Chapter 9

It was as if all the blood in Xie Xishu’s body had frozen solid in that single instant.

Before he could even process a thought, and well before his brain had caught up, his body had already moved on its own.

He whipped around, raising the fruit knife in his hand high, and slashed it with all his might into the thick, viscous darkness behind him.

*Clack.*

The thin blade of the fruit knife struck the frame of the security door. The force of the swing caused it to fly out of his hand, skittering across the marble floor and sliding far away.

The next moment, the commotion Xie Xishu had caused triggered the motion-sensor light in the hallway.

The dim, flickering light instantly illuminated his field of vision—and the area directly before him: the entryway behind him was completely empty. There was no one there at all.

Of course there was no one there.

A voice in his head whispered, mocking him.

Yes, even though the light had been so dim earlier, humans were not creatures that relied solely on their eyes to perceive the world. If someone had truly crossed the threshold and stood behind him, he would have noticed.

As for the fleeting, almost imperceptible gust of air he had felt... no matter how he looked at it, the only conclusion was that Xie Xishu’s nerves were stretched too thin, leading to hallucinations brought on by extreme tension.

***

Despite these thoughts, Xie Xishu could not bring himself to relax. He didn't even bother to retrieve the knife from the floor; instead, he darted into the apartment like a frightened rabbit.

*Bang.* He slammed the security door shut and, with trembling, frantic hands, fumbled to lock it.

"Hah... hah... hah..."

His palms were drenched in cold sweat, making the deadbolt slippery beneath his touch.

"Hah..."

Xie Xishu heard his own breathing, which sounded unnaturally heavy and ragged in the pitch-black apartment. He had never realized before just how large his home was—even his own breaths echoed.

After locking the door, the darkness of the apartment made him shiver uncontrollably. Gasping for air, he rushed into the living room and flicked on every light in the house.

Soft, bright light flooded the entire apartment, yet Xie Xishu’s face remained as pale as a ghost’s.

He paced back and forth through his familiar home, opening and closing every cabinet door, neurotically checking every nook and cranny, even those too narrow to hide a cat.

After such a meticulous search, the only conclusion he could reach was:

Everything was normal.

The only thing abnormal in the entire house seemed to be Xie Xishu himself.

Even he felt that his current behavior was absurd, but he was completely unable to control it.

The unspeakable fear was like a breached levee, spreading and collapsing beyond his control. When he dragged his weak legs into the bathroom to shower, he felt as though a dim shadow was constantly standing outside the glass door, peering through the frosted pane, watching his every move without blinking.

When he forgot his pajamas and had to return to his room wrapped only in a damp towel, he felt that his wardrobe looked... wrong. Although he had folded the clothes and organized it himself, many details seemed different from when he had left that morning. There was a subtle, discordant feeling, as if the neatly stacked garments had been shifted.

By the time Xie Xishu could no longer resist the crushing weight of his fatigue and weakness, and had to lie down to rest, he still did not turn off a single light.

At the same time, he locked his bedroom door tightly, even dragging a chair over to wedge firmly beneath the handle.

He hid in his bed, pulling the quilt tightly over his head.

The small mound formed by the quilt shook slightly for a long time before finally going still.

Earlier, Xie Xishu had sat on the edge of the bed, taking deep breaths, hoping to stop this frantic, paranoid behavior.

He only wanted to calm himself down, but the result was the exact opposite.

Xie Xishu felt as if he could smell a strange scent.

It was a raw, musky odor, heavy with the powerful pheromones of a male animal in the mating season.

The scent felt disturbingly familiar, making him even more on edge.

He couldn't understand why, even after showering, the scent belonging to Qi Wu lingered so stubbornly, refusing to dissipate.

*Rustle.*

Suddenly, Xie Xishu pricked up his ears and turned toward the bedroom door, his heart beginning to race.

He felt as if he had heard a sound—an indescribable, wet, sticky noise. And that sound was coming from the living room, which theoretically should have been empty.

Yet, when he held his breath and listened intently, there was no sound at all, as if the faint, moist noise had been nothing more than a hallucination born of his exhaustion.

But Xie Xishu didn't feel any relief.

