'No...'

That one word repeated itself in his brain.

It was all he could think.

He was terrified.

Backing away from the girl, Arnold felt the cold concrete of the school walls behind him - preventing him from retreating any further.

'No...'

The girl stood up, approaching him with a smile.

"Hey... you're supposed to give me a turn now. Ah... don't tell me... you're giving up?"

"That... that's right! I give up! You win!", he shouted. “You win!”

The girl had a hole in her brain, blood flowing endlessly from it as she twiddled the knife around while she approached him - her eyes filled with madness.

"Ah... so you're really giving up before I can even get a turn?"

"Yes!"

In that instant, the girl stepped forward, just inches from him.

She was short.

An entire foot shorter than him.

Yet right now, backed against this wall, even if his face was looking downward, he felt as if he was looking up to an insurmountable monster.

"That isn't very fair. After all... you had your turn. Therefore... not letting me have mine... that would be cheating."

Turning her head to the point where her neck was twisted beyond natural limits, the girl's blood covered hair draped across her face as she looked up to him.

"I don't like playing with cheaters, you know."

With a gulp, Arnold's eyes widened.

'What... is this thing?'

And then, pain.

Pain surged through his hand as a knife was thrusted through his middle finger, slamming into the wall behind the boy with a clang.

The finger dropped to the ground with a spray of blood, and the girl pulled back the knife.

“AGH!!!!”

Shouting out, the boy grabbed his hand as he cried in agony.

Looking to the girl, he blubbered as his mouth opened and closed, looking to her in utter disbelief.

"Why?!”

Falling to his knees, the boy now looked up to the girl with horror as he screamed.

"Why?"

With a smile, the girl's expression remained playful even as she caressed the knife in her hands.

"Because it's a part of the game. Speaking of which... it looks like you cried first. Therefore... you lose."

Shivering, Arnold fell prostrate before the girl as he continued to blubber in pain.

His finger was on the ground, and the pain didn't stop.

"Ah... I guess I forgot to mention it. But we were actually wagering there. And since you lost, I'll be taking my reward."

It was then that Arnold felt the cold blade around his neck.

"What... what are you doing?"

As he whispered these words, pure terror was evident in his voice.

The girl had wrapped herself around him, and right now she was prepared to kill.

"W-wait... wait... stop... stop this..."

His pleas filled the air, however they did not seem to reach the ears of the girl.

"Why?"

As she said this single word, Arnold realized that everything was over.

"Why... you said?"

Why.

This girl, on being asked to stop as she held a knife to his throat, asked why.

"That's right. Why would I stop, mister? After all... let me ask that one over there."

Turning her head around, cracking sounds could be heard as the girl's neck twisted in a manner that was far beyond the limits of humanity.

"When you asked him to stop... did he?"

Asking this question to Gordon, the boy sat up, looking back and forth between the monster and her victim.

Arnold pleaded with his eyes, tears streaming down them as the girl pressed the knife further to his throat.

"He..."

Looking down, Gordon began to quiver.

His eyes twitched, and his heart rate increased.

'What do I say here?'

'Do I save him?'

'Do I cover for him?'

Looking up, his eyes met with the girl.

"What's wrong? Just tell me the truth. My dad always said it was bad to lie, you know."

'Just.... tell the truth....'

'The truth... eh?'

Biting his lip, all the memories of being bullied filled the head of Gordon.

The countless beatings.

The limitless number of times that he had been mocked, tortured, punished, and put down.

The extortion, the disappointment which his father held in him, and those disgusted eyes which everyone around him gave him.

'Why... can't I be strong like her?'

Looking up, Gordon faced the girl, looking her directly in the eyes.

"You're so small... and yet you're this strong."

Tears fell down his face, and the boy began to laugh.

"Heh... hahaha.... hahaha..."

Holding his forehead, he cried as he laughed to himself.

"Hahaha.... how did you become so strong?"

"I don't understand. But you didn't answer me. Did you not hear me?"

The girl tilted her head in confusion, to the point where it fell off her shoulders.

"Ah."

Looking at this, the boy who was held at knife point reeled in fear, covering his mouth - yet he was constricted and unable to move.

For doing so would drive the blade right through his neck.

"I guess you're not supposed to twist a neck that far."

The head said this from the ground - yet even so the body remained unmoved.

It was at that moment that Gordon stood up.

He smiled, wiping the tears from his face.

"You're so strong. I'd like to know... how you became this way."

Grabbing the head of the girl, he picked it up and held it in his hands.

Then, he placed it back on her head - squishing noises accompanying it as he tried to fix it in place.

"You're right. No matter how many times I asked him to stop... he didn't."

"Ah! I see. Then... I'm sure you understand, mister.”, the girl stated with a coy smile. “Even if you ask me to stop..."

