by Nick Stead
There was more than enough meat on the bear to grant me my fill and I gorged myself until the great predator was reduced to little more than bloody bones, taking in as much as I could in preparation for the challenges that still lay ahead. By the time I’d finished, my bulging belly felt fuller than I could remember it ever being since leaving my human life behind. The sensation was an alien one, but not unwelcome after living with hunger as a constant companion for so long.
As I gulped down the last few mouthfuls, the panel out of the chamber slid open and I raised my bloodied muzzle, half expecting another opponent to be sent in for me to fight. But the passage beyond remained clear of further rivals, natural or otherwise, at least as far as I could tell. I remained wary, rising from my meal and stalking towards the exit with my ears pricked for any warning sounds of danger approaching and my eyes scanning the shadows ahead for signs of any movement. My sense of smell was still useless to me while the stench of the dungeon clung on to the insides of my nostrils, blocking any other scent that might have tried to creep past, plus the bear’s blood was thick enough on my snout that it further clouded my olfactory senses, try as I might to lick it off my matted fur as I walked.
I stepped out of the chamber, into another passageway much like all the others I’d been through. As had been the case through most of the dungeon so far, there was only one way to go, so I pushed forward, picking up the pace a little but staying alert for the sudden appearance of more enemies. Part of me wanted to bound across the stone, not stopping till I reached the next chamber, the next challenge. But I knew that was too risky. The last thing I needed was to unwittingly throw myself into a trap and lose more valuable time having to escape it, so I kept to a cautious prowl.
My heartbeat was still faster than was probably healthy with the stress that thing’s scent put my body under, but it was as steady as it could be in the circumstances and the roar of my own blood rushing through my veins had receded, for the time being at least. Before long, my ears were picking up a new sound, one that set my blood boiling again. Unbidden this time, my anger reared up and blazed across my mind, the noises of an animal in distress touching a nerve just as David knew it would.
To be forced to fight and kill the bear was one thing, but this was something else entirely. I immediately had a good sense of what I would find if I followed those pitiful sounds, and it was enough to plunge me back into that darkness I’d struggled with for so long over the past year.
Fury dominated any sense of caution and I broke into a run, dropping to all fours despite my more humanoid frame. It didn’t take me long to reach a side passage, where the whimpers were coming from. The main passageway continued and I could see there was another chamber up ahead, but I couldn’t just leave an innocent animal to suffer, even with the clock ticking. I barely hesitated to make that decision, turning down the side passage and putting on another burst of speed, though I slowed as I drew closer, expecting another trap. But there was still no sign of any enemies when I stepped into this chamber carved by the cruelty of man, shaped by that arrogant belief that they were above all other creatures, that they had the right to do with other living beings as they pleased and that it didn’t matter what acts they committed against inferior species. It was an attitude that angered me beyond words, something I’d always been passionate about in my human life, and something David knew full well would send me into a rage.
The room’s only occupant was a dog, cowering submissively and trembling with shock, pain and pure terror. I didn’t recognise the breed but she was probably the most wolfish looking my once best friend could find – not a husky but something similar, to make it more personal and incite the strongest reaction in me. And it worked. I simmered with anger as I took in the sight of her cringing, shaking body, tail tucked between her legs as she whimpered her pleas for no more. Her ears would have been pulled back but they lay on the floor nearby, two strips of raw flesh where they had been cut away visible on the sides of her head, still trickling blood. And her eyes would probably have been large and soulful, full of pain and fear, and confusion that the species she’d lived alongside and served faithfully for so long had suddenly turned on her for reasons she would never understand – if she’d still had them. Instead, two empty cavities gaped wide and terrible, ruined flesh hanging ragged round the sockets where those soulful orbs should have been.
Inwardly I roared for blood but somehow I managed to keep my rage from voicing itself, not wanting to frighten the poor dog any further if I could help it. But I made a silent oath for vengeance as I burned with hate for the men who had done this to her. It seemed the universe was determined to keep me on a dark path, despite my promise to myself that I was done killing in cold blood. Maybe David just wanted to make sure I stayed cast solely as the monster. And if that was the role he wanted me in then fine, I would play my part. But my own monstrous acts would not eclipse his own, and even if he hadn’t been the one to actually carry out the mutilation, this entire ‘game’ seemed to be of his design, so it was he who’d ordered it. He’d wanted this innocent animal to suffer for no reason other than to provoke a reaction in me, and what angered me most of all was the thought that he wouldn’t even have been held accountable by other humans if any of this had been public knowledge, not really. It might have gone to court and he might have received a small amount of jail time, a fine and a lifelong ban from keeping animals, but what sort of a message was that? If this were a human life he would surely serve a lifetime in prison, and yet because it was an animal incapable of voicing her pain and suffering in a human language, the crime was somehow made less severe and deserved less in the way of punishment. Despite the fact humans knew full well they weren’t the one and only species on the planet to feel emotion and pain, or to possess a degree of intelligence and an awareness of their surroundings.
