(click to enlarge)
STORYLINE: “Hungry... So hungry…”
The voice pulsed in Kyle’s head like a corrupted audio loop that refused to die.
He panted, crouching low as he dragged Jihoon through the narrow, suffocating crawlspace. Jihoon was far heavier than he looked. All dense muscle and dead weight. And Kyle was rapidly losing patience. Crawling through the damp, reeking depths of the Forbidden Zone was bad enough, but doing it while hauling a comatose body was pure hell.
To make matters worse, their only source of light was the old, gutted television strapped to Jihoon’s head like a makeshift helmet. The damn thing flickered to life whenever it touched Jihoon’s skin, projecting a pale violet static down the muddy tunnel.
Jihoon. Comatose. Haunter of old televisions.
Just another cursed day in the Zone.
Up ahead, their guide, a massive, scaly beast known as the Shadow Serpent, slithered effortlessly through the dark, completely ignoring Kyle’s struggle. Low fog swallowed Kyle’s boots. Overhead, copper pipes dripped with a maddening rhythm.
A startled bat squeaked, its leathery wing brushing Kyle’s cheek. He jumped, jerking upward only to slam his head straight into the ceiling pipes. The metallic clang echoed down the length of empty tunnel.
“Oh, hell no,” he muttered, "That had better have been a flying rat and nothing else."
He dropped to his knees to catch his breath, easing Jihoon onto the mud. A second later, a dull thump echoed back from the dark.
Kyle froze. Echoes were supposed to fade, not boomerang back.
The television screen flickered and slowly died.
Total pitch darkness.
The Serpent was lurking nearby. The strange beast took many forms. Sometimes pure energy, sometimes a shadow. But right now, as it led them, it was corporeal. He heard the heavy rasp of scales sliding against scales. And when its rattle tipped tail brushed his hand, it felt icy and slippery.
Kyle dug through his backpack until his fingers found an entropy-powered battery light. It turned on with a heavy, satisfying click. Violet light flooded the narrow space. Finally, he could see where he was. Or at least, he could if there wasn’t a wall of undulating obsidian scales blocking most of his view.
The ground trembled. A cold draft rushed through the passage, carrying the smell of wet stone.
The Serpent suddenly hissed, its massive coils tightening into a defensive knot. Its head swung forward, then whipped back toward the way they had come.
“I told you Snakepoo,” Kyle grumbled. “Not the best route. Now we’re too far to go back, the hell if I know how much further ahead we have to go.”
The Serpent turned its massive head, giving him a look that somehow resembled a sheepish shrug.
"Right. Physical dead-ends aren't something a Shadow Serpent thinks about when picking a path."
Snakepoo suddenly looked up and flicked its tongue.
A deep concussion rolled through the tunnel walls, followed by the distant screech of tearing metal somewhere above them. The pipes shuddered in their brackets.
The Serpent froze, every muscle in its coiled body instantly rigid.
Fine grit rained from the roof.
Kyle frowned. “What?”
The Serpent leaned down, tenderly nudging Jihoon’s limp fingers with its snout. Then it looked straight up.
Far above their heads, something massive groaned beneath the weight of the earth.
Without a sound, the Shadow Serpent dissolved into a column of black vapor and shot straight upward through the solid rock ceiling. Just like that, the scaly bastard abandoned them.
“I don’t know if I should be happy or worried," Kyle muttered, letting out a long breath. That big ass snake made his skin crawl.
He gently placed a hand on Jihoon’s shoulder, “Looks like it’s just you and me now, Buddy.”
He unbuckled the dead TV helmet and pulled it off to give the guy some air.
“Hungry…” the voice murmured in his mind, like a recording stuck on repeat.
Kyle unzipped his pack to search for rations, but he already knew the truth. There were none.
He wiped sweaty bangs from his eyes and finally got a good look at Jihoon. The shy, nerdy runt he knew in school was gone, replaced by someone strikingly sculpted, pale, and otherworldly. Jihoon had been the first person to escape the Zone alive. And the Zone takes back what belongs to it.
