Mom's Anniversary 10

"Oh dear, it fell."

"Mom" sounded a little regretful.

It was a girl's head, severed from everything below the neck. The cut was fairly clean-no wonder "Mom" had called it "pretty" earlier.

Lu Mi watched with his heart in his throat, terrified that "Mom" would discover them. Roman stroked his back again and again without making a sound.

Fortunately, "Mom" did not suspect anything. She quickly picked up the girl's head and said unhappily, "It's dirty."

Running water sounded. She was rinsing the girl's head-why? Was she going to use it as a decoration, like the man's tongue?

"Mom" stuffed the rest of the body into the black cloth sack and went out again.

The process repeated nine times. "Mom" separated nine people's heads from their bodies, as though carrying out some enormous project.

After she dragged the sack away, Lu Mi and Roman waited another half hour in the cabinet before climbing out.

Roman stretched, glanced at the blood on the chopping board and kitchen knife, then looked away and yawned.

Lu Mi's body was not as uncomfortable in his cat form, but he kept feeling as though there was blood on him. He wanted to lick himself clean, yet the thought revolted him.

The vast house was empty and silent. But neither of them knew when "Mom" might reappear, so they left the kitchen in unspoken agreement, intending to return to their room.

As they passed through the living room, Lu Mi kept feeling that someone was watching him. No, not just one person. Many icy gazes clung to him...

The discomfort grew especially intense as they passed the TV stand.

Where were those gazes coming from?

It seemed to be... Lu Mi slowly raised his eyes and met two bloody sockets.

She looked down at him, her eyes, which could no longer shed tears, seeming to accuse him of something.

Unaware that his fur had bristled in fright, Lu Mi searched his memory. She must have been the girl whose eyes had been gouged out after she saw something she should not have while cleaning the second floor.

Looking to either side, he saw human heads arranged across the TV stand-exactly nine.

Strangely, they were not arranged evenly. They seemed to occupy specific positions in a grid, with some spaces left empty, as though waiting for others to join them.

Roman pointed to a spot on the wall. Lu Mi jumped onto the coffee table and followed his finger, spotting an enormous picture frame.

That frame had not been there during the day. At its center was the family portrait "Mom" had taken with everyone earlier that day.

Lu Mi examined the nine heads on the TV stand more closely and suddenly understood...

At first glance, the nine heads seemed randomly arranged.

But a closer look revealed that each one's position corresponded exactly to its place in the family portrait.

The girl whose eyes had been gouged out stood at the far right of the front row in the portrait.

On the TV stand, her head occupied the bottom-right position in the foremost row.

The same was true of the others. As for the seven players killed before the family portrait was taken, their heads had all been placed at the very back of the TV stand in a perfectly straight line.

"Does this 'Mom' have a bit of an obsession with order? And... if the heads are here, where's the rest of each body?" Roman folded his arms as he looked at them.

There was no answer to that question for now.

One thing was certain: "Mom" wanted to kill all the players and use their heads to create a family portrait.

Lu Mi jumped off the coffee table. The sight had been a little too much to take in. He had better return to the room before he was discovered and forced to join the ranks of those heads.

They crept back to their room on the second floor. By now, Lu Mi was unbearably sleepy. He jumped onto the head of the bed and curled up, ready to sleep.

After closing the door, Roman flopped spread-eagled onto the bed, nearly bouncing him into the air.

Lu Mi wanted to go over and swipe him with a claw, but remembering how hard Roman had tried to soothe him in the kitchen, he abandoned the idea for now.

Though he did not want to admit it, curling up in Roman's arms and having his back stroked had indeed dispelled much of his fear.

"You won't kick me out if I sleep here tonight, will you?" Roman turned his head toward him and asked softly.

Lu Mi buried his head between his paws and tapped the sheet twice with the tip of his tail.

"Does that mean yes, but don't disturb your sleep?" Roman smiled. "All right. I got to pet a cat in the cabinet for a while. I should be satisfied."

For the rest of the night, he really did remain quiet. Lu Mi could barely sense anyone beside him and slept soundly.

When Lu Mi woke early the next morning, the first thing he saw was Roman's beautiful eyes. He did not know when Roman had woken, but Roman was quietly watching him in the morning light.

Lu Mi looked away, feeling inexplicably flustered. He had already turned back into a human, complete with clothes and shoes.

"Why are you staring at me?"

Roman sat up. "I'm observing you, trying to figure out the pattern behind your transformations."

Lu Mi headed to the bathroom to wash up and asked, "Did you discover anything? Like what time I turned human again?"

Roman looked very surprised. "Don't you know yourself?"

"Ever since I arrived here, I haven't remembered anything that happened before. All I even know about myself is my name."

There was little emotion in Lu Mi's reply, as though he had already accepted it. Roman thought for a moment, then told him:

"The time doesn't matter. You turned human the instant the sunlight touched you."

He sounded somewhat disappointed. "But you weren't naked. Keeping me at arm's length, huh? It wasn't like this the last time you turned from a cat into a human."

A toothbrush flew out, and he caught it.

From inside the bathroom, Lu Mi said irritably, "That's because I wasn't taking a shower before I turned into a cat. I was fully dressed."

Now he more or less understood. He turned into a cat at midnight and back into a human when sunlight touched him in the morning.

The seven o'clock chime rang out. When Lu Mi emerged after washing up, Roman was leaning by the window. He waved and said, "In that case, see you tonight."

With that, he jumped out the window.

Lu Mi ran over and looked down. There was no one below, only a few clumps of autumn chrysanthemums in bloom.

Apparently, this guy was only being friendly because he could turn into a cat.

Lu Mi did not know what to make of that. He pursed his lips out of habit, then took another shower to wash away the lingering smell of blood from the night before.

He was the first to reach the dining room. Just as he sat down at the table, a scream came from the living room.

He knew the other players had discovered the heads on the TV stand. He took a bite of his steamed bun and did not go out to look.

After a while, Ning Zhuangzhuang came in. She looked pale. "That newcomer, Xiao Xue, died last night too."