Chapter 81: The Small Eyeball
Akhe silently, helplessly swallowed the blood, her mouth opening as if to speak, then closing again.
She simply lifted Xiang Er with a tentacle and carried her swiftly back to the apartment.
The journey was silent.
That day, many people saw a strange, unidentified flying object in the sky, a swirling mass of black tentacles, moving swiftly above the city.
Flocks of startled birds scattered in its wake, aircraft malfunctioned, even electromagnetic signals were disrupted. As the massive, silent tentacles passed overhead, people felt a strange, inexplicable pang of sadness.
Back at the apartment, Xiang Er’s mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood, and she immediately rushed to the bathroom, rinsing her mouth repeatedly.
She washed her face, staring at her reflection in the mirror, the water droplets clinging to her skin, the ghost of Akhe’s kiss lingering, impossible to erase.
She gritted her teeth, her eyes red and swollen, the tears difficult to wash away.
“Chirp?”
A small, bird-like sound came from outside the door, a hesitant, almost cautious chirp.
Thin lines tapped against the door, then snaked upwards.
Xiang Er finished washing her face and opened the bathroom door.
There was no tall, elegant woman waiting for her, no thick tentacles, nothing.
Xiang Er hesitated, about to turn away, when something grabbed her ankle. She looked down.
The small eyeball, its large eye wide, was clinging to her ankle with its thin, smooth tentacles, bouncing slightly, chirping softly, trying to get her attention.
Xiang Er:
“…”
She tried to shake it off, but it was stuck, like a piece of sticky candy, clinging to her foot, bouncing back like a black yo-yo when she kicked it.
Xiang Er simply dragged it along as she walked, it wasn’t heavy anyway.
She dragged the small eyeball out to the living room, looked around, and realized that Akhe wasn’t there.
Where had it gone? The thought crossed her mind, then she quickly dismissed it: What did it matter to her?
Xiang Er sat down on the sofa, lifted her foot, placed the small eyeball in her hand, and started pulling at it.
The small eyeball let out a series of agitated squeaks, as if in pain, but its tentacles clung tightly to her ankle, refusing to let go.
Xiang Er thought for a moment, then said coldly to the small eyeball:
“Get off.”
Small Eyeball:
“Chirp!”
Xiang Er:
“Do you want me to cut off your hands?”
Small Eyeball, its voice timid yet defiant:
“Woof… ooo chirp!”
Xiang Er couldn’t understand what it was saying, but seeing its tentacles tighten their grip, she understood its meaning. She grabbed a pair of scissors from the table and held them towards her ankle.
“Get off, or I’ll cut them.”
The small eyeball whimpered:
“Ooh… wuwuwu chirp squeak…”
Xiang Er’s voice was cold and merciless:
“You can talk, I know.”
The small eyeball’s cute animal sounds stopped abruptly, and after a moment of silence, it spoke:
“No… don’t…”
Xiang Er:
“Then get off.”
Small Eyeball:
“Wuwuwu no, no… Mommy doesn’t want me… wuwu…”
The small eyeball, its black, slimy body, rubbed against Xiang Er’s ankle and foot, leaving trails of black slime, and Xiang Er, disgusted, tried to shake it off.
She held the scissors closer, lifting one of the small eyeball’s tentacles:
“Get off! I’m going to do it!”
The small eyeball suddenly opened its slit-like mouth wide, almost splitting its body in half, and wailed loudly:
“Waaaaah—Mommy, it hurts—waaaah—don’t hurt me, wuwuwu—waaaah aaaaaah!”
Xiang Er pressed her hand against her temple, her head throbbing. She wasn’t afraid of death, but she couldn’t handle this kind of childish tantrum, it was worse than Chinese New Year.
She held the scissors, the tentacle, but hesitated at the last moment.
Just then, Akhe, appearing from nowhere, her arms crossed, scoffed:
“Heh… if you cut off its hand, it won’t grow back.”
Xiang Er turned to look at her. Akhe, in her flowing red dress, leaned against the wall, her posture elegant and aloof, her makeup light and understated, her expression seemingly annoyed, but… her beautiful eyes were filled with a mixture of reproach and sadness, glancing at Xiang Er, then quickly looking away when their gazes met.
Her attempts at stealing glances were truly clumsy.
Xiang Er turned back to the small eyeball, lifted the scissors, and… “snip.”
The small eyeball’s cries stopped abruptly, and it looked at Xiang Er, its slit-like mouth closed, its eye wide with disbelief.
Xiang Er held the severed piece of fabric from her sock, glanced at the small eyeball, and said coldly:
“Touch me again, and you’ll end up like this.”
The small eyeball looked at the scissors, then at the severed fabric, its tentacles still clinging to it.
But… she hadn’t cut its tentacle.
The small eyeball opened its mouth and said, its voice filled with wonder:
“Mommy… Mommy didn’t hurt me… Mommy doesn’t want me to be hurt!”
