Ch.70MOTHER (2)

“That’s right. I need to show you our baby.”

Heo Yoon stood up with a bright smile.

“Since your aunts and uncles are here, Hayul will be happy too.”

***

After licking the floor for quite some time, Yoon finally got up when the meal preparation was almost complete.

“Let’s eat!”

Heo Yoon dusts herself off and sits at the table.

Seok Hyunmin brings out a bowl filled with meat.

“You guys can eat a little later.”

The finely chopped dark red meat, similar to raw beef tartare, glistens with juices.

…It just twitched slightly.

Although it’s called a meal, the only side dish is raw meat with blood dripping from it.

How on earth does one eat that?

It’s not just because the meat is uncooked. I’ve enjoyed things like beef tartare and rare steak before.

The problem is where this meat came from.

When I use my insight ability, unbelievable information appears before my eyes.

[Displaying meat information]

# Weight 600g

# Prepared without cooking

# Freshly slaughtered, still stiff

…

The identity of whose meat this is

appears at the very bottom of the lengthy description.

# Belongs to human (Heo Yoon)

She was eating herself.

But how is that even possible?

I glanced discreetly at Heo Yoon, but there were no signs of flesh being removed from her body.

Her arms and legs were completely intact without a single wound.

‘Did I see wrong?’

I looked back and forth between the “food” on the table and Heo Yoon sitting in front of it.

What she said next was even more shocking.

“Hm? Don’t you want to eat?”

As if genuinely presenting delicious food, Heo Yoon smiles at us with complete naturalness.

She even seemed genuinely disappointed that she would be enjoying such delicious food alone.

“It’s delicious, let’s all eat together.”

Seok Hyunmin swallowed his tears and barely managed to answer.

“No one but you can eat it well yet.”

“Is that so? That’s too bad…”

Various complicated emotions flashed across Seok Hyunmin’s face as he conversed with Heo Yoon.

Meanwhile, Yoon sits at the table and begins eating.

Yoon devours the raw meat on the plate hurriedly.

She gagged in the middle but didn’t stop eating.

“Urgh-“

When she had almost emptied one plate, Heo Yoon started gagging again.

Then, as if something got stuck in her throat, she coughed while pounding her chest.

“Kuhak! Kek! Kuluk!”

Blood trickled from between Heo Yoon’s lips.

Blood droplets splattered everywhere with the pungent smell of blood.

“Unnie…? Are you really okay?”

“Yes. I just got something caught in my throat while eating. It’s delicious.”

Though Yoon Daju asked worriedly, Heo Yoon answered nonchalantly and focused on her meal again.

In truth, it was less like eating and more like forcibly stuffing things into her mouth.

The pungent smell of blood and the dark red flesh before my eyes. As she picked up another piece, sticky fluid oozed from the meat.

“Uurgh.”

Even she seemed to have trouble bearing it, as Heo Yoon continued to gag. But at the same time, she endured it and struggled to empty the plate.

Yet she kept muttering that it was delicious. As if hypnotizing herself.

“Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious.”

The meal was over.

Heo Yoon slowly rises from the table splattered with blood droplets.

“Oh right! I have something to show you all.”

“…”

Choi Serim remains asleep. Yoon Daju and Jung Haewon are frozen in silence.

The house had grown chilly for some time, and no one dared to move freely.

In the middle of the living room where everyone was frozen,

only Heo Yoon speaks with a bright smile.

“I said I have something to show you?”

Her voice stretches out like a broken cassette tape.

Heo Yoon tilts her head at a bizarre angle and looks at me.

Her eerie eyes contain a mixture of all kinds of emotions.

I’ve encountered countless monsters in this apartment, but I’ve never felt my mind shake like this.

The object of fear was simultaneously inhuman and yet all too human.

I felt my breath stop.

When I managed to turn my gaze, I saw Seok Hyunmin with a hardened expression.

“Answer her.”

“Ah…”

I opened my mouth.

“W-what is it, noona?”

“Ahaha. You’re excited too? Actually, this is a bit embarrassing, but while you were at the library, a baby was born. Mine and Hyunmin’s.”

“…”

I couldn’t bring myself to look directly at the happily smiling Heo Yoon.

Instead, I turned my gaze toward the inner part of the living room, beyond her shoulder.

Sometimes, depending on the situation, things that weren’t visible before become visible.

Was it because of the atmosphere that was squeezing my heart?

There were things I had missed despite searching the room so thoroughly.

It made no sense that pregnancy and childbirth had all happened during that time.

The baby items I saw earlier.

They were rolling under the sofa. Dust had collected on the baby bottle, and the blanket was forgotten as is. As if they had never been used.

But that wasn’t all.

They were all violently torn apart.

Just one thing.

The fact that Heo Yoon had given birth to a child seemed certain.

“Let’s go outside first!”

Heo Yoon hopped toward the front door.

She even called out to those left behind in a cheerful voice.

“Aren’t you coming?”

Seok Hyunmin was the first to prepare to leave.

“You all need to come too.”

After whispering quietly, he moved to Heo Yoon’s side.

I looked at the sofa where Choi Serim was sleeping, then reluctantly got up.

