1 Chapter 1: The last Supper
{200 Years Later}
"I'm home!" A loud masculine voice called out as he walked in through the door of a very small house.
There was no need to call out. Even if he had whispered the words, everyone in the small structure would have heard him just fine.
"Darling, welcome back!" a thin feminine voice responded not far from the door where she was bent over a gas cooker, mixing something in a pot.
They were a couple and their poverty status could be seen from how their living room also doubled as the kitchen, yet that wasn't the worst of it all.
The man shuffled in, gently closing the door behind him, before he continued to shuffle forward.
His two legs looked quiet strong the only oddity was a third boneless leg that stuck out from behind him which he dragged as he walked over to kiss his wife.
His wife wasn't spared. The weirdness on her body seemed even stronger as two huge pairs of flappy flesh-filled appendages dangled to her left side.
It was obvious that although they were attached to her sides, they were completely useless.
"You look tired!" Lonx pointed out as he touched both sides of his wife's face, carefully not to touch her right eye, the only eye that still worked.
"I'm fine, it's just hard to carry these things around everything. I'll have sliced them off if I wasn't sure that they'd grow back twice as much," Karra, his wife complained as she felt her husband pull her even closer for a hug.
"How did the trash collection go? Did you find any food?" She asked, with less than hopeful eyes only to be surprised to see her husband nod and smile.
"I was lucky! I was going through the trash when I found a dead rat! It hasn't been dead for long but some meat would be nice!" He beamed waiting for his efforts to be appreciated and he wasn't disappointed.
"That's great! Lemme see?" Karra instantly demanded with an excited look on her face, reaching into Lonx's sack herself to bring it out.
"Wow! It doesn't even smell that bad!" She gasped with palpable shock, as she considered cooking it right there and then.
"Go wash up! I'll add it to today's meal,"
"Wait! What will we eat tomo—"
"Go! Tomorrow will worry about itself," was Karra's instant response as she pointed at the other room in the house.
"Use only two bowls! Water has been scarce. Dinner should be ready in 30 minutes. Drag Nexu out with you when you're coming!" Karra ordered wiping the sweat on her face with the back of her arm as she sat down and continued to monitor the pot.
Waiting for the right time to add in the dead rat.
Lonx waved and smiled as he made his way to the second room in the house.
The sound of his third boneless, mass of flesh echoed lightly as it slid on the ground like a tail.
"Nexu! Guess who's home?" He shouted again with a grand smile on his face as he walked into the house.
Not surprised to see his son Nexu lying down on the only bed they had with his eyes half open.
"You still feel tired?" Lonx asked with a huge hint of concern in his tone as he watched Nexu move to sit up.
"I'll be fine father! You should wash up, You stink!" Nexu responded, staring up at his father with a strange smile on his face.
His mother couldn't walk around much because of the extra mass she carried around her torso, but even his father looked like he was barely hanging on.
"I saw a rat! We'll be eating it for dinner," he heard his father proudly announce and Nexu responded with a big smile.
"Can't wait," Nexu said, lying through his teeth.
The mutations they had were caused by the things they ate and the water they drank and washed with.
As much as he hated the damage it caused, there was nothing else to eat.
"I can see right through you Nexu! Look on the bright side. Somehow the god of light has looked kindly on you. You have no mutations whatsoever," Lonx said as he walked into a small enclosure, with a large curtain demarcating it from the room.
It was where they washed and did their daily business.
His focus was on washing his body with as little water as he could.
Nexu on the other side had gotten to his feet, tilting his head to the side out of habit with a feigned look of pain in his eyes.
He had no outward mutations and had gotten used to pretending even to his parents that his entire body was extremely weak and sick.
{At least you're smart enough to have pretended for so long} a familiar voice echoed in his mind, one he had a complete dislike for.
As he waited for his dad to come out, he ignored the voice in his head, but this annoyed it even more as it continued to speak in a louder tone.
{You're entering the Tower tomorrow, It'll be stupid to ignore me}
{Hey! Dumbass! Hey!}
Yet, Nexu continued to do just that until his father, Lonx was done and walked out from behind the curtain.
"I hope it doesn't smell that bad!" He wondered aloud, waving his hands in front of his nose as he quickly closed the curtain.
But Nexu didn't care. There were worse smells than that and they both knew it.
The moment his father was done wearing his clothes, they both moved closer to the door to leave.
But just before they did, he felt his father's hand on his head, gently rubbing his dark hair.
"I know you need to sleep for more hours in a day but I'm glad that you have no outward mutation," Lonx sighed with a wistful look in his eye, wishing he was the same so he could go to the tower in Noxu's place.
{He…he. Are you not going to tell him that his son is going crazy?}
"Thanks, Dad!" Nexu responded with a smile leaning to the side to hug his dad, who was the exact same height he was.
Together, they walked out of the single room they all shared and towards where Karra sat.
The food appeared to be ready and she was dishing it out on different plates of food on the only table in the room.
None of them could compliment it, since even the appearance of the food didn't look appealing but they didn't forget to say their thanks.
"Thank you for your hard work!"
"Thanks, Mother!" Lonx and Nexu thanked Karra as they all sat down to eat.
"The meat feels pretty chewy," Karra began to say as she ate, putting one spoon into the green soup on her plate, and picking up a few chunks of meat scattered in it.
{You and your entire family disgust me! You live worse than Rats!}
"If the god of light shines on us maybe your father will be able to find more tomorrow,"
{It's your eighteenth birthday and your mom can't wait for you to eat more dead rats! Pathetic!}
{Look at her talking! She can barely sit properly with huge slabs of skin dragging her down. Your father isn't any better}
"At least we'll be able to have enough food until Noxu comes out of the tower," Lonx his father responded, speaking with Karra while Noxu did his best to ignore the voice in his head.
His right fist tightened under the table as he tried to hold in the growing annoyance he felt.
{Noxu…Noxu…the carrier of hope. It's funny how they're pretending not to know that you might not come out of the Tower tomorrow}
{Is this the so-called selective amnesia syndrome?}
'SHUT UP!' Noxu finally snapped, responding through his thoughts, but the voice only seemed to get much louder. Deriving a wicked sort of delight from getting a response from Nexu.
{Maybe they'll also eat your body when you die. People around here do it, what's stopping your parents?}
{He…he. I bet they and all your neighbors can't wait to have a piece of that unmutated flesh}
"SHUT UP!" Nexu snapped in a loud voice banging his fists on the table and jumping to his feet.
His heart was pounding and his dark eyes tinged red in anger. More infuriated to see his parents look at him like he had grown two horns, while the voice in his head instantly became dead silent.
"I-I'm sorry," Nexu quietly apologized sitting back on his seat as he began to eat, swallowing as fast as he could before his tongue could register the taste.
"No, it's fine. You're entering the tower tomorrow. I can't imagine how you feel," Karra, his mother sighed, with his father nodding at the side.
"I'll be fine mother, you don't have to worry. It's not like I have any mutations to worry about," Nexu responded with his eyes fixed on the food in front of him.
His parents no longer spoke either as they each concentrated on the food in front of them.
Nexu was just about done, confident that the voice wouldn't speak again when he heard its voice echo through every part of his skull.
{Tell them! Won't you tell them about me? He…he…(the voice chuckled) Aren't you scared that once you enter the tower I'll have more control?}
Nexu instantly hurried up and finished his food, saying goodnight to his parents before leaving.
'Tomorrow's going to come whether or not I want it to,' a little annoyed that he couldn't even keep his thoughts to himself considering he had a growing parasite in his head.
