All he heard was a soft squelch by his ear.
Before Albert could even process it, a warm, wet sensation spread inside his ear canal.
The heat quickly flooded over his eardrum, cutting him off from the outside world entirely. In that instant, all other sounds vanished.
Something was leaking out of his ear.
Albert froze—but he had no energy left to check what it was.
His hearing dulled completely, like a machine that had suddenly lost power. His arm, slick with fishy mucus, went limp without warning and slipped free from the face-fish's body.
Albert collapsed to the ground and fell into a brief blackout.
In the silence, only his heart continued to beat—strong and steady.
Thump. Thump.
Imprisoned within the brain blossom, the face-fish lazily flicked its tail, a smile of triumph spreading across its face.
It had known it all along. A lowly creature called "human" could never defeat it. And now, it would finally savor the delicacy it had carefully chosen.
