On the third day of continuous rain, the traffic was paralyzed.
I guess this is the first time the sewers in this town have ever been exposed to such heavy rainfall, and they have not been able to handle the stress.
When I flushed the toilet this morning, the water was coming down slower than before.
Because of the flooded roads, the bus could only make some stops, so I followed the crowd and got off the bus three stops from the restaurant.
It was definitely going to be late if I walked there like that. I was anxious, so I sped up.
Kagu… Kagu… Kagu… … My leaky shoes kept squeaking with every step I and other people walked. The noise was almost on the verge of drowning out the sound of the rain.
Somehow I felt a rush of queasiness.
I left the marching crowd and ran to a nearby tree to take a break. It was only when the Kagu noise got further and further away that I gradually recovered. Then I remembered that I was going to be late.
There was nothing to do but run!
Just as I determined to sprint out, the rain suddenly became heavier.
The canopy of storm was distorted by gusts of wind coming from all directions, beating down on me in broken pieces. Rushing flows completely covered the road, making it impossible to move anywhere.
Not far away, thunder rumbled indistinctly… …
If I had just followed the crowd, I wouldn't be like this now. I hugged myself shakily and moved my body closer to the tree trunks to feel safer. At that moment, a warm breath suddenly hit the top of my head.
Before I could react, something soft and tender slid across the back of my neck.
I instantly screamed and fled.
In a matter of seconds, I was lost in the pouring rain. At the risk of falling into a sewer or being hit by a car, I couldn't stop running.
Someone had just licked me... and it didn't feel like an animal, it felt like a human tongue. A warm, wet, thick tongue.
I tripped over something in the middle of my run and fell to the ground, defenseless.
The rain lashed me fiercely , and I felt the warm blood seeping out of my left knee. The intermittent pain battled with my gradually numbing senses. I was sunken in a state of dreaming, being pulled up to heaven at one time, and then torn down to hell at another.
Thankfully, someone found me in the middle of the road and kindly brought me to the restaurant. The owner was shocked by my condition, but instead of blaming me for being so late, he was very touched.
It turned out that, because of the traffic paralysis, I was the only employee who came to work today.
********
Everything in the town was disrupted by the torrential rain.
When the owner found out that his daughter's school bus was also stuck in traffic, he was in a hurry to pick her up. He asked me to stay in the restaurant. I agreed, bearing the pain. After all, it's dangerous for children in such heavy rain.
Only after he left did I have time to take care of the wound on my knee.
I pulled the pants up and found that the inner lining was stuck to the wound. When I pulled a little harder, it felt like I was peeling my skin off.
I took out a toothbrush and slowly brushed off the coagulated scabs. Felt like wasps sting. The wound was stimulated to secrete some yellowish fluid, and the clothes adhering to my flesh became loose. After taking it off, I simply bandaged the wound and sat down at the bar to wait for customers, if there's any.
The rain seemed to be a natural signal blocker, slowing down the internet and rendering the TV set useless. Throughout the morning, only soft jazz music echoed through the empty restaurant.
In the afternoon, when the rain subsided, the cook and the owner showed up. The basement had been refilled with more water, and they worked, while cursing and swearing, into the night to get it cleaned up.
By the time the restaurant was about to close, the drenched girl was here again! I roused myself from slumber with alert.
Like yesterday, she asked for a glass of water, but still didn't take a sip.
No sooner had she left than I pulled out a mop to clean up the water stains. Damn, it's like her footprints! How did she bear to be soaking wet?
I had not expected the wound on my knee to crack open when I bent over.
Blood dripped down from my leg and blended with the water on the floor. The owner promptly took the task out of my hands to clean.
"These days, there are all kinds of strange people! I suspect that little girl is a drug addict..." His voice stopped abruptly in the middle of the sentence. I felt odd and couldn't tracking his gaze.
The mop revealed a shiny crimson color.
It was blood.
But it was clear that it couldn't be my blood alone.
********
On the fifth day of rain, I finally got to rest at home.
I live alone in an old, cheap house on the first floor. Access is usually quite convenient, but when it rains like this, I have to be on the lookout for leakage problems.
It was raining day and night, and the whole town was in a gloom. I was chilling in my bed, feeling a little itchy at times.
At first I thought it was only an illusion, until I opened my eyes just in time to see a few rustling tentacles hanging from my arm.
It was a centipede about seven or eight centimeters long. In our town, we like to call the centipede a Hundred-footed Woman.
I violently flung the quivering bug against the wall, then picked up my slipper and swatted at it. Even though the centipede was not causing any harm, she had already violated my bottom line by crawling on me. I didn't realize that this fellow was very agile, dodged my attacks several times.
