The sun blazed through the window and woke Emi from her slumber. She sat up slowly, automatically. The sun was brighter than usual. She looked at her clock and realized she'd overslept. Most days, the perfectionist in her would wake her 3 hours early for school, but today there was only a short while before the bus would arrive.

Instead of her usual morning routine, she simply donned an oversized shirt and some ripped jeans. The mirror above her dresser reminded her of her current state. As if her ailment was teasing her, her eyes were a deeper red and a faint green hue had taken over her skin. Emi sighed, picked up her backpack, which had been thrown to the side last night, and made her way downstairs. 

All 4 of her siblings waited for her at the bottom of the steps.

"What's this about?" she asked. Her oldest sibling, Grace, was holding a package from Zedra Labs. The box was open, but the contents were still inside. Emi's heightened senses told her that the brains were inside and she began salivating hungrily.

"We should be asking you that question," said Grace. "Why'd Zedra Labs send us a package full of...brains? Is it for a science project? And what's wrong with you? You rushed upstairs before we could even say hi."

"It's nothing. Just a costume."

"Then why do you smell like a rotting corpse, Emi?"

Emi was taken aback. Not by her words really, but by the fact that she couldn't notice it.

"You're lying," Emi said defiantly.

Her second oldest sibling, Brian, said calmly, "If you accidentally took a dive in a trash can and forgot to shower, that's fine. Just shower and take off that costume so we can go to school."

Emi pushed past them and took the box from Grace. The scent enticed her, but she decided to save them for lunch and walked towards the bus stop. The notion that she possibly did in fact smell like a rotting corpse didn't affect her. Even so, her siblings pestered her about it on the way to school.

Once they got to school, those on the field trip with Emi tried being friendly with her, but the rest treated her as though she was contagious. Ness and Wendy were home, being analyzed by their parents for possible symptoms so she was alone the whole day. None of her other friends even talked to her.

Eventually, lunch came around. Usually, Emi would sit with Ness and Wendy, but today she sat at an empty table. She procured the Zedra Labs box from her bag and set it in front of her. The allure of consuming her next meal washed over her mind as she opened the box and caught sight of it.

This brain was larger than the last she'd tasted. More vibrant. Like it was fresh. She ripped it from its plastic container and devoured it quickly. Less blood was present, but that didn't stop her from making a mess of herself with its contents. The tunnel vision returned. There were two more brains in the box, probably for dinner, but she ate those as well. 

A small moan escaped from her lips as the flavors coated her mouth in bliss. As soon as it started, it was over. The hunger hadn't subsided although she'd gorged herself on three brains thus far. Once Emi was paying attention to her surroundings again, she felt fragments of food hitting her in the back. 

She turned around and saw Allen's friends snickering to themselves. Although her ex-boyfriend was nowhere to be found, they saw it fit to ridicule her. 

"You should go back to your graveyard, you undead freak!" one of the boys yelled while another threw more remnants of his sandwich. She faced away from them, trying her best to ignore it, but the sounds began to get louder. The rampant whispers among the others in the cafeteria, the hollering of the boys behind her.

Her vision began to turn a tinge of red as she slowly stood from her seat and walked over to the boys. They stopped their giggled and looked at her oddly.

"Gonna tell us about your time in the afterlife, zombie?"

"Who told you that word?" Emi demanded.

The one closest to her laughed. "It's all over the school. Emi the 'zombie'. I guess being a freak makes you famous."

Maybe it was her abysmal hunger or something that he said, but without thought or warning, she grabbed his head firmly with one hand and smash it open with the other, exposing the warm brain tissue inside.