The Cabin Is Always Hungry

DEAD PACIFICA

Part 13

The cult—my cult—took Trail A and fortunately didn’t encounter any of the crew again. I didn’t want to burn an ability just to materialize right in front of their faces to scold them. They laughed at the stunt they pulled by clearly scaring those two women.

“Now are you pleased we took the scenic route?” Rachel asked the others.

“Worth it,” Cassie purred. She walked with a rhythmic, predatory sway, her fingers trailing over the bark of the hemlocks as if she were feeling the trees' pulses. “The cabin always centers me. Keeps me calm. What about you, Mom?”

“I’m sorry, Cassie. It was the first thing that popped into my head. I thought the crew would be in town by now given that it’s almost dark,” Rachel explained.

“I’d rather not keep Xavier waiting, you know,” Caleb said.

“Oh, hush. You gotta live a little, dear Caleb. No use with you joining us and not enjoying the little things in life. It’s not what this family is all about,” Rachel said. “Look at the bounty our Lord has built and we get to enjoy it everyday. You are no longer a stooge stuck behind a desk, wasting away for who knows how long. You often speak of so many bad memories of that life. but you are no longer a slave to the corporate elite and the billionaires. Xavier has plucked you to be more than just a cog in their machine.”

Caleb looked at the dark canopy above, his expression a mix of awe and terror. “Has he spoken to you lately?” he asked, directed at Cassie.

Cassie let out a small smile. “Even as one gifted by His bounty before, I don’t know everything the Dungeon Lord designs. In time, when the Shroud is ready to lift, He will speak to me. Until then, we wait for His signs.”

“His will is as mighty as the air we breathe,” Rachel mused.

“It has been months since the Dungeon Lord has spoken to us,” Caleb said. “We’ve killed those people through His bidding and still no answer?”

Cassie took a deep breath. “In time, He will.”

“Is He angry with us?”

Cassie whirled around. “Angry? He wouldn’t be angry with us if He’s inviting us into His domain now, would he?”

Caleb shrank back. “I…I guess not.”

“Have patience, brother Caleb. We are all unworthy of His gifts, but the path we are all on eventually will lead back to Him. Everyone is tethered to our Lord since the day they were born. Because He is what?”

Caleb gulped. “He is Death?”

“And? What else has Xavier taught us?”

“That all flesh must be under His shroud for the final judgement until we take our last breath, and the end of time.”

Cassie beamed a smile. “Correct! You’ve done your reading, I see. Good job! Now stop complaining. Don’t be so jealous that I delved and you didn’t. If you keep complaining, It’s so easy to curl this fist of mine, and squash your head like a ripe melon?”

Caleb stopped on his tracks and took a lungful of breath. “No! I mean no offense, Sister Cassandra. I…I love His lordship. I don’t mean to be impatient of His miracles. He has done enough for me and, and…”

“You mean we have done so much for you?” Cassie stepped into his personal space, her hand reaching up to pat his cheek. Slap. Slap. “Don’t forget the mercy we have done for your very controlling mother, as you wished it. We uplifted you. We showed you the truth behind the veil of this world. If you still have doubts, Brother Caleb, don’t be afraid to take them to me. Or Brother Gordon. Or Xavier himself—he’s actually experienced Ascension, you know. You want to ascend, don't you?”

Caleb looked down at his boots. “I do.”

“Then be a good boy and gaze upon His love with a little more respect, okay?” She gave his cheek one final, lingering pinch before turning on her heel and skipping ahead to Joshua.

Caleb just shrank even further as Rachel gave him a pitied look and then followed after Cassie. For a heartbeat, Caleb wanted to grab the heaviest rock he could find and bash Cassie’s skull in, imagined the weight of it, the satisfying crunch of bone and would savor every little detail as that smug face of hers waned from her eyes as it went hollow.

You better speak nicely to your elders next time, cunt, Caleb imagined himself saying.

He was glad he controlled himself. Yeah that won’t end well, he thought. He doubted he’d ever get close enough even if he tried. He’d seen Cassie rip someone’s spine off their body without lifting a finger. There was a reason why Xavier kept her close. She was the church’s official witch who could glean into the dreaming world for their lordship’s signs. How could Caleb stand against that kind of power, armed only with a butcher’s knife?

