A Changed Friend (2)
The scream echoed endlessly from beyond the iron door, as if the thing never tired. The zombies that had followed the trail of my blood still hadn’t found us, but it was only a matter of time.
The howls were drawing closer, tightening around us like a noose.
Zeta rose with a grim expression. She gently wiped the sweat from my face and spoke slowly.
“Hyunwoo, there’s only one way for both of us to survive this.”
“What is it…? *Cough! Cough…!*”
“Let me drink your blood. I didn’t want our first blood exchange to happen under these circumstances, but we don’t have a choice.”
“…My blood?”
The sudden suggestion left me speechless. Even in my hazy state, confusion surged through me. What kind of nonsense was she spouting at a time like this?
But I knew Zeta wasn’t the type to joke around in a situation this dire.
I closed my eyes tightly, then opened them again. My blurry vision sharpened just a little.
In a world that kept spinning, Zeta appeared in overlapping images. Yet her red eyes remained crystal clear.
“You drinking my blood… *cough!* Honestly, I don’t understand what you’re saying… Are you telling me you’re a vampire or something?”
“…That’s right. I know it’s hard to believe.”
“……”
The heavy atmosphere made me crack a weak joke despite the pain, but it came back as the truth.
Zeta Beatrix. My childhood friend of fifteen years.
When she calmly confessed that she was a vampire, my brain practically short-circuited.
I mean, come on. Vampires—or whatever you called them—were supposed to avoid sunlight at all costs and fear silver. Even someone like me, who had zero interest in the occult, knew that much. It was common knowledge.
But what about Zeta? She didn’t particularly like sunlight, sure, but she moved around just fine under it. I’d never seen her avoid silver objects, and she had no problem using anything sharp.
The shock left me completely dazed. A vampire? Out of nowhere? It sounded like complete nonsense.
“My power is still weak, so this is all I can show you right now.”
Understanding my disbelief, Zeta demonstrated. A drop of blood from her fingertip floated gently in the air.
The surreal sight, illuminated by moonlight slipping through the curtains, was so shocking I forgot to breathe.
“…You’re controlling blood…? Does this have something to do with when you poured your blood into my arm earlier?”
“Yes.”
“And if I let you drink my blood, you’ll get stronger. Because you’re a vampire. Right?”
“That’s correct.”
Seeing her expression remain completely unchanged finally convinced me. Or rather, at this point, it didn’t even matter anymore.
The sky had shattered like glass and zombie-like monsters had appeared. What was one more vampire in the mix?
Even though moving had been agonizing the whole way here, I still felt like I was dreaming. I nodded in my dazed state.
“If I lose any more blood, I might actually die. I’m trusting you to be gentle.”
“Y-yeah. Just trust me, Hyunwoo. I’ll be careful.”
Once I gave permission, Zeta finally swallowed hard, her eyes gleaming with nervous tension.
“Ah, I’m covered in sweat. Let me at least wipe some of it—”
“It’s fine. I don’t mind.”
She cut me off mid-sentence as if time was running out, then moved to sit beside me, carefully avoiding my injured right arm.
[Kiiiiieeeeeeek!]
The scream tore down the hallway. Heavy footsteps pounded after it, slamming against the floor.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
I couldn’t tell if the thunderous noise came from the monsters that had probably overrun the entire school—maybe the whole area—or if it was just my own terrified heartbeat.
I didn’t know anymore.
I didn’t even know how I’d ended up in this situation.
“……”
In my foggy mind, I realized the latter was more likely. After all, I wasn’t alone in this room.
More precisely, I was sitting on the floor with my back against the wall. Even more precisely, Zeta was straddling me, preparing to hold me close.
“Hyunwoo… I’m going in.”
She leaned lightly against me, breathing hard as she spoke. Her voice was a mix of apology and anticipation.
In an unfamiliar student council room, a beautiful woman with white hair and red eyes was pressing herself against me in a way that looked almost hungry.
If this had been any other time, I would have been embarrassed but thrilled. But the reality of countless monsters roaming outside dragged me straight back down to earth.
Those zombies were screaming about their new world, and it felt like they could smash through the solid door at any second.
It wouldn’t have been strange if they broke in right now and attacked us.
