Vanity~Cycle

Chapter 1
Vanity~Cycle

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Chapter Description: Corruption has it's cycles, as does vanity

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In vanity I say this – Thy is prey

In the mirror she sees herself as radiant as she has always been, at least in her mind and in her heart. In the mirror she sees herself as the beautiful young something she has always believed herself to be even when time has taken away that youth and beauty.

She sees herself for how she wishes to see herself in the vain hope of brushing aside reality for even a few minutes. Truth, after all, can be very inconvenient.

“Miss, do you require assistance?” The shop assistant has been asking for the past ten minutes or so, she always answers that she can manage and that gives her another two minutes or peace to continue looking at her illusion of herself in the changing room mirror.

Thankful that the changing rooms are secluded somewhat from the rest of the clothing shop, she undresses and examines herself in the mirror.

“I am beautiful, I am always beautiful. I am not eighty four years old, I am twenty four years old, I always have been and I always will be” The feeling of a hand, which feels very dry, can be felt on the back of her neck, she finds that her legs feel too weak suddenly and she can’t turn around to see what’s grabbed her. All she can do is watch in the mirror as the reality of her eighty four years begins to melt away, she doesn’t scream for she is too terrified to scream, all she can do is watch as her skin tightens and it’s youthful beauty is restored.

She wants to smile and cry with delight but her fear of whatever is causing this and the hand on the back of her neck makes it hard for her to say anything. She watches as that youthful beauty becomes even younger, no longer a grown woman but a young woman in her early twenties, the age range she believed herself to always be.

But soon that young woman melted away and a teenager looked back at her, then a child. The changing room is so big now and seconds later a baby girl is looking back at her.

“Stop here, please!” She tries in vain to scream that out to whoever or whatever is doing this but she is no longer able to talk, the baby in the mirror shrinks and her last coherent thought before nothingness is:

“PLEASE STOP!”

Her final sound at last is the cry of a newborn which lasts for a second before silence sets in and all that remains is a single drop of blood and a small spot of viscous fluid, both of which drying within seconds.

When the shop assistant returns a minute later all she finds are the clothes, which seconds later are all that remain of her as well.

~~

2014 - April ~ Hunted:

Belief in a thing makes it happen, at last that is what his rather pious grandparents used to say to him when he was a child. In his innocence he believed that such a thing was fact, but as the years passed and he grew into the man he was today he came to realise that what his grandparents had told him was frankly a lot of nonsense.

Right now he wished he had something to believe in that could help him at this time.

“It’s moving again, eastwards towards Delta, intercept” When he had been informed of this hunt he had expected it to be a quick tag and bag, at least that was before the slaughter had began, if what had happened to the others could be called a slaughter since there were no bodies left behind.

Five minutes in and they were already down two teams out of the four sent to catch this thing, he could still hear the screams that turned into the cries of newborns within seconds, whatever this thing was it was fast, fed quickly and was hard to see even with night vision, infrared and pretty much anything other than the tag that had managed to stay on it when it had been shot by the first team before they had been fed on.

“I can’t see it! I just lost Tracy!” The assignment had sounded so easy, catch some kind of creature that was feeding on the populace of the nearby town. The intel had been sketchy since information on the creature was hard to come by.

The former mayor, before she had been attacked earlier in the year, one of many victims in what was considered a feeding frenzy that had left only two survivors before it had disappeared only to begin feeding on the rest of the populace, had left behind as much information as was possible but it wasn’t enough.

The military wanted this creature, they wanted to know how it killed and if they could use it for their own gain.

So when the assignment had come in to catch this creature it had sounded simple, at least to him and the others who were trained for these kind of operations. Tag and bag, they were professionals. At least until this assignment.

“King is down, I need backup! Beta, I need backup! It’s turning to me, I NEED BACKUP!” The sound of a newborn cry followed by silence is heard seconds later, one team left.

“Beta, fall back, we’ve lost Delta” People he had worked with for years, people he had seen take on the most dangerous of situations and come out smiling, gone, reduced to nothing but basic cells that dried rapidly. What was this thing?

