The severed head sat in the freezer. Empty, lifeless eyes stared back at Katie.

Meat Lovers indeed.

Lower on the shelf was a freshly frozen body. It was a young man in rag-tagged clothing. His mouth was gagged. Katie suspected that was the man whose struggling sound attracted her into the kitchen. If she arrived a little earlier, he might've lived. Now...now he was as dead as the severed head above him.

Rest in peace...or was it rest in pieces? Or rest in plates? Given the nature of this restaurant, Katie strongly suspected the latter ones would be a lot more appropriate.

Before Katie could even turn back, the dozen or so cooks suddenly let out a warcry and charged forward faster than anything ordinary human beings were capable of. Now that their true nature has been exposed, they wanted to make sure these two girls never live to see another day.

Katie smirked. She barely made a move before countless tree branches darted out of her body and slammed right into the cooks. That was enough to send these men tumbling to the ground.

“What is that?”

“Get off me!”

“Help!”

The tree branches returned to Katie’s body almost as quickly as it came out, but all the cooks were already on the back. It seemed like enhanced speed and strength were the only specialties they had. That was all nice and cool against ordinary people, but that wasn't nearly enough to keep them safe against the girl in front of them.

Now victorious, the first thing Katie did was turn to Caitlin, who handed her a black jacket to replace her torn shirt.

“So, ummm...Caitlin?”

As she put on her jacket, Katie suddenly saw Caitlin walking up to the freezer. Before she could stop her, Caitlin peeked inside. For a moment, Katie was concerned that Caitlin would vomit or something. To her surprise, Caitlin merely shrugged like it was no big deal.

“Uh...you alright?” Katie wondered.

“Yeah.” Caitlin glanced at her girlfriend and immediately understood her concerns. “Oh don’t worry, Katie. It’s just a head. I’m not going to throw up over a severed head.”

Fair enough…

Katie turned her attention back at the cannibals on the ground. Seeing the girl, they were paralyzed by fear. Katie was all nice and hot most times, but when dozens of tree branches were forcing their way out of her flesh and skin...not the prettiest sight. Not at all.

“You monster!” One of the cooks couldn’t help but cry out.

Katie glanced at the content inside the freezer again before turning back to the cook. “I really don’t think you’re in a place to judge.”

The man bit his lips and returned to silence, but just because he was silent didn't mean Katie had to be. In fact, Katie had a lot of questions.

“So,” Katie slowly walked up to the cooks. “mind telling me what’s going on here?”

As Katie got closer, one of the cooks suddenly made a move. His plan was decent, if not a bit naive. Katie looked like some sort of summoner...and now she was walking up to them with her handgun to the side. If he could catch her by surprise and kill her before she could summon those branches, then maybe he could save the day and salvage this whole operation! Perhaps...perhaps the Ascendants would even make him the leader of this restaurant!

With these naive expectations, the man leaped up from the ground with recovered strength. This time Katie didn't use the branches. All she did was grab onto the cook’s arm, pull out her Knife, and jam it into the man’s stomach. Once. Twice. Twelve times. Twelve times later, the cook collapsed in a pool of his own guts.

He was fast, but Katie was equally fast, and she was the armed one. The cook managed to kick her a few times in the belly. All that accomplished was make her a lot more excited.

“Is that a finger?” Katie glanced down before pulling her attention back to the rest of the cooks. “Ok. Here’s my question, cannibals. Why? I mean...I get it if we’re a thousand years into the past and there’s starvation and such, but now? Why go through all this trouble? I guess the meat prices have gone up by a lot, but they’re not that high!”

She looked around thoughtfully.

“And how much did you people pay the FDA for this? There’s no way in hell this passed their inspection.”

“Wow Sherlock.” The only one that could mock Katie in a time like this was Caitlin. The blonde girl leaned against the wall, wisely making sure to keep Katie between herself and the cooks.

“Thanks, Watson.” Katie nodded at her girlfriend. “Yes, I know I'm awesome.”

Using this moment of distraction, two of the cooks suddenly exchanged a glance before leaping into the air, but not at Katie. No...they were going for Caitlin.

One of them ran right into Katie’s Knife. As the self-proclaimed modern-day Sherlock, Katie deducted that was not how he planned things out beforehand.

The other cook was on the move. The dying screams of his comrade slowed him down by a moment, and that was when he heard a gunshot. The next thing he knew, a handgun bullet had lodged itself in his chest.

