Chapter 265: Burn It
The thought alone sent a wave of nausea crashing through Aliana. She instinctively turned to Gavriel again, silently searching his face for an answer she hoped wasn’t true.
A weary sigh escaped him.
"Yes." His voice remained calm. "It’s a dark ritual. If they’re following everything written in that book, then they intend to feed us human flesh. It’s a cult practice. A way of defying the natural order... or perhaps more accurately, defying the gods themselves before moving on to the main event."
"The main event," Aliana repeated in dread. "You mean... the sacrifice."
Gavriel offered no reply, but his heavy silence said everything.
Jade clamped a hand over her mouth as the horrifying realisation finally crashed into her.
Cedric hadn’t simply been controlled, he was being... prepared.
"I’m gonna be sick," Jade whispered hoarsely. "Poor Cedric... We have to save him... and those prisoners."
Cillian ran a hand through his hair, his expression darkening. "This is getting extremely messy. I knew something was off with that couple, especially with the way that woman was throwing herself at Gavriel."
At the mention of Gwen, both Aliana and Gavriel’s brows furrowed.
"So you noticed it too?" Aliana asked.
"Of course I did. It was impossible to ignore the stench of desperation," Cillian replied.
Aliana looked up at her husband again. Even with darkness surrounding them, her sharper vision allowed her to make out his face.
Gavriel met her gaze and asked softly, "What is it?"
"Nothing," she replied before turning away. She had already figured out that Gavriel must have sensed something was off about the woman from the very beginning. That was why she hadn’t questioned him further about him staring at Gwen when he had mentioned sensing the dark, negative aura in people.
Leaning back into him as she processed everything, she felt his arms tighten around her.
Only then did she finally shift her attention to what lay ahead.
The moment she did, she stiffened in his arms.
"Guys... where the fuck are we?" Aliana whispered.
All four of them looked around the room. Jade instinctively shifted closer to Cillian and murmured, "T-too dark."
As the only normal human in the group, Jade couldn’t see a thing in the pitch-black space. Recognising her fear, Cillian pulled out his phone and switched on the flashlight.
The moment the bright beam pierced the darkness, both women’s eyes widened in sheer horror, while the men narrowed theirs at the sight before them.
In front of them lay a dilapidated, dust-covered laboratory.
Ancient, rusty equipment lined the front wall, while massive glass jars held floating human bodies suspended in murky liquid.
At the centre of the room stood several stretchers holding human dried cadavers. One body was stitched up unevenly with thick thread, while the rest lay hollowed out, stripped of their organs and drained of every last drop of blood.
When their eyes drifted to the wooden shelves along the walls, they spotted jars filled with preserved organs, some human, others distinctly animal.
The blood drained from Aliana and Jade’s faces as they raised their hands to cover their mouth.
The horrific display and the heavy, metallic stench of decay were too much to take, making their stomachs churn violently.
Jade stumbled away to the far side of the room, doubled over near the wall, and threw up, unable to stomach any of it.
Silently cursing under his breath, Cillian hurried after her and gently rubbed her back as she continued to heave.
Aliana felt no different. But after witnessing Jacob explode before her own eyes, this was almost tame in comparison. Even as bile threatened to rise in her throat, she forced herself to remain rooted to the spot.
As for the men, a single realisation echoed in both Gavriel and Cillian’s minds. This was a low-grade version of the experimental labs they had seen back in Aria after Ivan sent Gavriel the coordinates.
But one question remained.
Were the people on this island conducting the same human experiments... or was this neglected laboratory used solely to harvest blood and organs for the rituals described in the book?
With every horrifying discovery, the island grew even more dangerous than they had imagined. The urgency to get Aliana and Jade out of this nightmare became overwhelming, regardless of whether anyone else made it off the island alive.
With that, the two men exchanged a silent look, arriving at the exact same conclusion before turning their attention back to the women beside them, who were still in shock.
Letting out a quiet sigh, Gavriel cupped Aliana’s cheek and gently turned her face towards him. Meeting her stunned gaze, he said, "Ana, we need to leave this place immediately. This isn’t just about some dark ritual anymore. These people are dangerous, and I don’t want you caught up in any of this."
"What?" Aliana whispered before shaking her head. "No! What about Cedric and his parents? And all those people in the mansion who have no idea about the horrifying reality hidden beneath it?"
"And how exactly do you plan on rescuing all of them when we can barely find a window to escape ourselves?" Gavriel asked, gently pulling her face closer. "These people... I don’t think it’s just the Prescott family involved in all of this. This is a proper dark cult, Ana. For something like this to exist, there have to be more people involved. How will you tell the difference between a cult member and an innocent guest?"
Aliana swallowed hard before something suddenly clicked.
"There is a way! I saw some of the guests at the party wearing jewellery with that exact same star-and-circle symbol that is shown in the book. That’s how we can tell who belongs to the cult and who doesn’t."
Gavriel studied her intently before asking, "And what happens to the ones who are part of it?"
Before Aliana could answer, Jade’s weak voice came from the other side of the room.
"We leave them here to die."
The cold declaration stunned Aliana and caught the attention of both men, who turned to look at the redhead wiping her mouth.
"J-Jade..." Aliana mumbled.
Jade spat into the corner before letting out a string of curses.
"You heard me." Her voice was shaky, but every word carried a conviction none of them had expected. "We leave them here to die. Those motherfuckers have been doing this for God knows how long. I don’t even care why they’re doing it anymore. There isn’t a reason in this world that could ever justify this."
"Anyone who can butcher innocent people like this... who can torture them, harvest their organs, force others to eat human flesh..." Her voice cracked with disgust. "They’re beyond saving. They don’t deserve mercy."
She drew in a trembling breath before finishing, "So I say we call the boats, get every innocent person off this island, inform the authorities... and then we burn this godforsaken place to the ground."
"Burn it?" Aliana repeated, completely flabbergasted.
Meanwhile, Cillian found himself staring at Jade with renewed interest.
Moments ago, she had been trembling in his arms, unable to stomach the horrors around them. Yet now she was standing there, pale yet calmly suggesting massacre.
A faint grin began to tug at the corner of his lips.
"Yes," Jade replied. Taking the phone from Cillian’s hand, she slowly swept the flashlight towards another corner.
"See that?" she said quietly. "That should be more than enough to turn this place into an inferno."