novelraw Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Lying in Lu Qi's bed, the feeling was strange.
The sheets were a pink checkered pattern, the pillow was soft, and it carried the same faint milky scent that clung to Lu Qi's body. The duvet was light—like being wrapped in clouds.
This was her sister's private space. As an older brother, Lu Li had rarely come in here before, let alone slept here.
But now, she had rightfully taken the place over.
Lu Li lay with her eyes open, staring at the slightly old ceiling light overhead, not the least bit sleepy.
Her body was exhausted—every cell screaming for rest—yet her mind was unnaturally alert.
There was a thin crack in the ceiling, running from the corner of the wall all the way to the edge of the light fixture. She had looked at that crack many times—every time she came in to change Lu Qi's lightbulb, she would notice it. Before, she had thought that once she had money, she would repaint the ceiling. Now—
‘What was the point of thinking about that now.’
She rolled over. Her long hair spread across the pillow, a few strands caught beneath her back, tugging with a faint sting. She impatiently swept her hair aside, only to find that no matter how she repositioned it, it kept getting trapped—it was too long, and no matter how she laid it, it would press down on something. A problem she had never had before.
A faint sound drifted in from the living room.
The creak of sofa springs under pressure. The soft rustle of a duvet shifting.
Lu Qi wasn't asleep yet.
After a while, the sounds on that side settled into quiet. Only the occasional gust of wind outside swept past.
A strange loneliness welled up.
Lu Li suddenly wanted to go out there. Wanted to be like before—keeping Lu Qi company when she couldn't sleep. Asking how school had been, whether anyone had given her trouble, what she wanted to eat tomorrow.
But now… it would be weird, wouldn't it. A stranger who had just been taken in, going out in the middle of the night to chat with the person who'd taken her in. Too weird.
Never mind.
Lu Li rolled over and buried her face in the pillow.
Forced herself to stop thinking.
‘Stop thinking. Things will work themselves out.’
‘At least… the cake was delivered.’ ‘The strawberries were eaten. Lu Qi was fine.’
That was enough.
Too many things crammed inside her head, tangled like a pot of porridge. What exactly had happened today? What was that black creature? What did that woman with the knife mean by "Calamity" and "Night Wanderer Society"? Why had her own body ended up like this? What was that flash of darkness she'd seen in her mind? How much did Lu Qi actually know? Why had her reaction been so calm?
Too many questions. Not a single answer.
‘If you can't figure it out, stop trying. Deal with it tomorrow—think of something tomorrow. For now—’
‘Just sleep.’
At some point, her consciousness began to blur. Those tangled questions grew distant, as if separated by a layer of water.
So tired. So drowsy. Too much had happened today. So much that her mind had simply run out of room.
And then—she fell into darkness.
****
A dream.
Lu Li stood in an endless expanse of black.
Nothing surrounded her on any side. No light, no sound, no sense of up or down or left or right. Like sinking to the very bottom of a deep ocean, or floating at the furthest edge of the universe. The darkness was as thick as ink—as though she could reach out and touch it.
But she wasn't afraid.
Strange. This kind of darkness should have been terrifying. Yet she felt only… familiarity. As though she had been here before. As though this place had always been a part of her.
GURGLE.
A strange sound broke the silence.
Soft, small—like a bubble rising from the bottom of water and popping at the surface.
Lu Li looked down.
At her feet, something small was crouching.
Round and plump, black and formless—it had no fixed shape, like a blob of living ink, or a lump of black putty kneaded into a ball. Its surface rippled constantly; every so often, a tiny bubble would swell up from within it, then pop with a little blup.
Like… ink? Or maybe a slime?
GURR-GURGLE.
It made another sound, and rubbed itself against Lu Li's ankle. Whether it was calling out to her or just murmuring to itself, she couldn't tell. It was cool to the touch, soft—like a piece of living jelly.
Kind of… cute?
Lu Li crouched down and, with a measure of curiosity, extended a finger and poked it.
"You are… what?"
The black little blob dented where she poked it, then quickly sprang back, tilting its body to one side—if that black lump of a thing could even be called a body. It had no eyes, no mouth, no distinguishable features of any kind. Yet Lu Li could somehow sense its emotions… It was being coy.
And what's more…
It was watching her.
With a wholehearted, yearning gaze—affectionate, even tinged with a hint of… hunger.
GURGLE?
This sound was lower, carrying a trace of grievance. As if to say—don't you recognize me?
"I…"
"What do you want?"
And then, a voice rang out directly inside Lu Li's mind.
Not heard—felt.
『Hungry.』
Just that one word.
Carrying boundless craving and emptiness.
『Hungry.』
『So hungry.』
『Want… to eat.』
With that voice, the darkness all around began to churn violently—and then it suddenly started to dissolve. As though someone had pulled back a curtain from behind, light leaked in through the cracks, so sharp she instinctively squinted.
Consciousness was rising. The dream was collapsing.
In those final moments, the outline of the small black blob grew indistinct. It squirmed once, as if trying to draw closer to her—but it was already too late.
Only a voice remained, drifting out from that dissolving darkness. Soft, distant, yet somehow unmistakably clear—
『Hungry…』
****
Lu Li's eyes snapped open.
"Ha… Ha…"
She gasped for breath, sitting bolt upright in bed.
Cold sweat had soaked through her Sleep Dress, clinging to her back in a clammy film.
The ceiling. The familiar ceiling. The crack running from the corner of the wall to the edge of the light fixture was still there.
‘It was a dream.”
She lay back, her heartbeat hammering—like she'd just sprinted 100 meters. A thin sheen of sweat had broken out across her back; the Sleep Dress stuck to her skin, damp and uncomfortable.
‘What was that just now…?’
That expanse of darkness. That small black blob.
A dream? Just an ordinary dream?
But it had felt too real. Real in a way that didn't feel like a dream. More like—
More like she had gone somewhere, and seen something.
‘What was that… thing?’
Lu Li looked down at her own hands.
Pale. Slender. Nothing unusual.
But deep in her stomach—or somewhere even deeper than her stomach—an indescribable emptiness was spreading. Not the ordinary hunger of wanting food, but something more fundamental… a deficiency, an urge to fill something. Just like what the little creature in the dream had said—hungry.
Outside the window, the sky had already begun to pale with the first light of dawn.
Somehow, while she hadn't been paying attention, morning had nearly arrived.
Lu Li lay in bed, eyes fixed on the ceiling, motionless for a long, long time.
But she knew—something had already changed.
TWEET—
A clear, bright birdsong rang out from beyond the window.
Lu Li's ears moved on instinct, her pupils contracting slightly as she instantly locked on to the source of the sound.
In that moment, the thought that surfaced in her mind wasn't it's morning—it was… ‘what would that little thing taste like…?’
She snapped her eyes shut, shaking her head hard, flinging that bone-chilling, instinctive thought out of her mind.
"Stay calm… Lu Li."
She murmured the warning softly into the air.
A new day had arrived.
Lu Li rolled over and buried her face in the pillow, trying to squeeze out a little more sleep.
But in the second before her consciousness blurred again, she thought she heard something.
Very soft. Very faint.
Like someone had been standing outside the door for a long time—and then quietly let out a sigh.
"…Lu Qi?"
No response.
‘Probably just my imagination,’ Lu Li thought drowsily.
She never saw the thin sliver of shadow beneath the crack of the door—pausing for a moment, then silently slipping away.