Chapter 43: Fearful Victims And Hungering Monsters

--- Eric Campbell ---

Knowing that it was in fact his job to deal with this kind of mess whenever it popped up, he pressed on through the very clear horror show that made up his current situation, because he doubted he’d get much in the way of backup given how he was the backup. (I mean, I might be able to get Catherine to help me but that would mean letting whatever this thing is grow.)

Any hunter worth their salt knew that you don’t let the monsters grow when you find them, that was something Catherine beat into his skull from the moment they started working together. (And this thing has already done a lot of growing…)

He held his lighter up to get a better look at the walls covered in shifting meat, lines of red imitating veins as the blood moved uncaringly over concrete, metal, and everything else that made up the warehouse walls. (Really not looking forward to whatever caused all of this…)

Despite constantly working with Catherine and helping her with her Hunter work, he himself was the stereotypical Arcane Academic, preferring to read and study esoteric knowledge over picking a fight with whatever monster decided to make Vampires their prey. (Then again, a lot of movies make us out to be stronger than we are…)

Oh, they had a fair few tricks up their sleeve, especially when it came to blood or shadow magic, but physically they were just slightly above the average human, needing to boil the blood in their own bodies to fuel the magic that let them push themselves beyond human. (Something that just isn’t sustainable in a long fight… almost makes me jealous of the mutts.)

The whole reason their war was so split is because while their Bloodline were monsters for however long their blood lasted, the wolves’ shifter magic waxed and waned with the moon, meaning while they were near worthless on the New Moon during the Full they could spend the entire day and night turned if they felt like it. (We’re just lucky their power drives half of them rabid if they grow too fast.)

(Regardless…) He paused, coming across a corpse that his blood just faintly called out to. (The wolves definitely didn’t do this…)

The dead vampire -some one he didn’t know himself but had seen once or twice- was a young woman with dark hair. Her body sitting against the wall that seemed to be trying to consume her, tendrils of meat connecting the two in a way that left him pretty sure that if he removed her it would call down whatever was responsible for all of this. Something he wasn’t willing to risk until he had a better idea of what he was dealing with. (Still… I can at least indulge her with a bit of spite…)

He twisted the blood in his hands just enough to form a dollop in the air above his palm, before pushing it into the dead vampire’s heart, careful not to disturb the wall attempting to consume her.

“Let’s make them pay, shall we luv?” He grinned wryly, before standing once more and taking a better look at her surroundings. More specifically the half a dozen other corpses, none of whom were of his Bloodline but rather those seemingly lured in by whatever creature was responsible for all of this. Their corpses dismembered in spread into pieces that were now slowly being consumed by whatever meat made up the walls and now several patches of the floor.

(Really, really, not looking forward to whatever did all of this…)

--- ??? ---

It stood outside the building, having spent the time since the sky cracked tracking down the other, a task that had proved more difficult than it had been expecting given the numerous Creeps that had been attacking it left and right. (Not that I’m complaining. Not really. After all, they’re all just more meat to be devoured.)

The problem was, that subduing them was always a pain and a half. Especially since with their higher densities, the creatures made for significantly better eating than the skin and bones humans. (Even if they don’t provide me with any new information, I think I know enough for now to just focus on eating.)

If it came down to it and the other decided to fight it rather than ally with it, it just knew it was going to need as much biomass as possible, given what little it could piece together from what its original self would and would not let it remember.

Unfortunately, unlike the many monsters that it had learned about from consuming its first human, Gregory, Creeps lacked power as much as they did intelligence. Meaning that they wouldn’t be offering him any new tools or toys to play with and that biomass was all they were really good for in the end.

(Oh, woe is me…This world of humans may have ‘monsters’ running about, but these Creeps are little more than mindless and half starved animals dropped into an all you can eat buffet. Which I can sympathize with, I suppose.) It had been there before, but given its current circumstances it couldn’t help but wonder, (Where have all the good monsters gone? The ones with both intelligence and power? Such as the Pale Wolf, the Lord of Blood, or even that Grimm Knight fellow?)

--- Mathias Grimm ---

“You know it’s so rare for you guys to let me out to play these days.” He smiled, walking through the warehouse and admiring the (amateurish) work left lying about, his boots squelching everytime he stepped on the still wet meat.

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From beside him his ‘handler’ for this little outing scowled at him, the Bone Maiden clearly only here because she’d been ordered to. (And she’s always such a good little puppet.)

“That’s because Nicholas is superior to you in every way.” Nicholas’s little Jessica told him tersely, as unlike him she did her best to avoid stepping in the blood.

He flexed his presence, causing the maiden’s light to go out before appearing in front of her, his hand clamping around her throat the exact second it flickered back on and allowing him to pick her off the ground even as she clawed at his arm. “Remember my dear Nicholas is the only reason I haven’t slaughtered you all yet.”

Jessica formed a blade of bone and rammed it through his skull, not even hesitating to go for what would be the killshot on a human.

