The Cabin Is Always Hungry (A Dungeon Core Horror Slasher)

HELLS GRACE

Part 22

Loud clambering from the stairs spooked Tessa. She turned around only to find Melanie's body was no longer lying at the bottom landing. She caught a glimpse of Melanie's shadow looming over the hatch and let out a taunting cackle that faded as she scurried away.

Tessa withdrew deeper into the tunnel, pointing the gun at the cellar entrance just in case Melanie changed her mind and came after her. She reached the tunnel's sharp bend and then the open iron doors.

The first thing she saw was my body, and she almost let out a scream, alerting the two men, who were fighting across the room, of her presence. She crouched and made herself as small as possible, slinking into the shadows and hiding behind a statue of a horned black goat.

Hodge pinned Leo against the wall with the shotgun stuck between them, threatening to fire the last shell inside. They struggled over the weapon, but their strengths were an equal match. Leo almost got the upper hand when he swung an elbow at Hodge, but the latter dodged it, giving him enough momentum to shove Leo hard against the wall again. The slight moment lifted the weapon slightly to their chests, and Hodge thrust upward, sliding and pinning the shotgun's long barrel against Leo's throat. Leo let out a strangled cry as the gun clamped his windpipe.

"You think you can just shoot me, motherfucker?!" Hodge snarled.

Tessa darted to another statue, inching closer toward the two men. She and Leo locked eyes, and recognition lit up both their faces. Leo was with Eliza earlier, and he helped Tessa out of her cuffs. Hodge still hadn't noticed her. When she was sure Hodge wasn't still aware of her, she raised the gun, aiming at Hodge's back. A brave but foolish gambit on her part. Leo's eyes widened, warning her to get the hell out of the room before—

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

Sparks flew everywhere as a dozen hexagonal shields interlinked and materialized inches away from Hodge's body. I felt the Ways surging and whipping around Hodge. The bullets shattered upon impact, and the shield fell apart soon after, enough to distract Hodge from Leo to look over his shoulder and meet Tessa's gaze.

Tessa yelped as thin smoke rose from the gun's handle. She let go of the boiling heat emanating from the weapon and frantically clutched her scalded palm. Hodge must have cast a [ Heat Surge ] spell, the same thing I did for my Core.

A small trickle of blood ran down Hodge's left nostril. He staggered for a second, losing a bit of his hold on Leo. I was so used to casting my own spells as a Dungeon Core that I never thought how taxing it would be for a mortal.

"Leo! Get him!" I screeched.

Leo surged forward and pushed the gun down, bringing his knee toward Hodge's gut. All the air inside Hodge's lungs exploded out of his gaping mouth. Leo whirled the weapon around and smacked the butt of the handle across Hodge's jaw, knocking a couple of his teeth out. The giant man stumbled back, blood dripping out of his mouth and nose, but Hodge didn't let that perturbed him. He still had an iron grip on the shotgun's barrel. He yanked on the weapon, and a reverberated blast echoed on the floor, blowing dust everywhere—the accidental discharge sent both men sprawling to the ground, spinning the shotgun off their grip.

Tessa took a protective step around a statue just in time to see Hodge get up, wiping the blood on his nose with the back of his hand. He reached Leo first, hoisting him by the back of the collar, and drove his fist hard into his stomach.

"That's for my teeth, asshole!" Hodge said.

But before Hodge could make another cheap shot at Leo, Tessa sprang into action like a wild monkey, screeching as she leaped onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck. Hodge might be big and strong, but Tessa had the endurance to hold on for dear life.

"Get off me, you fucking bitch!" Hodge struggled to say, letting go of Leo. He spun around, trying to reach for her on his back, but he couldn't stretch his arm out that far. Tessa kept dodging his flimsy grasp and tightened her hold around his neck, slowly choking him; her legs flailed around as Hodge kept spinning and spinning.

And then, Tessa Burton did something I did not expect.

She pressed her face on Hodge's right ear and chomped down on it.

I guffawed as Hodge shrieked like a baby, cartilage, and skin stretched like a melted mozzarella as Tessa tore it off with her bare teeth. Blood spurted out of the ruptured flesh. Hodge stumbled to his feet and didn't care anymore. He reached back further, heard the snap and twist of muscle and fascia, and grabbed Tessa by the shirt. Hodge threw the girl across the room like a sack of potatoes. She almost crashed on top of my corpse, missing it by a few inches. The fall scraped her arm as she landed on her side.

Hodge clutched the limb he used to throw Tessa. It looked like he pulled a major muscle, or he might have sprained his shoulder blade. While Hodge was distracted by the girl, Leo loaded the shotgun with fresh shells from his pockets. Leo pointed the barrel directly at Hodge's chest.

