The moment we witnessed that scene, the numbers on the monitor began a macabre, literal plunge. The rhythmic beeping of the equipment, which had been steady and peaceful until then, grew increasingly frantic. Finally, it settled into a single, long, continuous tone, signaling that Jin Mu had left this world forever.
It was my first time facing death at such close range, and it was terrifying. I hadn't even recovered from the tension of being attacked by the tentacle before I was forced to see the aftermath of such an assault. Fear stems from perception and experience. If I had merely sensed the tentacle before, I was now chilled to the very marrow of my bones: if not for that pane of glass, I would be the one lying there now, a hole in my head leaking diluted blood, all signs of life extinguished. My palms were cold with the lingering shock of a narrow escape.
I was detained by the hospital staff. They locked me in an empty ward with a single observation window. They didn't believe a word I said; they suspected I was the one who had finished off Jin Mu. However, they had no reason to detain my roommate, as he had been out buying coffee and had only just returned.
After I was locked inside, my roommate became extremely restless in the corridor. Neither the doctors nor the security guards dared to approach him. He brazenly kicked at my door, trying to twist the lock open. I tapped on the glass, telling him to calm down, explaining that he would be more useful to me on the outside. I didn't know how soundproof the door was, so I tried my best to tell him everything I could think of. He listened intently from the other side, then punched the door in frustration before finally leaving with the hospital administrator who had arrived to handle the situation.
There was a surveillance camera in the ward. Once they reviewed the footage, they would have to release me—and likely offer me hush money. Unless, of course, they tampered with the recording. But with my roommate watching them like a hawk, I figured I didn't need to worry. When the time came, we would both have hush money to collect. Watching him negotiate firmly with the hospital staff, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. But as their footsteps faded into the distance, a sudden, dreadful tension gripped me—I was locked in this ward all alone.
In the long corridor, the lights had been dimmed. My room was the only one brightly lit, surrounded by the sharp, cold glint of delicate surgical instruments. It was late into the night, and the entire inpatient building was as silent as a grave. Outside, the rain began to fall—a sudden thundershower typical of the "Autumn Tiger" season. It lashed diagonally against the windowpane, sounding like extremely light, silent fingers tapping at the door. I sat alone in the center of the room, staring at the six white hospital beds surrounding me, watching the shadows beyond the reach of the light with extreme trepidation. How could I have forgotten that someone had just died next door, killed by something inexplicable? How could they leave me here alone?
Then, I suddenly heard the sound of a dog barking.
Everyone knows that animals like dogs have senses of smell and hearing far more sensitive than humans, especially regarding "unclean" things. Hearing such frantic barking, however, gave me no sense of security, as if a guard dog were protecting me. This was because the barking wasn't coming from outside the window; it was coming from right outside the ward door, in the corridor where the broken glass hadn't even been cleared away yet.
At the same time, I heard the sound of claws scratching at the door.
The lights cut out instantly, plunging the room into pitch darkness. I knew it wasn't an ordinary power failure because sparks were flying outside. My retinas, unadjusted to the dark, only caught fleeting, swimming afterimages. Accompanied by the terrifying barking, these shadows were violently ripping the wires out of the electrical box. They crowded against each other outside the door, scrambling to hammer on the glass window. Fortunately, the glass here was thicker than in Jin Mu’s room. I only heard muffled thuds; they couldn't break through. Before long, the pounding stopped, and the barking ceased with it.
I had already scrambled onto the windowsill, where I now stood frozen, staring toward the door. In moments like these, one doesn't even have the luxury of fear; only one thought occupied my mind: jumping. Only when the attack seemed to stop did I remember I was on the sixth floor. But what else could I do? The room was dark, I had no idea what could serve as a weapon, and I didn't even know what was waiting outside the door. Pathetically, I was nearly drowning in my own tears.
About a minute passed without a sound. I began calling my roommate's name, but there was no response. I started screaming for help. The loud barking, the massive commotion—everything seemed to have been washed away by the torrential rain. It felt as though I were stranded on a sealed, isolated island, with no one coming to save me. After a few shouts, I realized no one outside could hear me; I was truly alone.
Right then, I heard the ventilation duct above my head begin to shudder.
The hospital used central air conditioning, which meant a complex network of pipes behind the walls. Now, bits of plaster and dust began to flake off the ceiling in waves. Clearly, something was writhing behind the wall. Simultaneously, from the pitch-black bathroom to my right, came the sound of pipes creaking and groaning; the wastewater beneath the squat toilet was being churned. I couldn't take it anymore. I unlatched the window, and the torrential rain immediately lashed against my face. In the downpour that masked everything, I could only see a single, dim yellow light from the guardhouse below, peeking out from under a canopy. Crying, I wondered how I could jump so that I’d land on that canopy...
I never found the courage to take the leap, crouching on the windowsill in a state of paralysis. Below me was an external air conditioning unit; if I jumped onto it and then slowly climbed down the water pipes, it might be safer. But I had no intention of doing that. That would require me to turn around and cling to the sill as I lowered myself, so I gave up. I simply didn't dare make a sound, and I didn't dare look back.
Because a series of cold gusts was already blowing against my back. The wind carried a nauseating, overpowering stench.
