"Chade?" Seeing the unsettling anomaly before her, Robin subconsciously looked at him, her gaze filled with worry and fear.
Richard walked to the windowsill, intending to observe the situation at other houses, only to realize that Steve's mansion had no neighbors within hundreds of meters. There was no way to compare with others to judge whether they were in a dangerous predicament.
The others present hadn't noticed Richard and Robin's strange behavior yet, as everyone was preoccupied by curiosity regarding the unstable voltage.
"What's going on? All of a sudden..." Jonathan wondered, leaning down to observe a nearby flickering desk lamp.
"Is there a problem with the house's wiring?" Nancy asked, looking at the equally confused Steve beside her.
Steve shook his head and said, "I'm not sure. I'll go check the fuse box." With that, he set down his sunglasses and walked out from behind the bar counter.
"Hey! Will, why is your nose bleeding?" Just then, Michael and the others noticed their friend's abnormality. Under the flickering lights, Will, the well-behaved boy with the Bowl cut, was quietly having a nosebleed. Even Will himself hadn't realized it until Michael and the others pointed it out in alarm.
Seeing this, Jonathan grew anxious. He quickly squeezed in front of Will, cupped his younger brother's face, and looked into those innocent eyes, asking with concern, "Will, are you okay?"
"My nose is bleeding, but I don't feel uncomfortable," Will replied in a gentle voice.
"Steve, do you have a first-aid kit?" Nancy also helped check Will's nose and then asked Steve.
Steve scratched his head, thought for a moment, and said, "In the first-floor bathroom, there should be an emergency kit behind the mirror. You guys go get it; I'll go check the fuse box."
The originally pleasant and harmonious atmosphere suddenly seemed to fall into chaos. The flickering lights intensified the irritability and unease in everyone's hearts.
Richard watched the scene, but his attention was focused on his ears, listening to the movement outside. Suddenly, he heard the sound of rapid running and monstrous roars approaching. His expression changed drastically.
This time, it was for real.
"Don't move! Everyone stay here!" Richard vaulted into the kitchen, pulled a sharp kitchen knife from the knife block, then dashed behind the sofa to grab his backpack, pulling out a fully loaded revolver from inside.
Hearing Richard's words, Robin's face turned pale. She hurriedly said to the group, "Everyone, grab anything nearby that can be used as a weapon! Hurry!"
With that, she picked up the fire tongs by the fireplace.
Everyone was stunned by their strange actions. Seeing Richard suddenly pull out a loaded handgun and cock it felt inexplicably absurd. Jonathan even felt a surge of anger because he couldn't get medicine for his brother.
"Jonathan, I know what you're thinking, but everyone listen up. I'm not joking. A monster that gets excited by the scent of human blood is heading our way right now. Will, use a tissue to stop the bleeding yourself, but don't wander off. Kids, huddle together and hide behind the bar. Everyone else, find something for self-defense..." Richard walked straight to Jonathan and shoved the kitchen knife into his hand, giving him no chance to speak.
With a weapon thrust into his hand, Jonathan's anger was instantly replaced by alarm. His expression was full of doubt and suspicion, as what Richard and Robin were saying was hard to believe, but it was impossible for both of them to go crazy at the same time.
"Hey, man, you're saying there's a monster? Are you really not joking?" Steve stepped forward with a dry laugh, trying to stop Richard's bizarre behavior.
"It's here." Richard ignored them. Time was short, and he had done his best to warn them. If they insisted on sticking to their simple materialistic views and only acting upon seeing the facts, then the "facts" had now arrived.
Richard's eyes were sharp as lightning and his ears were attuned to everything. He carefully sensed the monster moving through The Upside Down. Suddenly, he whipped his head around, turning the muzzle of his gun to point at Steve's head.
The cold muzzle was only about a centimeter from his forehead. Steve froze in terror and raised his hands in surrender. The others also looked on in horror, feeling that Richard had truly gone insane.
"Move." However, it was just a false alarm for Steve. Richard reached out with his other hand, pushed Steve's head aside, and then decisively fired a shot toward the southeast corner of the living room ceiling.
Bang!
The gun was actually real!
This guy really wasn't joking!
The group ducked in fright at the sudden shot, but Robin let out a clearly audible gulp. Her eyes widened, and her voice trembled as she said, "Hey, guys... I think you should look back."
Hearing this, the bewildered crowd followed Robin's gaze. Under the flickering lights, the originally flat wall was deforming outward, carving out a distorted humanoid shape. It looked like a person, but it had a bud-shaped head with almost no visible facial features; the entire face was a pointed bud.
"WTF! What is that!?" everyone exclaimed. They now had no choice but to believe the reality Richard had spoken of.
