The air was thick with decay.
Evelyn's hands trembled as she checked Mia's pulse—still weak, but steady. The Mind Eater had infected her, but not taken her. Not yet.
Reaper coughed, propped against a rusted-out truck. His skin was still tinged with the black veins from where the creature had grabbed him, but he forced a smirk.
"Next time," he rasped, "I'd prefer the warning before you set me on fire."
Evelyn shot him a look. "You were dying."
The ground shuddered.
Reaper's smirk faded. Something was coming.
A wet, slithering sound filled the alleyway. Then—a voice.
Not loud. Not spoken. But inside their minds.
Evelyn clutched her head, a sharp pain stabbing through her skull. Reaper grimaced, shaking his head. The thing wasn't just speaking—it was forcing its thoughts into theirs.
And then it stepped into the dim light.
The Mind Eater had changed. Evolved.
Its sinewy body had grown, muscles more defined, its flesh stretched taut. But the most terrifying change was its head—its swollen brain now pulsated visibly, leaking tendrils of raw thought into the air.
"Your minds are already mine."
Evelyn's vision blurred. The world shifted. Suddenly, she was somewhere else.
A hospital. Blood everywhere. A woman's voice screaming. Her mother.
"No—" Evelyn gasped, stumbling backward.
She felt her hands drenched in blood. But it wasn't real. It was in her head.
Reaper clutched his temples, teeth gritted. "Evelyn—it's—"
The Mind Eater's psychic onslaught was breaking reality itself.
Evelyn forced herself to focus. The burning sensation in her skull worsened, but she fought against it. The moment she hesitated, she knew it would take her. It would consume her.
She reached for her knife. If it got any closer—
The Mind Eater snapped its gaze to her.
"That blade will not save you."
Evelyn's hand froze. She wasn't controlling it anymore. It was.
With his last ounce of strength, he drove a jagged steel rod into the creature's chest. The Mind Eater shrieked—not in pain, but in rage.
The hallucinations shattered.
Evelyn gasped as the visions disappeared. She could move again.
She didn't hesitate. She acted.
A flare gun. One shot. She pulled it from her belt and fired point-blank.
The flare struck the Mind Eater's chest.
It let out an inhuman screech, its tendrils writhing as flames spread across its flesh. Its body twisted, shriveling, its brain pulsating erratically.
For a moment, it stared at them.
Then—it vanished into the shadows.
The fire burned, but the monster had survived.
And somewhere in the darkness, it was still watching.