SSS+ MONSTER EVOLUTION

My body felt cold, and my fingers were stiff like wood. I couldn't even make sense of what was happening. Everything was just... blurry.

*Cough. Cough. Cough.*

I felt like I was going to die. They say you see your life flash before your eyes before you die, but I didn't see anything. Things just got darker and darker over time. Maybe my life was just so meaningless that there was nothing to look back on.

My body was almost ripped in half, and my guts were spilling out. The blood wouldn't stop pouring. Surely this was the end... Or so I thought.

Suddenly, my blood was trying to leave my body. Not in the dying way. In the crawling way.

I stared at the cut on my stomach. The blood wasn't red. It was dark, almost blackish-red, and it was moving against gravity, pulling itself back into the wound, stitching the skin closed like hot wax.

*THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.*

The corrupted outside the freezer shuffled past. I could see its shadow under the door. Too many joints in its legs.

It sniffed the air. It could smell the human part of me.

"Shut up," I whispered to my arm. It wouldn't stop moving on its own, almost like it was trying to break free.

The blood stopped moving, like it heard me. I held my breath. The thing sniffed again, then dragged itself away, its spine scraping the shelves.

The sanguis was crawling on the ceiling of the pharmacy. It used to be a kid; I could tell by the backpack. Now its head was split down the middle, and both halves were sniffing for me.

It dropped, but I didn't move.

It landed on the counter and shrieked.

*Bump.*

My arm hit the wall of the freezer. It heard me.

It lunged, way too fast for me to even react, and its arm blade went straight through my stomach—this time almost fully ripping my body in half.

I felt my spine tingle.

"Ah," I said out loud. "That hurt."

It stared at me. Even monsters get confused when their prey doesn't die when struck.

My blood was pissed. I could feel it sprawling inside of me.

I didn't tell my arm to change. It just did. The dark red blood shot out of the hole in my guts, up my shoulder, and my whole right arm just... came apart.

Flesh peeled back, and my blood hardened. In half a second, I wasn't looking at a hand anymore. It was a claw.

Big, ugly, and made of clotted blood.

The sanguis tried to pull its blade out, but I grabbed it. Not out of free will—it was like my body was moving on its own.

My claw closed around its arm and squeezed. I heard bones crack that shouldn't exist.

"Grrgh. I need to heal," I muttered to myself, almost like I was begging my own body to heal me. My stomach was already closing up.

You could see the muscle stitching together—disgusting and fast, and it itched like hell.

The monster screamed and swung its other arm at my face, and I let it.

Claws raked across my cheek, down to the bone. I felt my cheek flap open.

I didn't dodge.

Why would I? I leaned into it, headbutting it with my bloody forehead.

Then I punched.

My bloody claw went through its chest like wet paper. I didn't hit any organs; there were none. Just that stringy flesh that all sanguis have inside, like tangled yarn.

I twisted.

The whole thing ripped in half. The top half went right, the bottom half went left. Blood splashed everywhere, mine and his mixed together.

My blood on the floor actually crawled back to my feet.

Gross. Still not used to that.

I stood there, my stomach steaming, my face half-healed, holding a twitching half-monster in my giant claw.

My claw was hungry. I could feel it. The blood on my arm pulsed and started to drink him.

I fell to the floor. I felt a hunger I'd never felt in my life before.

I could smell something not so far from where I was. Something sweet. Something delicious.

Without thinking, I rushed to the location, running on all fours like some savage beast.

Upon reaching it, I was met with something that immediately brought me back to my senses.

Doctor Yelena and a group of humans were seeking shelter and hiding from the sanguis. That's what I smelled. I was developing a yearning for human blood.

I could see the fear in Doctor Yelena's eyes as she saw me: half-monster, with bared fangs, claws, and wounds that should have killed me.

The people were trembling with fear.

I asked myself:

"How did things go so wrong? This isn't how things were supposed to turn out."

---

**[ 2 (two) Days earlier. ]**

**Date:** July 24, 2173

**Location:** New Sunset City

The day that started all of this. The day that brought about all my misfortunes.