“Beta, it’s moving in your direction, fall back!” Looking over to his remaining team mates, he indicates that they should fall back. Three nods from his remaining team nod in agreement and they start to fall back.

Then a scream of shock as one of his team mates is pinned to the ground, swinging round to attack whatever is attacking him he can see a twisted humanoid like shape pinning his team mate down and he can see that his team mate is becoming increasingly smaller, younger, at a rapid pace.

It took only seconds for only a pile of empty clothes to remain and the creature turns to him, a hiss can be heard in the darkness.

Time to do something stupid.

The creature lunges at him and he tackles it, slamming it down onto the leaf covered ground of the forest, the creature doesn’t even indicate that it’s in any pain, it just grabs for the skin that’s not covered and he can feel himself begin to shrink into his clothing.

“FULL FORCE SHOCK! NOW!” He calls out, his voice cracking as he returns to his teens. The creature howls in pain as electricity shoots into it, it’s grip doesn’t give though.

“MORE!” His voice was barely at a toddler stage now as the creature howls again and drops him, a baby boy of barely a year old, onto the ground. The creature twitches for a few seconds before it finally stops moving, the shock attacks from the stun guns they had been equipped with having done exactly what they were made for.

He doesn’t care about that though, not any more. His adult mind has melted away and his only response to his former remaining team mates are babbles, gurgles and coos. Very little mattered to him now.

~~

2014-May~Cycle:

First impressions can be important, or so they say. And her first impression of the creature in the secure holding call was:

“So much for everlasting beauty, there is no lotion in existence that can help that skin”

Not that she was an icon of beauty herself, her mother and grandmother would tell her that although she would never be the kind of beautiful that society insisted on, she did at least have her mind. Not that her mind got her that many dates in her life, men tended to take one look at her plain features and disregard her for someone of beauty but empty minded when it came to personality and intellect.

Men were so vain like that, at least in her eyes.

“I don’t think ’she’ would even be the correct pronoun, it is more like it. That thing isn’t human any more” Cain was right there, the woman that thing used to be was long gone and what was left was a twisted youth eating creature.

“You must be the new head of the department, I’m Cain Kane, don’t joke about the name, I’ve heard all the jokes. My parents were out of their minds on pretty strong drugs when I was born after watching Citizen Kane” Cain extends a surprisingly small looking hand and she shakes it. He was handsome in a non-handsome kind of way, he wasn’t one of those picture perfect photo-shopped beefcakes but he had great hair and very nice eyes.

And he was pretty well built, he was maybe an inch taller than her, a slightly dumpy build that hinted at a good amount of physical strength. Usually she didn’t like anyone to begin with but Cain was someone she found herself liking pretty quickly, she hoped that wasn’t going to cause her any problems. Men in the past haven’t exactly treated her with much respect nor kindness.

“Yes” His hand was about the same size as her own, small hands, warm. “Deanna Farsy, newly appointed to this department to take charge after the recent accident with my predecessor, I heard you were here when it happened” The assignment had come as a surprise since she hadn’t expected to receive another call from the military in regards of research after what happened almost a decade ago following the failure to make energy weapons a reality due to technological progress simply had not been good enough at the time.

Even today such weapons were still a pipe dream until technology improved enough.

“You’ve seen the footage?” A nod in reply, she has seen it a few times. Her predecessor had been sloppy for a fraction of a second, more than enough time for that creature to grab their arm, pull up a sleeve and feed, leaving behind nothing but rapidly drying basic cells in a pile of clothing.

The guards hadn’t even been able to react quickly enough to save them.

“I saw it. That it needs to make contact with the skin is interesting, I take it full body wear has been looked into to ensure there is no chance of the skin being exposed at any time when in the room with the creature?” As if it can hear her, the creature looks up to the observation window, it’s eyes, if they can be called that, nothing but holes in what could barely be considered a head. It was crouched in a corner, it was hard to tell if it had any emotions.

