The Cabin Is Always Hungry

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!

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. ŕ

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.

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"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.

Water Manipulation I

The monster can shape, create, and manipulate the properties of water and can change them from one solid state to another (e.g., ice shards, steam, water vapor, etc.). The monster can create 1 hydrokinetic construct OR affect 53 cubic feet of water with a maximum volume of 1,500 Liters.

Construct Duration: 1 hour.

Area Manipulation Duration: 6 seconds - 1 hour.

Additional levels can increase the maximum duration.

A giant, lumbering troll made out of water emerged from the depths beneath the bridge. Seconds after it took its first breath, its liquid body instantly turned into shards of ice, surrounding him like a fat porcupine. It climbed over the bridge's railings and stood almost nine feet tall, slightly larger than Old Growth. Though Oldie was slender and faster, this construct was broad and sturdy. Even though its body was covered in icy-white rime, Siren's crystal blue eyes stared at me from the ice troll's eye sockets. She gave me a curt nod and heavily trudged down the road toward my Core; the grass and the earth frosted in its wake.

I reckoned an hour was enough to collect Justin Hodge.

"Mel!" Hodge shouted as he and Tessa exited the cellar. "I've got the girl! Melanie! Where are you?!" Then he saw Jenna's dead body splayed across the dining table, blood dripping over the edge. Hodge pressed the barrel of the gun on Tessa's back. "Did you do that?"

"No! It was your wife! She killed her!" Tessa said, arms raised.

"Then where is she?"

"She…She fell!"

"Fell where?"

"Down the cellar." Tessa gestured down to the rickety stairs.

Hodge peered over the hole and spotted the large puddle of blood he skipped over a few seconds ago. His face paled. "She's not down there. Where'd she go? Don't lie to me!"

"She ran away, okay? I think she did. I don't know where she is. Believe me!"

"If you hurt her, I'm not just gonna shoot you. I'm gonna tear you apart with my bare hands."

"Do you want the gem or not, coach?" Tessa spat back with a growing boldness. "You still need me; I'm the only one who knows where it is."

Hodge tightened his jaw. She was right, and he didn't want to admit it.

"Look. Footprints," Tessa said, pointing at the floorboards, the trail leading from the cellar and through the open front door.

"Keep moving before I change my mind," Hodge said.

They stepped out to the front porch. The rain had stopped, but the darkness of the forest beckoned them from beyond the cabin's lights. Hodge squinted into the void as if he could see the monsters lurking between the trees, watching him.

Then, the ice construct's roar reverberated faintly from the dark. Tessa and Hodge stopped walking.

"What was that?" Hodge asked shakily.

"Mark Castle knows we are coming for him," Tessa said.

"How'd you know the boy can hear us?"

Tessa bit her lip. She didn't want to tell him that Danny had told her about The Pirate Man and that Mark Castle haunted the grounds. She already saw my body and that I was truly fucking dead. She didn't want to tell him about the vague rules she gleaned from Danny and that they had to make it until dawn for the nightmare to stop. She read Hodge like a book, realizing he was as much in the dark as she was.

"I survived Green Hill," Tessa said. "Mark Castle is the gem. You're looking for him because he is the one who controls this place. Am I wrong?"

Hodge clenched his teeth. "Keep. Walking."

But it was enough to affect Hodge's Resolve into a red-orange hue. He was nervous that the girl knew too much. Tessa shot him a deathly glare before walking toward the tree line.

Then, she whispered, "Mark, don't hurt me." Her voice was so faint and subtle that Hodge didn't even hear it. "I'm bringing him to you," she said, her gaze darting into the darkness, pleading.

I frowned and lay a ghostly hand on her shoulder even though she couldn't feel it. To reassure her that—

Tessa gasped softly and glanced over the shoulder at where I touched her. I reeled my form back.

Tears welled and almost fell down her cheek, but she wiped it away with the back of her hand. She gave me a slight nod, understanding the gesture.

"Stop crying," Hodge said from behind. "I hate the sound of girls crying."

Tessa said nothing and continued walking down the path to the scrapyard.

I flew back to the cabin, passed the cellar, and down the sanctum. I didn't get a prompt that I collected Leo Grady's essence. He was still alive but unconscious. From what I observed, most delvers weren't aware of my presence, but I wondered if a veteran delver could, albeit faint.

"Wake up," I said to Leo, who was lying on his stomach. "Wake the fuck up, Leo."

I slapped him across the cheek, and Leo groaned weakly. It worked a little bit, but he was still out of it.

"Oh, for crying out loud! Wake up!"

I grasped his body with [ Telekinesis ].

[Power: 3/10]

I lifted Leo off the ground, and his eyes shot wide open, scrambling to get away from me. With the Dungeon Core directly man-handling him, I affected his Resolve severely. His aura dropped to red-orange. He crawled backward and slammed his back against the base of the statue, looking around to see who just picked him up.

