svfedotov

[svfedotov]

Struggle in Seattle -Anxiety and The Big City

It was two in the morning and I was riding in the back of an ambulance while crying at the top of my lungs. 

As standard, I was loaded in head first, feet to the doors while clutching my Soviet-Era teddy bear that has accompanied me across the globe since I was three. He was a sturdy toy, unnamed but well loved, covered in coarse gray fur and, as I liked to joke, probably stuffed with twigs and radioactive material. For some unknown reason, my brother and I used to fight over him frequently as children to the point where my mother had to resew his head back on at least a handful of time. But now, he was with me, and he was my only anchor to the earth that I had left at least a week prior and just recently became lucid enough to make the toughest decision of my life. I was going into voluntary psychiatric hospitalization and I was going alone.

Oh, and it was TWO IN THE FUCKING MORNING!

The ambulance ride reminded me of being trapped in the eye of a tornado and with no way out except to brave the storm and pray I got out alive. The outside swirled by in dark flashes, only briefly illuminated by the passing of outside lights that immediately faded back as we drove past them. I was accompanied by two first responders, one driving and the other, a young, thickly set guy no more than 27, sat in the back with me and calmly talked me through the trip. He made no reaction to my cries of terror, but simply engaged in talking, keeping me focused on random topics until they could deliver me to the arms of the mental health ward in Overlake Hospital. Jokes on him though, I cried the entire ride and even more when we finally arrived at the hospital doors. If my anxiety didn’t stop for me, it sure as shit wasn’t going to stop for him. 

Let me stop right here and tell you why I was going to the mental health ward. I had been having non-stop anxiety attacks for a week after battling a crippling flu the week prior. I was entirely nonsensical; frequently crying, moaning, and screaming while completely neglecting my personal health and hygiene. I didn’t eat, I didn’t shower, I didn’t go to work or engage in hobbies, I simply cried until I was exhausted enough to sleep and slept for ten to twelve hours a night with frequent naps in the day. It was the second time in my life my mental health had paralyzed my life so severely and the first time I had to be hospitalized for it. Correction, I chose to be hospitalized for it, something that I had to keep reminding myself over the next three days. Especially when at the end of three days, I wouldn’t be going home, but to a new house in Seattle. I was hospitalized the weekend I was supposed to move thirty miles away. Some say that the stress of the move is what might have broken me but at the time, I couldn’t really say what it was. Heck, I couldn’t say much of anything that didn’t sound like a garbled scream anyway.

Anyway, so there I was, two in the goddamn morning, rolled into the mental health ward, clutching a teddy bear with my purse at my feet and nothing but the clothes on my back. My husband would later tell me that letting me go and admitting to himself that he couldn’t help me anymore was one of the hardest things he ever had to do, but he was relieved that I was going somewhere safer than the house. Somewhere where I could really focus on getting better and just tap out of the real world. The ward itself was relatively nice and consisted of a donut shaped hallway with rooms on the exterior and a shared hang-out room in the middle with puzzles, coloring pages, and a TV behind a plexiglass box. Very One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest as one of my visitors pointed out later. Of course, the tour was done as soon as I arrived because when is a better time to show a person their new surroundings then when they are a sleep deprived, raving lunatic? Thankfully, it was a short tour and I quickly got my vitals checked and allowed to lay down as they did my intake before, blessedly, passing out in a haze of sweet relief. 

I don’t remember much that night, but I do remember instinctively getting up two hours later and trying to run off. No terror or reason, just escape. Luckily, I got startled into lucidity when one of the nurses asked where I was going to which I simply furrowed my brow and turned back around. I was not escaping tonight.

Also, I’m pretty sure a vampire came in and stole my blood at five in the morning. They said it was nurse but I have my doubts. 

The three days slowly but surely crawled by. The first day was the hardest, of course. Getting used to the new situation, facing being alone during an unstable mental health situation, trying to get back to eating and cleaning myself of my own accord while dealing with the overwhelming shame and guilt of being in there in the first place. It was a lot! On top of that, I had to go to group therapy classes and just try to get it together. Fortunately, I was not alone. The mental health ward is very popular this time of year. 

Everyone there had their own reason for putting themselves in there. Some had been entertaining suicide and didn’t want to go down that path, some had been struggling with bi-polarism and alcohol and taken a turn for the worst, while others were dealing with an anxiety related eating disorder or an un-diagnosed personality disorders or a co-morbid relationship with mental struggle and drug addiction. Some, of course, simply crashed into the floor of life and couldn’t get back up on their own. Two in particular stand out to me, not for their overwhelming problems or strangeness, but for the help that they had given me simply being present and our ability to share our feelings. I shall call them O and K. 

O was a wonderful, non-binary person who had struggled with homelessness and a series of strained relationships accumulating in a living situation consisting of them, their former lover, and former/current best friend all in a studio apartment on Capitol Hill. Though I couldn’t truly say what the circumstances were that had driven them to strongly consider jumping in front of a train but I can say that merely thought of them wanting to do it was enough to shock O into taking themselves straight into voluntary psychiatric. K, on the other hand, was a sweet, nerdy girl with a fierce streak of violence and anger that she hid well but wasn’t shy about bringing up. She carried around a set of beautiful pens that she doodled with and had a history of short term institutionalization, so she was a welcome help to my frayed nerves. Much like O, I’m not exactly sure what brought her in, but I was glad to have her. 

Of course, I was also very lucky to have visitors everyday. My husband came on the first day with a change of clothes and words of encouragement, followed by a visit from both my mother and husband the second day. My mother was happy to see me but I could see it was hard for her, probably for both of them, though the relief of me being there painted over any worry. Ultimately, it was good for me to be there. This sentiment was also reflected when my partner Kyle and best friend Whitney came on the last day followed by my other partner Chris and his room-mate Tyler. I was hoarding love like a dragon hordes gold and I wasn’t letting it go. I was very lucky to have the support system I had, something that I took full advantage of by calling everyone I could on the shared phone. I even spoke to my brother who had managed to call upset that I hadn’t phoned him about my condition and to inform me that he loved me and he had diarrhea. You know, all the important things.  

Anyway, I can go on and on about my stay at Overlake. The classes I took, the maddening cat puzzle I worked on, the other patients, the adorable male nurse that made the stay easy on the eyes and the other nurse who was obsessed with Russia’s participation in WW2. I learned a lot and I carried my work folder around for days after I left. I watched the Bumblebee movie which I never thought I do and made friends. I struggled, but ultimately survived. I eventually ate on my own, showered often, brushed my teeth and was even allowed to roam the hospital grounds as long as I checked in with the nurses every half hour. I even full on, guffawed laughed at the goofiest ass clown fish I had ever seen in the lobby that wouldn’t stop humping on the anemones. Seriously, if you ever find yourself in Bellevue, Washington at the Overlake Hospital, check that shit out, it’s hilarious!

