Chapter 2
The world didn't end with an explosion.
It didn't drown in fire or collapse in thunder.
It ended in silence.
A silence so heavy it pressed against my skull as we walked—me and the girl who still didn't have a name, still clutching her ribs like she was trying to keep herself from shattering. The park ahead was nothing but a graveyard of twisted metal and ashen leaves. The wind carried the faint stench of rot, of something long dead but still reaching, still moving.
I kept listening for footsteps behind us.
His footsteps.
But the stranger had vanished as if the shadows had swallowed him whole.
The girl finally stopped. Her legs trembled, breath sharp and uneven. "I—I can't keep running," she whispered.
I scanned the darkening streets. "You don't have a choice."
"I'm not like you," she shot back, voice cracking. Fear made her bold. Or desperate. "I can't fight them. I can barely breathe."
Her words cut deeper than they should've. Because she was right. She wasn't like me. And I didn't know what I was turning into.
I motioned toward a half-collapsed bus stop nearby. "We rest there. Five minutes."
She nodded gratefully and stumbled toward it. I followed, every sense stretched thin. The souls I had devoured still pulsed faintly beneath my skin, like embers waiting to ignite. Every heartbeat felt louder. Every breath too sharp.
I could smell the dead before I heard them now.
Their scent was a sickly sweetness, like fruit left out too long. And beneath that… something else. Something familiar. Like the taste of the soul I had swallowed.
The girl crouched beneath the shattered shelter, hugging her knees. "Are… are they always like that?" she asked quietly. "The dead?"
"No," I said. "Not before."
"And what about you?" she pressed, voice trembling. "What are you turning into?"
I didn't answer.
Because every moment that passed, I felt the hunger growing—stretching, clawing, begging. It pulled at the edges of my mind like a parasite wrapping its fingers around my spine.
I looked toward the horizon. The smoke-painted sky had dimmed to black. Ash fell like dying snowflakes.
"We need somewhere safer," I murmured. "A building. High ground. Something with a door we can barricade."
"There's a hospital," she said suddenly. "Three streets down. My brother—he was there. Before everything happened."
Her voice cracked on the last word.
That was all I needed to hear.
"Let's go."
But the second we stepped out from under the shelter, I froze.
A shape stumbled across the far end of the park.
Then another.
Then five more.
Their eyes glowed with that dim, sickly light—the mark of whatever curse had stolen the world.
They hadn't noticed us yet.
But they would.
The girl clutched my arm. "Please," she whispered. "Not again."
For a moment, I considered fighting. The strength from the souls still simmered in my bones. I could kill them. I could devour them. I could grow stronger.
But the tug came again—sharp, hungry, seductive.
A reminder of the price.
Not this time.
"We're not fighting," I said. "Stay quiet. Follow me."
We moved slowly, stepping over rubble, weaving through shadows. The dead drifted like broken puppets on invisible strings, heads jerking, limbs twitching.
Then one of them stopped.
Its head snapped toward us.
Its jaw opened.
The scream tore through the night, raw and shrill.
"Run!" I shouted, grabbing her hand.
We sprinted across the ruined pavement, our footsteps cracking through the silence like gunshots. The dead lunged behind us, their bodies moving with unnatural speed.
The hospital's sign glowed faintly in the distance—half the letters flickering, the "O" burned out, leaving only:
H S PITAL
We were almost there.
Almost.
But something moved to our right.
A figure stepped out from between two wrecked cars—tall, calm, watching us with unreadable eyes.
The stranger.
Again.
He didn't move. He didn't speak. He just stared at me, like he was waiting to see what I would do.
"Why is he following us?" the girl cried.
"He's not," I growled. "He's testing me."
The dead closed in behind us.
I didn't have time to think.
I shoved her forward. "Go! Get inside!"
"What about you?!"
I turned, gripping the metal shard.
The hunger rose, whispering, urging, promising.
Power for a price.
"I'll hold them off," I said.
"You'll die!"
I smiled bitterly. "Maybe."
Her scream echoed behind me as she ran toward the hospital entrance.
The first corpse lunged, and I moved—faster, sharper, stronger than any human should. The metal shard sliced through bone. Another grabbed at my shoulder. I snapped its neck.
Their souls flickered.
Calling me.
Begging me.
The hunger surged like wildfire.
I gritted my teeth, forcing myself not to reach for them. Not yet. Not while I still had a choice.
Blood—dark and thick—splattered the ground. The last corpse fell twitching at my feet.
Slowly, the whispering faded. The souls drifted, waiting, hovering, tempting.
I backed away, shaking, breath unsteady.
From the shadows, the stranger clapped once. Slow. Cold.
"Good," he said. "You resisted. Most don't."
"Why are you watching me?" I demanded.
"Because you survived the first soul," he said. "And because the hunger chose you."
"I didn't choose it."
"No one does."
Something in the way he said it made my chest tighten.
He stepped forward, eyes glowing faintly. "There is more you need to know. But not tonight. Keep the girl alive. Learn what your hunger wants. And when it becomes too much…"
He tilted his head, smile cutting like a blade.
"…come find me before it consumes you."
Before I could respond, he vanished into the smoke.
I staggered toward the hospital doors, the strength in my limbs fading, the hunger still clawing at my mind.
Inside, the girl waited—eyes wide, breath shaking.
She finally spoke, voice barely more than a whisper.
"My name is Liora."
I paused.
For the first time… a name mattered.
"Jaxon," I said quietly. "I'm Jaxon."
And in the cold, flickering hallway of the ruined hospital, with the dead scratching outside and the hunger twisting inside me, I realized something terrifying:
Names weren't meaningless.
Not anymore.
Because now, they were the only pieces of humanity I had left.
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