At the engagement banquet, Eve, the adopted daughter suddenly collapsed and convulsed, accusing me, "Audrey, why did you switch my medicine again? Just because your fiancé gave me a bracelet?"
Mom and Dad scolded me for being cruel. My fiancé angrily rebuked me for never learning my lesson and left me overseas to atone by testing drugs for Eve.
I lived with lab mice, taking hundreds of pills a day, my body covered in needle marks.
Three years later, the miracle drug was successfully developed. I, however, had gone insane.
Only then did the whole family bring me back home. But I held a nest of white mice and tilted my head with a twisted smile, making squeaking sounds, as pieces of my skin and flesh rotted away one after another.
——
When I saw Jeff again, I was sitting in a luxury restaurant, feeding cheese to a nest of white mice. But these mice weren't interested in the cheese, instead, they jumped up and bit my fingers.
Blood spilled all over the table. I didn't feel pain. Instead, I smiled happily.
"Audrey, are you crazy? Why are you raising biting filthy mice? Weren't you the one who used to hate them the most?" Jeff stared at me in shock and suddenly flipped the table.
Then he pulled me into his arms. The white mice fell to the ground.
I struggled out of his embrace without hesitation, picked the mice back up and cradled them in my hands, smiling sideways at him, "Squeak! Squeak!"
Jeff was stunned, his face full of disbelief. He didn't know that every week I had to feed a nest of mice with my own blood for the lab to observe.
Over time, I had come to see them as family. When they died, I would cry. After all, in that dark and endless place, only the mice accompanied me, testing drugs alongside me.
"Jeff, Audrey …" At that moment, my parents walked into the restaurant. When they saw me holding the mice, my hands covered in blood, they were shocked, "Audrey, why are you holding those mice? That's disgusting! Throw them away!"
"No one's watching you abroad and you've gone crazy, huh? What kind of twisted hobby did you learn, actually liking filthy mice?" They shouted loudly, their eyes full of disgust and contempt.
My smile froze. I shrank into the corner in fear, hugging the nest of white mice tightly in my arms. The lab workers used to look at me and the mice with the same expression.
They killed at will. Tortured at will. Countless bursts of mouse blood exploded in front of me.
Time after time, I watched the syringe pierce into my body, my eyes filled only with terror.
My whole family was stunned at first, then they all frowned, disappointment on their faces, "Why act so pitiful? Even though we had people watching you abroad for a year, we sent you money every month!"
"Look at you now, fair and clean, your skin is even better than before. Obviously, you lived well." Mom snapped. "For what you did back then, letting you test medicine for Eve was already letting you off easy. Don't put on that wronged face, I'm not falling for it!"
Dad glared at me, roaring at the top of his lungs, "Enough, Audrey! Stop embarrassing yourself! A year has passed and Eve isn't even holding a grudge. Why are you still playing the victim? Have some shame!"
"Come home with us now!" Jeff walked toward me as he spoke.
Eve? At the sound of that name, my pupils suddenly contracted, my body began to tremble and I kept shaking my head. I let out an agitated squeaking noise.
Jeff's face darkened. He forcefully grabbed my wrist, trying to pull me away. But the next second, he actually tore off an entire piece of skin ...
He was shocked, "Ahhh … Audrey, your hand … what … what happened …"