Akhe, in the corner, stared, her eyes wide with disbelief. Why? This wasn’t fair!
The small eyeball, however, was overjoyed. It opened its eye wide, bounced excitedly like a black ping pong ball, almost hitting Xiang Er’s face, shouting:
“Mommy didn’t hurt me! Mommy didn’t hurt me! Mommy likes me, Mommy likes me!”
Xiang Er, exasperated, covered her face with her hand, stood up, and stepped over the bouncing small eyeball.
She had to go to her room, which meant passing by Akhe, who was still standing in the corner.
As expected, a thick tentacle shot out and grabbed her, holding her captive.
She sighed, her gaze fixed on the imperfectly repaired wall, not looking at Akhe.
Akhe approached, her voice low and angry:
“You could bite off my tongue, why can’t you cut off its tentacle?”
Xiang Er:
“Because I wanted to.”
Akhe suddenly appeared in front of Xiang Er, a tentacle lifting her chin, forcing her to look, to meet her gaze.
Only after confirming that Xiang Er’s eyes held only her reflection did Akhe’s anger subside slightly.
Akhe’s voice, slow and deliberate, each word measured, asked:
“You hate me, don’t you? Then why don’t you hate it? Do you even know what it is?”
Xiang Er didn’t know, but she knew her instincts were right, the small eyeball and Akhe were separate entities, otherwise Akhe wouldn’t be so jealous.
She raised an eyebrow, a defiant glint in her eye, and said calmly:
“It’s more lovable than you, no matter what it is.”
Akhe’s anger flared again, the tentacle holding Xiang Er’s chin tightening, almost drawing blood.
She stared into Xiang Er’s eyes and said:
“It’s… a manifestation of my endless love for you. Don’t you understand… it came from me, but it was born because of you, you hate me this much, then why… why don’t you hate it?”
Xiang Er froze.
Akhe, with a tentacle, roughly grabbed the small eyeball, lifted it into the air, and held it before Xiang Er’s face:
“Look! Look at it! If you hate me, if you hate my love for you, then why don’t you hate it? It is my love for you!”
The small eyeball, dangling like a black and red ornament, its red eye peeking out from beneath its eyelid, looked utterly pathetic. Its slit-like mouth opened, and it said sadly:
“Mommy… I love you the most, Mommy…”
It didn’t even look at Akhe. Although it had been born from Akhe, all its yearning, all its innocent affection, was directed towards Xiang Er.
Xiang Er was stunned, utterly stunned.
She had imagined many origins for the small eyeball, a byproduct of Akhe, a small animal turned into a monster.
She also realized that the fight between her and the small eyeball had been orchestrated by Akhe, but she had never imagined… that the small eyeball was born because of her.
Akhe’s tentacle, holding the small eyeball, trembled slightly, and transparent tears, like a human’s, welled up in her eyes. She said:
“You know… when I first discovered it, I was scared, because I didn’t understand, why my body was splitting, why I was… giving birth to something, I thought I was… broken. I kept it in the refrigerator, and that day, you wished for me to leave. I left, but it… it didn’t disappear, it grew larger. Can you understand… you asked me to leave, but my love for you… was growing.”
Xiang Er looked at the small eyeball, silent, the tentacle on her chin now gone, but she didn’t seem to notice.
Akhe’s voice trembled:
“Later… later, we… I thought we were a couple, that we should… be intimate, and I… I did that with you in your dream… my love for you grew uncontrollably, and it grew larger, more powerful… that night, it… it climbed into your bed, I didn’t even know until I emerged from your dream…
You were so angry, I tore it apart, reabsorbed it, but I realized it had developed its own consciousness, it thought of itself as your child, it didn’t want to merge with me… I could only… restrict its growth, and send it to you.
Don’t you… also think it’s like your child? If so, then please don’t hate me anymore… I’m its mother too…”
By the end, Akhe’s voice was choked with sobs, tears streaming down her face, her eyes glistening with pain and a desperate plea.
The room was silent, the small eyeball also silent, its single eye fixed on Xiang Er, like a well-behaved child.
It was a lot to process. Xiang Er thought for a long time, then finally understood.
She spoke with difficulty:
“You’re saying… I… the things I… dreamed, it was all you… how did you… do those things?”
Akhe extended a tentacle, gently touching Xiang Er’s forehead, a wave of sweet, thick fragrance filling the air.
Their clothes instantly vanished, the small eyeball thrown into the bedroom, the door slammed shut, and Akhe, her naked body beautiful and flawless, pressed against Xiang Er, her eyes still angry, her breath a sweet, intoxicating whisper against Xiang Er’s skin.
Her breath warm against Xiang Er’s ear, her soft breasts pressed against Xiang Er’s chest, she slid into Xiang Er’s arms like a smooth, sweet fish, turning Xiang Er’s face towards hers:
“Do you want to try again?”
Leave a Reply