Monster

"...And that's why I'm still mad at him. I mean, what kind of father would miss his daughter's 18th birthday? I had been looking forward to that for so long, yet he only sent a message at the last moment…"

A woman's chatter echoed across the hallway, where no other sound could be heard. The blinding white fog did not make her worried one bit.

"Um...Riley," another voice came from below the woman.

"Yes, my dear sister?"

"I think we should keep quiet, else we might attract some monsters," Nora suggested with a hushed voice.

"I'm not afraid of monsters," Riley hugged the girl's neck, whispering, "I know Nora will protect me."

The girl felt goosebumps rising, yet had no way to retort Riley without disappointing the childish woman.

Fortunately, the two of them soon arrived at a section clear of fog. A magic circle appeared on Riley's palm, then vanished after a brief moment.

"This place is safe, we won't be disturbed for a while. Let's take a rest," Riley said.

Nora nodded, trusting the powerful magician. She put Riley down near the wall, then sat down next to her. Her eyes took in the sight of the revealed hallway.

The ceiling was further than she thought, so high that it could be on par with the roof of the indoor stadium. Chandeliers hung in a row, illuminating the surroundings. The wall was filled with murals depicting naked men and women, similar to the ancient Greek paintings.

"No, wait."

Nora observed, then realized that the entire wall was covered by one mural that extended into the foggy hallway.

"How large is this mural?" She thought in curiosity.

As her eyes wandered, they landed on a part of the mural that she recognized. There were bugs of fist sizes surrounding a group of men, ripping the skeletons out of their bodies.

"They were the bone eating bugs from before," she thought back to the nest and shuddered.

She looked to the left, seeing the bugs crawling out from eggs. As her eyes moved further, she almost vomited when she saw a pregnant woman lying on the bed with her legs spread open. From between her legs, a fountain of bug eggs poured out.

Nora quickly shifted her line of sight to the right. There, the bugs were throwing the bones they had collected into a pit. But when the bottom of the pit came into sight, there was no bone, but a small golden ball.

"The pit changed the bones into that golden ball?" Nora was intrigued by the depiction.

"Hey, Nora," Riley interrupted the girl's thought process.

Nora turned to the magician, "Yeah?"

"You are the nicest person to me."

Nora was taken by surprise, but she quickly bloomed with a gentle smile. Before she could reply, Riley suddenly apologized, "I'm sorry I have to do this."

The girl felt confused, until she sensed a tingling current travelling up her spine, then numbness settled. She lost control of her eyelids as her mind slipped into a dream.

Riley cushioned the girl's head with her arm, gently setting the girl down on the floor. Sounds of hurried footsteps reverberated from deep inside the hallway. From around the corner, two people appeared, both out of breath.

Kyren saw Nora lying on the ground, her eyes not open, a fire was ignited in his chest. Then, his eyes landed on the stranger standing between him and Nora, his head cooled, his gaze piercing the smiling woman.

"You must be Riley," his voice turned frigid.

"As expected of Nora's friend, you're very smart." The woman clapped.

Her line of sight turned to the person next to him.

"Riley, my old partner. So glad to see you again. I really didn't expect to meet you so soon, but this way, it'll save me some time."

Her mellow voice tickled the ears, yet it was strangely eerie. Passionate as her words sounded, Kyren could not feel an ounce of affection from the woman, instead it was something much more sinister. Her smile was genuine, yet in her eyes, Kyren could tell that something was missing from her, a part of humanity was lost.

"What do you want?" Kyren asked.

"Be careful," the investigator beside him chimed in, "I'm sure that the Riley I know is already dead, I saw it with my own eyes. That thing is a monster."

Laughter rang as clear as a sparrow's song.

"You're not wrong," the woman spoke after laughing, "I'm not alive anymore, but I'm not dead."

She opened the buttons on her shirt, exposing one side of her chest, a bloody gaping hole that reached the still beating heart.

Kyren could not peel his eyes from the gory sight. Meanwhile, his mind was overworking to find a way to get to Nora. The hardest part was that he still did not know what the goal of the woman was.

