A curse is cast upon everyone in this village, reducing us to mutes. But once a villager's lover takes three laps around the back mountain and marries said villager successfully, the curse on that villager will be broken.

My childhood friend, who's the same age as me, has already gotten married and embraced his life as a regular person. Even my cousin, who's just turned 18 years old, has her curse broken as well.

I, on the other hand, am about to turn 30 years old soon, and yet I'm still a mute.

Whenever I'm about to get married, all of my ex-fiances, who kept telling me that they'd love me with all their hearts, would do anything just to terminate our engagements right after they came out of the back mountain.

In order to proclaim his deep love for me, my tenth fiance, Isaac Jameson, tells me confidently that he'd definitely marry me once he's done with his laps around the mountain.

But as soon as his words fall, his expression changes the moment he sets foot into the mountain.

To my horror, Isaac picks up an axe from the ground and begins hacking at me with it.

"Why are you still alive in this world? Why can't you just die already?"

I can only lie on the ground while suffering from intense pain.

I have no idea what's in the back mountain and why the same outcome will happen every time.

Why is it that the entire village can break their curse so easily, and yet I can never get married despite having gone through it ten times in a row?

Isaac Jameson truly wanted to kill me. He didn't hold back at all.

"I can't believe that a wretched, twisted heart lies beyond your pure, innocent face! I nearly married you! I was lucky the hill was the final hurdle to marrying you, or you might've murdered my entire family!"

I had no idea what Isaac was saying. I only knew that I was covered in blood. I'd die if he kept this up.

He was too strong for me, and I couldn't fight back. I could only helplessly point at my stomach as whimpers bubbled up my throat.

Isaac understood what I meant. He glanced at my stomach and barked a harsh laugh. "You're carrying the devil's spawn! The Jameson family will never allow you to give birth to a cursed child like that!"

As he declared this, he tossed the axe aside and hauled me up by the collar of my shirt. Then, he rammed my stomach against the boulder off to the side.

For a moment, the sharp pain ripped my voice from my throat. My eyes nearly bugged out of my head.

Throughout the ordeal, Dad simply stood and watched in grim silence. If anything, he even seemed a little pleased.

Isaac finally let me go after he'd had his fill of violence. Before he left, he even spat on me in disgust, then made a point to tell Dad, "Mr. Seymour, sir, you'd better keep an eye on her! It serves her right to stay mute!"

He flung me to the ground like a bloody ragdoll. Dad gathered me in his arms in the end, but I knew hell was waiting for me.

I used what little was left of my strength to beg Dad to spare me, but my words didn't move him. He said heartlessly, "These are the rules. You must not desecrate the hill."

He tossed me into a tank of boiling hot water.

It felt like my very soul had been scorched, but a pair of hands kept me firmly in place, depriving me of any room to struggle. It wasn't until a layer of my skin had blistered and peeled that Dad finally hauled me out of the tank.

Beads of blood seeped through my raw, pink skin. The extreme pain was branded into the back of my mind; it was the tenth time I'd been blanched in hot water until I'd shed a layer of skin.

Every time I brought a fiance home and headed to the hill behind our town to get married, they'd end up bewildered the moment they entered the hill. When they looked at me again, it was with contempt, like I'd committed some major atrocity.

I'd once cried and begged Dad to tell me the reason behind all this. However, he'd only sympathized with me in return, then gave a resigned explanation that only outsiders could enter the hill.

We, as the cursed townsfolk, must not enter the hill at all.

After that, he'd toss me into boiling water because I hadn't successfully married.

As for Isaac, he'd spoiled me every day when we were in love. When I was pregnant, he grew even more protective and suggested that he come home with me so we could get married.

His love made me believe he was different from the others.

Alas, I was mistaken. I was forced to meet the same disappointing fate.

I gave up. I'd rather stay mute forever than endure this torture.

As I lay on the ground, practically at death's door, I had someone summon Ms. Lewis from the clinic in the next town. She'd been Mom's best friend when my mom was alive.

Upon hearing I'd been wounded, she hurried over with a medical kit.

Ms. Lewis was startled by the blood covering my skin and gushing out from my lower abdomen. Without another word, she quickly tended to my wounds, staunching the blood flow while drying her tears.

In the end, she was so heartbroken at the miserable sight of me that she dragged Dad by the ear to my bed. Her face was crimson with anger as she snapped, "Take a look at this, Seymour! This is your daughter—your own flesh and blood!

"This is the only child you have with Sophia. Are you going to torture her to death to spare the hill from desecration?"

She was rendered speechless when Dad didn't respond.

At last, she gathered me in her arms and said with grim determination, "Fine! If you won't have compassion for this child, then I will!

"Sophia saved my life when she was younger. In return, I'll save her daughter and repay the life debt I owe her!

"From now on, Beth will be my daughter. You can grow old and die alone for all I care, Seymour!"

Ms. Lewis carried me carefully to the door, consoling and reassuring me that she'd keep me by her side forever, even if I didn't marry. Just as we were about to reach her car, Dad suddenly bolted after us and said solemnly, "I'll take you to the hill behind our town. You'll see why!"

Ms. Lewis patted me comfortingly, then followed Dad to the hill behind our town.

Unexpectedly, she returned with a grave, stormy expression. Any trace of her kindness and compassion had disappeared. It was replaced by ferocity.

"You wretched little thing! I never should've saved you!" As she cursed at me, she stopped at the car and dragged me out of the seat. "How could an angel like Sophia give birth to a devil like you?"

As that wasn't enough, she gave me two hard kicks to make a point. "You are your mother's biggest blight! It's no wonder no man would marry you! It serves you right that your child has died in your womb too! You should stay mute forever!"

