Fortune-Telling Lady

Prologue Chapter 2

“Father!”

There was no reply.

“Please, spare me!” a voice cried out.

Tears flowed down the face of a young woman in her late teens. It was a pitiful sight, but the man looking down at her appeared unmoved. There was only one emotion to be found on the man’s face: contempt. Nothing but pure, cold contempt for the young woman before him.

“Take her away,” he commanded.

“Father! Father!” she wailed.

At his immediate order, knights approached the woman and grabbed hold of her. Even as the knights dragged her away, the young woman continued screaming for mercy, but her words fell upon deaf ears. It wasn’t just the knights who ignored her pleas. The look on every onlooker’s face was the same. They found her pathetic and mocked her suffering.

Eventually, someone approached her—a young man, who looked to be in his early twenties.

“Ludville!” the young woman cried.

The man looked at her with a familiarly cold expression.

“I… I was wrong!”

The man watched her silently as she begged for forgiveness, her head bowed to the ground. Wordlessly, he unsheathed the sword at his hip.

“Please spare—”

Her words stopped short, replaced by the sound of a blade connecting with flesh.

Ah, dammit! Sia’s eyes snapped open. Her heart beating rapidly, she put a hand to her chest.

At least it wasn’t the guillotine this time. Isn’t that a relief? Sia sighed as her breathing slowed. She recalled the first time she had ever experienced this strange phenomenon.

I must’ve been about five years old at the time. It started the first day Sia ever saw a ghost.

Mom… It was the ghost of her mother, who’d died with Sia at her side. The expression on her mother’s face had been sad, but also relieved. Ever since that day, Sia had been able to see ghosts.

Right, I remember. I understand seeing ghosts. But then, what is this? It was around that same time—shortly after her mother’s death—that Sia began having these experiences.

I know it’s not just a dream… Whenever Sia closed her eyes, a new world unfolded before her, as if she had been transported to another life.

And the very first thing I experienced there was…

She winced, recalling the sensation of the sword piercing her skin. Her first experience in the other world was just like the dream she just had.

…getting stabbed in the heart.

Although technically, it was not Sia herself being stabbed. It was that other woman. In these dreams, she always had the eerie sensation of possessing another woman’s body. The first time it ever happened, she hadn’t been able to speak for a while afterward. That was just the beginning.

Since then, whenever Sia closed her eyes, she found herself sucked into a strange, unfamiliar world. And there, she would live the same life, over and over again. Sia always became the same woman. She appeared to be a noblewoman from medieval times—a woman who seemed as wicked as she was foolish.

She did not speak much, and always wore a gloomy expression. At the same time, she was so prideful that she could not stand being neglected or ignored. At first, Sia found her annoying. She could not stand the way she would yell and act violently whenever she became angry. Frustratingly, this behavior always led her to the same fate: death.

Often, it would be at the hands of a man who seemed to be her brother. Sometimes, it was at the hands of who seemed to be her father. And sometimes, she was dragged to a guillotine and had her head chopped off in front of countless people.

Ugh, I can’t stand it… It was a truly terrible feeling. Although Sia had seen it countless times, she still could not get used to dying. She tried shouting at the woman, telling her to change her ways if she wanted to live, over and over again. For years, Sia watched this woman repeat the same mistakes that always ultimately led to her death. Eventually, she grew to pity the poor woman more than hate her.

Sia wondered if it was because she kept experiencing the same tragic existence via her body. More and more, she began to wish for that woman’s happiness. But still…

She winced again, recalling the moment of being stabbed. Of course, that woman went and died again today.

God damn it… Sia closed her eyes briefly during a break in filming and felt herself getting dragged to that strange world. She cursed again to herself, feeling awful.

“Sia, are you okay? Did you have another nightmare?”

Jihyun, back from cleaning her grandmother’s house, walked over to Sia with a concerned look on her face. Looking at her, Sia remembered the moment Jihyun thanked her for her message about the persimmon tree.

Eyes red from crying, Jihyun had told her that she found nearly thirty million won buried there and that she was truly grateful. She said she had cried for several days afterward, thinking about how hard Granny must have worked to save her that money, despite how poor they were.

Sia hesitated for a moment. “Yeah, a nightmare.”

“You look a little sweaty. I’ll redo your makeup,” said Jihyun.

“Thanks.”

She let out a sigh and closed her eyes, relaxing under Jihyun’s familiar touch. With a start, Sia snapped to attention, opening her eyes wide.

“Sia?” Jihyun asked. “What’s wrong?”

Jihyun looked puzzled, watching the color drain out of Sia’s face. She asked again what was wrong, concern growing in her expression, but Sia was too distracted to answer her questions.

What? What’s happening? The moment Sia closed her eyes, the dream from earlier picked up where it had left off.

This has never happened before… Whenever she had this experience in the past, the woman’s life would reset, and she would have a few days of peace. But this time, as soon as she closed her eyes again, Sia was greeted with the same gruesome scene. Had that woman finally died for good? This time, instead of possessing the woman’s body, Sia found herself floating in the air, observing the scene from above.

The woman, bleeding to death, looked up to meet Sia’s eyes. Her gaze was filled with utter resentment and sadness. Sia, frozen, could not shake the terrible feeling that washed over her.

