Red

Alice stared in horror at the practically-empty room she was in, her ears filled by the rustle of disturbed undergrowth and trampled leaves that was coming from outside, rapidly approaching the ruined building she had just managed to reach.

Fuck! She exclaimed in her head as she frantically scanned her surroundings, uselessly searching for an escape route or a spot where she could hide between the few small piles of rubble and the blanket of moss that had engulfed every surface of the structure.

Why is every house so fricking empty in this godforsaken place? She shouted in her mind, her heart hammering in her chest as she rushed towards the steep staircase she had descended minutes before, her chitin shoes thankfully silent on the soft green carpet that had grown over her steps.

She almost slipped a couple of times but always managed to find her balance at the last moment, finally reaching the upper floor just as whatever was making the noise stopped in front of the entrance, a surreal silence returning to the place, broken only by her ragged breathing.

Despite the pain it caused, the young woman forced herself to slow the mad pumping of her chest while she searched for the best way to proceed, analyzing the options laid in front of her and, at the same time, straining her ears to catch the details of what was happening below.

To her relief, the upper floor was much more suitable for her needs than the lower one.

First of all, the large, single room she was in had been thoroughly invaded by the twisting tendrils of the wisteria, a leafy cascade that, from the main branch resting on the roof of the building, had crawled its way inside through the partially collapsed ceiling.

The ever-growing plant had soon colonized the space, submerging both floor and walls before exiting out of the two only windows of the room, ready to extend even further.

A deep hooting sound echoed in the room below, instantly answered by another, higher-pitched reply that had clearly come from a second creature, soon followed by muffled steps and the faint noise of ripped moss.

Two of them. Definitely the monkeys.

Not knowing exactly what would be expecting her outside, Alice elected to hide, picking the most obscured side of the room and slipping behind one of the thick vegetal curtains that covered the walls, her right hand already gripping the unsheathed knife while she repeatedly swore at herself for placing the mace in the rucksack on her back.

If they found her, she would have to fight without her main weapon.

A few long seconds had passed and the sounds below didn’t seem to be stopping; Alice was just starting to wonder whether she would be able to take the mace out when a strange popping sound in the room caught her attention.

A thin sheen of sweat covered her back as she slowly turned her head in the direction of the noise, one of her hands moving away a few leaves and creating a tiny peephole that allowed her to see the ten long fingers that had suddenly gripped on the edge of one of the windows.

She stilled, her breath catching in her chest as she observed the monkey nimbly clamber into the room, its strangely rounded fingertips remaining stuck against the stone until the creature placed its feet on solid ground, only then detaching with the same, barely-audible pop.

Now that it was close, she realized that the animal’s head barely reached over her bellybutton; with very long and muscular limbs and short dark fur, it resembled some kind of particularly sturdy and ugly gibbon.

From her hidden position, the girl silently observed the large eyes of the creature as they scanned the room, thankfully moving past her position without noticing her; its large blue lips slightly open and producing a soft hooting call as it started pacing through the room, sniffing the air every now and then but not looking particularly alert as it did so.

Three… possibly more. I know I can kill at least one in a fight, most likely all of them. The problem is, what if they escape? How many are there? Will more come to investigate if these ones don’t come back. I don’t know enough. I can’t be discovered.

Her eyes remained glued to the animal as Alice focused on her own body, feeling the way it consumed the oxygen in her lungs to produce the energy it required.

I won’t be able to breathe until that thing is gone. Not if it has the same sense of hearing of the first one, she told herself, her mind replaying the scene of two nights before, when she had tried to creep behind the unaware creature as it was feasting and had instead been noticed almost immediately.

With that thought in mind, she started reducing the energy requirements of her body, forcefully slowing her heartrate and restricting the blood flow of the many external capillaries of her body to move her life fluids to the inner parts of her body.

Now I just need a distraction to make it go away.

