Mosquito System: Blood Required

Karma Sting

There was no time for a moral debate. The clock was a ticking guillotine, and I needed blood to keep my soul from being snuffed out like a candle.

I looked at the jogger whose pocket had been my sanctuary. No, I thought, a flicker of my old humanity sparking. I can't drink from him. He saved my life, even if he didn't know it.

​I took flight, leaving the warmth of the jacket for the cool night air. A few hundred yards away, near a secluded cluster of oaks, the sound of raised voices cut through the cricket chirps.

A heat argument between a couple. One tall and jagged, the other one smaller and trembling glowed through my compound eyes.

​I drifted closer, landing on a low-hanging leaf to eavesdrop.

​"Victor, how could you?" the girl sobbed. Her name was Katty, and her eyes were thick with tears. "With Sara? She's my best friend, Victor! My freaking best friend!"

​Victor didn't look remorseful. He looked bored. He checked his watch, his expression flat.

"Since you already found out, I don't need to beat around the bush. You're a freak, Katty. I got bored of you months ago. If you think your dad's money was enough to keep me on a leash, you're dead wrong."

​"I loved you with everything I had!" Katty screamed, her voice breaking. "I fought with my father just to stay by your side. I was there when you were at your lowest, when you had nothing... how can you forget five years so easily?"

​The air turned cold. Victor reached into his side pocket and pulled out a sharp folding knife. The blade caught the moonlight with a silver glint.

​"Since you don't want to end this quietly," Victor hissed, "I guess I don't have a choice."

​Katty froze, her face turning pale. "Victor? You... you wouldn't hurt me. Not like this I believe." She looked into his eyes and the truth hit her. There was no sympathy left in that man, only a dark, hollow vacuum.

​In a last, desperate attempt to reach him, she pressed a hand to her stomach. "I'm pregnant, Victor. It's your child. Please... Don't do anything reckless."

​Victor's lip curled. "That's more reason to end this now. No one is here. No one will ever know."

​He took a step forward, the knife raised.

​I watched from the tree, a white-hot rage boiling through my tiny frame.

This was the same story. Different names, different faces, but the same rot. Ungrateful, murderous, and fueled by greed. How dare you? I thought. You're willing to slaughter your own blood for a mistress?

​At that moment, I realized my purpose. I wasn't just a parasite. I was a judge. "I'm opening a revenge service for the broken-hearted," I snarled, the eeEeEeE of my voice sounding like a battle cry.

​As Victor lunged to deliver a fatal strike, I became a blur. I dove straight for the hand holding the knife, sinking my specialized proboscis deep into his wrist.

​"Gah! Damn it!" Victor barked, his arm jerking back. He looked at his hand, spotting me...a tiny, dark speck against his skin. "Hateful little creature!"

​He raised his other hand to swat me into oblivion, but I wasn't done.

​[SYSTEM INTERFACE DETECTED: WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRIGGER 'INSTANT FEVER SENSATION', HOST?]

​"Yes," I commanded. "Make the bastard crawl."

​[APPROVED. INJECTING CONCENTRATED DENGUE STRAIN...]

​Before Victor's palm could connect with my wings, his knees buckled. The knife clattered to the pavement. A violent tremor seized his body, and his skin turned a sickly, mottled gray in seconds.

​"Why... why do I feel so weak?" Victor gasped. His voice was a thin raspy chirp of what it had been. "My head... it's burning...

Katty, you bitch, what did you do to me?"

​Katty stood there, her jaw dropped in shock as she watched her would-be murderer collapse into a shivering heap. She looked at the knife, then back at the man who had just threatened to kill his own child.

​"I didn't do anything, Victor," she whispered, her voice regaining its strength. "I guess karma finally found you. And it's exactly what you deserve."

​She didn't wait for him to respond. She turned and sprinted toward the park exit, leaving him gasping in the dirt.

​"Katty... don't... save me..." Victor pleaded, reaching out a trembling hand.

​I hovered above him for a second, watching the fever take hold. I wanted to spit on him, but my mouth was full of the heavy, metallic prize I needed. I turned away, landing on a quiet branch far from the dying echoes of his pleas.

​"System," I mumbled. "I have the blood. Take the tax."

