Chapter 40: Personal Battle
Dylan felt a click somewhere deep within the limbo of his consciousness. Like a mental lock snapping open. And then—he saw them.
Not with his eyes. Not really. It was more like... an overlay of mental images. As if his mind were projecting a map of his own body. And on that map, they were there.
Thousands of them.
Tiny.
Like translucent worms, embedded in his nerves, coiled in his muscles, slithering between tendons. They weren’t intelligent. Not really. They were made of raw instinct. Simple parasites.
Their only goal: to spread. To claim territory. Cell by cell.
"That’s all you are, huh?" he muttered mentally, with an inner grimace. "Just an infestation."
He tried to flex his muscles. To shake his mind. To eject those things from inside him. But they clung. They latched onto his nervous system like ticks, absorbing, infiltrating.
And then—it burned.
First in his shoulder. An unbearable itch, like his skin was about to burst. Then the pain spread, in waves, across his left side. It sizzled under his skin. Every nerve lit up with fire. He wanted to scream, but even that was denied him.
His left arm jerked on its own. Twisted, bent. Not under his control. The parasites were testing their grip.