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"Of course you don't get it. You're a monster.”

Its expression darkens, lips pulling back in something akin to hurt.

For a long moment, neither of us moves. Its gaze drops to the bandage on my thigh, then my ribs, before swinging back to Gale. With a sharp huff, it spins on its heel and stalks back to the corpse.

Dread coils in my gut. “What are you doing?”

The monster ignores me. Its massive hand closes around Gale's ankle and with disturbing ease, it starts to drag the body toward the tunnel.

“Wait. Where are you taking him? Stop!”

Gale's corpse disappears inch by inch into the darkness, shovel scraping loudly across the stone floor, and panic shoots through my veins. “Stop! Please!”

The monster halts at once.

Slowly, it glances back over its shoulder in such a… human way that the gesture makes me feel sick. I can't be certain from this distance or the darkness surrounding the tunnel, but I swear it even raises a brow. Which is absurd.

“Don't… don't eat him,” I rasp, pointing to my uncle. “Please. Just bury him somewhere and let me go.”

For a long moment, it remains motionless, golden eyes reflecting off the dying light as it watches me. Then, without any kind of reaction, the creature simply continues dragging my uncle away, leaving me alone in its lair once again.

The scraping of the shovel bounces off the tunnel walls for several seconds before fading into silence. Then there's nothing. No monster, no corpse. Just me and the strip of flesh still lying on the stone floor beside my feet.

My gaze fixes on it immediately.

Blood has begun pooling beneath it, slowly spreading through the cracks in the rock. In the flickering firelight, the chunk looks almost unrecognizable now. Just meat. Except I know exactly where it came from.

My stomach twists, and I turn my head to retch onto the floor even though there's nothing left in me to throw up. The smell and sight of it alone are enough, the memory of it touching my tongue.

A shudder works through my entire body. Whatever fucking nightmare this place is, I need to get out while that thing is busy. Darkness swallows everything beyond the tunnel entrance ahead; only the sound of cracking fire and dripping water can be heard. This might be my only shot at escaping before it decides to eat me too.

My attention returns to the bloodied piece of flesh on the floor.

Obviously, whatever this creature is, it sees me as wounded prey—something to keep alive and feed for now. But eventually, every farmer slaughters the animal they've been fattening up, and I'd rather die trying to get free than in the belly of the beast.

A strong sense of resolve cuts through the pain in my body. Positioning my palms on the ground once again, I begin dragging myself toward the tunnel despite every muscle in my body fighting against me.

“Come on,” I whisper through clenched teeth. “Do it, Benji.”

Each movement is agony. My ribs feel like they're being split apart and my legs won’t seem to cooperate. But still, I move. One painful pull at a time toward the tunnel.

Toward freedom.

Or death.

At this point, I'm not entirely sure there's a difference.

Chapter

Fourteen

Benji

Escaping is harder than I thought it would be.

The tunnels twist and turn, disappearing into corners of darkness like a maze right into hell. I can't even remember where I first fell, let alone find the exit.

My elbows are scraped all to hell from crawling on my stomach, the skin of my palms shredded to hamburger meat, and whatever bandage that creature had used to plug up my bullet wound has completely soaked through with blood.