“So hungry…”
“Could you stop that, Jih… I mean… Lath… Urgh. I don’t even know what to freaking call you anymore. Jihoon? Lathandro? Jihandro?”
Kyle grumbled as he gathered up the ridiculous mass of silky white hair spilling across the mud. In the tight, jagged crawlspace, floor-length hair was a massive liability, one snag on a copper bracket could snap Jihoon’s neck if they had to run.
“Seriously, dude, the hair is a problem,” Kyle muttered. His hands were surprisingly gentle as he began weaving the heavy strands together. “It looks badass, sure, but in the real world? Total pain in the ass.”
Jihoon remained motionless. Kyle tied off the braid as best he could with a frayed strip of cloth, resting his friend's head back down.
That was when he noticed Jihoon’s lips were parted slightly. He saw something white gleaming against his lower lip. Long. Sharp.
“Need…”
Kyle shifted uneasily. Sweat ran down his face.
Those teeth didn't belong in the mouth of his friend.
He looked left and right, then leaned closer to inspect them.
They weren’t what he was expecting. Not vampire fangs. They were thin and translucent, almost like quartz, with a delicate hinge at the gumline.
Kyle reached out with a trembling finger and tapped one.
The fang folded backward neatly against the roof of the mouth. When he released the pressure, it snapped forward again.
That’s when he realized what they were.
Snake fangs.
“Feed…”
A chill raced up his spine.
He used his thumb to gently peel back one of Jihoon’s eyelids.
The eye was rolled back, but the bottom edge of the iris was visible. The pupil wasn't a round human circle; it had narrowed into a vertical slit. And the color made Kyle's breath catch. He realized Jihoon’s teal eye color, that thing that had always made him unusual, was the exact same color as the Serpent's eyes.
Kyle gasped. As he recoiled, his hand caught the edge of the exposed tooth.
A thin line of dark crimson bloomed where the fang sliced his skin.
He stared at the blood welling up on his hand.
Then he looked back at Jihoon.
“Hungry….”
Kyle’s heart hammered against his ribs. "I know."
“So hungry...”
He gulped. He wanted to say something smartass about this situation, but the words died in his throat. He just sat there in the dirt, staring at Jihoon like an idiot.
Against every instinct he possessed, Kyle raised his bleeding hand back to Jihoon’s lips.
The hinged fangs deployed instantly, driven by pure reflex, and sank deep into the flesh of his hand.
Kyle squeezed his eyes shut and let out a sharp hiss. It felt like a white-hot needle driving through his palm, but within seconds, the pain dissolved into a weird, numb warmth. The sensation hummed through his core, heavy and intoxicating. He gasped, a faint moan slipping out before he could stop it. He knew he should be terrified, but a strange euphoria hijacked his brain.
He fell into a daze… falling.. falling… once more into sleep….
He found himself standing in a blinding, sterile white expanse. There was nothing here. No walls. No ceiling. No horizon. Just Kyle, standing in the light, and the dark silhouette waiting before him.
He kept his eyes fixed on the polished floor. His reflection stared back. His security guard uniform was immaculate, stripped of mud, blood, sweat, and exhaustion. This was what he was supposed to be. A guardian. A protector. An unbroken sentinel.
This dreamspace was different. Honest.
Kyle swallowed. He didn't want to look up at the figure standing in the blaring light. The figure reached toward him. A pale hand. Long black claws.
Kyle's gaze followed it only as far as the chest, and stopped. A golden serpent rested against the black-and-white robes. His breath caught. He knew that necklace. He had seen it around the mummified nun. The symbol of the Children of Apophis. But this wasn't the little golden brooch the Children wore. This was larger. A ceremonial necklace. Roped gold, heavy enough to look like an emblem of rank. A much higher rank.
Kyle's stomach tightened. Why was that around this person's neck?
