Shadow of Death (SOD)

Chapter 26

"Wha—?" Asher was shocked as he saw the woman standing before him.

How was it possible?

The boy had heard her walking away toward the kitchen, and she had affirmed that she was heading in that direction.

So how was she standing before him with her icy cold look?

Wait. Had she known that he had been pretending to be unconscious all along?

Asher’s heart began to pound with each passing second.

His throat went dry almost immediately as beads of sweat began forming around his temples.

PA!

The woman’s hand flew forward.

Too fast for him to react in time.

A loud slap landed on the boy’s face.

His whole head flew to the side, saliva bursting from his lips.

"That’s for being a pervert."

PA!

A second slap from the other side landed on his face.

His head was thrown to the other side.

"And that’s for deceiving me and trying to gain access into my house."

Asher was left clutching his cheeks with a dumbfounded stare.

The woman then walked away from the sofa to a corner of the room, where she began dragging a chair forward.

Now that he was ’conscious’, Asher could finally get a look at the inside of the house, specifically the living room they were in at the moment.

All the houses in this neighborhood shared the same design, both inwardly and outwardly.

And the woman’s house was no different. Just a little different because of her arrangement.

The inside of the house felt heavy and quiet, almost suffocating in its stillness.

The living room was shrouded in dimness, with only faint traces of light slipping through a curtain that barely let the outside world in.

Shadows clung to the corners of the room, swallowing most details unless one looked closely.

A worn desk sat against one side of the room, its surface cluttered with stacked books, some open and others left carelessly closed as if abandoned mid thought.

Nearby, pieces of clothing were scattered across the floor and draped over furniture in a disorganized mess, giving the space a sense of neglect and prolonged isolation.

The air felt stale, as though the room had not truly been lived in, but rather paused in time.

That would explain what he was seeing on the sofa he sat on.

He blinked once and then shut his eyes.

’Really? What a weird woman she is to be leaving her undies all around. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.’

With a loud sound, the chair was placed two metres away from the boy.

The sudden noise forced him to open his eyes in a flash, only to see the woman sitting there.

One leg was crossed over the other.

In her hand rested a pack of cigarettes, from which she pulled a stick.

Pulling a lighter from inside her shirt, she lit the cigarette and took a deep puff before exhaling in satisfaction.

Smoke curled through the air in front of her.

Holding the cigarette stick between her index and middle fingers, she gave the boy before her a judging look.

Taking another puff, she frowned.

"What do you want exactly? Why did you go through so much trouble just to get inside my house?"

Asher waved his hands in front of his face repeatedly, trying to dispel the smoke in front of him.

He let out a few coughs as he genuinely choked on the cigarette smoke.

Seeing that the woman was still looking at him, obviously waiting for an answer, Asher pinched his nose and replied.

"I only only came to give the meat pies my mum made and get to know our neighbours more. Nothing more, ma’am. And I feel dizzy because of an incident that happened yesterday."

"...."

The woman gave him a long, doubtful look, as though she were carefully weighing his words and trying to determine whether there was any truth behind them.

"And you take me for a fool?"

Asher raised a brow at her words.

"N-No, I don’t."

The corner of her mouth curled upward as she took another slow puff from her cigarette.

"For days, none of your family members thought to do what you did."

"That’s because we were genuinely busy."

"Yet you decided to do it after a few days. And especially after you were attacked yesterday."

"I—"

Asher paused, his brows shooting upward.

’Ho-How does she know that I was attacked yesterday? Has she really been stalking us?’

The corner of the woman’s lips curled upward again.

"Or do you just want to find out why I have been staring at your house almost every time?"

Asher’s gaze sharpened.

The woman leaned forward, a soft, devilish smile spreading across her face.

"What? You think I didn’t notice you catching me a few times? And then you come to my door, bringing some meat pies with you, only to ’faint’ just when I was about to close the door? You wanted in, and I brought you in. So tell me...."

’Damn it. Damn it. I have just been trapped. She’s smart. Who the fuck is she?’

"...."

Several seconds passed in tense silence.

The woman remained completely relaxed, casually smoking as wisps of smoke drifted through the room.

Eventually, the tension in Asher’s shoulders loosened, and he released a tired sigh.

’If she was going to attack me, she would have done that by now. There’s no danger at the moment. But I need to gather as much information as I can before Mum begins getting worried.’

"Fine, then. You caught me."

The woman’s smile deepened for a few seconds.

She leaned back into her chair as the wall clock continued ticking loudly in the tense silence.

Asher lifted his head, his expression becoming stoic.

"I have caught you staring at my house every single time, and it’s too...."

"...Suspicious?"

Asher waited for a second before nodding.

"I can’t risk my family’s lives, especially since this city is terribly weird, and now I’m just finding out that it’s dangerous. So I thought maybe you were a—"

"—A Shadow? Ha!"

’How does she know everything I’m about to say? Something doesn’t feel right at all.’

"Unfortunately for you, I’m not a Shadow. Well, I think...."

’The fuck do you mean by that?!’

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