* * *

“Um, Sia?” Hyunsuk asked.

“What?”

“You should get some shut-eye,” her manager told her.

“I’m fine.”

She was not fine.

Hyunsuk approached her with an awkward smile, attempting to hide his discomfort. It was a disturbing sight, the way Sia was forcing her bloodshot eyes to stay wide open. Every time he entered the waiting room, Hyunsuk asked her to close her eyes for a bit, but for some reason, it only seemed to cause her to strain even harder to keep them open. He couldn’t help but feel creeped out.

“There’s still more than an hour before they’ll be done shooting the opening scene,” he reminded her.

“I know.”

“So you should get some sleep,” he offered again.

“You keep saying that.”

And you keep not sleeping! Hyunsuk shook his head in defeat, confused by Sia’s stubborn refusal. What is wrong with her today?

Sia could not say anything to anyone about her struggle, so she had no choice but to stew in her feelings.

I wish I could shut my eyes, too, she thought. I want to go to sleep! This was an all-night film shoot. She knew just as well as everyone else how important it was to get some rest in these brief moments of downtime.

But… Today, for some reason, something felt wrong. Sia let out a small sigh as she recalled the scene she had seen earlier today. The sight of the dying woman’s eyes, filled with resentment and sadness, filled her mind.

I’d rather see a ghost with its head smashed in than see that. She never wanted to see the expression on that woman’s face again. Sia had seen countless horrible sights in the form of various ghosts throughout the years, but she had never felt more afraid than she did upon seeing the face of that dying woman. She knew that unless you were afraid of ghosts, it was very hard for them to harm humans. But that woman…

Why do I feel this way? The moment Sia saw the dead woman’s resentful eyes, she’d felt strangely creeped out. It was not the first time she had seen that same woman die, so why was she reacting like this?

Something was different today. It seemed as if those eyes were looking right back at Sia. She never wanted to see the sight of those eyes ever again. It made her heart pound, and she felt a piercing emotion shoot through her body.

Is this… sympathy? No, that wasn’t it. That woman’s life was pitiable and frustrating, but it wasn’t sad enough to be heartbreaking.

I’ve watched her die countless times over the last twenty years. Or, have I? I suppose I’ve just experienced it alongside her all those times. Is that really so different from seeing it? Something didn’t feel right. But that last look that Sia saw from the young woman today… That expression would not leave her mind, no matter how hard she tried to forget.

I can’t let this eat away at me. Perhaps it was best to try to move on with her day.

At that moment, the news began broadcasting on the television.

“A family of three was found dead in an apartment in Daegu,” said an announcer on the television. “The father was suffering from financial difficulties. He killed his wife and six-year-old son and then took his own life.”

“Oh, how terrible…”

Everyone’s attention was naturally drawn to the sad story being shared on the TV in the waiting room. Hyunsuk clicked his tongue and looked regrettably at the screen. Sia said nothing, but also turned her gaze to the TV. The screen displayed the basement where the family had died. The broadcasters made it clear that the tragedy occurred because the man could not overcome the hardships he faced.

“He must have been having such a hard time,” said Hyunsuk. “What a shame.”

“So is that what we should all do when we’re struggling?” asked Sia.

“Huh?” Hyunsuk, who had just been muttering to himself, startled at the sound of Sia’s soft voice.

“If he was having such a hard time, he should at least have the decency to die alone.” Sia’s eyes were fixed on the TV, her expression and tone indifferent.

Hyunsuk jumped as if he remembered something important, and struggled to hide his embarrassment as he realized what he’d said. “Oh… Sia, I…”

“What did that child do to deserve that?” Sia asked.

“Um… Right…” Hyunsuk moved in a hurry to turn off the TV, but could not find the remote.

“But at least his so-called father died with him,” Sia continued.

Hyunsuk, in a panic, decided to unplug the TV entirely. Sia snickered. He looked back at her awkwardly. Even with the broadcast off, Sia couldn’t pull her eyes away from the blank television screen.

“Sia, are you all ri—” Hyunsuk began.

“Miss Lee, we’re ready for you know,” one of the production assistants interrupted.

Sia let out a short sigh and slowly stood, breaking her gaze from the TV.

I’ve got a bad feeling about today… Sia headed back to the film set, trying hard to hold back another sigh threatening to escape. She had the sense that her luck was about to turn bad.

Is it because I’ve been around ghosts for so long? There were times she got a strong feeling for the energy in an area—a feeling that something bad was about to happen. On days like that, something always went wrong, whether big or small. When she got that feeling, the best thing to do was to just go home and get some rest.

“Are you both ready?” asked the director.

Today, Sia was filming a romantic comedy drama about a romance between a handsome young CEO and his secretary. It wasn’t a particularly challenging scene to film. In it, she would play the CEO’s secretary, attending a party as his guest. A strange squeaking sound rang out across the set.

What’s that noise? Sia was in the middle of acting out a scene where the secretary checked the picky CEO’s food. She lifted her head when she heard the unfamiliar sound.

“Ahhhh!”

“Sia!”

The moment she raised her head, she heard people screaming. Sia’s eyes locked onto the luxurious chandelier plummeting toward her head. The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was the ghost floating above it.