Woah...was this the end?

Aaran didn't know how he knew, but he just...knew. He couldn't go back anymore, he was unable to wake from this dream.

It was a bummer. He remembered all the times before this, living in the apartments, scavenging just to make to the end of the day, regaining his freedom in the casino, even getting through the fog. He had tried so hard to make it out of this mess, but it looked like he couldn't get any further.

His consciousness became more then just himself. He was no longer Aaran, he was the virus, a creation that possessed infinite knowledge from the minds he had torn away from their bodies, so great that he would create his own legacy.

But there was a part of him that didn't want this, and he felt it pulling away, fighting to escape the greater mind. He was struggling to escape.

Aaran pulled with all his might until he freed himself from the vine brain, relieved he was just himself again. Or at least part of himself. He had no body anymore.

Totally not cool man.

His mind reached out, trying to look for his body, the vines sensing the need for physical form and coiling around him. He focused on creating something similar to his old body, or at least as similar as vines could make it, then staggered off in search for the real thing.

A flash of color caught his eye, something not green. He reached for it, finding a body but sadly not his own. The body though was strange, and he cleared away the vines to look at it. It was female, but the girl sported a set of ram like horns, fish like fins on each side of her face in place of ears.

The he realized, the strange shadow thing he saw before had been her. She had tried to save him, only to suffer the same fate.

He pushed his vines around her, the ones holding her up dissolving at his command. Make shift arms held her up as he turned and walked down the corridor. But the further he ventured from the center, the more his body disintegrated, the vines uncoiling.

In the distance he could see a exit, strange beings there waiting for him to hand the girl over. He continued on, until there was only a tiny piece of him left. Just enough to hand the girl over to the uncorrupted shadows.

Well, at least one of them would make it out of this.

He watched them leave, then turned, walking back to the larger mass and collecting pieces of himself on the way. There was so little time left, so he would enjoy his memories while he had the chance.