The Male Leads Are Trapped in My House

This monster wasn’t dead yet. To finish it off completely, we’d need to either separate its head from its body or burn it.

[Breaking News! Murder at the Marquis Casey Estate. Entire Casey Family Massacred…]

I recalled the newspaper headline I’d seen earlier.

It finally felt like the novel’s plot had officially begun. The end of the world was closer than ever—it was becoming all too real.

“Miss Sinclair, how are you staying so calm after seeing something like that?”

Vanilla staggered toward me, her face pale from vomiting, and asked.

“Calm? I’m just pretending to be.”

I pointed to my arm, still clutching the cricket bat. It was trembling slightly.

I only seemed calm because I already knew what this thing was—and because I’d dealt with a monster before at 61 Notium Street.

But that didn’t mean I wasn’t scared. It was horrifying—bone-chillingly terrifying.

Only now did the reality of the world ending truly sink in.

Vanilla fell silent. Ethan, meanwhile, stood with his hands on his hips, staring at the monster’s corpse like it was a puzzle he needed to solve.

“We need to investigate this.”

“D-Don’t touch it!”

I immediately jumped in front of him, spreading my arms to block his path.

“Why not?”

Ethan looked at me, confused. I swallowed nervously, my eyes darting toward the monster.

Sure, he had antibodies, but it never hurt to be careful.

I had to give him a convincing answer. The last thing I needed was to arouse more suspicion and have him start interrogating me.

“Well…”

Trailing off, I took a deep breath and tried to look as innocent as possible.

“It’s an unidentified animal. What if it’s carrying some kind of disease?”

Vanilla quickly chimed in, nodding along.

“Yeah, it definitely looks like it’s carrying something nasty. But what do we do with it?”

Looking between the two of them, I gave the only answer that made sense.

“We burn it.”

The monster at 61 Notium Street had died completely when I split its head open with an axe. But this one? Not a chance. And there was no way I could suggest chopping it up without looking suspicious.

Burning it to ash was the safest option.

“Hmm.”

Ethan frowned at the corpse, clearly not happy with the idea but considering it.

Meanwhile, the farmer, who had finally gotten a good look at the monster up close, collapsed back to the ground. He stared at the corpse with wide, terrified eyes, muttering to himself.

“A demon. That’s… That’s got to be a demon…”

It looked like the shock had hit him hard. That was going to be a problem—especially since monsters like this would soon be roaming the world in droves.@@novelbin@@

“It’s probably just a mutated animal. Once we burn it, it’ll be fine.”

Trying to reassure him, I stepped closer—then noticed something on his arm.

“Wait a minute.”

The farmer looked up at me, puzzled. I pointed at the marks on his forearm.

“What’s this?”

“Oh, that demon nipped me earlier…”

The moment I heard the word bit, I jumped back from him.

Ethan and Vanilla both stared at me like I’d lost my mind.

Wait. Didn’t Ethan help the farmer up earlier?

I didn’t want to take any chances. Grabbing Ethan’s hand, I examined it closely for any wounds. Thankfully, his skin was unbroken.

“What are you doing?”

Ethan frowned, but I let out a relieved sigh and gestured toward the farmer.

“We need to call a doctor.”

Not that calling a doctor would solve this. I only said it to buy time. Gripping the bat tightly, I tried to steady my nerves.

My mind went blank. I’d imagined this scenario countless times, yet now that it was happening, I couldn’t think straight. My whole body felt cold.

As my trembling hands clenched the bat, a large hand settled on my shoulder.

“Cherry, are you all right?”

Ethan examined my face with a grave expression. But my attention was drawn elsewhere—Vanilla, moving to help the farmer.

“No!”

I grabbed Vanilla’s arm, and she turned to me, confused.

“Miss Sinclair? What’s wrong?”

The farmer’s complexion was already turning pale. His chapped lips quivered, and cold sweat poured down his face.

“H-hrm. Cough, cough. I-I don’t feel so good. Can you call a doctor?”

He coughed violently into his hand. When he pulled it away, it was smeared with bright red blood. Vanilla gasped.

“Miss Sinclair, let go for a second!”

Despite her plea, I shook my head and refused to let go of her arm.

Cough!

And then the farmer collapsed, vomiting blood onto the ground.

Thud—

Ethan stepped toward him, but I blocked his path, raising the cricket bat.

“Wait! Just—wait a second. Don’t move. Something’s wrong with him.”

I had no way to explain what was happening, so I blurted out the only thing I could think of.

Vanilla and Ethan stared at me like I was insane.

“Cherry, what the hell are you doing?!”

“Miss Sinclair, seriously, what’s wrong with you?”

Swallowing my frustration, I held back tears. I’m trying to save you—both of you.

And just as I feared, the farmer, who had seemed lifeless a moment ago, began to move.

Grroooar—

A sound more like an animal’s growl than a human’s.

“W-What? Sir? What’s happening to you?”

Vanilla’s panicked voice rang out as Ethan and I turned toward the source of the sound.

The figure rising slowly in front of the monster’s corpse still had the farmer’s face—but his body was changing.

His stomach swelled grotesquely, sagging outward, and his legs lengthened unnaturally. As his spine twisted, two more pairs of arms and legs sprouted from his torso.

It looked like… a spider. Just like the creature at 61 Notium Street.

One of its spindly legs lashed out at Vanilla without warning.

I swung the bat hard.

Crack!

The leg snapped and flew sideways. Vanilla gasped.

“Move!”

I shoved Vanilla and Ethan aside. Before they could stop me, I raised the bat again.

Whack! Smash!

Grrrk!

The creature bared its sharp fangs at Vanilla, but my swing sent it crashing into the wall.

Even then, it squirmed and tried to rise again—

Bang!

A gunshot rang out. Ethan had fired, hitting the creature square in the head before it could finish transforming.

It dropped dead instantly.

Vanilla, still trembling, turned to me.

“Miss Sinclair… Whatever that strength is… it’s amazing.”

Despite her shaking hands, she gave me a thumbs-up before turning back to the corpse, her face twisting with confusion.

“But what the hell is this? That wasn’t human. Or—wait. It was human at first… Does that mean the other one we killed earlier was human too?”

Ethan’s sharp gaze fixed on me.

“Cherry, did you know this was going to happen?”

Of course, I knew. But I couldn’t admit that, so I lied.

“No. I had no idea. But we all saw it—he turned into a monster right in front of us.”

I met Ethan’s eyes without flinching.

Vanilla frowned.

“But earlier, you told us not to move. Like you knew something was wrong.”

“I didn’t know for sure,” I said firmly. “He was acting strange, and there was a risk of infection. The transformation happened right after he was bitten.”

Silence fell.

“Yeah… Now that I think about it, it was weird.”

Vanilla broke the tension, speaking in a heavy tone.

“Thanks, Miss Sinclair.”

Even Ethan hesitated before murmuring apologetically,

“I should’ve assessed the situation better. I’m sorry, Cherry—and thank you.”

But honestly, this wasn’t something anyone could process properly. Not police, not soldiers—no one.

Ethan and Vanilla’s eyes drifted back to the two giant corpses on the ground. Vanille began to feel nauseous and she struggled to hold back her gag reflex.

If someone as fearless as her was this shaken, the chaos that awaited when the apocalypse hit was already too clear.