A/N: The contents of this chapter may not be suitable for all audiences. Please read at your own discretion. (gore, language)
Andrew whistled a cheerful tune as he backed out the glass door, careful not to spill the bucket of wash water he was carrying for the tables outside. He worked part-time at Frozen Stone, a popular ice cream joint among teenagers and old-timers alike, which was kind of a miracle if you thought about it. Old and young folks having similar tastes? In an age where trends changed faster than you could blink? Wild. Well, the ice cream tasted great, so that was probably all that mattered.
It was a nice day. The sun was rather hot, but that only drew more customers to the store. That was in some ways annoying, but hey, more customers meant more work for him to do, which was fine by him. He wasn't a fan of being bored while on the job anyway.
A scream filled the air as a woman glanced up from her ice cream and saw something she had neither expected nor wanted to see: at a table nearby, a high school girl, hands dripping with blood, was biting into a strangely-shaped lump of flesh. Was that… a human heart?!?
Andrew turned toward the sound, then dropped the wash water bucket in shock, watching in a daze as the high school girl closed her eyes and slowly devoured the heart, as if savoring its taste. Andrew had seen that same expression on the faces of countless customers before. She… she was truly enjoying it, wasn't she? He held a hand to his mouth, trying to hold back bile as the reality of what was happening struck him. Cannibalism, an act so barbaric and monstrous it was the stuff of horror stories, was happening right before his eyes.
This wasn't supposed to happen! It was just a normal day at work. It was supposed to be boring; the most exciting thing should be a rude or interesting customer! Not this!
Shaking with revulsion, Andrew glanced around and realized that everyone else was frozen in shock. No one was moving a muscle. It seemed that, after the initial scream of the woman, no one dared even breathe. Was it because this woman's actions were far more viscerally terrifying than any old terrorist with a gun?
As she took another bite of the heart, Andrew slowly backed into the shop and shut the door. Then he bolted to the store's phone, dialing 911. "Please pick up, please pick up," he whispered, eyes fixed on the cannibalistic young woman outside.
From inside the store, Andrew heard muffled screams, clangs and retching as the once-silent onlookers broke free of their stupor. Some stood rooted in terror, while others scrambled over themselves to escape or bent over vomiting in revulsion. Andrew caught sight of a middle-aged man as he pulled out his smartphone with shaking hands. Was he also attempting to contact the police?
Emergency services finally picked up, and Andrew shakily explained the situation. Not once did his gaze waver from the scene in front of him. He was too terrified to risk looking away.
In front of the heart-eating girl, a beefy young man slumped forward, then slipped out of his chair and tumbled to the ground. Blood gushed out of a gaping wound in his chest which, strangely enough, began to fill with lumpish red forms. These lumpy growths staunched the blood flow. However, the young man did not stir again -- not even to breathe.
Even from inside the store, peeking at the body around advertisements posted on the windows and door, Andrew knew what the man's inevitable fate was. No one could survive without a heart.
Voice cracking with fear, Andrew answered the incredulous phone operator's question.
"Yeah, you heard me right! A girl just ate some guy's heart in front of everyone! Get your asses over here and save us, please!"
----
An hour later
Cecilia looked at her hands, which, though now clean, seemed to her as if they were still drenched with Tanner's blood.
Where exactly had things gone wrong?
The date had been going well, but at some point, the ice cream Tanner bought her had begun to seem less appealing than the man himself. She'd been mulling over why that might be when suddenly, the urge to attack him came over her. In a rush, she'd lunged at Tanner, somehow yanked out his heart with her bare hand (she dimly remembered having claws?), then savored it as if it were the most delicious thing in the world. The parasite's two voices had clamored for her attention, trying to get her to stop. However, their words had seemed distant to her at that moment.
Thinking back, Cecilia wished she could vomit at the memory of what she'd done. All things considered, she should feel disgusted with herself, right? Yet for some reason, all she could feel was fondness over the heart's savory taste. It had been so warm, so moist, and it had even stubbornly kept trying to beat for a short while after she'd yanked it out. The memory sent a shiver racing through her finger tips. Worse, an instinctual desire to do it again tugged at both her mind and her body.
What was going on with her??!
"F*cking parasites!!" She hissed under her breath. "What the bloody hell is going on with me? I've never wanted to do this until you came, so tell me what the bloody hell this is!!"
[I'm sure Rogork has a great explanation for why this happened, but I have a theory of what happened,] the parasite's female persona said, sounding subdued.
"Great! Spill," Cecilia hissed.
