Facultad de Humanidades

Capítulo 1

Azure Heart Horror Short Story Author: Azure Heart

Horror Short Story Collection

Deep kiss

The city is ablaze with lights and bustling with activity. The bar street is the heart of the city's nightlife scene, especially on weekends, when luxury cars and beautiful women seem to spring from the ground, filling the entire area to capacity. The air is thick with the scents of perfume and alcohol, and perhaps the euphoric hormones that rise with pleasure.

After tossing the Q7 keys to the doorman, Ron plunged into the newly opened "Sin Pub." His buddies had told him that the girls at this new place were all new faces, but of decent quality. For Ron, the nightlife prince, novelty was paramount. He'd been hanging around this street for too long, and he'd seen enough of the usual girls. It was time for something fresh.

The pub wasn't large, but it was incredibly popular. Perhaps the owner had a lot of influence, managing to attract regulars from the always crowded "Soho" and "Barbie" pubs without any conflict. The strip of light under the glass floor at the entrance seemed like a fuse of desire, drawing men and women towards the other side of release.

Inside the pub, Ron ordered a "Cold Flame," a seven-layered drink with alternating red and white layers. It was icy cold on the palate, with a spicy aftertaste and the fragrance of roses.

The drink tasted good, perfect for keeping me sober enough to see if there was anything I liked. Ron sipped his drink, his gaze wandering over the alluring figures in the club. A few caught his eye, but they were all surrounded by men; several women swayed their hips unsteadily on the dance floor, clearly on drugs; and a few women in pencil skirts and thin-strapped tank tops flirted seductively between the bar and tables—career women looking for sugar daddies… None of these interested Ron.

After scanning the crowd a few times, his gaze settled on a girl quietly sipping her drink in a booth near the right side of the stage. She had long, wavy hair, and her lips shone with an alluring luster, like glaze. The way she glanced at the crowd every now and then revealed her inner turmoil.

She's the one.

Ron walked up to the girl casually: "If you don't mind, can I sit next to you?"

The girl looked up at him, her eyes sparkling as if all the stars in the night sky had fallen into them. After hesitating for a moment, she said, "Sit down, my friends have all gone dancing."

Ron knew that with hesitant girls like this, you had to be a bit more assertive; the more proactive you were, the more likely the other person would passively accept.

"Why don't you go dancing? Don't you have a partner? Do you want me to go with you?"

The girl pouted and laughed, "Then you've come to the wrong person. My sisters and I both love to dance, but I'm really not used to being jostled around on the dance floor. Besides... this is my first time in a place like this."

"How about I buy you a drink?"

"Um"

...

The girl was indeed very naive, and it seemed to be her "first time," so when Ron naturally brought his lips to hers, she flinched slightly. However, she was already in Ron's arms, so where could she hide? Thus, the girl let his smooth, fleshy tongue part her lips and penetrate her deeply.

Ron indulged in a passionate kiss that lasted five minutes. The girl gradually lowered her guard, her tongue flicking out, slowly slipping into Ron's mouth and swirling around. Suddenly, Ron felt the girl's tongue had gone a little too far, as if it had touched his throat. Just for a moment.

He quickly stopped what he was doing. The girl smiled radiantly, her eyes sparkling with a spring breeze, and she possessed a touch of allure. She had lost some of her former innocence.

The girl broke free from his embrace and left, making an excuse to go to the restroom.

Ron had a bad feeling, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

A moment later, the girl returned. She appeared to have gone to the restroom to touch up her makeup. Her lips were even redder, and the light smoky eye makeup made her eyes appear hazy and deep. Her skirt had somehow become shorter, revealing her alluring legs under the pub lights.

She's a complete monster.

The girl sat directly on his lap and pressed her lips to his.

Confused and infatuated.

When Ron woke up, the girl had already left.

Thankfully, everything was still there. Ron was afraid the girl was the kind of money-grubbing prostitute. Recalling the ecstasy of last night, he couldn't help but let his mind wander again.

Damn it, I forgot to ask her for her phone number.

Ron first felt discomfort in his throat at lunchtime, when he found it difficult to swallow his food. Fortunately, a few sips of soup helped.

