A Fortune-telling Princess

“Father!”

“......”

“P-Please, spare me!”

Tears poured without stopping from the eyes of a girl who looked to be in her late teens.

Her pleading was pitiful, yet no trace of feeling showed on the man’s face. No—there was one.

Contempt.

A cold, withering contempt aimed squarely at her.

“Take her away.”

“Father!”

At his command, several knights stepped forward and seized her.

Even as she was dragged across the floor, she kept begging for her life. No one listened.

Not just the knights—everyone watching her wore the same expression: derision, disgust.

Moments later, someone new approached her: a young man who looked barely into his twenties.

“Brother!”

His eyes were just as cold as the others.

“I—I was wrong!”

“......”

He stared at her as she knelt so low her forehead nearly struck the ground. Then he drew the sword at his hip.

“Sp—!”

Thud.

Holy—!

Sia’s eyes flew open and her hand shot to her chest. Her heart pounded hard—alive—and a shaky breath of relief escaped her.

At least it wasn’t the guillotine this time.

Was that supposed to be a comfort? She let out a short sigh, remembering the first time this had happened.

Was I five back then?

The day it all began. The day she first saw a ghost.

Mom...

Her mother had died at her side.

Since the day she watched her mother look at her—part sorrow, part release—and fade away, Sia had been able to see others like her.

Fine.

Seeing ghosts was one thing.

But what is this, really?

This phenomenon had started around the same time. Not long after her mother died, it came to her for the first time.

It isn’t a dream.

It wasn’t sleep. Sometimes when she merely closed her eyes, it would happen—a different world unfurling, as if she were pulled straight into it.

The very first image I saw was...

Thud.

A blade sliding in. Just like a moment ago.

My heart...

No—the girl’s heart.

As if she’d slipped into the girl’s body, the sensation was so vivid it left Sia speechless even after she woke.

That was the beginning.

Ever since, whenever she closed her eyes she was sometimes swallowed by that strange world—forced to live the same life over and over.

There, Sia was always the same woman: a nobleman’s daughter from what looked like the Middle Ages. In a word, that woman was—

Dark.

Dreary.

She rarely spoke, her face perpetually shadowed with gloom. Yet her aristocratic pride was suffocatingly high; she could not bear to be ignored or slighted.

At first Sia found her infuriating—the way she screamed when angry and lashed out at others. And that woman’s ending was always the same.

Death.

By the hand of the man who seemed to be her brother.

By the hand of the one who seemed to be her father.

Or dragged to the guillotine and beheaded before a crowd.

And that feeling...

Horrific.

Sia had watched it since she was five—for more than twenty years now—yet the moment of death never became familiar.

Please, stop dying. Live differently for once.

As the woman died and the world rewound so she could live the same life again, Sia’s irritation had long since curdled into pity.

Maybe because each time felt like possession, as if she were inside the woman’s body, watching her life from within? Somehow, Sia found herself wanting the woman to be happy. And yet—

Thud.

She died again today.

Damn it...

Sia had closed her eyes for a brief rest between takes and gotten sucked back in. She swore under her breath.

Her mood was ruined—filthy.

“Sia, are you okay? Another nightmare?”

Jihyun had returned to set a few days ago after finishing the last of her grandmother’s things. She had found nearly thirty million won buried beneath the persimmon tree, and she’d been teary-eyed with thanks ever since.

She said she cried for days, thinking about how her grandmother—who had so little—had saved all that money for her and never spent a won.

Now steadier, Jihyun rushed over, alarmed. Sia, who had seemed fast asleep, was suddenly drenched in cold sweat.

“...A nightmare.”

“Look at you. I’ll fix your makeup.”

“Okay.”

With a short sigh, Sia let the familiar touch of Jihyun’s hands soothe her and closed her eyes again.

“—!”

But she had to snap them open at once.

“Sia?”

“......”

“What’s wrong?”

Her face had gone even paler. Jihyun stared at her, flustered, but Sia couldn’t form an answer.

W-What?

The instant she closed her eyes, the scene picked up right where it left off.

That had never happened.

