“No…” Tuk whispered, in the silence that fell upon them. “No!”

“Yes… Yes! There. Is. No. Magic!” Wik roared. “There has never been! And there never will be! We didn’t start from the Lower Depths. We started exactly at the same level you guys did! We know what a pile is! We know what an operator is! Tas has shits for brains, but he’s the best damn liar I’ve ever seen!”

He spat at the floor, twisting his lips in disgust.

“But you know what I haven’t seen?” he asked, staring between Tuk and Cen. “Magic! Not even a shred! Our caster died, useless, with her little puffs of air! She refused to believe that [Aura] was the only way! She refused to try it! We all did! And look where we ended up!”

Tuk covered his face. “No. No. No. No. No.”

Wik stalked towards their cage.

“It was so easy. The three of you were into it. You had figured it out. But the others?”

He stared at Nar, deep, deep into the place where all his thoughts hid. Shamefully.

“You guys felt guilty about it,” he said, in a hushed tone. “You thought you could Climb on the backs of these three. As soon as Tas said that you had made a mistake, you jumped on it! The relief! By the pile! The fucking relief!”

Wik got up and spun in a circle, looking at each one of them in turn.

“You should have seen your faces! Especially yours, Kur! Although yours was mostly guilt… Once Tas showed you he knew more than you, and that you had risked your party members’ paths, he had you. Eating out of the palm of his dirty, bloody hand you were. Pile! You people are the greatest idiots we have ever baited! You made us work for it, that’s true. Especially the swordsman here and the scout girl. Shame she got away, but she’ll die alone out there anyways. But in the end, we got you! In the end, you’re in the cages. Just like all the others!” he shouted, making them flinch.

He took a deep breath, and the madness was replaced by a bone chilling stillness.

“Understand this,” he said. “There’s no way out for you. You’re going to be our play things. We’re going to do anything and everything to you. Your worst nightmares? Just the warm up. And when the boss arrives? You’ll wish you had spent your whole lives in whatever cubeplant you came from. You’ll wish you had never dared to dream. You’ll wish you had taken whatever abuse and misery you thought you had. Because now, you’ll suffer for real. You’ll suffer for a long time. You’ll beg for death, and it will not come.”

A sudden scream pierced through the clothed walls. The anguish, the agony, the sheer desperation that forced a person to make such a sound shook Nar to his core. It crumbled whatever thoughts of hope he had left.

A loud cheer erupted in the silence that followed it, and Wik rushed out to the entrance. He lifted the flap covering the exit and joined his voice to the chaos.

After a few moments of screaming, he came back to them, laughing.

“I guess death does come... Eventually! That was Mes. Poor, reliable, useful Mes. They’ve been using him as bait since before I arrived, and it’s been half a year!" Wik said, raising his eyebrows. "Ah, that guy suffered. He wasn’t willing to join us, you know, but that only made his screams and crying all the more convincing. It fooled Jul after all, right? Or maybe that was just because she was too tired, eh, Kur?”

Wik chuckled to himself. “Anyways, guess they finally got tired of him. I need to go get myself a piece before it’s too late. I’m fucking starving! Those crackers do shit all!”

Tuk bent over and puked through the bars.

Wik twisted his nose at him. His eyes had taken on that terrifying purple tint again.

“Yeah, better get it all out,” he said. “Makes for better eating.”

Suddenly, he spun and ran towards Viy. He shot his hands into her cage and grabbed hold of her ankles before she could do anything.

Viy screamed and kicked, but his hold was stronger.

“Leave her alone!” Gad shouted, pounding her fists against the cage.

Wik didn’t even acknowledge her.

“Viy, my dear Viy!” he said. He pulled one of her legs out of the cage and rested his head on it. “Oh, Viy! You’re so perfect… I’ve wanted you from the moment I saw you!”

Viy sobbed and tried to pull her leg back in. The space in between the bars wasn’t that wide, and Wik had forced her leg out as far as he could.

“But you know who else will think the same? The boss! He has a thing for pale, dark haired beauties like you. Likes to break them, he does. I’ve seen it. It’s horrible. Even I can barely stomach it.”

