TMBIPYMEN Chapter 2

Layla stood frozen, unable to even breathe. She would have preferred to faint, but even that escape was denied to her.

Black holes stared at her as she stood trembling.

The children's forms were merely ashen gray, and the spaces where their eyes should have been were simply empty—otherwise, they weren't much different from living children. When she realized this, Layla suddenly felt her stomach twist.

"Come here."

Just then, a man's arms pulled her trembling body into an embrace. Only then did Layla feel her mind snap back to alertness.

It was the warmth of a living person—something she had rarely felt even from the mother who bore her. As it touched her entire body, her head tingled and felt feverish.

"What do you think you're doing?"

The moment Layla tried to turn her head, the man thrust his own head forward over her shoulder.

Layla nearly touched his cheek with her lips and struggled in shock to escape his embrace. However, the man's strength was incomprehensibly powerful.

"I'm sorry. Just bear with me for a moment. Stay still..."

One of the man's arms released. Though it became much easier to break free than before, Layla somehow found herself staying still, following his words. It wasn't what she wanted... That was the strangest part.

Why don't I want to disobey this man?

While Layla was lost in this odd question, the man fiddled with something ornamental attached to his monocle with one hand. Click, a sound like a spring winding, and the man spoke.

"Ah, I can see well. You truly have good eyes... Good, stay still like this."

"What have you been talking about since earlier! We need to run away from here right now!"

Layla had screamed with all her might, but the voice she actually heard in her own ears was as pathetically small as a mosquito's buzz. The man glanced at Layla with his bare eye, the one without the monocle.

"It's okay, I'm here, so it's okay."

"What do you mean okay...!"

That was the moment.

From the eyes of the twelve children—no, from where their eyes should have been—something identical to what had emerged from Tommy began crawling out.

Some looked like thread-snakes, others like centipedes. Still others resembled tangled spider webs. Either way, it was horrifying, and even more horrifying was that they were approaching to wrap around Layla herself.

The moment Layla screamed and tried to shake off the man, her vision suddenly went pitch black and she couldn't see anything. Layla cried out in terror.

"I can't see! Good God! I can't see anything!"

"Shh, shh. It's okay, I told you. Open your eyes. And look straight ahead."

"What are you talking about! I already have my eyes...!"

Her words and breath seemed to choke off at once. Her vision was pitch black, seeing nothing. But the moment she put strength into her eyelids, Layla's vision burst open.

"Can you see?"

The man still held Layla with one arm, his head near her shoulder as he looked ahead. Just then, Layla realized something was strange.

Earlier, when Layla had faced Tommy alone, he had definitely tried to attack her.

That face splitting into a grin, that clear hostility—there was no way Layla could have missed it. If the man hadn't appeared, she would surely have died.

But the twelve ghosts before her eyes now were different. Against her will, Layla felt their emotions flowing into her. Hostility, rage, and endless fear.

'Afraid? You? Of what?'

—Huh... Kuh...

—Kik, kikik...

The children began making eerie sounds. Neither human nor animal sounds. The moment Layla's fingertips, her shoulders, her knees stiff as tree stumps with tension, contracted—

The man whispered.

"Good, now they know too. That you're 'one who can see.'"

"What... what are you talking about? I don't understand any of..."

"You will."

He reached into his leather bag and pulled out a small box. When he flicked the lid open with one hand, a thin chain emerged from inside and floated up into the air.

At that moment, the children's jaws opened wide enough for their chins to nearly touch their necks. The corners of their mouths tore and black holes appeared. And an ear-splitting scream was heard.

—AHHHHHHH—!!

Stop!

Layla thought. She couldn't even speak. Her head felt like it would burst.

The sounds they made, the screams they unleashed, forced their way into Layla's mind like heavy rocks.

'Stop, stop! My head's going to burst. Stop, please!'

At that moment, the man's voice was heard.

"Tin soldier by the window, broken spoon in the hearth."

—Kiiik...!

—Kik, keuuk...!

The box began to rattle. Even as Layla screamed in pain, she saw the scene before her clearly. The ghosts' forms were twisting grotesquely. Just like Tommy. Only there were so many more, making it more horrifying.

"Are all things where they should be, I ask."

As the man finished speaking, the chain floating in midair flew forward with a sharp sound like a shot arrow.

What had been only the length of a necklace suddenly extended endlessly, wrapping tightly around the grotesquely twisted and clustered ghosts.