It was little more than some twisted wood looking like thing that was a lot faster and stronger than it looked, and no other creature like it was known to exist anywhere else in the world, so it was believed anyway.

“A lot of methods have been tried and all of them have failed, that creature is smarter than it looks and stronger than it looks as well, one guy who was sent in was fully covered with no way for the skin to be exposed and that creature created a hole and fed within seconds, it’s smart and right now it’s probably planning a way to escape. It’s just waiting for the right chance” The creature looks away, it’s motions smooth and calm, there was no hint of any kind of anxiety.

Turning away from the window with Cain turning away seconds later, Deanna types in her access code which is met with approval and the information she has already read on the creature appears.

“Have there been any updates on the test results since this morning?” She asks as she checks for any recent updates.

“Nothing new yet, the most recent news is from last night and it was just the same as the day before. The samples we’ve managed to get from the creature are hard to work on, they have nothing that can be identified. That creature looks like it’s made of wood yet there is no wood showing up in the tests, it’s more like some kind of skin, as best we can tell, that is very tough and hard to penetrate. As for how it can even be living is even harder to explain, it has no blood, no indications of anything that can be considered a part of other life found around the planet. We have no idea if it can reproduce nor do we understand how it does what it does to those it feeds on” Nodding as she reads, Deanna calls up the footage of her predecessor’s sudden end of life and watches it again.

“So in other words we know as much as we did before, which is basically a whole lot of nothing with a lot of nothing in-between. The only samples we have were taken when the creature was rendered unconscious by multiple stun hits, but it is clearly adapting since the last it took less time to recover than previous times. Oh look, some news, the soldier who survived has learned their first word, how sweet” It was probably the only news in days.

Calling the other departments for any recent news, Deanna looks over to Cain who is yawning either out of boredom or fatigue.

“Long night or not much for sleep?” She asks. She knew what it was like to not sleep much, if it wasn’t her neighbours being loud it was her sudden ideas that would keep her awake, she was grateful for being able to get some sleep, just not as much as she would prefer.

“Bit of both. I wonder what it’s like to be fed on like that, to feel yourself become younger” She wondered that herself, the non-military survivors had moved away from the town, two sisters from what the report had said, and they were hard to track down. The elder sister, the only one who was an adult now after the younger sister had been reduced to an infant, had likely changed her name to avoid being tracked down for questioning.

And the soldier who had survived was currently much too young to do anything but need nappies, feeding’s, baths and a lot of care.

“If we find out then I would like for us be old enough to be able to say what it’s like. When will this general who’s in charge drop by?” One of the doors leading into the room opens at that second and a fairly world weary looking man enters, in many ways he could be considered the perfect real life cliché of the war weary general.

Standing at around six foot, five inches, his hair grey and short, no facial hair, his green eyes showing a disciplined light to them that probably hides a multitude of sins, the general is the kind of person you might expect to see in a movie or a TV series.

“He’s right here, Miss Farsy. I am General Kevin Sunny, head of this research facility” A sharp voice, commanding, good posture. Arrogant maybe, hard to tell. His left eyes had twitched when saying his last name, must be a bane to him.

“Deanna Farsy, I spoke to a General Sunny on the phone, guess you’re him” A brisk nod, disciplined, little to no emotion showing in his movements, all business. A living, breathing cliché.

“Yes, are you fully up to date on the creature?” Oh that voice, it reminded her of generals in a TV series, Stargate maybe.

“As up to date as I can be, there is no recent news beyond what I read last night. Has anyone else entered the containment room since then?” As if on cue the door into the containment chamber opens and two people, one man and one woman, in their underwear are pushed into the room.

“We feed it any rapists, murderers, paedophiles, anyone who is a threat to society is deemed acceptable for giving to the creature. It saves on prison costs” Deanna and Cain go over to the window to watch, the general following behind them.