Nar crawled to the front of the cage and roared, pulling on the bars. Tuk punched them until blood started flying.

Ignoring them, Wik kept stroking Viy’s leg. “I don’t want that to happen to you, you know. We could be together! If you join me, if you eat and make your friends scream? Yes! That would do! It would show the boss that you’re one of us!”

He ran his hand up her tight, and into her stomach. Viy slapped and punched it, but Wik only sighed and shivered.

“Think about it, will you, Viy? I can make you happy. Spear partners! We can be great! We can be strong! One on either side of the boss! And we will see the Truth then, together! No one will ever look down on us again! You hear? No one will look down on you ever again!”

Viy screamed with all that she had and Wik finally let her go.

She pulled her leg back into the cage, and hugged it, curling to the side and sobbing.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Some pain is needed to be free, Viy. And I can be that pain. You just have to want it. Want me...”

He looked around, at the dark, angry faces. The bloodied bars, the hatred filled eyes. He smiled.

“I’ll see you guys later!”

With that, he whooped and ran outside.

“Viy! Viy! Are you okay?” Gad shouted.

Nar collapsed against the bars, breathing hard. His head felt as though it might just burst open, and a dozen unhealed cuts and bruises across his body made themselves known.

“Viy?” Kur asked, his voice still frail. “Viy!”

“Shut up!” she shouted. “Leave me alone!”

Outside, the shouting and howling grew into a sudden frenzy that drowned that desperate silence that filled the air. And when the sounds began, Nar pushed his hands against his ears. He didn’t want to hear what they were doing to Mes. Nor did he want to hear Viy’s crying.

He couldn’t escape the accusation in her sobs. He had told them to save Tas’ party. He had kept his huge [Aura] secret, for fear that they would have suggested that he use it. Not forced. Not asked. Suggested.

He should have at least learned to use it. He could have protected them.

Now… Now it was too late.

A silent tear ran down his face.

Crystal, please have mercy on us. Please!

But why would the Crystal hear? And if it did, why should it care about what sinners did amongst themselves?

********

The last hours of the day dragged into night.

Without their UI, Nar had no way of keeping track of time.

He only assumed it was night because the strange, bright purple light outside had dimmed, leaving them in growing darkness.

The noise, too, had slowly died off. He would never forget the things he had heard in those hours. The begging, the laughing, the crying… The sounds of the things the cannibals did to the Climbers and to each other. It had nearly driven him to pierce his ears with his own fingers.

Old memories had stirred. Of laughter and sounds like those.

Trapped between what was going on outside and what was remembered within his own mind, there had been nowhere to escape to. No relief to be had, like some of the others.

Tuk had cried himself to sleep, and he hadn’t been the only one. Cen was asleep on Gad’s arms, holding on to them with all of her strength. Viy had cried for a long time, and she too, had eventually passed out into blissful sleep.

Kur had tried to stay awake, but he was too hurt and had passed out as well. He had been stabbed in the side, in a much worse way than Nar’s shallow cut. To make things worse, the cage blocked their healing as well.

Nar hoped Kur died in his sleep. At least he would be spared from what was coming.

He leaned his head against the bars, and looked up.

The cage glowed in the dark. An eerie purple, gaseous glow ran from the bottom of the cage, up the bars, and onto the top of it. Then it pulsed back down again. It had only become visible once the lights had gone dim enough. Nar had refrained from touching the bars at first, but what was the point?

He had a feeling that maybe it was that pulsing glow that blocked his access to the System. But there was nothing he could do to avoid it. Nothing at all.

He had located his sword amongst their discarded pile of weapons. They were abandoned to the side of the strange construction. They were close enough to sustain hope, but far enough that none of them could ever actually reach them. And even if they did, then what?

The cages sapped them of what made them Climbers. Their attributes. Their skills. Their HP and stamina. They were no better than workers now. Weak, like they had been before…

He glanced at the other cages.

Nar, Gad and Mul were the only ones still awake.

They didn’t speak. They didn’t even acknowledge the presence of one another.

The both of them simply stared off into their own thoughts, and so did Nar.

He thought of the choices he had made and that had taken him there.

