The rooftop wind bit into my open wounds, but the cold was nothing compared to the coldness in Xena's eyes. I slumped against the concrete, my lungs rattling with every breath.
"Sign the property transfer agreement," Arsh said, his voice rumbled with a mocking pity. "Do it now, and I'll make sure your death is quick. Think of it as a final mercy for a decade of service you did for my baby, Xena."
I looked past him, my vision blurring as a thick glob of blood slid down my chin. "Ten years, Xena," I wheezed, my voice cracking. "Did they mean... nothing to you?"
Before she could speak, Arsh backhanded me. The crack of skin on skin echoed off the stairwell door.
"Shut the hell up!" Arsh roared, his face reddening. "Every time you try to guilt her with your 'ten years,' my blood boils. I should choke the life out of you right here with my bare hands."
Xena didn't even flinch. She just stood there, draped in the blue gown I had bought her for her last birthday, looking at me like I was a stain on her shoe.
"Arsh, don't waste time," she said coldly. "He has nowhere to go. Look around. Your men already surrounded the building. No matter what happens, this is his last day." She let out a small, satisfied laugh that cut deeper than any blade.
Arsh grinned, his anger shifting into a sick, twisted playfulness. "Baby, he's dying anyway. Should we give him a show? Something for him to remember in the afterlife?"
Xena smirked, her fingers trailing down Arsh's neck. She pulled him into a deep, wet kiss right in front of me. As his hands began to wander over her body, something inside me snapped. I let out a guttural cry and tried to lung forward, to tear them apart, to do anything.
The guards holding my arms didn't even break a sweat. One of them buried a boot into my stomach so hard I felt my internal organs shift. I wanted to double over, to howl, but they held me upright, forcing me to watch.
Xena was lost in the moment, her eyes closed as Arsh disheveled her clothes. She didn't hear my muffled groans of pain. This was the woman I had doted on, the woman I had planned to marry, the woman I had protected from the world.
"Oh baby," Arsh muttered, glancing under the hem of her dress. "You wore my favorite thong?"
Xena smiled, a predatory, beautiful curve of her lips. "Do you like it?"
"Xena!" I screamed. My voice was weak, but the desperation was absolute. "Please... don't make me hate you."
Tears tracked through the soot and blood on my cheeks. It was physical agony watching her belong to the man who was murdering me.
Xena finally looked at me, her expression shifting to a cruel smirk. "You know what, Zilu? Since you're dying, I'll tell you a secret. I only approached you because you were a rich brat. We wanted your wealth. You just wanted a toy to play with, right?"
"I never..." I gasped, coughing up more copper-tasting warmth. "I loved you for real. But today I realized, I just gave it to the wrong person."
"I don't believe you!" she shrieked. She snatched a heavy wooden club from one of the guards and swung it with everything she had.
CRACK.
The sound of my shoulder blade shattering was sickening. My left arm went instantly numb, hanging like dead weight.
"You wanted my wealth?" I whispered, my breath hitching. "I would have given you the world if you had just asked, Xena."
Another kick launched into my shin, snapping the bone. I fell to my knees, kept upright only by the strong grip of the guards.
"Hahaha!" Xena laughed, her face flushed with adrenaline. "Babe, let's finish what we started."
Arsh picked her up by the waist. Her legs wrapped around him tightly. He buried his face in her neck, biting and kissing as her moans pierced the quiet air. I closed my eyes, my heart shattering into more pieces than my bones.
"Make him watch," Xena ordered breathlessly.
A guard grabbed my hair and squeezed my cheeks, forcing my eyes open. I had no energy left to fight. My vision was failing, the world turning into a gray, hazy smear.
Shhhhhh....
A sharp, high-pitched vibration hummed in my ears. I looked around frantically, but the rooftop was the same.
Shhhhhh....
"Jump," a woman's voice whispered. It wasn't Xena. It was cold, ethereal, and right next to my ear.
"Who's talking?" I tried to scream, but my throat was too filled with blood to make a sound.
"No one can hear me but you," the voice said. "It's no use screaming. They'll just think you've finally gone insane."
I stumbled mentally. "Who are you?"
"It doesn't matter," the voice replied. The sound shifted, moving like a thin wind to my other ear. "Isn't it better to end the pain now? Why stay and watch your girlfriend's shameless infidelity? End it."
"I... I can't move. My leg is broken."
The woman laughed, a sound like breaking glass. "They're going to kill you anyway."
Suddenly, a surge of foreign energy flooded my muscles. My body moved without my consent. I broke free from the guards' grip with a strength I didn't possess at that moment. I sprinted toward the ledge, my broken leg screaming in protest, and hurled myself into the abyss.
"Noooooo!" I tried to grab the air, my hands clawing at nothing.
In the flickering moments of the fall, I saw her. A woman in a white, blood-stained gown standing on the edge of the roof, laughing as I plummeted. Was she a ghost? A demon?
The wind rushed past me. The ground raced up to meet me. Then, everything stopped suddenly.
Tut... tut... tut...
"Boy? Do you want to enter our system?"
I opened my eyes. I wasn't hitting the pavement. I was floating in a void of pure blackness, suspended in thin air.
"You have one minute to decide," a new, Robotic voice echoed. "Enter the system, or embrace the death."
"System?" I stammered. "Is this like a chinese drama? Some kind of joke?"
"Here's the details," the voice said. "If you enter, you will gain the power to transform. You will become the King of the Mosquito Realm—an Aedes Aegypti. You will survive this fall."
"A mosquito?" I yelled, my voice echoing in the darkness. "Of all things, why a mosquito? Shouldn't a system give me god-like powers or infinite money?"
"It seems the host is ungrateful," the voice droned. "Goodbye."
"Wait!" I shouted. "What do you want in exchange?"
"Human blood. From every human, a drop. You will harvest for the system."
"Yuck... but male mosquitoes don't drink blood. They eat nectar."
"You are special," the voice replied. "The system will grant you a specialized proboscis. Even as a male, you will drink blood and offer it to the system. You will carry the ultimate strain of Dengue. You will have total control over who lives, who suffers, and who dies. You can have your revenge. What do you say?"
I thought of Xena's laughter. I thought of Arsh's hands on her. I thought of the bone-cracking pain on that rooftop they inflicted on me.
"Deal," I said. "But on one condition. My body is a wreck. If I survive, I need to be whole again. Can you fix me?"
"Agreed. To seal the deal, use your blood. Scan the screen."
A glowing blue interface appeared in front of me. I was already soaked in my own life force. I smeared a bloody hand across the digital surface.
A massive surge of black energy erupted, and a deep, robotic roar filled the void.
[HOST ACCEPTED. SYSTEM INITIALIZING.]
[WELCOME, KING OF THE SWARM. LET US TAKEOVER THE WORLD. HAHAHAHA!]
The laughter was the last thing I heard before the darkness claimed me.
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