The Cabin Is Always Hungry

Arc 1 | Nightmare Suburbia (12)

NIGHTMARE SUBURBIA

Part 12

A minute passed.

Then another.

And another.

And another.

Instantly, I felt that strange tug in the air, raising goosebumps up my spine and at the nape of my neck. Small wispy blots passed through the house’s walls across the street, flying toward me, then dove into the earth before they reached the Yates’s front door.

Down to the basement where my gem lay hidden.

[You have gained 1 essence: Marie Sadler]

[You have gained 150 crystals]

My heart sank. I’ve taken a life. Sure, it came from my demon, but I was the one who created it and unleashed such evil on this town. I learned that killing a delver netted me a hundred and fifty crystals per kill. I couldn’t deny how sweet her essence tasted.

More.

I wanted more.

More, demon.

Maxine walked out of the house, covered in more blood than when she left the Yates. She walked over to the house next door, where a man in his late fifties walked out from the side gate, pushing a bulky lawn mower. It was a sunny day, after all—a perfect time to mow the lawn. He had earphones on, and even though I kept my many-eyes shut, I could still hear the faint music emanating from them, playing some eighties rock.

Maxine walked up from behind, startling him.

“Shit! You scared me, Maxine!” He clutched his chest. “I didn’t know you were visiting.” Then, he noticed the blood all over her. “Wait. Is…is that blood?”

Demon Maxine did not answer. She punched the man square in the nose, pushed him against the lawn mower, and he hit his head on the handle, knocking him unconscious. Maxine dragged the man’s body into the backyard. Curiosity got the better of me, and I took a peek at where Maxine brought the old man into. She shoved him inside the shed, filled with all kinds of tools, and slid the door shut.

Okay, that’s enough; I closed my many-eyes again. But the old man’s screams echoed across the neighborhood.

I reached my consciousness into the houses across Oaken Street and found that most had no people in them. Perhaps they were off to work. Off to school. Off to town. There was one Amazon delivery driver on the other street, dropping packages, but I didn’t know where her following route was or if she would turn to Oaken Street. Another woman was busy doing laundry in the house’s basement next to the old man. She also wore these wireless earbuds, gossiping about some woman’s awful engagement ring with her friend. She didn’t seem to hear the old man screaming next door.

The house next to the Yates was also occupied. Peering through their bedroom, I saw the same two teenagers skipping school, making out on the bed, music blasting through the Bluetooth speakers, unaware of the horror Maxine inflicted on their neighbors across the street. I was lucky they didn’t hear Human Maxine screaming bloody murder over the fence when she almost got away.

They started to undress.

And that’s enough of that, too.

I waited for the demon to finish torturing the poor man, but while Marie Sadler only took five minutes, it took the demon almost twenty with the old man, and still, it wasn’t done with him.

Running out of patience, I opened my many-eyes to the shed and gasped at the ghastly display ahead of me.

Demon Maxine had tied the old man to a chair and sheared off its arms, tongue, and one of his eyes. The demon obviously beat him up, given the bruises and gashes across his body. She tied a rope around his neck, hoisting him to dangle from the beams.

“What the fuck?!” I cried out. “I said to do it quickly.”

“His Resolve is too strong, my liege,” the demon said. “I need time to ripen the meat.”

“I didn’t realize it’s that strong.”

“Almost,” Maxine almost grinned. “Give me a minute.”

“Help!” The old man shouted at the slightly ajar door, gasping for breath. “Help me!”

The old man’s aura turned a deep shade of red.

Demon Maxine cackled. “Found the sweet spot.” She let go of the rope, and the old man dropped onto the cold floor.

Coughing violently, he tried to crawl away from her. “Get away from me!”

Maxine grabbed the garden shears from the wall, parted them slightly, and stepped on the old man’s lower spine. “But we aren’t done yet, silly,” she trilled.

Raising the shears above her head, she stabbed the old man in the back eight times until he bled to death.

Until he shredded his vocal cords from screaming so much.

Until his lungs struggled to expand.

Until he choked in his own blood and his eyes glazed over, forever staring at the door.

“Done,” Maxine said.

[You have gained 2 essences: Ennis Blunden]

[You have gained 300 crystals]

“I got two?” I wondered.

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Maxine took labored breaths. It weirded me out that even a demon could get winded from torturing someone to death. “Strong Resolve. Higher essence. Higher chances of survival if he’s in a dungeon. Worthy to be Hero. But you want him dead, yes?”

