WARNING - This chapter might be quite gruesome for some. Please read at your own risk. And please make sure to listen to the music above (and maybe even turn off the lights) to make it that much more intense! Enjoy!
Chapter 25 - Heat and Meat
I have a one in five chance, Levana reminded herself. She stood in the back center of the cave so she had a view of the five entrances in one glance. Each ghost stared at her intently, the look in their eyes revealing not that they want her to go through their way, but rather the opposite. But, she had to go in somewhere; if not, she wouldn't be able to find her way out.
The five ghosts repeated themselves. "Do not go through here," they said, their inverse advertising causing much confusion for the young girl. Their body language was almost similar, only vague differences in posture differentiated between them. It was almost like a riddle, a game; she had to somehow make an educated guess, and even if she did, there were so many options that could be right as well.
Her mind was filled with logical inquiries and ideas. The scarlet-dress woman seems too confident... I definitely should not enter there, she assumed. The one entrance she had considered was already eliminated by herself. She was as lost as she was on the multiple choice section of her tests at school. If she was a bad guesser on normal tests that only determined grades, how was she going to pick the right answer when her life was at stake?
Levana knew she had to be rash for it to work. After staring at their postures for so long, she did not know how to decide which one showed more uncertainty than the other. She could not even decide the emotions of her own friends. Oh how she wished that she took more time to study interpersonal affairs when she was on Earth! But it was no time for regret, and she was aware of that fact.
"Um excuse me," she said, talking to the man on the far left. He noticed she was speaking to him, but was not startled at all. "Why can't I go through?"
"Bad things lay behind me," he answered. Although the vague answer chilled her, she was glad that someone for once replied to her upon the first questioning. She turned to the women in the golden dress and asked the same thing.
"Bad things lay behind me," she repeated. The Earthian was sure that their answers were manufactured by someone or something. From her, Levana decided to not ask anyone else; it was obvious that she was just going to get the same answer over and over again. The girl stared into the eyes of the middle man who watched her ask his comrades for answers.
"I guess I'll just have to try that one out," the girl said. She walked close to the ghost, whose translucency let her see an odd mist emitting from the depths of the passageway. However, she trudged on, getting herself ready for what was to come.
But as she was getting closer, the man realized she was coming towards him. He hovered towards her, making her stop in her tracks. The girl diverted her line of sight to the ground and walked past, but suddenly the ghost turned opaque and she bumped into him; and like that, he transformed back into his normal state. Her heart pulled from her surprise that such a feat was possible. The girl fearfully picked up her head and looked at the face of the man, whose countenance went from stolid to angry. His eyebrows bent in towards the middle between his eyes and his lips curved down. His face looked quite comical, as if he was acting out fury rather realistically reacting that way. But the light that shined on his face, which hit different points with some areas more shadowed than others, made the ghost appear a lot scarier.
"Do not go through here," he repeated. Levana gulped but defied the man's wishes, walking around him to the entrance. But, he caught up with her and stood in the girl's way once again.
"I said," he stated, the first two different words he had said the whole time. "Do not go through here!"
His comical face quickly altered, his violet Above eyes turning a shade that was darker than black. His teeth went from straight and polished to pointed and long, with his skin becoming cracked and dried. His devilish appearance caused Levana to jump back and fall to the ground, his formidable presence moving down towards her downfall.
She became dizzy from the fright and crawled backwards in a crab-position on the floor until she was back to where she started. His face shifted to its normal state once again and he went back to his respective entrance as if nothing happened. From their unbreakable uniformity, she knew that the other ghosts were just as dangerous. This is why the woman from before turned back, Levana decided.
She stood back up, still trembling from the sight. The image of the man's face was ingrained in her mind, and she was unable to get it out. She was close to turning back, but the thought of her freedom and the Sword of Earth was just too much to bare. I'll run through, she decided, and get past them before they could say anything about it.
Levana readied her feet, sliding one foot across the bumpy ground like a bull getting prepared to charge. She decided to not even attempt the middle man's entrance, but went back to the scarlet-dress woman's once again. Even on tests on Earth, her first choice was only right. She just hoped it was true about that too.
On the count of three she sprinted through the entrance. The heat waves emitting from the ghost's body caused a pool of sweat to drip down all at once when she passed through her translucent body; the woman did not have time to materialize herself before the girl came through. Levana was in the passageway and her hands clung to her knees as her torso bent downwards. The breaths were rather sporadic and her legs were in great need of relaxation. That's the fastest I've ever run at once. She smiled with a sense of pride washing over her.
Levana glanced behind her into the main area of Etherlond Cave. There she saw the woman's demonic face staring right at her, and she seemed to be in more fury than the man did when she attempted to get through. The ghost opened her mouth and began shrieking with a chilling voice as she tried to pass through to bring the girl back. Levana ran further into the hallway; however, the ghost was unable to get through, a non visible border separating her from the very entrance she guarded with her soul. Is that what the elderly woman was talking about? Levana wondered. Nonetheless, she ventured on.
