NOVEL WEB Chapter 2: SSS-Rank Skill - Eyes of the Damned
"Darling... Breakfast is getting cold!"
It was only a voice, the voice slipped beneath his door - honeyed, false. And then, Ethan Cross's fingers clawed into his sheets.
Real moms don't sound like serial killers reading bedtime stories.
This was not his mom.
It wasn't even a human.
"Sweetthing! Come out now!"
Click-clicking footsteps. A shadow darkened in the bottom crack of the door. The doorknob jiggled.
Ethan's lungs began to collapse.
Then —
Click.
The thing's smile clung, vividly distasteful. "Eat soon, honey. Mommy has to get to work." It backed away from the door, without blinking. It turned on the threshold, moving awkwardly like a marionette, "Mother said to buy two fish for lunch. Fresh fish."
"Yes, Mom. I will." His grimace was crooked.
The door slammed shut.
Ethan breathed out—
There was a shadow still peering into the crevice.
He was still looking.
He held his immobile grin, prickles along his spine. The shadow evaporated after three purgatorial minutes.
"Ding ding ding! The lottery has begun!"
A half-transparent wheel with sectors labeled SSS to C clicked around with the sadistic delight of a carnival.
SSS. SSS. SSS—
The needle had landed.
"Congratulations! SSS rank skill Unlocked: The Eyes of the Damned!"
» Eyes of the Damned: Foresees your next death (cooldown: 60 minutes in-game / 7 days in real life).
Ethan scoffed. "Use it."
His soul tugged at his side.
Vision #1: 11:30 a.m
He floated behind his own body, witnessing Ethan-Prime staring at the living room clock.
Tick. Tock.
The front door clicked.
"Ethan."
Not-Mom appeared, a grin stretched tight like a zipper ingrained into her flesh. "Where's my fish?"