Winter Rabbit in Wonderland

Chapter 89

SoYoon slowly opened her eyes. No, she may not have closed her eyes in the first place. Everywhere she looked, there was nothing but darkness. The last thing that she could recall was the smell of Dee’s blood.

Had she passed out and ended up at the research facility? Feeling a sudden sense of fear, she took in a deep breath. Her surroundings didn’t have the unique chemical smell she associated with the place. Then where was she? She got up from her seat and started to walk. Doing anything seemed like a better idea than doing nothing.

After walking for a long time, she came upon a gray translucent wall with familiar people on the other side. They were the faces she had been missing for a long, long time. SoYoon stopped walking and turned towards them. She headed toward the wall and carefully reached out with her hand. Her hand hit the wall.

She hadn’t expected to reach them in the first place. She had endured too much disappointment to believe in such a dream-like hope. If she had been able to touch them, she would have been positive that they were fake.

Unable to touch them, she knew they were her real family. At the same time, she intuitively knew that this might be the last time she would be able to see her family. She stuck her body as close as she could to the wall and called to them in a small voice.

“Mom, Dad, SoHa.”

They were sitting in the living room watching TV. Although they were watching a comedy program, there was no joy in their eyes. When her mother’s lips started to tremble, SoHa grabbed the remote and turned off the TV. After that, the three people were still and silent.

SoYoon observed her family quietly. The wall progressively turned black. Everything around her was shrouded in darkness, leaving her all alone. She was only able to remove her gaze from that place after the image of her family disappeared. Not wanting her vision to blur, she had been holding back her tears, but now they flowed out freely and trickled down her cheek.

***

A couple of hours after Dee left, Heart arrived at the place with his men. He instructed his men to investigate, then looked around at the dust and bloodstains on the floor.

“Based on the footprints, the location of the bloodstains, the amount of blood, and other evidence, it doesn’t seem like White Rabbit did the fighting herself. Based on the information Baby gave us, it’s most probable that Twins is responsible. There is also a clear indication of magic being used here...”

The man didn’t finish his sentence. Instead, he handed Heart a brown wig and several hairpins. There were several strands of blonde hair attached to the hairpins that indicated what had happened here.

The evidence of magic, Alice’s forcefully removed wig, SoYoon’s last known location. It all pointed to one thing.

They suddenly heard something loud at the building’s entrance. Someone was yelling, “Get out of the way!” Normally, Heart would have frowned at this, but the situation was different now. With a nod, he permitted Mad Hatter to enter.

Before he’d even entered, Mad Hatter had sensed the use of magic. He headed to the place where he felt the strongest presence. He felt similar energy to that of SoYoon’s brand from 4 years ago. He was sure it had been created from the same source. Mad Hatter told them his conclusion.

“It was them.”

The researchers, who were associated closely with the government, should have feared the repercussions of coming into this place. But there wasn’t anyone there who cared about that at the moment. With a crooked smile, Heart said to Mad Hatter, “You can transport us to where the research facility is, right?”

“Just hand over the map.”

He quickly handed over the map that showed the research facility’s location.

Mad Hatter scanned it, wrinkled his brow, and looked at Heart.

“Are you planning to go?”

To transport someone with him, he had to make physical contact with them. Heart, instead of answering him, put his hand on Mad Hatter’s shoulder. His expression didn’t look too happy. “I’m not a mode of transportation,” Mad Hatter muttered to himself as he moved his powers. Then, in the blink of an eye, they disappeared.

***

Cold air touched her wet cheeks. Due to the sleeping spell, SoYoon had fallen asleep. She was woken up from her slumber by the cold touch. In conjunction with that sensation, she could smell the familiar scent of chemicals and metal in the air. She examined her surroundings to check to see if anyone was there, but upon sensing no one, she opened her eyes and sat up.

The sterile white scenery she had seen every day 4 years ago was spread out in front of her. She lowered her gaze to find her wrists tightly chained by an imprisoning spell. SoYoon twisted her wrists with great strength. Unlike before, they did not break so easily. They knew she had broken out and escaped from the chains previously. They must have used a more powerful spell this time. She clicked her tongue then twisted her wrists again. As she did, the chains made a creaking sound. On the third try, she was able to throw off the chains from her wrists.

She broke the chains off her ankles as well and hopped off the experimental table. There was a magic insignia marked on the table as well. With the tip of her tongue, she felt the inside of her gums where Mad Hatter had drawn the magic insignia. It should have stopped the fainting and sedative spells. She thought to herself that it was a good thing she had prepared for this.

As she had expected, she was naked and without a single thread of clothing. Even the patch on her left shoulder had gone missing.

It was the patch that had covered the brand. The researchers from the facility were definitely skilled enough to find out what the patch’s purpose was. She concluded that she had been left here for now because of the patch. There had been extra patches inside her cross bag, so the researchers were probably screaming with joy as they concentrated on their experiments.

Figuring out the truth behind the reason they had captured her, SoYoon walked over to the door. The thick door was locked by magic. Maybe it was because she had been trapped by a similar door at Twins’s house and escaped, but SoYoon didn’t get frazzled and instead thought up a plan to get out.

After examining the door and the surrounding wall, she turned around and grabbed the experimentation table. She dragged it across the room and took it to a spot next to the door. Standing in front of the wall, she swung with all her strength.

Clang! The sound of metal on metal echoed loudly through the room. Instantly, she made a huge dent in the wall. SoYoon swung the table again. However thick the walls were, they would be easier to get through it than a door reinforced with magic.

On the fourth swing, the wall started to crack. On the seventh one, it split open. She placed the table legs in between the crack and pushed. The crack soon became wide enough for one person to get through. She thought to herself that it had actually been much more difficult to get out of Twins’ house than here.

SoYoon was sure that the researchers wouldn’t have bothered to think that she would prepare a defense against the fainting and sedative spells. It was because these people didn’t think of her as some thinking or feeling human being, but merely as a specimen, nothing but an object under a microscope. As SoYoon slipped out of the room, she felt something strange and turned her head. A small surveillance camera was attached to the wall. She threw the thing she was holding at it. The table leg that had acted as leverage flew towards the surveillance camera lens and shattered it to pieces. SoYoon observed the shimmering pieces of broken glass as they scattered around the room.

This place had been where SoYoon’s nightmare had begun. To GaHyun, the research facility was her living nightmare. With magic and the government’s power on its side, the research facility was too great a force for anyone of their world to be able to handle. After several repetitive attempts to escape or commit suicide and failing at it each time, SoYoon had come to accept the fact that she wasn’t allowed even the freedom of death. To cope, she was forced to give up everything about herself.

Personal identity, freedom, shame, the three basic human needs, happiness, sadness, and, most importantly, hope. Eventually, all these things were chipped away to a point that, even when she had regained her freedom, they were never able to fully come back.