"Fuck," Melvin cursed under his breath, he noticed how he had forgotten to remove the man on top of his rug before killing him, and it was now drenched in blood. However, he quickly remembered that he wasn't even planning on spending the night here, 'At least the rug is sucking up all the blood too.'

Glancing down at the boy busy working, he muttered, "What should we do about this George?"

He knew that the situation was very complicated with three dead bodies inside their home. It was even more so when he remembered that one of them had said that their boss was aware of their location. Once he realized his underlings hadn't come back, he would either send someone even more powerful or maybe come looking for them himself.

George who was telling the others what to do momentarily paused, and then without looking up he explained, "We need to get rid of the bodies so that the guards won't start looking for us, and then we need to leave because the Ghoul knows where we live."

"How?" Melvin asked after his eyes darted to the three bodies, he had no idea how they'd be able to get rid of three bodies without anyone seeing them. He could still remember how the shacks surrounding them were filled with people, and most times they liked to just hang around there.

"I have a plan." George confidently assured, he stood up and walked towards the three pouches in the corner of the shack that the dead trio had left. He immediately emptied all of them atop the dark brown dirty rug and began counting.

From a distance Melvin saw several silver and copper coins, but nothing gold. He approached the corpse of the strongest guy in the group and started rummaging through his dead body.

Fortunately, after not finding anything in his pockets, he found a small pouch behind his waist, inside there were three gold coins. He swiftly grabbed them and put them in his right leg pocket because his pouch was left with his other materials beside the rug where he slept.

George approached Henry who was busy cleaning up the mess and said, "Go to old Branz's shop and get ten of those thick paper black bags, and buy some spongers." He then gave him a small pouch filled the coins, and Henry didn't hesitate and went out of the door.

"Wait," Melvin said, then he turned to look at the two terrified young boys, "Go with him, and when Henry comes back just go have breakfast or something, don't come back for a while." Saying that he turned to look at Henry who nodded back at him. Seeing that he had understood his intention, Melvin no longer paid attention to them and approached the body in the corner of the shack.

When the the group left, He grabbed the corpse's legs and slowly started pulling it back, toward the center of the shack asking, "We will cut them, right?"

George who was doing the same to the corpse close to the door muttered, "Yes..."

That was the reason he told the two boys to stay away for a while, he knew things would become increasingly more gruesome.

After the initial panic, Melvin found himself more calm and collected in the face of this bloody scene. The thinking he had done yesterday had really helped him a lot in dealing with the brutality of what he had awakened to, as he had been contemplating the concept of killing until he fell asleep.

However, although he could stomach killing the man by accident, the other three kills were a different matter altogether. He quickly rushed to comfort himself with a complicated look on his face, 'I had to kill them,' He thought, his hands slightly shaking as he audibly gulped, 'If I didn't they would have called the guards too soon and they would catch us.'

"So what's the plan?" He asked after the last body was carried to the center where the four bodies now lay. He followed George's steps as they surrounded the group with the rugs they were all sleeping on the night before.

"We will feed them to the carnivore beasts in the stables." Answered the short brown-haired teen, "If we try to go out of the city, they will be noticed by the guards. After all, they have classes unlike us."

He then began removing the clothes from all of the corpses using a knife, and Melvin naturally helped in facilitating the process.

For some reason, whenever he encountered something unusual he would compare it with his last normal moments. Thus, the contrast between him strolling around the supermarket just a day ago against what he was doing right now gave him such a surreal feeling that he doubted whether this was his actual reality or not.

However, the warm clothes drenched with blood that he brushed against his skin as his dagger sliced through them was the perfect proof of that, and when he looked at their genitals, it became even more palpable.

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Quickly averting his gaze, he walked towards his small bag, grabbed one candle, and lit it before he put it close to the bodies. There was an overwhelming stench of blood and death that was making his stomach churn, and he hoped the fragrant candle would make a difference.

Just as he was about to go help George start the long-awaited process, a cheap thought kicked in as he glanced at the brick by the door. He then grabbed the candle and put the candle between them, under the metal, to gather more soot, 'I don't have any left.' He thought, 'This way I'll hit two birds with one stone.'

When he turned back, George had already removed his clothes and sat cross-legged inside the circle made up of rags with a long knife in hand. This sight terrified him even though he was planning to do the same too, he was a bit caught off guard by how easily the short teen adapted.

