Chapter 106: S#18. Bleedy Witch (3)

The Cabin in the Woods.

The fleshy wall in the basement quivered.

A sphincter-like section spread wide, and something burst out.

This time it wasn’t an insect-human. It was a relatively normal-looking bald man.

Relatively normal compared to the insect-humans, that is. His appearance was still just as grotesque.

Sharp needles covered his entire body. He looked like he’d been tortured by an acupuncturist from hell, meticulously inserting needles one by one…

He clutched a hook connected to a metal chain.

He hurled the hook at Ellen Strode.

The hook’s tip gleamed razor-sharp. The needle man’s attack was too fast for Ellen to react.

I lunged forward, deflecting the flying hook with my axe blade.

“Thanks, Summer…!”

Ellen aimed her shotgun.

She pulled the trigger. With an ear-splitting blast, half of the needle man’s head exploded.

I finished him off, bringing my axe down on his staggering body.

I clenched my fist.

Another monster could pop out at any moment. I had to eliminate the threat completely.

I unleashed a flurry of punches at the fleshy wall.

Thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack thwack──────────

My rapid-fire punches, like a machine gun, pulverized the meaty wall.

After about 15 seconds of pummeling, it was reduced to minced meat. Shredded flesh sprayed everywhere.

Destroying the fleshy wall put my mind somewhat at ease.

We ventured deeper into the basement.

The further in we went, the more it transformed into a laboratory. A madman’s laboratory.

Blueprints were strewn chaotically all around.

They detailed methods for efficiently dissecting and suturing bodies, grafting together biological tissues with different compositions, or implanting artificial machinery into severed limbs.

Were they modifying the monsters that came through the fleshy wall to create new ones?

The designs of the monsters in the blueprints were uniformly bizarre.

A blueprint for creating a human centipede by connecting 100 severed heads. A blueprint for making a killer with 4 arms. A blueprint for conjoined twins that fire bones from their asses.

It was filled with unfiltered, twisted delusions.

If Reiko drew these blueprints…

Reiko must be no ordinary lunatic.

Some of the blueprints were framed and hung on the wall.

Ellen pointed to one of the frames.

“Summer… This clown drawing looks familiar.”

It was a blueprint of the clown monster that lived in the sewers.

“There’s the sawshark and Nazi-face too.”

Yeoreum said, pointing at the frames.

The blueprints in the frames contained familiar faces.

Nancy’s teddy bear ‘Captain Bear’, the giant fly-like evil god, the Gingerbread Girl, and so on.

All the nightmares that had tormented me so far.

Their blueprints were all framed and displayed. As if they were something to be proud of.

I noticed a frame with ‘BEST’ engraved on the border.

But there was no blueprint inside. The frame was empty.

A bad feeling suddenly washed over me.

“Reiko… What the hell are you planning…?”

—
Raei  Translations
—

We fled the cabin.

I felt uneasy. It felt like we’d seen something we absolutely shouldn’t have.

We walked through the forest path again.

We needed to get to the location marked with an X on the map, but the compass was useless so we couldn’t gauge our direction.

The winding forest paths all looked the same. It felt like we might be going in circles.

How long had we been wandering like this?

Before we knew it, night had fallen. Yeoreum and Ellen had reached their physical limits.

We needed to rest.

I took out the tent we’d brought. We lit a campfire to eat our emergency rations and sat in front of the flames.

Ellen sat next to me and gently rested her head on my shoulder.

“Ellen. I’m pretty filthy right now. Covered in flesh, blood, mud, sweat…”

“I don’t mind. I’m the same way.”

She placed her hand on the back of mine. Ellen was soft.

Yeoreum stared intently at the reddened logs slowly burning in the campfire.

I spoke to him.

“Um, I want to apologize.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m a thief, aren’t I? A thief who stole your body and your life.”

“I had the same thought. So there’s no need to apologize.”

Yeoreum thought of himself as a thief too?

For taking my body?

“That doesn’t make sense though. This body is nearly invincible and has incredible strength… As you know, my original body was extremely weak. Wouldn’t you say you got an unfair deal rather than stealing anything?”

“You’re right about that. Your body is weak. Frustratingly scrawny, with a girlish face.”

“That’s what happens when you only watch movies in your room.”

That’s right. He was the victim, not me.

I was the body snatcher who stole his robust physique.

Suddenly Ellen spoke.

“Summer. What kind of person were you in your original world?”

I was…

An unremarkable, boring guy.

A university student majoring in film. Horror movies were my only joy.

It was incredibly lucky for someone like me to possess an 80s slasher.

I got to personally experience situations from the horror movies I loved and made irreplaceable, precious friends.

Everything in this land was real.

But there was one lie.

Me.

