"What... what is this? This has to be fake. It's an illusion... what the fuck is this?!"
The old man's shout finally breaks Keirum out of his trance. He lifts his hands.
Drip.
Drip.
Blood trickles from his fingers like tears, crashing against the cracked stone floor. The stones are matted with peeled flesh.
His will finally snaps. He is only a twelve-year-old boy, and his mind can no longer bear such weight.
I don't want to be here, Mom.
As he thinks of her, the image of his mother's eyes flashes in his mind, followed by the sickening sound of crunches. He begins to shake. His teeth chatter.
"Kid! Look!" the old man yells, breaking him out of his stupor once again.
He points between the bars.
Keirum glances over and sees overwhelming terror in the man's eyes.
As the boy stands, his legs tremble. His body already knows that what he is about to see will change his world forever.
Fighting through the weakness, step by step, he makes his way to the bars. He wraps his tiny hands around the cold metal. His eyes say it all—the madness the old man once saw in them resurfaces.
"Ha... ha ha... hahahah.
I'm going to die, Mom. Look how you left me. Your son is going to die," he says.
A grin—one that almost reflects the joy he saw on his sister's face on her birthday—plasters itself across his face. The old man, expecting screams, hears only laughter.
Horrified, he looks into the kid's eyes. They are an endless pit of growing madness, mirroring the dark abyss right in front of them. While the grin stretches across Keirum's face, tears like raging rivers spew from his eyes.
"Mom... can you see me?"
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
They both hear the footsteps. The older man is paralyzed by terror, but the boy is frozen by memory. He has heard that sound before—the same thumps he heard while trying to hide his sister.
Thump.
His hatred doubles with every step.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Frozen in terror, they finally see it. For Keirum, it is the spitting image of the thing that ate his mother alive while he watched. For the old man, it is a nightmare made flesh.
As the creature stands there, something stirs at its leg. It is a mirror of the larger monster, only smaller. It makes a chattering sound:
Ke-ke-ke-ke.
Those sounds make Keirum's mind spiral. It sounds as if the creature is laughing at their pitiful state. The larger monster grabs the thick metal bars and bends them with nothing but raw physical strength.
"How?" they whisper in sync.
"Those bars were the size of my head... and it bent them like a toothpick," the old man gasps as the monster steps into the cage.
Rage builds in Keirum's heart, his pulse accelerating with every beat. As the green monster enters the cage, Keirum charges.
"I will kill you!" he shouts from the pits of his soul.
"Wait, kid!" the old man shouts.
He watches the boy charge, staring into the monster's eyes. To the creature, they are merely insects.
The man only sees a blurred hand move; the next moment, the boy is flying in the opposite direction.
It hurts... Mama, why aren't you helping me?
Blood drips from his hands. All he can feel is agony. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts.
As the dust clears, his eyes lock onto the green monster again. But this time, there is no rage. There is only absolute fear.
Ke-ke-ke-ke-ke.
As the mini-monster laughs at his pitifulness, he remembers only one thing: disappointment.
"Ha... haha... hahahah. You were right. I am..."
Thud.
Something lands right in front of him.
"A pickaxe," he says softly, all the fight leaving his voice.
Thud.
Glancing toward the noise, he sees the old man has received one as well. Then, he hears something ominous. A dark voice that says only one thing:
"Follow or die."
Ke-ke-ke-ke.
As the monster's laughter grows louder, Keirum looks at it, a smile plastering his face again. As the old man, Keirum, and the giant monster leave the cage, he hears that voice again:
"Move, food."
As he takes a step in the direction the monster commanded, he looks back at the small one. It is in the cage, ripping the flesh off a dead face as if it were a mask. Maggots, mixed with the person's flesh, scatter and are devoured by the monster's bite.
Keirum looks at the body once more. Hah... he was probably close to my age. Fourteen at most. And look at him now—his body being eaten by a monster and maggots at the same time.
He takes one last glance and moves forward, not looking back.
But that was a mistake. As he passes other cages, he sees humans with missing legs and arms. One is missing half of his face. The saddest part is that they are all still alive.
Hahahah.
They walk past grotesque sights, but the last cage horrifies him to his very marrow. Inside are girls, probably the age of his little sister, but their stomachs are bursting like bubbles. Blood is everywhere; organs are strewn around like decorations.
"Hahaha... Mom, im glad you're dead," he says, grinning ear to ear while shedding tears.
Before him, miniature monsters eat their way out of the girls' bodies while they are still alive. Screams—that is all he hears. As flesh is chewed from the inside out, he makes one last wish, engraving the sight into his mind.
"Iris... please... please for me... be dead."