In fury, I took the glass on my bed foot and crushed her.
This time she couldn't escape.
A couple of her legs glued to the water bottle, and a few snapped on the ground, and the others attached to the torso were still constantly moving in an effort to escape.
I've seen people get hit by a speeding car and fall to the ground with their limbs twitching. The centipede must be suffering from the same pain at this moment. So I took the glass and ran it over again, ending her suffering in a flash.
That day, the image of the centipede's death struggle lingered in my mind. I was disgusted and frightened by her strong desire to live.
Significantly, I have since seen many centipedes in my home. There were several times when I woke up, I found that my eyelids had been bitten by some insects. As it is not yet the mosquito breeding season, I suspected that it was a retaliation by the hundred-footed women against me. These bugs were really the "Hundred-Footed Woman" - the spiteful goddess of vengeance.
Around midnight, wind and thunder suddenly started to flare up. Fearing the bugs, I stayed alert and woke up as soon as I felt an itch on my body. But later on, I couldn't resist the sleepiness and fall unconscious. While I was in a daze, I heard several explosions of thunder. High winds were beating on the windows one after another, and it sounded like someone was trying to break into my room.
I had a dream that I was on a battlefield fighting the enemy.
There were explosions all around me, and the smell of blood and gunfire lingered in my nostrils. I was accidentally hit by a stray bullet and retreated to the front line to wait to be treated.
Something ominous. The young nurse didn't care about my wounds, but instead she opened my mouth and tried to pull out my teeth! When I woke up the next day, the bloody taste seemed to remain in my breath.
I turned on the light and found a water stain on the floor.
It stretched all the way from the front door and eventually disappeared into the window.
********
The owner assigned another girl to work the night shift with me. Her name is Vivi. We are good friends.
Only lately, the restaurant is not making money, so why did the owner bother to pay for an extra server?
"I thought it was too lonely in the restaurant, that's why I got Vi here... you two girls can make company..."
"Yeah, Elin! Otherwise how boring it would be for you to be here alone!" Vivi pulled my arm and said, "You don't want me to be here?"
"Of course not." I shook my head and hugged her. At the meantime, I noticed the owner looked distressed.
Did something happen last night when I was not here… …
Later in the evening, the cook suddenly screamed in the basement.
There was a burst water pipe.
When the owner heard about it, he rushed out with tools in hand. "Quick! One of you stay up there, and the other one go down and help the cook... I have to turn off the main gate first!"
Vivi and I looked at each other in disbelief, but in the end I went down.
In the basement, the turbid water was already ankle-deep. The cook captured the spewing pipe that was moving fiercely like a python.
"What are you staring at? Come and help!"
I didn't know what I was supposed to do, so I panicked and ran over to join him in holding the pipe.
The stream of water washed over me, making me feel like being shot with BB guns. I couldn't open my eyes from all the splashing around, and quite a bit of water went in my ears. I felt the cook take the opportunity to let go and hide behind me.
"What are you doing?!"
No one answered me.
"Cook?!" I raised my voice, but still no one answered.
Was he gone... …
At the moment, I was alone and couldn't open my eyes, so who knew what other disgusting things were hiding in the basement! I recalled the strange incident of being licked under the tree the day before. That bone-chilling feeling of fear grew more intense as the cold water poured over me. So I yelled again at the top of my lungs, almost pleading... and finally, the water stopped.
Thank goodness, presumably the owner had found the main gate!
I opened my eyes and was very grateful for the light. As soon as I turned around I saw the cook standing behind me furtively.
"Why didn't you answer when I called out to you earlier?" I questioned him with suppressed anger.
"What are you afraid of? You know I'm not always here." The cook smiled nastily and looked me over from head to toe.
By now I was soaked to the skin and he could probably see through my clothes.
"Why are you gawking? You're shivering, poor thing, are you cold..." With that, he put his hand on my shoulder and fondled.
The abnormally warm palm moved towards my back with dripping water.
"Fck off!" I shook him off and ran up the stairs.
Asshole! I hid in the toilet. It took a while for the goosebumps on my arms to disappear.
"Elin, are you okay?"
the owner came and knocked on the door.
"I am fine..." I replied as I wiped my tears.
"It's good that you're okay... I don't want to bother you but there's a customer in the front room..."
"Okay, I'll be right there!"
I tidied up quickly and opened the door only to find him still standing outside.
"Do you, do you need to use the restroom?"
"No..." He looked at me with wide eyes, the curved edge of his mouth stiffening a bit. "The guest is waiting, hurry up."
