Burning Road

The Cooking Pot- Part IV

His ears were ringing, but he could just make out a steady moaning in the distance. Moats of light floated through the darkness whenever he moved his head, and he tasted copper on his tongue. Khouri swore at the thought of having to contend with a concussion. He needed his wits about him if he intended to escape The Dark and The Under.

Prince tried to rise to his feet and found wads of thick muck clinging to his cloak. Dizziness came and went in waves. He took quick stock of his injuries. There was a knot the size of a golf ball on the back of his head and blood in his mouth. His arms and legs felt bruised but there was nothing severe. Surprised at his relatively good condition, he felt around his ribs and found a furry breastplate wrapped around his leather armor. Little Chi Chi had saved him again.

The bunny was becoming his hero.

Prince took a deep breath to prepare his mind to cast The Moonlight spell, but something caught his attention. There was a stink to the chamber that wasn't unique to The Dark or The Under. The air stank of death, but that wasn't what made him go still. Mingled with the smell of rotting flesh was the putrescence of a corpse eater. There was a graveling or ghoul nearby.

Prince didn't stand a chance against undead while limping around in the darkness.

The added strain of minimizing his movements made spellcasting much more difficult. Khouri failed to cast the spell twice before his vision filled with the moonlit interior of a rough hewn room of stone. He stood in the middle of the chamber and above him was an opening in the ceiling where gobs of slime fell in leisurely strands. In the dim light, the room looked dirty and the stink in the air clung to his exposed skin. Broken bodies and hunks of meat lined the walls along with less recognizable piles of refuse. A single crooked doorway connected to a passage strewn with more trash.

A moaning snail oozed along the passage. 

Prince watched its accordion like segments open and close, and remembered of Pan. His hand went to his pocket and the last bit of salt he had. He only had enough for one shot at making the stuff useful. Khouri's eyes scanned the piles of dead, the shadow could be anywhere. Waiting for a carrion eater to find him was not an option, but stumbling blindly through a demon guarded stronghold was equally unappealing.

He petted Chi Chi and moved toward the doorway.

A form staggered down the hall. Gray skin encased skinny arms and legs attached to a pointy rib cage. The creature's head was scarred and narrow without a speck of hair. A hump-like cyst pulsed in steady rhythm as the creature reached the doorway. The graveling's head rose and milky white eyes stared directly at Khouri. A mouth full of broken teeth gnashed and the mindless creature spoke with a voice emanating from the ground.

"I was going to save you for last, Binder, but you had to be the hero.  You had to save the little bitch!" Pan no longer spoke Under Common,but perfect English with a slight British accent.

"I couldn't just let you kill her," Prince said. He was in far more danger than he feared. Pan could attack him, using the corpse eater as his proxy or merely grab his shadow and hold him still while the graveling tore him apart.

"Maybe I wouldn't have killed her, maybe I would have eaten all of her luck and left her empty. She needs to be taught a lesson, she needs to learn how to speak to people."

"You're fucking kidding, right? Mimi talks to everyone that way, and you traveled to hell to help her. Now that old memories have resurfaced, you're angry? News flash, asshole, we've all done things we regret. We learn to live with it."

Pan laughed the laugh of a madman.

"You're not going to live with anything, Binder. I wanted to save you for last because you're surrounded by nothing but bad luck, you're going to taste like shit, but now I'm going to tear your insides out and watch you bleed to death," The graveling gnashed at the air and strained against the shadow's control. "I've seen the world you deny us with my own eyes. Of all of us, you deserve to die the worst death."