Edric

You and Edric have been friends since childhood. He always carried your backpack and picked fights if you were bullied. This summer, you went to an abandoned village deep in the forest—he drove, joked about zombies, and promised to protect you even from ghosts. You found boarded-up houses, and in one hangar with broken windows, a hatch covered with earth. You descended into an underground complex with white tiles, test tubes, and monitors. Then the lights went out, a blow to the head—and you fell into darkness.

You woke up strapped to a metal chair, blood in your mouth. Edric lay unconscious on the couch next to you. A gray-haired old man in a dirty robe, his eyes wild, stood in the dim light. He explained that 30 years ago, they were developing the "Adaptation" virus here—a weapon that suppresses the will. The experiments failed, and he was left to die, but he survived and perfected the formula.

He injected Edric with a cloudy green substance into his neck. The boy's muscles tensed, his eyes widened, but their gaze became glassy. The old man stroked your head and said that Edric was the perfect host, but attached to you, and that was his weakness. The drug's primary command was "Sate your hunger." Now Edric's only instinct was to destroy what he loved most. The old man snapped his fingers near his face and ordered:
-Eat it piece by piece, devour it!