Tenth Year After the End CH3

003

The room was really dark, I lit up a candle, picked up the hatchet, and pushed open the door that the little monster was locked in with my foot.

It had rolled down onto the floor again, still lying there motionless, as if dead. I walked in and placed the candle onto the table, before squatting down to look at the little monster.

I turned it over, but it still didn't move, its eyes were tightly shut.

Is it really dead? I placed my hands on its chest, and it was silent.

The little monster was no longer breathing, and its body was cold. The umbilical cord had also fallen off, but some bloodstains stayed on its belly, dried and mottled.

I'm not a very compassionate person, at least not now, but I don't know why, at this moment, I felt an inexplicable discomfort in my heart. Humans are bizarre. I had clearly decided to kill it just moments before, but now that it really died, I became sentimental.

I put down the hatchet and picked up its body. I was going to wash the dust and blood off of it before I buried it in the yard.

I don't know how this thing appeared in my stomach, and I also don't think of it as my child. So this behavior seemed excessive, but let's just assume that I suddenly felt soft-hearted.

As I was walking out with the little monster's corpse, I suddenly remembered something, turning around, I entered another empty room and took out children's clothing from the inside of the dusty closet.

The clothes belonged to the original owner of the house. They probably had a child, so there were a lot of clothes for the children. I randomly chose the smallest one from within and took the body of the little monster to the kitchen. I hadn't poured out the hot water left in the pot from cooking earlier, so I scooped it out and poured it into the basin, before also adding some cold water.

I put the little monster's body into the warm water, held up its soft head, washed off the blood on its belly, the dust and dirt on its paws, and then cleaned the clumped hair.

The little monster's hair was very soft and felt longer than that of an average baby's. I had never taken care of such a weak creature, and it was already a corpse, so I didn't feel the need to be very careful. I cleaned it like I was cleaning a carrot. But as I was washing its neck, I felt something was wrong.

I brought it out of the water and touched its neck carefully. It seemed to still be breathing?

As soon as I thought of this, I felt something in my hand move, the little monster had opened its eyes again. I was shocked and threw it back into the basin, and water splashed all over. However, I didn't care instead, I subconsciously looked around for my hatchet.

By the time I got hold of my hatchet, the little monster had already crawled out of the basin. It was wet all over, with its hair stuck to its face, making its green eyes look even more terrifying.

It crawled towards me. It was only a day old, but it already knew how to crawl, I thought this as I watched it crawl over.

It crawled over and, just like before, stretched out its paws to hug my feet, then raised its head and bleated at me. It was still that same soft bleating that sounded harmless.

Was this thing pretending to be dead before? I pulled it away again, holding its head, I placed the hatchet against its neck. When I was washing it just now, I was sure that its neck was very soft and my hatchet could definitely cut through it.

Before this occurrence, I might have been able to hack it off as I believed it to be dead, but now I was unable to do so.

I have been living a very peaceful life for the past two years. I no longer had the ruthlessness I had a few years back. If it were me a few years back, I would have strangled this thing to death without blinking an eye as soon as it crawled out of my stomach. But now I was so hesitant, constantly having the thought of killing it, but changing my mind several times, and it has all led up to this state.

The little monster seemed very smart. Facing the shining cold hatchet on its neck, it seemed to understand its current situation. It didn't dare to shout anymore. I pinched its head and it huddled there, purring softly. Its tail curled up and clamped between its legs.

It knew how to be afraid.

After a long time, I moved the hatchet away and placed it on the table. I let go and put the little monster onto the ground.

I thought maybe this thing would be what ruins me.

As soon as I let go of the little monster, it quickly stretched out its two little paws, hugging my leg, and began to bleat like a spoiled child, completely forgetting the life-and-death moment just now.

I raised my hand and pulled at my hair before rubbing my face. Looking down at the little monster, I didn't know whether to laugh at myself or at it, the corners of my mouth felt torn.

I caught it, ignoring the claws that had retracted, I put it back into the basin. The water in the basin had turned cold, so I added another bucket of hot water to wash off the dust that the little monster had just accumulated on its body.

Even when I placed it back into the water, it still wanted to pounce on me. It was difficult for me to wash it, so I could only hold its head with one hand and wash it with the other hand. Not wanting to waste any more time, I quickly washed it clean. Picking it up by its arms, I held it by my chest, ready to dry it with a towel.

When the little monster was lifted into the air, it held its paws up and tucked its tail in, stone frozen. But as it was placed on my legs, it came back to life, placing its head by my stomach, it curled itself up into a ball, resting peacefully against me.

It smacked its lips and squinted its eyes as if it was getting ready to sleep.

When I saw it like this, I paused for a moment, before quickly picking it up and wiping it dry with the towel, including its head, arms, belly, butt, tail, legs, and penis. This little monster is a boy.

Casually wiping it, I put the clothing I had just found on him.

It was just a long T-shirt, but for some reason, the opening for the head was too small. The little monster's head was a bit big, so the shirt couldn't fit through. However, I knew it had strong vitality, unlike ordinary human babies, so I didn't need to worry much about it and just pulled it down forcefully, fitting its head out of the collar.