As her temperature started dropping and her energy requirements were lowered, Alice started moving the layer of Lumen hidden beneath her dress along the length of her leg, keeping each glimmer in its non-luminescent condition as they slowly oozed into the fuzzy moss and congealed into a small and amorphous blob.

A much louder hoot echoed from the bottom of the stairs, breaking her concentration for a second and causing a handful of Lumen to detach from her leg too early, dropping on the ground with an almost inaudible splash.

It heard it anyway.

Her heartrate sped up once again when she saw the ears of the monkey twitch in response to the noise, its dull eyes sharpening as it started looking around with more attention, trying to find the source of the unexpected noise in the cluttered space.

The animal continued ignoring the increasingly loud calls of its kin below as it inspected the darker corners of the room, using its hands to rip away the branches that stood in its way and carefully sniffing every mound of moss.

Alice knew that it was only a matter of time before she was found.

As time passed and the creature slowly made its way towards her hideout, Alice felt her chest growing more and more painful as the pressure of her faltering lungs started pushing against her ribcage, her body frantically rebelling against the brain that was attempting to kill it.

The glimmers, in the meanwhile, continued moving through the moss, unseen by the enemy now less than a meter away from her, still too far away from what she would need them to do.

Dammit. Why can’t they be faster!

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl for Alice, each second longer than the previous one until, after what felt like ages, the creature finally stood in front of her hiding place, one hand reaching for the curtain of leaves hiding her, the suction cups on its large fingertips less than five centimeters away from her nose.

Knowing she was seconds away from being discovered, Alice finally let herself open her mouth, taking a lungful of fresh air that disturbed the leaves in front of her face just as the monkey was grasping them, exposing her for a brief second before concealing her once again.

It was enough.

The creature’s eyes widened and it immediately started opening its mouth to signal its discovery to the rest of its group while Alice’s arm, weakened by the lack of oxygen, reacted too slowly to stop it.

Knowing she wouldn’t be able to silence it in time, she immediately cut away the vast majority of the power going towards the Lumen, stopping them just as they were starting to move up the wall and towards the window a few centimeters away.

Instead, her body started immediately warming up, her hand changing the way it was gripping the knife and moving to stab it in the chest of the monster while an urgent request of adrenaline coursed through her system towards her kidneys, she knew she would need the substance in the fight to come.

In that moment, just as everything was being set into motion, a fist suddenly impacted with the face of the blue-lipped monkey, sending it stunned on the ground, its limbs flailing around as it tried to understand what had happened.

Alice’s eyes widened when she saw a larger monkey move past her hidden form and launch itself onto the downed one, its plump, blood red lips retracted and showing a collection of surprisingly sharp teeth as it loudly screeched at the one on the ground, completely unaware of her presence behind its back.

Oxygenated blood moved once again through her body as she used the enraged cries of the bigger monkey to hide the sounds of her breathing.

Her focus sharpening as a result, she was able to notice every detail of what was happening in front of her.

The new arrival reached as high as her neck and seemed to be quite a lot more muscular than the blue-lipped specimen that was still flailing at its feet. On top of that, Alice couldn’t help staring for a second at the very noticeable sexual organs that were dangling from between its legs, their bright red color a literal eyesore for the horrified girl who, in her effort of looking away from the spot, finally noticed the third monkey that was staring at the other two from the top of the stairs, its ugly face twisted in a strange expression of eagerness and fear as it watched the confrontation, its blue lips twisted in a feral grin.

She soon understood why.

The downed monkey, which she now assumed to be a female or a younger male, started to right itself, crawling away from the one towering over it as its eyes moved from one threat to the other, the side of the face that had been struck already swollen under the fur.

Seemingly reaching a decision, it raised one hand and pointed it past the attacker and straight at her, hooting in warning at the same time.

The leader, however, didn’t seem to like being ignored and immediately punched the hand away, causing the smaller one to reply in kind with a slap that loudly impacted the bigger one’s cheek, its teeth showing for a second before it probably realized of its mistake.

