Release From Hell

Dreamland

Yoonbum woke to the sound of beeping. The first thing that scared him was that he wasn't in any pain. Nothing hurt, not even his legs, which hadn't stopped hurting since they were broken. His first thought was that Sangwoo had drugged him, and his mind started to race with all the things that might be about to happen to him. The last thing he remembered was running out the door. Sangwoo must have caught up with him and dragged him back to the basement. Yoonbum could only imagine what Sangwoo was going to do to him now. But before he could really start to panic, he was struck with the overwhelming smell of antiseptics. Confused, Yoonbum cautiously opened one eye. As soon as he caught a glimpse of his surroundings, his eyes snapped open. Somehow, he wasn't in the dark basement, and he wasn't in the bedroom either. In fact, he wasn't in Sangwoo's house at all. He was sitting in what seemed to be a hospital bed, with machines beeping around him and medical equipment hung up on the walls. Yoonbum couldn't believe his eyes: he couldn't possibly have made it out, and even if he had, how would he have ended up in a hospital? He noticed one of his legs was in a heavy cast and the other one was tightly bandaged and wrapped in a brace. He decided this must be a dream. He hadn't dreamt at all since he was imprisoned, but it seemed like the only explanation. Surely, none of this was real. Feeling disappointed, Yoonbum tried to hang on to this feeling as much as he could. The feeling of safety and the absence of pain were things he hadn't been able to feel in a long time. He wanted to be able to remember them when he woke up again. All of a sudden, a woman entered the room, breaking Yoonbum's train of thought. He could see by her clothes that she was a nurse. She looked surprised to see him, but continued forward until she was standing just at the end of the bed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't expect you to be awake. Let's see, it's the first time you've woken up since surgery, how are you feeling? Are you... handling everything okay?"

"Yes I'm fine, thank you." Yoonbum's voice was completely calm, but inside he wanted to scream at her and tell her where he was. He wanted her to call someone and get him out, but it wouldn't do any good if he did. It was only a dream after all. She looked confused by his answer.

"You're fine? Really? After everything you went through... Well I guess that's good. I'm going to take all your vitals and report to the doctor. There's a call button right there, you can press it if you need anything, okay? There's no shame in asking for anything: you've been very brave."

Yoonbum nodded, dismissing her words. He was still disappointed that he would eventually have to wake up. The nurse left, giving him one last bewildered look, and he was alone again. After a while of sitting doing nothing, Yoonbum got bored. He was getting increasingly depressed and anxious at the thought of waking up again, to the point where he began to feel very sick. He decided it was better not to wait. There was no use in sitting here just waiting to wake up. So, Yoonbum closed his eyes and willed himself to fall asleep, dreading the moment when he would open them again. When Yoonbum did wake up, he braced himself and opened his eyes quickly, like he was ripping off a bandage. To his immense surprise, he was still inside the dream. This time, however, there was a man sitting across from him in a chair. Something about him seemed familiar, but Yoonbum couldn't remember ever seeing him before. He was sitting reading a newspaper, but he looked up when Yoonbum raised his head. He opened his mouth, about to say something, but after a moment he closed it again. It seemed he was having trouble finding the right words. Yoonbum felt slightly relieved that he hadn't woken up yet, so he decided to keep going along with the dream.
"Hello. Do you have something to tell me?"
Just like the nurse had, this man looked confused at Yoonbum's words. He put down his paper and crossed his legs, scanning him with his eyes.
"Um. Yes I guess I do. Uh, Yoonbum, I'm officer Yang Seungbae. I came by to see how you were doing."
"I'm fine, thanks. By the way, what is it that everyone thinks happened to me?"
Seungbae looked even more surprised and confused. He uncrossed his legs and moved to sit on the end of the bed.
"Do you... not remember anything at all? I know you were in pretty bad condition when I brought you here but..."
"Oh so we have met before... well I mean, I guess we haven't really met. But no, I just woke up here. As far as I know nothing happened before this."
Seungbae looked immensely concerned. Again, he was searching for the right way to say whatever was on his mind.
"Well, what we believe is that a man, Oh Sangwoo, was holding-"
"Wait, what did you say?! Oh Sangwoo- how do you know about that?"
Now Yoonbum was the one who was confused. He had never dreamt in this much detail before, and why would this officer from his dream know about Sangwoo? Maybe he was just imagining what he wanted to happen, but still it seemed strange. And especially with the way Seungbae and the nurse had looked at him when he said he was fine...
"Um, you see, yesterday you sort of bumped into me on the street. You were pretty badly injured so I took you here. On the way, you gave us an address and told us that the person who had hurt you was Oh Sangwoo. So after the doctors took you in, we investigated the house and we... To make a long story short, we found a lot of solid evidence to back up what you said and we took him into custody. You seriously don't remember any of this? What we've thought is that he kidnapped you and held you prisoner in his house."
Yoonbum was starting to feel increasingly anxious. The detail and realistic feeling of this whole thing was making him second guess himself. He had begun to suspect this wasn't a dream. As soon as this thought crossed his mind, he realized how absurd he was being. Of course this wasn't real: there was no way it could be. Once he saw how silly he was being, Yoonbum laughed out loud.
"This sure is one hell of a dream. Look, I'm not trying to be rude but this is really messing with my head so if you could leave me alone I think I'll wake up now."
Seungbae stared at him like he had three heads. After a minute of awkward silence, Seungbae seemed to realize something. All the confusion drained out of his face and he adopted a serious, strained expression. He ran his hand through his hair and sighed deeply.