A bolt of cold dread shot down Kail’s spine as he heard the thing’s rasping voice, hoarse and dry. It was blind, but its face stared right at him. Hundreds of unblinking white eyes shone alongside it. A slow hiss escaped from its mouth as it strode forward.

“Are you deaf? I said to…come out.” it croaked. It entered a low crouch as the other rat things slowly moved forward with it. “Perhaps I should...help you.” Without another word, its legs bunching, its claws gripping the ground, it threw itself into the air. Kail was hidden behind a wall, but its claws struck out to the side of a nearby building. Scrabbling, it found purchase in the old brick and took another short sniff. It was above him now, its face unmistakably pointed in his direction. A short snarl, and it leaped, claws bared, mouth open, with blinding speed right at Kail.

With a bright clink, the canister of lamp oil that he was holding tightly fell from Kail’s hands as he hurriedly brought his left arm up. He had just raised it in time as the rat thing pummeled into him. Yet the force was so great that it knocked him onto his back, a dull crack ringing through his ears as his head struck the ground. His vision was blurred, his arms jarred from the impact, and for an instant he was stunned.

The beast was on top of him, spit flying everywhere as it clawed madly over the edge of the shield. He rolled left and right, trying to shake it off of him, but it clung on fiercely as it swiped at Kail. His right arm was pinned underneath his back, the weight of the creature stopping him from getting it free. He felt a wetness running down his chest and saw streaks of red from his left hip to right shoulder—the beast had managed to cut him. With a shout, he swung his head forward to strike the thing, scoring a hit on its nose with a vicious crunch. As the blood sprayed, he shoved forward, pushing it off his chest and managing to reach a sitting position. Quickly, with his arm now free, he pushed himself on top of it, keeping his shield between them as he used his weight to pin it on its back. A dim voice in the back of his mind noted how quickly the situation had reversed, and he bared his teeth in a grimace of a smile.

Slipping his dagger out of its holster, for he had foolishly failed to bring his hook in the hopes of traveling through the city unmolested, he stabbed it in the stomach. Putrid black blood sprayed his hand as it gushed out of the wound. With a yelp of pain, the rat thing spasmed, weakening Kail’s hold momentarily. With its right hand it swiped, sinking its claws deep into Kail’s left forearm. Its left hand grabbed his right hand that held the knife, claws digging deep into the flesh. Before he could react, it had spun sideways under his hold, claws ripping deep furrows into his left arm, his other hand turned at a hideous angle.

Despite being cut open, it showed no sign of weakness, swiping Kail across the face as it snapped at his hand with crooked teeth. He jerked it back, but not quick enough; he saw his right pointer finger held between its teeth, blood spurting violently from the stump on his hand. Howling in pain and blinded by the blood covering his face, Kail fell onto his back, scrabbling away from the rat thing. It got onto its haunches, clutching its stomach with its right hand. Despite the wound, the only reaction it gave was another dry hiss, the oily hairs covering its body standing on end.

“Meat….I’ll kill you...Eat you...” Those sightless eyes twitched in their sockets, darting back and forth at nothing as it licked its teeth with a slimy tongue.

Wiping the blood and tears out of his eyes, Kail slowly got up into a standing position. His left arm was torn ragged, his fingers were slick with blood. His right hand hung uselessly by his side. The wrist was broken, twisted. He was gasping for breath, the ground spinning under his feet. He had lost too much blood. He did not have time to prepare, not even time to think, the thing leapt in a blur of motion.

It tackled him in the chest and he felt the snapping of his ribs, but he managed to throw it off of him. Like a bug, its limbs scrabbled on the ground, claws scratching the stone as it steadied itself. A yell of rage tore from his throat as it charged again, this time staying low to the ground. He stepped forward as it leaped up, meeting its pounce with the claws on his shield. The spray of rancid blood coated his chest as the claws broke through its skull, its own momentum impaling it. It still carried enough force to knock Kail on his back. Even death had not stopped it from landing its final blow—its claws had embedded themselves firmly into Kail’s shoulders with the force of its lunge.

The little strength he had remaining left his body as he felt his pulse get weaker. He turned his head to the side, the blood blurring his vision into a haze. He saw the dull outlines of the other rat things slowing inching forward. They approached him on all fours, heads close to the ground, cautiously sniffing at him and the dead rat thing. Perhaps they would kill him, perhaps they would eat him alive; he did not care anymore. All he knew was that he was dead for certain: he had lost far too much blood to even dream of life.

They prodded him carefully, but he could not even feel it anymore. With a gentle sigh, he closed his eyes. He heard a squeal of pain, or perhaps it was of delight, but he did not care anymore. He felt nothing. The darkness opened its arms, and he walked forward willingly.

But death did not come. And slowly, he woke.

