Parasite (Completed)║🏳️‍🌈 LGBT+

11: Confession

03:27, Fifthsol 1st M6, 2226

I raise my arms. My innards roll with Shiro's betrayal.

I'm no longer afraid of dying at the hands of wardens, nor afraid of IndoChina guards executing me for aiding and abetting a thief. I just don't want Shiro to be the one to hurt me.

"Keep your hands up." He stands at the foot of my bed, still naked, clutching the pulser in shaking hands.

"W-where did you get a p-pulser?"

"Shut up. Put your shirt on." He waves the pulser's collimator in front of my eyes. "Keep your hands where I can see them."

I flinch at the pulser's motion. Ever so slowly I grope for my shirt and slip it over my head.

Shiro's features shift in a harrowed mix of rage and desperation. "What did you do to those guards?"

"I d-didn't take much. They'll be OK."

"Did you kill them?"

"No!"

"You don't eat!" Shiro pulls at his hair, swinging his pulser arm wildly around the pod like he wants to tear down the walls. "You don't have a fridge! You don't even have fucking plates!"

Had he awoken and crept around the pod trying to find food? Is he hungry? Is he in pain? My heart melts.

And then recrystallises in terror as Shiro presses the pulser hard against my forehead.

"What are you?"

"I d-didn't take much. They'll just be tired for a few days. I didn't take much."

"Take what?"

"Their energy. I'm so sorry, Shiro. I'm disgusting. I'm an energy vampire. A parasite."

The pulser retreats a few millimetres. "What's your name?"

"Himanshu Singh. Heems."

"Where are you from?"

"I was born in Eris-6."

"How did you take the IndoChina guards' energy?"

"My meatware's all broken, Shiro. Yes, it stops me from getting radiation sickness and heals me quickly and regulates my sleep and all that usual stuff. But... It's glitched. It makes me drain energy from other people when I touch them. I'm a parasite."

The pulser remains sighted between my eyes but Shiro steps away, as if trying to view the whole of me from above. "Does it hurt them?"

"No. But if they're awake they can feel themselves weakening after a few seconds. And if I do it too long they..."

Shiro's face performs grim contortions as fury fights with incredulity. "You can't touch anyone without draining their energy, but you can touch me."

"Whatever meatware malfunction you've got makes you immune to me. I don't know why." Lactic acid burns in my shoulders. I can't keep my hands up anymore. "Shiro? Can you please put the pulser down? I'd never hurt you. Is Shiro your real name?"

He grunts, "Yeah," but doesn't lower the pulser. "What were you going to do in the 'porter? Drug me? Strap me down and stick a scalpel in my head?"

"No! I was... I was so hungry. I was going to feed on you. But when I touched you..." The admission has me close to tears. I want to curl under my crumpled sheets and sob for my parents.

Anger whips up like a storm in Shiro's eyes. "You wanted to feed on me?"

"I wouldn't have taken much."