by Nick Stead
I was almost in full wolf form before the severed tissue had been able to fuse back onto the rest of me. There was so much for my body to repair that even with the fast healing I usually experienced as part of the change it took several minutes, all those structures like tendons and ligaments having to rebuild and re-forge themselves, not to mention the nerves that had to regrow. I suspected it might have been quicker if the limb hadn’t been completely sliced off since the change would have spread across whatever was left hanging on. I assumed that would have allowed the rest of the limb to shift as normal, causing the severed part to reattach as easily as cuts knit back together during the transformation. But since my arm had been completely detached and was unable to change until it was part of me again, it made the process so much slower.
Flexing my newly attached arm, more relief swept through me when I found it to be fully functional. I’d completely regained feeling in it and the transformation had begun to spread down its length in the same way that the initial sensation of it becoming whole again had spread from the stump. But I stopped the change before it could go on any further and took it back to my hybrid form, allowing my body to become mostly humanoid again. Taking my full wolf form didn’t seem right in our current situation. For one thing it would mean not being able to talk to Zeerin, unless he knew how to speak the wolven tongue like Lady Sarah. And for another, with the puzzles we were having to solve to work our way through the dungeon, I felt opposable thumbs would be more useful than prowling round on all fours.
Once my flesh settled into the shape I’d chosen, the temporary feeling of renewed strength gave way to more weariness. The blood loss had still taken its toll even though I was fully healed, and the hunger was back, my body demanding I take in more energy to replace what I’d just used up with the transformation. I slumped back against the wall, tired and wanting to rest before moving on.
Beside me Zeerin was trying to be patient, but I could tell he was itching to continue through the dungeon. I supposed I couldn’t blame him since his hunger was also calling him to the hunt, which meant escaping to the outside world where prey was abound. I hadn’t even noticed him withdrawing his cold hands from my fevered, shifting flesh, but he must have released his grip on my arm when it became part of me again.
“We should keep moving,” the vampire said after a few moments.
“I don’t know how it works for you vampires, whether you can trick your body into not sleeping if you’re kept in constant darkness instead of being forced into somewhere like this to hide from the dawn, but my body still needs vital things like sleep to keep on working. And right now I really need to sleep and recover some strength, or I’m not going to be much more use to you than I was before I healed. Fresh water would be nice now as well.”
“It might not be safe to rest here. The Slayers could have placed something else for us to fight just beyond this room and now the door’s open, there’d be nothing to stop it finding us before we run into it. Better to keep going than be caught here napping. I’m sure there’ll be more rooms like this where we find ourselves locked in for as long as it takes to discover the way out; as soon as that happens and we know it’s safe, we can stop to rest.”
“Next time you can hack off a limb,” I growled, but I didn’t argue with his logic. I forced myself back to my feet, my body feeling heavy and unresponsive after all the physical exertion it had been put through without any rest in between. If the pirate was right and we did encounter more enemies I didn’t think I had another fight in me. Unless I was able to feed again first, but I doubted I’d be so lucky.
My tired muscles continued to protest as I bullied one leg to move in front of the other, until I found myself in the doorway I’d paid to open in blood and pain. Had it been worth my sacrifice or was it only more of the same lying ahead, with no hope of finding freedom? There was only one way to find out so I took the final step through to the next tunnel, Zeerin by my side. And it was just beyond that chamber of torment that we finally found our first clue as to what was going on.
More letters shone wetly in the dim circle of light from the fake flame torches, written in what was unmistakably fresh blood this time. We paused by those two words, the vampire frowning as he struggled to piece together their significance. I thought I had a good idea though.
“Level Two,” I read out loud. As a gamer in my human life, that meant only one thing. For whatever sadistic reason, the Slayers had built a game for us to play our way through, but unlike the video games with extra lives and save points giving us another chance to beat the level whenever we made a mistake, this was reality. We had only our own lives to play with and if either of us lost our life then that would be it, game over. Maybe the Slayers would kill us anyway, even if we beat the game, but if we were to have any hope of getting out of there it seemed we had to play our way through each level till we reached the end. And I suddenly had a good idea what that end would be, a thought that filled me with dread.
