Chương 26: Vince, I'm Scared. Can I Sleep in Your Room?

Can I Sleep in Your Room?

The white glare of the phone screen reflected in Vince's eyes, finally letting him understand what Claire had been trying to say earlier. Seeing her genuine worry, he opened his mouth to comfort her.

"Don't worry, I'm tough to kill..." But halfway through, speaking without hearing his own voice felt too bizarre. He got up, fetched his own phone from the bedroom, and sat back down on the sofa. His chat history with Claire was still stuck on his unsent message:"I just saw this. Su, are you home?" Without hesitation, he tapped the text box and typed: Made you worry [Facepalm]. It's fine, I'm tough to kill. Don't worry! He hit send!

Reading the message on Vince's screen, a faint, almost imperceptible smile tugged at the corners of Claire's lips. Just like that, the two sat side-by-side on the sofa, shoulders brushing, looking at each other's phones as they "chatted" via text. [Thumbs Up] You really are tough to kill. Right after you went down, I went back up to the sixth floor to watch the rope. Not long after, this incredibly piercing shriek echoed up from downstairs. I thought it was an earthquake.

The sound made my head split open, and my ears hurt so much. I had to stick my head out the window and cover my ears as hard as I could just to keep from passing out. Vince finally understood why Claire's HP had dropped. It was the sonic attack. He and the monster had been on the 4th floor, and she was on the 6th. The fact that the shockwave could penetrate two concrete floors and still damage her... This realization made the two [Screaming Potions] in his inventory skyrocket in value.

Vince picked up his phone and typed: [Dizzy] Yeah. There was a mutated zombie on the 4th floor that could scream. That first shriek almost sent me to the afterlife. Luckily, I know a home remedy for vertigo [Smirking Cat Emoji]. Home remedies cure big diseases! [Thumbs Up] Vince hesitated for a second but decided not to explain exactly what his hardcore "home remedy" entailed.

Claire read his message, her fingers flying across her screen again: After the screaming stopped, I knew something had happened to you, so I ran downstairs as fast as I could. I got to door 401, but I couldn't get in. I just kept knocking. I could hear all this crashing and smashing inside, so I figured you were fighting the monster. Then, a little while later, there was another scream. But this one wasn't as loud as the first, and it didn't hurt my ears as much.

A little while after that, the door opened, and you collapsed. It scared me to death! [Frightened] I thought you were dying! I was terrified something was going to chase you out, so I quickly dragged you out, shut the door, and carried you down here. You were covered in blood, so I changed your clothes. As she typed that last part, Claire shot a quick, guilty glance at Vince. Regardless of whether he saw it or not, she rapidly mashed the backspace key, deleting "so I changed your clothes," and hit send.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Naturally, Vince caught her little panic-delete. It wasn't exactly a state secret; it was as obvious as a louse on a bald man's head. If she hadn't changed his clothes, then who did...? Yikes— Thinking about it triggered a flashback to his nightmare. A shiver ran down his spine. He must have been an absolute, gory mess. No wonder Claire had changed her own clothes too.

Carrying him all the way down the stairs, she definitely got smeared in his blood. However, her messages confirmed something crucial: the monster did scream a second time. He just hadn't heard a single decibel of it. His earlier deduction was spot on. At that moment, he truly had been 100% deaf. And now, he had undeniably recovered a fraction of his hearing. Claire continued typing: Your face was covered in blood back then, and your ears were bleeding too. Even up on the 6th floor, I was dizzy from the sound.

You were right next to it... Are your ears okay? Will they recover? She hit send and handed the phone to him. As he read it, Claire reached out, gently holding his face to inspect his ears. But it was too dark in the room to see anything inside the canal. Vince didn't want her looking anyway. Given his current hearing, his eardrums were probably still a ruptured, gory mess. Letting her see that would only terrify her. He picked up his phone and replied: My ears are fine. It's just temporary, they'll recover.

I have a secret home remedy for ears too. He showed her the screen, earning a massive eye roll from Claire. Are you a vet or a back-alley quack? Why do you have so many "home remedies"? [Hit You Emoji] She playfully shoved his arm. Vince jokingly typed back: I'm a back-alley quack vet. Relax, my ears will be fine in a couple of days. I know what I'm doing. Claire, it's getting late. You should head back and get some rest. He placed the phone in front of her, pointing at the clock at the top of the screen.

[23: 12] It was past 11 PM. Having eaten his fill, Vince was ready to sleep. After all, his observations of Claire proved that the holy trinity of HP regeneration was eating, drinking, and resting. Moreover, in just this short span of time, his HP had already climbed to [140/190]. It seemed food played a massive role in vitality recovery. Claire looked at his phone, but she made no move to stand up.

Looking slightly embarrassed, she fidgeted with her own phone, typing, deleting, and re-typing several times before finally sliding the screen over to him: Vince, I'm scared. Can I sleep in your room tonight? Vince blinked at the message. He looked up at the woman sitting beside him, looking distinctly vulnerable and fidgety in the dim light. Scared? A second of thought was all it took to understand why. He was currently half-deaf; he couldn't hear a damn thing, so he didn't care.

But a few nights ago, just a handful of zombies downstairs had been enough to keep him awake. Now, there were dozens, maybe over a hundred, swarming right below their balcony. Even if he couldn't hear it, he could easily imagine how utterly terrifying that cacophony must be. Furthermore, after spending the last two days together, Vince realized their dynamic was fundamentally shifting. If this had been the day before yesterday, he would have rejected her without a second thought.

Even if she was a drop-dead gorgeous beauty, to Vince, that kind of stuff took a distant backseat to sheer survival. Initially, he had viewed them merely as neighbors forced together by the chaos of the apocalypse. He needed a helper; she needed food. A simple transaction. But over these brief two days, he noticed Claire was rapidly adapting to this new, brutal world.

From begging for food at the start, she had bravely chosen to stand with him in a fight, earning his respect and cementing her place in his survival plan. Yesterday's sonic attack had clearly injured her—even dropping her HP. Yet, she had still braved the dark stairwell, run down to the 4th floor, and dragged his unconscious body all the way back down here. That must have taken a monumental amount of physical and mental strength. And now, she was taking care of him meticulously, almost like family....

Plus, she was incredibly beautiful, had a smoking-hot figure, cooked like a master chef, and had a voice like velvet. Without another moment's hesitation, he happily picked up his phone and sent a single reply: [OK].