Usually, once it came on, it wouldn’t return for days. But now, as soon as she shut her eyes, she was there again.

Was it because the woman had died?

It was the first time Sia had seen that world without slipping into the woman’s body.

The corpse bled out on the floor—and locked eyes with Sia.

“......”

The woman’s gaze, soaked with resentment and sorrow, froze Sia in place.

****

“Hey... Sia.”

“What.”

“Get some sleep.”

“I’m fine.”

I’m not.

Manager Hyunseok forced a crooked smile. The sight of Sia sitting bolt upright with bloodshot eyes was downright eerie.

He’d been telling her to ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) nap ever since they got back to the green room, but every time he said it she only widened her eyes more, as if daring sleep to try her.

Her eyes were big to begin with. Staring like that made her look almost spectral.

“We’ve got over an hour before the next scene.”

“I know.”

“Just sleep a little.”

“I said I’m fine.”

He tried once more, then gave up with a small shake of his head. What was with her today?

I want to close my eyes, too.

I want to sleep!

Sia knew as well as anyone how vital those scraps of rest were during an all-night shoot.

But...

Today, she couldn’t. She exhaled softly, recalling the woman’s final stare.

I’d rather play jacks with headless ghosts.

She never wanted to see that again.

She’d witnessed the grotesque through countless ghosts, but she had never felt fear.

She knew better than most that unless you panicked, there were very few cases where a ghost could physically harm a living person.

And yet...

Why?

The moment she met the dead woman’s eyes—those eyes brimming with blame—a chill rippled over her skin.

It wasn’t as if this was the first time she’d seen the woman die.

Something was different today.

It felt like the gaze was fixed on her.

Sia never wanted to see it again. Her heart hammered, and it felt as if something sharp were pricking her skin all over.

Pity?

No.

The woman’s life was suffocating and sad, yes, but not enough to break Sia’s heart.

She’d seen the woman die for over twenty years—no, shared it. Why would she suddenly feel that way now?

Only the final look—those eyes—stayed with her, refusing to fade.

Damn it...

She should have lived better.

“Three family members were found dead in an apartment in Daegu. Mr. A, under severe financial strain, killed his wife and six-year-old son before taking his own life...”

“God...”

The news droned from the TV in the green room, and everyone’s gaze turned to the report.

Hyunseok clicked his tongue, his face tight with sympathy.

“......”

Sia looked up as well. The screen showed a cramped basement room where the family had died—poverty etched into every surface.

“How desperate must he have been... tch.”

“If you’re desperate, does that make it okay?”

“Huh?”

He’d muttered without thinking; her quiet voice cut across the room and made him flinch.

“Then he should have died alone.”

Sia’s eyes stayed on the TV, her tone flat. But Hyunseok remembered something and couldn’t hide his unease.

“Uh, Sia...”

“What did that child do wrong?”

“R-Right.”

He wanted to turn off the TV, but the damned remote was nowhere.

“Well, at least that so-called father died too.”

Sia gave a thin, humorless smile. Hyunseok yanked the power cord out of the wall and turned back to her, awkward. She kept staring at the blank screen.

“Sia, are you—”

“Ms. Sia, we’re ready for you.”

A crew member stuck their head in the door just as Hyunseok tried again.

Whew.

Sia finally tore her gaze from the dark screen and rose to her feet.

This feels wrong...

She stifled yet another sigh and headed for the set.

Her luck was rotten today. Maybe it was all those years with ghosts—sometimes she just knew. The kind of day when things tangle, when something—big or small—will go wrong.

On days like this, she should’ve gone straight home and slept.

“Are you both ready?”

It was a romantic comedy about a handsome, competent young CEO and his secretary. Nothing difficult. She was to attend a party at his side and look after him with efficient care.

Creak—

Creak?

They were filming a bit where the picky lead rejects certain foods, and Sia looked up at a strange sound.

“Aaah!”

“Sia!”

Screams cascaded around her the moment she lifted her head.

“—!”

Above her: a massive chandelier plummeting—

and clinging to it, a ghost.

Sia blacked out.