He couldn't help but fix his gaze on the door handle he had wedged shut, unable to stop himself from imagining the scene outside.

He imagined a tall figure, wandering quietly through the bright, silent living room... No, that wasn't right. Perhaps the shadow had appeared long before, while he was still searching the house. Just like in some horror movie, the shadow had been stuck to his back the entire time, hiding in his blind spots, following him in plain sight, watching him, mocking his nerves and his mental breakdown.

***

Xie Xishu knew these were ridiculous delusions, but he couldn't stop.

He could even imagine the face of that shadow and the way it looked at him.

Qi Wu.

He felt as if he were once again meeting that dark, viscous, heavy gaze.

That nauseating desire burned and pulsed within those beast-like eyes.

...

Xie Xishu thought he would stay awake until dawn in this state of extreme tension and panic, but he had underestimated the side effects of his high fever.

Curled in the corner of his bed in terror, lost in his increasingly horrific imagination, he slowly closed his eyes. Before long, his breathing deepened and slowed.

The boy was utterly defenseless, dragged by exhaustion and fever into a deep, near-comatose slumber.

Thus, Xie Xishu did not hear the piercing wails of sirens and ambulances that swept through the city late that night, filling the streets of A-City with an unusual, frantic noise.

*Boom—*

He was not woken by the massive explosion at the edge of the city, even though, in the seconds following the blast, the entire illuminated city plunged into darkness as every light source flickered out.

Xie Xishu’s room, too, was swallowed by the darkness of the blackout.

*Rustle, rustle...*

In his deep sleep, he remained entirely unaware as a shadow slowly crawled out from under his bed.

The shadow was exceptionally tall and robust; every muscle stretched over its frame trembled and rippled with tension.

People often have a stereotype that powerful, muscular beasts are clumsy and reckless.

But this shadow moved in a way that defied that foolish stereotype.

Its movements were fluid, silent, and agile—like a lethal viper or a monitor lizard.

When it climbed onto the mattress from the foot of the bed, the thick, resilient surface didn't make a sound or even shift. The uninvited guest quickly moved on all fours to the side of the bed’s true occupant.

The boy, curled into a ball, looked even more frail and diminutive; the intruder could easily cover the pale youth entirely beneath its own frame.

The mere thought made the "creature's" eyes glow with a ghostly light in the darkness.

It lowered its head, which hung at an unnatural angle from a long, slender neck, until it hovered right beside Xie Xishu’s face.

Its scorching breath brushed against Xie Xishu’s ear and cheek, raising a wave of goosebumps on that delicate skin.

Even in the deepest, darkest slumber, Xie Xishu seemed to sense something was wrong.

The sleeping boy furrowed his brows as the intruder leaned in, his dark lashes fluttering uncontrollably. Beneath his thin, fever-flushed eyelids, his eyeballs could be seen darting rapidly, yet he couldn't struggle enough to wake.

The only thing Xie Xishu could do was pull his shoulders tighter, shivering as he shrank further into the bedding.

*Drip—*

Just then, the sirens wailed again outside the window, and the red and blue flashing lights cast a thin glow across the side of the boy’s face.

A crystal-clear droplet slowly slid down the contour of his cheek, reflecting a faint glimmer.

*Drip—*

Another drop of viscous liquid fell from above, landing on Xie Xishu’s face.

The giant shadow looming over him had eyes that glowed with intense, fanatical brilliance. It watched Xie Xishu with obsessive devotion, a low, guttural murmur spilling from its throat. Every pore on its body seemed to be expanding and contracting in a joyous frenzy, soaking in the sweet, alluring fragrance that filled the air.

Its saliva, beyond its control, dripped from between rows of fine, jagged teeth, staining Xie Xishu’s neck and cheek in a sticky, foul-smelling wetness.

So sweet.

So sweet, so sweet, so delicious, so tempting—

The intense desire and the rich scent turned the creature’s brain into a thick porridge of instinct and lust.

Without realizing it, it opened its jaws toward Xie Xishu. Its mouth, completely unconstrained by human skeletal structure, stretched wider and wider...

Finally, its chin nearly touched its chest. Deep within the fully distended maw, countless red, anemone-like tentacles reached out, pointing straight at the oblivious Xie Xishu.