“Don’t feel sorry for them, Miss Farsy, the woman there murdered her own children and her neighbour’s children three years ago. The man raped four women and murdered two of them because some backwards video game he had played which encouraged the rape and abuse of women told him that it was his right as a man to do so” As soon as the door into the chamber closes the creature looks over to it’s new prey, there is no sound but it’s clear that it’s making some kind of sound.

The arrivals are clearly terrified and they try to leave the room only to find that the door won’t open, they bang on it with no luck. The creature doesn’t move, it just stays in the curled up position it’s been in for however long.

The woman turns to the creature while the man continues to bang on the door, yelling to be let out. She slowly approaches, both curious and fearful as she reaches out a hand. The creature just looks at her.

“It does this a lot of the time when it’s fed, we don’t know if it’s scrutinising them or playing with them by making it’s prey lower their guard or approach out of a fearful curiosity. Keep watching” The woman stops about three feet away from the creature, her hand reaching out while the man keeps yelling and pounding at the door.

The creature moves so quickly that it is almost impossible to see it move, one second it is curled up at the far end of the room, the next it’s grabbed the woman and the man and is holding them both firmly, the woman is held by the arm that was reaching out while the man is gripped by the left arm.

The process takes seconds but they seem to last longer.

They watch as the two adults become teenagers, their underwear falling to the ground, then they become children, then infants and then nothing but two drops of blood and viscous fluid rapidly drying in pooled underwear.

“As I am sure you read on the reports, Miss Farsy, the creature wiped out three experienced and well trained special operations teams and almost wiped out the fourth. A soldier sacrificed his adulthood to ensure that the creature was captured, that soldier is currently being cared for and raised while efforts are being made to try and find some way to reverse what had happened to him. That creature is strong, fast and feeds very quickly, it can take a lot of punishment and it learns quickly. Whatever that creature is we need to know, and if we can make more of them or find a way to use it’s feeding process as a weapon against any threat. Such a weapon would give us an upper hand and would wipe away any who pose a serious danger, imagine if we had such a thing in the second world war or against fanatical groups who use religion as their excuse to kill. We could rid the world of them and make sure they are never a threat again” Turning to Deanna, his gaze showing no indication of being affected by what he had seen just barely a moment ago, the general looks her square in the eyes.

“Make that a reality, Miss Farsy, that is why you are here. That creature could be the very thing that the military needs to rid this world of any and all threats” Nodding to Cain, the general leaves the room as sharply as he had entered while Deanna looks back to the creature which has left the empty underwear where it had fallen and is curled up again, looking up at her and Cain.

“He’s insane” She whispers.

~~

Hunger, need to feed, must feed. Trapped, contained, youth they give is not sufficient. Must feed, must escape. New prey above, feed, must feed. Must be young forever

~~

2014-May~Cycle:

It was free, everyone else was gone and she was trapped with no way to escape. She could hear it’s hiss as it chased after her, she was the last one and it wanted her youth, it wanted her life. She had warned them and they hadn’t listened, their insane attempts to make a weapon from the creature had failed and now they had paid the price.

She was the last.

She can see a fire escape ahead of her and she pushes down on the handle of the door, it opens but not into a stairway, but a baby nursery. Slamming the door behind her she sags against the door, glad to have escaped at last.

She was safe, the nightmare was behind her, she had survived.

Something grabs an arm and she begins to feel herself shrink into her clothing, her adulthood melting away and she turns to see the creature beside her, it’s eyes nothing more than dark holes, it’s mouth a forever gaping hole.

She hadn’t escaped, she could never escape and as her screams turn into the cry of a newborn baby before falling into silence, Deanna hopes that she will never encounter the creature again.

Anything but this creature.

“The desk doesn’t make for a good pillow” Jolting up with a scream, Deanna topples from her work chair and lands awkwardly on the floor, her fatigue disappearing quickly. A hand reaches down and helps her up, Cain.

“Thanks. Didn’t realise how tired I was until I took a break from the research, I didn’t expect to pass out at my desk” Looking over at the time and cursing to herself, almost eight hours wasted, Deanna goes over to the observation window and looks down at the creature, it hasn’t moved.

