Die, Replay, Repeat

Chapter 2: Replay After Death

In a split second, Fang Xiu felt as though he was plummeting into an icy cavern.

_I can see her? Obviously I can so what?_

His mind was a whirlwind of confusion, he wanted to gather his thoughts, but his 'wife' didn't grant him that opportunity.

CRACK.

The sound of porcelain shattering resonated throughout the room.

The wife's beautiful, frosty, smooth skin was fracturing, and in an eye's blink, countless tiny black cracks spread across her body, making her resemble a broken porcelain figure.

From these black fissures, the sound of water trickling could be heard, and crimson blood that looked like writhing worms began to ooze from the crevices.

Her soft, long hair began moving and twisting in the air like coiling black snakes.

"You can see me!" A non-human roar erupted from her mouth.

At this moment, her cherry-red lips stretched grotesquely from ear to ear, her perfect teeth transformed into jagged edges, and within her mouth, was another mouth almost as if another creature was growing in her throat.

Fear, like a tidal wave, washed over Fang Xiu.

His body involuntarily stiffened, his mind went blank, leaving only a vast emptiness.

The next moment, the shadow of death arrived as expected.

A massive, bloody mouth engulfed Fang Xiu's head.

Fang Xiu's world turned black. Cold, slick, and the sensation of suffocation engulfed him as his head was devoured by the 'wife'.

Following that, an unimaginable intense pain consumed his body.

Fang Xiu was dead.

The scene was horrific for a moment.

An entity, possibly non-human, bit off Fang Xiu's head in one gulp.

The headless body didn't topple immediately. A large amount of blood spurted from the neck like a fountain, soaking the bed sheets.

However, in the next second, the surrounding space-time started to fracture like glass, everything reduced to oblivion.

***

Don't let them know you see them!

Don't let them know!!!

On the pristine ceiling, it appeared as though someone had again bitten their finger and scribbled an endless number of words in blood.

Fang Xiu, who had been sleeping, suddenly awoke, bolting upright on his bed.

Cold sweat covered his forehead, he was panting, his eyes wide with terror.

_What happened? Didn't I die? Was it all a dream?! _

As multiple thoughts sprang up in his mind, ultimately questioning his sanity, Fang Xiu noticed the unusual ceiling yet again. When he saw the familiar bloody words on the ceiling, his body stiffened.

_Never let them know you see them? Damn it! All that really wasn't just a nightmare! _Fang Xiu stared intently at the words on the ceiling. Under his constant gazing, the bloodied words abruptly disappeared, as if they were never there to begin with.

_It's happening again! Isn't it? Could the sentence be a clue? Had I to pretend to be blind? No! That's not correct! The original owner of the body wasn't blind; he was just an ordinary person. The only strange thing was that in his memory, he had never seen this 'wife' who would show up soon._

_The original owner has always lived alone, a very normal life, never seeing or hearing about another person in his home. Perhaps it was this normalcy that had kept him from being killed like me._

As he analysed all the memories of the original owner and his own before his 'death', Fang Xiu came up with one conclusion he couldn't let the supernatural 'wife' figure know that he could see her. It was simple, he had to just act as if she was invisible!

He had to live just like the previous body owner, acting like he was alone, not seeing or hearing anything that he wasn't supposed to. Completely ignoring her was probably the only way he could avoid his death.

Suddenly, a soft, soothing voice floated into the bedroom.

"Honey, breakfast is ready."

The voice was soft and filled with love, sparking endless imagination.

However, that's not the effect it had over Fang Xiu. Upon hearing the voice, Fang Xiu's mind was filled with dread, a bottomless pit of it.

Images of being devoured by a monstrous mouth haunted his thoughts as the voice continued echoing.

Instinctively, Fang Xiu wanted to run away or escape the abnormal scenario. Nonetheless, he was trapped; the 'wife' was already in the room.

Wearing her white nightgown, her skin pale and cold, she wore a sweet smile from another time.

