After indulging in a bowl of mud, I follow the enchanting melody, leading me to a room illuminated by various lights, adorned with vibrant worms. Among them, my Wig stands out. A synchronized group of six worms dances above, tapping their tails playfully on their heads. The surrounding worms scatter light, turning the room into a kaleidoscope of colors. The green worm stands out among the spectators. Our eyes meet, and from a distance, it gracefully bows to me.

I approach the green worm, requesting it to lower its head for me to mount. With a satisfied nod, it complies, and I stand proudly on its back. I exclaim, "What's the music here? I desire royal tunes, music of majesty and grandeur. And I grant you permission to dance around your king!" The group of six worms exchange glances, tails swaying in anticipation, and in unison, they cheer, "Hooray!" Forming a ring around me, they toss the king into the air with heads held high. I command a gentle descent. The six worms spin around me, leaping to the rhythm. They lift my tail and toss me into the golden cage at the room's center. Their muffled words envelop me as they spin the cage. I playfully tap the other worms' heads with my tail through the bars. I sense the sun's rotation within the golden cage. Four worms, holding the cage like a fork, place it against their noses and spin it. I grab a cage bar tightly to avoid being thrown off. A cry of pain echoes as one worm's seam opens, spilling blood onto the others. Amid their exuberance, they smear the bloodied one against the floor. I fall to the ground from the tips of the worms' noses, landing in a corner.

***

I wake up to the loudspeaker announcing, "Get ready to take the capsules." The sun rotates around my head. Leaving the room is the last thing I desire. I have no intention of consuming those capsules. They don't bring a good feeling. Yesterday, I witnessed the capsules bringing pain and tremors to the worms' bodies. With those capsules, the old man knows the havoc he's wreaking upon the worms!

"Sir, I await your permission for a meeting with you."

"Enter the room. You shouldn't be here. Why are your scales tightly coiled?"

"It's nothing, my lord! Whatever comes from my king is welcome! I just wanted to guide you for the capsule ceremony."

"I don't understand what you're saying! And you shouldn't have accompanied me! Go and don't tell anyone I'm here."

"All these actions are for your well-being, my lord."

"I command you to leave. Go quickly before anyone notices. If someone finds out, I'll punish you."

"I'm nervous. How will I defend myself if they come after me? Shortly after the departure of the green light worm, both nurses enter the room."

"One of the nurses says, 'If you don't come willingly, we'll have to inject this syringe forcibly and take you away. Make your decision.'"

I curl up on the bed and hide my face.

"One of the nurses says, 'It's your fault... open your mouth. I'll administer the syringe.'"

"One of the nurses tries to approach. I pull the surroundings under my tail, creating a circle around the nurse's neck. I'm not sure when the other nurse went to the other bed. She presses my head against her arm, and my tail is released from around the first nurse's neck. The first nurse takes the vile syringe from the other and administers it until the last drop on my tongue, then releases me. I gradually become numb. I see and feel everything, but I can't move myself. One of the nurses places me on her shoulders. From the corridor, we walk straight into the preparation hall for capsule consumption. The creams are lined up in four rows of three. In the first row, I'm placed, without a cream on either side, on one of the squares on the floor. The light brightens under my body. I'm the first to be given the capsule. A nurse in a short-sleeved white gown stands in front of me. The wound on her hand from my bite has healed but not completely. Two nurses open my mouth, and one of them inserts the capsule all the way down my throat. The nurses tilt my head completely upright for the capsule to enter my body. The injured nurse says, 'You're the first this time! Your procedure takes longer than others, and you surely tire us out.'"

My eyes widen and fixate. It's as if light is shocking into my body, and my entire frame trembles. The floor slips away between my scales. The numbness in my body becomes faint. Clinging to the pain, I press against the floor, and the injured nurse inserts a thorny rod into my mouth. As the thorns hit my mouth, I'm forced to exert all my effort to open my mouth as much as I can, and they forcefully extract the capsule from my body. Both nurses give capsules to each worm, standing until the last moment above each worm to record the results of the capsule.

A chilling scream echoes from a terrified worm. From the scream, a piece of yellowed wall plaster falls onto the heads of the worms and nurses. The injured nurse asks, "Whose scream was that?" Another nurse points to Freckle green worm and says, "In the end, this worm returned his oil. Now what should we do?"

With the progress he had made, it was time. They had long requested a new priest. Okay, we quickly move on to the rest of the worms. Then, we'll attend to him.

"Priest!" I look at the Freckle green worm from a distance. He is completely out of control and unaware of his surroundings. He has oil sprayed everywhere. The injured nurse takes the capsules from another nurse and heads towards the old man's room. The old man's room is opposite the capsule consumption hall. Amidst the cries and writhing of the worms, I can't understand what the purple-shoed nurse is saying to the other nurse from the floor! I rise from the floor. All the worms have already stood up faster than their usual pace

. I head towards the old woman's room. The old woman's room is next to the old man's room with purple shoes. The old woman just wants to sleep.

"I have a question. Please rest a bit later."

"It must be about that worm that returned the oil, right?"

"Exactly! The nurse was saying something about a priest! Did I hear it correctly? What does it mean?"

"You ask from an appropriate person, but it's always intrusive. Here, in these five years, anyone who had these questions would come to me. I still couldn't make a worm priest after five years. I think the weaker someone is, the sooner they become a worm priest. But that cream responded to becoming spiritual after a year. All these procedures and capsules they give you here are not for your health; they are for your enlightenment. I mean, if they care about your health, it's for your enlightenment. Do you understand? You have to understand; I won't repeat it. Everyone who is willing to commit suicide for the sake of the sun brings them here as salvation from death. After that, when the capsules head toward construction and obtain their specific light, they go to the next stage! If, like that worm, one becomes completely oil-sprayed and loses oneself, it means they go to the stage of becoming a worm priest. You have to oil-spray your entire body to make sure you've erased yourself and become fully prepared to invite people to the sun. In these five years, I've seen creams that, when they went down from those stairs at the end of the hall to the nurse's little room, never came back. Or if they came back, they came with dazzling light.

The nurse skewers the freckled worm on a pole and places it in the center of the half-column. The worm has turned vertical. The nurse, with an iron protective mask on her face, heats the column with a blowtorch. The eyes of the macchiato-colored worm open wide, flooding the room with even more intense light than before. I lose control of myself, drawn towards the light like a dog wagging its tail upon seeing its owner. I want the sun to see me. The nurse with the wound places her foot on my tail, and I can't descend the brick room's stairs. She says, "This time, your punishment is inevitable." She crushes my tail under her foot.

The old man tells the nurse, "Leave it. Let him be curious. Perhaps witnessing this scene will curb his rebelliousness. Your grandfather was overjoyed when he learned we are willing to save you and guide you towards your desires and the sun."

The nurse with the wound drags me by the front of the staircase. Another nurse, along with the worm, comes up with a pulled pole. The green worm still has light. I am pulled towards the green worm with pressure. I fall under the nurse's foot, and green light emanates from me. The green light of the worm becomes weaker than before. The nurse pushes the green worm away from me. The man with purple shoes jumps up and down in joy, clapping his hands. The old man's actions confuse me. The more I look at him, the more I realize he is different from the others.

He says, "He is an astonishing specimen. He absorbs light from others and radiates it to himself. Please remove your foot from this peculiar specimen. Today is such a joyful day! We have a worm priest and a newly discovered specimen!"

He casually pulls my purple shoes off my gray hat, chuckles, and leaves. I can't feel anything good. 

to be continued...