The smaller monkey immediately attempted to show its subservience to the other, its eyes towards the ground and a continuous gibbering escaping its mouth.

Despite the last-second attempt to make up, however, the offense seemed to be too great to be simply ignored, the large male’s cries growing more and more crazed until they reached an apex, echoing everywhere in the space as the monkey started violently pummeling its weaker opponent on the ground.

The room was soon a cacophony of screams and bellows, the attacked monkey starting to fight back with limbs and teeth alike while the smaller observer slowly approached the two fighters, its eager eyes glued on the ball of flailing limbs that was rolling between the wisteria leaves, leaving splatters of blood in its wake as the two creatures tried to overwhelm each other.

Thanking her luck, Alice moved her attention back to the ball of Lumen under her control, using the chaos of the fight as a distraction for the glimmers as they slowly climbed the vertical surface of the wall, using leaves and twigs as support.

It would probably take a while but the window was in sight.

The smaller monkey, in the meanwhile, had somehow managed to land a good blow that temporarily stunned the attacker, allowing it to place itself on top of its chest and use the new position to rain fist after fist on its head while the other dazedly tried to protect itself.

With a scream, the panting creature stopped pummeling the face of the opponent and suddenly gripped its neck, the long fingers wrapping around the muscular throat of the male and starting to compress it.

The bloodied blue lips on the animal’s face twisted in a vicious grin as the other’s eyes started bulging outwards, its mouth opening and letting out a pointed, bright red tongue as it gasped for air.

Just as the outcome of the fight seemed to be certain, the leader suddenly grunted and, with lightning speed, gripped one of the wrists of its opponent, its much thicker hands closing around the weak joint and violently twisting it to the side with a noise of broken bones.

Before the shocked ‘Blue Lips’ could even realize what had happened, the coughing male rolled around and completely turned the tables of the fight, landing on its chest and preventing it from escaping.

It was now the larger male’s turn to grin as it changed its grip on the broken arm, a feral rictus exposing its fangs as its arms bulged with muscles and it stated bending the arm in the wrong direction, watching straight into the terrified eyes of the opponent as it screamed.

Seemingly knowing what was going to happen, Blue Lips movements turned frantic as it tried to free itself, the fingers of its other hand ineffectually trying to loosen the grip of the enemy on its arm until, with a scream of triumph, Red Lips finally bent the arm against the normal direction of the elbow, the bloodcurdling noise of broken ligaments and bones mixing with the pained screams of the loser who, in its pained throes, somehow managed to shove two of its long fingers straight into one of the eye socket of the winner, ruthlessly pulping the right eye of the monkey into a bloody mush as a final revenge.

As the two creatures rolled on the ground screaming their pain, Alice had to force herself not to puke, using her Biomancy to prevent her diaphragm from twisting and the mouth of her stomach from opening.

Instead, as tears blurred her eyes, she continued controlling the Lumen until the blob reached the small ledge of the window, ultimately stopping there.

Everything was finally in place, now she would only have to wait it out.

In the meanwhile, the bigger monkey had managed to get up on its feet, one of its hand covering the bloody hole that had once been its eye, a slow trickle of blood and vitreous humor moving through its fingers and getting lost in its brown fur as it stumbled towards the hated opponent.

The blue-lipped primate seemed to be barely conscious as the larger males straddled over its chest, using its legs to prevent its arms from moving.

As soon as Blue Lips was completely restrained, it placed two fingers on each eye and started pushing against the delicate organs, the loser starting to scream as its eyeballs were turned into a pulp.

Only then was it finally over.

The offending monkey laid on the ground, barely moving as a trickle of ichor spewed out of its gored eye sockets while the winner got up on its feet, barking an order to the third monkey who immediately rushed to carry the barely alive loser out of the room.

Despite the nausea filling her mind, Alice didn’t miss the way it immediately grasped the broken arm instead of another limb, the small grin on its face growing larger when it heard the dying monkey’s scream.

