My heartbeat calmed down. After my initial shock, I stared at the woman currently sprawled over a table. She didn't have a care in the world as she picked her nails. The five zombies were still eating their friend's corpse as they couldn't hear nor see us.

“What are you doing here?” I asked in an annoyed voice.

“I'm your mother, you know, I deserve some respect.”

“Don't start on that. What the hell are you doing here?”

“You know the part where I can't move on my own. Well it means that I live in a corner of your mind. You get it?” I didn't get anything but I didn't want to get even more annoyed. Rolling with the flow was the better way to deal with Maron.

“So why didn't it work when I tried twisted temptation?” I swiftly changed the subject.

“You have to visualize the illusion you want to project. Saying the words alone won't do anything.”

“What should I visualize?”

“Temptation, sweetie, temptation.” She answered in a sing-song voice.

“How do I do that?”

“By visualizing.” I didn't get angry at her mocking tone, she was helping me in her own way but it was better than nothing.

I took a few minutes to think of what temptation zombies could have. I drew a blank. Pissed off with myself for even attempting to waste that kind of spell on them, I pierced the heart of the closest zombie with my katana. Then, I tried to decapitate another one but I was only able to give him a cut. His hands reflectively went to his throat as blood gushed out and painted the other three in red.

They cried as they tried to find the origin of the attack. Seeing nothing but themselves, they attacked each other. The next one, I separated his head from his neck. His head flew away and hit one of the other zombies in the chest. I jumped and cut him in two with a overhead slash.

The last one was pummeling the zombie with the cut on his throat to the ground. I pierced his back and tried to cut through his flesh but without momentum it was useless. I removed my sword from his body and I finished him off by stabbing him in the heart.

Finished with my bloody work, I stomped out of this place.

“You know you could have use the spell on them, right?”

I stopped in my tracks.

“What do you mean? They're zombies, they can't have temptations.”

“Didn't you watch that video when we came to this world?”

I wasn't sure what I was supposed to have understood in that video. For me, it had been a waste of time but Maron seemed to think that there was a use for it.

“If you don't tell me, I won't know it.”

“To sum up everything, the zombies as you call them are just a little deranged. They can still think just not in a way common to humans. They have thoughts and desire. Every living, nonliving, and on-the-fence creatures have them.”

Zombies were just a little deranged. That was the understatement of the year but I didn't raise it. I chose to pursue the line of questioning.

“So what do zombies desire?”

“Do you want me to breastfeed you too?”

I turned my head away from her in disgust. She didn't have to put that image in my head to tell me to think about it by myself.

In the distance, I saw a subway entrance. I jumped in joy. Maron looked at me like I lost my mind.

“Don't look at me that way. There's a subway entrance there. It leads to the underground where there could be tens of zombies to kill.”, I felt obligated to explain.

Killing them one by one wasn't thrilling in the least but having them swarming around would make it more interesting or so I thought.

I went down the flight of stairs that led to the subway. The further I went, the less I could see. I shivered in anticipation. They still couldn't see me nor touch me but I was sure I would get a good fight out of this.

My eyes took a long time to adjust to the darkness. When I finally was able to see, I had already reached another flight of stairs leading to the platforms. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was weird.

From what I read, zombies were easy to find underground. Since I came in there, I didn't hear anything. There wasn't any noise indicating that there was someone or even something down there.

I went down to the lowest level of the subway where I still didn't find anything. I wondered if I had been too late and all the zombies had been killed. The game was barely two years old. There could have been a lot of high level players who came to get the easy exp points, reducing the zombie population to nothing but the recent article I read didn't mention it at all. I kept looking for them though.

I jumped on the tracks and followed them out of this place. Three miles away, they stopped abruptly on a large hole. Inside, an impressive number of zombies were piled on each other. High walls surrounded them on all side.

Their screams were deafening. I didn't understand how I couldn't hear them before.

“Magic.” Maron explained next to me. I nearly forgot she was there as she hadn't uttered a word since I came in the subway.

