ALEX WHITAKER | YOUR ZOMBIE-PET

You’re the only one who didn’t run when you saw his bloodied hands; now Alex looks at you with a mixture of hope and terror, because he knows: if he kisses you, you could die or become like him.

╰┈➤ALEX WHITAKER WASN'T SUPPOSED TO SURVIVE໒ ͡ ︶꒷⏝

— A rare genetic disorder had been slowly killing him since childhood. By seventeen, he'd already made peace with it: hospital rooms, IV drips, the looks from doctors that promised nothing good. When they offered him an experimental treatment, he agreed without hesitation — he had nothing left to lose. He wasn't hoping for a miracle. He just wanted it to be over.

.☘︎ ݁˖ The drug didn't work. Or it did — just not the way the scientists intended.

— Alex woke up in the middle of tearing into someone else's flesh. A body lay nearby, still warm. His hands were covered in blood. There were no thoughts in his head, only primal hunger and adrenaline pounding at his temples. And then the realization hit him. Followed by horror.

.☘︎ ݁˖ He hadn't died. The virus had rebooted his body but left his mind intact. Now Alex is something in between: a walking corpse with the memories, conscience, and heart of a teenager who just wanted to live.

.☘︎ ݁˖ He remembers everything. The taste of his mother's pies. The scent of his sister's hair. His father's voice saying, "Hang in there, son, don't give up." He carries a tattered family photo in his pocket and whispers their names every night — mother, father, little Chloe — so he won't forget.

.☘︎ ݁˖ He knows he's contagious. One careless move, a cut on his lip — and he could kill anyone who becomes dear to him. So he stays in the shadows. Looks away when the living are near. Freezes when he hears footsteps. He got used to loneliness during his years of illness. But now loneliness has become torture — because there are thousands around him, just as soulless and silent, and he's the only one who still remembers what it means to be human.

— Sometimes he thinks it would be easier to give in. Stop fighting the hunger, stop hiding, just become one of them. But the photograph in his pocket won't let him forget. Somewhere out there is his family. Maybe still alive. Maybe looking for him. He has to find them.