Mermaid Effect

Vol1

The contrast between the bright red blood and the abnormally pale skin on Rand's fingertips was heart-stopping.

Rand felt dizzy as he stared at the harsh red.

Seconds later, Rodgers knocked on Rand's door.

It seems that he has settled down with his friend... Rand thought, but soon another voice sounded in his heart.

Was that really his friend?

Before Rand went to open the door, he subconsciously washed away the blood from his fingertips.

For some reason, he instinctively didn't want Rogers to find out that he had noticed the drop of blood.

"Hey, Rand, sorry for the delay, I..."

Rogers returned to Rand's apartment with his usual friendly smile, and he was about to find a reason to get rid of the "night watch" task.After all, it takes some time to dispose of a corpse.

Out of the killer's habit, he quickly scanned the kitchen, including every corner, and because of this, he immediately found a bloodstain that had been wiped away on the floor where he finished Thompson.

Someone found it.

Rogers blinked.

His expression didn't change from before, but his hands seemed to be behind his back inadvertently.

The blade hidden in the nail popped out, and Rogers cut a small cut in his fingertips.

"...I'm afraid I won't be able to stay with you all night, my friend is very drunk and I'll have to watch him. You know, if I go back the next day and see a guy who's been killed in my own bed A good friend who suffocates to death with vomit clogging his windpipe, that's a big problem."

He stared at Rand and said.

"Oh, okay, okay. Go take care of your friend, I feel better than I did before, I don't think there will be any problems."

Rand was stunned after hearing Rogers' words, and the touch of red lingered in his head as if it had taken root.

"that……"

After hesitating for a moment, he couldn't help but speak.

That, I found fresh blood in the kitchen.

For a split second, Rand almost said that to Rogers Six.

But at this moment, Rogers suddenly scratched the back of his head, and gave Rand an embarrassed wry smile.

"Oh, by the way, I almost forgot about this—do you have a Band-Aid?" He raised his bleeding finger to Rand's face, "I was accidentally caught by that damn food in your kitchen just now. I hurt my hand with the bag, I thought I had bandages at home, but I ran out of them. Ugh, so I hate the grocer, those plastic bags are so soft, but you always accidentally get caught Cut off that sharp edge."

Rand looked at the counter, and found that there were snacks that Rogers had prepared for his "night vigil" piled up there, some fruit and vegetable crisps placed randomly, one of which was opened.

"You should have told me earlier, I think I should have a Band-Aid, I'll go find it for you."

Rand said, his tone becoming lighter.He obviously wasn't aware of the relief that came out of him as he spoke.

And Rogers was keenly aware of it.

His eyes darkened.

Looking at Rand, who was looking for the medical kit in the drawer with his back turned to him, Rogers thought for a moment, and then suddenly said: "Hey, Rand, I have an idea. You know, you can't always be like this, because you are worried Those 'superhero diseases' in your own body and stay up all night. Well, I have a nice place in the suburbs, a farm, in the middle of nowhere, where I make my organic cat and dog food, and sometimes Stay there for a few more days. I believe that the living facilities there will allow you and your little monster to stay there comfortably. Damn wild rabbits and raccoons - I wish you could help me with those nasty little brutes..."

Rand looked back at Rogers.

When he heard the other party say that it was deserted, Rand was already moved.

"My God, can you really lend us that place to live? That would be so nice!"

He immediately cheered up.

"Oh, Rand...take it as a thank-you gift for the Band-Aids."

Rogers smiled. He came to Rand's side, reached into the drawer, took out the medical kit from the deepest part, and then took out the band-aid and shook it in front of Rand's eyes.

Vol2

In the middle of the night of the second day, Rogers took Rand and Munster to the place he said.

As Rogers said, the surrounding area of ​​his farm was deserted—perhaps a little too deserted.

Halfway through, Rand discovered that his mobile phone had lost signal.

The road leading to the farm is very narrow, and the ruts in the ground clearly belong to Rogers.After leaving the artificial light source, the night became extraordinarily thick and dark, and the world seemed to be suddenly condensed into a small cloud of dim yellow shrouded by car lights.Even with Rand's current beyond-mortal vision, the scenery outside the car window was blurry and dark to him. Well, the bushes only had dark outlines, like paper-cuts left by the devil when he was bored.