"No... no-” Arnold gasped, panicked breaths coming out between his screams, pleas for mercy. “Wait, wait-”

The prettyboy began to struggle, however as he did so, the knife sliced through his neck.

Then, falling to the ground in a pool of blood, the boy became lifeless.

"Your voice has no weight to it."

Sticking the knife into her side, the girl sheathed her weapon using her own flesh.

Then, walking up to the boy who stood before her, she looked up to him.

And she smiled.

"He hurt you a lot... right?"

"How... could you tell?"

"Mmm... just a feeling."

"How... are you so strong?"

"Mmm... even if you ask that..."

"It's because that girl has lost her mind. I apologize for the frightening treatment... however... she seemed to want to take things into her own hands."

Walking out of the bushes, a man wearing something that resembled a suit spoke up.

Standing next to him was a woman with her hair tied back in a casual outfit and a boy who was looking at the girl with an extremely worried expression.

"And she seemed to be enjoying herself so much... that I didn't have the heart to stop her."

It was then that Gordon realized.

Out of the four people who had appeared - three of them were monsters.

Creatures whose bodies were no longer human.

"Who... are you people?"

"Who are we? That much is simple. We are victims of this cataclysm. And yet... we seem to have become a part of it."

Holding forth his hand, the man seemed to thin his eyes with lament.

"You don't seem to be terrified of the one right there, but rather intrigued. May I ask you as to why you wouldn't be trying to run away even as you stand next to a girl who just murdered three people?"

Gordon looked to the girl who the man spoke of, then back to the man with a weak smile.

"I suppose it's because... if she wanted to kill me... then trying to do anything would be useless."

"So you've accepted your own weakness then?"

The woman spoke this time, looking at the boy with a raised eyebrow.

"I... have."

Closing her eyes, the woman let out a sigh.

"I would rather that the weak are kept out of our group.... but now that I think about it..."

Looking to the remains of the three boys who had been slaughtered, she bit her lips in remorse.

"Perhaps we really should stay away from people."

"No. That's wrong."

Stepping forward, the young boy who was still human approached his sister.

Looking her into the eyes, he faced her with intensity.

"Even if we avoid people... that won't lead us anywhere. Sister, listen to me. You are now a monster. But that doesn't mean you have to act like one."

"What ever could you mean, brother? I was only playing with them."

With a gulp, the young boy shrunk back, however he stopped himself.

'I... have to accept her.'

'I... have to protect her.'

Looking at the girl, Shane frowned upon seeing her wounds.

His sister had received such wounds in such a small amount of time.

Yet here she was, completely unaware of them.

Thinning his eyes in disgust as he hardened his resolve, Shane looked down upon the corpse with a disturbed glare.

"Even if you are a monster... that boy right there... he tried to kill you. And that... is something that I'll never forgive."

Then, he hugged her.

"I don't care what you've become. Because you will always.... be my sister."

"What's gotten into you, brother? You've become very... emotional recently."

With a smile, the boy laughed lightly.

"Hah... have I?"

As Gordon watched this scenario, he could only think one thing.

'These people....'

'I don't know what they've been through...'

'I don't know what hell they may have experienced to be brought to this point...'

'But even so... they have overcome them.'

Clenching his fist, the boy stepped forward.

'How could I continue to be so weak... when these people.... these people whose bodies aren't even human anymore... are still out here doing everything they can?'

"I... want to be like you all."

Capturing the attention of the four, Gordon spoke up with fervent determination.

"I... am weak.”

“I am a failure.”

“I've never done anything right... I've been bullied and rejected all my life, never able to achieve anything without help from someone else… and no matter what I do... everything seems to go wrong.”

“But on seeing this girl... on seeing her step up and tear that one to pieces... on seeing how she so easily trampled on the source of all my problems... I can only think of one thing."

Straightening his expression, the boy spoke with complete dedication.

"I want to be like her."

However as the boy said this, Sylvia walked forward.

She looked down at him, her face becoming cold.

"Boy. Do you even understand what you're saying?"

Grabbing his chin, she lifted it up as she looked him straight into the eyes.

Thinning her own eyes, she spoke without the slightest hint of empathy.

"If you want to be like us... then you'll give everything up. Including your humanity. It would be better if you ran away and forgot that we ever existed."

With a gulp, Gordon wanted to back away.

However, at that moment he knew.

If he backed away right now, he would never find himself stepping forward again.

"I... want to find out."

Three of the four people around him were monsters.

They were creatures who could never possibly be considered human.

Both in mind, in deed, and in body.

Yet even so, these people looked at Gordon differently than anyone had ever looked at him.

Rather than giving him eyes filled with disgust or abhorrence, they gave him eyes which were filled with compassion, concern, and... kindness.

Even as she glared into him, Gordon knew.

Everything this woman was saying was for his own good.

