"KSH!!"

"SHCING!!"

"WHAT ARE YOU....!? AHHH!"

Multiple loud noises came from the outside suddenly, which woke Xiao up from his sleep.

Although still in a daze, Xiao shrugs off the dazedness and analyse the noise outside.

(Kang's voice, is it...robbery!?)

Sensing something wrong, Xiao quickly jumps out from the bed, head to door and open it.

The moment he peaks outside to find out what's going on, he was stunned by the scene that entered his sight.

It was a monster, an 8 feet tall furry grey monster with a crow head and a werewolf body figure. The upper body was muscular. Simultaneously, the lower part and the leg where thin and unbalanced could barely stand straight, its left arm was short. In contrast, the right arm was 3 times more extended, with three sharp claw at the edge of its paw.

What shocked Xiao most was Kang's sight, laying beside the monster feet, with blood gushing out from his back, which had big claw marks on it.

Xiao thought he was still dreaming, as the sight of a bizarre monster standing beside Kang was too unrealistic, the monster who only appear in a fantasy world and Kang was being pinned down by that monster? What kind of fantasy joke is this!?

"CAW! CAW! CAW!"

The monster made a raucous called. It sounds similar to a crow, only a louder and sinister than a regular crow, and that unpleasant called had blown off the leftover dazedness of Xiao, which made him starts to shiver in fear.

"....run....run away, run away, Xiao."

Kang mustered all his strength to raise his head and asked Xiao to run away, but Xiao was too shocked to even move a muscle as if both his mind and body were petrified. Instead of making an action, Xiao was shivering non-stop, his mind was so much chaotic that he can't even reply a word to Kang.

The monster had notice Xiao's presence, with blinding speed, it turns its head 180 degrees. It looks at Xiao with its hollow eyes.

From that look, Xiao's mind received a crystal clear message.

(I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die.)

"Xiao....run.....run, brother...RUN AWAY!"

Kang used up his last breath to shout at Xiao, pleading him to run away. By the next instant, the monster lifts up its right arm and thrust through Kang's body with its claw, penetrating Kang's body.

"Xiao...bro...ther..."

Kang uttered the last words, before losing the sight of life from his eye, for that thrust from the monster had destroyed his heart.

"AHHHH!"

That instant sent Xiao into a panic and shout out terrifying. Still, at the same time, he had broken free from his petrified state.

(I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die.)

The same thought was running through Xiao's mind as he recklessly rushes towards the direction of the staircase. At the same time, completely ignore the monster and the lifeless Kang.

(Gonna run away, I need to get out of here, where's mom and dad!?)

Xiao tried to reorganise his thought as he tried to focus on running away. His reckless running caused him to nearly trip while coming down the stairs. Still, he managed to regained balanced and came down to the floor.

"Dad! Mom! Where are you? Monster! There's a monster in our house and Kang...."

Just when Xiao reaches the floor and was searching and screaming for his parents, he stopped all the sudden, at the sight of a pool of red blood around his parents, who were sitting down in the corridor, hugging each other lifelessly, with a big hole puncture the centre of their body and gushing out blood.

Xiao's father and mother were already dead.

"CAW! CAW! CAW!"

Xiao could hear the monster coming down, chasing his scent, he covered mouth to swallow a scream from his emotion that was boiling up, rushes into the washroom beside him, close the door and lock it.

"CAW, CAW."

Xiao could sense the monster reached the floor, and it seems that the monster didn't saw Xiao hiding in the washroom.

Thinking it was safe for a moment, Xiao let out some heavy panting and sweat like crazy as if he had been holding his emotion and breath for some time. The sight of his parent and brother dead body and the bizarre monster that appeared out of nowhere had made Xiao more terrified than sad, as he kept thinking on he will be the next one to die.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Xiao kept on touching his heart to remind himself that he is still alive. Still, when he thought of Kang and his parents, he began to panic and shiver again, because right now, he is the only one left alive.

Although Xiao was sweating crazily, his mind was disorganized. He nearly got a panic attacked. He tried to calm himself by taking some deep breath. It did help him calm down a little, and Xiao begins to think about his survivability.

(Okay, I should call for help, right? That's mean the police, which means I have to use the phone to do so, my phone was in my room, so the closes phone was my house phone, which is in the living room, but can I make there without getting tear apart by that monster, it's still a distance from here...)

Figure that calling for help was a stupid idea in this situation, Xiao has made up his mind to run out from the house as fast as he could once a chance arise, so he visualizes the escape route in his mind while taking another few deep breaths to calm his tense muscle.

Xiao turns the knob of the door with extreme caution, cracked the door open and took a peek. The monster was nowhere to be found, which was fortunate as the monster would found him by the door's movement.

To reach the exit, Xiao has to make a quick dash to the end of the corridor, turn to his right, and the door will be in his sight, few steps away as he had to run past the kitchen and the living room.

