A Serenade for the Innocent - 119 A Sudden Bloodied Gues

“Please, please, please, kind friends, please take me with you!” The ragged-looking and bloodied stranger who’s kowtowing before them suddenly said with what sounded like a faint and hoarse whisper. “Please, I beg of you! I’ve been stuck in this place for three years! This is the first time—THE FIRST TIME I’VE SEEN ANY OTHER HUMAN OTHER THAN ME!” The bloodied stranger said, making sure that he screamed the last few words he had just uttered.

The others around me reacted with varying expressions, but none of them uttered any word in response as if what they had just heard earlier had sent them to a wordless trance.

I’m not sure if the legitimacy of what this man had just said has some validity in it, but I am relatively sure that the dungeon had still been operational for quite a while before I stopped visiting the family mansion three years ago. If that much is true, then it is safe for me to say that this man here has been trapped in this place for three years. I found it hard to believe that whatever is saying held some sort of truth to it. Then again, looking at his long wire-like hair, overgrown beard, and skin filled with reddened rashes, I can faintly say that there’s at least a bit of authenticity in his words even if it may turn out to be nothing but a hyperbolical sentence. After all, the dungeon is a 100-hectare maze that even I have not thoroughly scoured yet. It’s fair to say that the family just sort of forgot about his existence and left him out of our radar until this very moment when he suddenly CAME OUT NOWHERE TO RUIN MY BEAUTIFUL FUCKING PLAN!

“… th-that’s almost hard to believe…” The nurse said as her paralyzed body trembled uncontrollably—she looked like she wanted to approach the bloodied stranger somehow to help him, but the man’s disgusting state must have pulled her away from her. Thus, her mind must be in a battle to think about what course of action she should do to help him without touching him.

“If that’s true, then how come you never saw the priest and his fellas when they came here before us.” The policeman said as he pulled the nurse away from the kneeling stranger. His body was facing away from me, but he still pointed his thumb right at me with a scowl.

“That’s a valid question unless one of these guys is lying…” The salesman said as he averted his gaze towards me with a stern expression. This almost drained all the water in my body, for his eyes immediately made me sweat. The salesman then looked down at the bloodied stranger on the ground as he continued, “… I’m fairly sure that I know exactly who the liar is if that was the case.” He said with a sneer, which made me visibly sigh in relief. It was fortunate that the hallways were dark, so they couldn’t see the way my face loosened after hearing those words.

However, it might be dark, but it’s not dark enough for us not to look at the dirty uncle who’s begging us on the ground with a trembling body. I bet he’s freezing with those clothes on since this place is very damp and chilly. Not like it’s my problem, but that could be a good reason why he’s shaking, not because he’s afraid of us.

“Why don’t you explain what happened to you then, father?” The silver man said as he stood beside me with a scrutinizing gaze—one that I had never seen him use before. “How come this man hasn’t seen your group before?”

I then cleared my throat as I turned my head towards the silver man with a gentle smile, devoid of any fear whatsoever. “Perhaps it’s because we didn’t have time to meet each other? My group went into a different direction to go to the second room, so maybe if we had just walked towards the right path, then maybe we could have also met this gentleman right here and brought him along with us.”

After saying so, I then looked around me once again discreetly by moving my head slightly from every corner of the dungeon. I need to find one of those cameras right about now because this mission might be far more complicated than I had thought. However, no matter how I tried, I just can’t seem to find anything at all, not even a hint of a shiny object hanging from above. I’m already starting to feel like maybe there are no cameras, after all.

“The priest tells the truth! I am not lying!” The bloodied stranger dropped his head deeper onto the floor again like he intends to use his head to dig a hole into the ground. “I have been living here for so long and have been walking about this hell for more than I could have ever imagined—months, years, decades? I DON’T KNOW ANYMORE! I have been cooped up here for so long that I can’t even count the days anymore! Years and years and years and days and days and days AND DAYS AND DAYS AND DAYS WENT BY—THEY ALL WENT BY, BUT NOTHING HAPPENED. NOBODY CAME TO SAVE ME! I should have been dead, but why was I not permitted the sweet release, oh God!?”

“Well, I still find it hard to believe. I mean, the owners of this dungeon placed us and the priest’s pals inside of this here dungeon themselves. Unless they used some kind of mechanism to, let’s say, teleport us here in this place, then you should have at least seen those people come to place us here deep in this dark shithole.” The salesman articulated in a controlled manner as if he’s trying to force the bloodied stranger to say that he’s lying somehow.

“I did! I really did see them place you, people, here, but they came here through a different and special route. From afar, I observed that they were dragging you all towards this place through a hidden door somewhere around here. The hidden door slides open like how Moses divides the Red Sea and drags you all towards each different room in the first area of the dungeon!”

“… area?” The salesman whispered beneath his breath, but he decided to ponder his thoughts on his lonesome.

“So, why didn’t you do anything to approach these people then?” The policeman said with his arms crossed while tapping his feet vigorously onto the cobblestone floor of the dungeon. “If you can see them, why didn’t you approach them?”

“I CAN’T! I’M SO, SO, SORRY, BUT I CAN’T! They were walking with… with this… MONSTERS! THEY WERE WITH MONSTERS!” The bearded stranger said as his body trembled even further. He then raised his head immediately, showing us his wart-filled cheeks, reddened eyeballs, and swelled up rashes growing out of his deranged countenance. “THEY WERE WITH HUGE, HUGE, HUGE INSECTS! TWO INSECTS! The insects came with two people; I’m sorry, but I can’t quite the faces of the people clearly; I am so, so sorry! The huge monsters have this… these huge claw-like feet—they have so many feet that my muddled head couldn’t count well just how many they were, but I am sure about what they look like! They looked like spiders with hundreds if not thousands of thin feet, and behind them is a gigantic tail that looked like that of a scorpion’s! How could I… I’M SO SORRY, BUT I CAN’T! I CAN’T, FOR THE LOVE OF MY LIFE, I CAN’T APPROACH THEM WITH THOSE MONSTERS HANGING AROUND EVERYWHERE THEY GO! I’M SO SORRY!”

“He’s right…” I finally said with a sigh. I can at least identify that he’s telling the truth after he explained the Crawlers’ body perfectly. The man knows his stuff, and I can at least acknowledge that verbally. “Those are the Crawlers…”

“Oh, fuck me, are you serious?” The policeman said as he moved his hair back with a sigh.

“… Can we really… can we really escape what THAT is!?” The silver said as he swiftly started biting on his silver fingernails.

“We can if we get the fuck out of here right now!” The salesman said in a slightly louder voice while looking at the bloodied bearded man with his hands shaped into a trembling fist.

“But what do we do with him?” The nurse continued to tremble again with her hands on her bosom as she looked at the bearded man with eyes filled with pity but not wanting to approach him.

All five of us then looked at the trembling bearded man before us in unison. Seemingly seeing this, the bloodied stranger placed the top of his head down onto the ground again wordlessly. The silver man looked at him with a fearful frown as he continued to bite his fingernails. Contrary to that, the policeman looked relaxed as he now placed his hands on his waist. The nurse leaned her body forward to look at the wounds around the bloodied stranger’s body but immediately moved her body away after smelling his stench. The salesman just stood at his spot without moving as his wrinkled face showed a stern expression.

… and I’m right here already planning the many ways I can get rid of him.

“PLEASE!” The bloodied stranger finally spoke with a scream. “I’M DESPERATE AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO! I REALLY, REALLY WANT TO LEAVE HERE SO FFFFFUCKING BAD!”