My Cthulhu Girlfriend (gl) 18

Chapter 18: Desire

Mornings were generally pleasant.

Xiang Er liked mornings, liked the way her pale face and hands stretched out into the cool air, as if still embracing hope.

She also liked the thin mist. The mist settled on the crowns of the camphor trees, on the grey tiles, on the black and white walls, and on the faces of passersby, gently obscuring their gazes and stares.

Xiang Er was afraid of being stared at. She had always been afraid, ever since she was a child. As a kid, she didn’t want to stand in the center of the choir, and as an adult, she avoided speaking up in group interviews. She wanted to live her life unnoticed, tucked away in a corner, needing only her own company, without anyone looking at her.

But now… she desperately wanted someone beside her, so she could hold up her finger and ask:

What’s going on?

The two tentacles wrapped around her finger hadn’t disappeared. Since that first kiss, they had clung to her softly, their suckers tracing the lines of her finger, occasionally sucking gently, sending a tingling, prickly itch across her skin.

“Pop,” “pop,” “pop…” each time a sucker detached from her skin, it made this soft sound, drifting in the morning mist, sometimes overlapping, like the sound of flowers blooming.

The sweet fragrance quickly filled the room. That intoxicating scent that always drove Xiang Er to the brink of madness, a fragrance no combination of crushed flowers and fruits could replicate. It filled her nostrils.

Her finger ached when she focused on it.

Her right index finger was now completely red, the blue veins more prominent, a pale pink blush spreading, and some parts of the skin, where the suckers had been, had even turned a dark purplish color.

It was as if someone had spilled a chaotic palette of colors onto her finger.

Xiang Er’s heart pounded, and she felt unsteady, leaning back against the wall. The cold wall slightly eased the throbbing vein in her temple, but not by much. Her thoughts raced.

The “pop” sounds continued.

Suddenly, Xiang Er realized that the Evil God had never actually said it was going to eat her.

The Evil God had only bound her body tightly with its tentacles, completely immobilizing her, using endless pressure and scenes of bloody horror to subdue her, to make her… submit to Its will!

With such immense power, It wouldn’t need to go to such lengths to eat her. All that talk about optimal dining time, dining etiquette, it was all her own wishful thinking. If the Evil God wanted to eat someone, how could they possibly resist?

If not to eat her, then what was Its purpose?

Thinking this, Xiang Er exhaled deeply. Looking down, she saw that the two thin tentacles had somehow reached her palm.

The tentacles, thicker than the lines on her palm, traced the patterns of her palm print, their touch delicate and gentle.

Perhaps influenced by her thoughts, Xiang Er, staring at the two exploring tentacles, even saw a hint of intimacy and desire.

As this word surfaced, the tentacles suddenly tightened around her finger, their suckers firmly attached to her finger and palm!

“Ah! It hurts!”

Xiang Er cried out, a vein throbbing in her forehead. She grabbed the tentacles with her left hand, pulling at them, but she couldn’t tear them away!

The two tentacles, with their hundreds of tiny suckers, clung tightly to her hand, as if in anger, in resentment, refusing to let go! To tear them away would mean ripping off all the skin and flesh from her hand!

Xiang Er, terrified by this development, and even more so by her own deduction, broke out in a cold sweat, her clothes completely soaked!

It was… desire!

The Evil God desired “desire”!

She screamed in agony:

“Let go of me!”

She didn’t want to become the Evil God’s plaything! Why her? Why did it have to be her?!

The intensity of her emotions caused the sweat to evaporate, her own scent mingling with the overwhelming sweet fragrance. The scent began to change, taking on a strange, metallic tang, the smell of earth and vegetation, intermingling with the cloying sweetness.

The room seemed to fill with mist, a swirling mix of pale green and pale pink.

Xiang Er’s hand was incredibly weak, but she still desperately tugged at the tentacles, and this time, they easily detached. The tentacles released her finger, the dark purple marks beneath the suckers exposed to the cool air.

Xiang Er opened her eyes blearily. The two tentacles swayed in the air, as if observing her, their suckers opening and closing, their entire length now a translucent dark red. Mushrooms began to sprout on the walls, red and pink mushrooms with translucent edges, growing in clusters.

Xiang Er’s face was ashen. Her voice was barely a whisper:

“You want my desire, don’t you?”

She looked at the tentacles. The tentacles swayed again, as if in confusion, then… dipped downwards twice.

It was nodding. It agreed, her deduction was correct.

Xiang Er let out a weary sigh.

But then, the tentacles… swayed from side to side, as if shaking its head.

Xiang Er hummed in confusion, looking towards the source of the tentacles, the wooden sculpture.

