Terrible Fates (BEN Drowned story)

Chapter 52

I suppose there's only one way to find out.

...

By the time Ellie had come home from work, I was already settled in the cabin. I sat on the living room floor with some of her books surrounding me. Although I had taken up some reading before, right now I couldn't focus on the shortest of sentences. If anything, I just wanted to look like I was doing something other than muddling the day away with pressuring uncertainties.

Ellie walked through the door with a sigh and hung her jacket on the rack nailed to the wall. A long-sleeved shirt underneath. She looked down at me and gave a sweet smile, and my stomach got queasy because I suddenly became a mix of joyed and anxious. Joyed by her radiant smile as always, and anxious because I felt my joy was false. Yet I still can't help but give her a smile back.

"Hey there," she greeted in her soft voice.

"Welcome home," I said.

She took a seat right in front of me and placed a couple of books on her lap. Her expression became meek as she held the books tenderly and asked, "Do you have a favorite yet?"

"Um...well, I haven't read everything, but I guess?" I muttered.

"Which one?"

I didn't have an exact answer. Truth be told, I've read some but haven't grown very attached, at least not as attached as Ellie is. She's such a bookworm. I do love to see the way her eyes shine in awe and intrigue whenever I even mention books.

After scanning over the novels on the floor, I answered, "I suppose this one is my favorite."

I picked up a book and showed her. She took it and chuckled. "Aesop's Fables. A little bit of everything, huh."

With a smirk, I questioned her, "Do you have a favorite book?"

Giving me a sheepish grin, she rubbed her head and replied, "Well, that's a little hard for me to decide."

"Of course it would be, you booknerd," I teased. I was actually starting to feel a little better now.

She rolled her mismatched eyes and gave me a playful pat on the knee. "Well, I don't necessarily have favorites, but there's some books here that stand out to me a lot."

"Like?"

Bunching up her lips in thought, she scanned the books on the floor for an example. When she found her pick, she hummed and raised it up. The cover had a big beetle on it, with the title "Metamorphosis".

"Is that a book on insects? Really?"

"No, you dumby," she chuckled. "It's about a salesman who randomly wakes up transformed into a giant, hideous beetle."

I furrowed my brow. "Um, okay. Guess the author had some good originality."

Ellie smiled to herself, her awe not at all wavered by my reaction to that kind of story.

"It's actually very sad. He was the only breadwinner for his family, and after turning into a bug, they had to figure things out themselves. They worked and worked to keep up with the expenses, more and more tired. The man who got turned into a bug was a repulsive thing to them all now. The family—the sister mostly—tried their best to take care of him, hiding him away month after month in his old room, never letting him out. But in the end, he was far too much of a burden to them now as a wretched bug who couldn't even communicate. But his circumstance was out of his control. He didn't want to become some beetle that could only crawl and deteriorate as time went on. He longed to be loved and cared for again.

"As much as he tried, their love for him slowly faded. He couldn't believe their unspoken disdain for him. To them he was a horrid creature, no longer the hardworking man he once was. And then one night he starved to death. And the family was...relieved. They had changed, grew, matured—a metamorphosis. They moved away to start a new life, leaving behind his miserable, insect carcass...."