Bully Trials [Remake]

Chapter Six

VI: Butcher House

Lola

The man waves his hand, and a loud thunderous crash erupts in my ears, followed by people whispering in fear. I see numerous people in a much larger cave with no way out. The Bully Trials initiators are standing on a cliff to the right of the cave. They look down at us, waiting for us to shut up, but that's not coming their way. I look farther up and see large light-brown stalagmites everywhere on the cave ceiling, sharp and pointing down at us. They are even above the initiators. Hundred bucks that they will make it drop. I can hear slight water dripping from above if I focus hard enough on the audience talking in the background. Water droplets gather at the tip before dropping down on someone else's head–an old man with white hair and brown eyes, old enough to be a great-great grandpa. He looks up as his lips press into a straight line. The water droplets must have been annoying him for a long time. He can just move to the walls by shoving or excusing people aside.

A distorted demonic hiss brings our attention to the older woman. Everyone immediately falls silent. She stops once she sees all of us are looking at her and her cult buddies. "We are not here to welcome you. Let's give you a quick tutorial of the rules and send you on your way to the first round. Some of you have been waiting for too long for your own patience, not that we care," starts the man. He looks at the woman and tells her, "Drea, you go first."

The tarantula bitch walks closer to the edge. I hope that she jumps off, yet I know she won't. The height might sprain her ankle, and she may have regeneration. "First rule, no cheating. Second rule, no outside help. Third rule, surviving a round doesn't mean you're safe. Fourth rule, fighting with us doesn't do any good. We're not going to tolerate any nuisance. We won't care when we strap you down on a table surrounded by a pond of acid while we force-feed you slimy pregnant cockroaches and let them hatch inside your digestive tract. If you think your stomach acid will dissolve the cockroaches, we CAN adjust to that accor..."...That is the most gross-related tangent I ever heard in this life. Dreantula has no filter. She continues, "Before I let myself enjoy feeding off disgust, we will send you to the first round. The first round is simple: survive for some time. By the way, we don't reveal where you are going." A smirk rises on her face. "We will watch."

"So-" I try to ask them if our torment is their pleasure, but Heather slaps my mouth shut. She gives me a look that this is the time not to say anything. I thought it was Jacelyn because she always has an annoyed expression whenever I talk as if she is waiting for me to be silent before she can speak.

Dreantula and the rest of her dead gang look at us from the commotion. Everyone else stares at us, warning us not to piss them off. Pissed on or pissed off, they are going to be jackasses. The difference is that one thing might kill us faster. The vampiric blonde guy raises his hand, ready to wave it. The smaller girl enters something at the last second, "Before all of you, one more thing..." Her eyes move to us as she states, "There can be only one winner. Good luck."

The man waves his hand, and the cave walls melt like goo. My entire world transforms into a tight factory space with cemented walls, and vents spewing out chill air, right next to a steel door with frost on the other side. Lights are flickering on and off in this place– poorly facilitated. A contestant walks up to it and immediately backs away, allowing my friends to peek at the horrors inside. There are preserved human bodies strapped up by the hands. Their skin has been removed, revealing the dry and frozen muscle underneath. The first awful thing that comes to my mind is that we are in a human butcher-house. But who are the butchers? And where are they?

"Jaymie just had to spoil the moment that all of us can get out of this alive," Jacelyn fusses.

Jaymie... What was that girl Jaymie?! What the absolute fuck?!