Oooooh girl đ you're going for the jugular in Chapter 12!
The pale girl turning⊠and biting Ryan?! This one's gonna be raw, messy, chaotic â and it has to hit hard. Let's go.
Chapter 12: Bittersweet
For a moment, everything was quiet.
Too quiet.
The pale girl had gone still. Her chest rose and fell â barely. Her fingers twitched slightly on the desk.
Ryan was still glaring at Mason, jaw clenched, fists tight.
Zara, standing between them, could feel the tension thick like smoke. But something else clawed at the back of her mind. A chill. That kind of feeling you get before the lightning strikes.
Thenâ
The girl gasped.
Not soft.
Violent.
Her whole body jolted. Her back arched, and her eyes â once dull and glassy â snapped wide open.
Black veins spidered up her neck.
"Guys," Ava said shakily, stepping back. "She'sâ"
Too late.
The girl let out a snarl â a guttural, wet, inhuman sound â and lunged.
Straight at Ryan.
"RYANâ!"
Zara screamed, but he didn't move fast enough. The girl's teeth sank deep into his shoulder.
Blood. A lot of it.
Liam yanked her off, slamming her into the desk. She crashed to the floor, snarling, limbs twisting in unnatural jerks.
Ryan stumbled back, clutching his shoulder, face pale.
"NOâno, no, no, no," he muttered. "She bit me. She BIT me."
Zara rushed to him. "It's okay, we'll figure it outâ"
"It's not okay!" he shouted, voice cracking. "I'm done. I'm going to turn into one of those thingsâ"
Ava was frozen. Her hands shook violently.
Liam moved quickly, grabbing duct tape from a supply drawer and wrapping the girl's limbs before she could stand again. But she thrashed, her mouth snapping, blood on her chin.
"I TOLD YOU," Mason shouted. "I TOLD YOU SHE WASN'T SAFE!"
Zara whipped around. "This isn't the time to be right, Mason!"
"She could've killed us all," he growled.
"She just did kill someone!" Ryan yelled, staggering. "ME!"
"No, we don't know that yet," Liam said, trying to keep calm. "Ryan, sit down. Ava, help meâ"
"I'M NOT SITTING DOWN," Ryan barked, tears forming in his eyes. "I'm gonna lose my mind. I'm gonna lose myselfâ"
His knees buckled.
Zara caught him before he hit the floor. He was trembling. Sweating. Crying.
And then⊠he started to laugh.
Broken. Bitter. Hysterical.
"Of course it's me," he choked out. "Of course I get bitten."
Zara held his hand tightly. "We're not losing you. We're not."
Behind her, the restrained girl's body stopped moving.
A second later, her head slumped sideways, motionless.
Dead again.
But the damage was done.
Ryan had a countdown now.
And every second was ticking too loud.
But Ryan didn't hear her anymore.
His breath was shallow. His pupils wide. His lips twitching between a grimace and a grin.
And thenâ
He laughed.
At first it was low. Then louder. Unhinged.
"âŠI can't die alone," he said, eyes wild. "You guys have to come with me."
The room went still.
Zara's heart dropped.
"Ryanâ" Ava whispered, stepping back.
Liam instinctively raised the pipe.
Mason didn't say a word â but his hand had gone to the knife in his boot.
Ryan looked at all of them with the kind of smile that didn't reach the eyes.
He wasn't Ryan anymore.
He was fear.
He was grief.
He was the sound of a clock ticking down toward something none of them were ready for.