C19 Maria and the Toy House

The sky had already begun to darken. Outside the photographic hall, a middle-aged man in suspenders walked out and prepared to lock the door.

"Wait, please, help me with these barrels of film." I hurried over to him.

"I'm sorry, I'm off duty."

"I'm counting on you. Even if you can get one out, I'll pay you double the amount." I opened my schoolbag and riffled through the film.

"Sir, you are wasting your time." The middle-aged man glanced at the paper in my hand.

"These films must have been exposed to the air for more than ten years. God can't save them from mildew …"

Suddenly he was attracted by the camera in my schoolbag. He adjusted his glasses.

"Oh my god..." This, this is the Leca 0 series? Where did you get this camera? I never thought that I would ever see the Leca 0 series again in my lifetime, it's already out of print! "

He quickly opened the door of the studio and plunged into the shop.

"The 1923 Leca 0 series, I dare say there won't be more than 30 of them in this world … Look, if it's in good condition, this camera is worth a house in Beverly Hills! Sigh, the internal mold has changed. What a pity, such a pity... "

The middle-aged man placed the camera under the tungsten filament lamp and looked at it. I didn't understand the camera at all, so I was confused by his words.

"If you can help me get these films out, I'll give you this camera."

The middle-aged man widened his eyes in disbelief.

"Sir, don't lie to me. I'm too old to be frightened."

"It's a deal."

The middle-aged man picked up the magnifying glass and carefully examined the camera: "The inside of the lens has already become moldy..." Eh? There is still half a roll of film left in this camera, so I might as well see if I can get it out. "

"That's great! How long do you need? "

"I'm afraid I can't make it today. Leave your phone behind, I'll call you if there's any progress." The middle-aged man passed me a pen and paper.

"Please, please contact me as soon as possible, I …" There's not much time left. "

When I returned home, the sky was already completely dark. Upon entering the door, Lina's eyes were filled with tears as she said to me: "Wuu, Lei, that litter of kittens were all bitten to death."

Lina and Alpha sat on the carpet and fed the milk to Peter. The wounds of the kittens had already been treated, and one of their eyes was covered with white gauze. Lina sighed: "I wonder if that female cat went crazy, I just can't understand, we didn't touch those kittens, why did we bite them to death?"

Alpha raised his head and looked at me. His eyes were abnormally calm, as if he knew that I wouldn't tell him the truth.

I really couldn't tell you the truth, and if I did, it would be like admitting that I wasn't at the institute that afternoon. The reason why I hate lying is that once the deception begins, it will continue to deceive, with each lie bigger than the previous one, like a snowball rolling bigger and bigger.

I sighed. "Maybe... Maybe some other stray cat did it. "

"One of Peter's eyes may be going blind. If you have suppuration tomorrow, you'll have to take it to a pet hospital and have it removed. " Lina's voice was filled with pain.

The kitten, Peter, was curled up on the carpet, ostensibly a harmless little animal, but my mind was full of how it had bitten its brothers and sisters to death.

When the kitten was full, it looked around with its one eye and then back at me.

Somehow, I actually felt that its eyes and Alpha's were somewhat similar.

That was the cold and beastly gaze of someone who had seen the Infernal Realm.

"See you tomorrow." Alpha carried Peter and stood up from the carpet.

"Wait, we'll go with you." I held Lina's hand and said, "We have been living here for so long, yet we have not officially visited you and Maria. It's still early, so let's go and disturb him. "

Alpha stopped at the door and looked at me. "You'd better not go."

I remembered the look he had in his eyes that day in the darkness behind the desk.

"Alpha, don't worry. The two of us are only going to go see Maria. We won't disturb him for too long." Lina said.

Alpha did not say anything, and only opened the door. Outside was the dark corridor.

My palms were sweating.

I have to go, and I must make Lina come with me. I must take off this old lady's mask in front of Lina.

Walking through the dark corridors, I remembered the first time I saw Alpha on a rainy night.

He sat quietly in the corner, his face lit up by lightning, his hair blond and his eyes blue.

If it hadn't been for the shock, but for any other scene, I would have exclaimed that the child was too good-looking.

