Ruins don't hide secrets. They announce disappointments.
Eron kicked one of the broken wooden crates. It shattered further, then he sat down among the rubble, panting.
"No coins, no maps, not even a piece of dry bread..."
He looked around. This place didn't look like a real camp. It was as if those who were here fled in a hurry.
Or vanished.
Zara walked slowly between the corpses, gathering some and covering them, burying others.
With her bare hands, as if she hadn't just killed them.
He was almost completely naked and suddenly felt ashamed.
"I'm alive, covered in ash and blood, and starving… and yet my biggest concern is my exposed junk!"
He approached one of the dead men and pulled off a long leather coat, then a pair of torn black pants.
They smelled like mold and smoke, but he thanked God inwardly.
"I'm not asking for much… just pants, and a piece of meat that's grilled, not raw..."
Zara, in turn, removed the last of her tattered wrap, and started rummaging through clothes like she was choosing trophies.
She stood before him, completely naked for a moment, looked at him with eyes devoid of shame, then wore a short, torn black dress.
What covered her was more arousing than what it hid.
He swallowed.
"Does she know… she's turning me on? Is this intentional? Or do ghouls not understand seduction?"
But he found no answer. Instead, he saw her digging a shallow grave beneath one of the trees, gently pushing a body into it, with a disturbing tenderness.
He sat near a half-burned tent.
Zara returned shortly, carrying a dead wild rabbit.
She looked at him, then at the fire he had just lit, then back at him.
She pointed at the rabbit, then the fire.
"You're cooking for me?"
He laughed, then shook his head.
"That's the nicest thing anyone's done for me since I arrived in this world… well, after licking my dick earlier."
Slowly, with calm movements, she skinned the rabbit and skewered it on a metal rod.
She sat across from him. Her bare legs crossed in a way that was alluring despite everything.
He watched her silently. The fire cast her dancing shadow on the tent behind her.
The night's blue hue covered everything… except her pale skin, glowing with an unnatural light.
"You're strange..."
He said it while watching her watch the meat.
She didn't understand, but she suddenly smiled.
An unexpected smile. Beautiful. Lethal.
After dinner, inside the half-charred tent, he lay on a worn-out mattress.
Zara was next to him, only a piece of cloth between them.
He could hear her breathing.
See the shadows of her breasts rising and falling with her breath.
Her scent: smoke, blood, and something dangerously arousing.
"I'm sleeping next to a killer ghoul, half-naked, who cooked me dinner and buried corpses while I was looking for pants… Who the hell am I? The main character of a dark porno novel?"
Zara shifted slowly. Her hand touched his chest.
Just a touch — but it sent a shiver down his spine.
She looked at him briefly, eyes half-closed.
Then rested her head on his shoulder.
She didn't say a word.
And words weren't needed.
He fell asleep wondering which of them was more human.
Him — who hesitated to kill?
Or her — who didn't hesitate, yet buried every corpse like she was saying goodbye?
He smiled before dozing off, murmured:
"Zara… if we could understand each other's language… maybe I would've asked you out."
Zara mumbled something in her tongue.
But she stayed there, pressed against him, warm in a way he never expected from a killer ghoul.
Eron woke up to a soft sensation pressing against his thigh.
He opened his eyes slowly.
Zara was wrapped around him like a predatory cat, her leg draped over his body, her breasts pressed to his bare chest, and her hair scattered on his pillow.
Her breath was warm, sensual, despite the morning cold creeping into the battered tent.
"Oh God..."
He whispered, then gasped.
"Am I still dreaming? First time a girl sleeps beside me without running away, and the first time… one fondles my dick before it gets crushed!"
Zara moved slowly, opened her eyes, stretched in front of him as if unaware her body moved with deadly allure.
A brief romantic moment was interrupted by a sting of pain in his side.
He opened the system menu and tapped on "Recovery Balm" — less than a third remained.
"Damn, that was only for last night..."
He looked at Zara. She was lightly groaning. Clearly, her wounds hadn't healed completely.
He sighed quietly, rubbed some balm on his side, then gestured to her.
She understood. Or maybe she understood the scent.
She approached him like a wild animal following the scent of food.
Then grabbed the balm, dipped two fingers in, and smeared it on her injured thigh.
But she didn't stop there.
Slowly, she began running her fingers over her body — over her chest, her stomach, her legs — as if deliberately showing off.
Eron gasped.
"Is she... rubbing herself on purpose? Or is this normal for ghouls? Damn it, my brain just shut down."
They left the tent quickly. Eron felt like someone might pass by — perhaps a looter or a scout.
But he realized the problem after the first kilometer.
Zara.
She walked beside him. But she was a ghoul.
If they approached humans, they'd flee… or attack.
No one trusts a ghoul walking with a human — even if she's hot enough to start a war.
Throughout the journey, he kept stealing glances at her dirty short dress, her bare legs, and the way she inhaled the air like tasting it.
"My plan to find a village? Maybe it won't work until I die."
He said as he tossed a rock at a bush.
Zara suddenly stopped. Pointed at something ahead.
A cave.
A wide, dark mouth in the side of a sloping hill, like the earth itself was yawning.
Eron shivered.
Before he could move, a system notification flashed before his eyes:
[System Notification: Cave marked for the Aspiring of Desire.]
[Location of the "Trace of the Untamed Desire-Bearer" detected.]
[Do you wish to enter?]
He froze.
"Untamed Desire-Bearer..."
He whispered the words, remembering his first arrival in this world.
He was naked, terrified, and the system coldly told him:
"You have been registered as: Bearer of Untamed Desire."
Now he smiled bitterly.
"And what better description? A guy stuck with a killer ghoul, in a mad world, walking toward a cave of disasters... and all he's thinking about is how her body would look soaked in sweat."
Zara turned to him, tilted her head.
Then, in a surprising move, she brushed her hair off her neck — exposed, warm — as if to say: If you want... I'm here.
He swallowed.
Looked at the cave's entrance, then at her.
Darkness ahead… and fire walking beside him.
"Alright, Untamed Desire...
Let's see what this cave has in store for us."
And he stepped inside.