“When was it last fed?” Cain checks before answering.

“Five hours ago, after it fed it was stunned so that the left over underwear could be taken out and more samples could be taken” Four days of research since arriving and all the samples continued to say the same thing, little of nothing. The creature was hard to figure out.

“I could get you some coffee if you want” Deanna shakes her head as she watches the creature.

“No thanks, stuff goes right through me. I take it the general isn’t pleased with the lack of new information on the creature? Wouldn’t surprise me” Over the past four days the general has been demanding updates and a timetable of when to expect any information that could lead to the creature being used for any military use in any form, the response was the same though: We have no additional information to give.

The samples were inconclusive, the footage of the feeding process were inconclusive, there was nothing that could explain why and how the creature existed nor how it’s feeding process worked exactly in any usable fashion for the military.

“Not even the woman that creature used to be has any useful historical information as to how this happened exactly, she murdered her victims and kissed them as they died. She believed that by kissing them at the exact point of death that she would take their youth into her own which in turn would keep her young and beautiful. But there is no scientific proof that it even worked, she died when she was in her early twenties, she was still pretty young so there is no way to prove that her attempts even worked. Yet after her death this thing appeared and the records from the town say it’s her, but not her, that somehow her body became this thing. There is nothing to explain how that happened and nothing to explain how it can still be alive over a century after it first appeared nor how it’s feeding process actually works beyond direct skin contact with the victim. How can we turn something like that into a weapon? We can’t even understand how it can even exist” Cain doesn’t reply, he tends to let her talk to herself out loud since it clearly helps her thought processes.

As if it can hear her even though the glass is sound proofed, the creature looks up at her, it’s gaping holes for eyes seeming to look right into her. Was it even breathing? Did it breath at all? How could this creature exist?

“The next feeding is coming up, maybe we could try getting a blood work scan as it feeds and the scanner could be retrieved after the creature is stunned again” It sounded better than nothing.

“See if the general is fine with that then” Half an hour later the door opens and the next two undesirables, as far as the general called them, are pushed into the room, both of them wearing a life-signs sensor on their right ankles.

One man and one woman as usual. She watches as they try to get out of the room and she watches as the creature feeds. This time though instead of curling up again, it picks up the sensors and examines them, then places them at the door with the underwear and goes back to where it curls up again.

“That was new” Cain remarks, it was.

“The general is underestimating the creature, it knows what we’re trying to do and it’s allowing us to learn while it learns about us. It isn’t a mindless creature like others want to believe, it is a hell of a lot smarter than it looks. Maybe there’s still a shred of humanity left in it or something more” The creature looks at her again, no expression on it’s face, just the empty stare.

How could it even exist?

~~

After retrieving the sensors and receiving the results, the information is still inconclusive. The sensors show the rapid onset of cellular reversion but little to say exactly how it’s triggered beyond the skin contact, how did the creature manage to trigger such a rapid and generally fatal reversion process in the cells?

Around three hours or so into the research into the sensor data, the general arrives at the observation lab, clearly hoping for news.

“The scans were clear but they still offer no helpful information into exactly how the process is triggered and how it can be replicated, I’m sorry, general, but this creature is not something we’re going to understand any time soon, it’s far beyond all current understanding” Thankful that Cain knows to avoid saying anything when the general is talking to her, Deanna tries to explain what the sensors showed.

“The sensors show that the heart rate of the victims increases, not to fatal levels but high enough to indicate a kind of internal trauma is happening within the body. With no bodies to do an autopsy on then getting an exact idea of how the cellular reversion process happens in exact detail isn’t going to be easy, the sensors can only show so much. The process happens so quickly that I don’t think the victims even feel any pain, just the sudden return to younger stages but never long enough to have an exact understanding or to be able to react fast enough”

Rubbing her eyes from staring at the sensor data for the past few hours, Deanna looks over to where the creature is still curled up in the containment room.

