So no shit there he was, sitting In a haunted car with a possessed man, moving towards an unknown location in the middle of the night.

Been a long day, man...

“What… what do you, want to talk about?” David spoke hoarsely, his body and mind under heavy stress, today has been nothing but a downward spiral of fear, pain, and regrets. But he is still alive, best keep it that way, if he had to lick the scrotum of this fucking guy he would.

“You… you have his scent.” The driver spoke, his smile widening even more, distorting it into a horrid visage. “Pitreres.”

“What do you want from Pitreres?” muttered David, he had never heard about a corrupted machine being able to communicate with the living. This is unprecedented from what he knew, this would be able to change the path of history of the current conflict between man and machine. But why did it have to start with him?!

God damn it all. And what do you mean I have someone’s scent?! Who?!?!

“Yes… help us find, someone…” David clenched his fist when he heard those words, trying his best to stay calm. “May… May I know his name?”

“…Don’t know, don’t remember. Just knew he was there, don’t know when…” the driver spoke, his face morphing slowly to reveal a different person, dark short hair, a short nose bent a bit to the left, uneven eyes, and a mole at the center below the chin. A face of a broken man, a dying, sad-looking man.

“Find him, and we will be…friends” The morphed face reveals a toothy smile, way too happy, too strange. And way above David’s pay grade

“Well…I can help you find him, but I’m a bit stuck right now. So this might take a while before I could…” David said dejectedly, lowering his shoulder and shrinking his stance to look as weak as possible.

The driver lifted his finger to reveal a small white orb, its interior flowing with strange words and symbols swirling like a torrent. The smile on his face stayed solid as if plastered to never fade. “Don’t worry, we’ll help you.”

The driver reached his hand out in a flash, causing David to lean back to kick him on instinct. With a crack, his head was bent backward, broken. And yet the hand continued reaching out, David swore he could still see the face smiling.

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The moment the right-hand reached and touched his chest, David could feel the air leaving his body as a heavy sensation laid upon it. His body was paralyzed, unable to do anything against this ‘thing.’

He could feel the searing pain coalescing on his chest as if someone was ramming a hot iron brand onto it. He couldn’t even let out a scream.

The driver, now having his head snapped, reach his knife over to David’s back and cut the zip ties binding his hands. Leaning back toward the steering wheel, as if nothing had happened. His head lopped on one side, but his face remains smiling.

“Tena…cious, I like yooouu…” the man said, his voice gurgling from the blood in his throat, as if unaffected by the violent kick.

David, still paralyzed could feel something crawling up his back and nearing his face, the sound of chittering, the sensation of a thousand legs crawling up onto his face. “Something… to help our bond… yes… that’s the word… boooooond”

He could feel something crawling on his face, struggling to breathe through the paralysis, feeling whatever was digging into his face. David could feel the damn thing crawling into his skin, digging into it… Slowly, the paralysis faded out, leaving him tired and vulnerable. Wondering if it weren’t for the training he experienced from his childhood, would he be able to endure this?

Getting up slowly, he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the rear mirror. The black tattoo of an encircling centipede now crawls under his skin, moving from his left ear and across his face and eventually down his neck.

“A gift… and an assurance…” the driver spoke, placing the white orb into one of David’s pockets, his hand bent backward awkwardly, like a puppet on strings.

The vehicle also stopped moving, before David could even utter a word, the door on his side of the seat sprung open, and a force pulled him out. Tossing him onto the ground, and just as suddenly the vehicle drove away, off the road and into the darkness. Leaving him in a daze, exhausted beyond measure.

And just like that, he ‘escaped’ the convoy. Dragging himself off the ground and standing up, he could see a light at the end of the road. He could towering walls of Berton, no shorter than that of Pitreres.

“Jesus…Christ… I’m alive?”

Staring at the scenery in utter disbelief, he broke into a dash towards the city, he needed to get there and fast. He needed safety, a new set of clothes, a new mode of transport, and to find out whatever the fuck that thing had just implanted under his skin.