Chapter Five – A Glimpse of Hell
I turned my attention back to the darkness of the tunnel ahead, fixing it with a fierce gaze as if the primal fury blazing in my eyes could burn away the shadows and force them to reveal their secrets. The physical exhaustion was still there, my anger flickering in response like flames buffeted by the wind, but I let my rage burn closer to the surface nevertheless. If I’d guessed right at the trials we still faced in this dungeon then I’d need it before the game was through, and I’d just have to hope it would be enough to fuel my tired body until I was given an opportunity to rest and recuperate some of my strength.
“You understand this message?” Zeerin asked, perhaps sensing the mixed emotions I was grappling with.
“It means I wasn’t far off when I said it’s like we’re in Dungeons and Dragons. I think the Slayers have created some kind of a labyrinth for us to play our way through, like a real life version of the kind of games I played in my human life. If I’m right, there’ll be so many levels for us to work our way through until we reach the end, each level more difficult than the last.”
“A game? That makes no sense. What purpose does this serve?”
“Fuck knows; maybe a group of them were bored and wanted to create some new kind of entertainment. I’ve seen enough to know they have plenty of sick members who’d get off on watching us suffer through something like this. And they clearly have the money for it.”
“The saner members of their faction would surely object to such a waste of time and resources. If they had enough sense, they’d want us to be killed instead of taken alive merely for sport.”
“I suppose but if the mastermind behind all this could get enough people on board, maybe they were able to make it happen without telling the majority. What does it matter? Somehow this place was built and I’m sure I’m right about it being a game we have to play through. That means we have to be careful each time we enter a new level. Ideally we want to be as near to full strength as possible, if we’re to stand any chance at beating whatever challenges the Slayers have created for us.”
Zeerin didn’t look convinced but he remained cautious as we advanced further down the tunnel. This one ended in a T-junction, the intersecting passage equally dark and uninviting in both directions. We came to a stop as we decided which way to go, but even with our supernaturally enhanced senses we couldn’t detect anything beyond the dinginess of the electric flames. The same stench permeated the air and blocked out any other scents that might have given us a clue as to which passage we should take, and there were no sounds coming from either the left or the right. I assumed one tunnel led to a dead end and the other to another puzzle for us to solve or more enemies for us to fight, but it seemed we would have to just explore and find out which was the right way for ourselves.
The vampire looked to me to make the decision, probably assuming my knowledge of modern day games would be of more use than his experience built on ages past.
“Let’s try left,” I said. “We m
ight have to navigate our way through a maze now so we need to keep track of which way we go.”
The flickering of the fake torches on the walls seemed all the more eerie once we’d made our choice, doubt nagging at me with each step we took. What if I’d made the wrong decision and I was leading us into a trap? There was no way of knowing what lay ahead. If luck was on our side then we were going in the right direction to progress through the level, but if I’d picked badly I could be leading us to our doom. The Slayers might not care if we reached the end. They might be happy for us to die sooner, as long as it was entertaining enough for them. They might be bored of us already and looking for new players to take our places. If that was the case, the next fight could well be our last, especially in our current conditions. We’d only survived the room with the zombies because the Slayers had chosen to cut the flow of dark power reanimating them, presumably because they wanted us to suffer through more of the game before we met our end. But if they were now bored of us then we may not be so lucky in the next encounter.
My footfalls had grown a lot lighter as a result of embracing my lupine half, yet each step still sounded far too loud in my ears. Despite my attempts to pad quietly along, there still came the unavoidable clack of my claws on stone and my heart was still far too loud and too fast, my breathing shallow and uneven. Any creature with senses superior to a human would have no trouble picking up on my approach. The vampire was able to move quieter in comparison, but even he made the odd sound to alert enemies to our presence.
