Chapter 503 - 444: Brianna: Just an Ordinary Romance

Chapter 503: Chapter 444: Brianna: Just an Ordinary Romance

She didn’t understand what was happening.

A life after death, a life before death... No matter what Brianna’s wish was, no matter how hard she struggled, it felt as if a pair of eyes were always watching her, ensuring that all she got in the end was a mangled, bloody, sharp-edged mockery.

’Wasn’t tonight the first time I’d taken my destiny back into my own hands?’

"I don’t believe you," Brianna said. "You can’t possibly accept me like this. You couldn’t even accept what Green looked like, let alone me. Green at least looked human. You’re just saying nice things, hoping I’ll spare you."

"I don’t believe you," Brianna said. "Even when I was in a man’s body, wasn’t it still me on the inside? You said my personality had changed back then. That was just an excuse, wasn’t it?"

"If I had a likable personality and appearance like Jin Xueli, wouldn’t that solve all our problems?" Brianna said. "Weren’t you happy when you were with her? You didn’t stay far away from her, did you?"

"...I was afraid she wouldn’t be likable enough for you, and at the same time, I was afraid she’d be *too* likable. So I thought, if you died, my suffering would end."

"...You’re still so beautiful, so gentle, so... lovely. And I’m so horrifying, so disgusting, so twisted. Like a nightmare."

Brianna waited a moment, then suddenly remembered how she had forced Morando to go kill Chaisi—and in the end, Morando had gone.

She lay blankly beside Morando. The steam that had been rising from the wound in Morando’s abdomen just moments before was gone.

"...Why did you say I never really understood you?"

The question hung in the thick night air, refusing to dissipate.

Brianna lifted her head. For an instant, she was certain Morando was dead. The thought was like a camera flash going off in her mind, leaving her vision completely white, with nowhere to land.

She numbly pushed Morando’s shoulder.

"Hey," Brianna called out in a low voice, a huge, frantic fear unlike any she’d felt before beginning to grow inside her. "...Hey."

She grabbed Morando’s hand tightly and shoved her twice more. "Morando!"

Morando’s eyelashes fluttered, and she finally managed to open her eyes a sliver. In the darkness, her blue eyes looked like lightless, deep pools.

"...Don’t die," Brianna said. "I’m sorry, don’t die, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have... It’s okay, even if you can’t accept me like this, even if you like Jin Xueli, even if you never see me again, it’s all okay, I’m sorry, just please don’t die—"

Morando let out a soft laugh—or rather, something closer to a puff of air escaping her lips.

"Don’t let me turn into a Resident." Her voice was faint. It seemed she could no longer see Brianna, and was just making a wish to the night. "A Resident... born from my body... I can’t."

"If you live, you won’t become a Resident—"

Brianna didn’t finish her sentence, stopping abruptly.

Her gaze shifted from Morando to the sidewalk beyond the garden’s iron fence. Among the clumps of weeds, a round, bloated, pockmarked, yellowish-white human face was slowly rising, like the moon.

Brianna raised her body, her eyes meeting the moon-like face’s.

"Get lost," she said in a low voice.

"Don’t be so stingy," the moon-like face chuckled, a long chin jutting out. "It’s not every day I run into a dying Hunter."

Brianna glanced at Morando—she was still leaning against the fence, her eyes slightly closed, seemingly unaware that a Resident had come up behind her.

"I’ll tear apart anything that comes near her."

Brianna stared at the moon-like face and said, "I will tear you to pieces while you’re still alive. I’ll make sure you can’t put yourself back together, and in countless pieces, you will live to see the end of a Resident’s lifespan. If you understand me, then get the hell out."

The moon-like face sized her up for a moment.

"Don’t you want to kill her? You’re the one who did this to her, aren’t you? Seriously, to stop right at the finish line... Is this some new method of delayed gratification? The younger generation of Residents really plays weird games these days. Ah, just my luck to run into one this possessive."

It grumbled to itself but finally sensed that Brianna wasn’t joking. It sank back into the weeds and, with a RUSTLING sound, gradually retreated into the shadows farther down the sidewalk.

"It’s okay now," Brianna said softly.

A few seconds passed before Morando responded faintly, "Hm?"

She seemed to have passed out for a moment, completely unaware that a Resident had been drawn by the scent and crept up behind them.

