The Corrupted Soul

Chapter 26

Faint, dull pain was the first thing to resurface as I slowly forced myself awake. My heart dropped when I felt I was on my back, and not laying in the snow. Oh no.

Though they protested painfully, I forced my eyes open. My sight was hazy, but I could make things out until it cleared up. Currently, I was seeing a concrete ceiling lined with various metal bars and pipes.

I tried to sit up, but I couldn't. At first I thought it was because my ribcage had been broken, my shoulder had been bit into, and several slashes from claws cut into my back and sides, which would have been more than enough reason to be unable to sit up. It took me a moment to realize the tightness I felt in my chest was not because I had been severely damaged, but because I was tied up.

Craning my neck, I was able to see thick metal chains coiled around my chest and some of my stomach, pinning my arms at my side, and holding my Crawler legs curled up tight against my back. I could see a padlock holding the chains together, which I raised an eyebrow at. This was the kind of lock most humans could break with their bare hands. Who the hell put me here?

Taking in a deep breath through my nose, and grimacing at the pain in my chest, I realized exactly where I was. I groaned internally. This is that collapsed parking lot. Great...they dragged me back here by force after they woke up. That venom is much more potent than I thought.

I looked around, trying to see of any of them were around. If they saw me escaping they could easily follow me. Victor probably wasn't healed yet, but I had no idea how long I was out. I had to guess by the state of my injuries that it hadn't been that long though, maybe a day or two.

Taking a deep breath, I shifted, and forced myself to sit up, pushing off as much as I could with my Crawler legs. The pain that exploded out the dormant wounds startled my mind the rest of the way awake, and I almost wished I could pass out again to escape the sharp throbbing. I even felt several of the cuts start bleeding again.

Now I was sitting up, I could see just how much blood was on my clothes. I might as well just get a new jacket at this point, because those stains were never coming out, even if I didn't consider the giant tears.

Some rubble fell from a pile somewhere to my right, followed by a faint gasp and further crumbling. I looked over just in time to see part of the ceiling collapse against the wall, sending bits of concrete, rock, and metal clanging or tumbling against the floor, along with a very disoriented Sketch. Did I just see a Crawler fall through the ceiling?

He was covered in dust as the rubble settled, so when he sat up and shook himself off, a small grey cloud came off. He sat on his knees and held his head with one hand, grimacing. When he finally looked up to see me staring at him, he froze like a deer in headlights.

After a crash like that, wouldn't the others think I had attacked him? How come I couldn't hear them anywhere? Now that I thought about it, the only scents I could catch of them were days old by how faded and muddy they were. It occurred to me that Sketch likely wouldn't be this afraid of me if he had the others to fall behind.

We stared at each other for a bit longer than I had meant to, and I quickly averted my eyes, remembering they weren't just ack Crawler eyes anymore. The second I averted my gaze, Sketch bolted, or at least tried to, but he tripped over a metal beam and fell flat on his face.

This was uncharacteristically clumsy and skittish for him. Was I really that scary to him now? He was a Crawler, he should be at least a bit used to gore and the like. Had he never gotten a scar before? Had he never hunted before?

He rolled onto his side and held his shin. I winced, realizing as he fell he landed on one of the beams, "That's going to leave a nasty bruise. At least your nose isn't broken."