The Monster In Me || Sweet Home

CHAPTER ONE



The military was transporting the survivors to a military base through a tunnel. However, the tunnel was barricaded with furniture and debris, so the survivors had to move it.

Kang Ji-a was among the survivors. She walked slowly, her head hanging low with her hands in the pockets of her blue hoodie. Military vehicles carrying survivors entered the tunnel after the survivors were checked.

A man in a suit walking next to a lady in what seemed like a wedding dress started to have a nosebleed and covered his nose using his hands. He was caught by one of the soldiers and dragged behind a vehicle to be inspected.

"Wait. He's not... He's just sick!" The woman in the wedding dress yelled at the soldiers, trying to reach out to the man.

Another man next to the woman yelled back, trying to reason with the soldiers, saying he had leukemia, but the soldiers took him and shot him in the head, thinking he was a monster.

He was not.

The people were shocked at the actions of the soldiers, but they continued walking, only sparing sympathy glances at the woman. Kang Ji-a didn't bother to look their way. The pain in her back was becoming unbearable as she walked.

The same man got angry and yelled at the soldier for killing that other man, but the soldiers beat him to death as the woman fell to the floor crying. As the soldier was beating the man with his helmet, he stopped looking at the older lady, who was crying.

"It's me, mom! This is wrong. You can't... " She cried, looking at his son.

Ji-a continued walking until she heard screaming from afar. She lifted her head, squinting, to see what lay ahead of her. She stopped in her tracks, and her breathing became shallow the moment she heard gunshots.

A monster crawling on all fours raced forward, knocking people over as the soldiers were shooting it. Everything went into chaos.

People were screaming, pushing, and getting shot at.

But she just stood there, taking small steps forward. At some point, she wished she was the one who got shot. She was never suicidal, but at that point, she had nothing and no one to live for anymore.

A bomb went off, and everyone was on the floor.

Someone dragged Ji-a onto the floor as they saw that she had been standing still for so long by one of the soldiers.

"Are you okay?" The soldier asked, noticing that she was in pain but got no response as the girl removed his hand from her back. She stood up, looking at where the soldiers were pointing their guns, looking for the monster.

"It's dangerous. Don't go!" The soldier said to the girl when she started moving forward to where the monster was, but again, she ignored him, looking straight ahead of her.

The monster screeched on top of the vehicle, and everyone scattered running away. The monster lept off the car and runs through the panicking people. Ji-a kept on walking even though she was getting pushed and knocked by people.

The soldiers took a flamethrower and tried to set the monster on fire, but the people were getting lit on fire instead as the monster was dodging the flames.

Ji-a felt a tingle on her back as she subconsciously reached her hand behind her shoulder, feeling the two marks on her back start to heat up.

She got hit by someone's elbow as the people were running and fell to the ground. She had no energy to stand up, so she crawled her way near an old car. She felt a stinging pain on her back, and she wanted to scream but clamped her hand on her mouth, wanting all the pain and suffering to be gone.