Blood Moon Lake

Chapter 18

Trigger Warning! ⚠️ De@d bod!es, bl00d, and mentions of c@nn!bal!sm

Once Brian was out of sight, I sat down and sighed. Well, this was just great. Now we're stuck in a cage! "What do you think they want with us," I asked no one in particular. "Who knows," Leo shrugged sitting down next to me, "They could be keeping us here for a lot of reasons. Human trafficking, illegal testing, government project, cult rituals the list goes on." Oh my gosh, this is not helping. "Has anyone ever told you how uplifting you are?" I asked. "You asked," he replied. I let out a frustrated groan and leaned my head against the bars. "They plan on feeding us to the demons," a feminine voice said. "What?" I asked leaning forward and looking toward the group of adults. "That's why we're here," the woman stated, "To feed the demons until they find hosts." "Demons?" I questioned. The lady nodded, "Yep, human-eating demons." "Are you talking about those things in the navy-blue masks?" Leo asked. "Yeah," she replied, "You've seen them?" I nodded, "Yeah they're the reason we ended up in this town in the first place." "Us too!" The lady exclaimed. "What happened to you?" I asked. "We were doing a survival class," she told us, "One night we woke up to this horrible screeching, and these creatures were attacking us. Only eight out of the sixteen of us made it out when we arrived at the town Brian offered to look at the people who got injured and let us stay the night. When we woke up, we were here." "Why are they going to feed us to the demons?" I asked. "Because that's what they were ordered to do," she replied, "It's some sort of cult. They call the person they serve, 'The Master.' Their goal is to find suitable hosts for the demons but until then they have to keep them well fed." "So, they use people who come into town," I whispered. The lady nodded.

So, we're gonna be demon food. That's not very convenient. "Wait I thought you said eight of you made it out," Leo stated, "What happened to the others? I thought there were only five demons to feed." The adults looked at each other nervously. Leo's eyes narrowed, "What did you do to them?" "We didn't do anything," one of the men replied. "Then what happened?" Leo asked. "They tried to escape," the man replied, "There was a loose bar that they knocked out. The sound of it hitting the floor alerted the guard and he killed them." "You didn't try to escape with them?" Leo questioned. The lady shook her head, "No, it was a stupid plan we knew they would end up dead." "And you didn't try to warn them?" I asked. Their eyes went wide, and they looked away. "Why didn't you try to stop them?" I asked. They didn't reply. The cage fell into an uncomfortable silence. I couldn't believe it. Why wouldn't they try to stop them? If they knew that they would die, why wouldn't they tell them? What were they thinking? "They were thinking if they weren't smart enough to figure out the flaws in their plan then they weren't useful enough to keep around," Leo whispered in my ear. I looked up at him confused, "Huh?" He rolled his eyes, "I could hear your thoughts from where I was." Fair enough, Ella always said my thoughts were loud. "How do you know that?" I asked. "Because," he said, "That's exactly what I would have done. If you want to survive something like this, you can't have stupid people slowing you down." I stared at him for a few seconds, "So if you decided one of us was slowing you down you would let us die?" Leo's eyes widened, "No! You guys helped me, and even if some of you are annoying, I wouldn't leave you to die! But if it was someone, I didn't know I would." "Even if they were hurt?" I questioned. "Especially if they were hurt," he said, "You guys were dumb to take me with you. Don't tell Ella, but she was right I just slow you guys down."

I sat there thinking about what Leo said. I mean sure, he slowed us down a bit while we were hiking through the woods, and I had to carry him while we were running away from Brian, but I would never leave him because he was hurt! How could someone do that? Who would abandon an injured person? That would just be cruel. Sorry, you can't keep up with us guess we'll just leave you here to die. Good luck! Like who would do that!? I sighed, I guess some people care more about their survival. I glanced back over at the adults; they were talking amongst themselves about who knows what. I don't know much about them but after what they let happen to the other people in their group. I don't trust them. But I'm not going to let them die. I'm going to get them and my friends out of here safely and I'm going to make sure they don't do anything to get my friends killed. Because if they were willing to let other people die, they won't give two shits about us. But how will we get out? There's a guard, the adults said so themselves. They have guns, which is a problem because we aren't bulletproof. Also, there's the fact they have human-eating demons, that's a bit of a problem too. There's also the fact I don't remember how we got here, so I don't know the way back. We also have a lock on the cage so unless one of us magically knows how to pick locks, we're not getting out of here! There doesn't seem to be many positives. Maybe we could have Anna or Ella seduce the guard into giving us the key like the ladies do in the movies. I mean Ella would flirt with about anyone, I'm not sure about Anna she's hit and miss. I mean it probably wouldn't work since this isn't a movie, but we could still give it a try. Or we could try guilt-tripping the guard into giving us the key, I'm sure one of us could pull that off. Or we could wait till they're getting ready to feed us to the demons and then make a break for it. That might be cutting it a little too close, we'll leave that as a last resort.

