Reborn Before The Apocalypse

CHAPTER 8: THE COST OF WAITING

"Lilly, don't!"

She didn't listen. She took three more steps, bringing her within reach of that thing, while I was still slumped against the wall, my lungs burning and refusing to draw a decent breath.

[Restraint: MAXIMUM THRESHOLD REACHED.]

[Reward multiplier: x4]

The math didn't make sense, but I didn't care. Something deep inside me just snapped all the terror I'd been suppressing since that hallway, since that locked door, since this unasked-for system started tearing my life apart. Instead of crushing me, that feeling turned into fuel.

I moved.

I slammed into the thing wearing Kyle’s skin with everything I had, driving it away from Lilly and straight through the kitchen table. Wood splintered and exploded around us. We hit the floor hard, but this time, when I lunged for its throat, my grip didn't falter.

"You don't get her," I said. My voice sounded low and cold, like someone I didn't even recognize. "You don't get either of them."

The red light burned against my palm, hot enough to blister, but I refused to let go.

[Truth Sight: Active.]

[Subject: Host — Kyle Marsh]

[Conversion: 78%]

[Host consciousness: Present, fragmented]

[Warning: Full conversion imminent without intervention]

Intervention. I didn't have a guidebook for this. There was no skill tree with a convenient "save your best friend" button. All I had was my hand wrapped around the throat of the guy who had helped me cover rent for two years, and a system that fed me data without ever offering a single piece of advice.

"Kyle." I forced my voice to stay steady, forcing myself to look past the red glow to find whatever was still fighting underneath it. "You said you couldn't hold it back. So stop trying to hold it back. Let me help you fight it."

For a heartbeat, there was nothing.

Then, a flicker. Faint and unsteady, his brown eyes broke through the red like sunlight piercing a storm.

"Jay…" His voice was a broken, terrified rasp. "It's in my head. It won't stop talking…"

"I know." I didn't loosen my grip. "I've got you. Just hold on."

[Host resistance: INCREASING.]

[Conversion: 78% → 61%]

The light dimmed slightly, as if something inside him was clawing its way back to the surface. Behind me, Lilly had frozen, her hand pressed against her mouth, watching us with an expression I couldn't process in the middle of this.

The thing screamed through Kyle’s throat, pure fury, and I felt its claws sink into my forearm. The pain was sharp, followed by the warmth of blood.

"He's mine," it hissed. It was a sickening blend of Kyle’s voice and something much darker. "Marcus already claimed him. You're too late. You were always going to be too late."

"Try me," I spat. I drove my other fist into the center of that red light with every ounce of strength the system had given me.

The impact sent a shockwave through the room. Cabinets rattled, the window cracked, and Lilly cried out as she stumbled back. The red light shattered like glass, and Kyle’s body went limp beneath me. The glow bled out of his skin in slow, retreating pulses until there was nothing left but a man unconscious, breathing, and human.

[Conversion: HALTED.]

[Host stabilized.]

[Anomaly signature: DORMANT]

I sank back onto my heels, chest heaving, watching blood drip from my arm onto the wreckage of our kitchen table.

"Jayden?" Lilly’s voice was small and trembling from somewhere behind me. "Is he…"

"He's alive," I said, my voice barely holding together. "He's alive."

She dropped to her knees beside him, her hands hovering over him as if she was caught between the urge to touch him and the fear of breaking him. Tears ran silently down her face. I watched her for a moment, seeing the tangle of guilt, fear, and love in her eyes the same mess of emotions Truth Sight had shown me hours ago in an alleyway, a truth I still hadn't found the words to tell her.

Then, the system flickered back to life, a single line of text glowing amidst the ruins of the room.

[New notification received.]

[Sender: UNKNOWN]

[Message: "Well done, First of the Reborn. Marcus sends his regards. He'll see you soon."]

I stared at the words until they burned into my vision.

Whoever Marcus was, he already knew who I was. He knew exactly what I had become.

And somewhere out there, in a world that still thought the outbreak was months away, he was already watching me.