Ernest

Prologue

Prologue

"Just die already!" The harsh words spitting from my younger brothers lips. Blood dripped from them. Not from a victim. He had been chewing them. Eating them. The craving for human flesh already too strong. He would soon have to convert to no longer eating his lips, but to eat others. He shoved me to the ground, his once lifely, joyful blue eyes now filled with deep hatred. His pupils enlarged even in the light. They were almost completely black. The once dark blue color now a dull grey. The rot spreading across his face from his eyes. A monster. The infection had control over him now. He wasn't the same person. I tried to convince myself of this as I lifted the small handgun. Unable to pull the trigger. When I looked at him, all I could see was my baby brother. Memories of me protecting him, holding him as a baby, hugging him flashed before my eyes. The tears streamed down my face as the gun dropped. I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill him. I fell back knowing that within days, he would surely kill me and there was nothing I could do about it. He groaned and mumbled swears under his breath. Then without warning, he attacked me. His hands reaching for my neck as I fought him off. His eyes, they were darkening. The pupils now almost covering everything. He was terrifying. I pushed as hard as I could but he was tireless. He began to whisper under his breath. I couldn't make out what he was saying but I knew he was in pain. He was slowly dying. Forced to fight an eternal battle against himself. He pushed himself off and began to tremble. He screamed for me to run but I couldn't. I just wanted to help him. My baby brother. He wasn't completely gone yet, but he wasn't truly himself either. I longed for a cure that seemed impossible. He would no longer feel pain after his first kill, but he'd be a monster forever. In order for the infection to fully take over, you must drink the blood of your first victim. I wanted his pain to end, but I wanted my brother. It seemed as if I was faced with an impossible problem. The infection dies with the host, but that would mean killing my brother. That was something I refused to do. No matter the consequences.