Once Bitten

Mother (43)

It smelled of rotting meat and death down here, a cool chill across every wall that sunk deep into MK's skin like angry icicles. The room was dark, lighting dim but even with the ugly lighting from flickering candles MK could easily see every detail of what was once a person in front of him, the food he'd eaten yesterday churning uncomfortably in his stomach.

It snarled, desperately pulling in their direction at the noise of their voices like a dangerous animal and MK wanted to run but found his feet glued to the floor, breathlessly watching with wide eyes as Jīng hummed and patted him on the head. 

"Sorry, I haven't fed him in a while so he's a little cranky. To be fair, food he can eat is harder to get." She explained with a chuckle, tone unbothered like she just didn't see or care about the horror in front of them. Her son.

She'd chained him to the wall of her basement. 

MK wondered if madness had claimed her mind, but her smile dimmed at the next loud snarl for just a moment, heartbreak showing in those dim eyes before she was smiling again like she'd shoved it away and he realized it might be more merciful to her if she had gone mad. 

Living with her son like this- he imagined having to watch Bai He like this for torturous days and weeks on end and suddenly understood why she was so desperate, trapped in denial. Then he registered her words and froze. 

"What... what do you mean?" His voice trembled, already knowing the answer but hoping he was wrong as she laughed. 

"Why, people of course! They only seem to eat human meat, so that's what I feed him." Terror gripped like a vice around his heart, the organ pounding erratically in his chest as the colour drained from his face, going ghostly white so visibly she must have been able to see it.

"Oh, not you, silly. Don't worry, I'm not going to feed you to him. You can stay here with him while I figure out the cure instead." She said, tone bright and happy like he should be pleased but all MK could feel was sick and awful, throat dry as he slowly turned his gaze from the monster in the room to her. 

"My friends-" He gasped out, already understanding what she wasn't saying and her face pulled into a frown at his words, eyes rolling with exasperation. 

"They're fine for now. Stop being so rude." She said and it was the first time MK had heard her sound stern with him, his heart pounding painfully loud as he clenched his clammy hands, sweat pricking at the back of his neck as he trembled.

Then his flight or fight reflexes, which had been annoyingly stuck in freeze for a while, kicked in, and one moment he was standing there in the basement staring at her, and then next he was turning, his legs taking him up two steps at a time as he rushed toward the light at the top like it was the sun and he'd been trapped in the dark for years.

He couldn't breathe, heavy, choppy pants rushing from his empty lungs as he raced up the stairs clumsily, using purely adrenaline to get back up the stairs so quickly and he rushed into the living room, head buzzing loudly as panic smothered any rational thought. 

All he could think was oh god, she's crazy, and, we're going to die, and it made him gasp upon seeing his friends, Mei's eyes wide at his obvious panic and Sandy still worriedly unconscious. 

"MK, what's happening? Are you oka-" He shook his head, reaching for the rope around Mei to try and get her free but just as he touched them, fingers numb and shaky, hands grabbed him from behind and he screamed. 

"No!" 

"Let go of him!" Mei's screech was hard to hear over the hammering in his chest, the familiar arms around him tight and trapping him even as he kicked his legs and thrashed as hard as he could.