Why was him acting so weird? I felt very uncomfortable, but I found out why before I had a chance to scrutinize.
That girl was here again.
It was like she calculated to show up at the same time every day.
"Give me a glass of water..." Her pronunciation was slurred today, and she sounded out of breath.
Vivi didn't notice anything wrong and busied herself with pouring the water. I froze in place, watching the water keep dripping off the girl, and was creeped out.
There was blood in it!
The water dripping off her body was mixed with blood! ... Recalling what happened last time, I couldn't hold back and rushed into the toilet to vomit.
"Elin?" Vivi ran over to check on me.
The owner gave her a nod, signaling her to go back and serve the customers first. However, he himself stayed where he was and lit a cigarette in silence.
By the time I returned to the bar, the girl had already left. As before, she didn't touch a single sip of the glass of water on the table.
********
Strange.
The glass of water that I keep at my bedside seems to be a little off in color.
Overnight, it had become somewhat amber, and there were darker deposits at the bottom.
With so many freaky things happening lately, I just didn't have the energy to worry about it, so I emptied it out and replaced with fresh one.
Today at work, I kept feeling a nagging pain in the wound on my knee. It wasn't a surface pain, but a numbing, bone-deep pain. I waited until lunchtime before I had the chance to lift up my pants to take a look, and I didn't realize that the wound was actually oozing out a lot of yellowish pus.
Looking out the window at the misty drizzle, I couldn't help but suspect that the pus was caused by the rainwater that had invaded the wound over the past few days.
The owner came in the afternoon, looking apologetic. It turned out that his daughter was sick and he had to leave early, so he wanted to ask me to close the restaurant.
"That damn cook is unreliable, I asked him to clean up the stagnant water in the morning, but he hasn't moved yet! I don't trust him to close the door."
I agreed. It is only an hour late than regular schedule, and I don't have other plans after work in this weather.
Having experienced what happened yesterday, I had no intention of talking to the cook, but I never thought that this guy would take advantage of the owner's early absence and secretly leave work early.
"You can't even see a ghost in this weather, I don't want to waste my time here!" He said and walked toward the front door.
I reached out to stop him.
"What? Want to tell the boss?" He spat on the floor I had just wiped clean. "What are you? Mind your own business, don't get involved!"
He took off in a big hurry.
For the first time, I was the only one left in the restaurant.
********
Well, it turns out the cook was right.
Who would go out to eat in such a stormy weather? I waited until nightfall and didn't see a single soul passing down the street.
Before closing the store, I patrolled the entire restaurant, only to realize that the stagnant water in the basement hadn't been cleaned up yet!
The damn lazy-ass cook!
I was worried about the things in the storage room, though unwilling, and I started to clean it myself.
At this point, the water was almost up to my knees. I had to walk slowly on my tiptoes to prevent my wound from soaking in the water. It was difficult to walk in such a taut position because the water was so freezing that my feet were turning numb. I didn't get very far before my feet cramped up.
I groped around in the sewage for a while and managed to connect the pipe, but the water didn't drain out.
Maybe it was blocked by something?
I hesitated, but eventually reaching out my hand into the opening of the pipe, which was constantly dripping foul liquid. My fingers were covered with lumps of grease and rotting vegetable leaves, which slipped and slid under my nails as I moved. I regretted that I hadn't remembered to wear gloves. At last, about halfway down my arm, I came across something soft and flimsy.
It looked like a plastic bag.
I gave it a tug, and a soft, grimy mass fell out.
As I watched it gradually unwind in the water, I got so shocked that my whole body pressed against the wall.
Frog eggs? ... or toad eggs?
Those huge brown particles were distinct in outline, and they were all wrapped in a layer of murky membrane, sticking together inextricably.
I subconsciously kicked it far away.
The thought of having touched it with my bare hands drove physiological tears to the corners of my eyes. It seemed that the lubricating texture was still on my fingertips, and each frog egg was thumping like a little heart.
I waited until the water was half drained before I started to move out of the room. Unexpectedly and horrifyingly, I bumped into that mass again within a few steps!
The lump of fluffy frog's egg was slowly rising from the bottom now.
Just as it was about to touch the surface, it suddenly spread out! Immediately after, countless small black shadows quickly swam towards all corners of the basement.
I finally realized that the mass was not frog eggs at all.
The water was too murky for me to see them clearly, but judging from the ripples on the surface, they were much longer and more sensitive than ordinary fish hatchlings.
I stood still, not daring to move, and watched as they swam away down the drain.
One of them touched my leg on the way out, but I didn't feel anything until I returned home and took a shower to find a big bruise on my leg!