“I’m sorry, general, but your hope for a weapon of mass de-aging isn’t looking likely. This creature goes against all laws of nature, it shouldn’t exist yet it’s right there. It’s feeding process shouldn’t even be possible without massive physical damage to it’s victims, yet the victims don’t experience any physical pain nor damage. That creature is impossible, it’s process of feeding is impossible. We can’t make a weapon from it because the understanding of how to even make someone younger is beyond our understanding, what we have is something so beyond nature and so beyond science, religion and anything that understanding it will take decades, maybe centuries. What we do know is that the creature is intelligent, it is learning and it is deadly. Beyond that it is a mystery with no answers that we can understand” There is no reply from the general, he just frowns with a slight nod and leaves the room. It is hard to tell if he is disappointed or not.

“So...supper break?” Cain suggests after a moment.

~~

Hunger, must feed. Need to feed, must be young forever. Must escape, soon, feed soon. Soon.

~~

2014-May~Cycle:

Time is said to pass by pretty fast when you’re having fun, at least that is what is said. Time can also move by pretty quickly when you’re too engrossed in your work. Deanna was usually told by teachers and her parents back when she was a child that she seemed to tune out the world around her once she was focused on getting something done and that was certainly true.

While Cain comes and goes between work, food, sleep and other needs, Deanna spends a large chunk of her time trying to understand the creature and it’s existence yet coming no closer to understanding.

The days become weeks and three weeks after joining the department she is still no closer to understanding the creature.

A week before the month comes to an end, Deanna is watching the creature at the observation window. So many criminals have been fed to it in the past few weeks, none of them surviving. Beyond it’s feeding the creature has done little else but look up at her when it is not fully curled up.

She is the only one awake at the time, everyone else has long since retired to bed. Her sleep has been uneven and she has found herself returning here more and more often just to look out at the creature.

“What are you?” She whispers. “How do you even exist?” Placing a hand on the glass she thinks about the woman this creature had been, her cruel acts, her murders, her attempts at never ageing. What could have turned her body into this twisted thing?

“Let me tell you” Looking up at the sudden voice, Deanna expects to see someone in the room, but there is only her. “Let me show you” Looking back down at the creature she can see it looking up at her, it’s gaping holes that were eyes well over a century ago when it had been human looking directly into her.

“Let me give you the answers you seek” Turning from the window slowly, Deanna leaves the room and heads down to the containment room door.

“Ma’am, you don’t have clearance to enter” She can hear the soldier’s voice but doesn’t heed it, instead she grabs the soldier by the neck and feels him begin to shrink in her hand until all that remains is a pile of clothing, a single drop of blood and a small drop of viscous fluid, both of which dry rapidly.

Taking the key-card from the former soldier’s uniform, Deanna enters the key-code that she somehow knows from feeding on the soldier and opens the door. Entering calmly she approaches the creature and kneels down before it.

“Thank you, may this give you understanding, may this give you the answers to my existence” Extending a hand to the creature, Deanna helps it up, the creature holding her hand tightly but not feeding on her.

“Existence, Deanna, is not to be understood, only to be lived. We are shaped by our actions and our actions will have an effect on the world we exist within, that is existence. I exist because my actions ensured it, I may not be as I was but what I am now is more than I ever dreamed. My eternal youth is within this twisted shell, my feeding is a purge of a species that ignores what the meaning of existence is. You felt it as you fed on that soldier, you felt his essence return to the ether of fate, you felt his life as it became part of you. Shadows of a delusion, delusions of misunderstood shadows. Such is the reality of the cycle of being. Nothingness, form, spirit, action, death, nothingness. My actions have taken me out of the cycle just as they have now done to you”

“I understand” She whispers just as the alarms in the research facility blare loudly. “I finally understand”

~~

Helping the creature out of the containment room, Deanna leads the creature to an exit only to find it blocked by soldiers.

“Ma’am, stay where you are! Take aim at the creature, do not kill! Heavy stun only!” The soldiers don’t even get the chance to take aim, Deanna simply waves an arm and all that remains of them are piles of clothing.

