Don returned to the narrow strip of shadow, like a stone gargoyle keeping watch.
The hideous face beneath his hood was no less fearsome than a gargoyle's snarling visage.
"The 'Flesh Curse' torments me constantly, body and mind. My flesh splits open, and the pain burns like fire."
"Even a wound no bigger than a fingernail makes me bleed without stopping."
Don spoke dully of the terrible ordeal he had endured.
"Besides that, for about a third of every day, the world I see becomes unbearably strange and bizarre, almost entirely awash in crimson."
"I should be grateful I didn't meet you while the curse was in effect."
"Otherwise, you would have looked to me like terrifying monsters with your flesh, fascia, and organs turned inside out."
Everyone frowned. They understood what it was like to be trapped in a deep hallucination.
But none of them spent a third of every day lost in such terrifying visions.
"When that happens, it's hard for me to tell reality from hallucination, and even harder to communicate normally."
"Once, after coming to my senses, I realized I'd killed a harmless wild beast and eaten its flesh."
"In its eyes, perhaps I was the terrifying beast that had suddenly attacked it."
Everyone could hear the weight in Don's voice.
It seemed the "Flesh Curse" was like a sturdy shackle that had held him captive for a very long time.
No one wanted to become something neither human nor ghost.
"Is there really no way to get rid of the 'Flesh Curse'?" Gelman asked.
Don shook his head slightly.
"I've tried more methods than you can imagine."
"'All-Curing Herb,' exorcism, blood transfusions, flesh regeneration... None of them worked."
His voice grew dark, each word bitten out through clenched teeth.
"In the end, I realized the