He still didn't look up. Every instinct he had screamed at him to run. Run now. But he didn’t.
The figure's fingers slid easily between his, silky and graceful. Where their palms met, blood welled up. Kyle flinched at the sensation. It was a covenant. A sacred bond sealed in blood.
Vile. Wrong. Permanent.
Then he smelled it. Clove. Heavy. Sweet. Suffocating. He felt dizzy.
The other clawed hand caught his chin. Slowly, gently, it tilted his face upward. Kyle braced himself. Dark robes. Regal posture. Terrible authority. And that smug, predatory confidence. He knew exactly who he was going to see. But when he looked up, it wasn’t MasterGin. It was Jihoon, his strange serpentine eyes deeply amused, his lips curving into a mischievous grin.
“Boo.”
Kyle gasped, his eyes flying open as he yanked his bleeding hand back.
“Something about you is very, very wrong,” he yelped at the comatose figure on the ground, cradling his wounded hand against his chest. “Not cool! Not cool at all!”
Soil rained down from the ceiling.
He didn’t like this. Not one bit.
At least Jihoon had been fed, and would shut up now. Who knows how long MasterGin had kept him locked up and neglected. Once they got out of the Zone, his friend could get proper medical care.
Then came the sound. A horrible, wet choking from deep in Jihoon's chest.
Kyle looked down in horror.
Black, viscous fluid bubbled up from Jihoon’s throat. His chest heaved violently as he fought for air. His skin turned a mottled grey, the dark hollows under his eyes bruising into deep purple.
“Shit!”
Training took over. Kyle rolled Jihoon onto his side, supporting his head as another surge of black fluid spilled from his mouth. Don't panic.
A thick splatter struck the mud. Then another. Far too much. Far more than the few drops of blood Kyle had given him.
What the hell had he done?
Finally, the heaving stopped. Jihoon lay limp in the dirt.
“Hungry… So hungry…”
Kyle let out a shaky groan and pulled off his outer shirt to wipe the black sludge from his friend’s face.
“Don't you dare," he said quietly. "Don't you dare die on me after all the bullshit we all went through to get you out of here. Do you hear me? Man up.”
A sharp burning sensation pulsed in his hand. Thin violet veins were creeping up his forearm from the bite mark.
Infection.
His skin prickled with an icy, metallic heat, like frozen needles marching beneath his flesh. Kyle’s breath hitched, his heart hammering against his ribs in a full-blown panic. His vision swirled at the edges. He squeezed his eyes shut, pressing his palm flat against the damp soil to anchor himself, but the heat surged straight up his neck and into his skull.
When he forced his eyes open, the pitch black of the crawlspace was gone.
The dark had bled into a faint, violet-tinted luminescence. The world was rendered in eerie thermal contrast. Every crack in the freezing masonry radiated a dull violet hue, while the heat pulsing from the overhead pipes stood out in sharp, unnatural focus. Like a viper tracking prey in the dark, he could see the very temperature of the room.
“What the…?”
He rubbed his eyes, then opened them again. The tunnel still glowing.
A familiar voice echoed through his mind. Because, of course it did.
"Still hungry…”
The voice pulsed in Kyle’s head like a corrupted audio loop that refused to die.
He panted, crouching low as he dragged Jihoon through the narrow, suffocating crawlspace. Jihoon was far heavier than he looked. All dense muscle and dead weight. And Kyle was rapidly losing patience. Crawling through the damp, reeking depths of the Forbidden Zone was bad enough, but doing it while hauling a comatose body was pure hell.
To make matters worse, their only source of light was the old, gutted television strapped to Jihoon’s head like a makeshift helmet. The damn thing flickered to life whenever it touched Jihoon’s skin, projecting a pale violet static down the muddy tunnel.
Jihoon. Comatose. Haunter of old televisions.
Just another cursed day in the Zone.