I watched the conflict flickered in Caleb's mind and faded away. It was a wise choice. I didn’t need a fight on Trail A, especially not while the Dead Pacifica crew was still setting up and wandering around. Fortunately, Oracle already turned off the cameras along the trail so that Owen wouldn’t see them, but he was already too busy chatting with Wendy to even notice.

Caleb was right not to fight Cassie head-on. She was a rare find, a natural sorcerer born with the gift even without my existence. She was like Coach Hodge or Madame Dallaire, but instead of pyromancy, divination and foresight, she was gifted with Telekinesis. Her delve, guided by Xavier, made her one of the two survivors of her delving group. She wished to learn more about her gifts and grow her powers, and The System—and myself—had turned Cassandra Pratt into a terrifying sorcerer.

Taking another deep breath and forcing a smile, Caleb followed after the group.

Joshua suddenly raised his fist. The group froze and stopped walking. He heard something and pointed at the area to their left. They half-expected to see another Dead Pacifica crew member wandering about, and Cassie’s heart skipped a beat from the excitement that they might have to draw some blood tonight, after all. But Rachel tapped her shoulder and pointed toward the trees.

Perched on the branches that should have snapped under her weight, curled black wings around her body like a thick cloak, was Lady Asfrid, the fallen valkyrie, watching them with an intense, sharp gaze. She unfurled her soot and ash-covered wings and swooped down silently as a falling leaf, leaving no wake or dust disturbed as she landed in front of them.

Even then, as she stood several feet away, was a nightmare to behold. Half her head was crowned with a halo of rusted razor wires, slicing through skin and piercing through her skull by dried blood, matted black hair, and volcanic fire. It blinded the top half of her face, leaving only her mouth visible, a peeled ruin of parched, retracted lips and yellowed teeth. She was tall and lithe, draped in leather crafted out of the human skin of her felled foes, cured and scorched as if she was wearing all black and dark brown. Etched on the surface were markings of warriors fighting awful beasts in a tapestry of war.

Lady Asfrid was not pleased with their tardiness.

“You are late,” she said. She sounded like a decades-old chainsmoker with their throat ripped out and put back together with flimsy duct tape. It was grating and rough to hear.

“Sorry. We decided to take the scenic route,” Rachel said nervously. She had never seen the valkyrie before. None of them had interacted with the archetypes often enough except for the Sawyers, who could blend in better than anyone for they were the closest to being human outside of a full moon. Even they kept their interactions with the church at a minimum.

Lady Asfrid took a step forward. The others backed away but only Cassie wasn’t afraid and held her ground. “He summoned us,” Cassie said.

“I know,” Asfrid said. “You must heed your summons with more haste in the future, wormling, else my impatience will be your undoing.”

Cassie shrugged. “You’re here to escort us, then?”

Asfrid took that as a slight. She tilted her head, and smiled whatever was left of her charred lips. “Ah. You think your little spark makes us equals? Your sorcery is no match for me, child. I can take off your head before you utter the spell. I was chosen by Odin himself, who armored me and armed me in the halls of the gods. And now, I serve the new God of Death.”

Cassie’s pulse was raising, but composed herself for the others not to notice. Lady Asfrid leaned in, smelling like the grave.

“Do not test me with your ignorance and your arrogance further. Come. He is waiting.”

They followed Lady Asfrid up the trail, although I noticed that they had maintained a ten-foot wide distance from the Valkyrie. As they walked for ten minutes, it was Rachel who broke the silence.

“May I ask what does the Dungeon Lord want from us?” She asked.

Lady Asfrid chuckled. “Why spoil such surprises, Robertsdottir?”

“It’s just that…he has never summoned us before. We usually do the summoning?”

“Then mayhaps, the Dungeon Lord hath seen through your abject devotion? Mayhaps…mayhaps…” Lady Asfrid’s chuckle grew louder.

Caleb tugged on Rachel’s elbow and pointed to their flank. While talking to the valkyrie, she didn’t notice that several giant spiders were walking with them. Until then, she realized Cassie and Lady Asfrid had been taking them to the mines.