“I’m talking about Gloria. Don’t meddle in her business anymore.”
“Huh? What does that mean?”
Hearing my mother’s unexpected remark, I stopped writing.
Inside the paper, there were many stories about her husband’s violence behavior, her wishes, her mother-in-law’s threat, her ignorance, and crazy stories related to money. In that short period of time, many stories were resolved by skimming through the internet community.
‘Can you also see the sentences that often appear above Gloria’s head like me?’
My mother sighed softly and added an explanation to me.
“It’s a witch’s premonition. There’s a messenger from heaven watching over her fate in the sky.”
“How do you know about that? Incidentally, those are things that you can see with your eyes?”
My mother nodded slowly in answer to my question.
“There are unexplainable images that sometimes hover over her. And I don’t think I’m the only one who sees it. Am I right, Haley?”
Mother already knew about it. The fact was that I could sometimes see words above Gloria’s head. In my mother’s eyes, who was a witch, the Korean alphabet only looked like a picture.
“Wait. There’s something I want to show you today.”
Then, she walked into the warehouse. After staying there for quite a while, Mother dragged a jar and put it beside me. On the handle of the black-brown jar, there were two figurines with their mouths wide open resembling devils.
‘Oh, I was considering whether or not I should take that to the pawnshop and sell it.’
I decided not to sell it because it seemed to not make much money. It was very heavy, too. I was so glad I didn’t touch it back then. I rubbed my chest without Mother knowing.
“Haley. Look inside this jar.”
She sprinkled something sparkling into the jar and began to cast a spell. I stared into the jar while wondering what Mother was doing. I could only see darkness inside the jar. The inside was probably dirty because of dust.
“Mom, why can’t I see anything?”
“Hey, wait a minute. It’s been a long time since I did this, so it may not be working properly.”
My mother’s face turned a little red when she said that. Was she embarrassed because she couldn’t show off her skills after setting up all sorts of postures? It was fine though, everyone could do that. When I raised the corners of my mouth mischievously to tease my mother, a golden mist came out of the jar.
“Dry ice.”
It looked like dry ice hitting water and emitting steam. The billowing steam got bigger and bigger, and hit my vision in a flash. And when I blinked my eyes several times, my body was already in a different place.
In front of me was a large tree that had been split open and burnt by lightning.
When I looked around, there was a large hole nearby that was so low that I couldn’t see the ground.
“Huh? Isn’t this the Emerald Lake?”
This place used to be a lake, but it had been dug so deep now that not a single drop of water remained.
“Gasp! What about Gloria and Claude? Are they alright?”
If I knew there would be such a huge hole, I wouldn’t have sent them here today. Did something happen here which made them unable to come back even until late at night?
I looked around and people were screaming near the hole, some were even crying. It was dinner time when I spoke to my mother. The view I saw now was full of clouds, but it was really a sunny day.
‘Oh, this is just an illusion.’
It was obvious that my mother was showing me an illusion. When my mother used to teach me witchcraft, I thought this kind of illusion had temporary side effects that were severe. What are the side effects exactly?
Excessive emotion and excessive haziness.
There was commotion all around. People’s cries were all over the place.
“Help! My daughter fell over there!”
“Sweetheart! Where are you now?! Can you hear me?”
Some people were busy fleeing under the falling rain and frightened by the holes. People, who looked for their lost family, tried to look at the bottom of the hole while freaking out like a lunatic. As I heard people’s cries, some fell to the ground while they were standing near the lake.
I approached the hole carefully. From there, I looked down slightly. It made me so dizzy that I got goosebumps. The chances of those who fell and remained alive were almost zero, and the end of the hole wasn’t even visible from here.
‘Don’t tell me Claude also fell into that hole?!’
I wandered among the people to look for Gloria and Claude. However, both were nowhere to be seen. However, in a bush near the hole, the sky-colored ribbon that Gloria used to tie her hair today hung and fluttered. The ribbon looked similar to the one I gave to the female lead. The sky-blue colored ribbon I bought was also similar to the sign of our friendship.
I realized that I had made my brother and friend die, which made my legs become weak and they finally gave up.
‘I killed her. I had thrown the female lead to the gates of her own death.’
Was this the reason my mother told me not to interfere with Gloria’s fate?
I heard that all I’ve done for the female lead had brought a bad thing for her. I burst into tears on the spot. I grabbed the grass on the ground and tore it apart while weeping in great sorrow and distress. Claude’s childhood flashed through my mind.
[Noona, eat some more meat.]
Claude, who appeared in my imagination, was seen giving me his precious food. It was unclear why he really did that. We were both siblings with big appetites back then.
Another memory came to my mind. When Claude was young, he didn’t whine while being sick as if he was about to die at any moment, but he would laugh at me and assure me he was alright.
[Please grant my request when I recover.]
