The scent of the sea air was steadily growing stronger, enough that everyone could smell it. When the sound of crashing waves reached our ears our spirits were lifted, and at last, there seemed to be an end to this horror.

However, we knew all too well that leaving couldn’t be this easy. We descended yet another series of stairs, followed the winding path, and at the end of the hall… a door. Light peeked through the crevices of the dilapidated hunk of wood, casting shadows on our side of the wall. Shadows of a person—two long legs—shifted and moved, painting stripes of darkness over our group.

With apprehension in my step and my heart—and my brain, my legs, my everything—begging me to turn tail and run, I looked back to the group behind me. They seemed to be having their own silent apprehensions as well.

Ravyn wore a complex expression. There was confidence, but there seemed to be something else too—maybe understanding. Cannoli fidgeted with her fingers, though Keke was brimming with determination. Tristan wouldn’t stop blinking. He was muttering something to himself, but for the life of me I couldn’t tell what.

Ara came to my side with her lips drawn into a thin line and, without looking at me, said in a whisper, “If it comes down to it, I will give my life to save the young Master.” Then she turned to me, her eyes burning with a fiery passion. “I will not let whatever force you dragged us here with to play with his life.”

Something told me that trying to convince her otherwise was a waste of my time. A waste of her time. From her perspective, Tristan was safe until we came into the picture. So I said the only thing I could think of. “I’m sorry.”

“Hmph,” Ara replied simply.

I took a deep breath, motioned to the group, then peeked through one of the cracks in the door. There was a person within, though they looked to have a short, slight build. The unmistakable tail of a catgirl bounced as the figure strode back and forth in the room, muttering, groaning, cursing.

I put my hand up, and just as I was to begin the countdown, the figure spoke.

“Stop hiding. Come in.”

My breath caught. A girl’s voice. She knew we were here the whole time? I took a step back and whipped my head around toward the group. “S-she knows.”

“Maybe we can talk it out,” Cannoli said in a hushed voice.

“Don’t be naive,” said Ravyn. “This is a trick. We have to be ready to fight.”

“I agree. This is much too convenient,” Ara added.

“Well, she already knows,” Keke said, swallowing hard. “Let’s go in.”

“Stick to the plan, right?” Tristan murmured, eyes darting from one end of the door to the other.

“Yeah, if it comes to that.” I put my hand against the door and pushed it open, flinching at the low groan of ancient hinges. I poked my head through for just a moment. I caught the image of a small catgirl, pulled my head back in, then slowly pushed the door open all the way. I was grateful that Ara moved with such speed to take to my side. They’d have to go through us if they wanted to get to Tristan and the others.

A mess of runes and symbols scrawled in scarlet decorated the ground. Half-spent candles of white were lit and positioned to form a circle around the larger, more intricate characters. On the walls were the large and small catgirls’ skulls, and beside them were banners of red fabrics with black unintelligible writings painted on them. At the center of the magic circle, a fire cradled a black cauldron large enough to fit a man.

“Welcome,” the small girl said with a giggle. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

She was not what I expected. The kittengirl wore a head of black hair down to her ankles. She didn’t appear to look any older than twelve. Her skin was pasty-white—no, pale in the sense that she looked deceased. Emerald eyes bore into me. She put a finger to the corner of her mouth and smiled, licking at her lips.

“What the hell is this?” I asked.

She giggled again. “My home, of course. And it’ll be yours too… soon enough.”

I shook my head, half laughing out of terror at the situation. “I don’t think so.”

“Oh, but why not? Look how warm it is in here compared to the rest of the cave. Isn’t it cozy?” She hugged herself and wriggled on the spot as if someone had just wrapped a coat around her. “I love it here,” she whispered, “and you will too.”

“State your reasoning for attacking us,” Ara said with a sharp gaze. “What you have done is atrocious.”

She tilted her head in confusion. “Atwoshus? Hahaha, I’m just making friends.” The girl tied her fingers behind her back, and with the most sinister smile I’d seen, said, “[Mark for Death].”

The screams of Cannoli and Tristan echoed through the cavern and throughout the room. Ara and I spun around, and all of us watched as blood-red sigils carved themselves into Cannoli and Tristan’s shaking palms. They continued to scream, and we rushed to their sides.

“Cannoli!” I took hold of her wrist. What in the fuck? Her skin was searing hot. The skull of a catgirl appeared at the sigil’s center. In a foolish attempt to help, I tried to wipe and press away at the mark to no avail. I squeezed her wrist hard, thinking that whatever was happening would inevitably travel up the rest of her arm and that somehow I could stop that from continuing. Buttons wriggled beneath her shirt with strange noises, and I prayed he would stay put.

The screams grew louder.

“Stupid bitch! Squawwwwwk!”

“Stop it!” Keke bellowed. “Please stop hurting her!”

The girl smiled. “Oh, you’re the one that got away. Naughty kitty!” In a flash, the kittengirl drew a dagger from seemingly nowhere and thrust it through her own palm, a manic light dancing in her eyes. “[Blood Snare].”

Blood trickled from her hand, and once it hit the ground, it slithered its way toward us with lightning speed. I dropped my axe to the ground and used both hands to try and block its path. It was useless. As if I had never touched it, the blood wriggled its way through my fingers, making a bee-line for Keke.

Keke back hopped, serpentining her way around the droplets of blood. “Damn it!”

“Don’t stop moving!” I cried.

Cannoli screamed again, and Tristan cowered behind us in tears as Desiree hopped between us to stand in front of me. Her back arched and hackles raised, a deep hiss tore from her throat.