“You are learning” Deanna tries the exit only to find that it’s been sealed shut, likely an automated lock-down procedure.

Leading the creature by the hand, Deanna heads for the control room while dispatching any more soldiers who attack, leaving only piles of clothing in her wake.

Eventually she reaches the control room and more soldiers who take aim at her.

“Please step aside or be ended before you even began” She pleads firmly, she didn’t want to end them.

“Step away from the creature, ma’am, this is your only warning!” Another wave of her arm and more piles of clothing drop to the floor along with their weapons.

“You did warn them, they should have listened” The doors to the control room open and Deanna enters, the creature right behind her.

“Miss Farsy, I cannot allow that creature to leave nor can I allow you to leave, surrender now” The general, the walking cliché, stands before her, Cain behind him. Soldiers surround her and the creature, all of them aiming at her and the creature.

“Existence, general, is key. What you seek is denied for you will bring about the end to the cycle” Raising an arm, Deanna looks around at the soldiers before stopping at the general. The creature lets go and her mind clears.

“General? What am I doing here?” She asks, she didn’t remember anything beyond being in the lab.

“Miss Farsy, you have allowed the creature to escape it’s containment, whatever your reasons are you will surrender yourself now!” Deanna looks around to the creature behind her and steps back, shocked, how did it get out?

“I was in the lab, general, and then I was here, what’s going on?” She asks as she keeps stepping away, the creature just stands there, looking around. What was going on here? The last thing she remembered was hearing a voice and then nothing until she found herself here.

“I don’t know what you’re up to, Miss Farsy, but you have endangered lives, surrender now. All soldiers, heavy stun on the creature” The creature reaches out and grabs Deanna’s hand, and Deanna waves an arm out at the soldiers, leaving only piles of clothes behind.

“MISS FARSY, SURRENDER NOW!” She turns to him, still holding the creature’s hand, and calmly walks towards him. The general opens fire but the bullets don’t even reach her, they just collapse to the ground as soon as they leave the weapon.

“I am the essence of vanity, general, I am the corruption that awaits all who go beyond the cycle. This woman is merely a vessel, a tool. Her curiosity in me gave me an opening that I could exploit. I must thank you, general, for all of the morsels you have given me in my time here, they gave me the strength I needed to reach out to this curious woman. I could have taken the man behind you but this woman is more fitting, she may not be as beautiful as I was but she will do for now, while the man behind you is simply a man” Whipping out another gun from within his uniform, the general opens fire again and again the bullets fail to reach their target.

“Return to nothingness, general, may the cycle bring you a new being” Before the general can react, Deanna reaches out and grabs him a hand, holding tightly. Cain tries to back away into a corner and watches as the general melts into his clothing, going from his near mid sixties to a young man, a teenager, a child and an infant before giving a new born cry and disappearing completely, his uniform and weapons being all that remains.

“Please, Deanna, fight it, don’t do this” Cain pleads as she nears him. “You’re stronger than this, fight it!” She reaches out to him, she doesn’t even see him as within she screams at the creature that has taken over so easily.

“Return to nothingness”

~~

The facility’s lock-down is released and with Deanna in it’s control, the creature heads outside and searches for a better feeding ground. It takes several days but eventually they reach a new place, a city filled with many lives to feed on.

Upon entering the city, the creature turns to Deanna and releases it’s grip on her. Deanna looks around, confusion at the sudden change in surroundings due to only remembering the facility and her screaming at the creature within her.

“Thank you, Deanna. In return I will not end you, I will merely restart you, may you find peace in your restarted life” Before Deanna can even defend herself, the creature grabs her throat and the years fall away.

~~

Placed outside a police station is a basket and in the basket wrapped in soft blankets is a baby girl, the police have no idea where she has come from and they do not find her mother since her mother has been long since dead a decade earlier.

Not long after the first of the disappearances are reported.

And they continue to mount.

~~

I must feed, hungry, must feed. Hungry.

 

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