Kail woke in the dark, the putrid stench of refuse bringing tears to his eyes. He could not see anything; the darkness surrounded him completely without a single speck of light. A steady dripping of water from the ceiling echoed off the walls, reminding him of the broken water clock in Sir’s home, and a slow hissing from around him told him where he was. He was in the sewers, surrounded by rat things. Why he was still alive, he did not know.

He tried to move his left arm, but it did not respond. That alone was worse than pain. His right arm stirred, pain like nails shooting through his head, but at least he could move it. The hissing around him grew.

“It wakes.”

“Eat. Kill.”

“So hungry..”

“Silence. He wants it for himself.”

A yelp of pain echoed off the walls, followed by a meaty rip and a howl. Kail felt himself grabbed roughly by the shoulder, sharp claws digging into his skin. He was lifted up, back screaming in protest, and thrown in some direction. The rat things chittered in amusement as he struggled to move, legs refusing to respond. A low rumbling rattled his bones. It was the growl of a beast. Every fiber of his being trembled in fear, his primal instinct telling him to run.

He could not see anything in the dark. He did not see the fist that struck him in the stomach. He did not see the claws that opened his chest so that blood sprayed out in a fountain. He did not see the foot that stepped on his throat and ground it until it crushed under the weight.

He certainly felt the pain, however, and soon lost consciousness and his abused body lost the will to stay awake.

With bleary eyes, he woke as he felt his head forced back, his mouth tugged open. A scalding hot water burned in his mouth and he coughed and sputtered. Holding him back by his hair, the water was forced down his throat. A rough slap across his face made him spit out a mouthful of blood.

“You awake, boy?”

He forced his eyes open, blinking away the sweat and tears. He found himself tied with rope to a wooden chair, although it was rickety enough that it seemed likely to collapse if he tried to move. The wood was covered with dark stains, likely blood judging from their coloring. A dim lantern hanging from the center of the ceiling lit up a small room with stone walls. Water dripped from cracks in the ceiling onto a dirty floor covered in waste and scum. It seemed likely that he was deeper in the sewers, perhaps in some long-abandoned, long-forgotten portion buried within the twisted labyrinth.

The thing that held his attention, however, was the massive figure standing in front of him. Looking vaguely like a rat thing, the monster was a good foot taller the Kail, covered in muscle and thick mottled skin. Coarse grey hairs lined its arms, its fingers tipped with cracked yellow claws. A smell of rot and death emanated from its body, stifling the air around it. Dully, he forced himself to look at its face.

Kail instantly regretted it.

A massive scar ran from its left eye across all the way to the corner of its mouth, shearing away flesh all the way to the bone and taking out half of its nose with it. Grey and black flesh met pale white bone that gleamed in the torchlight. A mouthful of craggy teeth and rotting flesh coupled the misshapen face. A single white eye stared at him, unnerving and penetrating. It was a hideous aberration, a horrible mistake in every facet of the word, and the very sight of it threatened to eat away at the vestiges of his sanity.

In the silence following its question, the thing struck Kail again, leaving claw marks across his face.

“I asked you a question boy. You will answer me.”

Reeling, he lolled his head on his neck, his head racing faster than a horse. In a sudden flash of red-hot defiance, Kail spat in its face, a wet glob of blood and spittle that struck it cleanly on the corner of its mouth.

With a sickly smile, it gleamed at him. “Good answer. I worried she wouldn’t let me kill you twice on the first meeting.” Without waiting for a response, it struck Kail clean in the gut, twisting with its claws before pulling back a closed fist with a sickly pop. Coughing up blood, he looked to find a fleshy pink lump in its fist. A glance down confirmed that it was his stomach, and a sudden bout of vertigo nearly made his vision flash to black. Prying open his mouth, the thing forced the lump of his own flesh into his mouth despite his protests, then proceeded to punch him in the jaw. The bloody organ fell out along with some of his teeth, his chair tipping over with the force as he struck his head on the stone tiling.

“No games here, boy.” it hissed, its one eye twitching ecstatically. “No games, but plenty of laughing.”

Snarling, the beast grabbed him by the shoulder, intentionally choosing the same one that burned in agony. It ripped him out of his bonds, the ropes taking some layers of skin with them. Shifting its grip so that it held Kail by the throat with its left hand, it reached onto the floor, holding up a rusted metal stake, sharp on one end with a circle for chains on the other. With a feeling of despair in his chest, Kail realized what it was going to do.

Pinning his back against the wall, it drove the stake straight through his right shoulder, crunching through bone and stone alike. Without pause, it grabbed another, hammering it just below his left rib cage. Two more on his left arm: one in the bicep, another straight through the bones of his wrists. Another for his right arm, punching clean through the elbow. There was hardly any time to breathe, and already he was hanging on the wall like a grotesque tapestry. Kail felt more going through his leg, but the pain had driven his mind numb and he fell into darkness again.

“Let’s see how many deaths you’ll last.” came the raspy voice, intimately close to his ear, and Kail’s flesh burned even as he greeted dreams, sinew and tendon twisting in hideous unlife.