I grasped the gun that Tessa had dropped earlier. It still had bullets left, and the spell's effects were already gone. I pushed it toward him, and it skidded to a stop near his right foot.

He looked up, gazing at the statues. "Where are they?" He asked.

I opened the iron doors wider.

Leo Grady got up to his feet and picked up the gun. Fortunately, he didn't break anything when Hodge blasted him against the statue. But then he noticed something on the ground next to my body.

The van's keys.

I didn't even realize that Hodge dropped it during their scuffle.

Leo picked it up and studied my corpse for a moment as if he were making a silent prayer. Then, he walked out of the sanctum.

"Right this way, Leo."

I blasted the dust collecting on the ground with [ Telekinesis ], leading him toward the cellar steps, up to the front door, and toward Trail B. Leo followed it without saying anything as [ Telekinesis ] faded. At least I gave him an idea of where I was leading him.

But Leo stopped next to the van. He took a deep inhale through his nostrils, pivoted his heels, and opened the driver's side door. He climbed behind the wheel and turned on the engine. Then, he heard something stir behind him. He whirled around and pointed the gun at the vague shape lying prone on the rear, wrapped under a thick blanket. Once he saw Danny, he quickly swung his weapon away from the kid.

"Shit!" He came this close to shooting the boy. He took shallow breaths to calm himself down.

Leo crawled to the back of the van to get a good look at Danny. The boy was alone in the vehicle, which meant only one thing: Eliza, the woman he had saved earlier, had not made it. He tried to wake the boy, but he had already played his part in tonight's scenario, and the System had shut him down. No matter how hard Leo tried, the boy wouldn't wake up until sunrise.

Leo rubbed his hand over his head and let out an exasperated sigh. "What the fuck are you doing?" Leo asked himself. He glanced over at the wheel, listening to the idling engine. "Just drive and fucking go."

His gaze settled into the darkness beyond the windshield. The van pointed directly at Trail B, which was wide enough for it to drive through.

The van's navigation menu screen suddenly flashed on, and a female voice echoed across the cabin, "Drive ahead for point-five miles. Your destination is on the left."

Oracle was leading him to the scrapyard. However, Oracle couldn't move the vehicle by itself since the van wasn't electric or had self-driving features.

Leo rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright. If you want me to go down there, I'll go. But I want to make a deal first."

"Price Tag by Jessie J and B.O.B, playing on Spotify," Oracle said.

The music filled the cabin.

Leo snorted and laughed. "You want me to kill that man? Fine. I'm good with that. But you'll let me go once it's done. You'll let this boy go. And… you'll let that girl go, too. You're not going to send your…things…against us. Do we have a deal?"

The music abruptly stopped, skipping over to another track. Then, We Are the Champions by Queen played through the speakers.

A small smile crept on Leo's face. "I hear you. Let's fucking go."

He jumped behind the wheel and took one last glance at the cabin. He pushed the shift out of park and drove into Trail B, listening, "We are the champions, my friend… and we'll keep on fighting till the end…"

Hopefully, I was not too late. I could already picture how the events would transpire in the next ten minutes. Once Tessa and Hodge reached my Core, Hodge wouldn't hesitate for a beat to shoot Tessa when they stepped out of the tree line and into the clearing. But Hodge had been cautious in the dungeon so far. Although Melanie had most of the smarts in their marriage, Hodge wasn't completely stupid. He had been expecting traps everywhere he looked, and the Core Tree might have one specifically for him.

He would be correct in that assumption. I had designed three traps that would be triggered if [ Delver: Justin Hodge ] or any surviving cultists entered the clearing.

One was a psychic blast emanating from the Core Tree, triggered if he was fifteen feet away from my Core. It should incapacitate him for six seconds, giving my archetypes enough time to deal a debilitating blow.

The second was if he reached the Core Tree and reached in for my gem. The crack in the tree would immediately close shut around his arm, severing his limb. Humans were fragile beings, and whatever powerful healing magic he possessed, he couldn't counter fast enough the shock and pain that would seize his body. If my archetypes hadn't gotten to him, that would be the time to strike.

And technically, the third one wasn't an official trap. Once Hodge learned of my Core's location, all my archetypes would be there to greet him.

Four powerful monsters versus one.

If I were a betting man, Hodge didn't stand a chance.

And for a final contingency: if Hodge were a powerful sorcerer and incapacitated my archetypes, well, Leo Grady would be there to shoot him in the back and weaken him so I could collect his soul. I wondered what asorcerer's essence tasted like.

The night's scenario was a death sentence to anyone targeted to lose.

I pulled away from the van driving down Trail B and flew above the scrapyard, which Tessa and Hodge just entered.