The sculpture’s large eye was fixed on her. The wooden tendrils around the eye had now all transformed into thin, dark red tentacles, writhing around the large eye.

It was no longer concealing itself, forcing Xiang Er to face this grotesque sight.

Xiang Er struggled to think clearly, then asked:

“You don’t know what you want either?”

The tentacles dipped twice this time, without swaying.

Xiang Er frowned, momentarily speechless. This was too strange. A Evil God, in her home, yet It didn’t know what It wanted.

Xiang Er tentatively asked:

“Then, do you want to try… somewhere else, with someone else? Maybe I’m not a suitable test subject.”

The tentacles froze. After a moment, the two long tentacles reached out and wrapped around Xiang Er’s neck, not tightly, their cold, slimy surface pressed against her skin.

The meaning was clear—I don’t want anyone else, I want you.

Xiang Er felt a wave of helplessness. She leaned against the wall, panting, doing nothing, letting the tentacles coil around her neck, both of them frozen in place.

This was… awkward, Xiang Er thought self-deprecatingly.

The sweet fragrance and the faint scent of vegetation in the room slowly dissipated. The Evil God seemed to have no intention of further action. Xiang Er reached out to remove the tentacles, but as soon as she did, the tentacles wrapped around her hand, extending and retracting like stretchy candy, impossible to shake off.

Xiang Er simply raised her hand above her neck, towards the sculpture’s eye, and sighed in resignation:

“Is this helpful? Will this help you figure out what you want?”

The tentacles slowly released her hand, then her neck, but they remained hovering a few inches away.

Xiang Er looked at the tentacles for a while, then suddenly chuckled and asked:

“You’re not going to kill me, not yet, right?”

The tentacles immediately nodded.

Xiang Er felt a great sense of relief, a heavy weight lifting from her heart.

But then, the tentacles… shook their heads.

Xiang Er froze. What did that mean?

“You still… will kill me? Just not now?”

The tentacles nodded this time. The translucent red tip slowly extended, pressing against her neck, right where her carotid artery was.

The suckers, opening and closing, attached themselves to the thin skin above her artery, a dull ache spreading.

Xiang Er’s body went rigid, afraid to move. She had been too presumptuous, and now she regretted it. She shouldn’t have said so much to the Evil God… Her life was completely in Its tentacles. If the tentacle exerted even a little more force, she would die instantly!

“You… I’ll be obedient, please don’t do this…”

Xiang Er said, her throat constricting painfully under the tentacle’s suckers.

With a “pop,” the suckers detached from her neck, the tentacle lifting, swaying playfully in the air, its tip lowered towards her neck, admiring its handiwork.

Xiang Er turned to look at the mirror on her desk.

There, on her neck, were several distinct, dark purplish-red… hickeys.

Xiang Er’s face flushed crimson.

Time quickly passed, and it was past ten o’clock. Xiang Er hadn’t left the apartment.

At that moment, Li Wan quietly opened the apartment door and entered.

Li Wan walked silently, her boyfriend following close behind. They tiptoed past the shoe cabinet and bathroom, peeking towards the guest room.

The guest room… was closed.

Li Wan and her boyfriend exchanged glances. The boyfriend had bandages on his head and several band-aids on his face, his expression comically exaggerated.

Li Wan stepped forward, cleared her throat, and knocked on the door:

“Xiang Er, come out!”

She knocked for a while before a sound came from inside, someone shuffling in slippers, slowly approaching the door.

Li Wan’s heart pounded with nervousness. She had always felt that there was something strange about Xiang Er, and now… she suddenly imagined, what if a female ghost opened the door?

The door opened, revealing a deathly pale arm, covered in purplish bruises. Li Wan almost screamed.

Fortunately, the door opened wider, revealing half of a pale, thin face. It was Xiang Er, her eyes dark-circled, her lips pursed, her usual listless, unenergetic self.

However… Li Wan’s sharp eyes caught sight of a series of purple marks on her neck. She thought incredulously: Hickeys? Was she into that kind of thing?

Xiang Er looked at Li Wan, her dark eyes staring intently:

“What’s wrong?”

Li Wan couldn’t resist asking:

“Are those hickeys on your neck? Who gave them to you?”

Xiang Er froze, turning her head to the side, her lips pressed together in a helpless grimace.

Inside the room, hidden from Li Wan’s view, a dark red tentacle swayed playfully, its tip tapping the sculpture in the distance, then returning to caress Xiang Er’s ear.

Cold suckers opened and closed against her ear, fragments of information transmitting into her mind, like an answer to the question, and also like a warning:

Akhe gave them to you.

It’s your honor, you must show them off, don’t you dare cover them up.