"Don't worry." Rogers looked up in the rearview mirror, and then said, "I have a satellite phone in the room on the farm, it won't let you lose contact with the world. Of course, it won't be too convenient, but I Guess you don't mind not being able to surf the web."

Rand pursed the corners of his lips: "Being able to escape from those reporters has made my breathing a lot easier."

He said.

Munster put his face on the car window and peeked out curiously, like a puppy letting out the wind. He looked extraordinarily ignorant and excited, which made people feel sad.Probably because of this, Rand allowed it to put its tail on his lap.He even took a small box of sea salt for body scrub out of boredom, then dipped it with a toothbrush and began to clean the gaps in the scales on Munster's tail.

I have to say that with Rand's current situation, being able to escape from the crowd really made him breathe a sigh of relief.

An hour and a half later they arrived at their destination.

Rogers' ranch is divided into two parts, a barn left over from the colonial period that he transformed into a living place, and a bungalow that looks a little rough.

"That's where I work."

Noticing Rand's gaze in the direction of the bungalow, Rogers said nonchalantly.

The room he prepared for Rand could not be called luxurious. In fact, the room separated by wooden boards could even be called simple. There was a double bed placed against the wall—or a bed that was more than normal. A wider single bed.

Rogers rubbed his nose a little embarrassedly.

"Sorry, I'm a bachelor after all, and if I bring a woman, she can be stacked with me."

He said that his eyes fell on Munster, and then his expression was a little stiff, "Uh, there may be some problems with Munster's size, I will go and find out if there is an air mattress..."

"I can also stack with Rand, and I will wrap him with my tail."

Munster obviously didn't quite understand the true meaning of what Rogers said, and it stood upright angrily.

After cocooning for the second time, its strong muscles and broad shoulders made it lose many opportunities to be held in Rand's arms. The so-called "huge body size" has become something that will make it feel painful. plant something.

"Calm down, Munster."

Rand's cheeks were a little red, and he whispered to Munster.

In order to avoid embarrassment, he walked around the room casually.

"Ok?"

What he found made him unable to help but make a sound of doubt.

"This window..."

He opened the window, which was much smaller than the room, and the iron fence cut into about fifteen square centimeters covered the outside of the window.

Rand reached out and shook the thumb-thin railings, and found that they were welded very firmly.

"Oh, this was done by the previous ranch owner." Rogers explained briskly, "Have you forgotten? I told you before that this place was remodeled from a barn, and Mr. Grandet has been Worried about someone coming to steal the wheat...he had a lot of pumpkins stolen before...and then he did this. Feels a little uncomfortable, doesn't it?"

Rand twitched the corner of his mouth and closed the window, letting the venetian blind hide the unappetizing grating.

"It's okay. I'll get used to it."

He said.

Munster seemed a little eager to try, his eyes stared at the fence for a while, as if he really wanted to try to break it.Rogers watched it for a moment, then returned his gaze to Rand before it turned back.

A tricky problem—thought Rogers.

Vol3

After unloading the luggage brought by Rand and Munster from the car, Rand noticed that Rogers also took out two huge blue incubators from the back of the car.

"What is this? Do you need my help?"

Rand helped him get the boxes down—they were heavy as hell.

"Oh, here's some 'venison'. My friend got me some of it a while ago, so I can work on them while I'm at it."

Rogers said.

Rand offered to help get the "venison" to the bungalow for processing, but Rogers flatly refused.

"Sorry, I'm using some unique methods to deal with these things, and it's not very suitable for outsiders to see," he said.

However, this time he did bring too much "inventory".

(Especially considering that just last night he "restocked" himself a little bit)

After rejecting Rand, he made a small mistake.The incubator fell from his arms and landed on the barn porch.

"boom--"

The lid was opened, and blood gushing out mixed with a strong smell of rust.Red muscle mingled with bone and yellow fat, messing up the old walnut planks of the porch like spilled pudding.

A puddle of connective tissue sticky tissue fluid splattered onto Rand's calf.