As everyone knows, walls are hard and cannot deform like a blanket. But now, the wall seemed to have turned into a flexible membrane. The monster inside the wall was trying to break free. This situation looked more like the wall was being distorted by space, as if something from another world was trying to break through the spatial barrier and cross over to here!
Eddie jumped around in place in fright. He usually thought magical monsters and such were cool, but now he couldn't feel happy at all. He was truly terrified. Richard's shot had left a bullet hole in the bulging wall, right where the monster's head was, yet the thing was unharmed.
"Shit!" Seeing the bulging figure become more and more apparent, Nancy, the first to recover from the shock, grabbed two potted plants from the hallway and threw them with all her might at the monster that hadn't yet crossed the threshold.
With two crisp cracks, the red porcelain shattered, and soil and damaged plants fell to the floor.
Seeing this, Steve clutched his hair with a pained expression. He was afraid—doubly afraid. He was afraid of the monster before him, and he was afraid his parents would kill him.
If this house was destroyed because of this monster, when his parents returned and saw this, they would definitely kill him to vent their anger and then have a second child to raise instead.
However, what made Steve even more frantic was Richard.
In the brief moment Steve wasn't paying attention to him, a black bottle with an expensive label suddenly flew through the air and smashed hard against the humanoid monster that had torn through the wall and stepped into the living room.
"No! That's my mom's favorite brand of olive oil!" Steve couldn't help but scream, his eyes fixed on the roaring flower-headed monster. He scrambled to pick up a golf club from the items that had rolled onto the floor.
Smash!
With another crisp sound, the slippery olive oil drenched the monster. The monster let out a roar and charged, easily flipping over the coffee table. Everyone screamed and scrambled to dodge.
"Don't just stand there, get back!" Richard barked, firing another shot at the monster. The bullet hit the monster's arm, making it pause for a moment. Richard took the opportunity to shout to Robin, "Robin, find some fire and light it up!"
"Okay!" Robin forced herself to stay calm, patted herself down, and pulled a lighter from her pocket.
Robin, who had practically developed monster-related PTSD, carried a lighter with her even though she didn't smoke and usually had no use for one. Now she was extremely grateful that she had actually formed such a good habit.
Seeing the frantic actions of Robin and Richard, Steve, holding the golf club, shuddered. "You guys aren't thinking of setting my house on fire, are you?"
"At a time like this, don't be so picky," Nancy said from the side. As soon as she finished, she and her "frail" best friend took the cooking oil from the kitchen from the kids hiding behind the bar and threw them one after another at and around the monster.
The monster tried to dodge, but Richard's consecutive shots pinned its movement. Consequently, it had to take several direct hits from the oil bottles. Instantly, its entire body became oily, "shining," and fragrant.
The monster jumped up in anger, leaped over the sofa, and with a swing of its arm, sent Steve—who was trying to hit its head with the golf club—flying. He crashed through the glass and landed on the lawn of the small garden outside, dizzy from the impact and unable to stand up for a moment.
Jonathan followed closely, picking up a kettle used for boiling water and smashing it down. Eddie, both cowardly and brave, let out a weird cry and grabbed a dining chair to bash the monster. Unfortunately, the two heroic men failed to cause significant damage. With a low growl and a simple swing of its arms, the monster sent them flying just like Steve. They crashed against walls or rolled over the bar counter, tumbling onto the floor along with food, appliances, and kitchenware.
Seeing that the other three "brawny" men had all fallen, Richard had to withstand the pressure alone. He drew his gun and continued firing, hoping to further restrict and control the monster's movements.
At that moment, Robin finally lit the lighter, which had been difficult to start at the critical moment, and threw it out at the right time.
Sensing danger, the monster roared and tried to catch the lighter. But Richard's aim was divine. With a few shots, he directly shredded the arm the monster used to block, causing the lighter to slip through its fingers. The tiny flame hit its body, and the fire roared like a tiger, pouring down and instantly igniting the oil that drenched its entire body.
"Roar—"
In an instant, the monster became a humanoid figure engulfed in flames. It opened its bud-head, revealing a bloodthirsty petal-mouth, and let out a series of sharp, ear-piercing shrieks. Unwilling to die, it flailed its claws at everyone, tearing through furniture and wallpaper, but ultimately it didn't have time to do anything else. With a thud, it collapsed to the ground.
The flames eventually consumed the monster's entire body. Its fire-weakened form was like a highly volatile substance, quickly withering into white fluff under the burning fire, like charcoal ash, scattering everywhere.
With the monster dead, the nearby magnetic field stabilized. The appliances in Steve's house returned to normal operation, and the whole house became bright again. However, the living room was a mess, and the carpet was still burning... telling everyone that everything that had just happened was not an illusion.
"Put out the damn fire!" Steve, crawling back inside from the garden and leaning against the wall, could no longer bear it and shouted at the crowd.