by Stead, Nick
Those huge claws clacked across the stone, but his path to reach me took him directly through one of the many crimson pools and he lost his footing, his claws useless for gripping the smooth surface. He slipped and fell to the floor, landing heavily on his side and sliding along, coming to a shuddering stop a few feet away.
I saw my chance and was quick to take it. My gaze fixed on his belly again and I lunged, plunging a paw-like hand into the hole.
The bear’s screams of pain would probably have been harrowing, if I hadn’t committed so many brutal acts before. He was too big for me to reach up to his heart, even with my entire forearm submerged in the wound, so I pulled out everything I could, guts spilling out in a warm, squelchy rush. Intestines coiled round my feet like dead slimy snakes, his liver landing in a quivering lump on the stone and kidneys flopping like fish out of water as more organs piled on top of them. The grizzly was still trying to rise while I disembowelled him, but he soon ceased his struggles, my claws tearing through so many veins and arteries that before long we were surrounded by a pool of his blood.
He grew quiet, his eyes glazing over as he faced the same blackness I’d almost fallen into when he’d had me at his mercy. Except for him, there would be no coming back from it. Death was quick to take him, his great heart beating its last and his final breath escaping in a sigh that sounded almost like relief.
My forearm was covered in blood and other fluids. I shook the worst of it off and placed one of my paw-like hands on my rival’s flank in a mark of respect, reining the anger back in now the fight was over.
I felt a rare sense of remorse then. The animal’s death wasn’t entirely meaningless, since he would provide more than enough meat to sustain me through at least a couple more transformations. And yet, if I could have somehow communicated to him that I meant him no harm and merely wanted to escape the room we were trapped in and be on my way, then we could have avoided a fight to the death. Even knowing that David would probably have slaughtered him anyway, I still regretted being forced into killing him.
The hunger alone wouldn’t have pushed me into it. My reckless streak had become far more balanced with the addition of the cautious side to my nature that had been one of the wolf’s stronger traits when we’d still existed as two separate personalities. And my self-control was strong enough to keep me from attacking every living thing in sight, at least for the time being. Given the choice, I would have let the bear be rather than risk a fight that I could well have lost. But neither of us had been given a choice, and all I could do was honour the great predator by taking what strength I could from his death. He had died so I might live, and so I pushed such troublesome human emotions aside and lowered my muzzle to the feast I’d won.
My fangs bit into warm meat, succulent and oozing blood. Waves of energy rippled through me as I ate, my strength restored at last. My body was still tired, but there was no time for napping when there were lives on the line. Replenishing my depleted energy reserves would have to do for the time being, and to that end I gorged myself on the bear’s flesh and lapped up the rich organs.
The heart was still locked away in its cage. I ripped my way through the carcass, devouring every last morsel until I cleared a path to that juicy prize.
Pooled blood squirted from its chambers as my jaws clamped over it, sending a shiver of delight running through me. The intense flavour was all the more satisfactory for the hunger I’d been enduring for so long. David’s heart would taste better still. I grinned at the thought. He was going to regret giving me this chance to feed.
There was more than enough meat on the bear to grant me my fill. I ate 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.
The exit 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 and my nose to the air. My eyes scanned the shadows ahead, but all was still and quiet. I detected nothing in this new tunnel.
I stepped through the doorway. As had been the case through most of the dungeon so far, there was only one way to go. 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 dread thing’s scent put my body under, but it was as steady as it could be in the circumstances. The roar of my 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 had known it would.
To be forced to fight and kill the bear was one thing. 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. 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. I only slowed when I reached the doorway, expecting another trap.
There was still no sign of any enemies when I stepped into this new chamber. Carved by the cruelty of man and shaped by that arrogant belief that they were above all other creatures, it proclaimed their right to do with other living beings as they pleased – 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 all that remained 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. Somehow I managed to keep my rage from voicing itself though, 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 monst
er. 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.
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. So why were the atrocities committed against animals treated less seriously?
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. 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 was futile when it burned so strong. The dog must have sensed it because she shrank away when I approached. She couldn’t go anywhere though – the Slayers had her chained to the floor.
The lupine side of me had once felt an arrogance towards dogs for allowing themselves to be enslaved by mankind. Hell, we’d killed plenty of them in the grip of the darkness now ruling me again. But in that moment there was only the hatred at seeing 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 with the proper veterinary help. Yet 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 creature, which was perhaps fitting for the monster it seemed I was cursed to be.
I crouched down beside her and whined. My attempts to soothe her didn’t go so well – she grew more fearful at my nearness, 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 a life that was ‘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 again.
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.
I gently placed my hand round the back of her neck and moved my snout towards her throat. Her heart was hammering so loudly that my predatory instincts might have taken over, if I hadn’t been so full from the meat the bear’s death had provided. Without the hunger, I remained in control. My dark desires were solely for mankind now.
All it took was a single bite. A crimson fountain spurted from her carotid artery and gushed from her jugular vein, spattering my body and matting my fur. Then I withdrew, leaving her neck otherwise intact.
I 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.
My lips pulled back and I gave him a silent, death filled promise. He was going to pay for this.
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 had 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. 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 here, purely to satisfy David’s need to punish 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.
My anger returned with renewed strength. 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 was given justice. It didn’t matter that 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, and I would feel better for it. Killing them 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. 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 wou
ld 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 in the air had ceased to affect me, my nose still focused on the scents of the men I was going to kill. It was 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.
I reached the panel to the next chamber. It was another which 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. I thought it odd David was suddenly making my progress so easy though. Surely there would have been more sadistic pleasure in it if he were to prolong my suffering by making me search for the way in and out of each room.
I reminded myself madness needed no sense. 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.
