Chapter 49
“Why aren’t you answering?”
The mechanical voice echoing through the air abruptly stopped.
“Hey, Dan Seo-hyuk! You rude jerk! You unlucky brat!”
…Huh?
I tilted my head. What, did he get sulky or something?
“Milly. I think the connection cut.”
[Well.]
“What do you mean well? You said you’d find a way for me to talk with the outside world!”
[How about focusing on what’s in front of you first?]
I let out a deep sigh and looked ahead.
A villa was engulfed in flames. Fire roaring high toward the sky, pitch-black smoke billowing upward—it looked like hell itself.
The heat scorched my skin even from this far away.
“Wow… I heard burning to death is the most painful way to go.”
My strength drained. Anyone could see that this death was going to happen there.
“Huuuu.”
[You’ll make the ground collapse with that sigh.]
“I’d rather the ground really collapse and kill me. Better than burning to death.”
[Being buried alive is painful too.]
Ah. That makes sense.
I’ve lost count of how many deaths I’ve gone through since being trapped here—different places, different methods every time.
Even so, the reason I can still talk this brightly is thanks to Milly.
“You know the only reason I can endure this is because of you, right?”
After reviving from my first death, the dying sensations had been so vivid that I almost threw up.
Milly’s solution, after watching me collapse on the floor and convulse, unable to speak:
He minimized the pain I felt in the moments right before dying.
‘You say you have limitations, but how can you do something like that…?’
I wondered if it put a strain on Milly—then reminded myself that worrying about a ghost when my own life was in shambles was a bit much.
A given kindness should be accepted gratefully.
Thanks to that, I could endure. I couldn’t run back to reality anyway, so until we found a solution, I had no choice.
“There are a lot of people again, huh?”
I recalled the previous death at the train station. Plenty of people, yet no one recognized me.
No one stopped me either. How the hell do I escape this dream?
My feet started moving forward on their own.
‘Again…’
Even when I wanted to stall for time before the next death, my body moved regardless. As if death was being enforced.
The heat grew stronger.
‘Ouch, hot…’
As I approached the building, the smell of burning hit me like a punch. I covered my nose and saw people wailing around the villa.
Someone must still be trapped inside.
“Oh, my goodness, my grandchild!! My baby is still in there!! On the third floor…! Please, please let me go in and save him!”
“Ma’am, it’s dangerous! The building might collapse! Please don’t go inside. Our team will do everything we can to find your grandchild!”
A firefighter was pleading with her to trust them and wait.
Chaos everywhere.
‘Scenes like this make it feel too real…’
I walked past them with a relaxed gait. They couldn’t see me anyway, so no one would try to stop me.
When I reached the entrance, the heat alone was enough to singe my hair into curls.
“HOT!!”
[Fire is hot. Obviously.]
Milly… are you sure you’re not related to Dan Seo-hyuk? You sound just like that rude brat.
“It’s not like I want to go in, you know?”
Grumbling, I carefully avoided falling debris and went inside.
Thankfully, I could move freely. The dream had marked this as a “certain death,” so I wasn’t being restricted. Good—if even my actions were limited, that would’ve been awful.
[Where are you going?]
He must have found it odd that I wasn’t killing myself immediately but instead heading up the stairs.
“Just because.”
I forced a smile and hurried up.
At the stairs to the second floor, the railing was too hot to touch.
Thunk!
“Ugh!”
I dodged a collapsing chunk of burning ceiling and dashed upward. My heart was pounding like crazy.
The third floor was burning intensely too.
“Cough, cough!”
I quickly crouched. If I didn’t want to burn to death, I needed to find another way. But… something needed to be done first.
Knowing it was pointless, I still covered my mouth with my sleeve and pushed forward.
Most doors were ajar, left open in people’s desperate rush to escape. But then I came upon one firmly closed.
‘If I grab that knob, that’s definitely a severe burn.’
Even if I was going to die anyway, I couldn’t treat my body recklessly.
“Milly, can you open this door? Or break it? Anything so I can get inside?”