The cook still wasn’t dead. In fact, he still had a chance of surviving...until his head was no longer on his shoulder, courtesy of one Katie Lockwood.

Meanwhile, outside the kitchen, dozens of people frowned.

Gunshot! Wait, was that a gunshot? No? Ok...nice ribs! I wonder which farm the meat is from...

The cooks didn't know what was going on outside. As soon as the gunshot rang out, they found themselves taking breaths of relief. A few moments ago, they would’ve been panicking because a gunshot would expose all the atrocities they have committed. But now? With three of their own mauled to death and the same fate likely suffered by the rest, a gunshot was welcomed. They would certainly be arrested and jailed for their crimes, and this might even spark a national outrage, but guess what? Jailed was ten times better than whatever this monster could do to them.

Plus, they had an organization. A few political maneuvers here and there and they would be released in no time!

When a full minute passed and no one even bothered checking in the kitchen, their smiles started to disappear as the dark reality set in.

No one would be here to save them. They were at the mercy of Katie, a girl who had little mercy to give.

“Who are you?” The cook leader finally raised the meaningful question. “You’re not human!”

“Me?” Katie leaned forward and watched as he scurried back. “Katie Lockwood. Age? 17. Gender, female. Orientation, female. I am a student at Riverside High School. Which one? The one beside the river. Nice to meet you!”

The cook raised his eyebrows. Who cares about your age or gender or orientation? I want to know why you have plants growing out of your chest, and also, if possible, how to get rid of you! Do I look like I’m here to make friends?

As the self-introduction came to a stop, Katie scanned the cooks. “Now, it’s your turn. Who are you?”

The cook leader bit his lips. For some reason, he hesitated, whether it was because of loyalty or because he wanted to make sure Katie wouldn’t just kill him after getting what she wanted. Katie respected his thoughts of self-preservation, and she showed her respect by jamming her Knife into his neck.

As he collapsed in his own blood, the cook leader still didn't believe this was happening. This girl should at least try to threaten him once or twice! There has never been an interrogator in history that has been so impatient!

Yet he mistook one thing. Katie wasn’t an interrogator. The only reason she was asking these questions was because she was a little curious. If she got what she wanted, good. If she didn't. Well, too bad. She definitely wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. As for the cruelty...this was someone who stabbed herself for fun. She could contain herself from hurting the innocent with her will, but these cannibals who feasted on their own kind?

Katie would gladly bathe in their blood, figuratively and literally.

The entire time, Caitlin just sat back and watched. There was little disgust on her face as she watched Katie work. If anything, there might even be a strand of amusement in her eyes.

At this point, she was pretty much a dead woman. Getting rid of some psychos that were lurking in society was just a bonus prize.

A sadistic smile on her face, Katie moved onto the second cook, who happened to be too scared to talk. This made Katie really bored, and that never ended well. The second cannibal was a testament to that.

The third cook charged at her in desperation. The rest didn't need to be said.

Another cook made a run at the door. He made it two steps out before losing everything.

By the time Katie reached the fourth cook in the line, the man was already wetting himself. Finally, as the cooks practically fought each other to tell Katie who they were and what they knew, Katie and Caitlin finally got to the backstory of this kitchen.

This kitchen was part of an organization called the Sect of Ascension. It was...yep, you guessed it! It was a cult. Members of the Sect of Ascension believed that by devouring the flesh of fellow human beings, they could acquire a portion of their strength and essence.

If they heard this story a month ago, Caitlin and Katie would either laugh at such a notion or call the police, maybe both. But in a world where undead teachers and plant-manipulating individuals were present, this actually wasn’t the wildest theory.

Plus, Katie noticed something. While the cooks were like defenseless lambs before her, they were actually physically superior to most ordinary human beings. In fact, she doubted a few dozen police officers with handguns could remove them. At the very least SWAT teams had to be called in to take them down.

Apparently, the Meat Lovers restaurant was just one of many locations the Sect had across the nation. These cooks were no more than minions. They reported to an officer in the Sect, known as an Ascendant. Supposedly, Ascendants were one step above the minions, with each one of them capable of supernatural powers that extended beyond the basic enhancements.

Leading the Sect was an individual known as the First Ascendant. The cooks knew next to nothing about the First Ascendant. Such an individual was way above them in the chain of command.