When the man held out the box in his hand, the chain made a swish! sound as it was sucked back into the box. Once the lid closed, the screams that had been scraping through Layla's mind disappeared. Not only that, but the ghosts had all vanished without a trace.

Cold sweat ran down her forehead. Only then did Layla realize she had been held almost buried in the man's embrace and hurriedly stepped backward. Her staggering body seemed ready to collapse at any moment.

Layla's lips trembled.

"What... what did you do?"

Just then, the man raised one hand as if telling her to be quiet for a moment.

Layla, who had never lived a life of taking orders from others, bristled again, but something like a hand reached out from deep in her heart and pressed down on her rising temper.

'What is this feeling?'

While Layla was thrown into confusion, the man opened the lid of the box that had closed by itself.

Layla flinched, afraid the trapped ghosts would burst out in even more horrifying forms, but what emerged was a black, round orb. Glossy and ominously lustrous...

"Eat."

Without even looking at Layla, the man raised the orb to shoulder height and spoke. At that moment, smoke black enough to swallow even the night's darkness rippled from over his shoulder and covered the man's hand holding the orb, seeming to devour it whole.

And a terrifying sound began.

The sound of living human bones breaking and crushing whole. Between the sounds, Layla felt she heard faint screams, and knew they were thin like a child's voice.

Until the crunching noise completely disappeared, the man held his hand raised, his expression quite displeased, his head turned the other way.

When the disgusting sound stopped, the smoke vanished as if washed away. And the orb the man had been holding was no longer visible.

"It's finished."

The man sighed and removed his monocle as he spoke. This time, Layla truly thought she should run away. At that moment, her trembling heels caught on a stone.

"Ah!"

A scream burst from her lips as she fell on her bottom. Then the man extended his hand toward Layla.

"Don't touch me!"

Layla fiercely swatted the man's hand away. He was wearing leather gloves, so it probably didn't hurt much anyway, but that didn't mean she wanted to obediently take his hand either.

But in that moment, she could clearly feel it. An emotion that pierced sharply through the center of her chest—it was guilt.

Why? Layla rose with a confused expression on her face. Why do I feel guilty toward this man?

The man said.

"I was just trying to help you up."

Layla glared at the man as if she didn't need it.

"What did you just do? Are you some consecrated priest or something? Someone who can eliminate ghosts? Or a mage? That orb just now... who did you feed those children to? What kind of trick was that?"

The man chuckled.

"So many questions. Is your curiosity your mother's influence?"

"My mother wasn't someone with curiosity."

"That can't be. All witches are obsessed with inquiry. Aren't witches those who spend their lives investigating nature, investigating magic, investigating strange things?"

Layla's face darkened to ink-black.

This man wasn't from the village. Yet he knew precisely about Layla's bloodline, even about the fact that she could 'see' things.

"You... what exactly are you? Did you come looking for me on purpose? Knowing I'm a witch's daughter? Knowing that I... see strange things?"

The man was silent. But this time he didn't laugh dismissively. Looking at Layla's face as if lost in thought, he said.

"Could you give me just one piece of bread? Then I'll tell you what you're curious about. I'm so hungry right now I'm about to collapse."

Though there was a slight difference of opinion, Layla had no choice but to bring the man to her house.

She couldn't let this strangely dressed person trudge down to the village, and more than anything, she felt she wouldn't be able to sleep for the rest of her life without finding out his identity.

The man must have been truly hungry, as he devoured in an instant the half loaf of bread Layla had left from breakfast and the soup containing only herbs.

Though his eating speed was tremendously fast, there was no sense of greediness about it, which was so remarkable that Layla found herself observing him without realizing it.

"That was delicious. Did you make this soup?"

"What, you think a nymph made it and brought it to me?"

Even after hearing her sharp retort, the man just smiled, seemingly unoffended. Layla roughly tossed the empty plate and soup bowl into the sink and dragged over her mother's old chair to sit across from the man.

The man said.

"Your expression is quite determined."

"Don't even think about slipping away after just eating my bread and soup. As you can see from looking at me, yes, I'm a real witch's daughter and a witch myself. If you lie to me, I'll dry out that tongue of yours and turn you into a stutterer."

Even at this quite vicious threat, the man smiled broadly without losing his composure.

"All right, I'll answer honestly. What are you most curious about?"

Layla leaned forward over the table.

"Who are you and where did you come from? How did you know about me, and above all, what did you just do earlier?"