"What happened to us? Why are we like this now?" I asked.
"Because that's how they fought us. Humans would have been wiped out if they hadn't learned the demon's secret. Now there are only a few like you and I left, and even fewer demons. Which means one of us has to die here."
I took a deep breath. "I'm hungry," I said. "Why don't we eat something and discuss what you know about them?"
The beetle paused. "You feel hungry in the same way I do," he said.
"Yes, but we aren't like them. They might look like us but they're mindless. We can choose how we'll deal with this problem."
"Mindless, yes," the beetle said. "That's why I have to eat you."
He rushed toward me on all fours. The way his legs moved wasn't like a person anymore, it was the hurried pace of a bug. I dodged out of his way and ran deeper into the building.
I was much faster, but he had my scent. After a few hallways I could still hear his massive footsteps echoing through the building.
Deeper inside the hallways began to change. Dust and clutter were replaced by claw marks and rubble. There were holes in the walls smeared with dried yellow blood. Everywhere I looked were the remnants of terrible struggles.
The rooms were filled with books and strange equipment. I'd been told about electricity, and how the complicated machines of the far past could use it, but I'd never seen any in person. Every room was dominated by screens and wires. Many of the screens were melted or burned.
The footsteps suddenly went quiet. The beetle had stopped chasing me, or had found some way to make himself quiet. I took a deep breath and tried to find him by smell.
I was hit by dozens of smells all at once. All of them had the same reek as the demon I'd eaten, and the beetle, but they were also mixed with the smells of people. The smell of stale blood was heavy in the air.
Deeper in, the hallway ended in a long staircase. Everything, from the wallpaper, to the blood stained rugs seemed older. I followed the stairway down, hoping it would lead to an exit.
The stairway was windowless, and it quickly became too dark to see. The only sound was my feet softly moving from step to step.
There was no exit at the bottom. Through the gloom I could make out rectangular silhouettes. The smell of candles that had been lit and relit dozens of times was all around me.
I heard a scrape come from above me. I looked up just in time to see a dark shape falling on me. It was like a building had fallen on me. I was pinned beneath the beetle.
He must have been following me on the ceiling. I swung at him with my cleaver, but he caught me by the wrist. With his other hand he grabbed one of my antlers. I punched him in the stomach with my free hand, but I may as well have been punching a wall.
A sharp pain went down my forehead. There was a loud snap and my antler broke free. I screamed and felt blood seep down into my eye. The beetle twisted the antler so the points were aimed at me. He stabbed it down into the arm he had pinned. I felt the points tear into my arm.
"I don't want to kill you," the beetle hissed. His glassy eyes looked sad above me. "I found this place when I was near your age. It was built long ago to help people understand the demons and learn how to defeat them."
"That smell," I managed to say.
"Yes, dozens of demons brought in for testing. Years of pulling them apart, but each time they knit themselves back together. Until we finally learned their weakness."
"To eat them." It felt as though my arm might tear off at any moment.
"Yes, that keeps them from coming back. But it brings a terrible fate to those who partake."
"Our transformation."
"Not just that. Something much worse will follow."
The beetle tightened his grip and pulled my arm free. I screamed, but the sound was drowned out by him eating. His mandibles grabbed at my arm like greedy hands.
His focus lapsed while he ate my arm. It gave me just enough room to thrust my head up. My remaining antler caught the beetle right in his eye. He screamed, and I pulled my legs out from under him.
Yellow blood trailed behind me as I hurried deeper into the building. I looked back to see the beetle chasing me on all fours. In his anger he'd forgotten about my arm; it was lying forgotten by the stairs.
As I ran, an image flashed in my mind. I was looking up at my two antlers set against a red sky. Something between a rat and a man had been skewered on the antlers. His legs kicked out feebly as yellow blood seeped out of his wounds. My hands reached up to pull him off and finish him.
I stopped suddenly and spun around on my heels. With a shriek I swung the cleaver toward a surprised looking beetle. The heavy blade caught him in the other eye and sliced it in half. More yellow blood splattered across the floor.
The beetle threw a blind punch with the weight of his anger behind it. It caught me in the side and sent me flying across the room. I hit the ground and felt a few ribs crack.
The equipment in the room spun as I tried to stand up. Yellow blood dripped from my mouth down onto my hands. Every breath was agony.
The beetle was on the other side of the room smashing the ground and throwing blind punches. Sooner or later he'd calm down enough to remember he could smell me, and then I'd be finished. I fought through the pain and pushed myself back onto my feet.
The punch had forced me against the wall. I used the wall as a crutch as I limped away from the beetle. Sticking out from the wall was a sign that read "exit". Below the sign was a door. I rested my weight against the door and collapsed outside. The sky was dark and the animals had gone silent.
I could no longer stand. My long fingers reached out to find cracks in the pavement so I could drag myself away from the building. The door banged open behind me, and I heard footsteps closing in. The beetle's massive hand enveloped my head.
A lot of things were already hurting by the time he grabbed me. It was nothing compared to what happened next. His grip tightened and I felt my skull begin to give way. My eyes were ready to pop free from their sockets, leaving me just as blind as he was.
"I'm not going anywhere," the beetle kept whispering to himself.
I swung the cleaver at him, but it bounced harmlessly off his armor. His grip continued to tighten, pulling my loose skin further back on my skull. It gave me an idea.
I brought the cleaver up to my head and imagined my father cleaning a deer. A few select cuts would let the meat slide free from the skin. I began cutting along my face around the beetle's fingers.
My head slipped free just as the beetle's fingers clamped shut. The back of my head burned in the night air.
The beetle hissed and swung his head in frustration. He threw my bloody scalp away into the dark. I charged him from the side and swung my cleaver. The blade caught him in his open mouth and severed one of the mandibles. I jumped back as the beetle swung toward where I'd just been.
Both of us stopped and caught our breath. Both of us were so far past where an ordinary person would have died that we weren't sure how much further we could go. One would kill the other, but neither knew how.
A noise came from the woods. It stood out against the animals' silence. The sound was a steady rhythm beating against the ground.
A horse burst free from the tree line and galloped toward us. It was followed by another, and another, until dozens of horses were converging on us. Each horse had a rider, and each rider had a rifle pointed toward the sky.
The lead rider pointed his gun toward us. "Two demons. If they resist, kill them."