The next part made Caitlin turn pale. The cooks here not only ate human flesh themselves. They also cooked and fed these human flesh to the customers at the restaurant, disguising them as chickens and lambs and, yep, steaks and ribs.

Why? They didn't know either, but this was their order. Force customers of the restaurant to partake in unsuspected cannibalism.

Yeah, these cooks are not walking out of here in one piece. Maybe not even anything under ten pieces. Katie keenly noted as she watched Caitlin do what she could to contain a vomit. Dead bodies were fine, but the idea of almost eating another person was still too much for Caitlin. Should I buy a wood-chipper or something to speed things up? But the delivery may take a while though...

“So how did you guys even get FDA approval? I mean...I suppose there are probably no rules explicitly prohibiting cannibalism, but something tells me that’s common sense.” Katie did her best to switch up the topic. Did it work? Hearing Caitlin turning and running out of the kitchen, likely to find a bathroom, Katie could only sigh.

The cook exchanged a look. Just as Katie was about to shoot one of them for the hesitation, one cook spoke up. “We don’t know. All the credentials were delivered to us.”

Katie frowned. “And the food sources?”

“Some of them were delivered to us. We were given info on the others, who we then abducted.” One of them replied. He really didn't want to, but all eyes were trained on him and he was the guy in charge of food sources. “They’re mostly homeless people. Some kids...no one will miss them or wonder where they went. Probably think they died off under a bridge or something.”

Katie bit her lips. She wasn’t quite a fan of thinking, but she had to admit she knew what this meant. The Sect of Ascencension had great influence in society and likely in the government. FDA, for sure. Maybe even the police force. A restaurant like this...it alone exhausted an unbelievable amount of food sources every day and it was hardly alone.

Countless people were disappearing every day and no one wondered where they went.

This so-called Sect of Ascension wasn’t some random organization. It had an unbelievable amount of power and influence. Katie had no idea exactly how powerful they were, but if Ascendants were anything like Mr. Isaac, then this Sect might be at the same level as the organization that Caitlin believed was behind Mr. Isaac.

Her phone buzzed. Katie glanced down and saw it was Caitlin. In a text, she told Katie she would be waiting for her to finish in the car. The brunette just didn't want to set foot in the restaurant ever again. Sending Caitlin a smiley face, Katie looked back up at the cooks once again.

These cooks were just a tiny part of the Sect. In fact, they were just half of the staff at this restaurant. Again, if Katie was some sort of superhero, she would spend the next year going across the world, purging every member of the Sect and making them pay for their crime in a story long enough to make eight tv seasons out of.

But Katie was anything but a superhero, and honestly, she didn't feel as strongly about cannibalism as she would’ve liked. Make no mistake. Katie’s cognitions despised everything she just saw in the kitchen, but her body...it was indifferent. All it wanted was the desire for pain, both on herself and on everyone around them.

Either way, it was a desire she gladly satisfied with the cooks.

The executions took a while, and they could’ve taken longer if Caitlin wasn’t waiting. As the last cook stopped screaming, Katie proceeded to turn on all the stoves and light a fire in the restaurant before casually walking out of the kitchen. As she walked by her table, she eyed the steaks on top. Honestly, they didn't look quite tempting...but in the end, she turned and left. Not because she felt disgusted, but rather cause she didn't want to keep Caitlin waiting.

Finally, she joined Caitlin back in the car. Caitlin was still a little pale, but she managed to mostly recover.

As of now, nothing happened, but soon, fire and maybe an explosion would engulf this place. It was by no means the perfect solution, but it was sufficient, at least from Katie’s perspective.

Could Katie have left some evidence for the police? Probably, but the Sect likely could’ve put down whatever investigation that might come out of it. As far as Katie could see, it was hardly worth the extra effort.

“The Seven Tribes. The Sect of Ascension. The random ghosts here and there.” As Katie got back in the car, Caitlin couldn’t help but sigh. “And Mr. Isaac and his organization. How did we even survive up to now? We should’ve been dead a long, long time ago.”

“Who knows?” Katie shrugged half-heartedly, not really caring. “Maybe there’s a god watching over us. Or maybe gods?”

Caitlin bit her lips at the response. “Well, if there are gods watching over us, observing all these atrocities and doing nothing, then these gods are nothing but cruel, sadistic beings, unworthy of our faith.”

Katie sighed before leaning over and giving her a small, reassuring hug.

Outside the car, customers started fleeing out of the burning restaurant.