I Became a Professional Horror Story Cleaner

“Has anyone seen the docent?”

“Did you call for me?”

I had barely finished calling for him when the docent answered from directly behind me.

I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again before remembering why I had called him.

“I want a paid guide. What is that?”

“This work is called [Life and Death]. It exhibits the process of extracting, breaking down, and weaving the elements that make up the human body, such as blood vessels, nerves, muscles, and ligaments.”

So that shredder in the back did exactly what I had imagined.

“[Life and Death] activates once every twenty-four hours and operates for six hours.”

“Is it safe when it isn’t operating?”

“What do you mean by safe?”

A chill immediately ran down my spine.

Of course.

There was no way this bastard even possessed the concept of ‘safety.’

Jeong Dohan abruptly wrapped an arm around my neck and pulled me away from the docent before answering in my place.

“Hahaha, he misspoke. Don’t mind him!”

“…….”

Instead of answering, the docent merely raised his cheekbones.

Had that been a smile?

“If he said it activates once every twenty-four hours, that means as long as it isn’t operating, like now, it shouldn’t move.”

“And it also means that a person entering isn’t the trigger.”

The twins, who had entered and exited Horror Stories countless times and technically had more experience than I did, quickly extracted the essential information from the docent’s words.

“Either way, we don’t have time to hesitate. Let’s go now.”

I had to catch up to the black hand before it entered Exhibition Hall 2 and got even farther away.

“……The floor is really slippery. Be careful.”

“Yeah.”

I had been wondering what those soft, yellowish masses scattered across the floor along with the blood were.

They seemed to be human fat.

Those disgusting lumps of fat gave off a horrible smell and had made the floor excessively slippery.

“That fabric behind the loom. It’s definitely made from people, right?”

“Probably.”

“If it weren’t made from people, it’s so pretty that I’d actually want to buy it.”

“Hyung, stop talking nonsense.”

“I agree with―.”

What was that?

Something caught around my ankle, and before I could check it, I felt as though it had snapped.

Jeong Dohyeon, who was walking behind me, asked.

“Why did you stop?”

“It’s nothing. I think I just imagined it.”

Clack.

It was a dull sound, like a piece of wood being pulled taut and locked into place.

“Was I the only one who heard that?”

“No. I heard it too. It sounds like something just activated…….”

The docent’s explanation, from where he remained outside the exhibition area, cut through the frozen air.

“[Life and Death] activates immediately when one of the threads currently being processed breaks.”

Thread?

I slowly lowered my gaze toward my feet.

There was an extremely, extremely thin translucent strand there that appeared to be a blood vessel.

Say that earlier, you damn bastard.

Clack, clack, clack.

[Life and Death] began operating.

The ivory-colored crossbeam that had remained motionless until then began moving up and down, while the stationary fabric started advancing, being woven one line at a time.

“……Hanmu.”

Jeong Dohan called me in a grave voice.

Because I had screwed up?

Shit.

“Sorry. I should’ve paid more attention―.”

“I broke one too. Honestly, I thought it wasn’t anything important and just kept walking.”

He tried to smile awkwardly, but his voice trembled slightly.

There was something like what I had broken at Jeong Dohan’s feet as well.

If he hadn’t told me, I never would have known.

“……Let’s call it even.”

“I didn’t make any mistakes.”

Jeong Dohyeon protested from behind me.

Maybe I should have apologized to him instead of Jeong Dohan.

But when I turned my head……

Jeong Dohyeon was no longer there.

“?!”

“Why is this happening to me when I’m the only one who didn’t make any mistakes?!”

A bundle of threads woven from blood vessels, nerves, and tendons had wrapped around Jeong Dohyeon’s ankle and was dragging him away.

Jeong Dohyeon practically slammed into the floor and began being dragged along, leaving marks from his fingers across the blood-covered floor.

“Jeong Dohyeon! Hanmu, give me a knife, scissors, anything!”

“I’m a cleaner, not a street vendor!”

Did I have anything capable of cutting those threads?

Anything at all.

Whoosh!

[Life and Death] was greedy.

The threads extending from several spools raised above the loom wrapped not only around Jeong Dohyeon, but also around Jeong Dohan’s feet and mine.

When I fell, my head struck the floor and was mercilessly dragged across it.

Someone else’s half-congealed blood and fat smeared all over my face, leaving a disgusting taste inside my mouth.

Clack, clack, clack!

To make our situation even worse, our destination wasn’t simply the spools.

“First, we break down the human. This is the process through which unnecessary skin, flesh, and blood are separated.”

Unlike the docent’s calm explanation, the gears of the shredder connected to the spools spun frantically.

The closer we got, the more clearly I could make out its structure.

The frame was made of tibias.

