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Chapter 8: There is No Sanity In Survival
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LIKE ASPHYXIANT HYDROGEN cyanide in a gas chamber, the putrid stench of death choked the room. The bodies of the two creatures we had killed earlier had already decomposed to the state where a plethora of maggots was spilling out of their gaping mouths, and gangrene had taken over. As jet-black as asphalt, the skin had eaten away their clothes to nothing but threads and began peeling from the rotting muscles like a snake shedding its skin.

Their rate of putrefaction was unusually rapid; it was as if their organs had been desperate to leave their bodies all along. The whole scene was horrific, considering it had been less than an hour since the incident.

Shaking with goosebumps, I turned away from the gore site and fixated my gaze on Desvaldo. Calmer than the stillness at the eye of a hurricane, he looked up at me and stated, "Judging from earlier, you really aren't from the Underworld and have never been here before, am I correct?

Tearstained, I wiped my puffed-up face and then hugged myself from quivering. "Is it that obvious?"

"Yes. Very." He averted his eyes to the two corpses on the ground and deadpanned, "Anyone who has lived here has seen a dead body every once in a while, and, witnessing your current state, this is evidently your first."

We both turned away from the decaying masses and simultaneously looked up at the now overcast sky. The dappled, grey, and white mass calmed my hard-beating heart as I closed my eyes and pondered about a time my parents forgot to pick me up in middle school.

The sky looked just as it did right then – miserable and gloomy. Regardless, I was alone, and as the slight drizzle cleansed my soul, a sense of tranquility overcame me. It was as though the world showered little me with forgiveness for my sins.

Everything, just for a fraction of a moment, seemed normal. My quivering died down and for a change in the past thirty minutes, I didn't yearn to sob anymore. Instead, I craved the clouds to cry down on me one more time and wash away the blood of those I robbed lives from that stained my hands.

"Test. You said this was the first test..." I thought aloud as the question slipped off my tongue, "What did you mean by that?"

He answered after a deep exhale. "Strength."

"Strength, huh?" I stifled a laugh.

"Yes, they did it to evaluate us and weed out the weak ones since they don't have much worth..."

He came to an awkward pause, so I spoke up, "Something on your mind, Devil Boy?"

"Well, that's what they did the last couple of times. The 'weeding', that is."

The last couple of times? How long had he been confined in here? I thought, furrowing my brows before asking, "What's the next one then?"

"I don't know. They've changed it up so many times that I've lost track."

Well, that doesn't help at all.

I sighed. "Fuck. We need a miracle."

Hopelessness bit his plump, chapped lips shut as defeat and lethargy filled his sharp silver eyes. As each second passed, his strength deteriorated. With each breathy reply, I wondered if I was already conversing with a ghost.

That was when another thought crossed my mind. "Before me, you said there were others that attacked each other. What happened to them?"

"They came in to try to pull them apart, but by then, it was too late."

"Oh, I see." I guessed they were left to rot like the two beings behind us.

"But now that I think about it..." I gestured for him to go on, so he did. "They were persistent in keeping them alive for some reason."

I opened my eyes and peered his way. "What do you mean?"

"They brought in a medic team," he specified, not breaking his stare at the false skies. "They tried to resuscitate them as they wheeled them out on gurneys. It was chaotic, to say the least."

My eyes fixed themselves on the gritty concrete ground and the splatters of dried-up blood staining it. I digested his words and began pondering. There had to be a way out of that place. There just had to be.

That was when it hit me like the start of an apocalypse on a normal day.

"I think I may have a plan, but ..." I averted my eyes to his pale face. "You might not like the sound of it," I admitted with an unsure smile.

He cocked a brow and looked my way with a curious "What do you mean? What nonsense are you conjuring?"

I took inhaled and expelled it:

"I need you to stab me."

It was like I blind-swiped him when his eyes enlarged. "W-what did you say?"

I poked him on his chest. "Just like that. Stab me like you mean it."

He slapped my hand and grabbed at it and yelled, "Are you out of your damn mind?!"

"Jeez. Lower your voice," I whispered, pulling my hand back. "Just trust me. Okay? I know exactly where you can hit me so I don't die. Hopefully."

"H-Hopefully?" He loudly whispered back with a shake of his head before burning his head into his arms. "Surely, you've lost it."

"Maybe. However, I have two anatomy and physiology classes under my belt." I didn't mention how I skipped them half the time. What he didn't know wouldn't kill him.