"Sweetie, you're up. Time for breakfast," the 'wife' said softly, smiling.

Death felt closer than ever.

Fang Xiu was just a regular guy, never faced with anything supernatural, let alone the threat of being eaten by something non-human.

The fear from the previous time was freshly engraved in his mind, however he did his best to swallow it. Lowering his gaze to his quilt, he tried his best to pretend that he didn't see or hear the 'wife', completely following the warning of the bloody note.

However, the 'wife' didn't play fair; she bent down towards Fang Xiu's pants. As her face got closer to the quilt covering his lower body, she looked up, offering Fang Xiu a gentle smile.

At that moment, their eyes locked, and the air suddenly seemed to stand still.

The next second, the 'wife's' eyes went wide with surprise, and her sweet smile turned into a horrified grimace.

"You can see me!" She exclaimed.

Fang Xiu was once again reduced to a headless body.

***

Don't let them know you see them!!

The familiar warning on the ceiling, written in blood, stabbed Fang Xiu's eyes yet again.

BANG!

Fang Xiu jolted upright in bed, gasping for breath.

_That sneaky woman!_

Another time, it was the same endingdeath.

Amidst his fear, he felt a spark of anger. _Dying and coming back to life again? Another repeat of the same scenario? Was it an endless cycle? Starting back from the beginning point after every time he was killed? Was it something like a game's save point?_

After calming himself, Fang Xiu carefully analysed every detail that happened in the second cycle. After some time, he came up with something.

When he had lowered his gaze and avoided looking at her, she had come closer. This confirmed one of his suspicions. The monster needed to know that he could see her before she made her move.

Fang Xiu's mind was racing.

A few seconds later, that soft female voice rang out again.

"Honey, breakfast is ready."

The 'wife', smiling sweetly, slowly walked into the bedroom.

This time, Fang Xiu quickly grabbed his phone, pretending to be engrossed in it, scrolling through short video clips, watching pretty girls dance in stockings. But the usually captivating dance didn't hold his interest at all.

His back was drenched with cold sweat.

"Honey, how can you look at other women when I'm right here? Don't you love me anymore"

_Love you, my foot!_ Fang Xiu silently cursed in his head.

He kept scrolling through the short clips, attempting to distract himself. With his past experience, he intentionally held the phone close, practically against his face, to block his view.

"Honey, I don't recall you being shortsighted. Why are you holding your phone so close? Can you see me?"

Fang Xiu froze in surprise. _So is it not okay to act differently?_

However, after the 'wife' said this, she didn't take immediate action.

Fang Xiu let out a small sigh of relief, but when he flipped to the next clip, his eyes widened.

The girl in the next clip was the 'wife'!

In the video, the 'wife' was all smiles, her demeanour gentle.

"Honey, don't I look pretty?"

Fang Xiu's eyes widened in shock, and he unintentionally looked at the wife's face.

"You can see me!!"

"Damn you!" Caught between shock and anger, Fang Xiu hurled his phone. It hit the wall and shattered.

But the 'wife' next to him moved closer, her face twisting as her skin split open, murmuring over and over, "You can see me! You can see me!"

"Go to hell, you monster!" Fang Xiu yelled, throwing a punch at the monster's twisted face.

He never thought he'd be the kind of guy to hit a woman; he'd always detested such behaviour.

_C'est la vie. Sometimes you become what you hate the most._

After he threw the punch, Fang Xiu cried out in pain. His hand felt like it had hit a wall. The pain made him feel like it was broken.

The 'wife' was unscathed, her eyes full of wild greed. She didn't give Fang Xiu any time to react, opening her gruesome mouth wide, and bit off his arm.

"AH!!"

A pitiful scream filled the room.

This time, Fang Xiu's death was brutal, worse than the ones before. At least in the previous two times, it was over quickly. This time, he was eaten piece by piece, prolonging the pain.

It's unimaginably hard for a regular person to experience such a thing -- watching a Specter slowly devour your body until you die. "