pine trees. As the other man approached, he couldn’t remember how to move, or even breathe.
He looked down at his hand and noted the absence of the ring he had worn for so long. Without it, he was as good as human prey. For all the man in front of him knew, he was human.
Despite the fact that Colt had outlawed hunting, there were still those willing to flout the rules. Colt had killed most of them, and most of the others had fled, but obviously not all of them had.
Before Ronnie could say a word in his defense, the man went from being across the clearing one second to on top of him the next. He took Ronnie down effortlessly, and the unawakened ghoul’s head hit the ground hard enough that he blacked out for a second. When he came to, teeth as sharp as knives were buried in his left shoulder.
That first wave of pain broke through the numbness holding everything back, and it all flowed in at once. Anger, hurt, despair, fear. He felt it all more acutely than he ever had, and it seemed like everything was converging in that moment. Everything he had ever pushed to the side or tried to bury. It was all bubbling up to the surface, ready to boil over.
The man had one hand on Ronnie’s throat as he tore into his flesh, unleashing a growl of satisfaction. There were screams, and it took a moment for Ronnie to realize they were his own. They seemed to be coming from someone else, and he had no control over them, but he wasn’t present enough in his own body to try to stop them, either. As soon as the pain had come, along with the terror, he’d detached himself automatically. It was as if his mind knew it was too much and too horrible to simply push it away, so it had severed the cord between him and his body.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
Ronnie had once thought the curious ability was a gift. A coping mechanism. The fact that he had been able to zone out and leave his body whenever Miles was on top of him, to compartmentalize those horrible moments and pretend like they belonged to someone else, had kept him sane. Now, it was nothing more than a death sentence.
This thing was going to eat him alive, and even if he could’ve spoken with the other ghoul’s hand wrapped tightly around his throat, he was shaking too badly to get the words out. The shock had reduced him to a trembling child again, and all he could do was stare helplessly at the moonless sky.
As the teeth tore deeper into him, the distant pain further eroded any connection that remained to the body he wouldn’t be living in much longer. Then, he felt it. A familiar, whispering thing that was more a sense than a sound. It told him to shrink back. To retreat into himself the way he always had and allow it to take over.
It was a siren’s song too sweet to ignore; the promise of having another take his place, of no longer being burdened by the flesh that had always felt like a prison.
This time, when it came to the surface, he remained present. He was distant, as if he had sunk below dark water and everything was happening above the surface, but he was there. He was aware.
Now that it was happening, he knew it wasn’t the first time. He could remember all the others, even if they were blurry. This was the same thing that had taken over so many times in his sleep, when his mind was too overwhelmed and broken by the endless barrage of Vaughn’s memories. The same thing that had left him covered in blood miles from home with no memory of how he’d gotten there or what he’d done. Even now, he couldn’t remember the details, only the feeling of sinking deeper, being drawn under by a current too strong to resist.
For a moment, he thought it was Vaughn himself, but he dismissed the thought quickly. This wasn’t Vaughn’s voice. It wasn’t a voice he could even hear, not even inside his head. He merely felt it, like he felt the thoughts that weren’t his own but came just as easily.
It was inside him.
Maybe it was him.
Whatever it was, it didn’t feel fear, or anger, or hurt. It felt one thing and one thing only, and it