At that time, I said that I would grant all his wishes. However, when Claude got better, I pretended not to remember anything. I should’ve asked what he wanted. Perhaps, it was because we’ve known each other longer. I was more saddened by Cloud’s death than the main character, Gloria. The experience of losing someone was so heartbreaking. I’ve never known about this before.
I clutched my grief and wailed even louder. Then, the scene changed. I returned home. Awakened from my delusion, I was laying on the hard floor, curled up and soaked in my own tears.
“Haley, what are you doing?”
When I looked up, my mother was looking at me as if I was a strange child. When I looked at my mother, I felt even more sad and afraid.
“Oh… Mother. It’s because of me. I think I killed them.”
Mom clicked her tongue and shook her head.
“They didn’t die. I’m just showing you what happened at Emerald Lake today. What made you think that way?”
Oh, Gosh. I heard her say that she had never seen a witch with a kindred spirit like you. Mother rubbed my back gently to relieve me. The side effects of hallucinations were excessive emotions and constant haziness. I was suffering from those side effects now.
After drinking a cup of hot tea, I was finally able to calm down. However, I asked my mother several times because there were still remnants of emotions left in me.
“Mother, are they really not dead yet? They’re on the way home right now, aren’t they?”
“Yes. Phew, what am I supposed to do with you? They’re alive and not dead, so don’t worry. I think I just showed you an exaggerated hallucination. These symptoms will last for a few days, so there’s nothing we can do.”
I felt embarrassed because I kept blowing my nose. I couldn’t believe I was so upset by the illusion that I saw for a brief moment. Why did she show it to me without saying anything in advance? I glanced at her slightly because I thought it was my mother’s fault. Was it because I was too laid-back? This time, my body started to tremble because of the cold.
Mother put some firewood in the fireplace and lit it.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. With the sound of burning birch trees, warm air felt as if wrapping my body, and it felt like I was coming back to life.
“Mom, so the hole was created as the result of my attempt to change the original story that was already set up?”
My mother tilted her head at my words.
“What is the sinkhole?”
“Oh. The Emerald Lake has collapsed. To the point where we can’t see the bottom of it. I call it a sinkhole.”
“Yes. You shouldn’t meddle in her fate anymore. If you don’t follow the rules, something like today will happen again.”
Even though I was the author of this novel, it has been more than 20 years since I was reborn in this novel. It was only natural that I couldn’t remember what I wrote in detail except for the general significant plot. If after I spoke up to that point of the year. What was going on in this world?
My mother said that if I didn’t interfere in Gloria’s affairs, we wouldn’t meet any problems. Why did I write such a shallow main character story for a whole year?
Perhaps, because of that vision, my head felt dizzy again. I couldn’t be concerned about the fate of my friend when I wasn’t feeling well myself.
‘Ah, I don’t know. I’d better get some sleep.’
I wanted to see Claude and Gloria return home in good shape, but I was so tired and sleepy. So I fell asleep earlier that day.
When I opened my eyes again, it was already dawn and the sun hadn’t risen yet. There was Gloria sleeping with a regular pace of breath beside me.
Sigh. That’s a relief. It turned out that she wasn’t hurt at all.
Gloria’s sky blue ribbon was also placed on the table. I looked at the sleeping female lead with a pitiful gaze and then turned my eyes to the door.
I carefully tiptoed after getting up from the bed and then opened the door to the room where Claude was sleeping.
Claude was also still motionless. Both his eyebrows were furrowed, seemingly stressed out by his dream. I felt relieved and massaged the wrinkles on Claude’s forehead with my fingers.
“Are you having that nightmare again?”
I grabbed his sweaty left hand to reassure Claude, who was also trembling. And whispered into his ear, the same thing I used to do when we were young.
“What you’re experiencing now is just a common nightmare. You’re living happily with your family now, and your new sister, Haley, who is really beautiful.”
I could hear the snickering sound from my little brother’s mouth when he heard that. He closed his eyes, swung his right hand, and simultaneously pulled me into his chest. My body lost balance and fell on the bed with him.
“I… huh, Claude?”
My little brother’s strong muscly arms brushed against my body. I was startled for a moment and twisted my body to get out of his grip. However, Claude’s grip on me began to tighten. Finally, I cuddled up with Claude on the bed.
He mumbled with his eyes closed.
“Wait a moment, Noona. Let’s stay like this for a moment.”
It must have been because he was scared.
He mumbled, buried her head in my nape and hugged me tightly.
Even after growing up, he still said he was afraid of nightmares. He just grew up. However, he was still a child.
Although their posture has become a little awkward for her, he was still able to remind me of the pure appearance of Claude who looked like an angel when he was young. I grinned and ruffled his hair.
Perhaps, due to the side effects of the illusion I’d experienced last night, I couldn’t help but blinking slowly when sleepiness began to creep up on me again.
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