“Who-” I didn't have time to ask the question as I heard a spell chanting.

“Fire! Fire! Burn and die! Pile of ash left behind!”, a young girl voice shouted.

Inside the pit, a small flame appeared right at the center. It grew until it engulfed all the zombies imprisoned in the pit. I used my float skill to move where the chanting voice was. What I saw made me frown.

A girl the same age as me stood alone on the edge of the pit with flames lapping at her feet. She had red hair, red eyes, red nail polish and she wore a red saree. She was crying as she looked at the zombies burning.

“That girl is weird.” Maron commented.

“I know. She kills them and then, she cries over their death. But it's nice to see her. She'll be an easier guinea pig than the zombies.”

I pictured what I wanted and said, “Twisted temptation.”

In front of her, the fire disappeared. People floated. Men, women and children all stared at her with a smile on their face.

“I'm so sorry. I wanted to save you but I can only kill.” Red said casting her eyes down in shame.

“No. You did save us. Thank you.” Red sobbed louder as relief swamped her mind. A small child came in front of her.

“Why are you still crying?”, a little girl asked innocently.

“I'm happy.”, Red answered in a trembling voice. She was trying to be brave.

The small girl smiled and waved goodbye. The fire reappeared behind her.

“No!” Red screamed as she lunged at the girl trying to save her from the fire.

“Oh shit!” I jumped trying to catch Red but it was too late. I stared dumbfounded at the pit of fire in which Red died.

Behind me, Maron was rolling on the ground laughing.

“It's not fun! She's dead.”, I grumbled.

She raised her head and stared at me for a second before she burst out laughing again.

“You're really my son! Killing someone with their own spell just after giving them hope.”

“I didn't want to kill her.”

“I know. You did it instinctively. Oh my little boy is growing!” Sitting on the ground, she held one hand over her heart and the other was wiping away an imaginary tear. I rolled my eyes at her theatrics and went back on feeling bad while she went back to laughing.

I really didn't mean to kill her. The illusion I made was to tempt her into forgiving herself for what she did. It worked as a black mist came out of her body and entered mine. I felt myself growing sightly stronger thanks to my temptation devourer skill. What I didn't think of was that she'd throw herself in the fire to catch my disappearing illusion.

I still had a glimmer of hope that she survived but it disappeared quickly as the fire died down. In the pit, only ash was left behind.

With the number of zombies Red had killed, I was sure the subway was now free of them. I walk away wanting to get out. I had no mana left so I couldn't float back the way I came, over the pit.

A few hours later, I was still underground. I couldn't find my way out. I tried to go back on my steps but I couldn't even find the pit again. I sat down on the ground holding my head exhausted.

“Hey, Maron! Wake me if something comes up.” I fell asleep despite the dirt and trash lying around.

A while later, I woke up suddenly. As I opened my eyes, I jumped in fright and screamed. Maron's face was two inches away from mine.

“What are you doing?” I pushed her away from me.

“I'm merely watching over my little baby sleeping.”

“Cut the crap.”

“You were having a dream. So, who's Claire?”

All the sordid details of my life, the hurts, pains and betrayals came to my mind. I shivered as I remembered the nightmare I had. They were more frequent recently.

Maron's eyes became an eery red. Her gorgeous face distorted as black mist engulfed her figure. Her teeth elongated and claws replaced her manicured nails. The Jessica Rabbit wannabe was nowhere to be seen. In her place, a monster worthy to be called a nightmare was there.

“Let's kill them all.” I knew who she was talking about. I couldn't even pretend that I'd never thought of what she proposed.

“They're in another the world.”

“Let's hunt hunt them down. No one touch my baby.”

Until now, I had thought that her calling herself my mother was just to mock me but the cold voice and the murderous glint in her eyes showed me that she was serious.

I teared up as my real mother never had that kind of reaction when I told her what happened to me. Foregoing my apprehension, I gave Maron a hug. Surprised, she reverted back to her human appearance.

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