[This is a skill belonging to me, so like I said, I'm not sure why you'd have access to it, but essentially, that's one of the ways I can… reproduce.]
Somehow, the parasite's voice sounded embarrassed.
Before Cecilia could react, Alesha continued in a rush, [Look, I don't like it either!! It was something I picked up by accident in the last world I visited, and it looks like, unfortunately, it was one of the five skills I was able to randomly take with me.]
"You better explain what you mean by that," Cecilia demanded.
[Hahhh, well I'll try. How do I explain without thinking about the Games? Ow, ow ow,]
[I'll do it,] Rogork interrupted. [With your clumsy thinking, you'll just hurt us both.]
[Fine.]
[So, us aliens sometimes have special powers known as Skills. Like Alesha said, we obtained some from something like a gacha pull when leaving the last world we went to. Just don't question it. Something might have gone weird when we parasitized you, which allowed you to share those skills. One of them is essentially a passive skill, active all the time, which we have no control over. That's the one responsible for this situation.]
"Okay, keep going," Cecilia said, still angry.
[According to the skill's description, the skill lets its user "...reproduce by eating a male's heart and creating eggs fertilized with the heart's DNA in the empty cavity where the heart would have been… The sight of particularly strong males will activate the skill possessor's desire to reproduce in this fashion." Apparently, Tanner fit the criteria.]
[What I don't understand,] Alesha interrupted, [Is one, how and why she had access to that skill in the first place, and two, why she acted like a woman possessed! The Captain never went berserk like that and the people she ran into there were arguably far stronger than anyone in this world!]
[Hmmm~ wouldn't you like to know?]
[Obviously!!] "Just spill it!" Alesha and Cecilia barked simultaneously.
[Hoho, well I guess I'll deign to tell you my theory then. It's because your psychic strength is too weak.]
"The hell is that?" Cecilia grumbled.
[I think I get it,] Alesha responded as realization dawned on her. [Psychic strength is somewhat like the magical side of mental power. The "level" of the skill was higher than you are able to resist, so the skill overpowered you. Wait, wouldn't that also explain why Captain Swallow was fine? Her psychic strength was significantly boosted all the time thanks to my stats. Hopefully that means I'll be okay once I go back home; it'd be really troublesome if this happened back on Elantris.]
"What the bloody hell are you on about??" Cecilia hissed, anger and confusion coloring her tone. "Levels, skills, stats, is this some kind of game to you?!"
[You could say that,] Rogork said smugly. [Think nothing of it; it's just a rather convenient way to summarize and measure things, really.]
Alesha would have slapped the System if she could. She could tell that Cecilia was hiding her distress over the day's developments under a veneer of anger, and she didn't like how Rogork was making light of the situation.
[Ignore him,] Alesha soothed. [Your life isn't a game, and I understand how screwed up this all is. I wish I could take back what happened or guarantee it won't happen again; unfortunately, I can't. Until we leave, maybe it'd be better to stay away from people.]
"You're one to talk! Neither of you have any ounce of shame!" Cecilia yelled, no longer caring if she sounded crazy to anyone who happened to be nearby. "All you talk about is 'once you leave, once you leave,' but I don't even have any proof you'll EVER leave!! How am I supposed to believe anything you say after you broke your word, huh?? You promised nothing would change and you'd lie low until you left! But now I'm a murderer and in f*cking JAIL!"
In a cool, harsh voice, the System replied, [Now when did I ever promise that, hmm? I never promised that nothing would change, nor did I ever claim that I wished to lie low. As I recall, what I said was that I 'wouldn't cause you to go berserk and behave dangerously so long as my needs are met.' At that time, however, I had no inkling that your mind would be so pathetically weak as to be unable to handle my power. Kindly do not blame me for your own frailty.]
[Rogork?!?] Alesha gasped, surprised. Sure, the System was unkind and manipulative, but since when was it so ruthlessly brutal?
Without missing a beat, Rogork continued, [I am Zufessan Royalty, and do not accuse me of something so distasteful as lying. I have never been anything but truthful to you. As such, allow me to restate: I have every intention of leaving your disgusting planet behind, and no intention to remain here any longer than necessary. Is. That. Clear?]
Alesha was so dumbfounded by how smoothly Rogork spat such nonsense that she didn't know how to react. Zufessan Royalty? Nothing but truthful?
Alesha's doubts about Rogork's honesty with her were only fed by its blatant dishonesty with their host. Just how much of what it had told her, from the very beginning, was a lie?