"Will you be a good boy?"
The demonic voice whispered in Rand.
Her voice was hoarse, as if her tongue had been burnt by the brimstone of hell, and behind every syllable a devil's soul screamed.
"I will."
— Rand heard himself talking to himself when he woke up from his dream.
His body twitched involuntarily... He quickly put the base of his tongue against his palate, and after a few minutes the trembling disappeared.
Rand was lying in bed panting, his pajamas wet with cold sweat, which made him uncomfortable.
nightmare.
Rand knew he was starting again, which happened often, even during his quiet life with the Asian couple. The psychiatrist said he had some sort of trauma, but Rand thought he was all right.
It was just some dream babble and some physical jerking after waking up, and Rand was getting used to it by now.
Soon he woke up, and found that the nightmare-like headache had disappeared.
It feels good, like a new life, or so to speak.
Rand got up from the bed and found that the clothes he was wearing yesterday were neatly folded and placed beside the bed, and a faint scent of feminine perfume remained in the room, belonging to Rogers.
This overly feminine thoughtfulness made Rand feel an indescribable embarrassment, and he looked at the clothes, grabbed them, and tucked them in as he passed the washing machine.
Rand couldn't help but stop when he was in the living room, the smell...
Rand felt as if he could smell something again, a slightly rotten smell.
But the smell is almost ghostly, and it disappears when you pay attention.
To deal with what might have been a delusional smell, Rand yanked the curtains open. It was still early, but the sunlight pouring into the room still made him wince and narrow his eyes. Other side effects from the vaccine remain, some tolerably debilitating.
The sound of water suddenly came from the kitchen, Rand rubbed his forehead and slowly came to the kitchen, and then he saw the water flowing on the cooking table and the fish spinning in the basin.
He couldn't help but stop.
Rand immediately found that the fish's wound was healing, the albuginea fell off the bottom of the basin, the water was a little cloudy, and it gave off an unpleasant smell.
"Oh, I forgot about you."
Rand raised his eyebrows and said to the little guy in the salad bowl.
He walked back to the porch, found the fish food recommended by the previous pet shop owner from the sundries, and sprinkled them randomly on the water. But the fish was just circling lazily, without any desire to eat at all.
Rand stood by the cooking table and observed for a while, flicking the walls of the salad bowl with his fingers, but the fish still did not respond, as if the fish food was just dust falling on the water.
Rand couldn't help but flicked the salad bowl again, simply trying to get the fish's attention—forgive him, after all he didn't have any animals in his limited memory.
The fish jumped out of the water at this time and bit his finger.
"Hey-"
Rand withdrew his fingers immediately.
He almost jumped up in fright, but unlike the terrifying scene of the fish biting off his finger, the fish only gave him a symbolic bite.
Lifting his finger, Rand could see a faint white mark there.
Until this time, the cold sweat slowly slid down from his forehead.
"It's not fun."
Even if he knew that it was impossible for a fish to understand human words, Rand couldn't help raising his voice and said to it.
"… "
Naturally, he got no response.
The fish in the beautiful neon turquoise turned lazily, its fat belly hitting the stainless steel surface of the salad bowl, each scale looking like an elaborate work of art.
Rand raised his eyebrows, suddenly realizing that he was talking to a fish.
Yes, admit it, it's kind of stupid.
He seemed to hear a voice speaking happily to him, and he turned his attention from the salad bowl to the aquarium material that was placed at the door.
At this point in theory he should get himself some toast, a scrambled egg, a nice black coffee — oh no, no coffee, he forgot he just got his shot.
All in all he should have gotten himself some breakfast, but the scene of the fish suffocating in the salad bowl was really depressing.
(Forgive him, he actually started to put himself in the shoes of a fish.)
In the end, it took him a little longer than expected to get the simple aquarium up. It looks good. The only trouble was that Rand got a little bit of the sea salt in the mix, but in the end he decided to follow the guide anyway, and it turned out at least better than what he'd come up with with table sea salt and water - even if it was With that in mind, Rand still felt a little nervous when he put the fish in his newly arranged aquarium.
What if this fish is damned unable to adapt to well-proportioned "sea water"
Funny thoughts ran through his head, and it wasn't until then that he realized that he had begun to look forward to this odd little thing...
Rand was stunned for a moment, then gave a wry smile.
Well, it's really a new experience for him (remember what we said before? Rand's limited memory has him never raising anything, and the reality is that more of the time he's only responsible for raising him himself and the swarm of cockroaches in his rural New Jersey apartment—you're not responsible for the cockroaches, of course).
Rand doesn't know if it's a good turnaround, but, like that song sings, let him go.
He looked at his handicraft, the water pump was a little crooked by him, but the wonderful thing was here, it was just a simple aquarium, the bluish liquid in it matched the obviously more leisurely fish, making him produce Wonderful satisfaction.
Oh, anyway, at least he has a fish now.
And this fish looks much cuter in the aquarium than in the salad bowl. Naturally, it did not show any discomfort, and it seemed that it was indeed very tenacious in its life.
Rand remembered what the shopkeeper had told him.
"little monster."
He stretched out his finger, tapped the fish across the wall of the resin tank, and muttered involuntarily.
After a while, Rand thought "Monster" might be a good name—for an odd fish.
Rand almost lovingly got some fish food on the water, expecting Munster to be able to eat in a comfortable environment, but the same thing happened again, its attitude towards fish food can still be used "disdain". A look" to describe it, and Rand didn't want to experience the feeling of being bitten by a fish again (even if it didn't cause him any harm).
He was a little confused, not sure if it was Munster's problem or the fish food.
In the end Rand decided to get himself breakfast and then figure out a way to find the answer on the Internet... if he could find it.
However, when he finished the toast and reappeared next to the aquarium with a plate in his hand, he found that the fish food had been given a new meaning by Munster - a sticky goo with a texture similar to snot appeared in the The corner of the aquarium that took Rand a lot of time, and the fish food colorfully dyed with food coloring is like a special decorative material dotted on the surface of the slime.
There's an obvious hole in the middle of the slime, it looks like a cocoon or something, but whatever it is, it looks pretty gross.
Rand looked at the thing with a twisted expression, and Munster was busy transporting fish food from the water to the surface of the "cocoon". Rand wasn't sure fish could sense human emotions, but Munster turned around when Rand felt sick.
It holds many small particles of fish food in its mouth, and the markings on its body appear much brighter. Its fish mouth touched the aquarium wall soothingly, and then it began to be busy with the decoration of the "cocoon", as industrious as a worker bee.
Rand frowned and moved his gaze back to the plate in his hand, where there was still a small ball of scrambled eggs, and Rand found that he had no appetite.
Fifteen minutes after deciding to have a pet, Rand began to regret it.