The second time was at midnight, when he was awakened by an intense itch. He scratched his neck and chest, but to no avail—the itch was emanating from his trachea and esophagus. No matter how much he scratched, it was like scratching an itch through a boot.

What exactly happened? Could it be an allergic reaction?

Feeling uneasy, he took a Claritin pill and went to sleep.

By the time he realized the seriousness of the problem, he was already speechless.

Upon arriving at the hospital, the doctor performed a cursory examination and found nothing unusual. He then prescribed some antibiotics for him to receive intravenous fluids.

On the third day, the doctor realized the seriousness of the problem. The patient had lost weight; his entire body was noticeably sunken in. It seemed that antibiotics wouldn't be of much help.

Ron was already quite disoriented, but when the doctor asked him what he had eaten or been exposed to before the onset of his illness, he managed to write down "sin pub" on a piece of paper. Then he lost consciousness.

Dr. Gao decided to perform a comprehensive examination using an endoscope. After seeing what was on the screen, he felt a surge of acid reflux. The nurse next to him covered her mouth and ran to the restroom.

It turned out that wherever the endoscope reached, starting from Ron's throat, the walls of the cavity were densely covered with countless small, raised white blisters. At first glance, they looked like grains of millet, but upon closer inspection, they turned out to be clusters of worm eggs, some of which had already struggled to emerge with their heads. This condition covered his internal organs.

Even the anus.

There was no doubt that Ron was dead.

At the family's request, the hospital performed an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

Before the autopsy, Dr. Gao thoroughly examined Ron's body and found no invasive wounds. But when he made his first incision into the corpse, he regretted it.

At this moment, Ron was like a rice sack that had been ripped open; white grains of rice, pulled by gravity, poured out from under his skin, scattering across the ground. Ron's internal organs were all gone, leaving only a clean, snow-white skeleton and a skin covered in insect eggs. The eggs seemed to be naturally present, perfectly integrated with the human skin, appearing at first glance like protrusions on coral, but upon closer inspection, they were actually thousands upon thousands of tiny white leeches firmly attached to the flesh.

While everyone was still wondering what was going on, the insect eggs on the ground seemed to come alive, growing rapidly in the wind and sprouting when exposed to light. In no time, some of them had already swelled up, and suddenly a swarm of bright green moths rose up in the operating room.

Dr. Gao seemed to be startled as well, and staggered, but fortunately she managed to steady herself by holding onto the operating table.

The operating room nurses had never seen anything like this before, and they all rushed towards the door. He shouted, "Don't open the door!" and dashed to the doorway, blocking the nurses' path.

"If these moths are released, they might kill even more people!"

The nurses gradually calmed down. Fortunately, their masks covered their mouths and noses, so the green moths didn't pose much of a threat. Most of them just hovered around the operating lights. Occasionally, a few would fly into the crowd, causing screams.

Dr. Gao grabbed some cotton wool from the surgical tray and distributed it to everyone, instructing them to plug their ears to prevent insects from getting in.

What exactly causes a moth to suddenly emerge from its cocoon? Temperature, it must be temperature, and suitable humidity.

So he had the nurse turn the air conditioner to the lowest temperature, then poured anhydrous alcohol on the insect eggs on the ground and sprayed them wildly with a dry ice fire extinguisher. Soon the eggs froze, and no more insects hatched. He followed the same procedure on Ron's body. The green moths in the air seemed to be just like any other insect after hatching, nothing special. Several cans of dry ice fire extinguishers sprayed down, and they fell to the ground, where they were trampled to pieces. A few green moths that crawled onto the nurse's shoulder were also quickly swatted dead by Dr. Gao.

After confirming that there were no active moths, everyone left the operating room so that cleaning staff could thoroughly disinfect and sterilize it.

The family was deeply saddened by the autopsy results, while the hospital was very satisfied with Dr. Gao's calm handling of the emergency.

Dr. Gao sat in his office, his face as cold as the -70 degree Celsius gas spewed from a dry ice fire extinguisher, even after the hospital leaders had hinted at a promotion for him. It took him a while to come to his senses: "Brothers and sisters, don't blame me... Mom said that only one person can survive in each batch."

An empty, green moth shell slipped out of his ear canal, and he gently, very gently, tossed it into the trash can.

*Snap!* The lid was slammed shut.