In that moment the bloodlust threatened to take over and I found myself craving the death of any human to feed it, guilty of this particular crime or not. Did that make me a hypocrite? I’d committed so many unforgivable acts myself by that point without so much as a flicker of remorse, so did I really have the right to be so angry at humans for acts of cruelty such as this? I felt such hatred towards that disgusting attitude that other living, thinking, feeling beings were below them and therefore didn’t have the same rights they did, and yet was I not as bad, if not worse, for all the atrocities I’d carried out, justifying it by the excuse that they were only mortal and destined for the grave someday anyway?
Such thoughts were short lived, swept away in the tidal wave of molten fury. I really wanted to kill again purely for the indulgence of my bloodlust and that dark pleasure that came from crushing the life of others in my powerful jaws, and the next human I laid eyes on was going to suffer my wrath. I would find a way out of the dungeon and I would slaughter them all for this, guilty of taking part in it or not. But first I had to try and help my fellow canine.
Reining in my anger while it burned so strongly was futile, and the dog must have sensed something of my dark fury because she shrank away when I approached, though the Slayers had her chained to the floor so she couldn’t go anywhere. Despite the arrogance the lupine side of me had once felt towards dogs for allowing themselves to be enslaved by mankind, I hated to see a once proud animal reduced to a wretched, shivering wreck, and I only wanted to help ease her suffering. I knew there was every chance the dog could survive what had been done to her with the proper veterinary help, but the odds of me breaking out of the dungeon, managing to come back for her and then get her to a vets, were surely slim to none. There was only one thing I felt I could do for the poor animal, which was perhaps fitting for a monster of such rage and darkness as it seemed I was cursed to be for all eternity.
I crouched down beside her and whined in an attempt to soothe her. I had to assume her nose was full of the same dread scent as that which had plagued my nostrils throughout the dungeon, but it seemed she still picked up on my unnatural scent because she gr
ew more fearful, her whimpered pleas becoming more desperate. If I’d still had a heart it might have broken then. Maybe David wanted to see me cry so he could sneer at me acting pathetic over ‘just a dog’, but if he’d wanted tears as well as rage he was going to be disappointed. My tears had long since dried up, the tears of blood all my body had left in it. I doubted I was capable of weeping anymore, my soul having been so ravaged by the curse and my mind truly inhuman with the fusion of my two separate natures to make it whole once more.
Trying to calm the dog wasn’t working so I wasted no more time in freeing her from her suffering. Despite the rage, I didn’t want to give her the same brutal end I would exact on her tormentors, but my hands were still paw-like and I wanted to save my energy for when I needed to transform again for my own survival. The quickest, most painless way to send her into Death’s cold, but peaceful embrace in my current form was probably to bleed her out. So I gently placed one lupine hand round the back of her neck to steady her and lowered my snout to her throat. Her heart was hammering so loudly that my predatory instincts might have taken over, especially in the grip of my rage and bloodlust, if I hadn’t been so full from the meat the bear’s death had provided. As it was, I remained in control, with my dark desire to kill directed solely at mankind.
All it took was a single bite to sever her major blood vessels. I sank my fangs in until the crimson fountain spurted from her carotid artery and gushed from her jugular vein, then withdrew them and held her shaking body in my monstrous form, trying to offer her what comfort I could in her passing. She soon grew still, her heart slowing to a laboured beat until finally it pumped its last and she was granted a merciful release. And as death took her, I turned the full burning force of my amber eyes on the camera through which I knew David was watching and revelling in his sick pleasure, giving him a silent, death filled promise. Only then did I notice the message on the wall in what may well have been the dog’s own blood.
You did this.
A jolt ran through me, my shock at reading those words temporarily driving back the rage. I understood what it meant. And worst of all, I knew it was right, in a sense. I’d even come to a similar conclusion in the chamber where I’d found Amy and the shrine for Fiona, without the need for a message to prompt me. The dog’s horrific fate was on my hands, or paws as they more closely resembled at present. For it was my own monstrous nature which had led us here, down this dark path, my own fangs which sealed our fates. Fiona’s blood was on my jaws, along with countless others, and if only I could have found the strength to end my cursed life, this dungeon would never have been built since I wouldn’t have been around to punish. Though to be fair, if I had found a way to commit suicide it still wouldn’t have saved Fiona, since I only discovered I’d been killing humans the morning after my lupine half had hunted her down. But I could still have saved all those who came after her, along with the lives of any creatures who were destined to die in this dungeon purely to satisfy David’s need for vengeance against me. David might even have been spared from the darkness if I could have just put a stop to my unnatural lunar hunger. He might never have learnt the truth about what killed the girl he’d loved, or if he had he at least might have felt some sense of closure in knowing that I’d already paid with my own life, instead of having that need for vengeance that he’d developed the moment he’d discovered my dark secret.
My anger returned with renewed strength, made worse by that message on the wall. The idea that I was partially to blame for the abuse the dog had suffered set my rage blazing to new heights, and my need to kill only grew stronger with it. Humanity might not consider crimes against animals to be of much importance, but I would make certain my fellow canine would be given justice, even though it probably held no meaning for her now she had lost her grip on the earthly realm, weak as it was for any mortal creature. I would make damn sure the men behind her mutilation wouldn’t live to do the same to any other animal though, and it would make me feel better. It might not right the past wrongs that had caused this, but it would at least fix some of the problem with the spread of darkness my curse had caused.
