Sen sat there in the dark, waiting, as the words faded away.

Dryness.

It was in his throat, his skin, and in his shriveling organs. It burned inside of him, scorching. Killing him from the inside as some unseen fire roared deep inside his chest.

Flow levels critically low, death imminent. You are suffering from Withering [Stage 1]. Replenish Flow with Essence or sustenance.

(???) [Stage 0] condition gained.

Sen’s arms shot out into the darkness, reaching for the door to the empty bathroom stall. The lights were off. The sun was missing outside. So he stumbled in the dark, bumping into the stall wall and crashing down on buckling knees, down on the tiled floor. He rasped in a breath as each inhalation smoldered in his lungs.

“W-Water,” he begged, reaching up. Up towards the door.

Click.

The stall unlocked and he pushed. The door creaked open, thumping against the wall. Sen crawled out as his brain bashed itself against his skull. Dehydration, a distant part of his mind warned. It told him to watch how much he drank.

He didn’t listen.

Sen scrambled up from the floor and into the darkness of the empty restroom.

Then, he paused as he realized how dark the bathroom was.

Sen reached out with his foot, feeling around in the shadows. The floor was dry and polished tile, and the tips of his leather shoes made it tack and clack and tap. Still, his foot wasn’t long enough to reach the sink. So Sen closed his eyes, listening to his breathing that was too loud, and the darkness that seemed too big, and the silence that was so still that his thoughts felt like screams in his head.

And then he left the stall and took a step forward.

For one quick second, he was nowhere. It was dark and empty and aimless, and the void around him extended infinitely into the shadows. He reached out, stumbling forward, feeling around for a wall, or a sink, or another stall, but there was nothing, and he was lost, and it was dark, and his thoughts were far too loud, and his head was spinning far too much, and his eyes saw far too little, and he—

Bang!

He crashed into the sink, his knee smashing against the metal pipe underneath. Sen buckled, staggered, arms flailing, until his hands landed on a cold, porcelain surface. “Mierda,” he hissed. “I’m a fucking—ugh.”

The maddening thirst returned, flaring up within him again. And this time it burned. It felt like the thirst was burning his throat into charcoal. Sen’s legs folded, and the sink in front of him was all that helped him stay standing.

He looked up with bloodshot eyes.

The sink.

Sen reached forward and wrenched the faucet handle down with a snap! It broke off and sent the water spraying, splashing into his face and arms and chest. Sen dove into it, cupping the water into his hands and drinking—drinking, but it was never enough. He gulped down the water, but each handful simply seemed to evaporate inside of him. Sen gasped and coughed, stumbling off the sink as he ran out of breath.

Heat. Steam rose out of his body in a thin cloud, swirling and leaving the room damp with humidity. He leaned against the sink and heaved. Drank. Heaved again.

Finally, after what felt like minutes, his knees gave way.

He collapsed on the floor, the thirst sated. He was soaked. With water, and sweat, and the humidity from the steam rushing out from his skin. But now the fire inside of him was calm—barely an ember, smoldering deep inside of his beating heart.

Flow level recovering. Withering [Stage 2] prevented.

Flow level stable.

Essence Density – High (Depleting)

Essence absorption started [7/100] – Human x23.

“What… What the hell,” Sen rasped. He stared at the golden words in front of his eyes, incredulous. The notification hovered in the corner of his vision, seemingly coming into focus as soon as he directed his attention towards it. Slowly, he watched the counter at the bottom tick up.

‘Essence Absorbed: [9/100],’ it said. Sen watched the number rise to ten after another three seconds.

He reached out to the letters, intending to touch them, when they faded as soon as his hand drew near. They slithered around his fingers like smoke curls, dissipating and reforming as soon as his hand left.

“I’m going crazy, tía,” he muttered, closing his eyes. “You’re going to need another nephew to get you that wedding dress.”

Sen released a breath, the tension draining out from every pore as he let himself melt into the cold floor. He should have been panicking, he knew. The power was out. The hall outside was silent. Whatever that light from the sky had been, it might’ve been some biological weapon from a terrorist attack, making him sick from the inside. It might have induced delirium in him, making him see words in the air where there were none.

But right now, he was just glad that the overwhelming thirst was gone. That the extreme desperation it brought him was sated. And if it was a terrorist attack that brought the light—

Hnn.

There was a sound.

A creak. A door opening, just around the corner.

Sen’s eyes shot open. Another sound followed the door. Footsteps. They stepped inside the quiet bathroom, tapping on the ground. Tap, tap. Slow, quiet steps, creeping in, then stopping. Sen’s eyes moved up, up to the bathroom mirror on the far wall, giving him vision of what had just entered the bathroom.

Orange light leaked in from the open door. It shone against the intruder’s back, and Sen felt his breathing go still.