The shredding teeth were human teeth.

And the belts driving the gears were tendons.

They hadn’t even completely cleaned away the remains of the previous victims.

There were still strands of hair, scraps of fabric torn from clothing, adipose tissue, and blood in the opening of the shredder.

“Isn’t that dismembering rather than separating?! It looks like there won’t even be any bones left!”

“Urgh, that’s probably the whole damn purpose of this machine!”

Jeong Dohyeon, who was being dragged much farther ahead of us, looked like he was about to be sucked into the shredder.

“Urgh……!”

Grab.

However, Jeong Dohyeon somehow managed to grab onto the edge of one of the exhibition platforms with both hands, which weren’t restrained by the threads.

Creeeak…….

The spool, unable to wind the thread any farther, exerted even more force as it pulled on Jeong Dohyeon’s ankle.

“Jeong Dohyeon! Hold on a little longer!”

“You’re the one telling me that?! You know I can’t hold on for long!!”

“Hanmu, give me that! The thing you used to cut the back of your hand!”

“The scraper?”

I could give it to him if he wanted it, but that thing wasn’t designed to cut things.

As best I could, I rummaged through the bag and tossed Jeong Dohan the scraper I kept in the front pocket.

“We can’t give up without trying!”

After receiving the scraper, Jeong Dohan managed to force himself to his feet despite still being dragged along.

The fact that he could stay on his feet on such a slippery floor……

His physical reflexes were absurd.

‘What is he planning to do?’

He jumped toward the center, where the shredder and loom were located.

Ah.

Was he planning to do something directly to the spools?

It wasn’t a bad idea.

Whether he cut the threads wound around the posts or destroyed the spools themselves, they should lose the force pulling us.

However, the spools performed much better than we had imagined.

Snap!

The moment the thread tied around Jeong Dohan’s ankle went slack, the spool began spinning rapidly and dragged him toward the shredder.

“Hyung!”

“Shit……!”

Damn it.

I couldn’t watch.

Just as I was about to squeeze my eyes shut, Jeong Dohan’s foot caught on the lower structure of the shredder with a Thud.

“See? I’m alive.”

“If you’re going to die, please do it somewhere I can’t see you!”

“What a way to talk.”

Jeong Dohan was precariously clinging right at the entrance of the shredder, which was spinning at a terrifying speed, preventing himself from being completely sucked in by the momentum.

‘How can he say ‘I’m alive’ in a situation like this?’

Despite his confident words, Jeong Dohan’s completely pale face was covered in cold sweat that poured down like rain.

Even so, he readjusted his grip on the scraper he was still holding.

“It was all part of the plan. Trust your hyung!”

Jeong Dohan began cutting at the threads wound around the spool above his head.

He moved the scraper back and forth like a saw, trying to generate friction as quickly as possible.

‘Will he be okay?’

I held onto the raised edge between the exhibition platform and the floor, resisting in a posture similar to Jeong Dohyeon’s as I breathed heavily.

“Dohyeon. Your brother doesn’t inspire much confidence, does he?”

“Right now, I’m a little more worried about my arm than my brother…….”

Jeong Dohyeon’s left arm was visibly trembling.

Considering he barely had any muscle in that arm, it was already impressive that he could keep holding on.

Could he endure until Jeong Dohan managed to cut through all those threads using a tool that wasn’t even designed for it?

“I don’t feel comfortable with this. I’ll go.”

Tap!

The moment I let go and pushed myself off the floor, the spool began spinning rapidly and pulled on my leg.

‘I knew this would happen!’

I gritted my teeth, stretched out one hand, and grabbed the loom’s crossbeam.

The moment I managed to stop the movement of the piece that had been tirelessly weaving the fabric, I shoved the foot bound by the threads into one of the gaps and wedged it firmly in place.

That way, the harder the spool pulled, the greater the pressure from the crossbeam would become, and my foot wouldn’t be able to slip free.

‘Though it’d be another story if it breaks my ankle in the process.’

The crossbeam, which looked as though it had been carved from human bones, pressed brutally against my ankle.

Beside me, Jeong Dohan, who was still hanging from the shredder, turned toward me.

“Why did you come all the way over here?!”

“Urgh……. Because I don’t trust you.”

“What?!”

“That isn’t cutting through, is it?”

Now that I was close, I could see it clearly.

The threads of [Life and Death] were made from human tissue from which the bodily fluids had been partially removed.

Although the fat had been separated and the blood drained, they were still slippery and damp.

No matter how new it was, it was obvious that a scraper whose edge had never been sharpened wouldn’t be able to cut through them.

‘If we try to ‘cut’ them, it’ll be impossible.’

I reached toward the bag hanging from my waist and shouted to Jeong Dohan.