Shit, what the hell are we supposed to do?

“Stop it! Please!” I begged. “What do you want?”

“Hmm,” she pondered. “Let’s make a deal then.” The droplets of blood gave up their chase, returning to the kittengirl in a pool at her feet. The sigils burned into Cannoli’s skin faded, and Tristan’s whimpering ceased.

“W-what?” I heard Tristan murmur. Desiree left my side, and while I couldn’t see where she went, I had to assume she returned to Tristan.

“You fucking wretch,” Ravyn growled with her hands balled. “Taking pity on us, are you?”

“Fucking kill you we will, squawwk!”

“Ravyn,” I hissed.

But the girl smiled. “The snarky one.” She giggled. “I’m talking to this man here. Not you.” She rested her eyes on Ravyn for only a moment before looking back at me with a stare that pierced my very soul. “I have so many friends now. But I never had a lover.” She looked up as if she were revisiting an old memory. “Decades. Decades in this decrepit body. And not once did I ever share a bed with a man. So many regrets, so many lives taken, how they placed men up on a pedestal! Oh, how I would love to feel a man’s embrace.”

Her head snapped back in place with a sickening sound. “Be my slave,” she continued, “if you agree on that, then I shall let all of them go. Even the other man. Ah!” She laughed as if she’d misspoken. “Sorry, not man. Boy.” Her twisted smile showed off a row of perfect white teeth. She toyed with one of the canine fangs with her tongue, drawing blood and slurping it.

Disgusting. What the fuck kind of proposition is that?

“And if I refuse?”

Her smile grew wider. “Then you all die.”

What was I supposed to do now? No, I knew the answer. I was just too afraid to admit it. But I couldn’t put a price on saving my friends. If that was the cost, then I would gladly pay the price. “How do I know you’ll hold to your end of the bargain?”

“Matt!” Ravyn said in disbelief.

“Don’t do it,” Tristan said in a pained voice.

The Defiled shrugged. “You have borne witness to what I can do. I could put your friends right back where I had them. Unless you possibly think that you, the snarky one, and the maid over there can somehow stop me.” She poised the dagger over her palm once more. “It would be so easy.”

I stood, not even chancing to reach for my axe. “And what does being your slave entail?”

She licked at her lips. “You would please me in every sense of the word. Do as I say, never leave, never try to escape, live forever.” The girl bent over behind the cauldron and retrieved a wooden spoon large enough to stir the entire pot. “It would start with you jumping into this pot. You see,” her voice lowered. “I must first Enchant you if I am to make you my slave. Can’t have you going about having your own free will and all.”

So, I’m to become her undead sex slave? I paused and scratched the back of my neck. “You let them all go, and I’ll do it. I’ll get in the damn pot.”

“Matt! No!” Cannoli whined.

The girl turned around, speaking with a yearning that made my skin crawl. “Oh, the things we’ll do at night. I’ve never seen what a man looks like naked. Mmm, how delectable.”

“Listen,” I heard Ara barely whisper over my shoulder, “The pot. Tip it over.”

“Are you insane?” I hissed. “She’s going to fucking kill us if I do that.”

“I need you to trust me. She may be decades old, but she still acts like a child.” There was something fierce in Ara’s eyes. Despite that, this was a trust fall I wasn’t sure I was ready for.

Then again… what’s stopping her from getting out of here alone with Tristan this instant?

I decided to take the risk.

“But don’t leave just yet,” the girl said as she turned back around, “I want you all to watch as he boils alive.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You said they could go.”

She waved her hand, batting the very words from the air. “I keep my promises, Slave.”

I frowned. “Can I at least know your name?”

She pursed her lips. “I have no name. It was taken from me.”

“What should I call you?”

“Master. Mistress. Queen. L-l-lover.” Her cheeks flushed.

I grimaced. “Fine. Have it your way.” I glanced at Ara. She motioned back to me with a nod of her head.

With my heart in my throat, I approached the cauldron. “I just, uh, hop in?”

She nodded enthusiastically. “Hop in, Lover.”

Ugh. Well. Here goes nothing.

I lifted my foot, making a show of stepping over the lip of the enormous pot. Her smile widened, and I stole one deep breath. At the last possible moment, I thrust the sole of my boot against the cauldron and shoved it over in the same motion. The girl’s eyes grew wide, her smile quickly turning to fury as the hot liquid poured out at her, burning from the knees down. She screeched in pain, and I took this moment of opportunity to dive for my axe.

“[Invigorate]!” Ravyn cried out.

In an instant, Tristan was on his feet and screaming, “[Fire Ball]!” The roaring flame soared past me, and god damn, was it an epic blaze. The thing nearly singed my hair off on the way past me. The fire made direct contact with the kittengirl.

I never imagined the contents of the cauldron would’ve been so potent. The girl’s flesh melted from her bones, causing her to collapse onto the ground in a fit of pain. Fire engulfed the remnants, burning and cooking her limbs to ash. Daggers and arrows soared through the air and nailed her in the gut, the heart, the lungs, the forehead.

The girl screeched. Her eyes liquified into black pools pouring from the corners. “[Mark for Death],” she said in a gurgling mess of her own words.

Cannoli and Tristan collapsed once again, and before the girl could get another word out, I screamed, “[Adrenaline Rush]!” and cleaved the blade of my axe through her throat.

[Now Accessing System Memory. . . .]

What’s it feel like to have someone stroke your hair and tell you it’s okay?

What does a real, true friend feel like?

All of the ones that answer my calls are so cold…

[Memory Storage Successful.]