Ebola is a disease that causes severe hemorrhaging and internal/external bleeding, makes you cry/spew blood, is highly contagious, and other symptoms that I can't remember. Can you guess where I got those zombie-virus-uglies from? Just a note: If my guys don't bleed to death within a few hours of contracting the virus, they become those Shadow-things. Which makes them better than you, doesn't it?

Ebola is fun.

Chapter 10: Over The Edge

She is standing, alone, in a stone valley, surrounded by smoking, ashy mountains. Blood flows in rivers around her feet. The blood of her friends... Her family. She is so close to remembering... Then pain explodes behind her eyes and she falls to her knees, trying to rid herself of the weight... Bright green fire encompasses her, and two pairs of crimson eyes pierced the flame... They're calling to her, looking for a way to escape... Then the fire is doused by shimmering liquid shadows and the girl is falling...

Kaya woke with a gasp, sweat plastering her messy hair to her forehead. She sat up quickly and opened her eyes, but she almost fell down again when the blood rushed to her head.

I shouldn't be here, was the first coherent thought that ran through her mind. I should have died...

The girl scanned the room she was in, noting a low and irritating buzzing noise coming from somewhere behind her. The room was clean and sterile, and the bed she was in wasn't the most comfortable. Then she recognised the type of room she was in: A hospital. How...? Kaya saw a couple of machines buzzing, and traced the wires with her eyes until it became apparent that she was attached to them. That was the source of the noise. Wait a second...

Power! The machines run on electricity! Kaya ripped the wires from her body and swung her legs out of the bed, vaguely noticing that she was now wearing a sterile white suit and slippers. She almost fell over the machines, following the power cords to the wall... where they weren't plugged in. However this machine was getting its power, it wasn't from electricity. A battery, maybe...?

The buzzing stopped suddenly, and Kaya froze in her hunched position. The silence weighed heavily on her mind. She was suddenly acutely aware of everything; the feel of a light breeze in the room; a thick, uncomfortable and foreign taste on her tongue; the sound of shuffling feet just outside the door.

Suddenly the door creaked open, and she turned her head to see the strangest looking person she had ever seen. His raven hair grew messily from the top of his head and in front of his startlingly bright green eyes, emphasising how pale and sickly his skin was. From his forehead grew two horns, curling to the back of his head. He grinned slightly, showing a row of slightly pointed teeth. Otherwise, his clothes were quite normal; a long black shirt over dark jeans.

A silver lock hung from a chain that was fastened around his neck, swaying hypnotically. Kaya's breath caught. He was the one that had saved her.

"So she has finally risen," the boy said, a slight Spanish accent in his voice. "I am Pepito, the-"

"What happened?" Kaya asked bluntly, straightening. "Those things should have killed me."

His eye twitched slightly, irritated. "Do you know who I am?"

"You just said that you were Pepito. I don't really care to know any more than that. I want to know why I'm not dead. Then I want to know where I am, and why. Then you can introduce yourself properly, but by then I am hoping to be out of this place and far away. So don't bother."

He huffed a sigh and shut the door behind him. "You are very irksome for one in your position," he said. "You will find out all you have asked, eventually. First I must know a few things."

"What kind of things?" Kaya asked warily.

"I need to know who you are and what you are doing in this town."

"I don't know the answer to either of those questions," she snapped. "You can call me Kaya, but it's a name I chose after the barrier appeared. I don't remember a thing about myself or my life up until a week ago," she answered quickly. "If you don't know why I'm here, and not in an afterlife or limbo or just plain dead, then I am going to go find someone who does." Kaya approached the door, expecting Pepito to move. He stayed where he was, though, unflinching at her sharp tone.

He blinked slowly. "Sit down. We are not finished here."

"Yes, we are! Answer me, or I'm out of here!"

Suddenly Pepito's skeletal hand was engulfed in bright green flames, and he shoved it between them. His face was still blank. "I could shove this down your throat and incinerate you from the inside out, and then you truly will be dead. That I'm not is a very kind gesture. So I suggest you go sit down, before I am sweeping your ashes from this room."

Terror raced through her veins, but Kaya didn't move. Her face was carved from stone. "Why didn't those things kill me?" She asked, her voice low.

Pepito grinned, his face darkening. He extinguished the flame. "The reason the creatures couldn't kill you was because you were already dead."

The world melted around her, and she felt cold inside. "Already dead...?"

"Your heart was not beating, and it is silent at this moment. Your blood lingers, unmoving, in your veins. Your wounds healed themselves, your flesh does not tempt the creatures' hunger, and I can sense no life force within you." He spoke loudly, wiping away everything Kaya had ever heard; had ever believed. "You were dead long before any of this happened."

