As I descended into the abyssal maze that was this cave, I moved slowly, carefully and with purpose. Every step I took, I moved my foot forward slowly and delicately, in case of a tripwire. My hands were held out in front of me to feel the way forward. My eyes quickly adjusted to the dark enough to see the walls of the cave and the general shape of things, but not enough to see smaller details, like my feet or any traps that could be lying in wait.
I thought about picking up a rock to throw at the first human shape I saw moving, but I remembered that Nigel was probably around here as well, and I didn't want to attack him by mistake. No, I would have to get close to Goran before I could kill him. Though if we were a marked child like me, fighting him directly might prove dangerous.
As I descended deeper into the earth, I started to smell something that smelled like cooked meat I had smelled earlier. My stomach growled loudly. I didn't know how long I was unconscious before waking in that cell. I don't know how much energy was used to keep me alive and to heal my wounds, but it was enough that now I felt physical pain from the hunger in my gut and that made the meat smell even better.
I followed my nose towards the smell, and that led me towards a faint, distant, flickering light that grew brighter the closer I got. As I rounded the corner into a large chamber, I came upon where the smell was coming from.
In the middle of the room, there was a fire that was so bright it was the only thing I could see for a few seconds while my eyes adjusted to the light. Suspended above that fire on a stick were severed human limbs, arms and legs that were pierced through with the head of a spear to suspend them above the flame to cook. The flesh was browning and boiling, some parts melting from the muscle underneath that took on a deep brown colour like cooked meat.
I looked around the room, and in a corner, I spotted a small pile of additional body parts, a red wet mass of organs rotting in the corner, covered in bloated flies, with a strange green liquid pooled around its base.
My stomach churned at the sight, and with a gag, I covered my mouth to try to hold back vomit. No, just from the gruesome sight alone, but from the fact that, for a split moment, I was compelled to eat some.
The large open room branched off in several different directions. Each tunnel was dark and foul-smelling as the other, with no indication of where each path might lead. As I was standing there, debating on which path to take, there was suddenly a loud bang, like a cannon being fired, echoing from one of the paths, quickly followed by groans of suffering. I recognised the voice, it was Nigel.
Without hesitation, I ran down the tunnel where the sound had come. What was that sound? An Explosion? Did Nigel just walk into a trap, and he's bleeding out somewhere? I ran as hard as I could, but suddenly I found myself falling forward; my foot had gotten caught on something. I put my hands out in front of me to catch my fall, but my left hand landed directly on a small knife protruding from the floor, piercing my hand, causing me to yelp in pain for a moment before managing to shut my mouth, but it was too late now. The echo of my voice carries through the cave; no, he knew I was free. Looking down, I saw a thin white wire by my ankle, a clear booby trap. Even his own cave, where he lived, was full of deadly traps.
I managed to stand up and resumed walking down the hall at a slower and more deliberate pace. At worst, I could trigger a trap that could take my head off or puncture my heart somehow. Injuries I'm sure even I couldn't recover from. There was also the fact that he running itself was loud and Goran would know exactly where I was.
As I crept through the tunnel, it split into two different paths. Down one, I could see the faint flicker down the end of a long path, while the other was pitch black. As I crept closer to the light, I noticed another smell, one that was distinctly different from the smell of the cooking human flesh. It was pungent and rotten, and unlike anything I had smelled before. The closest thing I could think of was rotten eggs mixed with something foul.
I rounded the corner and saw a wooden door with various slits as a result of its poor construction, where the flickering lights were creeping through. As I got closer, I peered through a crack in the door to check that what was on the other side wasn't a threat.
I only looked for a split second before pulling away from the door in disgust. It was a pile of bodies without limbs, some with holes in their stomachs and entrails scattered, all without clothes, all female. Some were scattered across the floor, others draped over a makeshift bed. Some with mutilated and mangled faces with flesh peeled back, all of them, defiled.
Instantly, I realised what the smell was and hunched forward, clutching at my mouth as what little there was in my stomach boiled to the surface. My throat burned as I collapsed to my knees, emptying the contents of my stomach as only a clear liquid came out. I stumbled to my feet and walked back down the path I had come. This was not the right way to go; I shouldn't have come this way. This was a mistake.
