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“So, what brings you in ?”
“I… I’m not sure. I just… haven’t felt like myself anymore.”
“How do you mean?”
“Oh, welll… strange cravings, and ah… it sounds stupid.”
“No, go on.”
“…I’ve been feeling rather weak, and having unusual urges, and well…. you know what? Never mind. I think I just have a rather strong stomach bug, and I would like some pills to encourage regurgitation, please.”
“Right… of course, just sign here and here.”
Viren had always been into rather… unorthodox sources of enlightenmet and…medicine.
When his son had nearly died, he had exhausted search engines for cures, and for once, something finally worked.
I know, I know. They always say to never believe something based on anecdotal evidence. Of course, he himself was a scientific man. He would know these things. The old him would have believed it. But the evidence was still right there, 17 years old: And hell, maybe that’s all it was. A fluke. But for some reason, he kept coming back to those sites, in that strange discarded, highly illegal corner of the web. And for some reason, it kept working.
His ex wife felt differently. They had a, let’s say, very strong difference of opinion on drugs. It was just him and his two children now.
When he saw the ad for the genetically modified eggs, he hadn’t thought anything of it. It was just another supplement to… enhance human functionality, after all. He had risked enough to get this far, after all. Why should he think anything of it?
So he tried it. It came wrapped in a strangely embroidered cloth, but this on its own was not unusual either. It was common for vendors on the black market to have some signature symbol. Secondary ingredients and a sample of blood being mixed in was not either— it was often necessary for the solution to acclimate to his body pre-ingestion. So he cut his hand, mixed the powder into the geode with the pestle, and drank.
Nothing happened, which, was also common. Sometimes it was a dud, more of then than not really, so he just sort of forgot about it and moved on. Honestly, it had completely left his mind when the symptoms started.
Strange dreams. Fleeting visions of a room he didn’t recognize whenever he checked his phone for the time, but he could have sworn it was just a trick of the eye. Driving home late at night, the stars were blindjng, the signs flashing in his brights looked a little too much like portals to another world.
Then when he got sick, he figured it was just a stomach bug. Losing some of his appetite, strange twitches in his stomach, dry heaves where nothing came up. Feeling shivers all over, he figured a few days off from work and it would blow over. Not that he could afford it. It wasn’t that bad, and he’d had enough strange stints that he couldn’t seem suspicious.
Then the voices started. Just small thoughts in the back of his head when he was fed up and tired at work, whispering temptation, new ideas he hadn’t conceived before.
And well, they worked. They helped. At least Viren thought so. If others didn’t… they were fools.
Then he woke up in the middle of the night, feeling strangely breathless and empty for once, and well…. Sure, maybe it was just sleep paralysis. But he knew what he saw, and that many legged creature looking back at him perched on his stomach was no average sleep demon.
Fine. Minor hallucinations, a stomach bug, night terrors. Slight personality change. It was nothing, really. Viren had felt more stressed at the time, of course. It was only natural it would manifest in… strange ways. And it should have gotten better. But yk, it got worse. More hallucinations, this strange ghost he didn’t recognize, paranoia, anger at his children, waking up covered in blood, trembling fingers and inhuman ability to catch insects, coughing up too many, when he spit brushing his teeth, something crawled out, his stool was weirdly bug shaped, and his gut just bulged and bulged. Strange shapes bulged on his arms too. But he felt stronger.
The more sick he got, the easier it was to speak to him, to touch him. Together, they were unstoppable. Maybe it was his terribly sickly delirious mind, but to Viren at the time, there was something breathlessly attractive about it. Now he was on top of the world. He didn’t need to rest, he was almost at the top of the job ladder, etc etc. anyone in his way just had to have one of his big kin spit in their mouth and they were a worthy loyal zombie to the two of them too. At some point it peaked. And with that, he crashed. It came out of nowhere. The bad thing about being unconsciousness is you really had no idea how long it lasted.
Soon, it had been 2 years, and it turned out Claudia had been taking care of things this whole time, taking care of him. He felt terribly guilty for being so useless this whole time— Why hadn’t they just taken him off life control?
Well, Soren had gotten it. He had left during the worst of his symptoms.
He wouldn’t blame him.
Maybe it was his system having 2 years to work through things, but for the first time in a long time, he was free.
The pockmarks dotting his skin were all healed.
No more drugs, no more career. He could spend more time with his daughter.
Who… had gotten invested in the same substances, now.
It was a competitive business world after all. Hadn’t he told her so?
That annoying ghost was back in the mirror, he couldn’t escape, of course. He smashed it, he got pest control, he stomped every bug he could out.
At last, he was safe, he should be. He could die in peace.
He could make reformations with his son.
He hadn’t been awake when the fire started.
And by all means, he should have no idea how it started.
He didn’t have to, though.
He knew he wasn’t the only user on the black market. He wasn’t stupid.
All that mattered now was saving his children.
That was all that ever mattered, even as the malicious gleam in his ghostly eyes was the last thing he ever saw.