Chapter 1: Disposable
"Y-you guys… need to go ahead."
Her words just stopped. Like they were cut out of the air.
Then came this horrible noise, not a normal sound, not like a branch snapping, not like a bone cracking in a movie. This was wet, like someone broke a stick inside a bucket of mud, A wet crack. It echoed, even though there was no one around but us.
She froze, Her eyes got really big, like she just saw something impossible, and then I saw it too.a single, thin, dark line sliding down from the corner of her mouth.
It was blood.
Not a gush, not a spray, Just a slow, heavy drop that rolled over her lip like it was scared to fall. Her lips trembled. Her head tilted just a little, almost like she was trying to understand what had happened to her own body.
That's when she saw it.
The monster.
It was standing right in front of her.
Four meters tall, That's taller than any man, taller than any door, taller than anything that should be walking this close to people. Its body wasn't smooth or shaped like an animal. No. It looked wrong, like someone took a human shape and forced metal and bone to grow out of it until it wasn't human anymore.
Spikes jutted out everywhere shoulders, elbows, knees, even its back, They weren't straight spikes either, They were crooked, twisted like swords that had been left in the fire too long. Some of them still had wet, sticky bits clinging to them, Flesh and Hair.
And one of those spikes one was sticking right through her stomach.
It wasn't just stuck there, It was alive, I swear I saw it pulse, like it was breathing, I could feel the low hum in the air, almost like a deep growl, except it was coming from the spike itself.
The rest of the thing stood still almost like it was enjoying the moment.
Its chest rose and fell slowly, each breath loud in the silence too slow for panic, too calm for an animal. This thing wasn't just killing it was watching, studying.
Its head was the worst part.
It wore a mask, but not like something made by humans. It was made of bone and metal fused together, jagged and sharp, like someone had built a face to scare you before they killed you. Its mouth was stretched into this awful, permanent grin full of teeth that weren't really teeth. They overlapped each other like gears in a grinder, ready to chew anything down to dust.
And in the middle of its forehead, set inside the mask like it had been born there, was a single, glowing eye. It wasn't just red it was molten like lava trapped behind glass.
It blinked once, Slowly, Mocking her.
Behind her, I heard the others. My so called friends. They screamed her name, but it was far away, like my ears were stuffed with cotton. She didn't even look back.
Time slowed down. Way down.
The pain hadn't even hit her yet. I could tell. Sometimes your body doesn't let it in at first. All she had in her eyes was… confusion and something else not fear, not yet. But betrayal.
No. It wasn't full betrayal. It was like she was searching for something trying to figure out why this was happening, why this thing felt… familiar.
Because it did. Even I could sense it. Beneath all the armor, beneath the spikes, somewhere deep inside this thing was something that wasn't supposed to be the enemy, a spark of something human, Or maybe something that used to be human.
She never got to figure it out.
The creature twisted the spike inside her. Not pulled out. Not pushed deeper. Twisted. Like it was unscrewing her from the world.
Her knees buckled, ber arms hung loose. Her eyes rolled.
And then black.
…
I remember my hands, That's the first thing. My hands gripping the spike in my stomach. It was jagged, not smooth, and the edges cut my fingers as soon as I touched it, My blood made my grip slippery, but I didn't let go.
I couldn't.
My ears were ringing so loud I thought my head was going to split open. Every beat of my heart was like a hammer inside my skull, and each one was slower than the last.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump…
I could hear it. My heartbeat.
Loud.
Slowing.
Then
Weightless.
Something yanked me up, Fast. My feet left the ground, my body limp, I could feel the blood leaving me, dripping in long streams through the air, painting a red ribbon below me.
I looked down. The monster still had me. Still holding me like I was nothing. It let out this deep growl not from its throat, but from somewhere deeper, somewhere that rattled in my bones.
I didn't even get time to think about fighting back.
It opened its mouth.
Not like an animal, not quick, not snappy. It opened it slow, like it wanted me to see every single layer of those grinding teeth.
And then
I was eaten.
No fight.
No scream.
No second chance.
One moment I was looking at the others, the next I was inside that darkness, and my world was teeth and blood.
The very last thing I saw before it shut its jaws was them my group. The ones I had traveled with, The ones I had fought beside.
Running.
They didn't even turn their heads.
No hesitation.
No guilt.
Nothing.
Just gone.
I knew they couldn't have beaten it. I'm not stupid. I knew that even if they tried, they would have been shredded in seconds. But that wasn't the point.
They didn't even try.
They didn't even look.
And that… that hurt more than the spike in my stomach.
That's when I realized the truth.
I wasn't their friend.
I wasn't their comrade.
I wasn't even a person to them.
I was a tool.
A distraction.
A sacrifice.
And now I was gone, being crushed in that monster's hollow, grinding jaws.
The pain was bad, yeah. My body was screaming in every way it could, but that wasn't what broke me.
What broke me was the thought, no the realization that they never meant for me to survive in the first place.
They brought me here to die.
And I had played my part perfectly.