Chapter 3Three Days to Stay Human

Panic gripped my throat. I didn't know how to answer.

When I called, I had told them there was a "strange creature" in my room. That meant they were already looking for anomalies. If they suspected me, I’d be thrown into that police car and taken to the "correction" facility. I had to speak their language. I had to pretend I was one of them.

"I... I was just confused," I stammered, offering a sheepish laugh. "We got caught in the rain, and I had already drained my brain-water. But when I looked at Polly, she was just sitting there, not doing it. I thought she was losing her mind, behaving like one of those 'un-drained' crazies. I panicked. But then I realized she was just wearing noise-canceling headphones, listening to an audiobook. Once she took them off, she tilted her head and drained her ears right in front of me. We had so much left over, we even shared some with Marsha at the front desk. Right, Marsha?"

Marsha smiled, licking a faint smear of dried copper from her lip. "That's right, Officer. Quite a tasty batch, too."

The officer's tense posture relaxed slightly. "I see. Good. It pays to be vigilant. Those lunatics are a threat to public safety. Show me to your room, though. Just a quick welfare check and I'll be out of your hair."

If he saw Polly, and she didn't play along with my specific story, or if he saw through me...

Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from outside. The pajama-clad woman had broken free from the police cruiser, her forehead bleeding as she scrambled across the wet asphalt.

"I am not crazy! You're monsters! All of you! If you rip out your heart, you die!"

Her voice was raw, filled with a desperate, agonizing truth that echoed my own silent thoughts. But I couldn't help her. To survive, I had to mock her.

"Wow," I said, forcing a mocking chuckle. "She really is far gone, isn't she? Are there really that many of them, Officer?"

"Not for long," the officer muttered, turning on his heel to chase after her.

The moment he was gone, I practically ran to the elevator, my clothes soaked in cold sweat. Back in the room, Polly was still scrolling on her phone.

"Where's the food?" she asked without looking up.

"A crazy woman was making a scene in the lobby. The police locked the place down. Total nightmare," I lied, collapsing onto my bed.

I couldn't sleep that night. Every time Polly snored, my heart leaped into my throat. Who was I living with? What had happened to my world?

At 3:00 AM, staring at my phone screen in the dark, I searched desperately for any keywords related to the "crazy people." Finally, deep in a hidden thread on an obscure forum, I found a post written in a complex cipher. Fortunately, my background in cryptography made it easy to crack.

Is there anyone left out there? Anyone who hasn't been turned into them?