After that, Ms. Lewis turned on the ignition, put the car in drive, and ran over my wrist. I heard my wristbone snap under the wheel. My windpipe nearly burst with a cry of agony.

Dad grabbed one of my legs and hauled me back into the house, tossing me on the bed again.

My skin was festering. I couldn't move.

He grabbed a salve and began to apply it to my skin. I stared at his serious expression and wondered if his love wasn't as twisted as he was mad.

He knew that the results were the same no matter who I brought to the hill, yet he allowed me to bring one fiance after another home. When I failed to marry, he'd feel sorry for me, then toss me into a tank of boiling water.

After I'd failed to marry several times, I began to contemplate leaving this town and its odd rules, even if it meant I'd stay mute forever. However, every time I secretly got engaged and held a wedding out of town, Dad would always find out about it as if on cue.

The first time he discovered what I'd done, he nearly broke my legs.

The second time, he ripped my wedding dress to shreds and humiliated me in front of the audience.

He was finally appeased when I obediently brought my fiance home to go past the hurdle at the hill.

Dad still tended to my wounds and changed my dressings as he had the last few times. As the days went by, new skin began to grow.

However, I was quietly plotting ways to escape this town and from under Dad's gaze completely.

I finally decided to purchase a plane ticket to go abroad so I could further my studies.

Getting out of the town was a challenge in and of itself. I texted my best friend, Queenie Morris, and had her pick me up in her car.

However, I never expected Dad to sense that something was amiss with my behavior. He burned my suitcase and study materials. He even tossed my passport into the lake.

"You are not going anywhere from now on! I will find a husband for you, and I'll keep it up until you can speak!" he thundered.

I struggled against Dad's vice-tight hold as he let me kick and punch him. Whimpers and grunts of devastation formed in my throat as my tears sprang free.

It wasn't until the lakewater had swallowed my passport that Dad finally let me go.

However, I knew my life would be over if I heeded his word and stayed in the town forever. That prompted me to wade into the lake, fighting against death itself, to search for my passport.

The icy chill of the water seeped into my bones. It took me a while to locate my passport, but it fell apart in the water like mud.

At that moment, it felt like a massive palm had come out of nowhere and crushed me in its mighty grip. All my plans were ruined.

I returned home as a shell of the woman I had been. A man I'd never seen before stood in our yard. Upon seeing my return, Dad hauled me to the hill by the arm. "Your new skin is growing out nicely. Let's see if things won't work out with another man."

Hot, white rage seized me as I thought about the same consequences that had befallen me the last ten times and the scorching sensation of my body being boiled.

There was no accounting for the sudden surge of strength I used to shove Dad away, staggering backward as I signed, "Why are you doing this to me? I'll die if I lose another layer of skin! I'm your biological daughter, for god's sake!

"Why is it that out of everyone in the village, only my fiances would go into the hill and come out completely different people? Are you doing this on purpose?"

Dad stepped forward calmly, then grabbed my hair and forced out roughly, "This is your fate!"

With that, he dragged me by my hair toward the hill behind the town.

We'd just left the town entrance when my best friend, Queenie, rushed over. Tears welled up in my eyes. I looked at her like she was the physical representation of hope.

Worried something might go wrong, Queenie had even brought the mayor.

The mayor had always been fair when dealing with town affairs. He looked somber as he struck Dad's arm with his cane.

"Can't you let the child go? So what if she can't break her curse and stays mute forever? If you keep this up, someday, something terrible may happen to her. You'll be sorry then!"

Queenie quickly pulled me behind her while Dad was caught off guard by the pain in his arm.

"You old fart! You're just using your identity as Beth's Dad as an excuse to pick on her! Why else would the other townsfolk's engagements work out, but not Beth's ten engagements?

"I'd like to hear what lousy excuse you have this time! If I find evidence that your twisted behavior is baseless, I'll have you locked up!"

I held Queenie back as she tried to move toward the hill, biting my lip and shaking my head vehemently. I didn't want her to enter the hill and come out like the others who'd wanted to murder me after. I didn't want to lose the only friend who'd been kind to me.

However, Queenie patted my hand firmly and said in a steely tone, "I'm here to save you today. I won't hurt you, no matter what I see on that hill!"

The mayor placated me as well. "We have to know the reason, at least."

They were right. I also wanted to know what secrets the hill was holding. I slowly released Queenie.

Dad wordlessly led Queenie to the hill, but it didn't take her long to return with a grim scowl. She clutched her lower abdomen and retched, fixing me with a look just as contemptuous as the ones I'd gotten before.

She stormed up to me and kicked me twice. "How could you be so twisted, Elizabeth? I must have been blind to think of you as my best friend!

"A person like you deserves to rot in this town! Don't ever call me again, or I'll kill you myself!"

The mayor and my new suitor were bewildered. They pressed Queenie for answers.

Queenie spat on me, then whispered what she'd seen on the hill in the men's ears.

My new suitor's eyes widened as horror colored his expression. He cursed, "Bitch! Where's your conscience? How could you possibly set me up with a despicable woman like her?

"I'd sooner stay single for the rest of my life than marry her!"

The mayor's expression was thunderous. He stood rooted in place for a while, then summoned all his strength to strike me with his cane. He trembled as he cried, "I don't know what atrocity our town has done to deserve a devil like you living among us!"

I meekly lifted my chin to look at the people who'd been on my side just moments ago. Even my best friend wanted to kill me.

I lay sprawled on the ground. Helplessness washed over me. And yet, there was nothing I could do.