My Cthulhu Girlfriend (gl) 3

Chapter 3: “Its” Name

The downpour was always accompanied by strong winds. The large trees swayed like the wild hair of a young girl, dancing their remnants in the dark night.

The world trembled outside the window, while Xiang Er stood frozen by the bed, staring at those translucent, plump, blood-filled, eerily swaying mushrooms.

Her roommate outside the door grew impatient:

“Are you coming out or not? If you don’t, I’m coming in.”

Xiang Er’s head turned towards the door. She couldn’t let her roommate in; this was her own little sanctuary.

But… something had already entered. That thing hadn’t even asked for her permission before scattering these mushrooms on her wall, and even invading her dreams.

Xiang Er moved her limbs, walked to the door, and opened it.

The living room light was slightly brighter than her room’s, but still dim and yellow. Her roommate, wearing the same clothes as before, stood with her hands on her hips, scowling at her, nostrils flaring:

“What were you doing? Didn’t move for ages.”

Xiang Er almost wanted to cry. Her roommate and the living room were so normal. After experiencing a whole day of supernatural events, this ordinary normalcy was precious and touching.

Her voice hoarse, she asked:

“What… what’s the matter?”

Her roommate frowned, a puzzled expression on her face, tinged with fear:

“Didn’t I knock on your door this morning? What happened afterwards? I slept in my room until just now. Why don’t I remember anything?”

Xiang Er said:

“Your… your high heels, they got a little mud on them. I said I could brush them for you, and then you turned and left.”

Her roommate, Li Wan, whose personality wasn’t gentle at all, had graduated two years ago and often bullied Xiang Er, taking advantage of her slightly greater experience. This time, she had come to find fault, already assuming a confrontational posture with her arms crossed, but she paused.

She looked at the girl in front of her. Xiang Er was usually pale as a ghost, with a slender and delicate figure, but today… she looked particularly different.

Xiang Er seemed to possess a unique aura. Under the dim light, she just stood quietly, her dark eyes staring unblinkingly, dark circles beneath them, her skin pale and bloodless, her limbs stiff like pillars. Her long hair cascaded down, covering her pointed chin and her bloodless, bluish lips.

Her clothes were plain white cotton pajamas, embroidered with a red rose. Usually, Li Wan would mock these clothes as tacky, but tonight, the rose was red like blood, like a pair of red lips mocking her.

Extremely creepy.

In the middle of the night, with heavy rain outside, the air damp, cold, and stale, the pale girl standing in front of her, staring intently, was scarier than a horror movie.

The rebuke on the tip of Li Wan’s tongue, for some reason, took a turn:

“Oh, is that so? Alright then…”

After she finished speaking, her gaze involuntarily shifted towards the space behind Xiang Er, her whole body tensing up as she made this movement, as if purely from muscle memory.

A gust of wind from nowhere suddenly blew across Li Wan’s neck. She looked behind Xiang Er, where there was clearly nothing, only the indigo windowpane, the protruding iron bars on the window, the rustling trees, and the rain…

She saw nothing. But Li Wan’s neck felt icy cold. Her gaze grew fearful, then lowered, summoning immense courage to glance at Xiang Er’s feet.

There was a shadow. Good… there was a shadow, a living being.

Li Wan blurted out:

“I’m going back to my room!”

Then, as if fleeing, she shuffled back to her room in her slippers, slamming the door shut with a bang.

Xiang Er watched her retreating figure, bewilderment in her eyes.

She felt a little regretful. She had hesitated for a while, wanting to ask Li Wan if she could sleep in her room tonight, but before she could speak, Li Wan had run off, missing the opportunity.

There were four hours until dawn. What should she do?

She didn’t dare to sleep, afraid of seeing those things in her dreams again, but she couldn’t not rest either. Time was precious for a worker; she had to go to work tomorrow.

Xiang Er thought for a moment, carefully walked back to her room, picked up her quilt from the bed, and carried it along with her laptop to the living room.

The living room light was brighter than the guest room’s.

She placed the quilt on the old sofa in the living room, set her laptop on the coffee table, and looked back at the empty guest room.

Hmm… if she wasn’t mistaken, with just a glance, her gaze met the eyes of the sculpture again.

Her bed and the door were in different directions. Yet the eyes of the sculpture, no matter where she was, seemed to meet hers.

As if… it really wanted Xiang Er to notice its abnormality.

It wanted Xiang Er to see it.

Xiang Er numbly averted her gaze, steeling herself as she walked over, her slender, pale hand resting on the guest room doorknob, gently closing the door, shutting out that wooden gaze.

Tonight… let it be like this. Tomorrow, she would get rid of the sculpture, and everything should be fine.

Xiang Er opened her laptop to work. She was a product operations manager, and there were always some odds and ends to do during every holiday, just like catching up on homework during school breaks. She had to finish it all tonight.

A mediocre life, a mediocre job, days slipping away through her fingers, living life adrift.

Sometimes Xiang Er wondered, would she continue living like this? But she had no other options or paths. The paths belonged to those with money and resources, and had nothing to do with a speck of dust like her, casually tossed into the world.

Xiang Er finished her work restlessly. After restraining herself for a long time, she “accidentally” turned her head and looked at the guest room door.

