Her body was sucked into the orb—thin, lifeless, like there was nothing left inside.
She crawled toward her, her hand shaking as she reached out.
"Mom… don't leave me…"
Her voice cracked. Her tears mixed with the blood on the floor.
She didn't move. She couldn't.
Daki stood above her , cold and unbothered, looking down like this was just another job done.
"Why are you protecting a demon?" she asked.
"Although you failed to stop me… what gives you humans the heart to protect something like that?"
She clutched her mother's clothes, even as her body felt cold and dry.
"Because she was my mom… the only family I had left… and you took her away from me…"
"Unforgivable."
Daki knelt in front of me, then reached down and touched my head with her finger.
"What a foolish child… You must have known what she was doing. And still, you supported her? Even after she treated you like nothing?"
She couldn't respond. Her body was weak. Her soul felt even weaker. She was bleeding, dying maybe… but what hurt more than anything was the emptiness. The silence.
She kept her finger on her forehead, amused. But something changed. She felt it. Suddenly, she stiffened.
Her eyes narrowed as she saw something, My memories.She was inside them now.
Inside my MemoryWe were happy once.
I was born into a small but warm family.
I had two sisters—Hye Mi, who was 16 at the time, and Hana, who was 14.
They were loud, playful, and always fighting over who got to hold me.
My mother smiled back then. She had tired eyes, but they were kind.
We weren't rich. But we weren't poor either.
Just… normal. That was enough.
Then… my father died.
He never saw me grow up. I never even got to meet him.
They said it was a car accident. I didn't understand much back then.
Still, I had my sisters.
They were my joy.
And mom… she was my everything.
But Hana fell sick.
We needed twenty million won for her treatment.
Mom worked herself to death, trying to get the money.
She begged. Pleaded. Cried. But it was never enough.
And then… Hye Mi.
She was… violated.
By someone from a powerful family—one of her classmates.
Her body was found on the side of the road like trash.
The police did nothing. They didn't even investigate.
We weren't rich enough to matter.
Mom broke. I watched her crumble.
She stopped eating. Stopped talking.
Then… she got revenge.
She made it look like an accident, but I know what she did. She killed him.I didn't say anything. Because I was afraid.
Because I didn't want to lose the last piece of our family.
Then came the change.
She started bringing strangers home.
Every week, someone new. A man. A woman. A student.
But no one ever left.
I thought they left while I was at school… but deep down, I knew.
I saw their pictures on posters.
Missing.
And still… I stayed quiet.
I wanted to believe her when she said they just "had business."
One day I asked about the room she always locked.
She beat me for even asking.
After that… I stopped asking.
But something wasn't right.
One day, she told me to go to the beach and find someone.
She said I'd know the right person when I saw them—empty eyes, no expression.
I found one. Then another.
Each time I brought them back, she told me to go buy fruit.
By the time I returned, they were gone.
She said they left. And I believed her.I was just a kid, But now… I know.
I saw that room.
I saw the smoke—the souls she devoured.
And I realized…
My mother had become a monster.
But I still loved her.
Even now, even after everything.
Because when everything else left…
She was all I had left.
Bo Ah's present body lay still, tears falling silently from the corner of her eyes.
Daki pulled her hand away, disturbed and stunned by what she had seen.
She looked at the unconscious girl—bloodied, broken, but still breathing—and couldn't find the words.
The house was silent. The souls had stopped crying.
Only one sound remained—the heartbeat of a child who lost everything.