Koda’s mouth hung agape.
He didn’t know how to respond.
But the other boy continued staring at him with pleading eyes.
“Please, Koda.” He said, voice breaking as tears began to flow from his cloudy brown eyes.
Koda felt his stomach churn, he was so hungry.
“R-Riley… I—eat you?
B-but…” The poor boy had no idea what to say.
“There’s no way out.
You can’t move the rubble unless you have the strength.
You won’t have the strength unless you eat.
There’s nothing to eat.
Only me.” Riley said slowly, the parasites starting to writhe beneath his flesh once more.
Koda’s stomach churned once more, he felt like throwing up.
“Let… let me atleast try!
Then… then we can get you a doctor and get out of here, together.
Come on, Riley!” He said, clutching his stomach.
The pale boy shook his head.
“I don’t want to die a zombie, at least let me die looking into the eyes of the boy… the boy I lo—” “No!” Koda yelled, completely losing his composure.
More and more, he continued acting like a different person.
Back on earth, Koda would’ve never have acted like this.
It must’ve been the influence of the original boy.
Koda grit his teeth as he felt warm tears falling down his face.
“We need to get out.” He said, grabbing the pile of rubble with his one good arm.
“Koda…” Riley murmured in a defeated tone.
Tears streamed down Koda’s face and onto the cold stone floor as he tried and tried to no avail.
The rubble would not budge, he was far too thin and frail.
Far too weak.
“Please… come here.” Riley muttered weakly, face stained with blood, ash and tears.
Koda grit his teeth and looked back at the boy.
“I… you know I’m not the real Koda, so why the hell do you still care about whether or not I get out of here.
Shouldn’t you be mad at me?
Mad that I stole the body of someone you held so dearly?” He barked.
Riley smiled softly.
“Sure, I should be mad at you.
But I could never be mad at those eyes.
Strangely enough, despite you being a different person, you have the same eyes.” He said, voice becoming more and more slurred.
Koda knelt down, face to face with the pale boy.
Riley smiled again.
It was the same smile that he had greeted Koda with when they had first met, the first and only smile Koda had seen in this nightmare.
“What… What were you and Koda exactly?
This… doesn’t really seem like a friendship.” Koda asked awkwardly, tears still streaming down his face uncontrollably.
“No ordinary person would eat their friend.” At that exact moment, Riley leaned forward and pressed his smiling lips up against Koda’s dry lips.
Koda recoiled, covering his mouth with wide eyes.
“Wha—?!” He stammered in disbelief.
Riley laughed.
“Does that explain it?
Sorry if that came as a shock.” He said softly.
Oddly enough, Koda wasn’t disgusted nor was he really upset about it.
Never in his life had he put much thought into his sexual orientation, nor did he really care for such labels.
He never really felt any romantic or sexual feelings for anyone in particular, so he didn’t know what he was into.
But the fact he wasn’t really bothered after being kissed by a man… He had found women attractive, so he wasn’t entirely into men.
Maybe it was since the original body was so used to being intimate with the other boy?
Shaking his head, Koda snapped back to the world and stared into Riley’s eyes.
“You… How could you expect me to eat you now?!
Friends are one thing but that?!” He barked.
Riley chuckled, his eyes had completely lost their lustre now, his body was starting to go limp.
“Please… Koda.
Do this one thing for me… eat me, use me as sustenance to gather strength, use that strength to get out of here…” he said, voice breaking.
“And live… for me.” He said, one final tear falling from his eye.
Koda didn’t know what to do, he really didn’t.
But his body was already moving.
He pushed his head into Riley’s neck, opened his mouth wide and sunk his sharp, metallic teeth into the pale boy’s jugular.
As the boy convulsed, he placed his hand on the back of Koda’s head and stroked his light brown hair.
Tears continued streaming from Koda’s eyes as he continued eating.
He felt the warm blood covering his mouth, he felt the bones breaking under the force of his jaw and he felt the parasites dying as they entered his stomach.
“I… love you.” Riley muttered with his last bit of strength.
Koda continued eating, his body moving on its own, his starvation taking control of his movements as he instinctively devoured the boy.
Taking a breath, Koda whispered one last sentence into Riley’s ear before the boy finally rested.
“I’m… sure that Koda loved you too.” And at that moment, the voice of the spell whispered into his ear.
[You have slain an Awakened Human, Riley.] [You have Received a Memory, Explosive Grasp.] But Koda couldn’t stop eating.
“So disgusting… so good.” He said with his disgusting mouth full of blood and flesh as tears stained his tanned face.
He ate.
And ate.
And continued eating.
He didn’t know how much time had passed, but before he knew it… he was the only one left in the underground cellar.
Koda stared as his senses came back to him.
He stared down at his shaking hands, covered in the blood of a boy who loved him so dear.
He nearly threw up, but his body refused to let go of anything he had eaten.
He heaved and heaved but nothing came up.
He grabbed his throat and his eyes bulged, he tried to scream but his voice was too broken, his throat too sore.
There was no trace of Riley left in the cave.
Koda had devoured him, bones and all.
“I…” Koda’s voice broke before he could form a sentence, the tears falling from his eyes turning violent as they started to sting.
“I ate… a human!” He said, gritting his sharp, bloody teeth.
“And for what!” He yelled, pulling at his bloody brown hair.
“I…” he tried, but no words came to mind.
All he felt was disgust.
Not disgust because of what he had just done, but disgust at the idea that he loved it.
Despite it all, he loved it.
Satiating his encompassing hunger, the taste of an awakened human.
He loved it.
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