When We Were Still Human by Vaughn Foster (best ereader for textbooks .txt) 📕

deer. When we got close, you tried to put up a fight. We had to get a little rough— hence my son cutting your Achilles’. But you were already so weak that you would’ve died if we left you out there. I wasn’t sure how long ago you were bitten.”

The last word struck Val like a spear. “How- how did you know that?”

“Now, this is going to be a lil’ hard to believe, girlie, but you were umm…how should I say this? Turned.”

Val paled, her breath catching in her throat. “Turned?” The crazy man from the E.R. rushed to mind, accompanied by all the old horror movies about bloodsucking monsters. “You mean… like a vampire?”

“Ghoul,” she replied calmly. She took a sip of her coffee.

“Like a ghost? I’m de—”

“No. If I meant ghost, I would have said ghost. Ghouls are creatures that need human flesh. They can’t eat anything else; their metabolism burns it off before digestion. All the waste is breathed out in carbon dioxide. Haven’t you wondered why you didn’t need to take a piss in the last few days?”

"At least he wasn't crying ghoul!"

"Monsters that live in graveyards."

Val thought back over the montage since the attack. Her body had felt lighter, now that she thought about it. She had leapt twelve stories from Jason’s balcony and landed forty feet away. It also explained how fast she’d moved through the forest.

“If ghouls go too long without eating, they go crazy,” Crystal continued. “Issue is, live like an animal long enough and you start feeding on… live people. You go down a dark path, your mind twisting and morphing til’ you don’t even know what you are. Only thing that matters is where the next meal is coming from and who it will be. You get bit by one of these things, and well…” She motioned towards Val with her mug.

Val looked down at her soup. Panic and horror stopped her breathing as she saw pieces of meat float to the surface in the thick fluid.

“But… if the only thing that a ghoul can eat is…."

"Monsters that live in graveyards."

"And eat human flesh."

"Oh my god, I just ate someone! What the hell, how could you just give me that?!” Val jumped from the table, the sudden movement making her even more nauseous. She ran towards the kitchen counter and prepared to make herself vomit into the sink.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Crystal said, walking over to support Val from falling. “If you throw up, you’ll be in the same state we found you in last night. You will lose your mind, and for your safety, and that of my family, I will put you down.”

Val stopped her struggle, thinking back to the previous night. She'd attacked Jason. She'd snapped the neck of that deer with her bare hands. If Crystal and her son had been humans...

“You said if a ghoul eats humans, they’ll go crazy," Val started shakily. You can’t expect me to live like this. I’m begging you.” She grabbed Crystal’s shoulders and pleadingly stared into her eyes. “Just kill me now.”

“Sit back down, you’re not listening,” Crystal soothed. Gently placing a hand on Val’s back, she led her to the table. “I said if we continue to eat living humans. Feeding on the dead is a more...humane way of survival.

“Our ancestors were forced to dig up the freshly buried, but now that we’ve been hunted to near extinction, there are more options available for those of us still around. The most common is working as a mortician, my own profession. Once the body’s buried, no one notices if a few internal organs are missing. And if someone is to be cremated…” She closed her eyes and ran her tongue across her lips.

“What the hell is wrong with you!” Val slammed her hands on the table. “Dead or not, they’re still people!”

“Were people,” Crystal replied dryly. “Their spirits are long gone. What’s left is an empty, edible shell. It’s the survival of the fittest, girlie. Eat, or let your mind get eaten. Just know that if you pick the second one, you won’t have the option of whether you eat the liver of an old man on his way into the ground, or rip the beating heart out of someone you love.”

Jason.

The horror in his eyes continued to haunt her. She couldn’t go back to him, or her old life. Being around people would only tempt the unthinkable, and that would create a monster.

No.

That would release the monster.

Val looked up at Crystal, but the woman’s green eyes seemed to stare through her. It was like she was trapped in some distant memory.

Val cleared her throat and Crystal blinked.

“It sounds like you’ve had experience.”

“Ligel’s father,” said Crystal somberly. “He was human, but he knew what I was. He accepted me, said it didn’t matter. Said that he trusted me. After Li was born, I started getting tired. I couldn’t take care of myself, and getting what I needed became more difficult, especially with a newborn. Every time I saw my husband, I felt pangs of hunger. I wanted to eat him. But I loved him. He was the man I married, the father of my child. I couldn’t put him, or Li in danger, so I planned to leave.

“As the weeks went by, I started noticing little changes in Ligel. It started with eating less and staying up during the night. I guess for human children that’d be normal, but he had always slept ‘til morning. Before I knew it, his teeth had grown in. They—they were sharp.”

Crystal looked away and wiped a stray tear. She closed her eyes and absently stirred the spoon in her mug until her hand stopped shaking. When she raised her head again, she took a