A Bitter Taste on the Lips

[Warnings: 1. The main text is in first person. 2. The content is exactly what the title says.]

I was trapped in a cave.

By day, the cave looked perfectly ordinary. But every night, countless eyes appeared on the walls, staring fixedly at me.

Every night, I gouged out a few, but it did nothing to help me escape.

A few days later, a scholar was trapped in the cave with me.

He was foolish and frail. Afraid he'd hold me back and anger the monsters, I did my best to look after him.

But I soon realized there was something very wrong with him.

Why did he tremble with excitement every night when I gouged out the cave's eyes?

[Please note: The first-person narration is not meant for reader self-insertion. The heroine is one of a kind, always.]

[Short story, probably under 100,000 words.]

2025.7.27

Theme: The eyes are the windows to the soul.