Milly didn’t answer immediately. After a few seconds, the doorknob simply popped off.
Through the hole where the knob had been, I could see inside.
Creeeeak.
The door slowly opened. I pushed it carefully with my foot and spotted a small figure collapsed near the entrance.
A little boy in white pajamas. His legs were bright red, likely burned.
That must’ve been why he couldn’t escape quickly.
‘This is him.’
The grandchild the grandmother was crying desperately for.
I gently scooped him into my arms and hurried out. Meanwhile, the flames continued devouring everything rapidly.
“Cough!”
[A pointless thing you’re doing.]
[It’ll all disappear when you die anyway.]
I knew that.
I knew, and yet—
“I’m already this miserable. Imagine how hard this is for a kid.”
Even in a dream, adults should protect children.
My breathing grew difficult. Dizziness hit me. I tried to steady myself going down the stairs, but my legs buckled.
‘No—!’
I twisted my body, trying to fall on my back while holding the child safely, when—
A firm hand caught me.
[Child.]
[Seems you’ve forgotten what you used to call me.]
Sounded like scolding. Who was calling who a child?
Pfft.
I let out a weak laugh and slowly continued down.
Creeeak.
Almost at the entrance—but the ceiling above it was about to collapse.
“Hm…”
Just then, the boy opened his eyes.
After a few dry coughs, he blinked up at me, dazed.
I tried to smile so he wouldn’t get scared.
“You woke up?”
“Who… are you… cough, cough!”
“Your throat hurts, so don’t talk.”
Ah. This was my limit.
My legs lost all strength. I lowered myself to my knees slowly so I wouldn’t drop him.
At least we were right by the entrance. He could walk out on his own.
“Hurry. Go outside. Your grandmother’s waiting desperately.”
“What about you, noona?”
“Noona just needs a short rest. I’ll be right behind you.”
“Together… together.”
He grabbed my collar. It made me uneasy.
What if this dream interpreted that as him stopping my death? As terrifying as these repeated deaths were, I couldn’t dump that responsibility on a child.
Slap!
I hit his hand away harder than necessary. His reddened hand made me feel guilty, but I steeled my voice.
“Go. Now.”
“But…”
“Hurry!”
The boy hesitated, but slowly moved toward the exit.
Above him, the ceiling finally gave out.
No!!
I don’t know where the strength came from, but I pushed off the floor and sprinted, shoving the boy out of the doorway.
BOOM!
Flaming debris crashed down on me.
“Noona!!”
Hot… heavy!
The sizzling concrete and burning wood felt like they were melting my skin. I clenched my teeth as pain seared through me. Outside, I heard the boy’s voice.
“Grandma! Why is he doing this?! He’s trying to go back in!!”
“But that girl—! She’s still in there hurting!”
Through the flames, I saw the grandmother and firefighters holding the boy back, confused by his attempts to re-enter.
At least he’s safe now.
Strangely, the boy could see me even though others couldn’t. Maybe because I saved him?
We’d never meet again—this was just a dream—but still…
‘Is there no less painful way to die?’
I closed my eyes. Resigned, wondering where I’d wake up next.
Ding-ling-ling.
‘Huh?’
An alarm sound rang clearly.
Startled, I jerked upright and looked around.
“What the…?”
It was my dorm room.
Until now, I always woke up in some strange place. But why here?
‘Don’t tell me I woke up from the dream?’
I pinched my cheek. It hurt. But dying in dreams hurt too, so this wasn’t reliable.
“Milly, are you there?”
[Yes.]
“Um… is this reality?”
It shouldn’t be. There’s no way I’d just wake up from that dream for no reason…
[It’s reality.]
What?
This isn’t some hidden camera prank, right?
“I just… escaped? That easily? What is this? Did the ghost give me a reward for doing a good deed?”
I hurried to throw off the blanket and stand—only for my legs to give out completely.
[I never said you escaped.]
I stared down at my legs, numb and unresponsive.
On my ankle, beneath my pant leg—
Black letters were densely carved into my skin.