“Yeah.” I frowned, glancing at the ropes and other tools that Maxine used to break him down. “Worthy.” I’m sorry, Mr. Blunden.

Maxine suddenly sniffed the air and glared right through the shed’s wall.

Turning my many-eyes over there, the woman from the basement walked out of the back sliding doors and onto her backyard porch.

“Hey, Annie, I’m gonna have to call you back. I think I heard Mr. Blunden’s in trouble,” the woman said.

“Really? Um, call me back if everything’s okay, Susan,” Annie said behind the line.

“I will.” Susan dropped the call and walked closer to the fence. “Mr. Blunden? Can you hear me?”

No one answered.

Another step closer.

“Ennis? Would you like me to call an ambulance?”

Susan peered through the small gap in the fence, looking into Mr. Blunden’s backyard. “Ennis? Are you okay—?”

Maxine peered through the same hole, grinning as she lunged through the barrier, wood splitting apart, and grabbed Susan’s head. Susan didn’t even have the time to scream before the demon hauled her through the gap and dragged her toward Mr. Blunden’s shed.

“What are you doing?!” I shouted.

“She saw me, my liege,” she said. “An easy essence for you.”

No, we’ve got enough, I wanted to say. We have the essence needed to dismantle the dungeon and move somewhere else. But I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud. I indulged in Mr. Blunden’s essence a little longer, grasping at the tail end, savoring it. I couldn’t describe how truly electrifying an essence was once it melded into my awareness. Like taking the first bite out of the most delicious Tiramisu, the way the custard and mascarpone just melted into your mouth, getting that hint of espresso and cocoa at the back of your tongue. I could eat it all day.

No, I shook my head. I have enough. Let’s get out—

Enough.

I had enough.

Enough.

I had enough.

Enough.

Not enough.

More.

More.

More.

I let the demon be. She dragged the poor woman back into the shed and threw her across the floor like a sack of flour. Susan rolled over and faced Mr. Blunden’s gaping eye socket.

Susan screamed, but Maxine forced her mouth open, grabbed a plier from the workbench, and pried Susan’s tongue loose.

Susan barely made it past two minutes, but her Resolve was the darkest red—almost black—I’ve ever seen. And when those wisps escaped her dead flesh, the surge of power enveloping me was invigorating.

[ You have gained 1 essence: Susan Walch]

[You have gained 150 crystals]

“Where to next, my liege?” The demon asked. “I sensed two more souls on this street. Several more across the suburbs.”

I opened my many-eyes again throughout Oaken Street.

I saw the same teenagers inside the house next to the Yates’ residence, but the girl was in the bathroom now, wearing only underwear and an off-pink crop top, applying more lip balm on her lips and deciding whether to keep her ponytail or let it all loose for the boy in the other bedroom. The boy was already naked down to his blue boxer shorts, giving his armpit a brief sniff before he readied himself on the bed, waiting for the girl to get out of the bathroom.

I knew who these two were, although not very well. Sure, I’ve seen them around campus, but we barely shared a conversation together.

The girl, Tessa Burton, was part of the varsity volleyball team in my high school, a popular girl in her own right, but I didn’t know she was dating Cody Riddell, a guy who could barely get a grade past a C and was cruising most of high school at 2.2 GPA. I knew that because I tutored him for all of sophomore year, and he hadn’t gotten better. Tessa had a higher chance of getting into an Ivy League school after graduation, while Cody would probably end up working behind a grill throughout his early twenties. It was weird that Tessa was dating him. They hardly talked to each other in school, and everyone knew she was single. Apparently not.

Well, isn’t love found in mysterious places? Or, in this case, opposites attract? I reckoned Tessa’s parents didn’t even know she was dating the guy. After all, they’re skipping school.

“Is something wrong, Tess?” Cody asked.

“No, I’ll be right out! Just give me five minutes,” She shouted. “I have something special to show you!” Tessa paused, opened a drawer, and took out a small bottle of perfume, which she put two drops on each of her wrists and dabbed all over her neck. Then, she pulled out another drawer filled with lingerie.

The Amazon delivery van turned the corner and entered Oaken Street; it looked like it would stop in front of the house where the two teenagers were.

I led the demon toward it.

The doorbell rang.

“Hey, Cody, can you get that? I think that’s my Amazon delivery,” Tess said. “It’s supposed to arrive around noon.”

The boy—Cody—paused, looking down at his naked body. “Um, can it wait, babe? I’m kind of naked.”

Tess rolled her eyes and smirked. “Um, I kind of ordered the thing you want?”