But the other man was faster.

Coach Hodge released [ Telekinesis ].

A strong gust of wind blasted across the chamber, emanating from Hodge's pointed index and middle finger, propelling Leo into the air. He flailed like a rag doll and slammed his back against the base of the goat's statue with a sickening crunch. Leo rolled and crumpled to the floor.

Tessa scrambled up, stung and hissing from the fall. She crawled toward the fallen shotgun but was too slow, and Hodge snatched it from her fingertips. He turned the gun around and aimed for her head. "Enough! Don't you dare make another move!"

Tessa raised her hands in submission, breath shaking with terror. Hodge slammed the gun at the back of Tessa's head, annoyed. "You bit my ear, you fucking bitch!"

"Fuck you," Tessa said with venom.

Hodge pressed the barrel harder against her cheek. "Quiet. Or I'll blow your head off."

Tessa clenched her jaw and nodded.

Hodge trudged back to Leo and kicked his legs. He wasn't moving. Then, he pointed the shotgun at my corpse.

"Search him," he ordered Tessa.

"Of what?" Tessa asked.

"Just look!" Hodge said impatiently. "Search his pockets. Anything in the circle."

Tessa looked down at the glyphs. Some of the drawings had already been smeared and brushed off during the commotion, but the rest were still in full display and ominous-looking, so she didn't trust them.

"What's gonna happen if I cross it?" She asked.

Hodge raised his palm over his wounded ear and said, "Vis medicatrix." In an instant, some of the gnarly bits of flesh dangling from the ruptured cartilage began to stitch themselves together. Hodge didn't grow another ear, but it stopped the bleeding. Tessa gaped at him. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Hodge rummaged Leo's pockets and grabbed all of the shotgun's ammo.

"What'd you say?" Hodge asked.

"What's gonna happen if I cross it?" She repeated. She kept staring at Hodge's slightly healed ear.

"Not my problem," he said. He turned his head to the side so Tessa wouldn't keep staring. "Search him."

Tessa got up and still hesitated to cross the threshold. She glanced over at Hodge, then Leo's unconscious body, and the shotgun. Gulping down her fear, she hopped over multiple glyphs and braced herself—Hodge did, too—but nothing happened.

"Go on. Search."

Tessa knelt beside my corpse, held her breath, and rummaged beneath the robes. "What am I looking for exactly?"

"A gem," Hodge said. "Enough with the questions. You'll know it once you see it."

Tessa stopped. "A gem?"

"Hey. I didn't tell you to stop."

Tessa pursed her lips. I could tell by the lines on her forehead that she was planning something. "Um, it's not here, coach," she said.

"Are you sure? Keep looking."

"No, it's really not here. But…I know where the gem is. I saw it."

Hodge snorted. "Yeah, right."

"I swear. I saw it." Tessa met his gaze to see how serious she was.

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"Where'd you find it then?"

"In the woods, stuck inside a dead tree. It was glowing, too, made out of—I don't know—some type of crystal?"

"You're lying."

"Look, I can show you the way. It's not far from the cabin. Unless you want me to continue searching Mark's corpse, which will turn up nothing."

What are you planning to do? I wondered. Perhaps she was drawing him out into the open, hoping that Goliath or Old Growth could take him out. An enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? And Tessa was desperate to get out of the situation.

"Fine. Get up. Lead the way. But if you do anything funny, I'm gonna sever your spine. Got that?"

Tessa nodded.

"Say you got it, girlie."

Tessa shot him a deathly glare. She wanted to say so much more, but she held her tongue. "I got it."

"Good. Ladies first." Hodge pointed the barrel toward the door.

"But if I show you the way, you'll let me go?"

"I promise."

You know, in the movies, when someone answered too quickly, and you knew that it was a big fucking fat lie that would get the other character killed? Yeah. My spider senses were tingling, and I wasn't the only one. Tessa knew Coach Hodge was lying. She was a dead woman walking once they got to my Core. Still, she got up from where she was kneeling and walked toward the iron doors. She was banking on Old Growth to take Hodge out like he did to Clay.

She was banking on me.

"Oh, don't worry, Tess," I said. "Lead him to me, and I'll give him one heck of a show."

I sent a tiny ping across my domain, slithering from the base of my archetype's spines to their heads—a strong calling to gather near and stand ready.

Old Growth.

Goliath.

Siren.

The Demon.

Oracle.

They answered me with fervor. Wherever they hid or lay waiting for their prey to make a mistake, they crawled out of the dark corners of my domain and marched toward the Core Tree. Though Siren couldn't walk on land after she just used the one unique ability for [ Merfolk Physiology ] to change into a near-perfect copy of Tessa earlier, she summoned [ Water Manipulation ] instead.