We hadn’t gone far when I motioned for Zeerin to stop, holding my breath as I listened intently. I’d thought I’d heard something ahead and sure enough, there came the sound again just moments later: something was moving in the gloom just beyond the weak light cast by the false flames. I squinted into the shadows until I could just make out a dark shape lurking there. Unless it came closer, it was impossible to tell in that light what it was, but I got the impression it was big, my mind’s eye picturing some shadowy creature hunched in a space far too cramped for it. Then the sound of heavy footfalls reached our ears and the fear inducing stench filling our nostrils grew stronger still. Whatever this thing was with its scent that smelt so wrong and its presence that dominated the dungeon we were imprisoned in, it was on the move. And it was coming straight for us.
Fear took over, my fight or flight state I’d been trapped in since first sensing the thing reaching new heights. Weariness gave way to terror, my tired muscles flooded with icy panic which drove them to action and fuelled the burst of speed as I dropped to all fours and bounded back the way we’d come. Zeerin turned away as well, fighting out of the question against such a foe. We might not know what it was but when it felt so wrong on such a primal level, we weren’t going to question our instincts. Though a part of me hated having to flee. I wasn’t used to the feeling of fear anymore, so accustomed as I’d become to being the one inspiring the terror. And yet even the greatest of predators can be forced to turn scavenger or become prey at some point in nature’s ever shifting cycle, the balance always changing. Not that this thing was in any way natural, nor were we for that matter, but even in the supernatural world I guessed the same rules must apply from time to time. As powerful a beast as my lycanthropy made me, I was once again forced to accept that I wasn’t the top of the paranormal food chain. So we ran, my ears filled with the thundering of my own heartbeat once more. But louder still were the booming steps of that thing drawing ever closer, and the terrible certainty that it would soon catch us if we couldn’t find a bolt hole to cower in.
For a human there might have been the temptation to look behind and see how close their pursuer was, but my mind had become far too animalistic to make such a human mistake. I kept my eyes straight forward, focussed only on the chase and the ground ahead, paw-like hands and feet gripping the stone beneath them with ease. And yet I was all too aware of my pursuer closing in.
We raced past the passage which led back to the chamber where I’d been forced to cut off my arm, forced to rush further into the unknown as we continued along in the opposite direction to the way I’d chosen at the T-junction. For all we knew there was something lying in wait down there as well, but what choice did we have? To stay and fight something which undoubtedly wielded a great deal of power (for what else could induce such fear in two creatures of the night?) would surely be certain death, so all we could do was run and pray there was nothing else lurking in the darkness of that tunnel.
New despair engulfed me as a dead end was revealed by the lights just ahead. With nowhere left to run, it seemed we had no choice but to face this dread thing that was coming for us. And die brutally, like so many had to my own jaws.
The same grim realisation seemed to sink in for Zeerin, his hands reaching for his pistols. But it seemed the Slayers were going to offer us salvation after all, for the stone panel cutting off our escape began to slide upwards, perhaps triggered by some motion sensor. The vampire had already begun to turn to face our foe as I dived under it, so I grabbed his arm and pulled. The door had just risen high enough for me to pull him through the opening, my right foot stepping down on another pressure pad which caused the panel to reverse direction. I couldn’t see anything before the door closed, sealing us in.
Panting heavily, I took a few moments to recover enough to ask “Did you see what it was?”
Before Zeerin could answer, a roar sounded from the other side of the door. It was like nothing I’d ever heard before, so full of hate and pain, and a fury to rival my own. But the effect it had on us was something I could never hope to create with my own voice: that feeling of being utterly powerless, as if I’d been turned from a wolf to a rabbit, my natural weapons reduced to blunt instruments utterly useless against the thing that hunted us. All I could do was whimper and shake, my bestial hands clamped firmly on either side of my head to hold my ears down in an attempt to shut the creature’s terrible cries out. If it had been able to get at us I have no doubt that it would have ripped me apart while I writhed pitifully on the floor. Even the vampire was caught in the icy grip of terror, covering his own ears and screaming like a human.
