You're the monster

A man in grey skin stood in the centre of everlasting white. He looked at his hands in shock.

"This isn't real…" He exclaimed.

"Growl"

He turned around and saw what was like a giant black lamprey with tentacles and pointed teeth lining its circular mouth. The tentacles took hold of him and pulled him in. He resisted but more black tentacles attached themselves to his neck and face.

"I see… So, you're the monster…" He said upon realizing that. He stopped struggling and accepted his fate as prey destined to be eaten.

"Hahaha... Bahahaha!" He laughed manically.

His legs had reached the entrance of its mouth and it chumped down without waiting.

"AGHHHHHH!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The next parts of his body were gradually minced as he was pulled in like a conveyor belt. No more laughing could be heard. Satisfied, Hikaru returned to his mental world from the soul's corridor. There the last of the parasite's cells were absorbed into his hand. He had finished the assimilation process.

Now he needed to wake up. He stood there and stared at his dead mother for a moment. Still smiling, she sank into the blossoms like quicksand. The light in his eyes began to return as he swam up from his deep consciousness.

***

I took a couple of breaths to calm down. I had just murdered a schoolmate of mine. Harue. She was from another class in the same year level so the only thing I know is her name. It doesn't matter to me that she's dead. It matters that I don't get caught as the murderer and if anyone else was here besides her. I looked at my backyard through the sliding glass door which was open. She must have entered through here, but she had to climb through the back fence. Perhaps she heard the struggle in the house but why was she at my house to begin with?

***

After standing in front of his door for a long time. Aimi Harue finally found the strength to knock on the door. Then her hand froze an inch away from the door. Aimi's wide-open eyes stared in shock. Then they became eyes of realisation.

'I couldn't do it after all' she admitted. She closed her eyes and smiled. She thought about going home and telling her best friend she failed. She dreaded being teased for the next week, but the imagery made her feel comforted. She missed Chiho's roasting.

She started walking back home.

"Aah!"

She spun around and looked at the door. A yell came from inside!

***

"Huh…"

What was that? It was too vivid to be an imagination. It appeared to be one of Harue's memories. While I was daydreaming... I wonder what the trigger was. Did it happen upon absorbing her head and brain cells? Was it because I thought about why she was at my house?

I didn't just see the memory, I felt like I recalled it alongside with the sounds, touch, smell and the emotions. She seemed to have followed me walking back home from school and was about to confess her feelings to me.

I've rejected a lot of girls from my school, most in my year level and one was a teacher. I've even rejected guys before. Although I'm not interested in relationship or sex. I think I'm heterosexual, but I've never really thought about it.

Despite my experience, Harue must be the strangest secret admirer yet. For her to see me afterschool, she must have waited for me to finish Kendo class at 5pm…

The parasite could enter a host and see their memories and obtain memories from living organisms it eats… This parasite is perfect for reconnaissance and covert operations… Hmm

Half of her body had already been absorbed inside of me. I was a bit anxious if someone would knock on the door to ask about the screams earlier while I still have her legs dangling from my abdomen. I pressed the legs against my body, increasing the affected surface areas to speed up the absorption. When my cells had merged with her skin cells, I let go of her feet. I waited for a moment to see if it would fall off. It didn't.

I tried pressing her inside me with my hands to increase the absorption rate, but it didn't sink in any further. I noticed my body's volume didn't get bigger as it should, so I thought my body made some sort of super compact space to fit her inside. However, I couldn't push her deeper. Was my body not storing it whole but breaking her down into nutrients? Even if so, shouldn't there be a noticeable increase in volume around the size of a small bag at least? The parasite's physiology goes against common sense like quantum physics. I shouldn't be surprised.

I need to clean up the mess before someone like my father comes. Then I had an idea. The perfect crime. There wouldn't be any hard evidence if I used my body to absorb every drop of blood. I picked up pieces of my cat and stuck it to my back. Then I began touching every bit of blood I could see on the wall, floor and kitchen appliances. Even the tooth that fell from Aimi earlier, I absorbed it. After I had finished cleaning up, Aimi's body had fully assimilated with me. Not a strand of hair was left.

I picked up the only proof of Harue's presence. Her cellphone.

I went to the mirror in my bedroom and was surprised that my body looked completely normal. There weren't any of the tentacles that appeared from my abdomen or any of Aimi's body parts sticking out of me. I examined myself with my hands and it felt like ordinary skin. Even the texture underneath was just like normal blood and flesh. I looked at my hand and to my surprise the gash had closed a bit. It's already amazing a wound of this size had clotted. At this rate, it might completely heal by tomorrow. Astonishing!

For a moment, I doubted my sanity. Maybe this was all just in my head and nothing I saw today happened. Perhaps killing my mother that day finally affected me albeit delayed.

***

'However, if that's true… Then what is this!?'

Hikaru's forefinger was touching the mirror…

15cm away!

Hikaru had pointed at the mirror with his finger. With the memory of the tentacles he once saw, his fore finger had stretched and touched the mirror. He felt a cool sensation on the tip.