The prowler was a slender thing, with long, frail limbs and dark hair, flowing down its face like streaks of ink. Claws curved down from each bony finger. Flesh like crumpled paper and bark-like cracks covered every inch of its skin that was visible outside of its student’s uniform. It looked around and cast its sunken eyes across the bathroom.

Its mouth opened.

Teeth. Sen noticed them immediately. Giant, protruding teeth the size of fingers, the catch of moonlight glinting around their edges. A long, shriveled tongue slithered out of the thing’s mouth, tasting the air in sharp, thrashing whips. It whipped its head towards the mirror and Sen stopped the gasp threatening to rip out of him.

He pushed his eyes down, away from the vicious thing.

Tap.

It took a step, farther into the room.

Tap, tap.

Sen rose from the ground, quiet, eyes wide and hands shaking. He traced the wall in the darkness, heading for the closest bathroom stall.

Tap, tap, tap.

He found it unlocked. The door opened and he stepped inside. It closed behind him with an almost inaudible click.

But almost wasn’t enough.

The creature growled as soon as the door closed, the sound reverberating across the walls in a guttural rumble. Sen backed away from the door and felt around the walls. He was searching, looking—until his hand landed on what felt like a stick. He grasped it, pulled it close, and felt the mop brush against his legs as he pointed it handle-first at the door.

Footfalls came ever closer. He felt his hands shake, the sound of the monster closing in defined further by the darkness all around. Sen felt it all, then. The cold sweep of sweat on his skin. The taste of tap water in his mouth, the dryness of his throat, and the numbness spreading across his fingers.

The footsteps stopped outside of his stall. A second of tension passed.

And then the footsteps walked past.

Sen released a breath. Now—

Ping! Essence requirement [100/100] reached.

Interface initializi—

Sen’s arms moved on reflex as the notification appeared. The tension in him shattered his control. The mop handle swiped across the letters, before crashing into the stall wall, and—crack! The sound exploded across the bathroom. The mop snapped against the plastic divisions.

And then the monster in the room roared.

Taptaptaptap!

Sen leapt to the door and click. The lock slid closed just as a heavy impact bashed into it from the other side. Sen backed off, feeling for something—a weapon, an escape—until he bumped into the wall. A breeze brushed against his lower leg.

Another tackle shook the door, the impacts deafening. The metal hinges strained and Sen grabbed what remained of the mop and ducked, crawling, feeling down the wall until he found the gap at the bottom. He threw himself into it, squeezing past the opening and crawling into the stall beside just as—

Crash!

The door exploded from its hinges and smashed into the toilet just as Sen slipped away. He tucked his legs in and sprang up, dashing out from the adjacent stall even as the monster turned to the sound of his footsteps.

Sen trusted his memory as he sprinted through the darkness.

Left, straight, and—

He sprinted into the wall on the corner. Sen staggered back, turning, pushing with his arms to make a quick pivot to the left again. He lunged forward, towards the now visible bathroom exit, out into the orange moonlight bathing the hall outside. The monster crashed into the wall behind him, screeching and staggering to follow, but Sen was a football player. He was fast.

He sprinted down the hall, hurriedly reaching into his pocket as he did. Sen drew out his phone, pressed a button, and the screen came to life. He swiped down, panting, and—

The phone’s flashlight sprayed light across the hall and revealed the corpses, dried up like mummies, leaning against the walls and the lockers. Students, faculty—husks strewn as far as the light reached.

Sen bolted past them, weaving around those that blocked the way. The severity of the situation barely registered before he heard the creature snarl from right behind him.

His skin prickled in an instant. Sen ducked and stumbled as a shadow flew over him. The monstrosity missed him by inches. It landed on all fours, snarling, turning its head to face him.

Sen’s foot smashed into its jaw.

It was a beautiful kick, born of instinct and desperation. One that would’ve made his team’s coach proud. The monster’s head flung itself back with a crunch, its mouth snapping shut, and its neck stretching from the force of the impact. A long, dried tongue sailed through the air and splattered blood across the ground. Sen leapt over it and kept running.

A pained screech ripped through the silence of the night.

Others answered.

More of the shriveled beasts joined the one chasing him, bursting out from faculty windows and classroom doors, creating a congregation of snarling demons out for his blood. Sen turned a corner, then up the stairs. He practically leapt past every other step, and close below, the monsters growled and scrambled, reaching for him and grasping at empty air.

All the while, another flash of gold text cut into his line of sight.

