Chapter 11 (1/2)
”Are you going to be a good boy?”
The demon's voice whispered in Rand's ear.
Her voice was rough as if her tongue had been thoroughly burned by the sulfur of h.e.l.l, and every syllable was just like the devil's soul screaming behind him.
”I will.”
—When Rand woke up from his dream, he heard himself talking out loud.
His body twitched unconsciously... He quickly pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth, and the shaking disappeared a few minutes later.
Rand was laying down on his bed gasping for air, the cold sweat dampened his pajamas, which made him feel pretty uncomfortable.
Nightmare.
Rand knew that he had started again, this kind of thing often happens, it would even flare-up during his peaceful life with the Asian couple. The psychiatrist said that he had had some kind of psychological trauma, but Rand felt that everything was fine with him.
It's no more than a few instances of talking in his sleep while dreaming and physiological twitches after he wakes up, Rand is already starting to get used to it by now
Soon he woke up and found that his headache, like the nightmare, had already faded away.
This kind of feeling is pretty good, it was as if he obtained a new life, to put it another way.
Rand got out of bed and found that the clothes he was wearing yesterday were neatly folded at his bedside. The trace of a faint feminine perfume remained in this room, belonging to Rogers.
This overly feminine thoughtfulness made Rand feel a bit of an indescribable embarra.s.sment. He looked at those clothes, then grabbed them and stuffed them while he pa.s.sed by his was.h.i.+ng machine.
In the living room, Rand couldn't help but stop in his steps, that smell...
Rand felt like he smelled something again, a slight stench of rot.
But the smell is just like an apparition. Once you concentrate your attention on it, it will disappear.
In order to deal with the strange odor that might be an illusion, Rand yanked the curtains apart. It was still early, but the sunlight that poured in torrents into the room nevertheless made him squint his eyes in recoil. Other side effects of the vaccine are still around, he can endure being in somewhat poor health.
The sound of the water suddenly came from the kitchen, Rand ma.s.saged his forehead and slowly came up to the kitchen where he proceeded to see water flowing onto the kitchen counter and the fish spinning around in the bowl.
He couldn't help but pause in his steps.
Rand immediately discovered that the fish's wound was healing, the white film fell to the bottom of the bowl, and the water was a bit turbid, giving off a sort of extremely unpleasant smell.
”Oh, I forgot all about you.”
Rand raised his eyebrows and said to the little guy in the salad bowl.
He walked back to the corridor and found the fish food recommended by the pet shop owner in the middle of the pile of various items and sprinkled them randomly on the water surface. However, the fish just lazily turned around, not eating any of the food.
Rand stood on the other side of the kitchen counter and observed it for a while, using his fingers to flick the wall of the salad bowl. However, the fish still hadn't reacted at all. It seemed as if the fish food was merely dust that had fallen on the water surface.
Rand couldn't help but once again flick the salad bowl, only trying to simply catch the fish's attention— forgive him, after all, he has never kept any animals in his limited memory.
The fish suddenly stretched out of the water and bit at his finger.
”Hey—”
Rand immediately pulled his finger back.
He was frightened into nearly jumping, but it was completely different from the terrifying scenario in which his finger would have been bitten off by the fish. The fish only superficially bit it.
Lifting up his finger, Rand can see a shallow white mark there.
It was not until this moment that cold sweat slowly dripped down from his forehead.
”This wasn't funny.”
Even though he knew that a fish could not understand human language, Rand couldn't help but raise his voice at it.