Of the remaining five apartments on Rita’s floor, three still had intact and locked doors. From the other two, she gathered a large knife with only a few spots of rust and a bottle of water that still looked clean enough. It did wonders for her parched throat. There was also a granola bar that seemed wholesome enough, but after her first bite the sight of wriggling white worms in it very much ruined her appetite.

She had no idea how the worms even got in there. The package had still been sealed!

Now, on the next floor, she was investigating the rather peculiar sound of someone rummaging around. She peered through the open doorway of the apartment, the door showing obvious signs of having been broken open. She made sure only her head was sticking out, just in case it was someone friendly who would be less friendly if they discovered their new acquaintance had a rear end from hell.

Inside the apartment there was, as she had suspected, a person. Their back was to her and they were busy scavenging through the remains of the previous owner’s things. They just pulled things out of the cupboards and tossed them on the ground, so Rita was fairly certain they were just looting. From this angle, she couldn’t quite tell the person’s gender. Their most noticeable feature was a mop of matted and filthy red hair that dangled over their shoulders. Possibly a woman?

Rita sighed with relief at the thought of meeting another survivor. Now she just had to navigate the tricky part of introducing them to her bottom half without them screaming and running away in terror. To be fair, she thought it was the right approach and would have taken it herself if it was possible.

“Ahem, excuse me…” she tried. Her voice was surprisingly loud in the sudden silence as the person froze. Then they slowly turned to face her. Now she could see that they were wearing a mask, featureless except for two eye holes and painted red. Their… no, sorry, his white yet filthy shirt clearly showed where the paint had run down his chest and soaked into the fabric, like a soft red fabric beard extending below the mask.

“Are you… are you also a survivor?” Rita asked. The mask creeped her out a little, but not like she was one to judge. She had an entire spider stitched to her butt.

“Mnn…” he mumbled. From his voice, she judged he was still a teenager, far younger than her twenty-six. He picked up a long metal object off the ground that she hadn’t even noticed before now. A crowbar.

“Hey, don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you!” Rita quickly explained. She was gripping her knife tightly behind her back, though. Just in case.

“Mnn. Minn. Mine. Mine.” As he began walking slowly closer, she could start making out the word he was muttering under his breath. Over and over, louder and louder, his eyes still locked on her. “Mine. Mine. Mine!”

“No, I’m most definitely not…” Rita started, but was forced to yank back around the corner just before the crowbar smashed into the edge of the doorframe with a resounding “MINE!”. A small chunk of brick shattered right where her face had been moments before.

She skittered back three steps as her attacker came through the doorway and entered the corridor, before stopping and looking her up and down. It was the first time he had seen her full body.

“Now, don’t freak out, I just want to talk,” Rita said carefully, her knife now held out in front of her, trying to keep the boy at bay.

“Miiine… my skull… my legs…” he continued whispering in a sing-song voice as he started stalking closer to her again, the crowbar swaying ominously in front of him. She began backing away equally quickly.

“Stop coming closer, dammit! I will stab you!” she shouted at him, but he didn’t seem to pay her much mind.

You missed the stairwell.

It was true! The doorway to the stairwell was in front of her now, she had backed away right past it without even noticing! Not that she was eager to reverse up the stairs, going down forward had been challenging enough. It was just that a quick glance over her shoulder revealed that she was now in a dead-end corridor unless the apartment door at the end opened. Judging by how whole it looked, she doubted it.

The masked boy kept coming closer, lunging forward with the crowbar just far enough to swing at her knife hand, which forced her to dodge backwards even more.

He’s driving you into a corner, rush him! Your weapon’s a lot better in close quarters!

“Now’s not the time!” she said as she tried the apartment door at the end of the corridor. Her back legs were already against the wall.

Yes, now is exactly the time! He’s trying to use his superior reach to weaken you! You need to end it right now! You have to COMMIT!

“I don’t want to kill you!” Rita exclaimed again as the boy darted forward again, his crowbar clanging against her knife, sending a painful shock through her hand. She nearly dropped it but managed to hold on despite the shock. She was starting to panic.

He is not giving you a choice!

“I’m not hurting a kid!”

Fine, then let ME.

There was a wrenching sensation and suddenly Rita was a spectator in her own body. She could do nothing but watch as she reversed even further, her rear two pairs of legs planting themselves on the dead-end wall itself while the front two pairs held her weight for a moment. Seeing her now completely cornered, the young man lunged forward again, certain that she had nowhere to run to anymore. It was exactly what she had been waiting for.

As he moved forward, her back legs coiled and jumped, propelling her forward faster than he had expected, and much faster than he could withdraw. He attempted to smash her with his weapon but barely managed a glancing blow on her arm before her body slammed into his. It turned out another advantage to having such a huge butt was that she was somewhat heavier than he was, despite her rather slight build. She bowled him over without much difficulty before pinning him down with her legs.

Then, to Rita’s horror, she began stabbing him. Again and again the knife plunged into his chest, three, four, five times… each time leaving a bloody red wound and spray of blood.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh…!

“…ahhhhhhhhhh!”

And suddenly, Rita was back in control of herself. Panting with exertion, she stood up on shaky legs, the knife dropping from her suddenly limp fingers and clattering to the ground. The masked boy was unmoving. A pool of thick, red blood was spreading around his body. It was, she realized, the same colour as his mask.

“I… I… I killed him…” Rita whispered in horror.

No… I think that was me.

“You… what did you do to me?”

I saved your life, you ungrateful bimbo! That little shit was trying to KILL you!

A pause. “Who… who are you?” Rita asked cautiously.

I’m… I’m… huh. This is strange. I used to be you. Now I’m… look, I have some processing to do, can you give me a few minutes?

“What? No! Answer me! Who the hell are you? What do you mean you used to be me? Don’t you dare ignore me!” Rita shouted at the air, but her only response was silence.

The pool of blood was reaching the tips of her feet, so Rita backed away. Unfortunately, the stairwell was on the other side of the corpse, so she was forced to tiptoe through the congealing blood to reach it. The feeling of blood between her toes nearly made her gag.

Okay so here is the deal… wait, why are you headed downstairs? We need to check out the apartment the masked freak was tossing.

“There is a dead body! I am NOT staying on that floor for a moment longer! I am out of here!” Rita responded to the unknown voice. “What if the police arrive and think I did it?”

But you did do it.

“No, you did!”

Okay… look around you. I don’t think the police are something we should be worried about, right? But there might have been something useful in that apartment! And where’s our knife? Did you just leave it there??

“It’s covered in BLOOD!”

For the love of… quick, duck into that open apartment and barricade the door. We need to talk.

“I told you, I’m not staying here one…” Rita began, but there was another sudden wrenching sensation and she suddenly found herself tumbling through the apartment’s doorway, her legs tangled in a heap.

Ow, that was a bad idea. Good news for you, looks like I can’t just seize control whenever I want.

Rita wrapped her arms around her head where it had hit doorframe on the way in. It was throbbing painfully.

“I want you out… just get out of my head right now,” she mumbled through clenched teeth as she waited for the pain to subside.

I. CAN’T. I’m stuck with you as much as you’re stuck with me. Don’t you get it? You lost your mind and I’m the bit that you lost!

“Then give it back! It’s my mind! You can’t have it!”

You sound like that masked freak we just perforated. ‘Mine mine mine!’ Now barricade the damn door so we can speak like fucking adults!