Ashley felt uneasy. She rewound it quickly with a pencil and played again.
…(static)
After a sound like bugs crawling on eardrums, the speaker hissed with white noise and Little Cousin’s distinctive voice.
Xixi’s voice was soft and soothing. Most people paused at sentence ends, but she paused mid-sentence, leaving things hanging with a peculiar rhythm.
“Dearest Ashley, I read your letter. It’s a troubling situation indeed.
“But don’t worry.
“The discussions about you mostly come from ordinary people. Ordinary folk care about good and bad, liking the good and hating the bad—like sheep favoring herbivores and fearing carnivores.
“The supernatural world uses a different system: basically, privileges by infamy. Supernaturals cause far greater havoc when they act out, and governing them costs a fortune. So, they get invisible perks and band together for ‘extrajudicial immunity.’
“If the Tribunal hadn’t held the line, supernaturals could kill in broad daylight without punishment.
“If one day, the Tribunal can’t bear the governance costs…” (silence)
“You’re smart, just too stuck in the mundane world’s good-evil binary. Best to shed that narrative soon.
“Now, about things here.
“The day I arrived in Rift City, I eagerly visited Mr. Smedley.
“He’s a little blue fish swimming in a tank, with glowing orange-red lateral lines, held by a servant. Amazing, right?
“The Deep Divers’ body modifications are so thorough—or rather, their dedication to their ideals is so intense and brilliant. It commands respect.
“In a week, the Abyss Expo opens at Anafi Square in central Rift City. But I’ve gradually sensed a subtle anomaly spreading through the city…” (static)
“My rental is a standalone house. Across the street lives an elderly couple whose son supposedly died of illness ten years ago. But a few days ago, I overheard them at the door talking about their son returning. They beamed, planning tasty dishes to welcome him. But he didn’t run away—he was confirmed dead. A dead man reappearing after ten years? Likely a scam.
“That caught my attention…
“…(static)
“Through the window, I saw…” (static) “…a cheerful family dinner table… Besides the two elders, there was a gigantic arthropod with hundreds of legs. Terrifyingly huge, with so many long, creepy feet—super agile, a nightmare creature…” (static)
“It… was… utterly disgusting… like a humanoid centipede…” (harsh glass-scraping) “…I mean…” (labored breathing) “…its colors were so vibrant and beautiful… those soft, long segs waving like elegant waves…”
Ashley paled mid-listen, scalp prickling!
Clearly, something eerie was forcibly altering Little Cousin’s perception!
Her knuckles whitened with tension as she continued.
After long white-noise silence, Xixi’s voice normalized.
“The neighbors invited me to their family dinner. I gladly accepted—rare chance to get close to such a beautiful creature.
“Oh…” (contented sigh)
“It lounged in a velvet armchair, antennae quivering like strings, tiny abdominal legs undulating like shrimp. Must be covered in artistic bacteria. The side segs’ tips were so soft, usable as fingers to grasp cups or utensils…” (serene) “…Fucking disgusting! I wanted to stuff a bottle of insecticide down its throat and blow it up!
“…(indiscernible whispers)
“Ignore my nonsense; I must be crazy to slander such a beautiful, noble being. It makes me feel inferior, wanting to grovel under its long, soft segs, serve it, clean its gleaming mandibles and whiskered mouthparts.
“That wasn’t me! No! (hysterical)
“…(static)
“Things are worsening. I don’t know who to turn to. I visited Mr. Smedley again; he said everything’s normal. If anything’s off, it’s my brain—I’m very ill, might need meds.
“Mr. Smedley offered help: white pills, he said, traditional Chinese medicine for calming nerves from deep dives.
“I secretly pried one open with my nail and saw it packed with pale, translucent cockroach nymphs!”
While chatting, I accidentally noticed something wriggling in his mouth…
It was inconvenient to look directly, so I took out my compact mirror from my bag and placed it under the table to reflect. Finally, I saw the true face of that thing—a slimy, disgusting tongue-eating louse!
This thing was parasitizing Mr. Smedley’s mouth. His original tongue had been gnawed away and rotted, and it clung to the remaining half of the tongue root with sharp hooked claws, curling up inside the oral cavity. With two illusory, indifferent black eyes, it peered out through the lip seam… Giggle giggle giggle… I… am… saying… Mr. Smedley… will be promoted to a seraph… blessings… it sits… on the throne of God… every one of us… prostrates on the ground… accepting the sacred inspection…
Hiss… wheeze… (labored breathing)
Ashley… I’m certain… something terrifying… came up together with the Long Conch… from the abyss depths that took years to reach… (hoarse and raspy)
I… used gauze… to filter the tap water… filtered out… worms… wriggling…
Now I… only drink distilled water… I don’t know… if it’s already too late…
I… saw… in the roadside milk tea… the passion fruit bits… were… filarial worms… wriggling… the food here… the water… it’s all abnormal… (hoarse)
To stop it… the Exposition is about to start… people from nearby towns… will all enter the city… a terrible disaster… is coming… Hiss… wheeze… (labored breathing)
Aaaah… (sobbing)
… (tearing paper sound)
… (static noise)
… (long white noise)
I felt a bit better. Two broad-spectrum deworming pills made the things inside me quiet down temporarily, but my time is running out. I’ve already started showing symptoms of river blindness—shadows wriggling in my vision, which means the microfilariae have entered my eyes. Entering the brain is just a matter of time, but I won’t sit idly by.
… (static noise)
Walking from Brand Avenue toward New Market Street, I saw a crowd lined up in a long queue, with waves of vomiting sounds rising and falling.
Getting closer, I saw that the vomit was full of gray little worms covered in cilia, and some that couldn’t wait crawled out from nostrils and ears.
In the queue, I spotted a familiar face—the cute little girl I met on my first day here at the department store, the one helping her parents mind the shop.
Now, her belly was swollen like a round ball. A fat parasite forced its way out from her eye socket, dragging out the eyeball, and even pulled a black-furred tail from the brain matter…
I rushed over like a madwoman and stomped that loathsome worm to death under my foot. It burst into pulp on my sole, but it splattered out even more eggs. The little girl recognized me. With her eyeball dangling, she looked at me and said, “Big sister, save me…”
I didn’t know what to do… (panting and sobbing)
I saw the worms surging out from human bodies gather together, clustering upward. Their cilia stuck together, forming a soft and bizarre wall.
This wall emitted extraordinary fluctuations and writhed in a hateful manner.
Suddenly, I thought: the wall is the shell. Creatures that protect themselves with outer shells often can’t contain all the biomass as it increases, so the shell’s space gradually expands, even growing second and third shells. But the most core organelles are surely preserved in the initial chamber—the Initial Chamber! As long as we reach there… as long as we go there… we can… no… no… don’t go… this is a spiraling descent into hell… this is the eternal lost corridor (shrill laughter)… don’t come… run… as far as possible… don’t come… don’t… (whispers and eerie laughter)… come come come… we we we us… together together… forever and ever…”