Jung Haewon and Yoon Daju, who had been hesitating, followed behind.

Passing through the corridor, we arrived at room 701.

The space where survivors gathered to discuss future directions. The place we called the “office.”

Creeak-

Heo Yoon opens the door and looks around inside.

“Hmm. Not here. Hayul? Where is Hayul? Hyunmin, have you seen Hayul?”

“Yes…”

Seok Hyunmin nods with an expression that looks like he might cry.

Jung Haewon had a similar expression.

“But you know what, noona. What happened to that?”

“Hm?”

Jung Haewon points to the floor of the house while trembling.

Where he pointed, there were torn pieces of paper.

[6th Floor Dangers]

[Regarding the Elevator]

…These were exploration records that had been accumulated for a long time.

Countless nameless people who had died. And Choi Jun-gi and Park Sungjin. Precious information that the older men had risked their lives to record.

But seeing them torn apart, Heo Yoon just smiled brightly.

“Ah~ this? Hayul needs to study too. Just because we’re trapped here doesn’t mean we shouldn’t learn anything.”

Heo Yoon’s expression as she looked around the dark house was no longer that of a normal person.

I didn’t want to believe it either, but it was as I had initially suspected.

Heo Yoon and Seok Hyunmin. The two of them were raising a monster they had named.

Jung Haewon also seemed to sense that something was wrong.

“Study…? Who…?”

“Our baby, of course. We named it too. Hayul. Seok Hayul.”

In front of Jung Haewon, who was visibly trembling, Heo Yoon shrugged and said:

“Haewon. Let’s find Hayul together. Hayul will be so happy to see uncles and aunts coming, right?”

Jung Haewon couldn’t properly hide his expression. Seok Hyunmin and Yoon Daju had also been keeping their mouths shut for some time.

But Heo Yoon was seeing the world only as she wanted to see it.

“It doesn’t seem to be here. Did it go to the storage room?”

And in the dark room. I could see it.

The information that had become prey was scattered and disappearing.

[6th F■■■r D■ng■rs]

[R■g■rd■ng th■ El■v■t■r]

Ink flowed from the shredded pieces of paper, soaking the floor.

Until only blank white paper remained there.

What on earth is here?

Slam!

The door to room 701 closed.

“Now let’s check the storage room!”

Heo Yoon runs down the corridor with light footsteps.

If I’m going to say something, it has to be now.

I’m not sure if Seok Hyunmin is normal, and Jung Haewon isn’t much help.

I quietly went over to Daju and lowered my voice.

“Daju. Do you still have your weapon?”

“No. I left it in the room.”

Daju whispers back in an equally quiet voice.

“Why? Did you see something?”

“Not yet. But I’m almost certain.”

“…Should we try to sneak back to the room and get weapons?”

“I’m not sure. We need to see how the situation develops.”

When Yoon Daju becomes serious, it means the situation isn’t good.

The air in this corridor seemed filled with tension. No matter how hard I tried to stay calm, I kept swallowing dry saliva.

And as always, time wasn’t on our side.

“It’s here! Hurry up and follow me!”

Heo Yoon’s voice comes from the end of the corridor.

The distance is too close to secretly go back to the house and get weapons. There’s also a risk of being heard.

“Daju. As soon as we enter the storage room, grab weapons first.”

“What do you think is in there?”

“I don’t know.”

Even with the Librarian’s ability of “Insight,” I can’t discover all information.

But there’s one thing I know for certain.

“Whatever is in there, grab weapons as soon as we enter the storage room. Then kill it immediately. Got it?”

“Yes, oppa.”

It’s in the storage room.

The first person I saw in the storage room was Heo Yoon.

Standing on the dark floor, Heo Yoon was blankly staring at one spot.

“…”

And the next moment. Heo Yoon’s neck bent at a right angle.

It happened in a place where nothing was visible.

As if there were invisible hands, her body twisted and was mutilated in various ways.

But Heo Yoon doesn’t scream even once.

It’s not that she doesn’t feel pain.

She’s biting her lips tightly to suppress her voice.

“Unnie…?”

Even Yoon Daju was frozen in place.

She bit her lips so hard that they burst and blood flowed profusely.

The creature’s appearance is still invisible.

Finally. A loud cracking sound echoed, and Heo Yoon collapsed to the floor with her last breath.

Right in front of Seok Hyunmin.

“Heurk…”

Jung Haewon looked like he might faint at any moment.

A person had died right before our eyes.

Someone we had lived with for a long time. It’s natural to be shocked, but Seok Hyunmin just watched silently.

Crack-

Squish-

In the darkness, Heo Yoon’s body is bent and broken in various ways.

Her clothes tear and white flesh flips over to reveal red insides.

“Daju. Find weapons. Quickly.”

“Yes.”

Just as Daju was about to run to the other side of the storage room, she had to stop again.

Another Heo Yoon was there.

Squatting on the floor, Heo Yoon shouts:

“Hayul! We’re here!”

Drip.

Blood droplets splattered on Heo Yoon’s pale white face.

The blood wasn’t hers, but at the same time, it was.

“Your aunts and uncles are here too. Want to see them?”