We were lying in leftovers of a kill of some kind.
There were bits of rancid meat and blood all over me and the floor. I sucked in a shallow breath and prayed my breakfast stayed down. This is where the demons must eat. That’s why there are so many structures. These are outdoor cafeterias. I lifted myself up, staying low, slapping the big, sticky parts off my body.
Something chirped above me.
I didn’t want to look.
I looked.
Mesh netting of some kind separated me from what looked to be hundreds of small piglike creatures. They were roughly the size of large rats and they all began to squeal in earnest, crawling all over one another in fear as they spied me peering at them.
This place keeps getting worse, I complained to my wolf. We have to find Tyler soon and get out of here. I’d only seen a small portion of this world, but I never wanted to set eyes on it again. Why would anyone everchoose to come here willingly? We’d only been in the Underworld an hour and I was totally disgusted.
The little piglets were covered in scales and a coating of short, coarse hair. As these ones stirred up a racket, more gazebos started erupting in similar sounds. They think it’s feeding time, and we’re here to eat them, which it will be soon if I’m not mistaken. Once the sun goes down, it must be a dinner free-for-all.
There was no way to quiet them down.
I poked my head over the rail, scanning the fronts of the buildings, searching for a way out, or at the very least a hiding place that wasn’t covered in bloody bits and squealing piglets.
Each building facing the square had a row of ten doors. Once darkness falls they must open those doors. I knew without a doubt that was how the demons were released. And we’re standing right in the middle of their dinner party. We’ll have to go back to the chupacabras. I can’t believe I’m saying it, but that’s a safer bet. We can wait there until—
I spun around to exit the gazebo and crashed to one knee.
We’re caught in something. I bent over to check, and even though I hadn’t felt it, it seemed my foot had slid into a manacle of some kind. Before I could do anything about it, the floor shook and a small compartment in the middle of the gazebo slid open to expose two rows of stacked TV trays. The same kind I’d seen at the dump. Okay, I’m not liking this.
The cuff that held my ankle had obviously risen up from the floor prior to the trays, but I’d missed it because of the piglets’ shrieking. I counted ten sets of manacles total and they’d all been engaged. My ankle had just been in an unlucky spot. We must have triggered something to start the dinner process. The demons must get wild when they eat.
If not, I didn’t really want to know why they had restraints under all the seats.
I wrapped my hands around the strange material gripping my ankle and tried to pry it open. It was smooth and slick just like everything around here and I couldn’t get a good grip on it. The metal, or whatever, was unforgiving. It made sense it had to be super strong if it was meant to hold a struggling demon, but that wasn’t helpful to me.
Fur sprouted along my forearms as I increased my effort. The squealing above me didn’t make it any easier to concentrate. Send us more adrenaline. My wolf obliged and my muscles tightened like granite beneath my skin. I think it’s coming loose. I felt it give. With a pop, the thing cracked, but it wasn’t enough to open it completely. The piglet squeals reached a fever pitch above me. Something was happening.
I glanced upward just in time to see the netting give way.
Ducking quickly, I covered my head with my arms as roughly two hundred scaly rat-piglets were dumped onto my head. Crap! They bounced all over me, squealing and oinking—if you could call it oinking. It sounded more like hissing. Swat them back, we don’t know if they’re venomous. As they fell, the railings along the outside of the gazebo morphed together like something out of a sci-fi flick, solidifying the enclosure so the tasty demon treats didn’t escape.
I slapped the piggies off me as fast as I could. My ankle was still stuck, so I couldn’t do much more. But the luckiest part of being covered in scaly demon piglets was that they didn’t seem interested in me. After their initial fall, most of them had scurried under the benches as fast as they could. They wanted to escape their fate as much as I did.
Join the club, little piglets from Hell.
They aren’t biting us, but don’t look into their beady little eyes. Let’s just focus on freeing this thing from my ankle. I went to work on it again. Once we get this off, we’re going to set these demon pigs free. They can serve as a distraction while we find our way back to the portal door we came through from the trash heap.
I glanced up at the sky. The sun was setting too quickly for my liking. As the sky eased into darkness, the purple hue turned into a magenta twilight and misty clouds began to fill in above me. There were no stars that I could detect, which made it seem like we were in a huge horror-filled gymnasium and not actually outside.
The shackle wouldn’t budge any farther no matter how much strength I used. I leaned over to examine it. It was completely melded together. There was no discernable seam. It looked like it was one housing, and it probably contained some magical demon essence I knew nothing about.
I stopped working and searched for something that might be able to help me, like a release button of some kind. After the demons had eaten their fill, they had to be able to get free of the manacles. Look for a lever. When the demons are done feasting they should be able to turn the horror show off so they can go back to doing their regular business. Whatever that was. Where did one go after group ravaging?
I didn’t want to know.
I really didn’t.
Everything in the gazebo was whistle-clean, except for the floor. There wasn’t a crack in sight and I didn’t see any buttons or levers. My wolf barked. Her muzzle nodded upward. I followed her direction. On one of the pillars, toward the ceiling, I spotted a small button built into the structure. Unfortunately, it was attached to what appeared to be a speaker box.
We can’t risk hailing anyone. I instantly pictured a demon receptionist with a beehive hairdo and pointy glasses trying to understand our issue on the other end. We can’t use that. Look again. There has to be some kind of unlock button. I bet there’s something that will get rid of the piglets too, in case they don’t eat all of them or have an emergency during dinner. Who knew, maybe the demons went into a rage as they ate? I glanced up and studied the mesh that had held the creatures. There had to be a trigger for that.