The figure that was once Lei Jiang slowly turned his entire body to face Huang Wei. The grin on his face grew wider, revealing teeth that appeared sharper and longer than usual. Thick fluid dripped from the corner of his mouth, leaving sticky trails on the dormitory floor.
'This isn't Lei Jiang. This isn't my friend.' Huang Wei thought, his heart racing like a drum beaten in panic.
"Grrrraaaahhhhh..."
The sound wasn't human—a horrifying mix of a wild animal's growl and suppressed screams of pain. Huang Wei's hair stood on end, cold shivers running from his spine to the crown of his head. Before he could react, the Lei Jiang figure lunged at him with impossible speed.
Huang Wei's body reacted instinctively, a primal reflex that came before thought. His hand grabbed a pillow from the bed and hurled it, a thin hope that it might stop the horror before him.
Lei Jiang—or whatever was now controlling his body—snatched the pillow mid-air. With one brutal motion, his fingers tore the pillow in half. White cotton pieces scattered everywhere, creating a terrifying artificial snow that contrasted with the darkness creeping into Huang Wei's mind.
Huang Wei's heart pounded hard, hammering against his ribs as if trying to escape. In a panicked movement, he jumped down from his bunk bed. His left foot landed wrong, sending his body crashing to the floor with a loud thud. Pain shot through his entire body, but adrenaline dulled the sensation. His brain could only scream: 'Run! Run!'
The creature let out a deafening roar of rage and leaped again, this time directly from the top bunk. Huang Wei rolled to the side, barely escaping an attack that would have torn him apart. His back was now pressed against the wall—cornered with no way out. Cold sweat began beading on his forehead.
His eyes darted wildly, searching for anything, any glimmer of hope in this living nightmare. A familiar object caught his sight—Wu Lei's baseball bat leaning in the corner of the room. 'That! A chance!' With one quick, desperate movement, Huang Wei grabbed the aluminum bat. His grip had just tightened when the Lei Jiang figure attacked again, jaw wide open, revealing a gaping darkness.
Huang Wei swung the bat forward. Lei Jiang's teeth collided hard with the aluminum surface, creating a grinding sound that made his skin crawl. Thick saliva splattered, some hitting his hands—cold, disgusting, and somehow feeling like frozen tears.
"Lei Jiang! Snap out of it!" Huang Wei screamed, his voice breaking with desperation. "It's me, Huang Wei! Your friend!"
No response. Only wild growls and increasingly strong pressure. Lei Jiang's jaw bit down on the baseball bat with tremendous force, leaving gaping bite marks on the metal. *How is this possible? This isn't the Lei Jiang I know.*
"Damn it... what the hell is this..." Cold sweat poured down Huang Wei's forehead, dripping into his eyes and stinging them. The Lei Jiang he knew was an ordinary student who preferred reading books, quiet, a bit awkward. But the figure before him now pushed with strength that made his muscles tremble violently, nearly giving out.
Huang Wei's hands began shaking uncontrollably. His breathing was short and rapid, his lungs feeling like they were burning. In the midst of his panic, his gaze caught a glint of light on the desk—a pair of iron scissors that Lei Jiang usually used for handicrafts.
His stomach churned, a suffocating nausea. *Can I do this? This is Lei Jiang—my friend.* His inner voice screamed in refusal.
But when Lei Jiang's jaw nearly broke through his defense, his rotten breath piercing his nostrils, words from the divine voice he had heard before echoed:
"The day of judgment has come to test your fate..."
One moment of distraction, one second of hesitation—Lei Jiang saw the opening. With a swift movement, the creature broke through Huang Wei's defense, opening his jaw wide, ready to sink his teeth into his neck. Huang Wei could feel the heat from his body, the stench from his mouth, the horror ready to swallow him whole.
"Damn it—!"
The world seemed to slow down. Instinct took over. Not thought, not morality, just the pure will to survive. His left hand reached for the scissors. In one fluid motion, he drove the sharp end of the scissors into Lei Jiang's head with all his strength, with all the desperation he possessed.
"Squelch!"
A horrifying wet sound filled the room. Warm blood gushed out, splattering across his face and clothes—sticky and hot, feeling like liquid fire on his skin. Lei Jiang's body shook violently, his milky white eyes slowly dimming. Then his body collapsed to the floor.
"Thump!"
Suffocating silence enveloped the dormitory room. The metallic smell of blood pierced his nostrils, filling every corner of the room. Huang Wei stared at the fallen figure with empty eyes. His hands were covered in blood, trembling violently and uncontrollably. His gaze shifted from the blood on his hands to Lei Jiang's face, now peaceful despite the horrifying hole in his head.
"I... I killed Lei Jiang." His voice broke, barely audible, like a whisper from a tortured soul. "I... killed again..."
Tears flowed freely down his cheeks, dirty with blood. His stomach churned violently, an unbearable nausea. Before he could stop it, his entire stomach contents came out in one violent heave.
Huang Wei vomited repeatedly until he was only bringing up bitter bile, bitter like the regret that burned within him. The nausea wouldn't subside, no matter how much he threw up. *How could this happen? I just killed my friend.* The oath he had held tight for years—his promise to himself to never take another life—was now stained and shattered, broken into pieces on the same floor as Lei Jiang's blood.
"I killed him... I killed... again..." He repeated the phrase like a mantra, as if it would change reality, take him back to a few minutes ago when Lei Jiang was still Lei Jiang. His tears mixed with blood and vomit, creating a horrifying stream down his cheeks.
His body was paralyzed, unable to move. His mind was empty, yet filled with a thick fog of suffocating guilt. He looked down, staring at his blood-covered hands, then at his friend's stiff body on the floor. Every heartbeat felt like a hammer striking his eardrums, replaying that horrifying moment.
Every second felt like hours. His breathing was still ragged, the metallic smell of blood filling his senses. In the deafening silence, Huang Wei could only sit there, letting the horrifying reality sink in, destroying what remained of his sanity.
His eyes squeezed shut. His brain felt crushed, pulled into an abyss of madness. Lei Jiang's grinning face, the pool of blood on the floor—everything spun into a nauseating chaos. He could feel the threads of his sanity snapping one by one.
Darkness crept from the corners of his mind, threatening to swallow him whole. For a moment, Huang Wei wished he could just die there, let this madness end everything, end this unbearable pain.
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