Harm and Harmony

-Chapter 9-

Day: 1

Days Left: 5479

Lives Saved: 0

Feeling her head heavy and dazed, Corinna opened her eyes, blinking from the disorientation. As she regained her vision, she soon realised that the weightless sensation was because she was upside down. By tilting her head, Corinna saw that her entire body was bound in rope and hanging by several nails hammered into stone. Whenever she moved, the spear that was still lodged into her back sent a surge of pain up her spine. Her nose was met with the stench of rot, decay, and smouldering ashes. She attempted to free herself by expanding her arms and legs, but the rope was too tightly bound, pinching and scraping at her skin and agitating the spear, leading to even more pain, causing her to fall in and out consciousness from the lack of circulation.

Looking around, she found herself in a small cave, lit in red and orange light by the campfire in the middle. Hammered into the rock-walls were nails, scattered around, from which hung various objects: cups; bags; meat; mutilated bodies; an unconscious chimaera-

An unconscious chimaera?

Opposite Corinna hung the monster that had tried to kill her. It was bound and tied and dangling upside down the same as her. Still unconscious, the chimaera appeared to be mumbling and murmuring in its sleep. Drops of blood dripped from its arms and legs and splattered onto the ground, resonating throughout the cave. From the wounds it had received before their fight and after, Corinna predicted that the monster did not have long to live before it died from blood loss.

She then heard a sound.

It was the sound of teeth ripping into meat.

Calm down. Calm down. Calm down.

Corinna's eyes slowly moved to the origin of the sound.

Sat beside the fire was the creature; a hulking mass of muscle and brawn hunched over its meal- its teeth tearing into a severed leg, the shredded skin getting trapped in the beast's fur. The beast's upper body was considerably larger than the other half, with its arms and hands like tree trunks whilst his legs spindly and thin like twigs, requiring it to walk on all fours like a gorilla.

Calm down. Calm down. Calm down.

Corinna bit her lower lip, silencing herself, and pushed her arms out, trying to loosen the ropes, blindly searching for the end of the rope or a knot to untie. Feeling the ropes loosen, she smiled then froze when she heard the creature move.

Reaching out, the gorilla beast grabbed from a pile of objects it had collected, which Corinna recognised as the chimaera's belongings. The creature held up the chimaera's belt to its face, examining it and turning it around with its short fumbling fingers, causing most of the objects clipped onto the belt to fall off. Realising that the belt would not fit around its enormous waist, the beast tossed it aside in disappointment and began trying on the green cloak, which once again would not fit as the creature's neck was far too thick and was thrown aside also. The next item the creature inspected was Corinna's makeshift spear, which it immediately lost interest in.

Whilst the beast was distracted by the assortment of trinkets in the chimaera's satchel, like a wind-up toy frog and a flexible ruler, Corinna continued her plan to escape with little achievement. She looked around for something sharp she could use to cut herself free, that was when she noticed that the chimaera was now awake.

The chimaera's radioactive green eyes flickered open, still dazed and regaining consciousness. It glanced around, seeing Corinna and the creature then closed its eyes again. Occasionally, Corinna spotted flashes of green behind the chimaera; its snake-tail had chewed out of its rope and was in the process of freeing itself.

The beast's new object of fascination was the chimaera's metal lantern, in which a green ball of light glowed and danced and swirled around in the glass cage. As soon as the creature opened the lantern, the wisp shot out. It spun around the beast, who enthusiastically attempted to catch it. Evading every single attempt with ease, the wisp ventured further into the cave, darting around, exploring its surroundings until it reached the chimaera and rested on its shoulder. Corinna was worried that the creature would realise that the chimaera was trying to escape, but it was so preoccupied with returning the wisp back into the lantern that it never even noticed the chewed ropes.

After finally trapping the wisp back into the lantern, the creature hobbled over to Corinna and hunched down, leaning its squashed face near hers, its mouth salivating. Corinna wore a mask of indifference, in fear that any sign of terror would cause the creature to harm her, but soon the cracks in her mask broke. The creature grabbed a lock of Corinna's blonde hair and toyed with it, winding it through its fingers. It shoved its squashed face in front of Corinna's again, grinning, then cut the rope that kept her hanging upside down. Corinna collapsed to the floor, her head banging against the stone. Blood oozed and dribbled down her forehead, and she was unable to focus on her situation from the pain as the beast dragged her by the feet to the fire.

Regaining consciousness, Corinna attempted to shuffle away, limited by being bound in rope but was yanked back near the fire. The spear still lodged into her back knocked against the stone and sent a wave of pain crawling up her spine.

The creature retrieved a blunt and rusted cleaver off the floor.

"NO! PLEASE! STOP!" Corinna felt the ropes loosen, but they were still tightly wound around her arms and legs. She kicked with her bound legs, barely grazing the beast's face. It brushed the attack aside and pinned down her legs with its elbow, then with its other hand, it reached out to Corinna. It reached out to her face, its large palm smothering her entire face and all Corinna saw was darkness.

Just darkness.

Unable to breathe, Corinna squirmed and wriggled her body in another attempt to escape the ropes, kicking out her legs but was soon pinned down again.

No.

Please.

No.

Something cold and thin struck down and embedded itself into Corinna's thigh.

Though barely cutting in deep into her skin, it was searing, and hot blood gushed out. With her face smothered and unable to breathe, Corinna's chest tightened and caved in, her skin crushing and cutting into her rib-cage, her lungs and heart begged for release, screaming out to her. 

The cleaver was heaved upwards, but the blade remained lodged into Corinna's thigh. It was yanked out, pulling the young woman's leg up along with it before they slammed back down onto the cave floor.

With no way of escaping, Corinna prepared herself for the next cut. Time seemed to slow to a halt, tormenting her even further as she waited for her inevitable death.

Then, the darkness receded, and the light returned.

The chimaera wrapped the rope, that it had previously imprisoned it, around the creature's thick neck and pulled it to the ground, freeing Corinna. With such a thick neck, the beast was unaffected and still capable of breathing. It swung its lumbering arms around but was caught by the chimaera who tied them together to its neck. After winding more rope around the creature, the chimaera retreated back a few steps. The gorilla beast stumbled forwards, attempting to chase the monster but collapsed to the ground as its weak legs crumbled under its body weight without the support of its arms.

Whilst the chimaera picked up the dropped cleaver, its snake-tail shot out and gorged itself on the creature's thick neck.

Corinna looked away, closing her eyes, not wanting to see.

She soon reopened them upon hearing the chimaera heaving the creature's severed head onto the fire, along with the rest of its dismembered body.

Not wasting time to celebrate after its victory, the chimaera licked its injuries clean until they longer bled. It flinched upon twisting its torso, the wound on its waist continued to flow, too severe to fix. Looking around the cave, the chimaera searched for any medical supplies but found none.

The monster then turned to the young woman, who was still tied with rope.