Especially his eyes that were as blue as water, there was not a single trace of discoloration in them.

When we told him that a kitten might be bitten to death by a female because of your human scent, his eyes glistened with tears, and anyone would be moved.

But after we got along, the blue in his eyes made me feel more and more hopeless.

Especially that night he pointed to the image of the starchild's skull and said to me, word for word:

You, fear, you, will, live, down, one, one, monster, thing.

His eyes glowed like wild beasts in the darkness, and the two blues became the cold flames of hell.

However, when he snuggled up to Lina and drew, it was as if any normal child in the world suddenly had a playmate. That kind of reliance and affection didn't seem to be an act.

As I was thinking, I saw Alpha, who was walking in front, stop in front of apartment 608.

"Come in." Alpha looked at me again.

But the way he looked at me conveyed the opposite message:

No, yes, come in, go in.

He's giving me a final warning!

His lips didn't move, but those four words, like a thunderclap, exploded from my brain to my eardrums. My eardrums contracted in an instant, and all that was left was the buzzing in my head. Suddenly, I felt an invisible pressure pressing down on my entire body. It was as if countless hands were pressing down on my shoulders from behind me. The pressure spread from my head to my four limbs, and my entire body felt as though it was nailed to the ground.

"Lei, what happened to you?" Seeing me stop at the door, Lina shook my arm.

"..." "No, it's fine." I squeezed a smile out of my face and patted Lina's hand.

"Lei, you're trembling." Lina frowned and looked at me: "Is there something wrong?"

"I'm fine, just... "I have a stomachache."

"Since you have a stomachache, why don't we come back next time?" Lina said with concern.

In my heart, I know very well that if I don't expose Maria's lies, Lina will not move out with me.

Lina is a very stubborn person, ever since she moved to this building, she had already discovered that I was hiding something from her.

Any lie was a crack in the marriage that would never heal, not to mention that this crack was growing bigger and bigger with each passing snowball.

If I offer to move now, she won't leave without a reasonable answer.

The most direct way is to let her see for herself that my suspicions are not baseless.

It seems that no matter who controls the brain waves, there's no way to get into my brain and hurt me when I'm awake. As long as I don't sleep.

But I'm also human, I can't stay awake forever. That person must be silently waiting for the moment when I fall asleep in the darkness.

Moreover, even if it's Maria, I don't have a hundred percent evidence. But if I give up tonight, I'll never be able to figure out who the enemy is.

"... I'm fine, let's go in. " Thinking up to here, I pulled Lina's hand and struggled to take a step forward.

The moment I walked into 608, I thought I had traveled back to 1920.

Baroque carvings on all sides of the ceiling extended to the walls, and the 400-foot Persian handmade carpet covered the entire living room.

The sofa cloth was embroidered with silk, and 64 crystal lamps hung from the ceiling. The walnut Gothic cabinets held a variety of porcelain and silverware, and even the handles were gilded.

The splendor of gold and jade was out of place in this almost abandoned apartment.

The only source of light in the room was a dim wall lamp, which made the whole living room look extremely depressing.

But what shocked me the most was the fact that the entire living room was filled with toys.

Toys of all kinds, building blocks, slingshot, plush cubes, clockwork robots, doll villas, plastic soldiers, remotely piloted aircraft, tank models, and all sorts of board games were scattered across the sofa and floor, most of them covered in dust.

"Oh my god, Alpha, this can't all be yours, right?!" Lina was also very surprised, she continued to whisper to me in Chinese, "I have never seen so many toys in my life!"

We grew up in the fifties and sixties, when domestic supplies were so scarce that we couldn't eat, let alone toys. When I was young, I used to paste a kite in a newspaper and played with Shuyue all summer.

"Alpha, you are too fortunate. I did not have any toys when I was young." Lina said.

"Yeah, me too." Alpha said in confusion.

"How old are you now?!" It's not too late for you to play with these toys, it's too late for me, I'm just an old woman now. " Lina made a face.

"Oh, what I mean is that I'm tired of playing with the toys here," Alpha apologetically smiled at Lina. "I still prefer to be with Lina."