Chapter 33: Change

Spirit stared at himself, well the version of himself that stood there staring at him. With ghastly skin and sunken black sockets where his eyes were supposed to be.

"Who...who are you?" Spirit questioned expecting his heartbeat to double with the panic he felt. Instead he felt empty and cold.

"I am you...well the version of you that died. The version of you that took the burden of your evolution." His double spoke in a low tone that seemed to echo troughout the black abyss that surrounded them.

"What do you mean the burden of my evolution..?" Spirit questioned his living body double. Well according to what it had said, once living.

"You were dying Spirit. Remember?" His double said taking on the grotesque form of what his body looked like. "Crushed under rubble after our own country decided to bomb one of its own cities. Only saved by the girl with white hair."

"I...I remember that part...I just..." He paused as he noticed an injury he didn't at all remember having. A wound right where his heart was.

"In order for you to evolve, you needed to die." His double said as he took the appearance of him. But instead of the lean build he was used to seeing in the mirror. It seemed that he had gained a bit of muscle.

"So... I'm currently dead..?" Spirit questioned as that reality slowly sank in.

"Currently. You're currently standing on the fine line between life and death. You have a choice to make. To accept your death, or to become something more than you ever could've been."

Spirit stood there as that information sunk into his mind. Yet instead of feeling panic, he didn't really feel much of anything. He felt dull, like his senses were numbed.

Normally one would freak out in this kind of situation, yet all he felt was a calmness he wasn't known for at all. The kind of calm that he was used to seeing in Yui.

"Don't let the fate of your friends guide your decision. Last thing you want is to base your life off of what's best for them instead of what's best for you." The double would say almost as if he knew what was going through Spirits mind.

I do know what's going through your mind.

Spirit took a step back as the reality finally sank in. This was him. Or what seemed to be the mental image. What he hoped was the mental image.

"I'm your subconscious. I'm a living part of you. Don't try to find logic in it, it's not worth the headache that it'd give the both of us." The double would say taking a step towards Spirit. Holding his hand out. "You have two choices before you. Take my hand and live. Or step into the darkness and die, to become one of the horde."

"I can't...become like Hana.." Spirit said in a low tone as his mind drifted to when he went into the hotel to put her out of her misery. It was something he didn't want to put anyone through.

"Then take my hand" The copy would say continuing to hold out its hand. "But you won't be human anymore either way. You'll be much more than that."

Hesitating for a moment. Spirit wasn't sure if he should. Maybe he was better off dead, then all that'd be done was Damian or Xandria killing him out of mercy.

But then...

Then all of the people he cared about. Would they survive this? Would Xandria continue looking them and bring them to safety?

There was no telling...

Quit thinking about them..

Think about yourself...or you'll only suffer..

"You're not helping speaking in my head like that!" Spirit snapped glaring at himself.

"You're in this state because you tried to search for them. Because you tried to be a savior when you're nothing more than a kid. You take my hand to live. You'll only be doing it for the wrong reason."

"Saving those I care about it far from the wrong reason." Spirit said before taking his doubles hand.

The instant he did that...the dark void around him rushed in. Smothering out both Spirit and his double.

Damian sat staring at the sky with a number of undead corpses littering the ground around them. The boy had been screaming out in pain like he never had before. To a degree it was concering. Given he was killed before the infected girl had bit him.

To his surprise she stayed at his side for the small handful of hours this had been going on.

When it first started it made him nearly jump out of his skin. Which said something given how many years he'd been a hunter.

And that gave him something to worry about. As he was under the umbrella of the Sakura family. They would take his rank for not only letting an infected live, but for letting it turn his charge. But it had to be done. He knew deep down in his heart it had to be done.

From what the scientist who had spent the last seventeen years playing the part of the kids father had said. He was important to some degree. Damian never had the time to find out just how much, not while he was preoccupied trying to get to the kid before the bombings.

But maybe they could find out. All it'd take was a in depth investigation, that'd more than likely result in their collective deaths.

Glancing over to the girl. Damian observed her quietly as she continued to hold his hand as his body convulsed. Until he suddenly stopped falling into a state of lifelessness.

Did he fail to become an infected..?

As that thought went through his mind was when Spirit's eyes opened. Instead of being the dulset green they had once been. They were now a vibrant and bright green color.