Unethical

This woman, who called herself Elizabeth, summoned another guard who came and pulled me up roughly. We followed Elizabeth to another room after the guard covered my eyes again. Unlike the previous room, where there were only Elizabeth and me, this room was full of people. They were humming, talking to each other in a suppressed voice as if paying respect to Elizabeth or probably this building. Maybe I had been brought to a specific room, the sacred room, where the ritual would soon be conducted. Where I had been asked to witness her ritual. This particular room was also brighter than Elizabeth's room. Behind the blinds, my eyes caught a blurry sight of a high table in the middle of the room. Also, a slightly rusty smell that reminded me of the blood scent.

I shuddered; my stomach was churning. What was going to happen now?

Not long after we entered the room, it went silent just as Elizabeth spoke, "Today, we will hold our sacred ritual once again. I have selected our girls more carefully than before, and I can assure you that we are one step closer to finding the potential solution to our beauty issues. Also," I could hear her grinning, "I have a guest of honor here. She'll be witnessing our ritual, and when the right time comes, she will deliver the message to the world." Behind the cloth on my eyes, I saw Elizabeth's blurry features, who seemed to point her finger at me.

She ended her speech as the audience clapped their hands excitedly. The guard, who held my arm tightly, pulled my blinds abruptly, about the same time when the other girls were brought into the room.

It took some time before my eyes got used to the lights, although it wasn't extremely bright. A long time spent in the dark cells hurt my eyes when I stood in this radiant space. I saw that I was in a massive room, like a theater, with spectators sitting half surrounding the stage I was standing on. All of them were women (judging from their appearances) and wore masks so I couldn't see their faces. The great table in the middle was right across from me, and Elizabeth was standing next to it. There were five girls with blinds covering their eyes brought to Elizabeth. She was inspecting them right now. Behind her back, she was holding a dagger, its sharp edge glinting under the lights in the room.

I gasped, but words wouldn't come out of my mouth. I strived to free my arm from the guard, but his tight grip didn't move even slightly—if anything, it became even firmer.

"No," I muttered weakly as Elizabeth pulled one girl forward. The crowd shouted and cheered as Elizabeth took the girl to the table and forced her to lie down on the marble. She was Shin Hyeong—I recognized her from her working uniform. Her blinds weren't taken off while Elizabeth, standing close to the top of Shin Hyeong's head, turned to me and grinned ear to ear.

"Watch this, sweetheart," she called out to me and slashed open Shin Hyeong's throat.

"Stop it!" I yelled. Somehow my voice broke free, but the shouts of joy from the crowd drowned it. Tears rolled down my cheek as Shin Hyeong's blood flowed freely. One of the guards ran toward the table, bringing a bucket to collect the fresh blood. The stench only got stronger—it sickened me to the core. The other girls were confused and thrashing around, but the guards who held them didn't budge, rooted on the spot.

I suddenly got panic as Elizabeth pulled another girl—this time, I couldn't mistake her. She chose Min Gyeong, of all people. Elizabeth glanced at me, smiling evilly.

"You said you wanted to save your 'best friend'," she spat. "I might spare her life a little longer if only you told me honestly when I asked you about Hong Joon. Since you don't want to admit the truth, I should take her next." She laughed out loud, which was responded to by the cheering from the crowd.

I screamed desperately. "You were the one who didn't listen to me! I don't know who Hong Joon is, and I don't work for him! Release Min Gyeong right now!"

My screams changed nothing at all. Elizabeth still moved her dagger to Min Gyeong's slender neck, and the entire room went hushed at this occasion. As if everyone had expected this part as the holiest of all and needed to respect it. "Let's see if you really care about your best friend," said Elizabeth. "You should be willing to let us spill some of her blood," and she sliced Min Gyeong's neck, which made her gasp weakly. I could see that Min Gyeong's body was quivering; she couldn't even stand up straight anymore.

Elizabeth licked the drops of blood on Min Gyeong's neck. "Tasty," she licked her lips. "Blood this tasty should be shared with the others. Relax," she pressed the dagger to Min Gyeong's skin. "You don't know how lucky people who'll consume your blood after this. They will be young and beautiful forever, just like you." She raised the dagger—but immediately dropped it back.

People were shouting outside and banging at the door. The crowd murmured to each other—the hall was buzzing with their incomprehensible words. Elizabeth signaled to one of the guards to check the commotion outside. But just as the guard was about to open the door, the shooting began.

That's when all hell breaks loose. Everyone stood and knocked down several chairs, going here and there in confusion and fear. I noticed they were trying to run through a small door in the nook hidden behind a thick curtain to my right. The door must be too small that they were jostling around, stepping on their friends' feet and being sandwiched among the others. Everyone ran and panicked, except for me, Elizabeth, Min Gyeong, and the girls, which were too frightened to move anywhere.

Seconds later, the door to the hall swerved open, and someone shouted, "Freeze! Everyone, this is the police!"

No one listened to him, so the police—which didn't wear uniforms—shot the window glass. The shattering made everyone scream and stop pushing around the escape way. Some lay prone on the floor, covering their heads and crying for mercy. Yet I didn't dare to open my eyes and look at the police busting into the room—the light flooding from the broken window had hurt my eyes greatly. The guard who held me had long fled somewhere, or perhaps the police had caught him with the others, and so I was standing by myself on this makeshift stage. But still, I couldn't run.

Slowly, I reopened my eyes at the moment when Elizabeth howled in agony. "No! I won't let you stop me again! I have finally found a way to eternal beauty. I won't let any of you interfere with my business anymore!"

She tightened her clutch to Min Gyeong's bloodied neck, choking Min Gyeong. I stunned. "Min Gyeong!"

Elizabeth turned when she heard me. "You are all stubborn liars!" she raised her dagger high above her head, prepared to kill Min Gyeong right then and there while staring at my eyes, fixated. "Liars!" she repeated.

Her face was pale and her eyes wild. She didn't look sane at all, didn't look human, which made me wonder—for just a second—who was Elizabeth in the past, far before she became a bloodthirsty woman like now.

Just a flash, that thought didn't last long. It was another flash that surprised and frightened me to the core: Elizabeth's dagger came rushing down to Min Gyeong's neck, the tip speeding ever closer to her skin. I was prepared for another scream, but a thunderous sound preceded me before I could open my mouth.

Unconsciously, I closed my eyes again once I heard that booming sound, followed by something wet and sticky spattering over my face and body. Among the noises from Elizabeth's spectators on my right, I opened my eyes and saw that I was covered in blood. I lifted my eyes to where Elizabeth had stood before. Her body was now lying lifelessly next to Min Gyeong. On the other hand, Min Gyeong was no longer standing. She was sobbing, shuddering. There was nothing left from Elizabeth except the bloodied mess, probably her ruined brain flowing out from her destroyed skull. My eyes flew to the door, where more police poured into the room. Behind the crowd, I saw Min Gi, holding a gun, and he caught my eyes.

When I saw his cold expression, the world seemed to spin so suddenly that I bent myself over and puked on top of Elizabeth's pool of melting brain.