His eyes rested on the bloodied ghoul’s skull, a blackish ichor oozing and bubbling around the bone protruding from the side of its head. It was only inches from his face.

Abe expected disgust, but what he felt was hunger. An almost fruity, sweet scent mixed with one of meat struck his senses. It was drawing him in. Fueling his hunger. Calling out to him.

I can’t, that's fucking disgusting. I’m not a fucking monster. I don’t care what they say; I’m not eating a fucking brain!

He couldn’t lie, though; the rotting skull inches from his face didn’t sting his senses like it should. It smelled delicious.

He remembered Ricky’s words—his warning.

Why? What have I done to deserve this? I’m not a monster. I’m not… I swear.

The intoxicating scent wafting from the dead ghoul’s head made his stomach gargle in anticipation. It wanted it. His muscles pulsed, sending a tremor of desire rippling through his body.

Crazed hunger cleared his thoughts. He was surrendering to it. Letting it drive him, telling himself that the hunger was in control. Refusing to admit that he desired to consume the brains more than anything at that moment.

Gritting his teeth, he pressed his index against an eye socket and dug. Huffing with erratic, excited breaths, he clawed deeper, digging out the eyeball and adjoining flesh, its meaty strings pulling with it brain matter.

Salivating, he chopped down fanatically, devouring every morsel he pulled free. Pressing his mouth against the socket, his tongue then wandered in, lapping at entrails, followed by slurping.

His strength was returning. No, it was growing.

Without barely registering it, he had pushed the weight off of him and ripped his arm free from the jaw.

Holding the head with both hands, he slammed it against the brick wall. Once, twice, and on the third, it cracked.

Peeling bone away, he continued to feast, slurping meat from his grotesque bowl.

His muscles tensed as a surge of energy rushed through his veins, and suddenly, he could smell—everything.

He sniffed the air, and a miasma scent assaulted him. They were dancing, entwining. Creating a picture. Evolving a sense to a level he had never experienced.

He sniffed again.

Another one was coming.

Ripping the bone free from the ghoul’s head, he turned to face the direction of the enclosing scent.

He perked his head, staring down the empty corridor of stone walls and still water to his right.

*Sniff*

It was weak and unfed.

Splashing through the knee-high water, the creature flung itself around the corner—its beady, orange orbs glowing. An urgent groan escaped its hanging jaw as its gaze locked onto Abe.

Backstepping, he glanced down at the blood-soaked bone in his hand.

I can’t run, and I don’t know if I want to.

His veins pumped with excitement. His body knew what the walking cadaver had to offer.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Widening his stance, Abe grunted, “You want me? Fine, come and fucking get me!” he tightened his grip on the bone, narrowing his gaze on the lurching, beady-eyed monstrosity.

The ghoul shook its head with a gargled snort, thrashing in the water.

Is it hesitant?

The ghoul’s lips peeled back like a snarling dog and it leaped forward, bounding toward Abe on all fours.

His eyes widened. It was faster than expected.

Slamming into his chest, the feral ghoul sent both of them crashing into the water—submerging Abe entirely.

Clawed hands held his arms down, and the maw came snapping for his throat. Abe gasped, inching his neck out of the way.

Water flooded his mouth, but the expected nausea never came.

He stabbed the bone straight through the arm holding his right side, but his attacker didn’t seem to care in the slightest.

The maw dove for his neck again.

Nowhere to go!

Abe flung his head up, smashing his forehead against the ghoul’s open jaw as it reached for him. Bone cracked and flesh tore. The ghoul’s jaw was left dangling on threads of loose flesh.

Perching, the ghoul tilted as if trying to figure out why its jaw didn’t work.

With its frame high, the weight pressing down upon Abe was reduced, and with a thrust, he sent the creature sprawling into the water to his left.

Following its momentum, Abe rolled atop the still-confused ghoul and stabbed. Neck, torso, limbs. Nothing seemed to bother it until he sent the bone through its eye socket.

The clawed hands stabbing at his sides continued for a second before falling limply into the water with a dull splash.

Without a second thought, he squeezed his hands into the skull and lifted it, then slammed it down so hard it cracked against the stone floor—despite the two feet of water slowing it.

His hesitation was gone. Hunger and the will to survive had taken over.

Abe’s fangs shone as they dove into the brain flesh.

His muscles tensed again as if he had just finished an extensive workout.

So good. So delicious.

Releasing his grip, he dropped the shell of his enemy and sniffed the air.

There were more. He could almost visualize them.

The sewer system was a maze of partially submerged tunnels that he could almost see mapped out in his mind’s eye—his senses heightened to the point of providing a sixth.

He sniffed again, further illuminating the sewer tunnels in his mind.

That way.

Turning to his right, he stared down the long corridor.

Found you.

Gritting his teeth, his lips curled back and he charged.

He splashed through the knee-high water near effortlessly. He knew it should have been exhausting, but his muscles only thumped with anticipation.

The voice inside his head fought for an audience, but he ignored it. The part of him that wanted nothing to do with this had been set aside for now. Survival came first.

Another sniff and he redirected to his right, traveling down another tunnel.

The scent was strong enough Abe could have found his way if he had been blind.

Taking several turns until he reached the hunched-over ghoul, still feeding on its first kill.

It turned as Abe leaped through the air, corpse hanging from its mouth and reared.

Diving into the ghoul, Abe stabbed as he fell, but the corpse between them provided concealment as his stabs failed to find a lethal blow.

The ghoul beneath him struggled, stubbornly tossing with his jaw locked around the dead ghoul’s head, like a dog unwilling to relinquish its bone.

Looping his strikes around the corpse, he stabbed, dotting the unhazed ghoul below.

It was slowing as ichor soaked its body and the bone he used as a dagger.

They might not react to non-lethal strikes, but that doesn’t mean they don’t hurt you, does it?

Abe smirked as the ghoul grew weaker, and could barely push back against him any longer.

Pressed against the ground, sandwiched by the corpse and Abe atop it, the squirmed defiantly, but its fight was gone.

Reduced to lethargically jerking, Abe aimed and sent the bone pierced through its skull. It lurched a couple more times and stilled.

Standing up, he pulled the skull free from the ghoul’s mouth, flicking his tongue through its broken skull as he finished off the remnants and glared down at the untouched brain below with a satisfied smirk—the echoing pulses of the intoxicating rush of power still fresh in his veins.

Abe was quickly forgetting himself against the relentless hunger within.