An Aura of Bloodshed

Chapter 3: Rotten Dolls and Cave-Ins

. . .

"M-Mm.. Ow, fuck..."

Kitsune grumbled, sitting up. Jesse laid beside her, slowly fluttering his eyes open. He groaned as he sat up, rubbing his head. "Ughh... What a nasty fall..!" He muttered.

"You're tellin' me... God, I knew the place was unstable, but I wasn't expecting that." Kitsune remarked, standing up. She offered a hand to Jesse, which he graciously took- allowing her to help him stand. Once he was back on his feet, he glanced around the small, fractured room.

"...Where are we? How deep underground is this?" He questioned.

"Uhhh..." Kitsune trailed off, looking up at the hole they fell through. "...I can't even tell. It's pitch black up there." She stated.

"Hm, that's troubling..." Jesse commented, before looking over at a door. "There's still evidence of the mining project down here, so we're not completely lost. So that's relieving. If we go through that door and up those steps, we'd eventually find our way back up."

He then looked over at a staircase leading further down. Little droplets of blood were splattered on it. "But there's blood near those steps. So we should go deeper."

"As much as I hate to do that, I have no choice to agree with you." Kitsune stated, as she started heading down the steps.

"Oh trust me- I don't like this any more than you do." Jesse said, as they went deeper into the depths.

They found themselves in, what could best be described, and artificial mountain range with little staircases. There looked to be about five or six floors including the bottom.  On every floor except for the top, Kitsune could faintly see blood on some of the sharper rocks- as though someone had fallen onto them, or thrown.

...She didn't want to think about that too much.

"This is, uhh... A bit excessive for a simple subway tunnel, ain't it? I'm not sure how deep we are at this point, but you gotta admit- this is overkill." She commented.

"No, no- I agree. That floor where we fell in from was enough. Who knows what they were actually doing down here until this place was shut down." Jesse replied, shrugging after. "Though, we'll worry about that later. Right now we have a case to solve." He stated, putting his hand on a door handle that apparently led to a supply closet of sorts.

...God, they almost wish they hadn't gone in.

Instantly, they were hit with an overwhelming smell of blood. In front of them was... It was hard to describe. It was a doll with real human limbs- presumably from the victims of the disappearances. It even had an eyelid stitched onto one of the eyes. Ears and feet were stitched onto the legs and arm- and there was a hand stitched onto its head.

"What the...?! What IS that thing?!" Jesse exclaimed, both a mixture of shock and mortification. He slowly approached the abomination, lightly poking it with his scythe. "It... It's not moving..." He pointed out.

"Moving or not, it's still disgusting- look at it! Who would even think about doing something like- oh, wait, nevermind- I'm not going to finish that sentence." Kitsune stated, walking forth and she activated her ability. She stumbled back from shock. "...Doctor Thornhart... Be careful..."

Jesse looked back at her, feeling even more on edge. "...Why?" He asked, wearily.

"...It's alive. Or well- it's dead, but it also has some semblance of sentience. And I can see that its killed... quite a handful of humans..." The redhead explained.

Jesse immediately backed away from it. "Right- let's just find the key and get out of here. I don't think I can handle that stench much longer." He stated.

Kitsune nodded, helping him in his search. She rummaged through the left of the room, while Jesse went through the right side. Before long, he stumbled upon a note. Something about how the workers have been down for quite a while- though despite the rumors, the cave-ins weren't the worst part. It was something about noises- scratches, knocking, footsteps, and even talking... Concerning. Flipping the note over, he uncovered a key.

"Hey- I found the key." He stated, getting Kitsune's attention.

She sighed a bit, seemingly out of relief. "Great- come on, let's get the hell outta dodge." She stated. Jesse nodded as they both walked out, leaving the doll abomination alone...

Not realizing that it finally decided to move, and it skittered off.

Upon unlocking the double door, Kitsune Jesse found themselves in a rather spacious room... Or well, it would be spacious if not for the large rocks scattered all over the place. After passing a slight threshold, a rock fell from the ceiling and blocked them from leaving the way they came- prompting Kitsune to jump.

"...Well, definitely no turning back now." She muttered, as her and Jesse continued walking. But before taking even ten steps, they felt the ground shake.

"...Wait- was that-" Jesse was cut off, as the ground started shaking more- this time more violently. His eyes widened a bit as he grabbed Kitsune's wrist. "This place is going to cave in any second now! Come on- we have to get out of here!" He exclaimed, before running as fast as he could with the woman.

After a bit of stumbling and running into rocks, the pair of Chastisers eventually found the exit. They fell over upon running through the threshold, panting from adrenaline. Before they could regain their bearings, they heard the loud crashing noise of all the rocks falling. Turning around, they realized that the room they had just entered from was completely blocked off.

"Well, that's just fucking great..." Kitsune grumbled, trying to keep a level head. She turned to Jesse, about to ask him what they should do, but quickly stopped when she saw the look on his face. He looked...

Almost scared.