Late Night Takeaway: Hidden Crisis and Mysterious People

The desire for the hot dog prevented me from entering the breakfast shop. So, I just drove to work. When I arrived, I pulled Aaron over to a corner and asked him where he ordered the hot dog from. But he just pushed my hand away and said in a low voice, "What are you talking about? I told you I didn't order any takeouts for you! Besides, how could any store be open at that time?" After saying that, he quickly distanced himself from me. I felt restless the whole morning and couldn't help but keep thinking about the delicious hot dog I had last night. The more I thought about it, the hungrier I became. My saliva kept flowing out. If I hadn't been wiping it the whole time, I'm afraid it would have flowed down my chin. At noon, I ordered the hot dog from all the restaurants on the food delivery app that served hot dogs. A dozen servings of hot dogs were placed in front of me. However, just smelling them made me want to throw up. The fishy smell really made me dizzy, and when I smelled carefully, there was a faint stench. I suppressed my nausea, picked up one of the hot dogs and tasted it. Before swallowing it, I couldn't stand it any more and rushed to the bathroom. I felt an extremely itchy feeling in my throat, as if something was wriggling and slowly crawling through my throat, trying to get out. My own imagination made me feel so sick that I vomited. A piece of Frankfurter fell into the toilet. I didn't pay attention to it and got up to flush the toilet. Once the churning in my stomach disappeared, the feeling of hunger came up again, but I had no appetite at all for the delicious food I had eaten before. It was completely different from the one I had last night. One bite of this hot dog almost killed me. All day long, I could barely drink water. Stumbling into the elevator of my apartment, I planned to go home and make myself a hearty meal. As the elevator doors slowly closed, a woman suddenly said in a soft voice, "Please hold on." A woman in a light grey knitted skirt entered the elevator while thanking me for holding the elevator. I pressed the button on the sixth floor for her. The woman was slightly surprised. "You know where I live?" I smiled. "I live upstairs, and I often see you going in and out to buy groceries." The woman nodded and said nothing more. I stopped talking to her, but my eyes were always fixed on her involuntarily. She smelled a similar aroma to the hot dog I ate last night... The saliva slipped down from the corner of my mouth. The woman looked back at me in surprise and disgust. I nodded slightly at her and clenched my mouth tightly to stop the saliva from flowing out. She forced a smile at me and hurried out of the elevator. I closed the elevator door reluctantly after she disappeared from my sight. A week later, I made several cuisines. But the only thing I could do about these dishes was to look at them without any expressions or interest in eating. After working in the kitchen for an hour or so, the smell of oil smoke almost penetrated my bones, and some of the dishes had already gone cold with thick layers of grease solidified on them. It was even disgusting to look at. I couldn't eat anymore but forced myself to sleep. At the same time, my doorbell rang. I opened my eyes instantly, stood up and walked to the door. Bending down, I put my eye to the peephole.

It was the same delivery man who sent the hot dog to me last week. I couldn't help thinking whether he came here with the delicious hot dog. Desire gleamed in my eyes, and I almost wanted to open the door, but the caution ingrained in my bones stopped me. The time now was 1:06 in the morning. It was really unsafe for a pretty girl like me to open the door for a male delivery man late at night. So, I still asked him to leave the takeout at the door. As soon as he disappeared, I quickly took back the plastic bag. Hurrying to open the package, I craved to find out whether it was the hot dog I longed for with trembling fingers. However, it was some chicken nuggets. The chicken nuggets also looked wonderful and smelt tasty. My saliva slipped out of my mouth again. I ate a nugget with the sweet and sour sauce and was stunned by how tasty it was. After savoring it in my mouth, I reluctantly swallowed it. The unbearable feeling of hunger disappeared instantly. However, no matter how slowly I ate the chicken nuggets, there were only eight of them, and I finished eating in less than ten minutes. I reached out and dipped my fingers in the sauce on the edge of the bowl, then put them in my mouth to lick several times. As the hunger vanished, I closed the takeout box. There was a short message on it, too. "Lillian, I prepared those nuggets for you. Do you like them? Are you still hungry?" I became sober from the frenzy of hunger and looked at the small words above, feeling vaguely uneasy. Who ordered the takeout for me? I took out my phone, hesitated for a while and sent a text message to Dylan Roberts, my boyfriend: [Dylan, did you order some chicken nuggets for me?] He didn't reply to me instantly, so I had to force myself to sleep with uneasiness. After all, I was a white-collar worker, not a housewife who only revolved around her husband. I was woken up by the growling of my stomach, even though I had a greasy midnight snack a few hours ago. My stomach was empty after sleeping, as if I had eaten nothing the night before. Walking into the elevator in my high heels with unsteady steps, I saw the housewife, Nora Jones, I met in the elevator yesterday. I nodded to her as a greeting, and then stood behind her. She smelt good... "What are you doing!" She yelled and pushed me away. I staggered back a few steps and looked at Nora without knowing what was going on. She was wiping the water from the back of her neck. It seemed that I was so close to her that my saliva dripped on her neck. The disgust on her face slowly turned into worry. "Are you hungry?" Blinking slowly, I repeated in a low voice, "I'm hungry... You smell so good." She pressed her lips awkwardly and took out a box of chocolates from her bag. "I brought some chocolates. Do you want some?" I took the chocolate without saying a word, frowned and put it into my mouth like it was a challenge, but my eyes were always fixed on Nora. She stood in front of me, and I didn't dare to get close to her. As soon as the elevator door opened, she walked out quickly. I just walked out of the elevator when I felt my phone buzzed. It was a text message from Dylan. Dylan: [I really have no idea what you are talking about. Don't contact me if you have nothing serious to say! What if my wife finds out the text you sent to me?] I stuffed my phone back into my bag irritably, and my eyes involuntarily followed Nora until she was out of sight. She smelt so good... I bit the tip of my tongue hard, and the stinging pain finally brought my confused mind back to normal. I was so scared that I even wanted to lick her body!! Something was wrong! Everything went wrong after I ate that hot dog! Was there something addictive in the hot dog?? I was shocked and took a taxi to the hospital. I took a blood test and did a bunch of examinations. As soon as I sat down in front of the doctor, he frowned and scolded me, "You haven't eaten in a few days! You look so bad! Young people nowadays are risking their lives to lose weight!" I said, "But I had some chicken nuggets last night." "Really? Look at your face!" The doctor turned the mirror towards me angrily. My reflection in the mirror had sunken cheeks, a sallow complexion, and dark circles under her eyes, seeming that I hadn't had a good meal for a century. However, two days ago, I regularly had three nutritious meals a day in a healthy state. Ever since I ate that hot dog...

