Min-sun wakes up to the heavy, suffocating quiet and darkness of her cell-like room.
The lingering, throbbing pain from the taser shock vibrates violently through every single muscle in her body, a cruel physical reminder of her failed rebellion on the evaluation stage.
She rolls her head slowly to the side, her eyes scanning the dim space.
She looks onto the bunk above her.
Her roommate Hina isn’t there.
The thin mattress is completely hollow, a cold, empty void left behind after the academy’s simulation brutally killed her only friend.
The terrifying reality of the situation hits her all at once, crushing her chest.
“You’re really gone, aren’t you?” Min-sun whispers into the empty room, her voice cracking in the silence.
“They didn’t even hesitate. They just erased you.”
She gets out of the bed, her legs shaking so violently that she almost collapses onto the concrete.
She tries desperately to control the thick tears racing down her eyes, but it is an impossible task.
She slides down against the cold wall and sits on the floor in the absolute darkness, staring up at the tiny, barred window where she can still see the sky and the stars.
Tonight, ironically, the harsh, blood-soaked Crimson World outside seems a little normal, completely indifferent to the horror tearing her apart from the inside.
Various dark thoughts begin to creep into her mind, weaving together into an inescapable web of grief.
“Why does everyone leave me?” she asks aloud, her voice sounding small, broken, and hollow.
“First, I lost my mum to that horrific car accident. I can still hear the sound of the metal crushing. Then… then Dad had to die to that sudden gunshot. I can still see the blood on the floor. And then our own aunt… the one person who was supposed to look after us, completely betrayed us. She sold my sister and me out, sending us away to this horrible, godforsaken place.”
She presses her forehead against her knees, a fresh wave of sobbing wracking her shoulders.
“And then they separated us,” she continues to sob, the words spilling out into the dark.
“They took you away from me, Primrose. I don’t even know if you’re still alive in this hellhole. I don’t know if you’re breathing, or if they already put you in a chair and let that machine melt your mind too. And now… now Hina is gone. The only true friend I managed to make in this entire nightmare academy. They killed her right in front of me.”
Those agonizing thoughts make thick, heavy tears roll down from Min-sun’s eyes continuously.
The tiny cell feels less like a room and more like a tomb, holding nothing but the ghosts of her past and the certainty of future violence.
“There’s nothing left for me here,” she whispers, her gaze shifting through the gloom.
“There is absolutely no point in waiting around for tomorrow’s execution.”
Min-sun’s teary eyes slowly trail across the floor, locking onto the heavy metal door of her cell.
She pushes open the unlatched door and leaves the room behind.
She steps out into the long, dimly lit corridor, not caring at all about the security cameras blinking their ominous red lights above, nor does she care about the elite Nightwatchers patrolling the shadows.
As she walks past the other tightly sealed cell doors, she seems entirely aimless to anyone who might be watching from the monitoring screens.
But to her, she knows exactly where she is going.
There is a definitive destination in her mind, a final place of release.
“Keep watching me through your little lenses,” she mutters under her breath, glaring up at a security dome as she glides past it.
“Go ahead and report it. It won’t matter anymore. You can’t hurt someone who has absolutely nothing left to lose.”
She navigates the cold, concrete labyrinth of the residential sector until she finally reaches a hidden, narrow service corridor.
After walking for a while, she arrives at the base of a heavy flight of stairs.
She steps onto the first concrete step and begins her ascent.
She walks on it for minutes, her breath turning shallow and ragged as she climbs higher and higher.
The facility is a massive, four-storied building, and each flight of steps feels like an agonizing mountain under her bruised, tased muscles.
“Just a few more steps,” she pants heavily, gripping the iron handrail to pull her heavy body upward.
“Almost there. Just let me reach the top.”
When she finally gets to the very top landing, she finds herself facing the thick metallic door leading out onto the roof.
She reaches out and grabs the handle, pulling it with all her remaining strength.
It doesn’t budge.
She pushes against it, but the mechanism remains completely stationary.
The door is securely locked from the inside.
A sudden, overwhelming surge of pure, unadulterated anger erupts through her exhaustion.
“Open up!” Min-sun screams at the blank metal, her voice echoing violently down the concrete stairwell.
“You won’t keep me locked in this cage! Open the door!”
Gritting her teeth, she slams her shoulder with immense force directly against the center of the heavy locked door.
CRACK!
The rusty iron latch shatters under the sudden, desperate impact.
The heavy door forcefully swings wide open, banging loudly against the exterior wall.
She goes in, stepping through the shattered threshold, and suddenly she is standing out on the open roof.
As she moves more out into the cool, biting night air, the entire expanse of the facility disappears beneath her.
She can see all of Crimson World at a single, breathtaking view.
The vast, glowing neon city stretches out into the horizon, a brilliant, beautiful, yet utterly monstrous landscape.
“Look at you,” Min-sun says, her voice trembling as she stares out at the twinkling lights.
“The place that took my sister away. The place that takes everything from everyone.”
She walks closer and closer to the very edge of the concrete roof, her boots crunching softly against the gravel.
She keeps moving forward until she gets too close, her toes stretching slightly over the precipice of the four-story drop.
The wind howls wildly around her, tugging at the fabric of her bright orange jumpsuit, whispering promises of absolute peace.
She looks down into the sheer, dark abyss below.
“I am so sorry, Primrose,” Min-sun cries out into the vast, empty sky, her tears falling fast into the wind.
“I am so incredibly sorry for giving up like this. I know I promised you we would get out together. I know I told you I would always be your big sister and protect you from the dark. But I have to admit it… I am just so completely exhausted. I can’t do this anymore. I cannot deal with any more of this horrific violence. I can’t watch another person bleed. I can’t wait for them to put me back in that chair.”
She sinks slightly, her knees bending as she looks up toward the blanket of stars shining far above the toxic crimson haze of the city.
“Mum… Dad…” she calls out, her voice cracking into a desperate, childlike sob as she addresses the night sky.
“I tried. I really, truly tried to be strong for her. But it’s too hard. The world is too cruel. I’m so tired of fighting. I’m coming to meet you now. Please… please just hold me when I get there.”
She closes her eyes, taking one last, deep breath of the cold air, feeling the absolute quiet of the night wash over her soul.
The pain from the tasers, the memories of Hina, the fear for Primrose—all of it begins to fade into a single, numbing silence.
Then, without a single shred of hesitation left in her heart, she takes the step.