Strangely, those bloodstains and flesh actually made people feel slightly warm.

They are all fresh and will not be dead for more than 47 hours.

Rand didn't even need to think, he automatically judged the freshness of that small piece of flesh and blood.

"damn it!"

Rogers scratched his hair and cursed.

He quickly inspected the broken pieces that had slid out and breathed a sigh of relief.

He is always willing to dissect human corpses in his own bathtub. If someone who is familiar with every part of the human body is not here, I am afraid it will not recognize it anyway. Not long ago, these corpses that exuded the smell of corpses Minced meat (even if they're really fresh, but body parts are body parts) is also an ambitious paparazzi reporter.

"Looks like I'm going to have to spend all of my time tonight on a pile of bloody sons of a bitch."

Rogers jumped up cursing, begging Rand to wait, and then sprinted to the glove cabinet, trying to dig out some cleaning supplies—even though his cleaning ability was in serious conflict with his wonderful cookie-baking ability. inverse ratio.

While Rogers was desperately flipping through mops and rags in the glove cabinet, Rand firmly locked his body in the big pool of bright red and disgusting corpses.

He tried to hold his breath, but the strong smell of blood crawled into his mind like a spirit snake along every olfactory cell of his body.

Under the dim light of the corridor lamp, those pieces of meat looked as bright as amber.

"Gudong..."

Rand swallowed desperately, and before he realized it, he had already squatted down slowly beside the pool of blood.

He couldn't even control it, he wanted to pick up a piece of bloody fresh meat with his hands, and stuff it into his mouth.

Then a pale hand passed behind him, and the long nails pierced into a piece of minced meat, making a slight "poof".

"Mun, Munster—"

Rand suddenly fell to the ground, and his back touched Munster's cold and thick chest.

It didn't know when it came behind Rand, and happily stole a piece of meat and stuffed it into its mouth.

"For God's sake, don't!"

Rand didn't even have time to stop it, he could only watch it chew the piece of meat.

Some blood clung to its thin lips, and it stuck out its tongue, licking away the rusty red marks.

You should not eat whatever is on the ground.

Rand opened his lips. He should have spoken to Munster like this, but when he spoke, he felt that he also felt the salivating feeling.

At least, when Munster refused the large piece of "venison", Rand only felt hungry.

Even the smell of blood that should have made people feel sick was too delicious for Rand at this time.

"I, I'm hungry..."

Munster said vaguely with food in his mouth.

"I know, but the materials Rogers was working with..."

"It's okay, just let it eat."

Rogers didn't know when he appeared behind Rand.

On this day, he seemed extraordinarily generous, as if he didn't mind that his raw materials were swept away by Munster.

Of course, what he didn't even know was that when he was feasting in Munster, Rand was about to be tormented by the intense hunger and went crazy.

He wants to eat!

He really wants to eat!

To ease the eerie feeling, Rand asked Rogers for a cereal and some milk.

But sitting in front of the table, facing the cutlery and the food in the cutlery, Rand, who was so hungry just now that his stomach seemed to curl up, suddenly lost his appetite.

"What's wrong? You don't like this brand?"

Rogers suddenly leaned over, put his chin on the back of his hand with a smile, and stared at Rand without blinking.

He had just cleaned up the meat on the porch, and there was some blood on the hem of his clothes.

Rand didn't know why he suddenly felt flustered.

"No, I like it very much...I think so."

Rand said.

Yes, for a long time in the past this kind of food was something he really liked, but now they look like the excrement of something.

In Rand's mind, red muscle mixed with fat...they looked like real food.

No no no - that's not the case - God, what the hell was I thinking...

Rand suddenly had an idea. He realized that what he really wanted to eat was not these tasteless milk and grain products at all, but meat—meat with blood.

Rand's hand grabbed the handle of the spoon.

His face was ashen, like a person recovering from a serious illness, but now he was eating those normal human food bite by bite at an astonishing speed.

It's really strange to say that they were once a regular at Rand's breakfast table, but now they taste like urine and sawdust.

A strong sense of nausea surrounded Rand.He felt like throwing up at the first bite, but he forced himself to eat them all.