I alone was a lie. A fake who had entered someone else’s body.

I looked up at Yeoreum.

“Yeoreum. When this is all over, I’ll give this body back to you.”

“……”

Yeoreum didn’t answer.

Nancy’s small, pale face warmed by the campfire. A flicker of hesitation seemed to waver in her(his) eyes.

But an unexpected reaction came from right beside me. Ellen gripped my arm tightly.

“Wait Summer, are you saying you’ll leave here…?”

“Strictly speaking, this isn’t my body. Maybe this isn’t where I’m meant to be.”

“That’s ridiculous…! How can you say that?!”

Ellen shouted.

It was the first time I’d seen her this angry.

For some reason, she seemed deeply wounded.

Before I could console her, Ellen stormed into the tent.

Yeoreum sighed.

“You really know how to make life difficult for yourself.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I had a woman who tried to stop me from going home too. She even hypnotized and imprisoned me to keep me from leaving.”

…Isn’t that just a batshit crazy psycho?

He didn’t seem to have only negative feelings towards her. Yeoreum’s expression was wistful as he spoke about her. As if reminiscing about fond memories.

The campfire had gone out. As thick darkness settled all around, Yeoreum and I returned to the tent as well.

We only had one tent, so we all had to bunk together.

Ellen glanced sideways at Yeoreum.

“Sleeping with a strange man… or should I even call him a man…?”

He may be a man inside, but he looks like a woman on the outside. And an exceptionally beautiful one at that.

Ellen might feel uncomfortable even if it was her daughter’s body, so I decided to lie down between the two of them.

Ellen on the left, Nancy on the right. A strangely familiar arrangement. A sweet scent wafted from both sides.

Yeoreum fell asleep quickly.

I didn’t sleep. Deep sleep was a luxury we couldn’t afford when monsters could attack at any moment.

The frame labeled ‘BEST’ that I saw in the cabin basement kept flashing in my mind.

All the other frames contained blueprints of the creatures we’d encountered so far.

Why was the ‘BEST’ frame the only one without a blueprint?

I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t sleep. Ellen, lying to my right, was awake too.

“Summer… is Yeoreum asleep?”

“Yeah. Looks like it.”

Ellen had been facing me from the start.

She moved a little closer.

“I’m sorry for getting angry earlier.”

“It’s okay.”

“But you were wrong, Summer. You’ve been so good to me all this time. How do you think I’d feel if you suddenly say you’re leaving? I really… felt abandoned.”

There was moisture in her voice.

I realized belatedly.

Ellen used to be married. When Nancy was still a young child, her husband left for Mexico and never returned.

Ellen had memories of being abandoned.

Had I reopened her deep wounds? Had I made her feel abandoned again?

As I thought about it, it felt like I’d been hit hard in the solar plexus with a bowling ball.

My heart grew heavy.

“I’m sorry Ellen. I didn’t consider your feelings.”

As I said that, Ellen wrapped her arm around my waist.

“Then Summer, please. Stay here.”

“…”

“If there’s anything you want, just tell me. I’ll do anything. So don’t leave, stay here with me…”

“…”

“Hm? Is that not okay…?”

I turned my body towards Ellen too.

Our eyes met and Ellen moved.

Our lips overlapped. Her tongue entered my mouth.

“What are you…?”

I pulled away quickly, flustered.

Ellen’s eyes were glazed over.

She moved sensuously. She pressed closer and kissed me again.

The soft elasticity of her pink lips. Her tongue, even stickier this time, lingered much longer in my mouth.

Our bodily fluids mixed. Ellen embraced me. I felt her feminine body all over.

As the kisses continued one after another, my head spun and my chest tingled.

When our lips parted, a thread of clear saliva stretched between us.

No matter that she’s my friend’s mother, the fact remains that Ellen is a beautiful woman.

The sweet scent of her skin, which could only be described as pheromones, made my reason fly out the window. My body grew hot.

Ellen’s body was hot too.

“Summer… will you… hold me…?”

Just as Ellen whispered in my ear in a voice I’d never heard before, it happened.

Crack-

A sound came from outside the tent. The sound of something breaking.

I felt a chill. I opened the tent and went outside.

Crack, crack… It was the sound of tree branches snapping.

I heard a thunderous crash too. Was the forest collapsing?

The darkness surrounding the tent rippled malevolently.

Ellen and I looked around in confusion. Our eyes darted quickly between the trees, but we couldn’t see anything.

Ellen let out a piercing scream.

“Kyaaaaaaah! What is that…!!”

What? What did she see?

I turned my head towards where Ellen was looking.

Something shot out from between the bare tree branches.

It was a tentacle that looked like an octopus arm.

There was no time to observe it closely. It moved too fast.

The tentacle snatched Ellen.

—