Because of that, there was no room to feel anything romantic or strangely arousing. We were only doing what we had to in order to survive.
It all felt like a dream. A truly terrible nightmare.
Also, it was weird hearing a girl say she was going to “go in.”
“…Did you really have to phrase it like that?”
I glanced at the pile of chairs we’d stacked against the door as a makeshift barricade. The zombies didn’t seem interested in the firmly shut door. At least not yet.
Still, when I looked anxious, Zeta had stacked the chairs to reassure me.
“This is my first time, so it might hurt a little.”
The woman who hadn’t taken her eyes off me since I woke up in this room turned my head to expose my neck as she spoke.
“No, I’m asking why you have to say it like that…”
“Haa… I’m nervous.”
Zeta clenched and unclenched her fists, taking deep breaths as if she couldn’t even hear me.
My precious friend who had pushed me out of the way and saved me from the collapsing debris.
Zeta, who could control blood with mysterious power.
A vampire who needed my blood to unleash her true strength.
My mind was a complete mess. I’d always woken up to the same morning, expecting the same night. Who could have guessed the world would collapse like this in an instant?
“You’re not even listening to me, are you?”
I swallowed a sigh and let my body go completely limp, deciding to just let whatever happened happen. After all, this was the only way for me, for Zeta, for both of us to survive.
I couldn’t think of a better option anyway. Might as well go all in.
As the tension slowly drained from me, she took it as silent permission. Her sharp fangs drew closer.
Not long after, accompanied by a soft breath, Zeta sank her teeth into my neck.
Crunch.
The faint sound of skin being pierced reached my ears. A stinging pain, like a shot, came with it.
Gulp… Gulp…
Zeta pressed her entire body against mine and drank the blood flowing from my neck. It was an utterly unfamiliar experience in my life. Honestly, it probably would’ve been for anyone.
Every time blood left me, I felt a strange tickling sensation. Was she licking my skin with her tongue?
‘At least it doesn’t hurt as much as I expected. That’s a relief.’
Thinking that, I pulled the frantically drinking Zeta into a tight embrace. As our upper bodies pressed even closer, the sound of her swallowing became even more vivid.
She clung to me like someone whose thirst had grown unbearable after drinking seawater. I didn’t stop her. I simply stroked her back gently.
While my senses grew dull, the soft warmth of her small body remained strikingly clear.
I knew I shouldn’t be thinking like this, but my mind kept drifting toward lewd thoughts.
Like how much bigger her chest was than I’d imagined. Or how erotic her breathing sounded against my ear.
Of course, those thoughts only existed in my head. My body didn’t move an inch. I simply didn’t have the energy left.
Before long—
“Haa…”
Zeta, having drunk her fill, slowly pulled back with a deeply flushed face. Her eyes held an almost terrifying level of obsession and lingering regret as she looked at me.
Then, licking her lips with her tongue, she declared:
“It’s all right now, Hyunwoo. Leave everything to me from here on. You did really well.”
She hugged me once more, then let go. The warm comfort drained the last of my strength, and I could no longer hold onto consciousness.
Zeta stretched her arms and legs, then flung the door open.
Bang!
She opened it with such force that the door slammed against the wall and bounced back, nearly closing again. Though it ended up hanging crooked, unable to withstand the impact, it was more than enough to draw attention.
[Graaaaah!]
[Kieeeeeeek!]
Tatatatatatatata!
The zombies that had gathered at the College of Education Main Building naturally swarmed toward the student council room. The sheer number of footsteps far exceeded my expectations. I was stunned, wondering what the hell she was thinking, but my jaw dropped at what happened next.
“Hup!”
Zeta bared her teeth with a sharp click and charged forward faster than the lead zombie. Her small fist shot out, and the zombie’s head exploded instantly on impact. Black blood and sticky flesh splattered across the wall with a wet smack.
“……?”
It was a phenomenon I couldn’t comprehend. My thought process felt completely broken. Then, as Zeta continued to dispatch the oncoming zombies one by one with kicks and knife-hand strikes, my mind simply shut down.
The external threat that had felt as insurmountable as a mountain vanished in an instant.
“…Why are you so good at fighting?”
Zeta’s back looked especially large today. I let out a bewildered laugh and passed out on the spot.