​[SYSTEM ACTIVATION: THE CIRCLE OF OFFERING IS OPEN.]

​A glowing, crimson ring manifested in the air before me. It pulsed with an ancient, hungry rhythm. I moved to the center and expelled the drop of blood I had taken from the monster.

The circle flared bright red, a hollow vortex opening in its center to swallow the offering whole.

​[WE SHALL RETURN TO THIS WORLD... HAHAHAHA!]

​The voice was deeper this time, more ominous.

​[CIRCLE CLOSED. TAX RECEIVED. REWARD GRANTED: INSTANT DENGUE SPREAD HAS BEEN PERMANENTLY ADDED TO YOUR ARSENAL.]

​I felt my proboscis grow sharper, the tip gleaming like a diamond-tipped needle. I felt powerful, but as the adrenaline faded, a cold realization set in.

​"Wait," I whispered to the void. "Do I have to stay like this? A bug in the trees forever?"

​[NEGATIVE, HOST. COLLECT 10 DROPS OF BLOOD IN THE CIRCLE TO UNLOCK 'HUMAN ASCENSION'.]

​I let out a long, vibrating sigh of relief. Ten drops. Ten monsters.

​"Ten drops," I repeated..

---

Zilu's Study Room:

The air in the study smelled of the lingering scent of Zilu's favorite cologne. It was a room built for a man of taste, now being picked apart by vultures.

​Xena sat in Zilu's chair, slowly spinning. On the desk, Arsh sat perched like a gargoyle, his shoes scuffing the polished surface Zilu had always kept pristine.

​"Any news about Zilu's death, Arsh?" Xena asked, her voice echoing in the hollow room.

​"Nothing," Arsh muttered, his eyes darting to the dark corners of the room.

"My men combed every inch of the alleyway and the surrounding blocks. There wasn't so much as a bloodstain on the pavement. It's like the concrete swallowed him whole."

​Thump.

​Xena bolted upright, her palms slamming onto the desk with a violence that made the crystal inkwell rattle.

​"Where is he, Arsh?" she hissed, her face contorting into something jagged and ugly.

"Jumping from the twenty-seventh floor isn't a magic trick! People don't just evaporate."

Arsh, have your men look at all the hospitals. Every emergency room. Even the morgue. A man doesn't just vanish into thin air!" I want a corpse to look at. I won't sleep until I see him under a sheet."

​Arsh shifted uncomfortably, "Xena... is there any possibility? What if he's still out there? What if he survived?"

​Xena's eyes flashed with a manic light.

"Survive that? Don't be pathetic. No one can survive that fall. But if he's not on the ground, someone might took him. Or he's rotting in a bush somewhere." She pointed a trembling finger at the wall-mounted television.

"Let's take a look at the local news. If a body hit the pavement tonight, the vultures in the press won't be able to stay away."

​Arsh grabbed the remote, his thumb hovering over the button. The screen flickered to life, the blue light casting long, sickly shadows across their faces.

​[HEADLINE: TRAGEDY IN GREENERY PARK]

Ain't it near that building? Xena asked Arsh.

​The news anchor's voice rang: "A man died tonight inside Greenery Park under mysterious circumstances.

The postmortem report indicates a lethal, hyper-accelerated case of Dengue; his platelets dropped to near-zero levels in minutes, making his death agonizingly tragic.

Investigation shows that moments before his collapse, he had attempted to murder his pregnant girlfriend to be with his mistress. Netizens are responding with a chilling consensus: Karma has found its mark."

​"Stop... stop the news!" Xena screamed, her voice cracking.

​Arsh shut the power button, but the silence that followed was overwhelming.

​Xena felt a violent shivering wash down her spine, a coldness that started in the marrow of her bones.

The anchor had spoken of "Karma." The internet was celebrating the man's agonizing death because he had betrayed a woman who loved him.

​Deep down, a jagged thought pierced her mind: I did the same thing. I cheated. I conspired to kill the man who doted on me for ten years. Does the world want me to die in the dirt, too?

​Sensing her sudden, trembling unease, Arsh moved behind her, placing a possessive hand on her shoulder.

​"It's okay, baby," he whispered. "He is dead. I'm here. Even if he is still alive, we'll kill him again. Arsh smirked with a devilish grin."

---