The monster stalked closer, her silhouette framed by the jagged teeth of the broken window. Moonlight leaked through the shards, glinting off her slick grin. Glass crunched beneath her bare, blood-smeared feet, each step deliberate, predatory.
"You made me do this to you." She clicked her tongue, the sound sharp as a nail driving into wood, her voice dripping malice. "I told you—I'd help, I'd take the pain away. But you just had to struggle. All I wanted was to take your body… so you wouldn't suffer anymore."
She dropped down on top of him, straddling his chest. Her weight pressed his ribs inward until they screamed, sharp splinters of pain jabbing his lungs. Every shallow breath was a knife twisting between bone.
"Don't be afraid, Jagger," she cooed, tilting her head at an inhuman angle. "I'll make sure to use this body of yours properly."
His throat tightened. His voice was gone, strangled in silence. He wanted to scream, to beg, to curse, but all he could manage was a strangled wheeze. His arms lay numb, dead weights at his side. His body was a prison of flesh, and he was trapped inside.
The creature leaned down, face hovering inches from his. The stench of copper and rot filled his nostrils, gagging him. Her jaw stretched wider, far wider than human. Skin tore with wet snaps, unhinging grotesquely until her mouth gaped into a void. Then she lurched.
A torrent of thick, black liquid erupted from her throat, splattering across his face. It was cold and sticky, clinging like oil, but burned like acid wherever it touched. It filled his nose, his mouth, his eyes. His muffled scream rattled against her flood as the fluid surged into him, drowning him alive. It scalded his throat, clogged his lungs, blinded him in burning darkness.
He thrashed weakly, body jerking in useless spasms. His chest heaved against her weight, choking and convulsing.
Through the blur—through the suffocating dark—he saw it. A faint glow, deep in her throat. A small red orb pulsing, beating like a heart.
Her claws forced his jaw open, prying until it felt like his face would snap in half.
The orb slid free, inching down her gullet, closer… closer…
"Argh! Aarghhh! AAAAAAAAGGGHHH!"
The scream ripped through him as the burning orb passed between his teeth, sliding down his throat. Fire spread inside him, searing as it sank into his gut.
He lay sprawled across the broken glass, body convulsing, every breath a wet gurgle. The black liquid clung to his face and chest, seeping into his wounds, eating him alive with chemical fire. His vision fractured, splitting into jagged shards of light and shadow. Even twitching a finger felt like lifting a mountain.
The girl's—no, the monster's—body crumpled beside him. She collapsed bonelessly, as though every muscle had liquefied. Seizures rippled through her frame, her limbs twitching. Her mouth hung slack, bile and blood spilling onto the tiled floor. Her once-bright red eyes dulled to a lifeless gray, staring blankly at nothing.
Jagger forced air into his lungs, one ragged gasp after another. Blood bubbled between his lips, foaming red. A broken moan tore out of him, trembling. Tears leaked freely, tracking down his cheeks to pool beneath his head on the cold floor.
Then—
A chime rang inside his skull. Not in the room. Not from outside. From within.
His blurry eyes shifted, struggling to focus. Hovering just above his face, a translucent screen flickered into being, glowing faintly red. Its alien light reflected across the glass shards and dark pools of blood, painting the ruin around him in crimson hues.
His breath hitched. 'Am I dying?'
Words etched themselves across the screen in jagged script. The letters twisted, reshaping until he understood them:
-
Corrupted entity detected.
Host compatibility check: [Pending]
-
Then came a voice. Feminine. Dark. Low as velvet and sharp as a blade, echoing in his skull.
'Do you want power? Do you want to live?'
'Yes,' he thought—or maybe he screamed. Every ounce of will left inside him bled into that word.
'Then let go of control. And become more than what you were.'
Confusion cut through the haze. His survival instinct clawed at him, shrieking danger, but exhaustion dulled it. He was afraid, so afraid—but he wanted to live. He wanted to fight. He wanted to survive.
The pain was constant, the only thing tethering him. Every inch of him burned, every bone screamed, every organ felt twisted inside out. His soul itself was aflame.
'Let go of control. And become more than what you were,' the voice whispered again, melodic, almost tender.
'I want power. I want to live.'
-
Host compatibility check: [Incompatible]
-
The voice roared suddenly, shattering all else.
'GIVE ME CONTROL!'
-
[Override] Corrupted entity initiating forced assimilation.
[Assimilation in Progress...]
[WARNING] System override unstable.
Full body reconstruction required.
Pain threshold exceeded critical: [WARNING!!]
-
The world shattered.
A primal scream ripped from his throat as the pain intensified, burrowing into every cell, every nerve, every molecule. His body convulsed violently, thrashing against the jagged floor.
"AAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!"
The sound tore through the pharmacy, echoing down the empty aisles, carrying into the night streets outside.
Skin split with wet snaps. Bones cracked, twisted, snapped again. His back arched unnaturally, ribs bulging outward as though something inside him was clawing to escape.
Blood sprayed in violent arcs. Black liquid seeped from his pores, oozing tar-like, sizzling where it touched his flesh. His vision fractured, everything bleeding into red and black.
Then came the deeper sounds. The wet, grinding crackle of sinew stretching. The crunch of bones realigning, twisting, snapping back. His spine warped and twisted, snapping in places only to fuse again in grotesque rhythm. Fingers elongated, knuckles splitting open before knitting with flesh not entirely his own.
His nervous system was fire. His mind, shredded static. He couldn't think, couldn't move—except to scream. His will was reduced to a single core truth. I want to live. I need to survive.
-
[Full body reconstruction complete.]
-
And then—silence.
The pain vanished, but not fully. It lingered, muted, like embers still glowing beneath ash.
Seconds, hours—he couldn't tell. Time collapsed into nothing.
But he was alive.
Barely.
He blinked, lids dragging heavy as stone, vision returning in fractured shards. His clothes clung to him in strips, shredded and wet with blood and a tarlike substance. His bones thrummed with pressure, nerves singing with a simmering ache—proof of what had just been rebuilt.
Every breath was labor. Every twitch of a muscle sent sparks of fire lancing through him. But his eyes… his eyes were too sharp.
He could see mots of dust drifting, slow as snow in the dim flickering lights. He smelled everything—the sharp tang of spilled medication, the metallic stench of blood, and the sweet-sick rot of the monster's corpse nearby.
Then—he heard it.
A vibration, faint at first. Footsteps. Light. Quick. Closing in.
His heart jolted, adrenaline flooding his veins, the hairs on his nape bristling upright.
And then, a sudden jolt—like a wire being cut inside his skull. The connection broke.
His hand slammed down before thought caught up. The sound was thunderous, bone and muscle colliding with the ruined tile. A sharp crack split the air as the floor caved, spiderweb fractures racing outward in a shallow crater.
That force hurled his body into motion. But he didn't rise like a man.
He didn't bend, didn't twist, didn't coil.
One heartbeat he was sprawled flat, the next he was upright, towering. His body propelled itself in a seamless vertical snap, as if invisible strings had yanked him to his feet. No stumble. No sway. Just motion—unnatural, clean, terrifying.
He rolled his neck, joints popping like dry twigs, muscles flexing taut beneath skin. He was too aware—every tendon, every sinew, every bone shifting in concert. His body felt mapped and foreign all at once.
"This feels great."
The voice was his—yet not his. His tongue shaped the words, but his will wasn't behind them. His body moved, but another presence coiled inside it, pulling strings.
'What is going on?'
He rolled his shoulders, twisted his spine, stretched his fingers. Every stretch, a ripple of newfound strength surging through him, subtle yet overwhelming. His lungs dragged in air and steam curled from his mouth, like an animal scenting its prey.
"YEEESSSSSS!"
The exultant cry tore through the silence, raw and manic. His hands clawed at his face, slid down his neck, fingers tracing his trembling skin. He felt it—every pulse, every vein tightening, swelling. Power surged like liquid fire through his body, intoxicating, electric.
It was ecstasy.
"This—this is what I've been missing. This is what I've been longing for!"
The declaration echoed, fevered and wild, when a sharp whistle cut across the pharmacy.
His head snapped. His gaze locked.
An arrow sliced through the air, hissing straight for his skull. His arm lashed out with in human instinct. Fingers closed around the shaft mid-flight with a sharp thwack.
The impact rattled up his arm, but he barely noticed. His eyes found the source.
A goblin stood in the broken aisle, bowstring still trembling from release. Its eyes were wide, disbelieving.
Jagger tilted his head, lips pulling into a predatory grin. His teeth caught the low light, glinting sharp.
"I was just enjoying my new body…" His words rolled like gravel, low and guttural. He snapped the arrow in half, the crack sharp as bone. "…and then you rudely interrupted." He let the end of the shaft fall, clattering on the tile.
The creature hissed and spat, the guttural sound rising to a scream. Its yellow eyes blazed.
From above the ruined shelves, more figures dropped into view. One, two, three—until ten goblins ringed the pharmacy aisles, crouched and armed. Their yellow eyes gleamed in the half-light, fangs bared, all of them grinning back at him.
Jagger's eyes glowed a crimson hue, his smile widening into a sharp grin.
"Now we're talking." His lips parted, voice breaking into a feral snarl. "I'm gonna enjoy drinking your blood."