I thought I knew what to expect, but then again, nothing can really prepare you for something like this. How could it? No glaring headline, mournful Reddit post, or even your own worst nightmare—the kind where you wake up damp, heart racing, thanking GOD it was just a dream—can describe this moment. The one where you look into the eyes of someone you love so much, someone you would do anything for, maybe even die for, and see a monster looking back.

That’s not to say the description doesn’t match. When X-X14 broke out and the hysteria began—but before the true reckoning had hit—the symptoms (warnings?) were shared widely. Gray-tinged skin. Rapid weight loss, making the victim’s skeleton appear to be protruding out of their very flesh. And worst of all, the eyes: those once lively features, able to convey the most minute expressions, sunked into black, oozing pits.

Those eyes that once were my favorite shade of greenish, bluish gray—now looking back at me preparing to kill.