As I made my way back to the fork in the cave, I stopped, squatting down and gripping my head. What if that was the way to go? What if Nigel was beyond that room? Could I even bring myself to open that door? Even just the thought of it made me sick, the quick glimpse flashed in my brain every time I blinked of the bodies in that room. It burned into my mind like a curse that wouldn't let me unsee it. The blood, the bodies, the entrails, the semen. The thought alone made me want to vomit all over again.
I slowly stood again, leaning against the wall as I breathed heavily. Slowly stumbling down the other path into the darkness. In the distance, a faint sound echoed, a deep, guttural grunting noise. I paused, debating if I should even round the next corner, concerned with what horror I might see next. In that moment, I couldn't help but think about Kona, what if she hadn't left at Balim, what if she were here, what if she were a victim. I feel a burning in my chest as the muscles in my face and arms begin to twitch with a rage I hadn't felt before. No matter what was happening around that corner where that grunting was coming from, the moment I saw Goran, I would rip him in two.
Turning the corner, I saw Goran standing over Nigel. Both of them were covered in blood, and Nigel's eyes were closed. Goran looked at me and quickly held a dagger out, gripping it by two fingers as it dangled over Nigel's head, as he locked eyes with me with a large grin on his face.
I froze; the blade was sharp. I knew that first hand, if he dropped it without force, it would hurt him, but would it kill him? Is that a risk I can afford to take right now? If the blade landed on his eye, that might kill him or perhaps partially blind him. Something I wanted to avoid at all costs, but the moment I saw an opening, I was going to take it.
Goran lifted his other hand and pointed towards me, then flicked his wrist to point down. Slowly and deliberately, I sat, not removing my eyes from him for a moment. As I sat, he squatted down next to Nigel, keeping the dagger held loosely above his head at the same height. His eyes darted down to Nigel's unconscious body and then back to me as he licked his lips.
With his free hand, Goran started to trail his hand up Nigel's body from knee to chest, scratching at him through his clothes with his long and unkempt nails as he continued to stare at me, only looking away for glances.
Every time he glanced down at Nigel as he continued his perverse groping of his body, I slowly slipped my hand behind my back, and once it was out of view, I reached around, eventually grabbing a rock.
I looked back up as Goran shifted the knife slightly in his hand. He gripped it tighter and lowered it just enough that if I struck him, the knife could fall into Nigel. He looked at me once more and licked his lips again.
"Friend?"
He croaked out as he smiled at me. "Friend", he said again with more confidence. This whole time, was he looking for my reaction? Is he that intelligent? With a loud grunt, Goran suddenly lifted the knife high up and leaned forward to thrust it down into Nigel's face. With a twist of my body, I pulled my hand around that held the rock and pelted it at Goran with all my strength.
The rock struck Goran in the head, and a thunderous crack rang out as blood gushed and his body fell backward. He had released the knife, and it fell. I could only watch, reaching the knife at this distance was impossible, I didn't have another rock to try to throw at the knife, I could only watch as it pierced Nigel's skull.
Nigel suddenly shot up, screaming loudly as he clutched at his face with both hands. I got up and rushed towards him as his upper body flailed around in pain. He grabbed the handle of the knife that was protruding from his face and pulled it harshly as he let out an ear-piercing scream before falling silent and collapsing back to the floor.
I knelt beside him; he was still breathing but passed out from the pain. The knife had created a deep red hole in his left eye socket. I rolled him onto his side as the blood poured out of the hole and onto the ground. After a few seconds, the flow of blood slowed but did not stop.
I looked around the room, finding it full of discarded clothing, travel bags, and other random materials, no doubt taken from Goran's victims. I scurried over to a pile of clothes and ripped them into strips. Returning to Nigel, I wrapped his head with whatever fabric I happened to grab to cover the wound and hopefully put pressure on it.
I groan belched out from Goran as his body shifted and sat upright. His left eye was missing, half his face torn off from the impact of the rock, his jaw hanging half torn off. He looked at me and smiled.
As I approached him, he just looked at me and laughed. He clapped his hands together loudly over and over again. As I stood over him, he reached his hands out towards me as far as he could, as he continued to clap and laugh. I grabbed both of his wrists in each hand, placed my foot on his chest and pulled. I didn't pull with all my might, no, I held back. I let him feel it, the skin stretched, the muscle underneath tearing slowly, the bones popping out, each nerve ending stretching and tearing in two. I let him feel all of it.