The two soon disappeared down the stairs but the girl kept hearing the cries of the creature as they moved away.

Alone in the room with the large male, she stared as its madly pumping chest as the creature scanned the area with its one good eye, soon stopping where the first monkey had once stood, staring straight at her hidden form.

Just as it was taking a step in her direction, however, Alice pushed a good chunk of her magic through the thin tendril of Lumen that connected her to the ones on the window, causing them to suddenly flare up and illuminate the dark room.

The monkey immediately turned, a scream of rage escaping its mouth when it saw the shining glob of light on the edge of the window, just a second before Alice forced it out of the opening, making it slide down the wall and on the street below while maintaining it connected with the usual line of particles, watching her enemy instantly move to follow it.

The second the large male had launched itself out of the window, she slid out of her hiding spot and rushed towards the opening, peeking with a single eye in order to better control the small glob of light that was acting as a diversion.

For the next three minutes, Alice watched the monkey rage against the unliving glimmers, trying to pummel the substance with its fist, grasp it with its hand or even stomp on it while the particles continuously slipped from its hands, turned invisible for just a few seconds and melded with the moss and leaves only to return a few meters away, still connected to the thin line of ooze that she had extended for a few meters.

In the end, she let the particles fade after a particularly mad pummeling, watching the male scream in triumph and then quickly rush towards the large, ruined house at the end of the street, where she was sure they had their lair.

“Damn, thank god the big one had a terrible temper.” She muttered when the creature finally disappeared, her mind trying to shy away from the vicious fight she had been forced to witness as she quickly removed her mace from the rucksack.

“Those things are dangerous but I’m larger and better armored.” She told herself as she sat on the ground, waiting for the darkness that would soon envelop the city below the crystal dome.

“And I now know that they really don’t care about each other. So I can use it to my advantage.”

She would move in a couple of hours, in the meanwhile, she would rest.

Alice silently crawled towards the caved-in roof of her target, her body and weapons were covered by a layer of mud, moss and dead leaves that she hoped would help her blend in with the surroundings.

Night had already enveloped everything with a coat of darkness, the only light that of the stars and of a very thin crescent moon in the sky. It was enough for her enhanced eyes, able to catch the tiniest detail in the shadows.

She had taken her time during the last part of the journey, making sure nothing would be spotting her as she crossed the few streets of distance from the large and ruined house.

Once near the building, the girl had immediately spotted the steep stairway that had been built into the wall beside it, clearly leading to a higher cluster of houses but also connected to what had once been the large roof of the structure, now an open hole that would hopefully allow her to observe the monkeys without being seen.

Alice had silently climbed the tall steps and then proceeded to crawl on a thin walkway that had once been protected by long-gone railings, making sure not to disturb the dead leaves that covered its surface as she reached the crumbling edge of the walls, her ears soon catching the first sounds coming from below.

She peeked.

What the hell.

She had been staring at what was happening below for a good five minutes and she still couldn’t believe her eyes.

Many meters below, on the large mound of rubble that had been formed by the destruction of the roof and the two upper floors of the building, Alice watched the colony of around eighteen creatures as they lounged on the bowl-shaped pile of rocks.

Staring at the soft light that came from the center of the bowl.

I guess I know why the houses are empty.

The lair of the creatures was littered with a variety of objects that would have made the day of any archeologist or second-hand dealer and everything was perfectly outlined by a small ellipsoidal object casting a low but warm light in a wide sphere around itself.

The object, however, had soon become the least of her worries, her eyes glued to the monkey that was lazily lounging beside it, attended to by at least five smaller, blue-lipped specimens.

The creature was probably as tall as she was, or maybe a bit less, but what it lacked in height, it made back in bulk, its long arms covered in rippling muscles that twitched every time it moved, each limb probably twice as wide as hers.

The face of the creature had somehow lost its dark fur and grown much wider than that of the others while, at the same time, assuming the same red color of its lips.