With his face buried in his arms, I laid down the rest of the plan. He thought it would get me killed. However, I wasn't going to go down that easily, and if I did, at least I would go down having tried.

I needed to do something before the next test took place. I was lucky last round, and we all know luck only lasts so long before it runs out.

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"Help! She's been stabbed! She's hurt!" Desvaldo cried, banging at the sliding doors. He was desperate and fearful. Every second counted and his voice showed urgency. "Hurry! She's losing a lot of blood!"

Curled on the ground and heaving for my dear life, I clutched onto the bottom half of my abdomen. Each moment felt like a scorching hot pitchfork was constantly jabbing my side. The pain was near unbearable, but I was mobile enough to fight if need be. A gunshot echoed through the room, and I snapped my head up to a collapsed Devlin.

My whole world stopped. A siren went off in my head.

This couldn't be happening.

No! No! No! What did I do?

Fear-stricken, my scream cracked through the air between us. "Devlin! No!" Dripping blood everywhere, I dragged my body to his limp side. Shaking with bloodied hands, I reached out to him; however, I stopped when I saw it.

A long and dart-like syringe lodged in the nape of his neck. It carried some light-blue liquid that slowly turned green when mixed with his blood. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was a mere tranquilizer. My heartbeat returned to its usual rhythmic beat as I heaved a hefty sigh of relief.

Just as it did, the doors slid open. Three creatures in white and blue scrubs rushed towards me and placed me on the gurney. As they pulled me away from the prince's motionless body, all I could think of was how I promised to get the both of us out of there, even if it killed me.

As the doors slid shut behind us, I caught a cursive number sixty-nine on a nearby label. Registering that was me and Dev's room, I felt the need to puke.

Seriously, of all fucken numbers...

One medical personnel put an oxygen mask over my mouth and nose and instructed me to breathe normally. However, I was struggling; the pain was excruciating, and each breath felt like the deepening sting of a murderer's hornet.

We passed by multiple stainless steel sliding doors. They had to be more than a hundred. As we went by each one, I could hear the screams and roars of several beings. There had to be over three hundred of us here at the very least.

A wave of bleach overwhelmed my nostrils as we rolled through the final door. I was blinded by a flashing white light. However, my vision quickly settled, and everything came to form.

I was in an operating room.

Blue drapes were everywhere. My eyes remained fixed on the tray of utensils. The staff quickly got dressed into sterile gowns before transferring me from the soiled gurney to the operating table.

Putting on their gloves with their backs to me, I quickly grabbed a scalpel in each hand and slid them under my arms. With their protective equipment on, they made their way back to my side and began to undress me.

Ignoring my pain for a few seconds, I shot up and lacerated the two closest to me in the neck. As the two fell to the tiled ground with blood oozing from their slashes, the third one dashed to the door and desperately tried to punch in the code. However, with how panicked he was, he failed every time. I used the opportunity to jump off the operating table and delivered a swift kick to the back of the creature's purple scaly head.

The being hit the ground with a skull-cracking thud. However, before it could scurry off, I held it by the collar, faced its terrified yellow serpentine eyes, and threatened, "You dare make a scene, you die."

"P-please d-don't hurt me," it begged with its hands clasped together, "I h-have a f-family."

Any other day, that plea would have softened me up and I would have left him unconscious. However, now was different; I didn't care. That part of me – my human side – had died hours ago.

So, I lied, "I'll let you go after you give me some information."

Teary-eyed, the creature complied and spilled everything. I was informed of every nitty detail, from passwords and security to the main control room's location and the bosses' headquarters.

Once sure that I had everything I needed, I punctured him in the heart a few times, then left him spasming for his last bloodied breath. It had hardly been an hour, and I had already seen five dead bodies.

The Devil Prince was right. Death here in the Underworld was inevitable. On top of it, I was a murderer.

Grabbing a bandage and some gauze from a nearby cupboard, I wrapped my wound up and took a shot of morphine. I found a pair of clean blue scrubs in the corner, and, using the sink, washed myself up and bound back my thick curly hair into a bun.

Looking at my reflection, you would see an eager young woman trying to survive. However, all I saw then was a monster.

Swiping an access card from one of the dead doctors, I wondered how worried my family was and whether they would be proud of me right then or see me for the real demon I had become. Swelled up with mixed emotions but blinded by tears of guilt, I shook my head and blocked any more thoughts before putting the code in and walking out to face my next challenge.

Whatever I was. I'd finally decide when I made it back home, and right now, I needed to bust out Devil Boy.

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