Albie gave Bags a handful of oats. The little black rat munched on its snack. It would stop and eye a corner of the room or a shadow on the ceiling. Albie would follow her gave and see the lurker stalking the rat. Its ivory face the only visible part of the creature as it hid in the shadows. Its eyes bulging.
"Dead thing hates Bags," squeaked the rat. "Bags fears it."
"That is the lurker," explained Albie. "Albie thinks it hates all living things. Not just bags. He really hates the orange coats."
"Dead thing wants kill Bags," thought the rat. "Bags can tell dead thing wants break Bags neck."
"Lurker," declared Albie, "You will not harm Bags. She is my eye, A piece off me now, you shall not harm her."
Hisssssss
Was the lurkers response before the dead man disappeared from the pantry.
"Feel better Bags," asked Albie.
"Dead thing is snake," responded Bags. "Snake coils and waits. Snake is gone and can't hurt bags if not here. Bags is safe."
"That's good Bags," said Albie watching the rat chew on the piece of oats in its paws. "Bags Albie wants Bags to watch the men in orange and have pups. Can Bags do this?"
"Bags has not had pups before," responded Bags. "Will try."
"Good," said Albie placing the rat on the table. "Come back for food and to have your pups. The snake will not harm you."
Albie walked out of the pantry to see the lurker standing over the burnt woman. The hospital was buzzing now but not with flies but bees. A small pack of flesh-eating wasps flew among the large number of honeybees attacking and killing any other bugs that dared to enter their air space. The young mage walked over to the lurker and looked at the dead woman laying om the floor. A pile of charcoal in human the shape of a woman. Her finger broken from were a sun ring was removed.
"I can probably find something to do with her," said Albie staring at his monster. "She would be no more alive than you, but I bet a part of her would remember you. You after all remember her and I doubt she always looked like that."
The dead man just stared at the body. Its body staggering as its boneless limbs struggled to keep the creature up. The mages creation gave no sign of approval or disapproval it just continued to stare. The creature keeping its secrets as well as any dead man could. The mage patted the lurkers shoulder. Black slime coated his hand it felt like tree sap, only much more rotten. Albie walked away from his creation to talk to the queens.
The bees upstairs had expanded the nests quite a bit in the day. The first killer bees had hatched and were patrolling the building. A small store of dead flies and a pair of rats sat half eaten near their nest. He summoned a few to him. A group of ten came and began to feed on his arm. He channeled the power of the moon into his blood and the bugs began to grow. The ten bees were all as big as the last monstrous bees. They circled him on loud wings. He sent them his memories of Bags and emotions that she was him. There fore she was a part of the hive to be protected. He then tried to encourage the eating of larger animals like cats.
The bees flew off out the windows and into the streets in search of larger prey than flies. They would be hungry after those changes. Albie began walking back to the lab when he noticed that bags was climbing down the table. Through his blood stone eye, he could see her point of view as well as the view of the lab from his eye in the jar. The young man felt his head go light and his legs gave way. The foreign points of view made his head spin. He continued to crawl on all fours to the lab where he found a bucket and began to fill it with the contents of his stomach. What came out was a squirming black mass. The liquid unlife seemed to have spread to his stomach.
How it didn't happen sooner was a mystery to him. It had probably happened when he was beaten and stabbed last night. It must have been in his stomach for a while now.
Albie tried to stand but felt his legs give out again. His limbs did not want to respond to him. They had become heavy. The young man wondered where else the black goo had escaped to. He searched the room for a source of life and found only a few of his bees were in the room.
He did not desire to eat his oldest friends and left them to their business. Albie sat by the bucket of squirming black mucus and tried to remember the last time he slept. Days, ago along with a lot of very taxing magic. He realized he was not taking very good care of himself and now would be unlikely to eat regular food ever again. Absorbing the life of others was going to be the only way for him to keep going.
His human eye grew heavy and he tired to sleep but the closer he came to sleep the more he felt Cat's wounds. Bags View of the world also continued to play before him preventing his mind from resting. He opened his eye and remembered the star mages prediction. He would live for to months at best.
He needed a source of life force. He sent to his bees a need for food and hoped they would oblige his request as he didn't know if he had any strength left. He needed life force to do his magic and was running out of his own to spend. He had also already given much blood for his cause. He would need life force to replace it. The rats and bees were coming along but would need time to be ready.
He did not have the time to grow those into the armies he needed. He had made himself known to his enemies and needed a means to fight them. He could make more undead but would need more blood to control them. He would need to capture the orange coats to feed himself and his magic. He began to think he had been wasteful with his magic. He still had a lot of moonlight stored but moonlight by itself wasn't going to be enough to stop an army.
He needed to buy time to grow stronger. He didn't have a lot left. He sat on the wood floor of the dark lab room and looked for something he could use to stall his enemies. A few vials of liquid unlife and in a bucket nearby a large mass of twisting liquid.
Uncontrollable and hungry to swallow and corrupt everything it touched.