Slimming

"Honey, have you been secretly taking diet pills?" her husband said to Zhu Min with a smile, putting down his luggage. "How come you've lost so much weight in just half a month? You've become so haggard for me? Haha."

"Get lost! I've given up on dieting!" Zhu Min said coquettishly, punching Li Bing in the chest.

"I'm serious, my dear wife, you've really lost weight."

Zhu Min pursed her lips: "You know perfectly well that ever since I took that 'Meisukang slimming capsule' and suffered heart failure, I swore I would never touch a slimming drug again."

Li Bing didn't argue, just smiled and went into the inner room.

Zhu Min turned around and looked in the full-length mirror, smoothing her clothes with both hands, pulling in her stomach, and straightening her chest. Had she really lost weight? Strange. She felt the woman in the mirror was still the typical woman who was plump but lacked allure.

That afternoon, Zhu Min's best friend Xiaodan invited her to have tea. As soon as they met, Xiaodan's eyes lit up: "Minmin, have you found some new weight loss method? How dare you keep it a secret from your sister! I'll teach you a lesson."

While dodging Xiaodan's "thunderous tickling hands," Zhu Min laughed and said, "I didn't. I didn't take any medicine or diet... really, oh my god... haha... stop tickling me!"

"Honey, tell me how you lost weight! Look at my 'cream belly'..."

Zhu Min looked at Xiao Dan with disbelief: "Have I really lost weight? My appetite has been unusually good this month; I'm eating all the time. How could I possibly lose weight?"

Xiaodan saw that Zhu Min didn't seem to be joking, so she stopped making a fuss and pulled her to a seat: "What's wrong? Could it be some kind of illness? Honey, you've really lost a lot of weight. Have you weighed yourself or measured your waist recently? Maybe you should get checked out, just in case it's cancer, or maybe you're pregnant?"

"Cancer?! Pah! You jinx!" Zhu Min slapped Xiaodan. "I haven't been behaving strangely lately. Besides, I haven't been with Lao Li for a long time, how could I be pregnant..."

"How about I go with you to the hospital for a check-up? Didn't your husband, Lao Li, already come back from the consultation? Your local hospital has all the necessary equipment; let him examine you."

Li Bing was taken aback when he saw the two sisters appear in the office.

"Good afternoon, my dear wife. Good afternoon, Sister Dan." He stood up and greeted them at the door.

"Tsk tsk, Xiao Li has a sweet tongue." Xiao Dan didn't stand on ceremony and went straight to Li Bing's desk to sit down. "Vice Dean Li, your office environment is quite nice. Go, pour two cups of coffee for the ladies."

Zhu Min wasn't angry at Xiao Dan ordering her husband around like that, nor did she say anything. She smiled and walked towards Xiao Dan, then turned back to Li Bing and said, "I want mine with lots of sugar and milk, and Sister Dan's with less sugar and no milk."

Li Bing smiled and nodded in agreement, then turned and left the office.

Li Bing walked along smiling, his face beaming, but no one could see the venomous malice hidden behind his cheerful demeanor. He wanted to spit in his coffee, he wanted to put the mud from his shoe into his coffee, he wanted to mix the most disgusting and filthy garbage in the world into his coffee… but none of these could dispel his resentment. If he hadn't trusted the wrong person, allowing Zhu Min's father to plagiarize his medical paper almost imperceptibly, he wouldn't be facing such a dilemma—either lose his job and stand alone against the director of a private hospital, or take his fat, cotton-candy-like, grumpy daughter and promote her to vice director.

Clearly, a rural college graduate who has finally secured a stable job, with younger siblings to support, wouldn't risk a lawsuit with an already slim chance of success. As the saying goes: the poor don't fight the rich, and the common people don't contend with officials.

Fate always moves according to its own will, and we... have no choice but to compromise.

Zhu Min underwent a comprehensive examination, and the test report proved that there were no lesions or signs of pregnancy.

But her happiness didn't last long, because she found her appetite was getting better and better. Even better than when she was overweight.

I could finish a whole roast goose, a plate of braised pork belly, a plate of sweet and sour pork, and a plate of twice-cooked pork in one meal… but I got hungry again after just two or three hours. So, I had a ten-inch Yuanzu cheesecake and a large bottle of Coke for afternoon tea. In the evening, I couldn't resist eating three pots of spicy pork ribs, a pot of stir-fried crayfish, and a pot of spicy squid. In the end, it wasn't because I couldn't eat anymore, but because I was too embarrassed to order any more food, so I left. On the way home, I couldn't resist buying a KFC family bucket and three hamburgers.