Not to let itself be overshadowed by the three smaller males of the group; the animal also sported a very red butt that went quite well with its similarly colored genitals.

The obvious leader of the colony was laying on something that resembled a very long chaise longue made of an unknown, cream colored material that had been thoroughly coated by a layer of grime, blood and other remains.

On top of that, on the ground surrounding its throne laid a small smattering of shining objects that the monkey sometimes grasped with one hand or foot, bringing it to its eyes for a few minutes before placing it back down, completely ignoring the obviously envious looks of the other creatures.

Aside from the leader, Alice also spotted the injured male of before, now sulking on the far edge of the lair with its swollen face staring at the carcass of the monkey it had killed, now laying at the leader’s feet along with a small heap of other morsels, slowly being quartered by the blue-lipped ones and fed it to him piece by piece.

Cannibalism, yeah, why not. It was the only thing missing. She thought, also spotting the third monkey between the ones feeding the alpha, bringing meat or other snacks to their overlord while carefully stepping in the gaps between its shiny belongings.

As time went on, Alice noticed that the other members of the group didn’t seem to be eating, instead silently staring at the shrinking mound of food that was being consumed by the alpha, their eyes filled with longing and undisguised envy.

One of the other two males even tried to approach the pile, only to be sent running to its spot by a withering look of the leader.

Only after it finished feasting were the other males allowed to join in, quickly stuffing their large mouths with as much food as possible and posturing at each other as they did so.

By the time they too had finished, the rest of the nest launched itself on the remains, biting and fighting each other for the scraps while the males screamed and slammed their hands together to incite them.

Only the five ‘servers’ didn’t join, instead allowed to feast on another, different pile of scraps that the alpha had apparently left for them.

After dinner, however, came the games and Alice was forced to stand witness at the sadism of those beings.

At one point, the leader produced a loud hoot that silenced the rest of the group, beating one hand against the other and twisting its red lips into a savage grin before pointing at a couple of those strange metal containers she had seen while exploring the buildings.

Instead of water and clams, however, these ones had been filled with a number of smaller creatures that the monkeys had captured and left alive.

She saw a few yellow birds, some of the colorful ferrets and even a handful of thin and long green snakes that attempted to slither away the second they found themselves outside of their enclosure.

One after the other, the monkeys started playing with their captives in front of the alpha who, for its part, observed with glee as its subjects eagerly tortured the little creatures, shouting and launching small rewards whenever it particularly enjoyed a performance.

Alice felt sick.

After watching another bird get its wings ripped off and a snake twirled around like a sling, a cold rage started bubbling in her stomach and she started sending a large amount of Lumen towards the monkeys, a small trickle of transparent fluid that was completely ignored by the distracted creatures.

From her elevated position, Alice slowly moved the flow of the glimmers until they had reached the circle of shining objects surrounding the leader, carefully directing a glob of the substance to engulf a handful of the items and slowly moving them towards the male that had tried to feed before its time, now busy screaming at the latest ‘performer’, busy smashing a ferret with a rock.

She left them beside it and then retreated after moving them just enough to produce the tiniest of sounds of metal against metal, her glimmers disappearing between the rocks without a trace of their passage.

It was a vicious grin that appeared on Alice’s lips when the monkey heard the sound and noticed the shine, its eyes widening as it carefully extended a hand towards its treasure, looking around and making sure none noticed.

The second it had reached the first and started playing with it, the girl made sure to use another tendril of Lumen to loudly jingle the remaining objects that still remained around the alpha who, for its part, immediately looked for the source of the noise, its face already twisted into an expression of annoyance.

It didn’t take it long to notice the missing shinies and, after looking around, to spot the smaller male playing with them just a few meters away.

As the enraged male rose from its seat of power, Alice’s grin was already as wide as it could get.

This is just the entrée you bastards, she told them in her mind as, below her, the chaos finally began.

*****

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