Up ahead, their guide, a massive, scaly beast known as the Shadow Serpent, slithered effortlessly through the dark, completely ignoring Kyle’s struggle. Low fog swallowed Kyle’s boots. Overhead, copper pipes dripped with a maddening rhythm.
A startled bat squeaked, its leathery wing brushing Kyle’s cheek. He jumped, jerking upward only to slam his head straight into the ceiling pipes. The metallic clang echoed down the length of empty tunnel.
“Oh, hell no,” he muttered, "That had better have been a flying rat and nothing else."
He dropped to his knees to catch his breath, easing Jihoon onto the mud. A second later, a dull thump echoed back from the dark.
Kyle froze. Echoes were supposed to fade, not boomerang back.
The television screen flickered and slowly died.
Total pitch darkness.
The Serpent was lurking nearby. The strange beast took many forms. Sometimes pure energy, sometimes a shadow. But right now, as it led them, it was corporeal. He heard the heavy rasp of scales sliding against scales. And when its rattle tipped tail brushed his hand, it felt icy and slippery.
Kyle dug through his backpack until his fingers found an entropy-powered battery light. It turned on with a heavy, satisfying click. Violet light flooded the narrow space. Finally, he could see where he was. Or at least, he could if there wasn’t a wall of undulating obsidian scales blocking most of his view.
The ground trembled. A cold draft rushed through the passage, carrying the smell of wet stone.
The Serpent suddenly hissed, its massive coils tightening into a defensive knot. Its head swung forward, then whipped back toward the way they had come.
“I told you Snakepoo,” Kyle grumbled. “Not the best route. Now we’re too far to go back, the hell if I know how much further ahead we have to go.”
The Serpent turned its massive head, giving him a look that somehow resembled a sheepish shrug.
"Right. Physical dead-ends aren't something a Shadow Serpent thinks about when picking a path."
Snakepoo suddenly looked up and flicked its tongue.
A deep concussion rolled through the tunnel walls, followed by the distant screech of tearing metal somewhere above them. The pipes shuddered in their brackets.
The Serpent froze, every muscle in its coiled body instantly rigid.
Fine grit rained from the roof.
Kyle frowned. “What?”
The Serpent leaned down, tenderly nudging Jihoon’s limp fingers with its snout. Then it looked straight up.
Far above their heads, something massive groaned beneath the weight of the earth.
Without a sound, the Shadow Serpent dissolved into a column of black vapor and shot straight upward through the solid rock ceiling. Just like that, the scaly bastard abandoned them.
“I don’t know if I should be happy or worried," Kyle muttered, letting out a long breath. That big ass snake made his skin crawl.
He gently placed a hand on Jihoon’s shoulder, “Looks like it’s just you and me now, Buddy.”
He unbuckled the dead TV helmet and pulled it off to give the guy some air.
“Hungry…” the voice murmured in his mind, like a recording stuck on repeat.
Kyle unzipped his pack to search for rations, but he already knew the truth. There were none.
He wiped sweaty bangs from his eyes and finally got a good look at Jihoon. The shy, nerdy runt he knew in school was gone, replaced by someone strikingly sculpted, pale, and otherworldly. Jihoon had been the first person to escape the Zone alive. And the Zone takes back what belongs to it.
“So hungry…”
“Could you stop that, Jih… I mean… Lath… Urgh. I don’t even know what to freaking call you anymore. Jihoon? Lathandro? Jihandro?”
Kyle grumbled as he gathered up the ridiculous mass of silky white hair spilling across the mud. In the tight, jagged crawlspace, floor-length hair was a massive liability, one snag on a copper bracket could snap Jihoon’s neck if they had to run.
“Seriously, dude, the hair is a problem,” Kyle muttered. His hands were surprisingly gentle as he began weaving the heavy strands together. “It looks badass, sure, but in the real world? Total pain in the ass.”
Jihoon remained motionless. Kyle tied off the braid as best he could with a frayed strip of cloth, resting his friend's head back down.
