第1章厨房春潮-我的妺妺h

His hand rose from the shadow at her side, fingers cold and dark as night. He grabbed her by the face, her eyes widening as she felt his presence.

**Whoosh.**

Her soul drained in an instant. The sound echoed softly in the empty church, a hollow and eerie noise. The woman\'s body convulsed briefly, her skin paling, her eyes dimming. Her body slumped forward, lifeless, the life force completely siphoned from her.

The others didn\'t react. They didn\'t even pause in their efforts to follow Sister Rose\'s orders, crawling mindlessly toward their tasks.

Don\'s eyes lingered on the husk in front of him, but before he could move, something unsettling occurred. From the woman\'s ear, a leafy vine began to slither out. It twitched unnaturally, writhing as it emerged from her skull, bloodied, its green color slowly fading.

Don watched with grim fascination as the vine shook violently, almost as if it were fighting to stay alive. But it withered rapidly, its leaves crumbling into a dull gray ash. The vine continued to emerge, but before it could fully exit the ear, it dried up completely and died, disintegrating into nothing.

Don\'s brow furrowed as he watched the bizarre scene unfold. \'What the hell is this?\'

Shaking off the momentary confusion, Don returned to his task, his focus now on those still left. The two churchgoers ordered to chase after Donald—a man and a woman, both nondescript in appearance, with the look of typical churchgoers—had already run past the door, their footsteps echoing faintly in the distance.

Don didn\'t let the strange sight of the writhing vines stop him. He targeted the next person crawling away, his hand slipping from the shadows to grasp their face.

**Whoosh.** The eerie sound of their soul being drained filled the air again, and just like before, a leafy vine slithered out of their ear, writhing in desperation before withering into nothingness.

He moved swiftly from one victim to the next. **Whoosh**, another soul drained. **Whoosh**, and another.

Each time, the same unsettling reaction—the vines crawling out of their ears, twitching violently as though trying to escape. But they always withered and died before fully emerging. It was unnerving, but Don didn\'t let it bother him.

Meanwhile, the others in the church had started flipping and stacking benches in what seemed like a chaotic frenzy. Don watched from his perch above, his eyes narrowing as he observed the strange behavior below.

To say Don was confused would\'ve been an understatement, but thanks to his unfazed trait, he remained calm despite the madness around him. Time wasn\'t on his side, and he knew it. \'Alright,\' he thought, \'I\'ve drained the souls of five… now I just need to kill five more of these things… but why stop there?\'

Don saw the chaos in the room as an opportunity. If they were going to burn the church down, why not take a few more souls with it? But with fire reducing the shadows he could use, he had to act fast.

Without hesitation, Don moved back into the shadows. His tendrils shot out with precision, stabbing into the legs of those unfortunate enough to stray too close to the darkness. One by one, they fell to the ground, their legs rendered useless by the tendrils piercing through them.

The first victim, a man in his thirties, looked down in confusion as his legs gave way beneath him. His face remained eerily blank, even as Don drained the life from him. **Whoosh**, and another vine slithered from his ear, writhing in death before crumbling into gray ash.

The next was a woman, her face gaunt and pale, but she too barely reacted to the shadow tendril pinning her to the floor. Her body convulsed briefly as Don took her soul, but no scream escaped her lips. The vine crawling from her ear twisted violently, then withered just like the others.

Don moved fast, draining one soul after another. Each victim reacted the same, their faces blank, their bodies crawling or stumbling forward even as life left them. He managed to drain seven people in total, their vines all withering in a similar fashion.

But just as Don was about to target his next victim, something changed.

**Fwoosh.** A burst of heat surged from the corner of the room as a small fire ignited. The benches, now stacked high, had been set ablaze. One of Don\'s shadow tendrils flickered out of existence, unable to latch onto its target as the flames crept closer.

Don narrowed his eyes, knowing he couldn\'t risk staying any longer. He had fed enough. His figure melted into the shadows one last time, vanishing from the burning room.

———

Don reappeared in a narrow corridor on the other side of the door that Donald and his two pursuers had gone through.

The dim light cast long shadows along the walls, giving him plenty to work with. He extended his shadow presence in the direction Donald had fled and, for just a brief moment, caught sight of him.

Donald had stepped into a dark room, his movements frantic as he fumbled for the light switch. **Click.** The lights flickered on, and Don could no longer sense the presence but it was enough to confirm the direction Donald was in.

———

Inside the room, Donald\'s eyes widened in horror as the light revealed his surroundings.

Vines crawled up the walls and ceiling like grotesque veins, twisting and curling into the stone. More disturbing were the strange flowery pods hanging from the ceiling. Each pod held the silhouette of a human figure, suspended in the air, unmoving and silent.

But the most unsettling sight was the large hole in the center of the room. Countless vines sprouted from its edges, writhing like the tendrils of some monstrous creature waiting to devour anything that came too close.

Donald\'s pupils trembled with fear. His heart raced, and his legs felt like they were made of lead. He turned toward the door, desperate to escape, but just as his hand reached for the handle, **crash**—a fist punched through the wood.

The door swung open, revealing one of his pursuers, their eyes locked on him with a predatory gaze. The second figure followed closely behind, and both stepped into the room, their movements slow and creepy.

Donald froze, his mind spiraling into panic. \'Am I going to die?\' The thought gripped him as the two figures approached, their eerie smiles growing wider with each step.

The exit was blocked, and the only other option was the hole in the center of the room. But jumping into that… was it even a better option?

\'I don\'t have a choice,\' he thought, his teeth gritting as fear grew within him. With a sudden burst of courage, Donald turned and bolted for the hole, leaping into the darkness below.

His pursuers stopped just short of the edge, their smiles never fading. One of them reached for the light switch, and as the lights flickered off.

They then spoke in unison, their voices cold and hollow. "Sister Rose will be pleased."

But the moment the room plunged into darkness, two glowing eyes appeared before them, floating ominously in the shadows.