And the low, menacing growl of a fierce hound was pressed right against my neck.
I had nowhere left to run. I remained in my position—one hand braced on the sill, the other gripping the window frame—weeping softly. From the darkness behind me, numerous disgusting, slimy tentacles reached out. From that small, enclosed window, from behind my back, they surged outward, appearing more and more frequently in my line of sight. They moved slowly and heavily, crawling over the back of my hand like cold snakes.
Then, suddenly, the lights flickered on.
When I woke up, I was lying in a hospital bed with an IV drip in my arm. The doctor said I had tried to jump out the window but was stopped just in time by my roommate. They comforted me with strange expressions, saying they believed I had nothing to do with Jin Mu's death and apologizing for the psychological distress caused by the incident. They promised to pay a large sum for "mental anguish." However, they refused to mention anything else. They didn't speak of Jin Mu's cause of death, nor did they mention the things that appeared while I was locked in that ward.
The back of my hand still remembered that disgusting sensation. That fishy stench seemed to linger at the tip of my nose. I didn't even have the strength to talk about money with them, so they took the hint and left. They said my health was fine, but I felt like I was truly going to die.
As soon as they stepped out, my roommate came in. He dragged a stool to the bedside and pressed a can of coffee against my face. "Yours."
I told him I didn't want to drink it right now.
He gave an "oh," and though he had intended to open his own can, he put it away on the nightstand instead. I told him to go ahead and drink his, but he said very seriously, "We'll drink together."
We fell into silence. I wanted to ask him if he had seen anything when the lights came on, but I was afraid he would deny it. I felt that if someone had witnessed it with me, perhaps it would prove I hadn't gone mad.
Before I could speak, he beat me to it with even more shocking news. "Jin Mu is gone."
I didn't understand what he meant by "gone."
"After we finished watching the footage in the security room and came back, we found you trying to jump. After saving you, we took you for emergency treatment. That's when a nurse discovered Jin Mu's bed was empty. He's nowhere in the hospital, and the ground-floor cameras didn't capture anyone entering or leaving."
Jin Mu had vanished into thin air.
And he had been a fresh corpse.
Then he told me something even more bizarre. "The surveillance in Jin Mu's room didn't capture the thing you described, either. It just looks like the window suddenly shattered, and you happened to be standing outside."
A chill ran through my heart, and I sat up in bed. "Impossible! That thing... that thing... I saw part of it, and then I saw all of it!"
"Don't get worked up." My roommate pressed me back down and propped me up with two pillows. "But because the glass shattered outward toward the door, the hospital has ruled you out as a suspect. And since Jin Mu's body is missing, the hospital will likely do their best to suppress the story. You're no longer involved in this."
Was I really not involved? That thing had targeted me. Listening to the dull roar of the rain outside, I curled into the blankets in fear. My roommate patted my shoulder. "I'm here. You don't need to be afraid."
"I don't want to live anymore," I sobbed, clutching him. "I'm terrified every single day. Life is meaningless. I just don't want to live."
I felt an unprecedented sense of grievance and a strange resentment toward him. Why did I have to endure all of this? Why couldn't he just drive all those loathsome things away? It was so hateful; my quality of life was non-existent now, encountering horrific monsters everywhere I went.
Seeing me cry, my roommate pulled me into his arms with heartache, letting me bury my face in his chest. "Don't cry, don't cry."
I only cried harder, sobbing until I could barely breathe. No matter how he tried to comfort me, I kept telling him I wanted to die, that I couldn't go on. My roommate looked devastated, his eyes rimmed with red. "You're crying so hard my heart is breaking," he said, using a total cliché.
I wailed back, "Then can you stop them from scaring me?"
My roommate kissed me and fell silent, letting out a long, heavy sigh.
Yes, I was shamelessly threatening him. I knew he wasn't the one hurting me, but I wanted to live—to live in peace and safety. I was using his affection for me to throw a tantrum, testing whether he would protect me. If he wouldn't, I truly didn't want to live. What kind of life was this? I might as well turn into a vengeful ghost and fight them all! That’s how stubborn I am, so what?!
My roommate carefully laid me back down and coaxed me, "Go to sleep."
"You haven't promised me yet," I said, clutching his sleeve. "They scare me when you're not around."
"Then we will stay together always," my roommate said firmly.
I thought about it and decided that was acceptable. "Then don't leave."
"I won't." He leaned against the headboard, letting me sleep in his arms.
I fell asleep and drifted into grotesque, kaleidoscopic nightmares. I woke up in the middle of the night to find him gone.
How hateful. Just his absence was enough to scare me half to death, and a pressing urge to urinate was rising in my bladder.
I really had to go... I really had to go...
Our ward didn't have a bathroom. I had to go outside. At the bathroom door, I took a deep breath, only to hear unusual sounds coming from inside. Someone was groaning, sounding as if they were in great pain.
Then, I heard my roommate's voice.
"Tell them to stop targeting Ye Xiao," my roommate said plainly, without a trace of emotion. He sounded cold, radiating an immense, commanding presence.
"If Ye Xiao sheds one more tear, I will cast every last one of them into the abyss."
***
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My Roommate is a Non-Human | Chapter 26 | Vanished Without a Trace | Novela.app | Novela.app