That was when he noticed Jihoon’s lips were parted slightly. He saw something white gleaming against his lower lip. Long. Sharp.
“Need…”
Kyle shifted uneasily. Sweat ran down his face.
Those teeth didn't belong in the mouth of his friend.
He looked left and right, then leaned closer to inspect them.
They weren’t what he was expecting. Not vampire fangs. They were thin and translucent, almost like quartz, with a delicate hinge at the gumline.
Kyle reached out with a trembling finger and tapped one.
The fang folded backward neatly against the roof of the mouth. When he released the pressure, it snapped forward again.
That’s when he realized what they were.
Snake fangs.
“Feed…”
A chill raced up his spine.
He used his thumb to gently peel back one of Jihoon’s eyelids.
The eye was rolled back, but the bottom edge of the iris was visible. The pupil wasn't a round human circle; it had narrowed into a vertical slit. And the color made Kyle's breath catch. He realized Jihoon’s teal eye color, that thing that had always made him unusual, was the exact same color as the Serpent's eyes.
Kyle gasped. As he recoiled, his hand caught the edge of the exposed tooth.
A thin line of dark crimson bloomed where the fang sliced his skin.
He stared at the blood welling up on his hand.
Then he looked back at Jihoon.
“Hungry….”
Kyle’s heart hammered against his ribs. "I know."
“So hungry...”
He gulped. He wanted to say something smartass about this situation, but the words died in his throat. He just sat there in the dirt, staring at Jihoon like an idiot.
Against every instinct he possessed, Kyle raised his bleeding hand back to Jihoon’s lips.
The hinged fangs deployed instantly, driven by pure reflex, and sank deep into the flesh of his hand.
Kyle squeezed his eyes shut and let out a sharp hiss. It felt like a white-hot needle driving through his palm, but within seconds, the pain dissolved into a weird, numb warmth. The sensation hummed through his core, heavy and intoxicating. He gasped, a faint moan slipping out before he could stop it. He knew he should be terrified, but a strange euphoria hijacked his brain.
He fell into a daze… falling.. falling… once more into sleep….
He found himself standing in a blinding, sterile white expanse. There was nothing here. No walls. No ceiling. No horizon. Just Kyle, standing in the light, and the dark silhouette waiting before him.
He kept his eyes fixed on the polished floor. His reflection stared back. His security guard uniform was immaculate, stripped of mud, blood, sweat, and exhaustion. This was what he was supposed to be. A guardian. A protector. An unbroken sentinel.
This dreamspace was different. Honest.
Kyle swallowed. He didn't want to look up at the figure standing in the blaring light. The figure reached toward him. A pale hand. Long black claws.
Kyle's gaze followed it only as far as the chest, and stopped. A golden serpent rested against the black-and-white robes. His breath caught. He knew that necklace. He had seen it around the mummified nun. The symbol of the Children of Apophis. But this wasn't the little golden brooch the Children wore. This was larger. A ceremonial necklace. Roped gold, heavy enough to look like an emblem of rank. A much higher rank.
Kyle's stomach tightened. Why was that around this person's neck?
He still didn't look up. Every instinct he had screamed at him to run. Run now. But he didn’t.
The figure's fingers slid easily between his, silky and graceful. Where their palms met, blood welled up. Kyle flinched at the sensation. It was a covenant. A sacred bond sealed in blood.
Vile. Wrong. Permanent.
Then he smelled it. Clove. Heavy. Sweet. Suffocating. He felt dizzy.
The other clawed hand caught his chin. Slowly, gently, it tilted his face upward. Kyle braced himself. Dark robes. Regal posture. Terrible authority. And that smug, predatory confidence. He knew exactly who he was going to see. But when he looked up, it wasn’t MasterGin. It was Jihoon, his strange serpentine eyes deeply amused, his lips curving into a mischievous grin.
“Boo.”
Kyle gasped, his eyes flying open as he yanked his bleeding hand back.