"I can't keep on living like this. If I have to live as a weakling... if I have to continue being this pathetic all my life... then I would rather die."

With trembling hands, the boy looked up to the woman with teary eyes.

"So even if it's dangerous... even if it's reckless... even if it's meaningless... I want to know. How do you live like this?"

Closing her eyes, Sylvia let out a sigh.

"You know nothing of the shit that we've just been through. And yet... you speak as if you know. Fine then. I'll tell you. Listen up, kid. Because I'm not going to repeat anything twice."

Walking over to the picnic table, the woman picked up the finger of the girl, twiddling it with disgust before throwing it over towards the girl.

"Catch."

"Ah! Got it!"

The girl caught her own finger, sticking it back on her hand with a cheerful smile.

Then, the rest of the group all took their seats at the table.

"I'll tell you everything about how we became monsters. But how did we overcome our hardships? How do we live like this? I'd hate to break it to you, kid."

Bringing her hand to her forehead, Sylvia bit her lip as she held back her own tears.

"We don't."

----

They talked.

And they talked.

And they talked.

How long they talked for, they did not know themselves.

Hours passed.

Tears were shed.

Stories were told.

The sun set into the sky, and darkness engulfed the landscape.

The moon slowly rose into the sky, and even then the discussion continued.

All the pain, all the suffering, all the fear, and all the uncertainty.

The existence of the monsters, the events which had happened, they spoke of all these things to the boy who patiently listened.

And then, when they had finally finished, the boy was brought to tears.

"How.... is that possible?"

"If we knew how it was possible... would we be here talking to you about it?"

Speaking up, Marcus looked the boy in the eye with a pained expression, letting out a sigh as he looked around him.

"Everything in this world has gone to shit. And it is... our duty.... to turn it into the most appealing pile of shit that we can."

"And removing those three from this world... was part of that?"

"Ah, no. That was the whim of this girl. Without a doubt… such a thing was immoral. It was wrong. But whether it was correct or incorrect…”

Taking in a deep breath, Marcus closed his eyes as he let out a light chuckle.

“I myself cannot say."

"I see."

Silence overcame the five as they sat there.

The two children had fallen asleep on Sylvia's lap at this point, and the only three awake were Sylvia, Gordon, and Marcus.

"Then... you don't intend to deal with humans?"

"It isn't that we don't intend to deal with them... but rather that we have to consider the situation with caution. Yet this girl went and ran off on her own... but think about it. In this world filled with these monsters... what will people think when they see us?"

Speaking with a logical tone, Sylvia brought up the very concept which was eating away at her.

"That is correct. We are human in mind... for now. Yet monsters live inside us... and our bodies are no longer human. The same goes for that girl, yet her body... I suppose it doesn't even heal. Yet even so... she doesn't die after receiving blows which should absolutely kill her. Even I was surprised to see such a thing."

Looking to the girl, whose body had been mutilated in a horrible manner, Sylvia couldn’t help but to be concerned.

‘At least… she doesn’t seem to be in pain… but…’

[Ah. Actually I was thinking it's about time I did something. Jeez... I try so hard to prepare another host, and you let her go and get tarnished so easily.... give me just a moment.]

Forming out of the hand of Sylvia, a tentacle with a mouth sprouted forward as it connected to the sleeping girl, pumping her with life.

And then, connecting as it merged with the girl’s cheek, the wounds on the zombified girl began to heal.

Her stomach closed and the gaping slice in her head was repaired. The lines on her neck reattached, as if her head had never been removed, and the same went for her finger.

"Oh... are you Number 1? You're the thing that-"

[Don't talk to me so casually, human.]

Gordon made an attempt to converse with the creature as it showed itself, however this attempt was immediately rejected.

Soon enough the girl had been healed and the tentacle retracted - as if it had never existed in the first place.

"So that was the monster inside you..."

"She... I don't really know what to say about her. But she is certainly.... strange."

Sylvia held her own hand with saddened eyes, unsure what to say or think about it.

"And the girl... she doesn't even host one of them... but they want to use her as a host... do you intend to simply let them do such a thing?"

As he asked this question, the eyes of Sylvia and Marcus darkened.

"That... I am not sure about."

"Yet even more unsure... is what they would do if we tried to prevent such a thing."

"Ah."

Looking away in shame, Gordon realized that he had touched upon a sensitive subject.

These two as well were powerless before the creatures that had overtaken their bodies.

Even if they had become strong in a sense, they were weaker than anyone.

Perhaps even weaker than him.

"Sorry, I-"

"Don't apologize."

Cutting the boy off, Sylvia looked upward, gazing into the night sky.

"There is no need to apologize for forcing us to think about... the situation that we're in."

With a light smile, the woman let out a slight chuckle.

"Because either way it's something that we need to address... sooner or later."