The point is, I got better. I wasn’t 100% by any means, but I was out of the worst of it. I was functioning and ready to get a move on as I had bigger fish to fry. 

Seattle and my new home. 

And then the panic attacks came.

[svfedotov]

Punching Nazis for Freedom: Comics VS Fascism

With the world one button away from destruction and hate-rhetoric swarming the streets of America like a million cockroaches, your favorite comic reviewer has decided to do a very special article about the evils of Nazi Fascism through the that wonderful medium of superheroes (and a villain) punching Nazis. It’s no surprise that comics and Nazism have never gotten along, going way back to Captain America slapping the dickens out of Hitler during WW2, and the comic genre hasn’t slowed down since. Superman fought the KKK, Shazam punched Captain Nazi, and Hellboy, well Hellboy just likes punching people with goofy mustaches. With so many wonderful examples, it was hard to narrow it down to only a handful of samples, but hopefully the ones I chose prove that hate not only has no place in our comic books, but no place in America either.

 Punisher: War Journal Vol 2 #6-10 (2007) 

               Punisher is man who takes no shit. Having survived Vietnam, his family being killed, and being hunted by mobsters, he’s a one man hunting machine that’ll see all villains dead at his feet. In War Journal Vol 2, Punisher meets a brand new villain known as Hatemonger, a 6’ 2” slab of beef who preaches white supremacy and looks a bit like Captain America (a fact that sends Punisher to find him and “and shoot that guy in the face.”) Even in the Marvel database, Hatemonger’s occupation is listed as terrorist, another thing that Punisher hates and he who is hated by Punisher feels the sting of the Punishers bullets!

                 As a special treat, I have included two priceless pics of Punisher beating up Nazis. The first is him slamming a Nazi into a cactus full speed and the second, of course, is the kill shot of Hatemonger himself. Classic Punisher.

  Wonder Woman #240 (1978)

                 Oh Wonder Woman. What can’t be said about her that hasn’t been written a thousand times by a thousand talented writers? But did you know that she also punches Nazis? I’m sure you’re not surprised, she did emerge in the 1940’s when the Great War the Second was in full swing and you bet your last yellow onion that she jumped right into kicking some ass for America. In Wonder Woman #240, our heroine dukes it out with mysterious Nazi agent known as Siegfried the Speedster. Oddly enough, this Nazi accidently proves Wonder Woman’s innocence after she stands trial for treason when she was mind-tricked into seeing the American army as Nazi soldiers. So, all’s well that ends well? Either way, check out this pic of her knocking that punk right the fuck out!

 Captain America Comics #1 (1941)

                 You can’t have the name America in your moniker without knocking out a few fascist, so obviously, the very first Captain America comic has him giving the ol’ American Hello to Hitler himself. Hell, the first issue proved so effective in stirring up some pots, that on top of the overwhelming support, his creators Kirby and Simon, even got some serious hate mail, proving that it’s not art until someone threatens you’re life. But death threats aside, Captain America went on to be the symbol of American hope and kept fighting Nazism, fascism, and all things that threatened the American way of life for decades afterwards (current Hydra arc notwithstanding.) Pictured here is the famous first cover itself, complete with a first introduction of his sidekick Bucky, who goes on in his own comics freeing concentration camps.

 Action Comics #59 (1943)

                 Despite its alluring promise of Superman peeling open Nazi tanks like an orange and eating the delicious German fruit inside, Superman doesn’t actually fight Nazis in this issue. In fact, the majority of Action Comics that feature Superman versus The Reich did not have an accompanying story-arc and instead had other heroes out on the war front, as each issue acted more of an anthology than a one-man comic. Action Comics #59 has two war-related stories, one featuring The Three Aces blowing up a Nazi base and the other featuring Americommando delivering the last message of a British spy while managing to blow up one of Mousselines military bases. Still, I chose this cover because one, I thought it was funny, and two, what’s more awesome than an American space alien dismantling tanks to the horror of Nazi soldiers? Nothing, that’s what.

 Every Hellboy Comic Ever

                 Hellboy was born to fight Nazis. Well, he was actually born to take over Hell, but he was also born to fight Nazis. Even his backstory started off with him being called up by Nazi occult leaders only to be adopted by an American doctor and raised to fight those that brought him to Earth. This is what he does. Hell, there were so many issues and so many images to choose from, I almost didn’t know which one to go with! I decided to use this slash page as a representation of his Nazi-kicking powers; Hellboy keeping the world safe with only a fist and a quip. I don’t even know which issue this is from, that’s how much Hellboy loves beating up Nazis! Seriously, go grab one, he’s probably punching one three pages in!

Saga of the Human Torch #3 (1990)

                 Before there was Johnny Storm, the Human Torch was originally a humanoid android created by Carl Burgos in the 1939. Though he only had a handful of comics under his belt before being adapted to his more popular form by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, he has definitely not been forgotten as proven by The Saga of the Human Torch, a 4-issue mini-series released in 1990. The series retells the origin of android Torch and in issues two and three, commences with a hearty Nazi ass-whooping ending in Hitler being set aflame! That’s right, true believers, Hitler set on goddamn fire! Though Hitler asks that his death be kept secret, we know the real story now. It was the Human Torch all along.

 Batman and Captain America (Elseworlds) (1997)

                 If you’ve been around the internet long enough, I’m sure you’ve seen this picture of Joker working with the Red Skull only to immediately turn the tables when finding out his partner was an actual, honest-to-goodness, Nazi. What the picture doesn’t answer is the many questions that surely follow such as: how did Joker and the Red Skull get together despite coming from two different comic companies and when did Joker get so cool? The answer is Elseworlds, a series of DC comics that basically answers every what-if question you ever had, this one being, what-if Captain America and Batman met up in WW2-era Gotham to secretly hunt down the Red Skull? With Red Skulls villainy and Jokers untethered hate (love?) for Batman, it’s no surprise that the two would naturally work together, but Joker will be damned if he’s caught trading hijacking tips with an actual Nazi. As he says, he may be a criminal lunatic, but he’s an American criminal lunatic. Trust me when I tell you, Joker punches the crap out of him.

                                                         **********

                 I’m going to end this article on a special message from Stan Lee himself but I will say this: wherever there is evil, there is hope, and where there is hope, heroes will emerge. Be that hero, stand up and fight.

[svfedotov]

Mukbang: Korean for Eating and Broadcasting (Part 2)

         Se-Yeon gripped her cellphone in her hand but she couldn’t quite bring herself to dial 119. Something about Min-Hee promising to tell her story captured her interest. Perhaps it was the sincerity behind her voice or just Se-Yeon’s own need for a rational explanation, but her fingers froze up as she tore her eyes away from her phone and back onto her computer.