As she walked through, an awful smell of blood consumed her nostrils. There was no way to inhale anything else, causing her poor nose to shrivel up in disgust. Levana put her hand over her nose but refused to go back, especially after making that ghost her enemy. It was apparent that she was getting closer to something as she heard munching coming from further down the line. Her hard footsteps became more delicate as she took each step with caution on her toes. The girl did not know what that sound even was, but if there was someone there, she did not want to draw attention before she even arrived at the location.
It sounded like someone was eating. Levana was thankful for such, hoping they would lend some food to her. She missed eating a delicious meal that with each bite would give her stomach satisfaction. She missed using her teeth for chewing instead of chattering from the cold. And most of all, she missed her father's home cooked food, filled with extreme spices and seasonings that would explode in her mouth. Knowing she could not get exactly she wanted, even if it was just a batch of leaves, the girl was determined to eat it.
A large candle hung from the top like a chandelier, its bottom resting on a rectangular plate that had a string of metal on each corner connecting to the ceiling. The light rained down, its spotlight on one specific thing. As she could not see from afar, the girl walked closer at a fast but quiet pace. All she could see was something moving.
In a dead end, there sat a disgusting monster, its skin glistening from liquid spread around its body; she could not tell if it was sweat or a coat of saliva. The substance dripped down onto the ground, its thick texture weighing itself to the floor in a similar but horrendous fashion of honey streaming out of the bottle into a cup of tea. Its back was in her direction, and the feet, which were thin with three long toes of the same height, withstood the weight of the fat thing. The odor reached its maximum and so did the munching sound. Levana could tell its jaw moving up and down and the hands were holding its meal. The monster was hunched over, enjoying the taste of its prey.
The monster's head jolted up, giving her the impression that it noticed someone was lingering behind it, watching with surprise. The monster's head slowly turned around, and its one pupil-less eye stared right at her, the red veins in the eyeball popping out to a large extent. One small slit was in replace of its nose. And on the thin lips, blood was smeared all over from its messy methods of eating, the red color contrasting with the pale greenish-yellow skin. The two stared at each other for a while with Levana filled with horror, and the monster seeming to not feel anything but confusion.
"What are you eating?" she asked in a low voice, not expecting the thing to say anything. There were no more passages leading further in; the only way was out. Levana felt powerless with no sword in her hand as the monster did not take its gaze off of her. The air seemed to press her body in every direction; wherever she went at that point would follow up with some type of danger.
"Go away," it gurgled in broken Abogat, as if it taught itself that phrase after hearing enough Aboves speak. A sudden voice she had not heard before came into the conversation.
"Help me!" someone screamed with pain. Levana covered her ears from the utter disturbance in the voice, which even caused her ears to ring. Her eyes almost popped right out of her sockets as those words were followed by continuous and inaudible screaming.
"Help me," the monster repeated as if it was a game. "Help me!" Once it spoke its words with fluency, the thin lips stretched into a wicked grin as if it was a dog proud that it caught the stick the owner threw in their direction. The monster looked back down at its hands and turned fully around. Levana stepped back, not wanting to see what was in its hands anymore; she knew what it was. Her stomach churned and tears filled her eyes as she knew she could not get away before the final reveal.
Its stomach hung low with sags of its fat laying on the ground. Even so the beast had a skinnier structure, regardless of that part of its body. The legs were a little more than two feet tall, which was quite small for its tall physique. Its bald head shined in the candle's light, and in its hands, which were as long as its toes, was a half eaten Above who was still alive from the effects of the Dagalda. Blood was smeared all over the monster's body and the victims, his eyes showing his crazed desire to just die right then. He outstretched his half eaten arm to the girl, but she was motionless from the grotesque image. The monster dropped its meal onto the ground, its bloodstained hands released from the grasp of the Above. Small flaps similar to wings outstretched, as if they were ears, as the thing shrieked at the girl, causing her hair to be pushed back from the airy force. The odor of its breath made her black out for a second, likely also due to what she had just witnessed.
With gluttonous tendencies, the monster jumped up and down, overjoyed by its new source of food. Levana had only two choices; to be eaten by the monster or face the ghost once again.
And of course, the latter prevailed.
The beast charged at her with more speed than she could have imagined, its stomach trying its hardest to come along as it scratched and bled from the friction of the ground. However, the monster seemed not to notice its own harm as the chase for Levana pursued.
Levana sprinted away, the hallway feeling a lot longer than it did before. But before she could get even halfway out, the gooey fingers intertwined around her arm. With all of its strength, it pulled her body to the ground, her back aching crazily from the impact and the lingering pain she still felt from the fall into Dagalda. Caught, she was being dragged back into the monster's lounge as its very new innocent prey.
~~~
Oh yikes, it seems like Levana is in a lot of trouble! Will she have the stomach to deal with this? Haha, thanks so much for reading and sticking with me! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and will continue to enjoy the others in Levana's adventures!