The voice of the patient in the next bed was thick and syrupy. "Of course, I could be wrong, but other than being optimistic, you have no other choice. Alright, take it off now."
Just as he'd said, she had no other choice.
"Good thing I've always been an optimist." Mai Mingle let out a breath. She first pulled the Snake Belt up from her lower abdomen, then followed its path around to her back, peeling it off her body bit by bit.
The tail of the pitch-black Snake Belt fell limply from under her pajamas, dangling in the air. It swayed back and forth as if it were alive.
"Wait, don't give it to *it*," the red-haired man suddenly shouted, taking a step forward with his arms outstretched. "Give it to me! If it comes after me, it'll let you go!"
'He used the pronoun "it"?'
The thought flashed through Mai Mingle's mind, but she had no time to dwell on it. She already recognized this was a lifeline—with this fleeting opportunity, she might just be able to escape the ward with her life. Mai Mingle seized the chance and immediately shouted to the red-haired man, "Catch!"
With a flick of her wrist, she pulled a dark shape from behind her back and tossed it toward his upraised hands.
It might have been an illusion, but Mai Mingle felt that for a brief moment, the attention of the patient behind the curtain of the next bed also seemed to be drawn away.
SMACK. Just as the dark shape landed in the red-haired man's hands, Mai Mingle seized the opportunity, rolling off Bed 2 and landing on the other side. 'So this is what a young person's body feels like—so strong, agile, and balanced.' The smooth, light movements were so pleasant that for a moment, she almost forgot she was running for her life.
The fluffy, soft, dark shape was caught between his two hands, surrounded by a circle of faces staring intently at it.
"A pillow?"
The red-haired man froze when he saw what it was. He backhanded the pillow—the one Mai Mingle had taken from Bed 2—to the ground and yelled, "Do you want to get yourself killed by a resident?"
Mai Mingle didn't have time to answer. She had just found her footing when she turned back and saw the patient was on the move—the curtain for Bed 2 was now drawn, though not completely.
The gap seemed to have widened, and at some point, a pair of lower legs had appeared, knees pressed tightly together, bent over the edge of the bed and dangling down.
The patient from the next bed was lying flat, having only lowered their legs. That itself wasn't strange. What was strange was that the pair of pale, bloodless, bare feet, planted firmly on the floor, had twisted a full circle at the ankles to face Mai Mingle directly.
It was too much like an absurd dream. Mai Mingle wouldn't have been surprised if she opened her eyes the next moment to find herself waking up in a hospital bed.
"Back up,"
The red-haired man's expression was tense as he and the others behind him backed away from Bed 2.
It was as if the very air was growing tight and thin. They were like wild animals that frequented this place, sensing the danger a step ahead of the clueless outsider, Mai Mingle.
She thought for a moment, then asked the patient in the next bed, "Were you admitted to the hospital for a broken ankle?"
As Mai Mingle spoke, she vaguely felt a pulling sensation at her waist.
"Or… you really aren't human, are you?" She shouted to the red-haired man, "Hey, kid! If it's not human, what is it? A chicken, really?"
Everything was so unbelievable that she was past the point of being surprised. She just wanted to figure out what was going on—after all, no one can stay jumpy for too long.
The red-haired man didn't answer her.
He and the few people behind him were all staring at the legs dangling beside Bed 2 and the floor, as if Mai Mingle had already been erased from the equation and just didn't know it yet.
The curtain rustled as someone slowly pulled it open.
Mai Mingle didn't want to see what the person behind the curtain looked like—it wasn't going to be pretty.
She immediately lowered her head again. As her gaze fell on the pair of feet in front of her, she saw that the patient's left foot had, at some unknown moment, taken a step forward.
Even though she hadn't moved, her own left foot had also taken a step forward.
It was as if two old acquaintances, reunited, were walking toward each other.
'No wonder my waist feels like it's being pulled…'
'Strange. Why is it that just by seeing its foot move, my own foot is moving uncontrollably along with it? No, now isn't the time to get lost in thought.'
Even with her head down, she could sense in her peripheral vision that the curtain had been pulled fully open.
On Bed 2 beside her, a long, humanoid black shadow lay indistinctly.
Mai Mingle took a deep breath.
If this had been the old Mai Mingle, she might have tried to keep the peace, prioritizing self-preservation, and just given it the Snake Belt. When you're living for the first time, you're always afraid of a single misstep, of causing an irreversible, unbearable consequence that will make your one life miserable.
Later, when she grew old, she found that her decades of life were filled with nothing but loneliness, regret, and expired wishes. It hadn't been a good life at all. Opportunities no longer came knocking, and she no longer had the strength.
This Snake Belt could be the last adventure in her eighty-six-year life, but it could also be the first choice of her future life.
'I have to try.'
Mai Mingle knew that pressing the call button wouldn't produce a sound to break the dead silence in the room.
"Ward Three, Bed 01, calling for a nurse!"
A loud, almost shrill female voice from the broadcast system unexpectedly shattered the silence in the room.
Before anyone could react, Mai Mingle pressed the call button several more times in quick succession.
As if provoked, the broadcast announced with increasing urgency down the hall: "A figure disguised as a nurse will arrive at the ward in five seconds—a second figure disguised as a nurse will arrive—a third disguised as a nurse—a fourth figure disguised as a nurse will arrive at the ward in five seconds!"
Amidst the increasingly frantic announcements, Mai Mingle thought she faintly heard the red-haired man curse, "You're insane!" Immediately after, a flurry of receding footsteps suggested that the group, seeing things were going south, had made a break for it and fled the room.
She never looked up.
Mai Mingle felt the black shadow beside her rising section by section: its thighs lifted off the mattress, its hips hovered in mid-air, but its upper body was still lying on the bed.
In the dim periphery of her vision, the head turned toward Mai Mingle and spoke in a voice that was not human at all. "For an old lady, you've got a lot of guts."
Just then, something heavy was suddenly thrown across the room. It landed with a loud, dull THUD between her and the patient, smashing the bedside table to pieces. The figure tumbled to the floor, scrambled to its feet against the wall, and turned out to be the red-haired man. Finding himself stuck right between the patient and Mai Mingle, he muttered a quiet curse.
Mai Mingle didn't look at him.
She just stared at the ward's entrance and said in a low voice, "Take a closer look. I'm not an old lady anymore."
'Not now, and not tomorrow.'
'I'm going to seize this second life for myself.'