Yes! It all started with that hot dog! Someone wanted to hurt me! I endured the hunger and called the police. All the surveillance cameras on July 3rd at the entrance of my apartment and in the elevator were checked. At one o'clock in the morning, no one appeared on the cameras, not to mention that delivery man. The blood test result came out, and there was indeed a small amount of drugs in my blood. "There must be addictive drugs in the takeout, did you see it? This is the evidence! Someone did this to me!" My hands were trembling with fear, and I wanted to slam the test result form into the policeman's face. He glanced at the test result and said, "Ms. Edwards, are you sure you haven't taken any other medications including vitamins and health supplements since yesterday?" I was speechless. I did take sedatives before going to bed last night, and even increased the dosage without authorization. The police probably saw that I was guilty, so they walked around my apartment in an attempt to comfort me and asked some questions in the community. Everyone said that they were sleeping in the middle of the night and did not see the delivery man or hear any sound. I leaned on the door frame, looking at my neighbor opposite my room with a blank mind, and I couldn't help but bite off a part of my nail. The neighbor looked at me, smiled and said to the police, "Lillian must be under too much pressure at work. Maybe she has a mental disease." She smiled meaningfully, and I couldn't help but frown and angrily replied, "What do you mean?" "Oops, if you aren't a psycho, why do you talk to the air? I have seen it several times," my neighbor said satirically. The policeman scanned me and her several times and finally said to me, "Ms. Edwards, I suggest you see a psychiatrist. Maybe you will feel better." I spat out the broken nail in my mouth. "You say I'm sick? Is this how you police officers do your job? I'm going to file a complaint against you!" I screamed hysterically. They all thought I was hallucinating about some late-night delivery man delivering weird food to me. It was not an illusion! I was not sick! I clung to the door like a spider, my eyes close to the peephole, waiting for the delivery man to approach. Then, the sound of footsteps slowly hovered outside my door. A man in a delivery uniform stopped at my apartment. I stared at the plastic bag in his hand and licked my lips. I slowly grasped the door handle. The delivery man bent down and looked at the door for a long while. Suddenly, an eyeball filled with blood vessels pressed approached the peephole. My heart skipped a beat, and I heard a strange laugh. "Hey... Hello, your takeout... is here!" The moment his voice vanished, I opened the door instantly and excitedly grabbed the takeout bag in his hand. What was it? A hot dog or chicken nuggets? I was starving! I ripped open the bag, and large chunks of steak rolled to the ground. I knelt down in a hurry and reached out to pick up the meat. The greasy red sauce stained my hands, and I stuck out my tongue to lick my palms. It was slightly sweet and salty with an irresistible meaty aroma. I picked up the steak on the ground, put it into my mouth and started chewing it. It was neither fishy nor woody, and the fat almost melted in my mouth without chewing it. I squinted my eyes in happiness, and my hands kept moving, putting food into my mouth. It wasn't until I finished eating that I came to my senses and felt horrified. The delivery man outside the door had disappeared without a trace. My original plan was to catch him on the spot and make him confess who was behind this, but my hand seemed to have its own consciousness and grabbed the takeout in his hand first. As soon as that alluring fragrance appeared, my mind went blank in an instant. The only thing left in my mind was to eat. At that moment, I began to really tremble with fear. Hungry... I was so hungry... Why did I still feel hungry after eating the steak? My stomach was like a bottomless pit that could never be filled no matter how much I tried. I licked my lips with a desire to eat more. I looked at the takeout box on the table and saw the sentence on it. "Lillian, do you hungry?" In an instant, I felt an unbearable feeling of hunger, and my stomach immediately started growling. I stood up with trembling hands, staggered into the kitchen, and suddenly opened the refrigerator! I stared blankly at a piece of fresh meat wrapped in cling film in the refrigerator, and my mind went blank for a moment. Reaching out my hand in tremble, I tore off the cling film and stuffed it into my mouth. As I tore the meat apart, the stinky blood dripped from the corner of my mouth. I opened my eyes wide in horror, feeling nauseous and wanting to vomit, but at the same time, I tried my best to stuff the fresh meat in my mouth, sobbing in my throat. My hands and my mouth were out of my control.