He couldn’t help but smile even wider as his maw began to open, ready to once more savor the taste of the sweet marrow inside those bones before pausing as he felt eyes on him from the otherside of things. (Well, Nicky’s the main reason…)

As much as he hated to admit it, the parasite had enough hooks in his brother that simply escaping the hellhole that turned them into lab rats wouldn’t be enough to actually be free. And given his own connection to Nicholas the brat could very easily force him back into his cage when he got free. (Which is why I’ve got to play nice whenever they let me out…)

He let the Bone Maiden go with a laugh, the sound only half-faked as he imagined everything he was going to do to the bitches that had his other half clinging to pesky mortal morality. It was made a little more honest when he ripped the blade out of his skull while making sure to get as much gore and blood splatter onto the girl in front of him.

The look of disgust she gave him was almost as much fun as gutting her was going to be.

--- Jessica ---

She wasn’t normally one to question orders, but anytime Mathias was willingly unleashed on the world she couldn’t help but question her superiors. Admittedly that was significantly better than what the others would do in her place. What with Vanessa having threatened their superiors, Cyn outright ignoring their orders, and Nicholas having a panic attack at the very idea.

Which is why she was the only one on their team given the keys to both removing Mathias’s restrictions and putting him back down. Keys that always left her feeling like she was betraying Nicholas by using them…

For just a moment she contemplated using the restraining agent and completing this mission by herself, something she had no doubt Vanessa would do in her place.

In that same moment Mathias glanced over his shoulder, amused eyes daring her to follow through with that thought.

(I… I need to complete my mission…)

Mathias turned his attention forward with an amused huff.

Knowing that she’d only regret talking to him, she instead turned her attention to the rest of the building and the flesh like walls that had erected themselves to either side of them. The unpleasant fact that they’d come across more than one corpse sticking out of said wall had been the whole reason she’d given Mathias any more of her attention than was necessary to make sure he wasn’t about to kill and/or maim her. (Of course, I should know better than to try and get any form of comfort from Mathias.)

The monster was nothing like Nicholas.

After a few moments of regretfully dwelling on this fact, she was drawn from her thoughts by a sound that could only remind her of bones breaking and meat tearing.

“Oh, well isn’t that fun?” Mathias chuckled, sounding legitimately amused by whatever he caught sight of.

Knowing that that could mean nothing good for her, she took a step to the side to see what Mathias the Monster found so amusing, and couldn’t help but flinch at the sight.

The walls held at least a dozen of the bodies they’d previously passed, though unlike the ones they’d left these ones were still alive. As demonstrated by the fact that they were actively ripping themselves free from the walls.

“And here I was thinking they were all dead.” Mathias spun on his heel and gave her a smile. “If this is why they sent you here, I can see why they insisted I come out to play!”

Mathias practically skipped to the nearest of the freed corpses, and gave it a contemplative if intrigued look. “Oh, you’re not in control of yourself are you? I wonder, do you feel pain like this or are you really dead and your meat merely a puppet to something greater than this?”

The corpse didn’t respond beyond slowly turning towards him, at the exact same time that every other extracted corpse did the same.

“Ooh, a hive mind!” Mathias giggled.

The meat puppets all froze for a moment, before as one they all screamed in a pitch and volume that no human could reach without shredding their vocal chords entirely. The sound caused her own ears to bleed, until she shifted the bones inside to block it all out.

When the screaming finally stopped, she shifted her ears back to normal, not willing to leave a sense entirely dull when facing an unknown threat.

“Very good.” Mathias nodded, looking impressed. “Mind if I try?”

Mathias inhaled deeply before his jaw ripped open wide enough that it actually caused his own skin to tear and unleashed a demonic roar that while not as loud as the corpses' screams, was far more terrifying.

The sound only stopped when the corpse nearest to him shoved a hand through his chest, and it erupted out the otherside looking twice as large as human, and with bone claws that definitely were not.

Mathias looked down seemingly stunned, before looking up at the corpse. “Well that was rude… and suicidal.”

Oh, so delicately Mathias reached out and grabbed the corpse by its face before tearing the whole head off.

Not even two seconds later the decapitated corpse droves its other hand through his stomach.

Mathias blinked, his eyes shifting between the head and the still living corpse, “Huh, you really are a meat puppet.” He then leaned into the head and smiled as he stared into its eyes. “But I can tell that you still feel pain… What fun!”

Having answered the only question he ever really cared about, Mathias tossed the head to the side before reaching out and tearing into the corpse with his bare hands, ripping it into shreds and tossing its pieces wherever they landed.

As one the remaining corpses rushed him, each attempting to kill him be it by claw, blade, or fang, but not a one did anything to even slow the monster pretending to be human as Mathias tore each and every last one of them to pieces in the most gruesome of ways that he could manage.

And for a brief terrible terrifying moment as Jessica was forced to watch Mathias slaughter the once people, laughing as he bathed in their blood, she saw three people overlapping in a way that made her sick to the stomach, as she saw Mathias, Nicholas, and… the man who was once her big brother all with a sadistic bloodstained smile.