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[The beautiful chorus of the Purgatory ■■ Ensemble, echoing from below the burning sulfur and atonement. It begins now.]
Shhh…
With a faint sound, the door leading to the worker management room opened.
Damn it…
Damn it!
The music of the marching band, sounds of eternal suffering and naked emotion flowed through the halls and reached our ears.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Aaaa Aaa Aaaa Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa
The melody, a rhythmic succession of cries and chords, snaked into my ears and tugged at my resolve.
It was beautiful.
There was a smoothness to the sound, to the overlapping of each instrument’s unique cry that truly brought out the mastery of the players.
Ahhh— ahh aaahhh— ah—ah
Ho-ho-hoo, hoo-ho-ho, ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho
The sound of air blowing through vocal cords, now stretched to make a sound so divine, unmistakably exquisite and singular.
I could almost see it, the beautiful ivory arch… the shape of perfection, a purpose much grander.
To be part of something so beautiful…
“Run! Fuck…Hey! You!”
You?
I looked up to see Baek Saheon, eyebrows furrowed as he dragged me by the sleeve.
Ah…
When had I stopped running?
Damn it!
I gritted my teeth and kept running. Running, and running, and running again…….
…!!
“There it is!”
I could see the end of the hallway.
[EXIT]
Beyond the emergency door was a vertical shaft, a ladder leading upward. Darkness stretched almost endlessly, and downwards, the same darkness engulfed the depths the ladder led to.
Crazy…
My hands were shaking to the point of realizing I'd fall and crack my head the moment my grip loosened, but I couldn't not climb it.
We began climbing like mad.
Holding onto each bar of the ladder tightly, we needed to make it out fast.
‘Falling to my death is better than becoming an instrument!’
Climbing, climbing, climbing, climbing, climbing, climbing, climbing, climbing, climbing, climbing, climbing, climbing, climb—
…….
Click.
The door opened far below.
Music spread into the vertical shaft.
A sound…a sound divine, the melody sweet and rhythmical, soothed the aches and fears of climbing this impossibly long ladder.
Moving my feet in tandem with the rhythm, I couldn’t help but appreciate the structure of the music.
Sob, sob, sob, sob, why me, sob, sob, sob
The melody grows richer.
I hummed along.
“Mmmmmm-“
Human voices, when used in tandem, can harmonize beautifully, but this…this was far beyond what the human corpus was capable of on its own.
“Shut up!”
Above me, Baek Saheon stumbles and hurls an insult. Come on, the spatial acoustics and the resonance are so good right now, why is he interrupting my appreciation? I'm a little upset.
Should I just go down and listen more closely?
The sound of the instrument was enchanting, clear, graphic.
The ribs, spread wider to accommodate the stretch of the lungs, vocal cords bent atop bone and strectchedtocreateasoundthatresonatesthroughtheivoryarch,thatbeautifulmagnificientarchcreatinganninstrumentwithashapemostperfecttocreatethemostbeautifulsoundofallblendingtogetherintoanensemblethattrulyembodiesthecryofpurgatorytheemotionthebeautyofeternalpainthebeautyofthemelodythebeautifulsound-
Could I too become part of something so beautiful?
“Hahahaha!”
“Fuck!”
I made eye contact with Assistant manager Jin Nasol.
Her expression is good, as if she's thinking the same thing. She nodded with a bright smile.
Ah…
But we were still incomplete…we didn’t take all the Instrument Maintenance Supplies pills…
Right, the pills!
I had one in my backpack!
Alcohol! Alcohol too!
Grinning, I opened my backpack with both hands while dangling from the ladder.
“You crazy bastard!”
The bottle of clear vodka was visible in the bag, but the pills were further out of reach.
It’s there! But they’re just so small...so hard to find!
I took out the bottle of alcohol to better look for the pills and-
Thwack.
I was kicked.
The broken bottle fell out of my hands.
And I lost my balance.
In Baek Saheon’s eyes, blown wide, was unmistakably panic, but that was quickly engulfed by darkness as I fell.
My bag…my bag was gone; I couldn’t grab the pills anymore!
Alcohol, blood, and grime soiled my hand, maybe…
I could just put it inside like this…
Ding-dong
[An announcement for the audience.]
[The Choir of Purgatory’s impromptu parade will resume after an intermission of ■■■■ seconds starting from now.]
“…….”
[During the intermission, we would like to introduce a distinguished guest who has attended to grace this occasion. To those listening to the Announcement Broadcast….]
“…….”
“…….”
Ah.
I’m going to die.
There was no way for me to survive a fall like this; even now, I was still falling, gaining velocity.
I couldn’t hope to make it out of this with just broken limbs; the impact will most definitely crush me.
…
The shaft went on forever; I felt weightless, falling endlessly.
I tried grabbing onto the ladder again, but I was falling too fast; my wrist bent, then cracked.
This was it.
…..
[Friend.]
…!
“Braun-!”
Splat.