Reborn Before The Apocalypse

CHAPTER 7: WHAT'S LEFT OF HIM

It happened so fast.

Too fast for Kyle. Too fast for the guy who used to lounge on my couch eating pizza and nodding off halfway through movies. I threw myself sideways over the kitchen counter, plates shattering beneath me, as I felt the rush of air from its claws, now where his fingers used to be, raking just an inch from my spine.

[Threat Sense: Active.]

[Hostile approaching. Angle: rear-left.]

I rolled off the counter just as it slammed into the cabinets behind me. Wood splintered everywhere, and red light spilled across the kitchen floor like blood.

"Kyle!" I yelled. I don't even know why I said it. Some stupid, stubborn part of me was still holding out hope that there was enough of him left to hear me. "Kyle, fight it!"

The thing turned those glowing eyes toward me and laughed with his voice low, distorted, and completely wrong. "He's still in here," it said. "Screaming, actually. Want to hear?"

Its jaw unhinged wider than any human mouth should, and the sound that followed wasn't laughter anymore. It was Kyle. It was actually him, his real voice buried under layers of something wrong, screaming my name.

That broke something inside me.

I grabbed the knife block off the counter and hurled the whole thing at its head. It was a cheap, desperate move that shouldn't have worked, but it made the thing flinch for a split second, just enough for me to stop running and close the distance.

[Restraint: Active.]

[Threat proximity increasing reward multiplier.]

I didn't have a plan beyond don't die and keep it away from Lilly's door. My fist connected with its jaw, and pain shot up my arm like I’d punched a brick wall, but it staggered. For one brief moment, I saw something flicker in those red eyes maybe hesitation, or maybe Kyle fighting back from somewhere deep inside.

"Kyle, I know you're in there," I said, my breath coming in ragged gasps. I started circling it toward the far side of the kitchen, trying to keep it away from the hallway. "You're stronger than this. You always were, you idiot."

"Sentimental," the thing remarked, tilting its head at an angle no human neck could manage. "Cute. Won't save him."

It lunged. I dropped low, driving my shoulder into its midsection, and we went down in a mess of tangled limbs and broken porcelain. Its claws scraped across my forearm like fire as I managed to get a hand around its throat.

I wasn't trying to strangle it. I was trying to hold it still.

"Kyle." I poured everything I had into my voice, staring directly into those glowing red eyes, searching for any trace of the man I knew. "You have to fight this. I need you to fight!"

For one long, agonizing second, nothing happened.

Then, the red light flickered. Just once. And beneath the glow, I saw those brown eyes, Kyle's actual eyes, wide and terrified and filled with a level of pain I never wanted to see on his face again.

"Jay," he choked out, his voice cracking, barely recognizable. "Run. Please. I can't... I can't hold it back…”

[Host resistance detected.]

[Conversion destabilizing.]

The red light surged back, drowning his eyes once more. The thing beneath me let out a scream, half fury, half pure agony, and threw me off with a strength that was impossible for anyone, human or otherwise.

I hit the wall hard, seeing stars as the air was punched out of my lungs. Through the ringing in my ears, I heard the bedroom door Lilly's door, the one I'd specifically told her to lock crash open.

"Kyle, stop!" Her voice was raw, desperate, cutting through the chaos. "Please, look at me! It's me…"

I forced myself up onto one elbow, my vision swimming, just in time to see Lilly standing in the hallway. Her hands were raised, and she was walking straight toward the thing wearing the skin of the man she'd been sneaking around with behind my back, walking toward it like she thought love alone could pull him back.

The thing turned its glowing eyes toward her and went deathly still.

"Lilly," I gasped, struggling to pull myself upright. "Get back…"

Too late.

It smiled a wide, red, wrong smile and took a single, slow step toward her.

"Perfect," it said. The voice wasn't Kyle's, and it wasn't the creature's either; it was something layered underneath both, something ancient, patient, and deeply pleased. "Marcus said you'd come running for him. He's going to love this."