The woman buttoned her shirt again, her voice turned softer, but more coarse.

"Everyone thought the fog harmless against those who had magic in their bodies."

A bitter voice.

"But the moment you breathe it in, let it fill your lungs, touch your skin, caress your hair, it is already too late."

Kyren frowned. His heart thumped loudly. Part of his attention was drawn to the woman's monologue.

"Perhaps it's not wrong to call me a zombie," the woman admitted, "I can only be talking right now because my desire for revenge does not allow my body to die."

"We never do anything to you," Kyren tried hard to calm his voice.

"Not you two," The woman pointed her finger behind the boy, "him."

Kyren followed the direction of the finger, finding the investigator Riley sneaking away. The boy yelled, "Where the hell are you going?"

"Glad to see that you haven't changed at all, partner," the woman mocked.

"Don't listen to her! She's just a monster!" Riley screamed.

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of footsteps, an overwhelming number of them, accompanied by distorted growls.

"Kyren, right?" the woman turned towards the boy, "You should take Nora and get out of here. The girl will be sad if she doesn't see you when she wakes up."

From the fog, crooked figures emerged rows after rows. None of them had a complete body. Limbs, organs, flesh, skin, at least one of them was missing. Seeing the horde approaching Nora, Kyren ran towards her, ignoring the woman.

The first row of walking corpses noticed the pair, baring their rotten teeth and jumped at them. Kyren put the girl on his back, his legs kicked the ground right before one of the monsters managed to sink their fangs into his flesh.

"You said you wouldn't harm us," he yelled at the woman, who returned with a nonchalant expression.

"I don't, but I can't say anything about them. They are not under my command."

Kyren clenched his jaws. He must have been crazy to trust the words of a monster. He focused on avoiding the horde of zombies and running away. Not a glance was spared to Riley.

"Wait, wait for me!" The investigator tried to latch onto the boy, but his feet were held down.

"Why are you running?" a voice came from behind. The woman stepped on the investigator's ankle, crushing it.

Following the painful scream was tears and snots covering his face.

"I thought you loved me? You loved me so much you couldn't stand the thought of me dying in the dungeon."

She kneeled down, her fingers climbed up his body.

"You wanted to taste the fruit before it rotted. I still remember your forceful hands, your eyes filled with desire for flesh, your weight upon mine."

Riley could not form a proper sentence.

"I...never...kill you…" he stuttered.

"No, you didn't," the woman whispered, "but you left me to death."

Her fingers went past the frightened face. She stood up and stepped aside, making way for an army of the dead behind.

"So I will do the same to you."

Her voice filled with glee.

Bite, tear, scratch, gouge, pull, break.

She enjoyed the sounds of despair like a piece of symphony.

When everything was done, nothing was left of the investigator. Yet, the fire of her desire did not fade away. At that moment, she knew that it never would.

"How tragic," she snickered. She wanted to cry, but the monster that she had embraced did not have the capability to shed tears.

"It's my turn to uphold my end of the deal," she said, turning towards the horde. Hunger burnt in their eyes, with nothing remained of humanity.

The fog did not have the power to make the dead move. Death could only be delayed by the person's own will. To prolong their last moments into days, weeks, years, even decades, it required more than just survival instinct.

Greed, lust, anger, gluttony, the human desires that knew no bounds, chained by logic, morals, compassion. The fog offered them the key. Anyone who took that key and opened the lock could no longer turn back. Time became meaningless. Hunger could never be satisfied. Their desperate wish for release only came after liftimes of such torture.

Riley took out a scroll, one of the tools she was given by the department.

"It was never just a scouting mission."

"They never cared. All these lives, nothing mattered to them."

"They only wanted to get rid of all the pains in the neck at once."

All her thoughts and emotions were compacted into a single spell, a virus. The magic circle turned into an arrow and flew away.

Closing her eyes, Riley activated the scroll.

A blinding light devoured everything. As her body faded into the raging fire, a smile bloomed on her scorched face.