I knew full well the dog’s mortal remains had been reduced to no more than a slab of meat the moment that spark of life left her, yet I still felt the need to treat her body with respect as I laid it on the floor, ready to move on. Before I got back to my feet, I lowered my snout to the corpse and the surrounding area, breathing deeply to try and catch any scents through the stench dominating my nostrils. The mutilations must have been carried out fairly recently for the wounds still to be leaking so much fresh blood, which meant I had more of a chance at detecting which of the Slayers had actually got their hands dirty. And sure enough, after a few minutes of sniffing around the dog and her severed ears, I found what I needed. Three more fates had just been sealed, and I stalked from the chamber confident in the knowledge vengeance would be mine. The men could run, they could even hide, but I had their scents now. No matter how fast they ran or how far, I would eventually catch up with them. They might escape when I broke out of the dungeon, which I swore to myself I would, and hunting them straight down might not be an option, but I was going to track them down at the first opportunity fate handed me, even if it took years.
In the grip of such rage, I lost all sense of caution as I continued along the main passage. Even the threat of certain death carried on the stench in the air had ceased to affect me, my nose still focused on the scents of the men I was going to kill as if I’d already stolen their essence, breathed in through my snout and trapped there for as long as it took to destroy the rest of them. Fear had no place in my heart so long as fury ruled me.
As with the last two stone panels which had concealed the exits to the previous two chambers, when I reached the next one it slid upwards of its own accord, without me having to search for some kind of a switch or mechanism to open it. It seemed the pathway to the room where Lady Sarah was being held was all about my brawn, though I thought it odd David was suddenly making my progress so easy – surely there would have been more sadistic pleasure in it for him if he were to prolong my suffering by making me search for the way in and out of each room. But madness needed no sense to it. Perhaps he was growing bored of testing my brains and wanted to speed up my progress through this section of the dungeon. It didn’t really matter to me what his twisted reasons might be and I didn’t dwell on it as I stepped into the chamber, my mind too full of anger and bloodlust to focus on much else. All that mattered was reaching Lady Sarah so I could be sure Selina would uphold her promise and keep Amy from dying, and then would come sweet revenge. As soon as I was sure Amy was safe, I was going to find a way out of the hellhole David had trapped me in and bring them all such pain, until the entire structure ran red with their blood.
So I entered the chamber, intent on conquering whatever challenge this one held as quickly as possible and moving on. But when I saw what lay in wait this time, even with the darkness of my core roaring so strongly for blood, it brought me to a halt. And suddenly it was clear why David had presented me with my red rag. I’d been entered into another death match and he didn’t want me to hold back against this latest opponent I was to be pitted against, maybe even hoping I’d be so full of rage that I’d completely lose control and kill him without meaning to. With my improved level of self-control David would probably be disappointed, though whether I willingly killed this adversary remained to be seen.
He had his back to me when I first entered but there was no mistaking him. I didn’t need to focus on trying to detect his scent through the persistent stench of the putrid dungeon air, recognising him from behind by sight alone. How he came to be in the chamber or what reason he had for fighting me was another matter, but I’d already guessed that fight we must. So I took up a fighting stance and roared my challenge, my rage all too happy to engage him in combat, even if some part of me didn’t want to hurt someone I’d connected and bonded with.
In answer to my challenge, my oppon
ent turned to face me, his own features twisted into an angry snarl. His eyes were wild and crazed, his fangs bared and his sword drawn. There was no recognition in his features when he looked at me, but even in his current state of madness, I knew him. Seeing his face confirmed what I had already guessed from behind: it was Zee.
Chapter Thirteen – Ocean’s Wrath
I locked eyes with those two tempest tossed ocean orbs, seeing only my rage reflected back at me. With the anger searing through my veins, I felt much more confident than when I’d been forced to fight the bear, even though I knew I was outclassed once again. It helped that I’d been permitted to feed and recover my energy, though I probably still wasn’t quite at full strength without my body being allowed to rest as well. But the vampire was simply more powerful. I’d barely escaped with my life when I’d faced Leon in the woods just before being captured and brought to this accursed place, and he’d had the added boost to his speed and strength granted by madness. Looking into Zee’s frenzied eyes, it seemed he also had a form of madness on his side. Maybe if he hadn’t been able to feed since being weakened by the zombies I might have stood a chance, if it weren’t for that madness he was about to wield against me. But he bore no evidence of the damage I’d seen them do to him when we’d been separated, his flesh apparently whole beneath what had to be fresh clothes, though his outfit looked the same as when I’d first laid eyes on him in that passage leading from my original cell. It was as if the attack had never been. That could only mean the Slayers had fed him some fresh blood, probably just enough to heal the damage but still not allowing him his fill, though he’d certainly had enough to negate any significant advantage I’d have otherwise gained through his body being starved of that crimson fluid. And taking all this in, I was pretty sure my odds of emerging victorious this time were slim at best.
