A low groan escapes Mia’s lips as she stands over the mangled chunks of meat scattered across the floor, her bloodied fangs glinting in the dim, flickering light of her cell. The humidity seeps through her ruined clothes and clings to her skin thick and suffocating, while the black spores pulsed along the concrete walls like inky tendrils that possess minds of their own.

“Get it together, Mia. You have a job to do. You must contain it. You must contain the outbreak.”

Her voice is barely more than a rasp, the words an anchor she clings to as she fights to keep herself grounded. Her head swims, the hunger gnawing at the edges of her control. She tenses as she hears the familiar, heavy thud of footsteps echo down the hallway. Probably one of the Bakers, back to finish her off, or Eveline, ready to torment her again and make her give in to the bloodlust. But as the figure comes into view, her heart stops.

No. This is worse. It’s someone she prayed would never find her, someone who should have stayed far away from all of this. Someone she had hoped had moved on.

Why… Why were you here?