It took Cody a moment to realize. “Oh.” He nodded, brows lifting. “Oooohhh. The one you talked about?”

Tess chuckled. “Yeah. You better grab that before my mom sees it on the front porch.”

“Right, right! I’ll be right down.”

Cody looked out the window and spotted the Amazon van parked outside the house. He hurriedly put on his pants, grabbed his shirt from the study desk, and struggled to put his arm through the right sleeve of his t-shirt as he rushed out of the bedroom and down the hallway.

The doorbell rang again.

And again.

“Coming!” Cody cried out, climbing down the stairs with heavy thuds. “I’m getting there! Jeez!”

He put his hand and arm through the left sleeve when he opened the door.

And he stared right at Maxine’s bloodied face.

He didn’t have time to scream or make a sound before Maxine pounced on top of him, grabbed a fistful of his hair, and slammed the back of his head on the hardwood floor, knocking him unconscious.

Behind her and out on the street, the Amazon delivery van’s open door streamed with blood. Inside, a large woman had her eyes gouged out, a small squeaky plush toy for dogs shoved inside her mouth to stop her from screaming. She still struggled to breathe, but with her intestines outside her torn belly, the poor woman had seconds to spare before she succumbed to blood loss.

[You have gained 1 essence: Annika Lawal]

[You have gained 150 crystals]

It took the demon thirty minutes to torment the kids inside the house. I tied the girl up and made her watch as she hung Cody from the banister upside down and bled him dry. Tessa had a stronger resolve than Mr. Blunden, so Demon Maxine let her go and chased her around the house.

“The Chase will make their essence ripe for the reaping,” the demon explained. “And makes them prone to silly, stupid mistakes, reducing their Resolve overtime.”

The demon toyed with her. Playfully pretending that she almost had her, but then pulling back gave Tessa some gratification for evading the demon’s attacks.

It reminded me of a horror movie I loved to watch. Maxine made her trip, grabbed a knife, begged for her life, got a good hit against the demon, sobbing as the villain tormented her with her dead boyfriend, and did what any final girl would do in the films:

Scream.

Fight back.

Suffer.

The demon threw poor Tessa Burton around the house, shattering the glass coffee table, breaking her ankle, dragging her by the hair along the walls and up the ceiling, stabbing her multiple times, trying to drown her on the sink, and pushing her down several flights of stairs.

And yet her Resolve never went down to RED. It always stayed on a darker orange hue, and Tessa was determined to survive as the demon raised Hell around the house for half an hour.

“Stop,” I commanded, heaving a sigh. “Stop!”

Demon Maxine stiffened, loosening her grip around the girl’s neck and throwing her across the kitchen island. Tess coughed, eyed the sliding doors, and weakly crawled toward it. The demon raised an eyebrow at me curiously.

“Let her live,” I said.

Demon Maxine studied the girl and then regarded me again. “Worthy?”

“Yes.” I nodded. “Worthy.”

The demon walked over to the girl and grabbed a fistful of her hair, hoisting her head up.

“No, no!” Tess shouted. “Please! No! I don’t want to die!”

Maxine leaned toward Tessa’s ear. “Count your blessings, little girl. We are merciful today.” Then, she slammed Tess’s face on the floor, breaking her nose and knocking her out.

Behind me, Cody bled out.

[You gained 1 essence: Cody Riddell]

[You gained 150 crystals]

“Hungry, still?” The demon asked like a mother to a child.

I nodded. “I think that’s enough.”

“Young dungeons,” Maxine shook her head, chuckling. “Always so bloodthirsty.”

“What’s happening to me?”

“It’s called the rush, lord dungeon. When a juvenile core like yourself is born, they come out starved, killing hundreds in a single day to fill their weave and ease the gem’s hunger to grow.” She looked around the house. “I am surprised you have not created more monsters and let them loose across the town. There are thousands of people around you, ripe for the harvest. It will make you a powerful dungeon in less time than in other planes. You are lucky you are born in a less magically-inclined world, my liege.”

“Hundreds? In one day?” I barely killed eight people, I thought.

Maxine nodded. “That is why I admire your restraint, my liege. It shows how strong you truly are to deny such easy bounty.”

Restraint? Did she call this restraint? I just murdered five innocent people who had nothing to do with my death. They were just on my way because I’m on a fucking magically-induced binge-eating mayhem.

Oh, fuck.

I killed people.

I killed people! I tried to compose myself, but the earth trembled slightly below us.

“Uh, demon, what the fuck was that?”