“Something about you is very, very wrong,” he yelped at the comatose figure on the ground, cradling his wounded hand against his chest. “Not cool! Not cool at all!”
Soil rained down from the ceiling.
He didn’t like this. Not one bit.
At least Jihoon had been fed, and would shut up now. Who knows how long MasterGin had kept him locked up and neglected. Once they got out of the Zone, his friend could get proper medical care.
Then came the sound. A horrible, wet choking from deep in Jihoon's chest.
Kyle looked down in horror.
Black, viscous fluid bubbled up from Jihoon’s throat. His chest heaved violently as he fought for air. His skin turned a mottled grey, the dark hollows under his eyes bruising into deep purple.
“Shit!”
Training took over. Kyle rolled Jihoon onto his side, supporting his head as another surge of black fluid spilled from his mouth. Don't panic.
A thick splatter struck the mud. Then another. Far too much. Far more than the few drops of blood Kyle had given him.
What the hell had he done?
Finally, the heaving stopped. Jihoon lay limp in the dirt.
“Hungry… So hungry…”
Kyle let out a shaky groan and pulled off his outer shirt to wipe the black sludge from his friend’s face.
“Don't you dare," he said quietly. "Don't you dare die on me after all the bullshit we all went through to get you out of here. Do you hear me? Man up.”
A sharp burning sensation pulsed in his hand. Thin violet veins were creeping up his forearm from the bite mark.
Infection.
His skin prickled with an icy, metallic heat, like frozen needles marching beneath his flesh. Kyle’s breath hitched, his heart hammering against his ribs in a full-blown panic. His vision swirled at the edges. He squeezed his eyes shut, pressing his palm flat against the damp soil to anchor himself, but the heat surged straight up his neck and into his skull.
When he forced his eyes open, the pitch black of the crawlspace was gone.
The dark had bled into a faint, violet-tinted luminescence. The world was rendered in eerie thermal contrast. Every crack in the freezing masonry radiated a dull violet hue, while the heat pulsing from the overhead pipes stood out in sharp, unnatural focus. Like a viper tracking prey in the dark, he could see the very temperature of the room.
“What the…?”
He rubbed his eyes, then opened them again. The tunnel still glowing.
A familiar voice echoed through his mind. Because, of course it did.
"Still hungry…”
On him, Jihoon:
Hair emissive: RavenBell - Persephone Hair, emissive overlay [M][mesh](Engine Room)(200L)
Tattoo: Nuuna - EVI Metallic EVOX 2K tint [BOM](Engine Room)(300L)
Makeup: Rubedo - Blanche, 12 [BOM](Camp Syndicate)(290L)
Makeup: Rubedo - Blanche, 12 [BOM](Camp Syndicate)(290L)
Boots: MEMENTO - NEO. Boots V2 [LEGACY M] [mesh]
Crown: UNA - Ruise crown Silver [mesh]
Claws: Subject Thirteen - Solstice Set - LegacyA [mesh]
Snake Necklace: SIGMA Minos necklace [mesh]
Skin: outernaked - #evox - juhoon skin [NF: natural] - wb [BOM]
Eyes: Poetic Colors - Jaded Eyes - Jade [BOM]
Tattoo: Izzie's Face & Body Blood & Wounds (199L)
Hair: TRASH Lucifer w/o Horns V1 - Rainbow pack [mesh](299L)
Eyes: Mana Jelly Eyes, Clear [BOM] (Midnight Order)(399L)
Skin: MUDSKIN Hajimu, C, Brow, WINTER(gacha)(The Arcade)(75L)
Glasses: SOLE SA, Glasses Penta CP, Black [mesh](339L)
Body: TheShops [BODY] Athletic Meshbody (Legacy)(m) (1.7.1) [mesh](5000L)
Setting:
Pipes: SIGNΛ - Modular Pipes Kit [mesh](Engine Room)(900L)
BONUS IMAGES: inworld raw shots, midday sky, default camera:
