Then, a piercing scream echoed from one of the hospital rooms.
At first, I ignored it, convincing myself it was nothing unusual because hospitals were never quiet and pain was something you learned to tune out.
But this scream was different, sharper and filled with a kind of desperation that didn't fade no matter how many seconds passed.
I was about to stand up, but I stopped myself since another doctor would handle it, or at least that was what I tried to believe.
The screaming continued, growing louder and more unbearable as it pressed against my ears and made my head throb.
Was no one going to help?
I exhaled slowly, took a pill from my pocket, and swallowed it before stepping out of my office to investigate.
The corridor looked completely normal, with doctors walking past and nurses moving between rooms as if nothing was wrong, which only made the situation more unsettling.
The screams were still there.
I approached a nearby doctor.
"Why is no one checking on the patient who's screaming?" I asked, my irritation slipping through.
The doctor looked at me with confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"The screams," I repeated.
He frowned. "There aren't any screams. You might want to get your hearing checked, Doctor Kim."
I didn't respond and instead turned away, following the sound on my own until it led me to a dimly lit room at the end of the corridor.
I pushed the door open.
A man lay on the bed, his body covered in injuries that didn't look like anything treated in this hospital, and he wasn't wearing a hospital gown.
I stepped closer.
"Sir, are you alright?" I asked.
The man froze before slowly turning his head toward me, his eyes widening in disbelief.
"You can see me?"
I frowned slightly. "Of course I can. What kind of question is that?"
For a moment, I assumed he was delirious, but the way he stared at me made something feel off.
Then his expression changed to fear.
He began trembling.
"Your presence… it's making me shake," he whispered and then looked away.
I narrowed my eyes. "What are you talking about?"
He hesitated for a moment, but then spoke. "I am not a human anymore," he whispered.
"Not alive, to be precise."
The words lingered in the air, and for a brief moment, I didn't react before realization slowly settled in.
"That explains why no one else responded," I murmured.
He nodded faintly.
"Then how can I see you?" I asked.
He looked directly into my eyes, his expression turning even more horrified.
"I.. don't know. But you'll never be able to escape whatever that is. It's your faith."
My breath caught as my eyes widened slightly.
Before I could respond, his body began to fade until he disappeared completely, leaving the room silent once again.
Outside, I could hear faint voices.
"Why is he talking to himself?"
"I think he's lost it."
"Definitely."
I ignored them and returned to my office, pulling a book from the shelf and sitting down as I tried to steady my thoughts.
It was a fictional story about a teenager hiding the fact that he was a vampire, and even though I didn't believe in stories like that (Even though a part of it was clearly happening to me right now), I still found myself reading them, hoping that somewhere within those ideas there might be something useful for the end.
I checked the time and realized I had thirty minutes before my next surgery, so I closed the book and prepared instead.
I changed into surgical clothes, took another pill, and sat down again for a few minutes until it was time.
The surgery went smoothly.
After it was over, I returned to my office and sat down, only to be interrupted by my phone ringing.
"Is this Doctor Kim Min-yeong?" a voice asked.
"Yes. Who is this?"
"You are required to report to the police station tomorrow at 10 AM. Clear your schedule."
The call ended before I could respond.
I stared at the screen for a moment before making several calls to rearrange everything for the next day.
At exactly 10 AM, I arrived at the station.
An officer led me into an interrogation room where a lie detection device was already prepared on the table.
I sat down as they attached the cables to me, and one of the officers turned the device on before his expression shifted into something close to disbelief.
"It's not detecting a heartbeat," he said.
The others looked at me, confused.
"That's impossible. It's new."
They quickly removed the cables.
"We'll proceed without it," one of them said.
I nodded calmly.
"Regarding the incident," the officer began, "your DNA was found on the victim's neck. Were you responsible for his death?"
"I would never do such a thing, I'm a doctor," I replied.
"Then explain this."
He turned a screen toward me, showing CCTV footage from that night.
Several angles confirmed the same thing.
Seo-yeon leaving, the two doctors leaving, but no sign of me leaving.
No sign of anyone entering too.
Which meant I was the only one left inside.
The officers began whispering among themselves.
"The driver forced me out in a dark alley, and someone else must have entered," I said.
"You're lying," one of them responded immediately.
"There is no footage of the ambulance moving after the others left, and the doctors confirmed he became aggressive before they escaped."
He leaned forward slightly.
"Are you sure you're not the one who killed him?"
"I'm not."
At that moment of tension, the door opened.
Han Seo-yeon walked in.
"This is a restricted area," an officer said sharply.
"I'm a witness," she replied without hesitation.
"Witnesses aren't allowed here."
Her gaze hardened. "Consider me as evidence."
The room fell silent.
She stepped forward.
"Doctor Kim does not have any sharp teeth, neither did he have a weapon that could make the victim's wounds at the time of the murder."
The officers exchanged glances.
"And Doctor Kim... He's a doctor. He'll never do such a thing. That's what I believe," she continued.
All eyes turned to me.
She met my gaze briefly before looking back at them.
"Doctor Kim Min-yeong is not the killer."
The tension shifted slightly.
Not enough to clear me, but enough to complicate their conclusion.
The officers shared glances.
"Doctor Kim, you're free to go for now. You are not allowed to leave the city until we clear all assumptions on you."
Silence filled the room once again.
"I understand."
As I stood up, my eyes briefly caught my reflection in the glass.
For just a second, they flickered green before returning to normal, and I quickly looked away, unsure if anyone else had noticed.
But the thought remained in my mind.
If they had… then this investigation was the least of my problems.
I turned away from the glass and walked toward the door, keeping my expression neutral as the officers watched me leave.
The hallway outside felt colder than before.
Seo-yeon was waiting there.
She didn't speak immediately, and neither did I. We just stood there for a moment, as if both of us were trying to decide what to say first.
"You should be more careful," she said quietly.
I glanced at her. "About what?"
Her eyes lingered on me for a second longer than necessary. "Everything."
That wasn't reassuring.
"I appreciate your help back there," I said, choosing my words carefully.
"I didn't do it for you," she replied. "I did it because something about this doesn't make sense."
I let out a quiet breath. "That's one way to put it."
She stepped a little closer, lowering her voice. "Your eyes."
My body tensed.
"What about them?"
"They changed," she said. "Just for a second."
I held her gaze, forcing myself not to react.
"You're imagining things," I replied calmly.
"Am I?"
Neither of us spoke after that.
The silence stretched, heavy and uncomfortable, before she finally stepped back.
"Just be careful, Doctor Kim," she said again, this time more seriously. "If they find something, they won't hesitate."
"..."
She turned and walked away without another word.
I watched her disappear down the corridor before leaving the station myself.
Outside, the air felt different.
It was quieter.
But not peaceful.
I walked home, my thoughts spiraling in ways I couldn't control, replaying every moment from the interrogation and every word Seo-yeon had said.
Your eyes.
I clenched my jaw.
That was a problem.
A bigger problem than the police.
When I got home, I went straight to the mirror.
For a moment, I just stared at my reflection, searching for something out of place.
Then I leaned closer.
Nothing.
Just my normal eyes.
I let out a slow breath, but the unease didn't fade.
Because I knew what I saw.
And more importantly…
I knew what she saw.
Which meant it was only a matter of time... Before someone else does too.