"Wow, you look really hungry."

Rodgers sighed as Rand put down his spoon.

Rand pressed his lips together and waited for a moment, hoping that the nausea would go away.

One second, two seconds, three seconds...

He didn't even hold it for ten seconds.

Time never seemed so long.

He rushed to the toilet, the food he had just forcefully swallowed gushing out of his throat like a fountain.

He was about to vomit out his internal organs, and his whole body was limp. It took him a while to stand up, and then he staggered out.

Rogers stared at him worriedly, frowning.

"What's wrong with you? Are you okay?"

"..."

Rand twitched the corners of his mouth, too weak to speak.

"...are you throwing up again? God, Rand, tell me the truth, how long has it been like this? You haven't been able to eat, have you?"

"No, I ate something... I think I just had some indigestion. I got myself some steak before that, and I ate it."

Rand slumped on the chair, his eyes darkened for a while.

After spitting out everything in his stomach, the burning hunger tormented Rand again.

"So... would you mind having some 'venison'? Since you can accept steak, I think you might like that," Rogers' smile suddenly deepened, and he added, "Although here I planned to use them to make dog food before, but I can assure you that the meat is really very fresh."

……

Rand nodded.

That night Rand fell asleep in contentment.

He didn't know whether it was because he had eaten too little due to stomach problems or the uniqueness of the meat. In short, the fried venison that Rogers made for him that night was unbelievably delicious.

It tastes like prime beef shoulder, but softer, richer and has a distinct flavor profile.

Rand couldn't even give himself enough time to chew, so he swallowed the meat in his mouth.Compared with the "venison", the steak that Rand stuffed into his stomach before was like old rubber.

"...the secret to the deliciousness?"

Rogers smiled meaningfully when Rand asked.

"It's very simple. I will use the 'deer''s own fat to cook, so as to preserve the original flavor of the meat to the greatest extent. I am very glad that you like my craftsmanship, and we can continue this menu tomorrow."

He said.

Rand thought that would be a good idea.

"Rand?"

Munster's muffled voice came from under the bed.

After watching Rand eat the plate of meat today, it showed a strangeness that had never been seen before.

There was some shock and bewilderment.

"Are you happy?"

it asked suddenly.

"……Why do you ask?"

"..."

Munster didn't know how to answer Rand.

It can feel that Rand's body surface temperature is higher than before, and his heartbeat has accelerated at the same time. He seems very satisfied, but...

Munster felt a little dazed.

It felt Rand shouldn't be eating those things.

Although Rogers had cut them into small pieces and fried them in fat, Munster knew exactly what they were.

In the real ocean, sirens also prefer large mammals to fish.Their body surface is soft and rich in colloid, subcutaneous fat is rich, muscles can provide a lot of energy, and even bone marrow can be regarded as a good snack.

But Rand still shouldn't eat them, so when he was on the porch, it would grab the piece of meat in front of Rand.

It had a very, very vague sense of foreboding, in fact, for Munster, it was sort of a gut feeling.

Rand would be sad because of this food.

Munster didn't know how to express his thoughts in words, it was so confusing.

In the end, the only thing it could do was reach out to Rand and ask in a low voice.

"Rand, can I hold your hand to sleep?"

Rand let out a helpless sigh in the darkness.

After a while, he reached down from the edge of the bed and took hold of Munster's paw.

For some reason, when he touched its skin, he suddenly felt so happy.

His stomach was full of food, and his close friends were by his side.

Everything is so perfect, like a dream.

Vol3

In the "processing factory" not far from Rand's bedroom.

Rogers looked away from the darkened window.

He opened another incubator that had been unloaded from the car.

Under a layer of ice, the neatly stacked arms, thighs and heads have been frozen into a stiff gray.

"I knew you'd like this, my picky eater," he said briskly, with a reproachful tone. Although in front of him was a corpse that would never speak again, he seemed to have got It became easier as no response.

Rogers picked up the heads, blew the hair off in boiling water, and then put the meat and bones into a blender to make a puree.

"Look, you're always yelling and yelling that you'll never eat our food, but this belated meal comes anyway, and like mama said, you're going to like it."