His blood turns to ice in his veins, and he stops dead in his tracks.

They are the prisoners.

Their bodies hang from the wall, rotting under the sun. Their gaping mouths have become nests for flies.

Felix collapses to his knees. He vomits immediately, his hands sinking into the dirt as the guard strikes him with the baton, yelling at him to get up. But the guard’s voice is a distant screech in Felix’s ears. They’re dead. All of them. They were taken and hanged like animals. Left there to decay. Where is the pity? Where is the respect? They were people. People.

A fresh wave of nausea grips him, but there’s nothing left to vomit. Only pain remains.

The thought of having slept with Hyunjin—of having even considered the possibility of loving someone complicit in all this—makes him sick. He had underestimated everything. Everything. This place, the madness of these people, all of it. This isn’t a game. It’s not a perversion, not a punishment, not anything he could have ever imagined. It’s something far bigger, infinitely more monstrous. The fact that he still can’t comprehend what it is only makes it more terrifying.

Hyunjin slams the guard’s baton to the ground, the metallic clang echoing for a moment. Felix’s eyes are wide, his body frozen in shock. Everything moves in slow motion. Hyunjin wraps an arm around his shoulders, and God, Felix wishes he hadn’t. He wishes Hyunjin wouldn’t touch him, wouldn’t even be near him. But in this moment, he can’t even stand, let alone push him away.

Hyunjin’s father steps in front of them, his figure casting a shadow over Felix, who stares blankly at the ground, his eyes fixed on the puddle of his own vomit.

“If God had shown mercy to my family,” the man begins, his voice cold and deliberate, “you would have escaped when you had the chance. And now you’d be up there, hanging on that wall. But it seems our Lord has different plans for us. He wants this burden to dig our grave.”

“Stop it,” Hyunjin snaps, his voice almost a snarl.

His father clicks his tongue, and Felix swears he can hear a hint of amusement in the sound. What kind of person could act like this in a moment like this? In front of a row of corpses, no less?

“Get him up. The smell of vomit is making me nauseous.”

“We shouldn’t have brought him here,” Hyunjin retorts, pulling Felix closer. Felix’s head lolls against Hyunjin’s chest, his mind completely absent. It’s as if his soul has left his body. He’s distant again, observing from afar, from a place where he can’t be hurt, where nothing hurts.

“It’s good that he sees,” the father says, his tone unyielding. “It’s good that he understands how lucky he is. He should have been hanging on that wall long ago—long before he killed Ivan. And you’ll see. You’ll see who will pay the price for your mercy.”“It’s not mercy,” Hyunjin says, his voice sharp. “I take responsibility for my decisions.”

“And where do those decisions lead?” his father challenges, his tone dripping with disdain.

“To kneeling in the dirt, in vomit, for a beast that’s worth less than a tenth of your piss?”

“Did you come here to lecture me? I thought you were here to support me,” Hyunjin snaps as he hauls Felix to his feet. Felix stumbles against him, his body limp. He hears the words, registers them, but they don’t fully sink in. They could be talking about anything right now, and yet all Felix can think about are those dark, hollow faces with glassy eyes staring toward the mirrored building.

Felix’s legs move on autopilot as they walk. He notices nothing. His mind replays the image of the open cell and the temptation to escape. He had been so close… he had even envied those who might have made it, who might have freed themselves. He had wondered if he’d made a mistake by staying. Was he stupid? A coward? Spineless, completely subdued by the system that wanted him enslaved. And now… now he realizes that his lack of a spine might be the only reason he’s still alive. But what’s the point of living if all he can do to keep breathing is crawl? To be humiliated over and over, as if he truly is the despicable creature others make him out to be? What did he do to be hated so much? What crime condemned him to such a wretched fate? What threw him into this deep circle of hell?

He doesn’t even know how long they walk. He only realizes they’ve entered another building when the surroundings change. It’s vast, with marble everywhere, people in robes scurrying left and right like frantic ants. In the center of the lobby stands a massive statue of a woman holding golden scales in her left hand. It doesn’t take a genius to understand what it represents. The Goddess of Justice doesn’t appear in many places.

Felix realizes instantly where they are.

He almost laughs.

He wants to collapse to the ground and laugh until his throat burns.

How is this possible, after what he’s seen?

How can something like this be real and not just a product of his madness?

“We’re in a courthouse,” he murmurs, his voice hoarse but steady.

Hyunjin tightens his grip on Felix as they walk, using the excuse of keeping him upright. Felix doesn’t know how to feel when he notices the boy seems agitated.

“Isn’t this what you wanted? A fair trial,” Hyunjin says, trying to sound ironic, but it falls flat. Neither of them is in the mood for laughter right now.

How can justice exist in a place like this? And who decides what’s right and what’s wrong? The same court that decreed desperate fugitives deserved to be hanged? Left to rot in the sun?

Felix wonders what will be decided for him, the one who killed one of their own.

The doors to courtroom number six open before his eyes.

Something stirs deep in his stomach.

That room…

Felix remembers it.

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