Shudders

Chapter 60 - The Past pt. 2

    The journals (Y/N) held made Edith grow a small melancholic smile. Seeing the old books felt nostalgic to her. "I didn't find them. They're mine. Used to fill them up in just a month." She chuckled.

    This further confused (Y/N). "But if you did write these... then you must've been alive before-"

"Before the demons? Yes." Edith nodded and squinted her eyes at the girl. She saw how (Y/N) was shocked but also even more confused with this answer. Did she not know? "You said you were from a lab, right? How far into the past does your research go? Do you know where demons come from?"

"Um... it's all theories for now." (Y/N) shrugged. "They just suddenly appeared. Scientists have been testing DNA but so far nothing comes up."

    Just like she suspected. Their research was severely behind. Edith had some thought that maybe humans would've figured it out by now but it was kept a secret from the world until the last minute. Maybe that was her and her team's mistake...

    Edith looked (Y/N) in her eyes and the girl felt a little nervous. "It may be a surprise to you but I'm aware of where demons come from. I was alive to study it before... everything. What I'm about to tell you might be a shocker."

    (Y/N)'s eyes widened. She was going to learn about the existence of demons?! From a demon?! It seemed unlikely but if Edith was being honest then (Y/N) would be the first human to know! She needed to document this. If (Y/N) ever makes it back home alive to pass on the information, they wouldn't take her word alone. Quickly looking at her backpack, she raced over and opened it up to pull out her camera. She can record Edith telling her this.

    Edith admired how eager the girl was when before, she looked like she had no hope for anything. Maybe this will help her more than she realizes.

    The camera only had about 30% battery remaining but it was enough to just use the recorder instead of the camera. (Y/N) started the recording and motioned for Edith to start.

    The demon chuckled. "I see you're passionate about this. Demons, believe it or not aren't that distant from humans. Well, they aren't that distant at all."

'They aren't distant from us?' (Y/N) held her camera in her lap but pointed the recorder up. Demons aren't distant from humans. This implied that the two have a relation to each other. If that's the case... "Wait- what you're saying is..."

"Demons are humans. Or at least started out as such."

    A pause started between the two. (Y/N) being speechless while Edith observed her reaction. "Demons are... humans?"

    (Y/N) tried to connect the dots in her head. Yea, some demons are humanoid or can be mistaken as human but nothing about them is. Their organs are different, they have abilities humans don't possess, and a lot of them are completely animalistic. How can any of that start from a human?! "H-How could that be?! They don't resemble humans at all!"

"We don't but we are. Animals too." Edith spoke like it was obvious. "It started 2 years before the 'apocalypse' as you call it. I was a scientist along with Kaiden's father and a small research team. We worked for the government, a secret task force to look into this mysterious invisible virus that seemed to be spreading at an alarming rate."

"A virus?" Hearing the word made her think back to those memories she had when she was unconscious.

"We estimate that she only has a few days left. The virus is attacking every organ in her body, it's impossible to keep up with..."

"We dubbed it the 'Occultis Virus' or simply the 'Hidden virus' because even though it spread through the air like wildfire, it didn't seem to be harming its hosts. People infected didn't know they were carrying this. We couldn't deduce if it was harmful or not but we assumed that it was just a harmless bacteria. Of course, the government didn't approve of this and ordered us to look into it more."