He thought of the choices he had not made, and that would’ve taken him elsewhere.

If only he had done so and so, instead of this and that. If only.

Regret was all that he had left.

That and fear. Cloying, paralyzing dread and terror of what awaited him, come the morning.

The flap covering the door was suddenly yanked back, and Nar looked up in fright. His heart jumped to a wild run and he held his breath.

Was it starting now? Was it all truly over?

“Hurry!”

“Shhh! Be quiet!”

In the near darkness, Nar could only discern the outlines of two vague figures. Without his [Sight], he was blind.

The voices seemed to belong to a man and a woman, and when they got closer, he knew he was right.

“They’re really here!” the woman whispered.

“Wait!” the man said.

“What? You’re getting cold balls now?”

“Yes! Wik said these meat are for the boss! The boss! Maybe we shouldn’t be messing with them.”

The woman chuckled. “They’re messed up already! Look at the big guy, bleeding over there! He's not gonna make it..."

"But..."

"Look at him... Dying," she breathed. "I want him!”

“Eh?”

“What! Don’t tell me he doesn’t look good!”

“I mean, he does, but…”

“Come, just do it through the cage. I want to watch it!”

“Ugh, fine! Just for you, then!”

The figures joined together and the sounds of their passion made Nar’s stomach twist.

His heart beat fast, making his vision come in and out of focus. Big guy? Bleeding? They were talking about Kur!

Dying? the word nearly stopped his heart.

What were they going to do through the bars? Kur looked like he was passed out, and Mul had stayed quiet throughout the whole exchange. Was he asleep?

The cannibals separated with one last, loud, wet smack, and stalked towards Kur and Mul’s cage.

Nar could barely breathe.

I need to do something! I need to wake them up!

He opened his mouth to scream, to warn the others. A pathetic croak escaped his lips. So low that not even the cannibals heard him.

Why? Why can’t I talk?

His vision went on and off faster.

He couldn’t breathe.

What was that guy doing?

He kneeled down next to Kur’s prone form and reached into the cage with one hand. With his other hand, he reached for…

Something broke inside Nar.

“Kur! Wake up!” Nar shouted. “Hey! What are you doing! Leave him alone!”

The man recoiled and fell on his ass. “Shit, they’re awake!”

“So what? Keep going! It makes it even better!” she said. Her voice had taken on a low drawl, mellow and unctuous.

“They’re going to call the others!” the man said.

“If they do, then it just means that they all get it!” the woman said. She gasped and looked in Nar’s direction. “Is that what you want? Hmm? To join in? I can take you if you want!”

Nar stared at her in horror. What could he do?

The man reached back into the cage, and this time, it was Mul who jumped up to protect Kur.

“Fucking got you!” Mul shouted.

He pulled the man’s arm further into the cage and twisted it, throwing all his hatred into it.

The man shouted in pain but covered his mouth.

The woman roared in laughter, stumbling backwards. "He got you! He fucking got you!"

“Mul!” Gad shouted. “Crystal! What do we do?”

Kur woke up with a start. “Wha-What’s happening?”

“Be quiet!” Mul breathed at him, struggling to keep the cannibal still. “Try and choke him through the bars!”

Nar pressed his face against the bars, straining his eyes to see Mul and Kur struggling with the cannibal in the near darkness.

What should I do? What can I do?

“Hey! What…”

The woman's voice ended in an abrupt wet gurgle, and she dropped with a muffled thud.

Nar turned in time to catch a small shadow dart across the room and leap at the man.

The shadow stabbed him repeatedly, and Kur reached up to cover the man’s mouth.

“Stop, he’s dead!” Kur hissed, seconds later.

Mul dropped the guy's arm, and the body fell backwards. The shadow side stepped the dead cannibal, and stood there, watching them and breathing hard.

What just happened? Nar thought, staring at the figure, stunned at the sudden turn of events.

He squinted, but that didn’t do anything for him.

“Is everyone okay?” the shadow asked in the stunned silence.

Nar’s jaw dropped.

“Jul?” Mul asked. “Is that you?”

“Yes! I came back," Jul said. "I-I came back! I came to save you! And I’m not going to leave any of you behind!”