When its head was covered by the clothing, it started crying again, bleating panickedly and waving its paws. I held its two paws with one hand to prevent it from moving. It was struggling within the clothing, but as I pulled the shirt down, it became quiet again, leaning in my arms and holding its paws together obediently.

After getting its head through the collar, I continued with its arms. The problem came again. The hands of this little monster were paws, thicker than a baby's hands, and the nails on them were very sharp. As I put its hands through the sleeves, they got caught immediately.

After trying several times, I still couldn't get through, so I had to pull its hands out and take a closer look. The three claws were quite flexible, if I squeezed them, I could wrap the sharp claws inside. I formed the claws into a fist before stuffing it through the sleeves, but it was halfway through, it opened its hands and got caught again.

I pulled its paws out again and then let it look at me, slowly stretching out my hand in front of it. I bent my thumb and pinky finger, leaving only three fingers, and slowly retracted them.

The little monster's eyes looked at my face. I pressed its head down to let it look at my hand and tried again. It held its two feet together and swung its tail rhythmically, gently tapping my calves. I did it three times in a row, however he didn't respond.

My patience is not very good, since I can't put it on, I just won't, and let it cover both arms. The sleeves and neckline of this shirt were elastic, allowing it to be loose. After covering the little monster, it doubles as a skirt, even covering its buttocks, saving me the trouble of finding pants for it.

After I finished taking care of it, I placed him on a stool beside me and went to get some water to wash my face. As I was washing my face, I saw it trying to climb down from the stool and clawing towards me. A thought flashed through my mind for a moment: this little monster seemed to have a serious Oedipus complex, it wanted to rub against me whenever it saw me.

To prevent it from dirtying itself again, with water still dripping down my face, I turned around to pick it up and put it on the stove. Holding onto my washbasin, he didn't move anymore.

After washing my face, I sat there soaking my feet. The little monster snuggled into my arms again. It was very comfortable to soak my feet in the slightly hot water. There was still firewood in the stove that had not been burned out, and occasionally there was a crackling sound. Sitting by the stove, it was warm, and I felt a little drowsy.

I suddenly remembered back to a winter a few years ago, I forgot whether it was seven or eight years ago, but I was staying in a temporary base. It had snowed a lot that winter, and the people in that small base were trapped in due to the snow, most either freezing or starving to death. However, not far from the shabby house where I lived, there was a pregnant woman. At that time, I rarely saw pregnant women, especially pregnant women like her who could still smile at strangers.

On a windy and snowy night, I heard her faint cries of pain. The painful cries lasted for most of the night and then gradually stopped.

At that time, I was not as ruthless as I was later on. I could not help but get up and sneak over to see. The pregnant woman was unable to give birth to the child. Probably because of a difficult labor, she and her unborn child died together. Later...... I don't want to think about what happened later. A corpse without relatives, surrounded by people who were starving due to a lack of food, would be something suspenseful.

I often believe that I am a person who comes from hell and that I must live even though I have no idea why.

「guu——[1]」

This sudden sound woke me up. I looked down and saw the little monster curled up quietly on my legs. The sound came from its stomach. He was hungry.

I am not sure what the little monster eats. I don't have milk to give him, and looking at its sharp teeth, he probably doesn't drink milk. I wiped my feet, got up, and walked to the pot. There was some leftover rat meat from my meal. I didn't know if he would eat it, I lifted the lid of the pot, and picked up a piece of meat for him to try.

When the meat was by his mouth, he moved his nose and licked it with his tongue. Only then did I notice that its tongue was very long, as if it were stretching out far. After licking it a few times, it opened its mouth like a baby bird waiting to be fed.

It was a fierce-looking mouth.

I threw the meat in his mouth, and with crunching sounds coming out, he ate it up within a few seconds. I had no choice but to continue feeding him it piece by piece. There wasn't much rat meat left, and when it was all finished, he still had his mouth open.

If it only eats meat, I won't be able to raise it. I thought this as I wiped my hands and pinched his mouth shut.

This little monster was very obedient. It stopped opening its mouth to eat when I closed it, though I'm not sure if it was full or realized there was no more food. I didn't hear his stomach growling anymore, so I let him go and decided to try feeding him something else tomorrow.

I've got myself into a lot of trouble. I thought this as I was getting ready for bed. I couldn't possibly allow the little monster to lie next to me. I would be awake all night, subconsciously on guard, so I decided to put him in another room and let him sleep on his own.

The moment I put him in the room, he was almost asleep already, with his big eyes squinted, but as soon as I put him down, he woke up immediately and quickly hugged my hand again.

「Sleep by yourself.」

He held onto my hand and tried to climb up, but in the end, he still got left in the room. I returned to the tiny space where I usually slept and lay down to rest.

But I didn't rest for long. As it was approaching dawn, I woke up. I had a dream, in that dream, someone was constantly bleating. I sat up and looked toward the wall on the left. Over there was a little monster that could bleat. But the bleating sound I heard in the dream did not appear. It was quiet over there.

I hesitated for a bit, but still got up, put on my shoes, and prepared to go take a look around.

[1] Stomach growling sound

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