Faced with her binge eating, Li Bing said nothing, simply staying quietly by her side. So many years had passed, and he had habitually kept his opinions to himself.

Actually, Li Bing had another secret, one he had never told and didn't want to. They had been married for seven years and still hadn't had children. Three years earlier, Zhu Min had become pregnant. But how could she, a pampered young woman, endure the pain of childbirth? With a simple "I'm not ready," she abandoned her mother-in-law, who had traveled from afar hoping for a grandchild, and went to have an abortion. Heartbroken, she took her anger out on Li Bing when she got home, beating and kicking him and smashing things at the slightest provocation. She had no recollection of when her mother-in-law boarded the train in tears and left. It was during this period of fighting that Li Bing unexpectedly lost his fertility. He only learned this a year later. Although his sexual function was normal, he could no longer have children.

So, nothing about this woman was surprising. He only wanted to live a simple, ordinary life. Because he believed that such days would eventually come to an end. Perhaps he would die, or perhaps she would die.

Zhu Min found that she had indeed lost weight, but apart from having an unusually good appetite, her body began to become abnormally weak—like someone who had been starving for a long time.

She suspected Li Bing had tampered with her food, but despite her vigilance and even installing surveillance cameras, Li Bing remained perfectly honest. She then suspected the restaurants she'd been eating at recently were the problem, so she tried several different places, but her symptoms persisted. Could the medical report from before have been faulty, and she really did have cancer? Zhu Min thought for a moment, then secretly went to the provincial hospital for a full checkup. The results were the same: apart from slightly low blood sugar, everything else was normal. Even her previous fatty liver had disappeared; her body was completely normal.

She discovered that sometimes you really can't force things. She had tried pills, aerobics, and dieting without success, but now she'd inexplicably lost weight. Aside from a slightly better appetite, there didn't seem to be any major downsides. When she went to nightclubs at night, men started hitting on her. Unlike before, when she'd finally get a handsome guy to approach her, only to find out he was a gigolo.

Recently, Li Bing has been away on many business trips, and Zhu Min has also been busy, spending her time either eating or having affairs with other men.

God knows how physically demanding sex is, and the hunky guy I hooked up with today is also a very "capable" one. We've already had sex four times tonight and he still doesn't seem to be stopping.

But now a small problem has arisen: Zhu Min is hungry.

She wouldn't possibly suggest going out to eat at a time like this, would she? Besides, the way she ate was something only Li Bing could stand. It was already 4 a.m., and even if she wanted to eat something, she'd probably have to go to McDonald's. Just thinking about McDonald's made Zhu Min's saliva spray uncontrollably, so much so that the sound of her swallowing was so loud that the muscular man heard it. She froze for a moment, then immediately adopted a coquettish expression, but the muscular man didn't seem to mind and continued his activities.

Oh well, I'll just have to bear with it and eat when it gets light. I should have known better than to come to this tiny hotel; it doesn't even have a refrigerator.

When Li Bing received the call from the police, Zhu Min's body was already cold, and the muscular man who had been fighting with her all night had been called to the station for questioning.

This was the first time Li Bing had ever seen his father-in-law so distraught, his shoulders trembling and his body shaking with rage. Yes, on the surface, it seemed this woman had been cheated on and killed.

However, the forensic report cleared Zhu Min's name: she was not killed by rape, but by starvation.

At the time, Li Bing strongly opposed an autopsy, arguing that Zhu Minren was already dead and it wasn't murder, so her body shouldn't be disturbed. Seeing his actions, his father-in-law became suspicious and insisted that the forensic doctor thoroughly investigate the cause of his daughter's death.

When the forensic examiner cut open Zhu Min's abdomen, they found her stomach and small intestine completely empty, just like someone suffering from anorexia. She had very little subcutaneous fat, and her stomach was shrunk considerably.

Zhu Min's father was devastated by the double blow of his daughter's death and the bizarre cause of her death. Li Bing handled all of Zhu Min's funeral arrangements.