Parasite [2]

Compared to inside the store, the streets were bustling with activity. You had your usual group of delinquents loitering every corner, local "business" men offering "goods" at rather modest prices, academy students out on the town looking for a little tension reliever, the local drunks getting into a fist fight, everything was bustling with a rather intoxicating energy. This was probably one of the reasons people came into the lower city during the weekends despite how dangerous and unwelcoming the area normally is.

But Kaid never paid any attention to this, choosing to quietly begin his walk down the central street, heading towards the red-light district to the neighborhood beyond that.

Although Kaid didn't find anything noteworthy about the streets today he still maintained a vigilant gaze, observing everyone and everything. After the fifth time he was robbed and brutally stabbed he decided he should be more wary of those around because it was getting bothersome having to replace his clothes and going to the hospital to get his wounds healed.

'One, two, five, seven,' counted Kaid in his head.

'They all seem quite today. The closest one is 15 feet away and the farthest one is 30 feet away. Half seem to be caring a standard LRX 4.2 semi-automatic handgun while the rest seem unarmed. It's likely they're energy users and from what I can tell two are rank [R-01] and the last is [R-01].' Kaid concluded his observations and quickly came up with a few possible escape routes in case things got deadly.

Of course, Kaid knew that if those gangsters really wanted to kill him there would be no way he could stop them since he'd never ignited his own energy source, meaning he wasn't even a ranker. Kaid kept walking being very aware of the gangster's eyes on him. Even this didn't have much influence on Kaid as he continued his walk towards home without ever missing a step.

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By the time Kaid had made it to his apartment complex he was starting to feel the fatigue of the day before. The complex was of course just like any other building in the lower city that wasn't a bar, restaurant, or club. It was old showing wear and tear from years of neglect and mismanagement by the landlords. Slowly he made his way into the building and up to the fifth floor towards his room.

As he was walking down the hall Kaid took stock of his surroundings and noted how quite it is today.

'That's strange, I don't hear those two screaming at each other today. Don't tell me he finally went and killed her?', thought Kaid. His neighbors had a bad habit of voicing their complaints to each other by screaming at the top of their lungs about how much of a whore one of them was or how incredibly stupid the other was. This would usually lead to the ORO(Order Regulation Offices) getting called after a fight broke out or the other neighbors got tired of listening to them and wanted to get some sleep. But today he was welcomed home to those sounds.

Although Kaid passingly though that maybe the husband had finally killed his wife it wouldn't be surprising if that was the case. Out here someone was always dying or dead and nobody gave a damn. The lower city was a cesspool of deviants, immoral actors, and forgotten souls who wouldn't be worth morning even if they'd been found strung up by their feet, perched on a streetlamp. As far as the city was concerned everyone here did not exist.

Kaid made his way to his room, took out his UII and placed it against the door to let himself into the apartment. Before he closed the door behind him, Kaid noticed a strange smell coming from the neighbor's room across the hall. He barely even took anytime to properly take in the smell before he closed the door.

Once inside Kaid went about his normal after work routine meticulously moving from one task to the other. Today was bubble bath day so he made himself his usual meal say for a bottle of wine and neatly set it out before he went to the bathroom to prepare the bath.

As he approached the bathroom door Kaid noticed a strange smell his bathroom. It smelled very similar to the one coming from his neighbors' room. Normally this wouldn't have been noteworthy for Kaid but for some reason he stopped.

Kaid noticed how uncharacteristically he was reacting to the smell, wondering why he had instinctively stopped before reaching the open bathroom. No, it wasn't just the smell. There was this prickling feeling at the back of his head that was slowly growing into a painful scratching feeling every second. Kaid started to notice that his heartbeat was slowly picking up, getting progressively faster as an unusual feeling was washing over him. Kaid had forgotten about this feeling since it had been so long since he felt it, but the moment it started hitting him he instinctively recognized this innate and powerful emotion. Fear.

If Kaid had been a normal person without a severely dysfunctional mental state he would have felt something was off the moment he had entered the building. Feeling the general unease brough on by the earie silence. He would have recognized his instincts telling him to run away the moment he entered the hallway of the fifth floor. If he had it would've saved him.

Unfortunately, Kaid had become so numb to everything that he couldn't recognize his own instincts screaming at him to run the moment he walked into his apartment. But now, a couple feet away from the open bathroom door, Kaid was being bombarded by the full force of this long-forgotten emotion. Every fiber of his being was telling him to run and yet all he could do was slowly back away as six-foot-tall mass was slowly inching its way out of the bathroom, slowly approaching Kaid.

The mass initially appeared as round gelatin figure until it made its way out of the bathroom and into the living area. Kaid watched mesmerized by the horror of the creature's transformation.

Its body continuously morphed as it tried to construct a form for itself. By the time it had completed its transformation Kaid found himself against the wall transfixed as his ears bled from the sound of his heartbeat. He watched in terror as the now 9-foot-tall creature walked towards him in its new humanoid form. It appeared as if the creature had tried to mimic Kaid's own form but had taken every feature to the extreme.

Kaid had also undergone his own transformation. On his horror filled face laid the most inhuman, twisted, smile. His face accurately depicted the distorted feelings within him as Kaid's sense of fear was being combatted by the profound sense of elation he had. Even though he was seconds away from death's door, and was utterly terrified, he felt an almost euphoric feeling rising within him.

Kaid had spent most of his life enduring many unspeakable hardships all in the hopes that maybe something inside him would come back to life and he could once again remember what it was like to feel. What it was like to be alive. And now at the edge of death Kaid had finally found what he was looking for as his senses bombarded him with an unimaginable amount of terror.

Before Kaid could even realize what had happened, the creature rapidly shot out its arm piercing Kaid through the stomach and destroying the wall behind him. It then stalked its way over to Kaid's body and started to eat.

Kaid could feel himself being eaten as the creature made its way from his legs slowly inching up towards the rest of his body. He wanted to scream in pain, but nothing came out of his mouth as he continued to watch he was being consumed by this gruesome horror.

The creature had managed to eat half of Kaid's body before it stopped and seemed to be distracted by something. The creature rapidly jerked its head towards the window observing something in the distance. The creature once again transformed its body morphing into a much smaller frame before bursting through the window headed towards the object of its attention at a seemingly impossible speed.

Kaid laid there somehow still alive and awake despite half of him being gone. More surprisingly the terror had left his face leaving behind a small weary smile that gave him an eerie appearance of being content.

It was in this state that Kaid died, having attained what he wanted.

And through his death a scion of destruction entered this world. A catalyst for the annihilation of the systems of this universe. A parasite.