It felt like we were trapped in the thing’s agonised voice for an age, but in reality it was probably only moments before, mercifully, the horrific sound died down. Only when it fell silent were we able to creep back into a rational state of mind. The vampire was quicker to recover. He uncurled from the ball he’d rolled into and took his hands away from his ears, slowly getting back to his feet with shaking limbs. I took a few minutes longer to pick myself up, but when something heavy crashed into the other side of the stone I couldn’t help but whine and shrink back from the door. Fortunately it held, though how long for was anyone’s guess.
“No, I was not able to catch more than a brief glimpse before you pulled me through,” Zeerin said, answering my previous question. “I could see only that it was big and inhuman, but I am sure you figured that much out for yourself.”
Another roar rang out on the other side of the stone, reducing me to a shivering wreck once more. The vampire was ready for it and covered his ears, but still he couldn’t quite shut out the effect of the thing’s cries and he sank down to the ground, sat with his back propped against the wall while he muttered to himself with his eyes closed, as if that could somehow save him from the horrors of the reality the Slayers had created for us. Yet there was more to come than the monster at our door.
There came the rush of an inferno blazing into existence from the opposite end of the room, the air growing uncomfortably hot as flames spread around the stone chamber, forming a circle round us. Zeerin was forced to move away from the wall, possessing just enough reason through the effects of the creature’s roar to recognise the threat the fire posed.
“Is this what Hell looks like?” he mused out loud.
Prickly heat closed in, sweat running down my pelt, itchy and uncomfortable. If I’d been fully lupine in form the sweating wouldn’t have been a problem, but my
body was still mostly humanoid, my skin not transformed enough to completely lose the glands reacting to the overheating. Steam rose from my body, my fur plastered wetly to my entire frame, adding to the discomfort. But my insides remained icy cold with fear, my instincts screaming at me to keep running between each of the agonised cries which assaulted and ravaged my mind until it was nothing but a terror stricken mess.
The door began to crack, the creature surely only moments away from breaking through. I doubted the fire would provide much of an added barrier to protect us once it shattered the stone, but no further chance at escape was forthcoming. And even if we could find a means of opening the other door, the flames blocking the way were a problem for us – we couldn’t simply pass through unscathed.
“Come on,” Zeerin mouthed at me, the sound of his voice drowned out by the creature and the roar of the flames. He grabbed my arm and pulled me roughly to my feet, somehow fighting the effect of the dread cries in a bid to survive the encounter, though how he expected to come out of it alive, or rather still as an undead instead of one of the truly dead, was beyond me. If he was feeling any discomfort from the flames he didn’t show it, no sweat beading across his skin like there would have been for a living body.
I was too lost in the terror to offer any resistance when he forced me to run with him towards the other end of the room. Another pressure pad operated the door to freedom as we bounded over it, though the fire continued to blaze around us, the flames refusing to allow us safe passage. The vampire didn’t even slow when we reached the fiery wall. He showed no signs of hesitation as he ran into it, and his momentum gave me no option but to follow.
We can’t have been in the inferno for more than a few seconds before we passed through to the tunnel on the other side, but it felt much longer. My world turned to fire and intense heat, the twisting flames leaping and biting at my fur, grabbing hold of my hair and making it one with the blaze, fuelling its growth. But the fire’s hunger was insatiable and it was not satisfied with merely devouring my fur. Nerves were soon screaming in protest against its barbed tongue, skin stripped away to reveal patches of the red tissue beneath. I roared in agony and swiped at the fiery parasites with my clawed hands, until I became aware of Zeerin rolling around to put the flames clinging to his body out. I had just enough sense left to me to follow suit, beating the fire into submission. Finally I lay still, shaking with pain rather than fear then. The transformation took hold with barely a conscious thought, damaged cells becoming healthy once more and replicating so that new skin stretched across raw flesh, singed fur receding as if it had never been.
