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墨書 Inktalez
The next day
I woke up early, feeling as if I had just recovered from a serious illness, my face pale as I headed to work.
Upon arriving at the office, I noticed that the usually lively atmosphere was now eerily silent.
Less than half of my colleagues were at their desks, staring blankly at their computers.
I felt increasingly uneasy.
It seemed that a terrifying change had occurred in the world without my awareness.
In the suffocating silence, I managed to endure until the afternoon.
I stretched and prepared to head to the break room for a cup of coffee.
I took a packet of fish food from my drawer, intending to feed the goldfish that had been in the break room for several years.
To my surprise, as soon as I entered the break room, I saw our usually friendly manager drooling at the corner of his mouth, fixated on the fish swimming in the tank.
Just as I was about to ask him what was wrong,
I watched in horror as he suddenly opened his mouth wide and thrust his entire head into the fish tank.
His mouth split wider and wider until his entire face was consumed by a maw filled with sharp teeth.
Before I could scream, a pair of hands covered my mouth.
Then, I helplessly watched as the goldfish, thick as an arm, was slowly devoured by the manager's gaping jaws.
The splashes from the struggling fish soaked the floor, releasing a strong, bloody fishy odor,
and red blood stained the transparent fish tank.
A hand covered my mouth and led me out of the break room.
I turned around to see it was Han Tianlin from the technical department.
He signaled for me to remain silent.
We returned to our desks, pretending that nothing had happened.
On the table, he and I communicated on paper.
Han Tianlin: "You need to be mentally prepared; the world has changed..."
I didn't understand: "?"
Han Tianlin: "Did you notice anything unusual after the Red Mist yesterday?"
I hesitated, unsure whether to tell him about my mother's strange behavior.
He seemed to sense my hesitation and wrote on the paper:
"The person sitting behind you, Xiao Li, lives above me. I saw him eat a stray cat from our community yesterday after work.
"He had been feeding that cat for two years."
Seeing this, I suppressed my fear and told him about the finger I found in the soup when I got home yesterday and my mother's peeping at night.
Suddenly, footsteps approached from behind, and my hands began to shake.
Han Tianlin quickly wrote on the paper: "You need to go home today just like before; your routine and habits must not change at all.
"Make sure no one around you notices anything unusual!"
"Tomorrow is Saturday. Let's meet in the park to discuss further."
After writing that, I stood up, pretending to have finished my work handover, and returned to my workstation.
I blacked out the note with a pen, tore it into pieces, and threw it into the trash can.
Behind me, the manager, satisfied after a meal, happily returned to his office.
I looked at the bloodstains dripping on the floor and remained silent.
After getting off work and returning home, I forced myself to finish the meal my mother had prepared, but I poured that bowl of soup down the toilet.
That night, I buried myself under the covers, pretending not to notice the gaze that had been fixed at the door all night,
and the saliva that dripped steadily from below...
On the third day,
I arrived at the park as agreed and saw Han Tianlin.
"How were you last night?"
I nodded. "Not bad."
Han Tianlin waved his hand. "Follow me."
I followed him to a wooded area in the park.
He pointed to a patch of dark red ground in the woods and said, "The day before yesterday, after Red Mist appeared, I happened to pass by this park after work."
"I saw with my own eyes as the head of a security guard suddenly split open, growing a mouth that devoured an uncle who was exercising in just two bites."
"I felt something was off at that moment, so I hid in the bushes.
"Later, someone called the police saying there were people being eaten, and three officers arrived. I saw those three officers drag five onlookers into the woods.
"Just like that security guard, some of the officers had a large mouth growing from their heads, while others had one from their chests, devouring the five onlookers until there were no bones left."
Han Tianlin looked at a few people walking stiffly by the riverbank and said, "This world is no longer what it used to be."
Then I followed Han Tianlin to his house to search online for the truth about what happened.
We wanted to see if we could find any relevant information.
We were afraid to go to an internet café, worried about encountering monsters, but fortunately, he lived alone.
We searched online for a long time and finally found a post about Red Mist in a forum.
The title of the post was very chilling.
"After the Red Mist dissipates, do not let them discover you!"
Who are "they"?
"This is the eighth occurrence of the blood-red Red Mist. After the Red Mist appears, do not trust anyone around you! Not even your closest ones!
"They are all monsters! They are man-eating devils!
"Do not tell anyone about your discovery! Once they find out..."
"Run! Hurry and escape!"
The post left an address: Room 1808, Red Sky Building.
I was puzzled: "The eighth time? This phenomenon has occurred before?"
"What does the address mean? Are we supposed to go there?"
We continued searching online for information about Red Mist, but found nothing except for this.
However, we managed to look up the address.
The Red Sky Building had been abandoned for over thirty years, located in a suburban area near a mountain, more than an hour's drive from where we were.
Since we didn't have enough time today, we decided to check it out the next day.
Before leaving, Han Tianlin reminded me: "Be careful and don't let them discover anything unusual.
"If something goes wrong, run immediately and contact me."
The information we found said not to be discovered by them, so I could only go home as usual.
After all, I had never experienced not going home before.
The closer I got to home, the greater my fear became.
By the time I reached downstairs, my legs were shaking so much that I could barely stand.
My mind was filled with Han Tianlin's descriptions of the man-eating monster and the blood that filled the fish tank that day.
I took a deep breath at the door and tried to calm myself for a long time, hesitating to take out my keys to unlock the door.
Suddenly, every hair on my body stood on end.
The cold, sinister gaze appeared again.
I stiffly looked up at the Cat's Eye on the front door.
I quietly approached the Cat's Eye, wanting to lean against the door to listen to the sounds inside the house.
As I raised my head, I saw a bloodshot eye pressed against the Cat's Eye, staring right at me.
That red eye was fixated on me...
I struggled to steady my trembling hands and awkwardly took out my key to unlock the door.
"Click—"
The door opened from the inside.
"Why are you just standing there at the door?" my mother looked at me suspiciously.
I swallowed hard, "Oh, I couldn't find the key for a long time..."
"Come in and wash your hands for dinner," my mother said with a strange smile before heading into the kitchen.
The aroma of today's soup grew stronger.
When I fished out a black eyeball from my bowl, I covered my mouth and rushed to the bathroom to throw up.
Hearing the noise, my mother came over from the kitchen.
"Click... Click..." The approaching footsteps filled me with increasing dread.
"What’s wrong!" My mother's flat voice came from outside the door.
Through the door, I seemed to hear her incessant swallowing, filled with malice and a strange excitement.
She was waiting for my response.
I took a deep breath and flushed the toilet.
The loud sound of the flush masked the tremor in my voice: "It's nothing, I just had a bad stomach at lunch."
I made an excuse about feeling unwell and returned to my room to rest.
My mother's voice drifted softly from behind me: "Such delicious soup, what a shame..."
That night, I lay under the covers.
I could clearly feel that the gaze through the crack in the door had changed from two pairs to four.
I didn't know who those two unfamiliar yet equally cold gazes belonged to.
The evil and desire in those gazes grew stronger by the day.
I knew that time was running out for me.
I closed my eyes and forced myself to sleep.
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