’But as long as she’s not dead, it’s fine. As long as she’s alive, there are hospitals in the Nest that can treat her.’

’But my earlier attack... it seems it was too severe.’

Brianna could only walk on her hands; she couldn’t pick up Morando and carry her. Tying Morando to her back would be too dangerous.

First, Brianna wouldn’t be able to see behind her. If a Resident attacked Morando, it might be too late by the time she noticed. Second, with Morando’s abdomen pierced through, any careless movement could be fatal. ’Tying her to my back’ felt like a naive fantasy.

’What do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do...’

"...As a Hunter, dying in the Nest... is an ending you’re supposed to accept from the very beginning."

Morando’s thoughts were also fragmented, but it seemed she intended to use her last bit of strength to speak with Brianna. "But I still can’t accept it... especially yours."

When she spoke, the screaming in Brianna’s head would quiet down.

Brianna held her breath and moved closer, afraid that any sound she made would drown out Morando’s voice, afraid she might miss a single word.

"It’s so unfair," Morando lamented softly.

An oily, ink-black stain slowly seeped in from the sidewalk tiles, like a finger tentatively reaching for her.

Brianna slammed her hand down on it. The stain struggled on the ground for a few moments but couldn’t break free. Brianna curled her fingers into a claw and, after a few heavy scratches, the small patch of stain that had crept in turned into black ash shaken from between her fingernails.

"Yeah," she responded at the same time, "it’s really unfair."

"I’ve thought about it... Our love back then, it wasn’t some grand, life-and-death romance." Morando spoke in a low voice, her eyes half-closed. "We just... met and got to know each other normally. We chatted, dated, went for walks... saw movies... We were no different from so many other couples in the world."

Brianna didn’t understand why she was saying this—why she would say it like that.

"After you disappeared... I thought about it many times. If we weren’t Hunters, if you hadn’t met with disaster... maybe we would have been together for a few years, argued over trivial things, our feelings would have faded, and we would have parted amicably... Maybe we would have met other people... and started new relationships."

She struggled to suck in a breath.

From the other end of the sidewalk, a humanoid black shadow was peeking around, creeping its way over.

...To the Residents, a weak and badly injured Hunter in the Nest was like a bakery starting its ovens at dawn, its aroma wafting far and wide.

The number of attracted Residents would only grow.

Morando had once been such a vigilant and agile Hunter, but now she was completely oblivious.

"Aren’t most people in the world... like that? There was nothing special about us. We could have... we could have just been an ordinary, boring couple."

Morando sounded like she was about to cry. "But you suddenly died in the Nest... in that way... and then came back for me. After that, we no longer had the option of a normal romance."

"What are you trying to say?"

Brianna had been forced to crawl a few steps away from her, positioning herself where the garden’s iron gate used to be. She had found Morando’s gun and was gripping it tightly. Although her own destructive power was no less than the gun’s, at least the pistol’s bullets could stop the Residents from a distance.

"Bree... When we first met, it was just because I said I’d take you to eat at an authentic Armenian restaurant. It was such an ordinary... even cliché reason."

Brianna raised her long arm and slapped the streetlight pole. Its outer layer suddenly dissolved, separated, and fell neatly to the ground. The pole was instantly thinner.

That Resident, which looked like a layer of grayish-yellow soft flesh, lingered, refusing to leave.

Nearby, several more shadows had gathered, their forms indistinct.

"Bree..."

Morando called out softly.

"I’m here," Brianna said, her voice hoarse. "I’m not leaving. And you’re not going to die."

Morando didn’t seem to hear her.

"Bree... our time together wasn’t some soul-stirring, profound love from a TV drama... Originally, it was nothing remarkable. It was the Nest... it was fate that led us to this point."

’What nonsense is she spouting now?’

"That was you!"

Brianna roared and lunged forward. She had already used her infinitely extending body to form a protective wall, shielding Morando behind her. The moment she landed, she smashed a large, dense cluster of swollen red lumps with a single slap.

"When I was dying, all I could think about was going back. I just wanted to see you one more time—"

"It wasn’t me, Bree."

Morando said in a low voice. "After I die... maybe you’ll understand. What you long for, what you suffer for, what you despair over... it’s not me. It’s not just me."

Brianna wanted to let out a piercing scream, to unleash the ugliest words she could think of.

Morando had no idea how much she had suffered, and it was all for—

"What you long for... is the life that was cut short and stolen from you."