2

                                         

Chapter 2

His built was quite similar, though slightly bigger than the guard who was keeping an eye on us. His face was rough and sharp with a sleek jaw. He had a high slim nose and I could see the glow from his eyes before he even stood in front of us properly.

“Sick contacts dude.” Torin whispered. He was right, they weren’t any ordinary contact lenses, these ones seemed to glow a yellowish golden color. I wasn’t prescribed glasses so I never really considered contacts but even I have to admit that the glow looked pretty cool. At the same time though, it made his face look inhuman and strange. Similar to when a cosplayer wears snake skin and snake contact lenses.

“Dude?” He questioned, looking almost offended.

“Refer to him as Alpha or I will crush your skull faster than you can apologize.” The man beside him glared.

Is that his name or is this one of those Alpha male / Sigma male concepts? I didn’t expect these older looking adults to follow teenage ideology from twitter but, to each their own I guess. As long as it kept us safe and gave us an opportunity to slip past them, it didn’t matter what they made us say.

Why aren’t you saying anything, Torin?

“He apologizes, Alpha.” I say in his stead. It seemed like Torin was frozen in his spot, unable to move. He stared at the Alpha in discomfort. Unable to steady his legs, he kneeled down harshly, scraping his knees against a few pebbles on the ground.

“Man what’s wrong.” I put my hand on his shoulder, trying to get a good look. Did he have a concussion when we landed in this place? Or perhaps earlier in the pool?

If it was a concussion with delayed effects, it would be alright eventually but I could only hope that he didn’t suffer any internal damage. I wonder if I asked for a doctor, they would heed to my request. No, I wonder if there is even a doctor in this place. Looking at the injuries of all these people, it looks like they never treat themselves. I don’t even see a bandage or a wrap on the guard’s many wounds. It just seemed like they had clotted and stopped bleeding on their own.

This ‘Alpha’ on the other hand, didn’t seem to have any recent gashes, though he had numerous scars.

“Hands off.” He looked at my hand on Torin’s shoulder. Not wanting to create a fuss, I followed what he said.

“Report.” Alpha stated.

As I suspected, he was definitely the authority here. The way he spoke, no, more like commanded. He definitely didn’t seem like the understanding or reasonable type. I look at Torin from the corner of my eye, he is still seated on the ground in a daze.

“That girl over there is from the Black Lake pack, we found her lurking around here in the morning. These 2 boys were the cause of the dimensional alarm that rang just a while ago.” The guard told him.

Alpha pursed his full lips, bringing his hand across his mouth as he dug his finger into his cheek. After a moment of pondering, he brought his hand back down, his solemn expression replaced by a huge grin. I didn’t like it at all.

I don’t recall ever being uncomfortable by someone smiling. This man, however, reeked of sadism, his smile reached beyond his gums and cheeks. It was almost as if his mouth was wide enough to smile up to his eye. I resist the urge to visibly cringe or look away, It’s probably best not to make any sudden or offensive movements.

“Do you have any idea about  what you’ve done?” Alpha walked closer until his face was a few millimeters away from the metal bars, he bent down to look at Torin.

“Careful, Alpha.” His grin widened at the warning from the guard and he wrapped his hand around one of the bars, resulting in a sizzling sound and burning smell. The inside of his palm gave off some steam and I could see the burns forming already. Was I right about the green thing being acid? But if the acid was this strong, wouldn’t the metal have been melted away?

Strange.

I shook my head, keeping my gaze to the ground. Come on, Torin, snap out of it. We need to get out of here. Of all the things I’ve observed till now, if I want to take any of them seriously it should be this. They’re insane. There is something wrong with these people and one could tell immediately by just one look at this leader of theirs.

“You’ve just made things a lot more interesting.” His grin returned to a normal smile, making his mouth appear narrower, which I was thankful for. He withdrew his hand from the bar and what I saw next was so disturbing that, had I not been through some serious trauma already, I’d probably call it the most horrifying thing I have seen in my entire life. His hand was burned down not only to the muscle, but to the bone. The tendons were seared and stuck together and the bones were white and slightly covered with burned skin and fascia.

The guard standing beside him noticeably started sweating.

“Alpha, it’s not interesting. They have upset the dimensional balance, who knows what chaos will befall us from here”

“Like I said, interesting.” He placed a hand on the side of his head, pushing it to the side with a crack. He repeated it on the other side.

“Perhaps…” The guard began to say. He was hesitant, even nervous. His reluctance grew with the raised eyebrow he received as a response from Alpha. “Just for a day or two.. maybe we should let .. Hade .. handle the situation.”

“You’re saying I’m incapable of handling the situation myself?” He pouts mockingly with a sharp look. On a surface level, one might see it as a taunt or a joke but his eyes told differently. It was almost as if the glow intensified and became unstable.

“Not at all.” He maintained his composure.

“You’ll say nothing of the sort ever again.”

“I won’t.”

“Of course you won’t.” He smiled, swiftly moving behind him. His arm draped across the front of the guard’s waist and held on tightly. If I wasn’t mistaken, it was tight enough for me to hear cracks, as if it fractured a rib. He rested his arm on the guard’s shoulder, grabbing his jaw with his hand.

At first I thought he was trying to sprain his neck or something of the sort, but what I saw next made me think I wasn’t in my right mind. I must have still been drunk from before. I was hallucinating.

His fingernails.. They were changing. They shed off, leaving a trail of blood and some space from which claw like things grew. It was like a dog’s except bigger and sharper. Sharp enough to slice open your throat. Perhaps I made some sort of premonition, because that’s exactly what he did.

He plunged one of his ‘claws’ into the guard’s neck, all the while holding him tightly, making sure he doesn’t move. Surprisingly, he did not even attempt to run away. My hallucination took things a bit too far when Alpha probed around the inside of his throat, cutting and pushing aside the throat muscles and not caring if he nicked a few arteries and veins, he finally reached the larynx. I looked away, not wanting to watch whatever his sick goal was.

Sweat covered my body, my shirt was completely soaked. All I needed to do was wake up from whatever trip I was having, I wonder if I took some top tier shrooms to get like this. I tried to ignore the grunts and painful groans of the guard as best as I could. I think he passed out at some point.

“Think fast.” Alpha suddenly says, to which I look up. He threw something at me and out of force of habit I catch it as it slips between the metal bars towards me. My hands are instantly warmed despite of the cold environment. I open my hands to look and instantly feel sick.

Folds of membranous tissue from his throat which I can only assume are his vocal cords and not some muscle.

“Just in case you get hungry.” He winks and leaves with that eerie grin of his.

‘Seriously, how is that guy not dead yet.’

I see him writhing on the floor, grasping at his throat. He rips his shirt off and places it against his neck. I still don’t understand how he is still conscious. At some point, my brain shuts off, the nausea taking over. I close my eyes and sit down, waiting for Torin to recover from whatever daze he was in.

“Jess?” It seems like he finally snapped out of it.

“Yeah.” I mumble in a muffled manner, trying to keep my insides from hurling. I had thrown what he gave me as soon as he left and even scrubbing my hands against my jeans for the past 10 minutes wasn’t enough to get rid of how disgusting it felt in my hands.

“Are we high?”

“I’m starting to think this is real.”