Chương 53: All Consuming Meat

The tunnel was threadbare and utilitarian as they traversed it, which wasn't surprising to her. Occasionally they'd pass by a sleeping bag or food trash that made it clear they weren't the first people to find this place. There'd been other aspirants who'd fought the same battles they had and taken refuge in here. However short their rest might have been. Grim could do with some more rest herself, but she wouldn't bring it up to the rest of the group.

She wasn't going to be the person that slowed everyone down if she could help it. She was tired but not quite exhausted, her healing gloom kept her operational and in relatively not a lot of pain. The group was all talking in their pairs as they trudged along, not bothering to be quiet. There were only two ways to come from and no real point in trying to hide themselves. Natalie was beside her, but after trying and failing to get a response out of her, she got the hint and stayed quiet.

Grim wasn't trying to be rude, but she didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to say to any of these people. They wanted more details on what she'd done, but she wasn't going to tell them, hell, she didn't even want to remember what had happened. Fat chance of that happening, however. The whole scenario was replaying through her mind, and she wanted to find something she could've done better, but what was there? They were just in a bad position at a bad time. Were the other groups doing better?

She hoped so, but hope didn't seem to last long in a place like this." You guys think anyone's finished yet?" Grim asked." If I haven't?" Maya asked.

"Then I don't think anyone has." Sam spoke, not bothering to turn around, "Two people have."" What? Who?" Grim asked." Markus Aeric, C-rank with a teleportation Boon and a veteran at that. Member of one of the paramilitary groups Eternity's contracted with." She hadn't heard the name before, but that wasn't saying much." And the other?" Sam shrugged, "Don't know, I just saw a blip in the portal so someone must have snuck by."" How do you know this?" Grim asked." It's a secret," Sam smiled." Only two people?"

Natalie asked.

"Isn't that low? Surely more people must have finished by now. Where is everyone?" Carrion, while still being limped along by SongJae, started laughing. He was soaked in blood and shuddered as he spoke, his face pale and weak.

"What do you think? Our group is probably on the higher end of the spectrum, and look at us. Look at me. I'm not weak, this place is just… fuck. Why are we here?"" To become a Witch, that's why," Natalie said, not confident in her answer." We could've gone anywhere. Did anything. Why not a year or two beyond the walls? Where those lives could have had a chance to learn and grow. Instead, we were thrown into a meat grinder. What's the point?" Grim turned and looked at Solomon and Alyn, who were bringing up the rear.

Alyn's hand still hung limp, and she avoided eye contact with Grim when she turned. While Solomon was keeping pace, but seemed to be checked out, staring off into the distance. The conversation startled Grim, she hadn't had a proper moment to decompress, but she would've come to the same conclusion as Carrion. The nagging sense that something wasn't right here had been pressing in on her ever since she'd walked past the minefield. Those voices tried to warn her that something wasn't right.

Was that the Petals speaking to her? It was disturbing, frankly, to think that if she slipped up she'd be one of them, but they were probably dead anyway. It was horrible, but not really a reason to send them here specifically. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere." They're all hiding something," Grim said finally." Who?" Maya asked. The group had stopped now, partly as an excuse to rest and partly because their full attention was on Grim now."

Every one of them," Grim said.

"Every Witch we've spoken to, no one's broken their silence on what happens in this portal. Everyone knows its deadly, sure but I'm willing to bet none of you knew what was waiting for us here." She waited for a moment, waiting for anyone to speak up. No one did." The Petals are horrifying, whatever the clock tower is? More so, but it's not worth the secrecy. That all we can deal with, but I think the worst part is? We haven't even found what they're hiding yet."" So what's worse than all that?" Carrion asked."

I don't know." There was silence in the air after that as each of them reflected on what that meant. To be a Witch or even whatever the group had been before was a tough life. Grim knew she had seen and done some horrible things in the name of survival, the rest of them here she sincerely doubted were very different from her. If they were thinking in the same way she was, they were wondering how what so far had been the worst experiences of their lives could get worse.

Maya clapped her hands together, disrupting the melancholy, "Enough of that! I'm tired of the moping around, so what if we're all fucked up and gonna die? At least we'd go down swinging. The only bad part about all of that is being turned into some hive-mind zombie thing, so how about we make a promise right here to not let anyone get turned? How about that? And then we forget about that because none of us are going to die and we're all going to get through this thing and become a bunch of badass coven witches.""

Really wasn't expecting a motivational speech from you of all people," Grim said.

"But I can agree to that."" Oh, I'm going to make it through all right, I've got a lot of questions that I will get answers for. For Orions sake," Solomon said. Carrion brought out a small knife.

"How do we want to do this?"" Enough, you all too slow," SongJae said as he cut his palm and let the blood drip onto the floor.

"Cut and go. Done faster."" What the big guy said," Maya agreed. With that, Grim bit into her palm and leaked a small amount of blood onto the floor, she would have used a knife, but she didn't want to waste time disinfecting the blade from where she'd stabbed it into the Petals. Her blood mixed with everyone else's on the cold grey concrete as one by one they cut themselves and sealed their promise with blood and aura.

It was a small thing and not binding beyond a minor annoyance, but it gave it weight that mere words alone wouldn't. Grim had never bound a promise before, but it was popular on the shows she liked to watch. After they'd all bled, Grim had used a tiny amount of shadow to heal everyone's cuts. Some creatures might be drawn to openly bleeding wounds, so she'd want to hide their presence if possible. The other reason was so she could get a bit more practice in doing it.

By the fifth time she'd done it, she'd used a fraction less of shadow than the first time, which wasn't a lot but she'd take it. Eventually the tunnel they were in stopped twisting and led to another thick metal door, two skeletons sat facing each other in front of it. Both with a clear hole in the front of their skulls. They tried not to look at it as they exited the tunnel through the door. SongJae led the way with Alyn behind him, seeing as they were the two least injured people left.

Their preparation proved to be unnecessary as they entered a room that was freezing cold and devoid of life. There were only the carcasses of creatures she'd never seen before, hung on meat hooks and left to rest. There were tables in the middle that were clearly used to process the meat, as chunks were left behind along with various cleaving instruments." Looks fresh," SongJae said." Yeah," Grim replied. A freezer door led to a staircase to the main floor of the building.

It looked like a typical office filled with a row of cubicles, with a larger, closed-off office on the other side. Several large windows were covered with blinds, blocking off any view to the outside. Grim was grateful for that, it'd give them a bit more cover. They all fanned out and began searching the room. Grim's first instinct was to head to the window and get a glimpse outside. She had just pulled back the curtain when Natalie yelled." Guys! Oh my god. I'm gonna be sick."

Grim turned, closing the curtain, "What's wrong?"" It's… it's Orion."