As I sat there, I could feel my eyes begin to droop. I was too tired to think of a good plan. I mean I was woken up in the middle of the night by an evil doctor so I guess that would make sense. I sighed and let myself drift off to sleep.

I looked around, it was like I was standing in a pitch-black void, it just stretched on for miles and miles. Suddenly, I heard two voices talking. I took off in the direction of the voices, the voices began to get louder, and just as I was about to reach them, something flung me back and I was standing in the cabin. I was in the living room, but something was off, it was too quiet. Then there was a knock at the door. Creeping over to the door, I cautiously opened it and peeked outside. There was nothing. Opening it a bit wider, I stepped outside and found myself standing in a long stone hallway. The walls were crumbling and overgrown with long dark vines. A red light shown through the cracks in the ceiling. I had just started to walk down the hall when a horrified scream echoed through the building. I felt the blood drain from my face. I knew that scream, it was Ella. I tore through the halls sprinting in the direction of the scream. I came to a chamber full of old wooden doors, there were about ten altogether. I frantically tried to open all of them but each one was locked and rusted into place. Suddenly a voice cut through the air "Aw look at you, trying so hard to save your dead friends," The voice crooned, "If only you had gotten here sooner." "What did you do to them!?" I shouted. The person chuckled, "Oh, I didn't have to do much. You're the one who led them right to me." "What happened!?" I shouted. "Why don't you see for yourself," they said. The doors faded away to reveal a dark chamber with a large black throne in the center of the room. Piled in front of the throne were four bodies. I sprinted over and crouched in front of the limp figures.

I felt bile rise in my throat, laying in front of me were all four of my friends. All of them were dead, their bodies mutilated and twisted in sickening ways. I grabbed the body from the top of the pile and pulled it into my lap. It was Anna. Her bright green eyes were devoid of the happiness they usually held. Her chest had been ripped open, and her heart had been torn out. I could feel tears streaming down my face. What had happened? Why wasn't I with them? "WHAT DID YOU DO!?" I screamed, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM!?" "I told you earlier," the voice giggled, "They followed you here! I simply did what I had to. It's your fault. If you had just done more, they would be safe." "YOU LIAR!" I screamed. Why did I bring them here? What happened? How did I let this happen to my friends? Thousands of possibilities swirled through my head but none of them made sense. How did this happen? Then it clicked. The demons had killed my friends. Those things killed my friends! Because I led them straight to them. I couldn't figure out if I wanted to be angry at the demons and scream and throw things or if I wanted to break down crying. Nothing made sense, this wasn't supposed to happen! Suddenly a voice cut through my thoughts. "L-luke," someone croaked. I looked around trying to figure out who was talking. "L-luke," they said again. My eyes landed on Leo; I quickly pulled him out of the pile. He wasn't in much better shape than Anna, but he was alive and that's all that matters. "Leo," I cried in relief, "Oh thank goodness! Stay with me, I'm going to get you out of here!" Carefully scooping him up, I dashed back over to the door and began to run down the halls. "---- betrayed us," Leo whispered, "Not your fault." "Who betrayed us!?" I asked. "Tired," he muttered. "NO! NO! NO! NO! Leo, stay awake!" I shouted. But it was no use, not even a second after he closed his eyes, he stopped breathing. I collapsed on my knees sobbing. They were all dead and I couldn't save them.

I awoke with a start; I looked around and relaxed it was just a dream. My friends were safe. I just need to keep it that way.

Did I make you sad? I hope I did because if I didn't this chapter didn't have the effect I wanted. Anyways have a great day! Bye! 🙃