corner of a massive wall into the dining room.
A woman was on her knees on the floor. Her face was hidden in her hands, and she was sobbing so hard that she was choking on her own tears. Standing over her was a tall, angry man. His face was twisted with pure disgust. He was breathing like an animal as he picked up a heavy flower vase from the table.
"Mistake!" Do Hyun-joo roared. His voice was so loud that it shook the walls. "MISTAKE?!"
He threw the vase as hard as he could. It smashed against the wall right above the woman's head. Sharp porcelain pieces rained down into her hair. She screamed and curled into a ball, covering her face.
Do Hyun-joo pointed a shaking finger right at the corner where Se-na or the little boy was hiding. His eyes were wide, crazy, and full of a blinding, terrible hate.
"HE IS NOT MY SON!"
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