[](infoA)
Nights aren't black anymore. Hadn't been for years. Instead, it's a...clotted red glow, like shining a flashlight through a bruise. The colors of everything. from the light lamps?— streetlights—to the cracks in the asphalt, is washed out into a dim red.
I didn't go out often. I...didn't take care of myself. My hands were swollen, my teeth were broken, and my lips were...falling apart? Being eaten away? It's ugly. But I had to go out to get stuff. So like every week, I wore my dad's old hoodie, put on a mask, and hoped nobody saw me.
At least the granny at the corner store didn't—she was...she had bad eyes. And she was really nice to me. I don't know why, but she gave me free stuff all the time.
Ding ding!
I nudged open the door, the one plastered with the health and safety notice about reporting anybody with ghoul symptoms and the special prices—sales? advertisements?—that were more than the regular prices before...before the skies turned red.
And I froze in the entryway. Why was there someone else behind the counter? Where was the granny? Off guard and lost, my eyes struggled to...see, landing somewhere around their chest instead of making eye contact. I stutter, forcing my voice up through the phelgm sitting in my throat.
"...Umm, is the granny who works here—where is she?"