"You don't really have to go that far, you know?" He commented from behind him, prompting George to turn back to look.

Melvin still in his clothes, kept his feet planted outside the circle as he sliced through one of the nearby corpses' elbows, making a clean cut.

"My knife isn't sharp enough," He replied, and when Melvin turned to look he realized why he went about it that way. George was using a lot of effort just to get through a single bone, whereas he needed just a simple cut and he would go through it.

He soon understood that it was both a combination of the dagger being indeed sharp and also because of his improved strength.

Henry soon came back with the items he was tasked with bringing and started helping the duo.

Throughout the grotesque process of butchering, all of them without exceptions would feel like vomiting, and because they hadn't eaten anything in a while they would only start dry heaving until they were sweating buckets.

At one particular moment, Melvin just suddenly stopped and looked at everything he was doing, his mind dissociating once again, feeling very aberrant about the whole affair.

He also realized something important, 'I suppose this settles it,' He thought with a disappointed sigh, 'This Ghoul guy isn't the one who killed me otherwise he wouldn't have sent these guys to ask for money.'

Knowing there was an even more influential power who wanted him dead increased his urgency even more, but it was very confusing still, 'This guy is just a weak nobody, a small thief living in the slums, who would be so powerful to trespass the guards and kill him with poison?'

With another sigh, he dismissed his worries and focused on his butchering work.

It took them around an hour before they had finally finished, and the result of their hard work was a pile of mangled body parts.

It was a scene straight from a nightmare, and the three all had different expressions as they looked at it.

"What now?" Asked Henry, his voice stupefied but also tired.

The reason they took this long was because of the body of the strongest person of them. His bones were so strong and tough that even Melvin had to spend a considerable time cutting them with his dagger. When he finished, his clothes were also all bloodied, and his forehead dripped with sweat.

'That wasn't a normal human,' He remarked in his head, he then turned to George who seemed more knowledgeable about the stables, and waited for his answer.

"First we need to wash," He said gesturing to his mostly red body with very little light brown skin making an appearance. He turned back, grabbed the big clay bottle, and yelled, "Open the door"

Melvin quickly approached to obstruct the field of vision of the two small boys because he felt responsible for what he made them go through.

George gave the two the clay bottle and other glass bottles and said, "Go to the fountains and fill them with water."

The duo hurriedly nodded, terrified by how he looked and scurried away to finish the task.

*Knock Knock*

A sudden knocking sound interrupted the three, and they glanced at each other in shock. They knew that someone else was looking for them, and at this particular moment, it wouldn't be anything good.

After another bout of knocking, a young male voice echoed, "Jacob?"

Melvin quickly shot a confused glance to the two, especially to George who seemed aware of what was happening. George waved his hand gesturing for them to both keep quiet and wait as he slowly approached the door and said, "He isn't here."

"George?" The voice asked before the door began to gradually pull back. George immediately grabbed the door and hurriedly said, "Stop, Llath I can't go out right now, I'll come find you a while later."

The door began to get pushed open once again, "George, open, I just came to give you some skewers my mother told me to give you."

George's face contorted into a scowl when he heard that, he was just cutting up bodies and yet he found this even more difficult, he gritted his teeth and said, "Sorry Llath, we just ate."

The voice quietened for a while, before it yelled, "What in the gods' name, my mother just wanted to give you something to eat, is this how are you gonna treat her kindness? You don't even want to open the door."

Furiously scratching his head George tried to think of something as he muttered, "I am sorry, I swear I just can't open the door right now. I am naked, and all of my clothes are drying up."

The voice indignantly said, "You know I can see your drying line... it's empty."

Before the voice trailed off they heard faint footsteps leaving.

Melvin and Henry sighed in relief, but George was still dealing with the aftermath of such a hostile confrontation with someone that he knew.

Noticing that the candle wasn't doing anything to obstruct the stench, Melvin turned to the two and asked, "Do you still have some cigarettes?"

"Cigarrete?" Asked Henry confusion visible on his face.

"That thing that has smoke and you inhale." He explained to the two, making a gesture of holding a cigarette with two fingers and smoking it.

Understanding what he meant, Henry cracked a joke to lighten the mood, "Even if you lost your memories, old habits are still there." To which George also smiled a little, and he pulled one of his pockets and gave it to him.

Henry clarified, "It's called a rolled emberleaf."