Modification complete. Interface enabled:

Status

Name: Sen Salazar – Tier 0 Human [3/15]

Ability: Locked – Essence Required [0/1,000]

Attributes

Tier 0 Mind – Rank I [0/30] (+)

Tier 0 Body – Rank I [0/30] (+)

Tier 0 Spirit – Rank I [0/30] (+)

Essence: 138

Skill Orbs [0/5]

None

“Shut up!” he roared, slapping his hand across the notification, sending the golden smoke curls whipping away to the side. As soon as he hit the screen, three pings echoed across his mind. Golden text flashed again.

Body [Tier 0] increased! Rank I -> Rank II

Mind [Tier 0] Increased! Rank I -> Rank II

Spirit [Tier 0] Increased! Rank I -> Rank II

He slapped the letters away a second time, growling and nearly stumbling as they blocked his vision. Sen brought his foot down hard on the step underneath and—

The world changed.

His senses sharpened. The pain in his muscles faded. Power filled him.

Thump!

His foot crashed into the next step hard, and suddenly Sen was flying, jumping up two steps farther than he intended to jump. His eyes widened as he flailed his arms, expecting to crash face-first into the steps, when… he didn’t. His body moved like he wanted it to and corrected, fixing his balance as he ran up the steps again, breathless, but moving.

The light of his phone bobbed up and down as the distance between him and the monsters increased by the tiniest bit. He reached the top of the stairs. Light flooded into the second floor and shone straight into another shriveled face.

The moment froze.

There was another monster in a student uniform at the top of the stairs, waiting. It turned the same instant the light of his phone flashed against its terrible face.

Time unfroze.

It screeched, blinded, and lunged at him. Sen’s body reacted with reflexes he didn’t know he had.

He twisted to the side. Dodged. Sharp claws scraped across his back, barely missing and drawing long, thin lines of red on his skin. Barely a scratch. And then it was gone. The monster blurred past him, down. Down the stairs until—thud! It flew straight into the rest of his pursuers and they fell like dominoes, crashing and screaming, down to the bottom of the stairs. Sen sprang forward into the hall as their roars faded behind him.

He sprinted straight, thinking only of escape, each step bringing him farther and farther away. He turned a corner.

And a hand shot out from the darkness of a nearby classroom.

It grabbed his shoulder and Sen opened his mouth to cry out in surprise when a second hand clamped over his mouth. Strength beyond what he could resist dragged him into the classroom and pinned him to the wall, blocking the scream that tried to burst out of him. A pale face leaned in close, barely visible under the dim moonlight leaking through the curtains.

“Shush!” a British girl with platinum blonde hair hissed, her eyes wide with fear.

Sen shut up.

The two of them stood still, waiting in tense silence as a horde of screaming, growling monstrosities dashed down the hallway outside. Sen’s eyes followed the reflection in the glass, counting.

Three… six—seven.

Seven of the beasts rushed down where he would have been running, had the girl not pulled him inside. Sen felt a shudder go down his spine as their shriveled forms disappeared into the darkness further beyond. Then, once the silence returned, the girl in front of him released a shaky sigh and pulled away.

“Holy shit,” she whispered, hugging herself. “Holy shit, holy shit, holy motherfucking shit!”

She paced around the room, and through the dim light of the moon leaking through the curtains, Sen noticed the piercings on her ears. A whole collection of them, down the length of her upper earlobe. Flat, silver rings, no more than a centimeter wide, and beads, ending on black piercings at the bottom. She turned to him, and the girl’s ears vanished under her hair.

“I saved you. I went out of my way and saved you, and—” she muttered, staring at him accusingly. “You almost got me killed.”

Sen stared at her, incredulous.

“Weren’t you the one who saved me?”

“I was, damn it! Fuck!”

The girl stomped her foot and stalked off, moving towards the window along the far wall. She peeled back the curtain, glanced outside, and whipped the curtain back into place again.

“Fuuuck!”

She sat down on the floor, the window right above her. She hugged her knees to her chest and buried her face into her arms.

Sen gave her a glance, then moved towards the window as well.

He peeked through the gap in the curtains and…

Dubai burned.

Far in the distance, away from the Academic City where the school was, the suburbs glowed orange. Fires spread across the houses in a silent, malevolent crawl. And down from the window, closer than the fires, were corpses. Dried husks littered every inch of the university proper; they spread out across the grass and laid against the palm trees, some facing the dark sky from the dried-up water fountains outside.

Slowly, Sen watched one of the bodies twitch. He watched its teeth grow and burst out from its mouth like a mass of porcupine needles, ripping the paper-dry flesh. And then he watched its fingers morph. They changed into long, bony claws, six inches long.

The monster stumbled to its feet, and its slithering, withered tongue tasted the air. The golden text formed in the corner of his vision again.

Desiccated Vampire – Tier 0

Sen stared at it, then closed the curtain. He stepped back.

“Fuck,” the girl said again.

“Yeah,” Sen nodded. “Fuck.”