             Min-Hee was still holding the clouded eyeball to the camera as if test her audiences reaction. With a fluid movement, she dropped the eyeball into her mouth and chewed it thoughtfully before making a bitter face.

             “Yuck, it tastes like grizzle.”

            She shook her head playfully and smiled.

   clowns_are_coming:

  Gotta eat everything LOL

      hobitzzz:

    i called the cops! they’re coming to get u!

      RoguePirateParty:

    ugh, ur nasty >:(

      Min-Hee ignored the comments and dug a fingernail into the right cheek, getting herself a large piece. She looked at thoughtfully.

             “His name is Lee Young-Hwan and he was born in 1960.”

             She let out a small sigh as she ate the meat.

             “He is the only son of Lee Sung-Ki and Lee Sook-Ja. He comes from very old money, some sort of linen and cloth company established during the Cheaongye era. As you can imagine, as he was growing up, he didn’t lack for anything.”

             She reached off camera in the brief pause and brought out a large serrated knife. Se-Yeon felt her heart jump into her throat but like a bad car wreck, could not look away. Min-Hee moved the head face up and put the knife between the lips.  

             “While the rest of the country suffered from the after-effects of the Korean War, he grew up far away from the troubles.”

             The knife moved back and forth through the corners of the lips, down through the cheeks that split like an overcooked hotdog, and caught abruptly at the jaw bone.

             “Summers in Europe, grade school years in his uptown home in the Pyeongchang-Dong area of Seoul where he attended the elite schools. You know the type,” she added, grasping the jaw with one hand and pressing against the head with the other. “Rich and spoiled.”

             With an audible crack, she twisted the jaw to the left and then back to the right, working out whatever cartilage still held it to the skull. The jaw bone, now lacking any cheek muscle or sinew to hold up, flopped cartoonishly open, only being held by the skin under the chin. Min-Hee laughed and grabbing the head by the hair, showed it to the camera. Se-Yeon could clearly see the full damage of the former Mr. Lee.

             His mismatched eye holes held only the one eye and stared dead back at the audience. The hunks of flesh that Min-Hee had picked and eaten left large craters in his face and smooth crests of bone could be seen where the forehead was. The jaw though, that just hung limply off the head like a horny cartoon wolf, and within it, it revealed a perfect set of teeth that led all the way back throat.

      LifeisaBunnyman:

    …no tongue…

             Instead of what should’ve been a gray, cooked tongue, there was a jagged cut along a meaty stump. Odd, though Se-Yeon, I don’t remember her taking the tongue out. It must have been removed earlier, perhaps even when…

             “Well, he just wouldn’t stop screaming, you know?” said Min-Hee. She grabbed the jaw and mimicked mouth movements as she put on a goofy voice. “Oh please Min, I’ll give you whatever you want, I won’t call the cops, blah blah blah.”

             Once again, she placed the head on the table and grabbed the knife. She swiftly cut through the rest of the chin skin and removed the jaw completely. Her hand glistened with the oil from the chin fat as she drew the jaw to her mouth and peeled off the small amount of flesh that still clung to the bone with her teeth. It jiggled in her teeth before she sucked it in and chewed.

             liu_dai:

    oh my god oh my god oh my god

      clowns_are_coming:

    woah, hardcorre

      “That part is pretty chewy,” she said through a mouthful of food. “But the cheeks are the best.”

             She dug the chopsticks deep into the right cheek. The flesh gave way easily and she gleefully ate it with a satisfied sigh. After a half a minute of pecking, she once again reached for the knife and with the tip this time, ran the edge along the heads brow from one lobe to the other. As she worked, she continued her story.

             “Anyway, Young-Hwan had everything he wanted and you know what happens to people who have everything they want? They like to do bad things.”

             She grabbed the edge of the forehead skin and pulled carefully so as not to rip it.

             “I hear raw skin peels off like an orange, but the cooked skin keeps threatening to tear,” she commented. “Sorry, I just keep interrupting my story. Okay, so as Young-Hwan got older, he started to do bad things. When he was in middle and high school, he was the ringleader of his own gang and would go into town after school to beat up kids from other schools. He knew he couldn’t do at his own school, of course, everyone was just as rich and powerful as he was and he would get in trouble really quickly, but the kids in other districts were easy pickings. He would find the smallest, weakest kids and shake them down for money! Can you believe that! He had an allowance bigger than some people’s paychecks and he beat up poor kids for change!”

             A look of anger flashed across her face as she spoke.

             “And it wasn’t just kids, he would beat up homeless people too, even had his gang take pictures of it as he squatted next their beat up bodies. Rumor had it he had driven some poor student to suicide but no one ever came forward to prosecute him. Everyone was scared of him. He got in plenty of trouble for all the fighting and stealing, of course, but nothing ever came of it. He would either pay off the cops when they showed up or his parents would pay them off later. He never learned consequences.”

             She paused her story as the forehead peeling finally reached the hairline. With the extra weight of the hair and the hair follicles, the rest of the job was much easier. Min-Hee cut and scalped along the hairline and with one final tug, pulled the entire mass off the skull. Trapped steam gently curled out warm bone. She held up the scalp and looked at the camera.

             “I’m not eating this,” and threw it off screen.

             Se-Yeon had remained speechless the entire time. She instinctively shoved a handful of salad in her mouth to prevent herself from screaming, feeling the cucumber and tomato juice drip down her chin. She wanted to turn it off, she had to turn it off, but she was scared to even go near her keyboard for fear that Min­-Hee would find her and eat her next. All Se-Yeon could do was chew sloppily and stare forward, her hands in tight fists on her lap.

             Her food seemed foreign in her mouth but she knew if she kept eating it, she would be human, a good human eating her good food. Not whatever what was playing on the screen. She felt her mind go blank as she frenzied over the food around her, trying to separate her world from that of Min-Hee’s. The rice is next, she thought, and grabbed the rice bowl. Forgoing the chopsticks, she scooped as much as she could in her mouth and chewed. As soon as one bite was done, she immediately shoved in the other, devouring the whole bowl in mere seconds. The fish, already half eaten, went in as well. She winced as the small bones scratched her cheeks and scraped her throat, but she didn’t slow down.

             Her stomach moaned as the food hit her gut, but she silenced it with the entire glass of barley tea. She loudly burped and fell over weakly on the low table, her head turned to Min-Hee’s show. The food bowls were scattered at her feet to which she quickly kicked them away in disgust. She felt a little more relaxed, but not by much. Not nearly enough.

             At some point during Se-Yeon’s fury, Min-Hee had gotten a small crab hammer and was gently breaking open Young-Hwan’s skull.

             “Eventually,” continued Min-Hee. “Young-Hwan grew up, went to college, and became the vice-president of his parents company. Suddenly he got the power to be a bully on a much larger level. He began to aggressively shove out other textile companies with backhanded tactics, frivolous law suits, and even outright intimidation. Thanks to his tenacity, he made his company much more powerful and him much more above the law.”  

             The skull, softened from the boiling, finally gave way for a hole big enough for Min-Hee to fit her small hand in. She smiled as she felt the brain squish between her fingers.

             “But no one escapes forever.”

                                                            ********

             “Lee Young-Hwan?” repeated Detective Kim as he listened to Min-Hee talk. “Anyone got details on him?”

             A young addition to the force named Pak was typing away at the nearest computer and spoke without looking away from the screen.

          “Apparently Lee Young-Hwan is the heir to a multi-million textile fortune, known for his aggressive tactics and mostly worked behind the scene.”

           He pointed at the pictures the search engine had brought up. It was definitely him. Few of the pictures were posed, most were of him working on site somewhere or inside a courtroom, but the man in the official family photos with his elderly parents and wife exhibited the same face as the girl was eating.

         “It appears he has not been reported missing,” continued Pak who had just as quickly brought up the missing persons search. “He must have disappeared very recently. We’ll make sure to have his family contacted.”

         The reveal of the deceased name only brought more questions. How did this Min-Hee manage to get Mr. Young? Aren’t the rich usually surrounded by bodyguards? Did he have a habit of disappearing for a day or more at a time so often that no one went looking for him? Most importantly, where was the rest of his body?

        “I wonder,” he mumbled to himself before turning to the young cop again. “Have there been any reports of headless bodies showing up?”

        Pak did a quick search on the internal server and shook his head.

        “Nothing. But she is quite small and considering the short period of time he’s been missing, she most likely did not have time to dispose of the body.”

        “And her size suggests that she would have to break down the body into smaller parts to move it on her own, which would take some time,” said Detective Kim, finishing Pak’s train of thought.  “Unless she has an accomplice.”

        “She is quite famous, she just might.”

         Kim watched as Min-Hee started to cut through Young’s mouth. He had seen plenty of cadavers in his day, intact and in various parts, fresh, rotten, water-logged, dried under the sun, but this was on a whole new level. She was on a whole new level. Min-Hee appeared so normal. If he had ever passed her on the street, he would never imagine that she would be capable of killing and eating a human being. She had the appearance of a well-raised youth, a woman that just passed into adulthood, who would spend her time matching her clothes to her make-up, reading glossy magazines, and meeting with her friends over sweet deserts in trendy shops. The kind that would secretly binge sugary dramas and was a klutz in the kitchen but always aimed to improve. She would fret over her weight even though she barely gained any and worked in a flower shop run by a sweet, but nosy old lady.

         But this was definitely not her reality. Min-Hee existed somewhere much darker, much more accepting of violence and hate. She might indeed have been all the things he would’ve assumed, an existence of glittery eyeliner and bulbous flowers, but that was only what she projected. That was merely the skin she wore to blend in with society. She had filled up every crack and split with a brand new person and smoothed it over so perfectly that she would never appear as alien as she really was. Min-Hee was the true wolf in sheep’s clothing.

         Kim found himself staring deep at her face, looking for some sort of hint of bent nose or covered scar, something to give away the demonic personality that she hid, but there was nothing. She was perfect. Her eyes projected nothing but kindness even as she dislocated the jaw. Her lips curled playfully as if she was posing in photo booth. He was stunned by his complete inability to read her.

         The sharp ring of a cellphone broke him out of his trance. He had forgotten that his partner, Song, was still next to him. Song flipped his phone open and pressed into his ear.

         “Song,” he answered his phone sharply before responding to a series of phrases on the other end.

       “Okay…yes…yes…we’ll meet you downstairs. Goodbye.”

         He clicked his phone off and looked at Kim.

         “She’s been traced.”

         “You found her?”

             Song nodded and motioned Kim to follow him downstairs.

             “She’s not far, in Seoul actually. She streaming from a warehouse in Geumcheon District. We got a team ready to go. Hopefully she’ll stay live until we get there. “

             Their leather shoes slapped down the hallway as they dipped into a stairwell and quickly maneuvered to the underground garage. Four heavily armed officers stood in full SWAT uniform next to a SWAT van and a female officer sat behind the wheel of an official blue, yellow, and white police car. She stepped out of the car and opened the side doors for the two new arrivals.

             “Detective Kim, Officer Song,” she said with a bow. “I’m Officer Choi, I’ll be driving.”

             They returned the greeting and hopped in. With a flick of flashing lights, the two cars sped out of the garage and on to the road. Song pulled out his phone again and logged into Min-Hee’s live stream. She was still at it, this time peeling the skin off Young’s forehead. Song’s eyebrows flew up as he made a disgusted face.

             “It just keeps getting worse,” he said, surprising Kim with his openness. Kim had never seen anything shake his partner. “Can you imagine someone like this walking around in the world?”

             “It takes all kinds,” responded Kim as he reached into his pocket for his cigarettes. He shook a couple loose and handed one to Song before lighting his own.

 “Her though? That’s a surprise, it’s so rare to see women being so violent. They don’t really like getting messy. Usually when the corpse is damaged like that, it’s a man doing the damage. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was personal.”

             “Or she’s crazy,” added the driver before excusing herself.

             Kim laughed humorlessly and took a deep drag.

             “Or she’s crazy.”

             Kim looked out the window as the buildings and people flew by him. The sun had long begun to set, setting the clouds on fire and turning the farther cityscape into a dark cut-out clawing at the sky. He felt himself glancing at the faces in the crowd, trying to pick out the dark secrets these nameless citizens were hiding. Which one of that group of old ladies was secretly a war bride? Was that young business man actually embezzling money? Did that happy couple beat and insult each other behind closed doors? Kim had been in the business long enough to know that you can’t judge a person by their cover; that even the smallest mouse is capable of killing, but Min-Hee was such the perfect young woman. Almost too perfect. Just like camouflage.

                                                     ******

         Se-Yeon ripped open her cabinets and grabbed her box of cereal. Gripping it to her chest, she snatched a bowl of apples that was sitting on her counter and the rest of the rice in her fridge. She could feel the delicate band of her sanity stretch farther and farther, threatening to snap into a shudder of violent screaming, and the only thing that kept everything intact was the food in pressed against her body. Something about the whole thing seemed almost unfair to her.

          She had dieted while Min-Hee ate meals big enough for six people. She had counted her calories while Min-Hee gleefully ate three McDonald’s meals with an extra-large soda. She had run three miles every morning, bathed her face in acne cream, and busted her ass keeping her weight down while Min-Hee, well, Min-Hee ate a human fucking head with a smirk on her face. She was insulting Se-Yeon, insulting all the work that she had put into herself as if to say ‘you’ll never be as perfect as me, you’ll never be this free.’

         Se-Yeon was mad and ashamed and in response decided to eat everything in her house. She would watch the video to the bitter end, knowing that at least what she was eating was clean and pure, not like whatever Min-Hee kept putting her body.

        Se-Yeon pulled up to the low table and began to shove handfuls of cereal in her mouth as Min-Hee proceeded to talk.

        “Oh, it’s so warm,” said Min-Hee as she pulled out a glob of gray, cooked brain. “It feels like scrambled eggs.”

       She gingerly took a bite.

        “It tastes just like the rest of him, kind of porky, but way stronger. So like pork brains.”

        She slurped a clump of it into her mouth.

        “It’s not bad. I guess being rich really seasons the soft bits.”

 LifeisaBunnyman:

Ha ha, wonder if u can deep fry it?

         “Hmmm, maybe I’ll try it next time,” responded Min-Hee.

 LifeisaBunnyman:

I was kidding!

          Min-Hee smiled and shrugged before continuing her story.

          “Where was I? Oh yes. So Young-Hwan started to shove out the competition of other companies. Didn’t matter who they were. Big, small, it was all a threat to him. Or, most likely, he enjoyed the power. One day, he decides that a small, family owned textile business was in his way and demanded that they sell to him. Of course, they said no. What he had offered them was much smaller than what the company earned and would put the family in the poor house. They turned him away but Young wouldn’t take no for answer.”

         She stuck her hand back in to the skull and pulled out another handful of gray matter. As she did, Se-Yeon bit off a chunk of apple and chewed it noisily as she watched.

       “The family was very small, consisting of a mother, father, grandmother, and a daughter. A couple of weeks after Young-Hwan visits, the father disappears. The mother, of course, contacts the police but they’re no help at all, saying that he most likely ran away from creditors or his family or any other millions of reasons that fathers run away. They said they would look, but they didn’t. The mother was now all alone.”

         Min-Hee had driven her nails into the remaining skin on the skull, an expression of hate crossing her face as she licked Young-Hwan’s brains off her other fingers.

        “One day, Young-Hwan and three of his cronies knock on the woman’s door. They came in, feigning sadness about her missing husband, and offered to buy up her company to release her from the burden of ‘man’s work.’ At first she refused until Young-Hwan warned her that it would be a shame if something happened to her daughter as well. Apparently little girls disappeared off the streets of Korea all the time, only to reappear years later in a Chinese whorehouse, not knowing anything but sucking cock for food. The woman relinquished the company then and there. She received five million won, a pittance that lasted only to the end of the month, and the family fell into poverty.”

         “The mother had started working at a laundry mat, working long hours for small pay and was completely heart broken by her husband’s disappearance. She began drinking as a way to cope and one day drank herself to death. Her daughter found her body still curled around a bottle; she was only twelve years old.”

        Se-Yeon felt herself tear-up at Min-Hee’s story. It wasn’t subtle, she was clearly talking about herself. Se-Yeon responded by eating a handful of cereal to choke back her tears.

 liu_dai:

can’t belive I’m still watching

         At this point, Min-Hee began tear apart what was left of the head and face, revealing more and more of the skull underneath. It was an odd sight, watching a person go from face to muscle to skull, like the layers of an onion. Min-Hee pulled out the remaining eyeball and squished it between her fingers like a grape.

          “It was then and there that the little girl decided to get revenge. She knew she was too small and had to focus on being a smart woman before she could do anything, but the moment would come and when she was 19, it did. Turned out Young-Hwan had a thing for collecting mistresses, especially young ones with big eyes and pink lips.”

                                                       ******

        “Kim, I think she’s reaching the end of her broadcast,” said Officer Song as they turned a sharp corner. The KNP SWAT team sirens were hot on their heels.

       “How far are we?” Kim asked the driver.

       “Almost there, she won’t get away.”

        She added the last part with a satisfied smirk.

        Song watched Min-Hee monologue into a scoop of brains with a nervous anticipation. He was running all the possible outcomes in his head, from Min-Hee following instructions and immediately giving herself up to her pulling out a gun or a knife and dying in a hail of bullets. No one can really predict how a criminal would act under pressure, but he was hoping that the SWAT team would not have to use their weapons. Or in the very least, he hoped that she was alone. One woman would be no match, but she could have a dozen people hiding just off camera. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she did; nothing about this case had been making any sense. He started playing with his ring again, feeling the smooth metal spin around his finger.

        “There it is,” pointed Choi to a warehouse that had just appeared in their line of sight. “That’s where she’s streaming from.”

       It was a small, one story warehouse that seemed to have been abandoned for a long time. Several windows had been busted out and weeds grew through the cracks in the cement. The building didn’t look like it could house a large company, maybe something family owned or with a limited product release.

        They pulled up the building and immediately piled out of their cars. Kim took in the visage in front of him, his hand resting on his issued gun. There was no indication of what the interior could contain, the warehouse sat as silent as the area around it.

        Kim and Song got on both sides of the main door, guns drawn, while the SWAT team emerged carrying a small, one person battering ram. The doors to the warehouse were old and wooden; easy for one strong armed officer to knock down. The detectives exchanged nods as Kim held up three fingers at the team.

         Three, two, one…

                                                       ******

          “There’s really not much left, is there?” said Min-Hee, holding the skinned skull.

          She had ripped off the nose with a sharp swipe of her knife and had blown into the holes, clearing chunks of meat that she shook out from the top of the skull. His ears had been laid off to the side with his jaw and she looked soulfully at was left of Young-Hwan as she continued.

         “The little girl grew up and started following Young-Hwan around. She went to all his favorite restaurants and bars until he noticed her. That’s how she had become his mistress. That’s how she got him alone.”

         She sighed and smiled into the camera.

        “That’s how she killed him.”

        Se-Yeon could feel her abdominal fighting her as she kept shoving food into her stomach. Min-Hee was smiling so benignly, like she had no care in the world, that Se-Yeon could feel herself tearing up. She bit her lip to keep herself from crying out loud. She looked at her own mess, the half-eaten apples, the spilled box of cereal, the empty bowls of rice and felt nothing but emptiness. No, that wasn’t quite right. She felt something, something close to pettiness. Suddenly, her diet seemed so pointless, her fears so minimal.

        Min-Hee had eaten her hate, her nightmares. She had become the stuff of mythology, the wild woman who had destroyed those that had threatened her. Maybe she wasn’t a crow in human flesh, maybe she was the dove, eating the worlds sin and telling everyone it’ll be okay. Min-Hee was taking her life back. Se-Yeon had suddenly become so envious, she burst into tears.

        Somewhere, she was sure she heard a man call Min-Hee’s name and the faint accusation of murder.

                                                                ******

           The door splintered after a couple of blows and let in the glow from the setting sun. Dead set in the middle of the warehouse was a bright computer screen on a desk with a large chair in front of it. The back of the chair faced Kim and his team who quickly filed in through the broken entry way. The table was wider than the chair and Kim could see some sort of tools scattered on the counter top.

         “Min-Hee! This is the police!” shouted Kim, his gun gripped in both hands. There was no movement from the chair.

         Aside from the glow of the computer screen, the rest of building was shrouded in dark shadows. Aging machines sat rusted against the walls and a fine layer of dust covered everything in the room. Kim motioned for the SWAT team to split up in case there were other people hidden in the corners.

        “Min-Hee! I repeat, this is the police!”

         Once again, there was no movement, just the continued flickering of the screen. She’s cocky, he thought, but she won’t get away. He and Song walked slowly towards the chair.

         “Min-Hee, get up, you’re under arrest for murder,” he ordered.

         Still nothing.

         As they approached the set-up, they could finally make out what was on the screen. It was Min-Hee, talking and holding up the well picked skull of Young-Hwan.

        “And that’s how she killed him,” said the Min-Hee in the stream.

                                                    ******

         A surprised look crossed Min-Hee’s face as a hand slowly crept over the stream and moved in front of the camera. It was thick, heavy with work, and wearing a gold ring on its middle finger with an inscription of an officer’s name and a “thank you for your work.” Min-Hee’s face was partly obscured by the large thumb, hiding her eyes and nose, but a clearly visible smile crept across her face.

         “Well well, if it isn’t the police,” she cooed. “I was wondering how long it would take for you to show up.”

                                                      ******

        “Min-Hee?” asked Song, grabbing the chair. He looked down at the chairs occupant and turned away in disgust.

         Instead of a young, perky girl eating a human head sat the decapitated naked, aged corpse of Young-Hwan. The screen flickered morbidly on the limp body as Min-Hee smiled in her broadcast. The various tools that Kim had spotted were not for eating, but for torture. Pliers, hammers, scissors, everything that could be used to torture a man was there, coated in dry blood and viscera. The body itself seemed severely damaged, indicating that Young-Hwan was tortured for quite a while before he was killed. His tongue was left behind as well, hammered to the table like a piece of wood. But it wasn’t just the headless corpse that had thrown him for a loop, it was what she had placed in its stead.

         Kim instantly bit his knuckle.

         On top of the bloody stump of a neck sat a web cam that pointed towards Min-Hee’s stream on the computer. Kim carefully waved his hand in front of the camera and saw it mirrored on the screen in front of him.

          “Well well, if it isn’t the police. I was wondering how long it would take for you to show up.”

          Kim stared blankly at the screen as Min-Hee smiled cleverly at her pursuers.

         “I hope tracing my web camera wasn’t too much of a hassle. As you can obviously guess, I couldn’t afford to have you actually find me, so I took some precautions. Don’t worry, you just made it in time to watch me sign off.”

         She stuck her fingers into Young-Hwan’s eye sockets and wiggled them, a giggle escaping from her lips.

         “Such a useless man,” she laughed. “Well, I’m guess I’m done here. I’ve really made a huge mess! I know this was very hard to watch but I want to thank everyone who has stayed with me. I really appreciate it. Also, a big thanks to the police for working so hard to catch me.”

        Kim cursed under his breath and turned away.

        Se-Yeon continued crying, her tears pouring into her mouth as she kicked the ground.

       “But you know what they say, the first one is always the hardest.”

       With a wink and a peace sign, she bowed her goodbyes.

       “Thank you for watching! Until next time.”

         And all across the world, screens went dark.

[svfedotov]

Mukbang: Korean for Eating and Broadcasting

Se-Yeon was relieved to be home. It had been a long day at the office, filled with running errands, filing papers, and answering phone call after phone call for questions she had no answer to, but was glad to transfer them. She must have made a million cups of tea and a million more of instant coffee and snuck in at least half of those to the hung-over co-workers who made her promise not to tell on them for showing up ten minutes late. She laughed and swore she wouldn’t, though she secretly kept track of all the IOU’s she was racking up when vacation time came.

          As usual, several of her co-workers gathered to go bar-hopping after the day was over and invited her to come along but she refused. They moaned and whined as she walked away, wishing them a happy and safe time. It’s not that Se-Yeon didn’t want to go out, but she had been secretly on a diet for a month and when she drank, she couldn’t control how much she ate, especially when it came to bar foods. It was a price she was willing to pay. 

         Perhaps I should go next time, she thought, not wanting to seem like she wasn’t a team player. It’s not like I have to stay the whole time. Once a week or so shouldn’t be too bad.

      She shoved her key into the lock and immediately kicked off her shoes as she crossed into her small, compact apartment. A howl greeted her from the dark.

       “Oh, Jenny!” laughed Se-Yeon as she picked up the slender white and black cat that had padded over to her. “When are you going to learn to meow like a proper lady?”

       Jenny let out a secondary gurgle that sounded like a cross between a meow and a purr and shoved her face against Se-Yeon’s chin. Se-Yeon cradled her in her arms and flicked the light switch on, illuminating her small, compact apartment. It was the standard ‘single-woman’ housing common for working women in Seoul. There were no separate bedroom or living room, but instead one medium sized room split into a bedroom and a kitchen by a counter top.

             When she first moved in, she had managed to move in her entire bedroom into the apartment, which was now doubling as a living and dining room. Her bed was her couch, her eating table was her computer table, and her small book shelf was also a TV stand.  Jenny meowed once again, a long drawn out one that translated into ‘feed me!’

             “Ok, ok, Jenny. Hold on,” answered Se-Yeon.

             Se-Yeon quickly changed into a loose shirt and sweat pants before preparing Jenny her evening meal. The cat scarfed it down greedily as Se-Yeon looked through her fridge for her own dinner. She had begun to pre-make her meals for the week so that she could keep tight to her diet schedule and a side of fish, cold rice, and a tomato and cucumber salad became her meal for the night. A glass of cold barley tea rounded out the dinner.

             She carefully carried the food to her table and flipped open her laptop. Truth be told, it wasn’t just the temptation of food that had kept her from the bars. Tonight was the latest live stream of her favorite Mukbang entertainer, Park Min-Hee.

             Min-Hee was everything that Se-Yeon wanted to be. She was petite with a round, angelic face and large, child-like eyes. Her skin was clear and pale and looked very soft to the touch. Se-Yeon had been struggling with acne for years and dreamed of the smooth skin that Min-Hee seemed to have gotten so effortlessly. Min-Hee’s stylish clothes and polite manner only sealed her celebrity desirability. But Min-Hee’s appearance was only a mere aspect of what made her so special; it was her talent at Mukbang that really let her shine.

             While there were many Mukbang eating performers who were tuned into to keep single eaters company, Min-Hee’s true popularity came from how much she ate (and it was a lot.) It wasn’t uncommon for her to eat several pounds of food in one sitting that could be made up of snacks, noodle dishes, rice dishes, salads, fried foods, meats, and sweets. She once ate a five pound meal of spaghetti and meatballs as well as an entire loaf of garlic bread and a large salad. Another time, she consumed a full KFC meal consisting of ten chicken pieces, a large side of potatoes along with a large side of coleslaw, a pot pie, and five biscuits. This was only a selection of the amazing amount of food that she had put into her tiny body which of course fueled rumors of her eating and purging. Min-Hee had addressed the rumors herself, stating that she was on a strict one-meal-a-day diet routine and worked out frequently.

             Se-Yeon didn’t believe any of it anyway. Min-Hee seemed too sweet and down-to-Earth to do anything so harmful to her body. Besides, tonight was a big night for the internet star and Se-Yeon wouldn’t miss it for the world. At the end of Min-Hee’s last broadcast, and after three very big bowls of Bi-bim-bop with a heaping side of kimchi and several small fried fish, she announced a very special meal for the next show. She immediately got peppered with questions on the live comment feed, but she only smiled, winked, and promised something truly amazing.

             As her fans waited for the next broadcast, the internet was rife with rumors and guesses, ranging from eating live insects and poisonous blowfish to a pound of edible gold. Someone even joked about her eating a pair of shoes and while highly unlikely, was met with a series of good humor laughs and suggestions for what shoes would pair with what wines.  

            Se-Yeon quickly logged in with her handle JennyBB1 and entered the stream right on the click of 8PM. The screen showed Min-Hee’s usual background which consisted of a curtain decorated with small pink roses and a white chair in front of a brown table. The chat feed started come to life underneath the broadcast window as more fans popped up. Se-Yeon spotted some of the more well-known names; people she had become friends with online.

 JennyBB1:

Hi BunMakbong, liu_dae, hobitzzz, and Parkchan190

 BunMakbong:

Hi JennyBB1! J

 hobitzzz:

JennyBB1 ^_^

 Parkchan190:

hellooo

 liu_dae:

<3 <3 <3

 Parkchan190:

i wonder whatt the surprise is!

 liu_dae:

Hope its not an actual shoes >_< ‘0_0

 JennyBB1:

Ha ha, u silly. :P

 hobitzzz:

I still think she’s eating insects.

BunMakbong:

Gross! She would never. -_-

           Se-Yeon laughed at the conversation, happy to be back in her weekly chat room. Through the few months that Min-Hee had been doing her show, Se-Yeon had become acquainted with some of the other followers. She had no idea who they were or where they were from; they had an unspoken rule to not ask or tell. She was certain that at least a couple of them were from Korea. They had also met up between shows on forums and live chat groups and would exchange gossip and jokes, enjoying their shared interest of Min-Hee.

         The chatter quickly died down as a hand reached out and pulled out the chair on the screen. Min-Hee’s presence filled the screen. She looked exceptionally beautiful! Some of the newer fans chimed in.

 Blue_Bear:

you look so pretty!

 Dank4210:

Lovinng the look 

         They were right to compliment her. She had put on impeccable make-up, highlighting her large eyes and small nose, and she was wearing a black dress with short sleeves adorned with a red stone necklace. She looked like she was about to go a date and for a second, Se-Yeon was worried that she would cut the broadcast short.

             “Hi everyone!” she said. “Thank you for coming back! It’s been quite the week, hasn’t it? I hope you’re all as excited to be here as I am. I’ve been working so much lately that I’m happy to just sit here and hang out with you guys.

 liu_dai:

Good to see you ^u^

 JJamesyung:

Whats on the menu

           “I know you’re all wondering what the big surprise is,” she said, addressing and subsequently ignoring the remarks. Sometimes she would get so many comments that she would have to pick and choose what she could answer as her feed would frequently flood with fans.

           “While I heard some of the comments that you guys made, none of you were even close, though they were pretty funny. This is something much more exotic.”

 hobitzzz:

A koala!

       Min-Hee scrunched her face and squinted.

        “A koala?” she said before breaking out into laughter. “Now where would I get that? No, it’s definitely Korean. In fact, it’s readily available, anyone can get it all across the world.”

 Parkchan190:

come on, show us!

        Min-Hee smiled and reached off screen and pulled out a crockpot that was sitting off camera on the table. She lifted the lid and instantly got assaulted with blanket of steam. She playfully swatted at it.

       “So steamy!” she smiled. “But it smells very good! It took me all day to cook, so I hope you guys like it! I had to find a special recipe and everything.”

         Se-Yeon could see rubber handles on the side of the crockpot, indicating that there was an interior metal basket that contained Min-Hee’s meal. Min-Hee brought out a large plate and a set of chopsticks and looked dead into the camera.

        “Are you ready?”

         The feed came alive as everyone agreed they were ready.

         Min-Hee grabbed the handles and, lifting up her food, temporarily steamed up the camera. Se-Yeon could just make out the Min-Hee’s figure as she turned the basket upside and something heavy thumped on to the plate. Se-Yeon thought it was some sort of pot roast but she wasn’t sure what the dark, hairy part was on the side of lump through the steamed up lens. Slowly, the steam crept away into the cool air, revealing Min-Hee’s secret meal.

        Se-Yeon covered her mouth as she tried not to scream.

        Sitting on the dinner plate was a boiled human head.

         For a good thirty seconds, the chat feed went silent as Min-Hee happily showed off the head. She turned it slowly around, from face to the back of the head and around again, like a model exhibiting the newest piece of jewelry. The head belonged to a man. He looked to be in his early sixties and had short, scruffy black hair. Wrinkles had lined his face and his thin lips sat in a permanent frown. His eyes were half open, revealing cloudy eyeballs, most likely from being cooked.

        Parkchan190 was the first to break the silence.

 Parkchan190:

This is a joke rite…

 liu_dai:

Is that a cake maybe?

       Min-Hee giggled and lightly tapped the heads forehead with her perfectly manicured finger nails.

       “No, Liu, it’s not a cake. This head is very real, I’ll show you.”

        She grabbed her pink chopsticks, ones that had helped eat dozens of meals before, and pinched the left cheek with its tips. Caught in their grip, she pulled the skin along the nose and dug out a hunk of cooked meat. Like any well-cooked animal, the flesh came away easily from the bone.

        Se-Yeon felt the color drain from her face. She honestly could not fathom what she was seeing. It has to be a prank, she thought, no one is crazy enough to do this live on a broadcast. Her hands shook as she typed.

 JennyBB1:

Are we on a prank show?

 Hobitzzz:

this is not funny if we are >:( !!

 Blue_Bear:

scary! soooo mean!

             Min-Hee kept her trademark smile.

             “No, this is not a prank show. Everything you are seeing is very real.”

             As if to push the point home, she popped the piece of meat in her mouth and carefully chewed. Suddenly, her face broke out into a beam.

             “Oooh, it’s perfect!” she exclaimed, bringing her hands to her cheeks. “So tasty! I used the same recipe that is used for goats heads in the Middle East.”

             She pulled off another strip of meat, this one off the forehead. Se-Yeon could see the slight pull of the skin and tear of the flesh as it peeled.

             “I was worried it wouldn’t cook well because I didn’t skin the head first, but it turned out great!” she ate the piece and continued. “It wasn’t very complicated. Pepper, lemon, coriander, three bay leaves, a cinnamon stick, and salt. You could definitely do it yourself.”

             Se-Yeon sat mesmerized by the scene in front of her, her own food half uneaten next to the laptop. Her stomach had started to lurch as it attempted to climb back out of her throat and onto the carpet. The dead eyes of the man were facing the camera while Min-Hee continued picking away at his face like a human crow. That all she is, she thought, a crow. A black crow, eating carrion, eating the dead.

         In Se-Yeon’s minds eye, Min-Hee’s face began to warp and the all the childlike beauty that she had once seen was glossing over with an inhuman monster. Her doe eyes suddenly became maniacally large, her pretty face bore marks of hidden insanity, and her perfect teeth appeared sharpened purposely for the consumption of human flesh. Though Min-Hee may have sat in her chair same as before, pouting and cooing at the screen, Se-Yeon could’ve sworn she was now just a demon wrapped in Min-Hee’s skin. With every bite and tear she took, her visage became more and more grim.

       I need to call the police, she thought, reaching for her phone.

       As if reading her thoughts, Min-Hee poked the chopsticks through the heads left eye socket and pulled out an eyeball.

       “I’m sure most of you are on the phone right now with your local police.”

 Blue_Bear:

Damn rite I am! They’re gonna get u!

          “I understand that you would call the police, but let me tell you a story.”

          She pointed the eye at the camera and swirled it around.

          “Let me tell you why I’m eating this man, perhaps it’ll help you understand.”

                                                         *

 Korea’s emergency number, 119, was suddenly flooded with calls from people across the country. Emergency personal took the call and waves of “excuse me?” and “a human head?” murmured across the phone room. The operators looked at one another as call after call came in, their eyebrows knitted together in confusion. After ten calls in two minutes, they sent the alert to the National Policy Agency headquarters where a couple of new recruits reviewed the calls and looked up the website where the supposed ‘cannibalism’ was happening.  

           A quick view of Min-Hee’s feed confirmed that the calls were indeed accurate. They immediately put a system wide alert tagged as ‘crime in progress’ and woke up the entire building into full action.

             Detective Kim Joon-Ho had been in the middle of wrapping up paperwork when the call came in. One of the officers on the first floor was on the line passing on the message that Kim had been requested personally on a case and was needed immediately. Detective Kim was one of the most respected law enforcement officials in the country. He had proved himself time and again as a level headed officer with a quick mind and was generally assigned the most incredible of cases. Despite his prestige, he was almost never sent on a task that required the urgency as this phone call had.

 He put his work to the side and headed downstairs, wondering what could possibly be so important, but as soon as he cleared the two flight walk, he was surprised to see the usually orderly area of back to back desks and laughing officers now a powder keg of tension.

             Every computer screen was playing a video of young lady clasping a pair of chopsticks and talking to the camera. She had the type of modern beauty that was very popular right now, a look that Detective Kim wasn’t a big fan of. He preferred his women more classic and thought the baby doll look was in bad taste, but he could see her appeal. She was slim and pale and projected an air of innocence. But it wasn’t her looks that had drawn the attention of the entire precinct, but the fleshy, well-cooked human head that she was picking off of.

             Detective Kim froze and watched the woman giggle into the camera as she popped a piece of flesh into her mouth. The officer who called him, Officer Song Seung-Hyun, approached him and bowed. He was at least ten years younger than Kim and with his heavy jaw and serious eyes, looked more like a cop than his older partner. Kim pointed at the screen with a confused look.

             “What is this?” asked Detective Kim, forgoing the normal formalities. “Is this real?”

             “Not only real, but it’s live,” confirmed Officer Song. “She’s streaming through a live video program. See all those comments on the bottom? Those are from viewers who are watching it happen.”

             The comments were ranging from disgust and outrage to a couple off color jokes and even some encouragement. Detective Kim scrunched his face and shook his head.

             “Disgusting,” grimaced Kim. “Does anyone know who she or the head is?”

             “The head is currently unidentified, but the way she talks, we wouldn’t be surprised if she tells us sooner or later. Her user name is Min-Hee, she’s a Mukbang star. We’re not sure if it’s her real name or not.”

             “What’s Mukbang?”

             “It’s a trend online where entertainers eat an excessive amount of food for people to watch. Apparently she’s one of the biggest stars on the internet.”

             “And this is happening right now?”

             “Yes,” Song nodded. “We are currently attempted to track her IP address but it seems like she’s relaying the stream with a series of outside servers. In other words, we have to track her signal through different points and hack through their server to get to the next one until we find where she’s streaming from.”

             “How long will that take?”

             “It depends on how many servers she’s re-routing from. It could be a few minutes to hours. We can only hope she stays live until we can get through all the points.”

             Detective Kim shoved his hands in his pockets and started playing with a large ring on his middle finger. It was a gift from the police department for his years of service that he mostly kept it on for appearance. On the outside of the band that faced his palm, they engraved his name with a “thank you for your work” in small letters. Twirling it with his thumb helped him keep calm in stressful situations and this was about as stressful as it came. He felt tension set in as he realized that he could do nothing but sit on his hands and wait until they track her down. There was nothing in the video to even remotely give away her location, no window, no news program, nothing. She had planned this, he knew that instinctively. No one was crazy enough to do something this heinous, live for all to see, without some sort of precaution against the authorities.

           Who was this girl? What was she trying to prove?

             The questions ran through his mind as he watched her preen and wink at her fans. But it was the next thing she said that really got his attention.

             “Let me tell you why I’m eating this man,” she said with an eyeball caught between her chopsticks. “Perhaps it’ll help you understand.”

(To Be Continued....)