The door was quietly closed. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Staring at the computer screen, Xiang Er almost instinctively started a search.

She typed in the name of the city she had travelled to, followed by “folklore,” and a bunch of travel ads popped up. She tried to filter the information, finally finding an ethnic minority whose clothing resembled the old woman who sold the sculpture. Xiang Er noted the name of this ethnic group, then typed in the name followed by “mythology,” searching through the vast sea of pages.

Outside the living room was the balcony. The rain had gradually subsided, and dawn was approaching, a sliver of light appearing on the horizon. A cool breeze blew in from the balcony, not cold, like a lover’s hand, gently stroking the back of Xiang Er’s neck.

Xiang Er stared intently at the laptop screen. She found a travel blog that mentioned the myths of this ethnic group.

“Regarding the god of this unique ethnic group, I have learned some information through my research. This group has lived in the deep mountains for generations, worshipping a peculiar deity. This deity doesn’t have a familiar form and has never been seen by anyone, but for this ethnic group, it represents an extremely powerful and mighty force, the two sides of desire and reason, and the capriciousness capable of destroying the world at will.

Different tribes are scattered throughout the mountains, but this deity doesn’t favor any particular tribe. It is said that it spends most of its time sleeping, and humans must never disturb it with trivial matters. When a tribe’s priest offers a human head, heart, and fresh flesh, and summons it with a special incantation, it may awaken, but the consequences are unpredictable. It’s highly possible that the moment the deity awakens is the moment the tribe is completely annihilated.

Therefore, although this ethnic group collectively believes in this deity, they are all extremely secretive about its name, power, and summoning method. Only the high priests of each tribe know this top-secret information. Despairingly, those high priests who know too much information all go mad early, running into the deep mountains and becoming wild beasts, never living past thirty.

Truly a terrifying deity. Fortunately, in modern society, people no longer hold such peculiar beliefs. A god without offerings has probably long since departed.”

The travel blog was very clear. The more Xiang Er read, the more her heart sank, until it felt like it was being pulled down, unable to beat.

Could this be the thing she had provoked?

Was this what the sculpture represented?

A nameless, formless deity, powerful yet capricious…

A deity that could crush her with a flick of its finger.

Hiding in her small room?

Xiang Er’s head felt very heavy, like a ruminating cow, slowly chewing on this thought, over and over again.

She seemed to understand it, but also… didn’t understand it at all.

A god? Really a god? Then what was this god… doing in front of her?

Or was this so-called god just a more powerful ghost or monster? This was easier to understand. Xiang Er had read Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio and some infinite flow novels, and knew about the existence of “false gods.”

Moreover, based on the travel blog’s description, this so-called god… was hard to believe in. It felt like some kind of mountain spirit or monster, putting on an act to scare people.

But even a mountain spirit or monster would be difficult to deal with.

Xiang Er’s neck was extremely stiff. The gentle, cool breeze blew on her feverish face, bringing a bit of clarity. She slowly turned her head, looking at her small bedroom door, thinking: If it’s ghost-catching, should she go to a Taoist temple, or find a Buddhist monk?

The next second, her vision went completely black!

She seemed to be on a dark, thick, endless river. A gigantic shadow suddenly rose in the darkness ahead. Just one glance at it caused a splitting headache and weakness throughout her body!

She could hardly discern the giant shadow’s form, but several thick, dark red tentacles stretched out, waving frantically and angrily in the air, filling the sky in front of Xiang Er. Her eyes began to bleed tears, her brain felt like it was being pierced by an electric drill, her nose and ears began to bleed, and she opened her mouth, an endless stream of dark, viscous, fishy-smelling substance pouring out!

“Akhe… Akhe!”

The words echoed throughout the world, a howling wind whipping up waves. The voice was reverberating, androgynous, seemingly close at hand, yet also far away! Those dark red tentacles lashed out fiercely, suddenly coiling tightly around Xiang Er’s neck, waist, and legs, lifting her high into the air!

In the chaotic darkness, Xiang Er’s gaze suddenly met a giant eye, as red as blood, as large as the sun.

A vast amount of knowledge and endless madness, along with the whispers, flooded her mind. Xiang Er screamed uncontrollably, but her throat could no longer produce a normal sound. In the chaos that filled the world, she could only utter a few broken syllables:

“You… what… do you… want…”

Her slender, white throat was almost crushed by the thick tentacles, her delicate waist about to snap. In the capricious, maddening world of darkness, she was like the most insignificant white moth, about to be crushed into dust!

Xiang Er closed her eyes, but it was useless. That blood-red eye was still staring at her. Even if she gouged out her own eyes, it would be useless!

The tentacles thrashed her wildly in the air. This was the wrath of an Evil God, no human could withstand it!

A massive amount of information was forcibly poured into Xiang Er’s brain, and she finally understood everything.

She knew the name of the sculpture, the name of the true god worshipped by the tribe. Her lips trembling, she whispered in a hoarse voice:

“Akhe… let… me… go…”

Akhe, that was “Its” name.

The tentacles abruptly stopped.

Xiang Er completely lost consciousness.

Like a white leaf, in the howling wind of the dark world, under the gaze of the giant, blood-red eye… she fell powerlessly into the sea.