Nene had a fever and stayed home during new years. When she woke up in the new year the world changed seemingly over night.

Her joints felt creaky and her senses dulled. She shuffled over to the kitchen and opened the curtains to her balcony to let In some light. The scene that greeted her was a hellscape straight from a zombie apocalypse film. burning buildings. corpses lining the streets. Blood soaked cars. People splattered across the road. The usual fare in slasher flicks.

her doorbell rings and she is broken out of her stupor. She drags herself to answer the door. her heart unnervingly silent. For once in her life she didn't sweat out the nerves. behind the door was a man. his eyes wide, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead. A pleading look. Anxiously looking all around the place. A stranger. Nene watches him through her doorbell camera. Saliva fills her mouth as the smell of blood filled her nose. She could taste his fear in her tongue. She liked it.

The man is repeatedly turning the door handle in a futile attempt to get inside. Nene was about to open the door when she felt something dangerous approaching. her hand paused above the door handle and she watched as the man let out his last breath snuffed out by a monstrous being of rippling flesh. Blood dripped out of its mouth as it chewed on the remnants of the man. Nene felt that it knew she was looking.

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She understood what it was saying.

"My prey. Mine." No sound came out of its mouth other than the chewing but she understood it perfectly.

Nene felt angry, annoyed, when she should have felt fear. She made sure that her door was locked and walked into the bathroom.

She looked into the mirror and saw a monster staring back at her.

Her face was a sickening hue of purple. She didn't know where it came from but her face was bruised and her eyes bloodshot. blood fell down her nose in a constant trickle and her body was puffy. Like a bloated corpse. it was clear that she's been dead for a while.

But how could she be moving around? why can she still think? why was she not a mindless zombie like the people roaming downstairs?

System window explaining things or mystery to be solved?

to be continued, sometime in 2025