“Dohan, cover your eyes and move as far away as you can.”

“Your eyes?!”

“And hold your breath for a bit.”

I opened the cap of a container resembling a white plastic bottle.

The label read.

[Drain Pipe Cleaner]

‘I’ve never used a concentration this high without diluting it!’

I covered my eyes with the arm holding the cap and sprayed the cleaner onto the spool.

Hissss!!

The moment the concentrated cleaner hit it, a murky yellow cloud of burning vapor erupted with a violent hiss, like meat being placed on a red-hot grill.

“Aaagh! What the hell is this?!”

Jeong Dohan, who had covered his eyes, flinched and twisted his body when the wave of heat struck him.

The chemical reaction had begun in the areas hit by the cleaner.

White foam began boiling and bubbling over the spools made from human blood vessels, tendons, and adipose tissue.

Drip, snap.

The tough muscle fibers, which resembled steel cables, lost their consistency until they took on the viscosity of yellowish mucus and began snapping and falling one after another.

And not just the spools.

Even the tendon belts that drove the shredder’s gears began losing their shape, unable to withstand the boiling foam.

The opening of the shredder, which had been spinning with a deafening roar, gradually slowed until it stopped completely.

Clunk, creeeak…….

As the connections between its components gave way, the entire structure of [Life and Death] collapsed with unpleasant breaking sounds.

Only then did the threads that had been mercilessly pulling on our ankles lose their strength.

“Agh, that’s hot!”

“……Maybe I should’ve told you to cover your hands too.”

As if he couldn’t stand it any longer, Jeong Dohan jumped down from the shredder.

His face was completely red from taking that toxic cloud practically head-on.

He probably hadn’t managed to avoid the burns entirely.

‘It doesn’t seem broken……. Though it hurts a little.’

I pulled my ankle out of the loom, which had already lost all its strength, and climbed down.

Jeong Dohan was still coughing because of the acrid fumes.

“Cough, what the hell did you use?”

“Drain cleaner…… To be exact, sodium hydroxide. It’s also known as caustic soda.”

“Caustic soda? The stuff they used to use for washing clothes?”

“Yes. You only need to know that it’s extremely effective at dissolving fats and proteins.”

What I had used was caustic soda at a concentration of no less than 50%.

It was a product practically sold only for industrial use and one that, even at my old job, we were required to dilute and handle while wearing protective equipment.

‘It’s definitely effective.’

My forehead, cheeks, and hands, which had been exposed to the hot vapor, burned.

I wiped the back of my hand, completely reddened, swollen, and slippery, against my clothes and looked at the loom and shredder, now completely motionless.

They probably never imagined that constructing the essential parts of the work using the fats and proteins that make up the human body would end up becoming its weakness.

Though, come to think of it, who would expect someone to show up at an exhibition carrying drain cleaner?

“Wow……. Hanmu, you really are a cleaner.”

“Thanks for the compliment?”

Jeong Dohyeon, finally freed, staggered over to us.

He also seemed unharmed, but for some reason, he had an uneasy expression.

“Hyung, Hanmu. By any chance……. have you seen the docent?”

“Wasn’t he outside?”

I remembered seeing him outside the boundaries of [Life and Death], near the place where we had emerged from the [Wall of Faces], while he explained the work.

But the docent was no longer there.

Had he left?

“……A work of art.”

“Hmm?”

We all turned our heads toward [Life and Death], now destroyed.

A thin, wrinkle-free hand stroked the collapsed spools and the shredder that spun uselessly, twitching as though it were malfunctioning.

“A work of art, must be, treated with care, work, art, with care, with care, must be treated, work, art.”

“……I have a bad feeling.”

“Ah.”

Like the second hand of a clock, the docent’s neck began gradually rotating at grotesque angles.

The joints of the body that until then had remained perfectly contained within that suit began bending freely in impossible directions.

Creeeak.

The docent bent his spine backward and planted his hands on the floor.

We didn’t have to look very hard to understand why he had ‘malfunctioned’ like that.

“It wasn’t intentional, but it looks like we destroyed one of the exhibition’s works.”

“Without, artistic value, things, disposal, dispose.”

“Uwaaah, run!”

Tap tap tap tap tap!

Completely inverted, the docent began frantically crawling toward us using only his fingers and toes.

“Exhibition Hall 2! It’s this way!”

“How the hell can he run that fast on all fours?!”

“Dispose! Dispose! Dispose! Dispose!”

My head filled with the certainty that if that thing caught us, we would probably end up wishing it had simply turned us into part of an artwork.

“Faster! It’s catching up!”

Without needing to say anything else, the three of us sprinted toward the corridor leading to Exhibition Hall 2.