"How?" She breathed, staggering backwards and falling onto the bed. She tried to feel a pulse in her, to hear her heartbeat, but there was only silence. Pepito didn't move; he seemed to be enjoying her pain.

"Just pretend you're dreaming," He said mockingly. "Pretend that you will wake up and it will all go away."

Kaya shook her head slowly. "Dreams aren't this painful," she whispered, trying to catch her breath.

"Smart girl. Now, would you like to know where you are?" She nodded. "This is the Base, the main power in this city. I am the ruler of this sanctuary, and for good reason." He clicked his fingers and a useless lamp on the table next to the girl burst into flames, casting long shadows on her face. "Now do you want to know who I am?"

Kaya stood up again, gathering what was left of her mind. "I'm not sure I want to know."

The boy chuckled and sauntered over to her. "You will undoubtedly know my father," he said, extinguishing the flaming lamp. "Soon I will begin the Ascension and gather my Soulless Army of Darkness to claim this planet, eternally damning all who oppose me. Can you guess?"

"All I can think of is-" She cut herself off and bolted for the door, pushing Pepito onto the hard floor. She had managed to open it halfway before it was forced closed with a burst of green flame. She jumped away from the heat and found herself staring into the livid face of her 'saviour'.

"I will give you one final chance. I am not a very patient person, Kaya, so I do hope you will not waste it on another futile escape attempt. I ask you again: Sit down," Pepito hissed, his voice low and smooth.

Kaya obeyed this time, but she would not relent to this boy. She would make him wish he had never found her.

The girl began to smile as she sat on the chair at the end of the bed.

-X-

The plastic figure stood up happily at the sound of his prisoner's voice. Tormenting them never got old.

"Meat! You brought us here, and we have the right to know why! Tell us what kind of reward was promised to you. Why you even bother with keeping us here. Does the Master even know that you took us back? Will you get fried if you tell it? Answer me, Meat!"

"Be silent, you pus-filled wretch!" He shouted.

D-boy fell silent, as the burger boy ordered. Meat smiled sweetly; or, as sweet as an ugly plastic figure with razor-sharp teeth could be.

Meat nodded once. "That's better. Now, I will let you in on a little secret. I was planning on giving you back to the Master when I had extracted the information I needed, but now I think I'll keep you. The both of you have become my very best friends, now, and I don't think I could stand it alone," he said mockingly, ignoring their protests. "It is very entertaining to watch you squirm!" The last word came out as a hiss.

Eff and D-boy were burning at the stake again, their cries and Meat's laughs echoing off the hard walls.

-X-

I cannot stand them and their constant whining... Why did I let that idiot voice resurrect them? All I need is the boy to do his job. The others are irrelevant.

Soon... Soon I will escape this void and rise again. The Other was an exceptional servant, but he was also a free thinker. His mind was not easily molded... I was too proud to deal with him myself; I felt I had to work through others to be able to treat my power like royalty. His emotions got in the way. That was my ultimate demise... But not again.

I must take more care of this one; I cannot let it happen again... He will not fall like the last one did. The girl will help him... She will keep him whole. Sane. Unlike the Other. He had nothing.

But will it be enough?

He has to become a murderer. It must happen soon... The barrier will not last; I am weakening. He must do his job... He must feed me power. The hunger, the pain, the... blood.

Blood. I need it... I need blood! Blood!

FEED ME!

-X-

"NO!" The room fell silent at the sound of Todd's voice. He looked around as if remembering where he was, then stalked out of the room, passing a confused-looking Tess in the hall.

Todd sat on one of the beds with a sigh. The voice was getting more and more impatient with him as he continued to refuse to do its 'job'. Murder. From what he had gathered, the voice needed to be fed blood. But... Even if he did kill people, how would he feed it, and where? For the voice to need something like that...

It would need a physical form. The answer was so obvious now that Todd kicked himself for not realising it earlier. The voice must be something, somewhere, speaking to me through... its mind? It needs blood to regain power... But how did it lose power in the first place? What is the voice, anyway?...

Is there a way to destroy it?

There was a crash and screams coming from the front door. Something jolted inside him, and Todd rushed towards Johnny's discarded backpack. From its depths the boy drew two knives, the blades as long as his forearm. On the hilts were two metallic smiley faces, grinning at him wickedly.

The screams of shock became screams of terror, and more voices joined the chorus. Human voices... Whatever was going on in the other room, it wasn't the creatures that were chasing him before. The ones that killed Kaya.

Maybe the voice, the urges... Then it dawned on him, an plan that could save all their lives, and had the potential to destroy his defenses against the voice. To destroy him.

But he knew he couldn't hold out against this thing for much longer, so Todd intended to give the voice what it wanted. He would kill, but he would not become a murderer.

Maybe I can control it.

The screams got louder.