The demon smiled innocently. “That is your power, lord dungeon. You are growing and gaining more essence. You are spreading your roots outside of the Yates’ Residence.”

Clearly, there were many things I didn’t know about my new form. After all, I was only born ten hours ago.

“What now, master?” The demon asked. “Do you want me to fetch new essence? There are more people on the next street.”

“We’ve got our essence. We should leave,” I said before I divulged anything I’d regret again. “I… I’ve had my fill.” A lie. I was still fucking starving.

And the demon could tell. “As you wish, lord dungeon,” she said forcefully.

“Go collect my gem in the house. Take a shower and cover those wounds. I don’t want the drivers to freak out when they see you covered in blood while you’re driving on the road. You might cause an accident.”

Demon Maxine’s brows lifted. “These mortal wounds don’t hurt me, my liege. This is mere skin. Like clothes. You don’t get hurt when your pants have holes, do you?”

“No. But that’s not a good thing. You’re going to keep the gem safe, remember?”

“Yes, my liege.”

“Then, I don’t want anyone to be suspicious of you. We’re not out of danger yet.”

“Understood, lord dungeon. I will take a proper shower.”

Fortunately, we made it back in time to the Yates’s house before a passing car saw Maxine enter the house. She took a shower as I commanded, though she managed to lower the boiler temperature so Maxine wouldn’t look like Ashley’s mangled and burnt form. Looking over Ashley’s, Adam’s, and Maxine’s phones, both Kirk, Hodge, and Rebecca had been trying to get a hold of them for about an hour now (while Maxine went on her rampage), and they were starting to get suspicious that they weren’t answering.

Maxine grabbed the gem from the basement and put it inside her jacket pocket. She then walked out with it to Maxine’s red Ford Explorer parked on the driveway. A message from Maxine’s mother-in-law asked them where they were, complaining that they had been waiting for forty minutes in the restaurant and that it was getting embarrassing. I ordered the demon to ignore the message.

[Are you sure you want to dismantle your dungeon: The Yates Residence?]

“Yes.”

[Dismantling…]

The Yates’s house still exists in front of me, but the tether I had to it was like losing a limb. It wasn’t an unbearable loss or a deeply traumatic event but rather a subtle absence, as if the threads that intertwined me with its walls had ceased their vibrant hum. The trembling of water pipes that once resonated through my being had grown silent, the haunting creaks of the floorboards no longer reached my ears, and the lingering sticky touch of bloodstains on the wood had faded away. All that remained was a house and the bodies inside it.

Another prompt appeared from my periphery, and I opened it.

THE YATES RESIDENCE

(Disbanded)

Kills

8 (+1,350 crystals); (+9 essences)

Survivor

1 (Tessa Burton); (+ Sole Survivor)

Dread Level

5/10 (+500 crystals)

Crystals (current)

1,840

My maximum Power lowered to six after I dismantled the dungeon, though, interestingly, my rank increased because of the people I killed and how I managed the dungeon.

[CORE - Mark Castle]

Rank: Z (#2641)

Power (current: 4/6)

“Do you know what these ranks are, demon?” I asked.

“I do not have access to that information,” she said. “Only a core can.”

“Have you seen another dungeon with a higher rank?”

“If I had, I wouldn’t be here, my liege.”

Ouch. “Okay. Fair point. I guess there are more than two thousand dungeons doing much better than me somewhere out there.”

Maxine turned on the ignition. “Where to?” She asked.

I wanted to see my family, but I feared what I would do once I saw them. They only lived a few minutes from Green Hill. All I had to do was command the demon to drive by the house and see how they were doing. I asked Maxine to search for my name on the news on her phone. We learned that I had been missing for seven weeks.

Seven-fucking-weeks!

Coach Hodge kept me hidden wherever he put me for weeks and then murdered me when they stopped their search. I was eighteen, now an adult, and the police had already considered me a runaway. My parents disagreed, posting on Facebook my missing posters and information about my last whereabouts, going into public groups, and asking around if they had seen me.

I didn’t know how my core would react once I saw my parents. I had been so hungry lately that I killed innocent people to alleviate the feeling. I didn’t want to harm them. I didn’t want to bring the core to them. Making their house my dungeon so that I could be with them forever was so tempting.

“McLaren Forest,” I told Maxine. “We’ll build our new dungeon there.”

Maxine nodded and drove off the driveway. She almost ran over a jogger trying to cross the intersection, gave him a middle finger before she drove out of Green Hill, and took the road southbound to the state forest.