(The coast is clear...or not, not knowing where the monster is also put me at risk, but I have no other choice, I got to do it!)

Xiao took a deep breath one last time. To ready himself and relax his muscle, he kept on praying to get out of the house successfully and repeating to visualize the escape route in his mind.

And with the count of three, Xiao opened the door, put all his energy to his legs to start dashing.

It was at that moment, right after Xiao came out from the washroom and was about to shift to running posture, he felt something dangerous was about to come in from his back. Trusting his instinct, he quickly tumbles forward first before turning his head around to look.

The monster was at Xiao's back, readying a right swipe from its long right arm.

"Shit!"

Xiao barely dodges a right swipe from the monster by tumbling forward at the last moment.

"BANG!"

The right swipe from the monster had hit the wall, its force was enough to make a big hole in it, but Xiao doesn't have the time to be amazed by the attack, he was crawling away for his life as he was too shocked to even regained back body balance to run.

"I am alive! Hahaha! Still breathing, now, the exit!"

Relieved that he dodges a deadly blow from the monster, he chuckles like crazy while trying to regain his running posture.

Just when Xiao ran to the end of the corridor and saw the exit just a few steps away from where he was, the monster used its right arm as a lever to launch its entire body and leapt towards Xiao.

Xiao manages to throw himself into the direction of the kitchen and tumble away from the monster.

"Damn it! That was close, too close!"

Xiao's heart was beating crazily as he manages to survive another deadly blow, and was thanking his luck. But the moment he looked at his position, he began to panic.

"Oh....no."

Currently, Xiao was in the kitchen, surrounded by a high kitchen cabinet. His back was already at the wall, standing just a few steps away from him was the bizarre monster.

"CAW! CAW! CAW!"

The monster let out a cried for he had cornered its prey, it slowly move towards Xiao with its thin legs and used its right arm to support its body balance.

"Shit! Shit! Shit! STAY AWAY! DON'T COME CLOSER!"

Xiao had already bawling tears from his eyes, the tears of fear and despair, he was shouting senselessly to the monster to back away, but to the monster, his petty plead was just nothing but noise.

Xiao knew that his escape plan failed once the monster had cornered him into the kitchen, there was no escape route left except to either climb over the kitchen cabinet, which has quite a height, or brace himself to run pass the monster, but no matter how Xiao looked at it, both options will get him killed in an instant.

(Come on! Think! I have to run, I am going to die, right? Just like Kang, just like mom and dad, shit! Why is this happening? what is this thing!?)

While Xiao was cracking his brain to think of something to break away from the monster, each step the monster took has reminded him of how his family died, with that strong right arm of the monster making a screeching sound as the monster dragged it through the floor.

(No! I don't want to die! But I can't escape, so, so....)

The monster left three steps away from Xiao before it can sink its claw into Xiao's flesh. And Xiao had given up the option of running away because all his senses were telling him that the chance of running away was no more. So even Xiao's body was trembling in fear, his eyes where bawling tears like a waterfall, his breathing was disorientated, he knew what he had to do to survive.

(Damn it! I am going to kill it!)

Xiao chooses to kill the monster.

Xiao was eyeing the kitchen knife laying on the floor for quite sometimes. That was where he got the direction of choosing to kill the monster. After he made up his mind, he quickly looked around his surroundings and formulated a, a do or die plan.

(Alright, this will work, this will work, this will work!)

As soon as the monster took another step forward, Xiao immediately pulled out one of the drawers from the kitchen cabinet and fling it towards the monster face. There were various silverware inside the drawer, so all of it was flying towards the monster.

The monster reacts by using its right arm to wipe away the flying drawer and silverwares.

At that instant, Xiao was already holding a kitchen knife in his right hand while his left hand was holding something else. He was using the drawer as a distraction to get the knife. Xiao knew the monster will use its right arm to react to anything, so it has left an opening when the monster attacks the drawer.

Just right after the monster right arm stopped, Xiao entered a crouching pose while tensing his leg muscle, he holds the kitchen knife to a stab position.

"DIE!"

The next instant, he leapt towards the monster face, with the kitchen knife facing front while shouting out his last hope. The monster tried to brush off Xiao using its right arm, but it got no time to pull back as its arm was too long, and Xiao's knife almost reached the monster face.

When the knife nearly reaches the monster's hollow eye, it suddenly flings its head towards Xiao, with its sharpen beak at the front, the monster was going for a beak attack.

It was another way around this time, Xiao was going to stab through the head by the monster big beak. But once the beak almost reaches Xiao's face, it stopped.

The monster didn't stop its beak attack out of mercy, but from a blocked by Xiao. Xiao's left hand was holding a wooden chopping board all along, and he manages to use it to parry the beak attack at the last moment.

"this time, YOU DIE!"

Xiao squeezes out all his energy, shout out his cry for survival and thrust the kitchen knife towards the monster face as if his life was depending on this one last blow.