Chapter 8 Desperate Souls #2
The voices they heard in the distance became clear as they walked further into the cavern.
One of them was vibrant and full of energy.
In stark contrast, the other was rough and weathered.
Alissa instantly assumed the voices belonged to a young man on one side and an elderly gentleman on the other.
Imagine her surprise when they finally reached the end of the cave and her eyes fell upon the holders of these completely distinct voices—the twins.
She took a step back, recoiling from the nightmarish sight before her, steadied only by Eldric’s touch as his hands instinctively pressed against her back, even as a rope bound his wrists together.
He leaned in closer, wearing a smirk on his face. “Who’s being a baby now?”
Alissa glared at him for the audacity. Beside her, Freyah stood in stunned silence, her jaw hanging open and her hands trembling.
“Don’t be afraid, little person. If you don’t leave this place alive, it will not be by our hands.” The young and old male voices spoke in unison, each one a bizarre complement of the other.
Alissa watched the men, bewildered. Their faces matched their voices: one radiated youth, while the other bore the marks of a long life.
Despite their individual minds, the twins shared the same body, with two necks emerging from a single torso and one pair of arms and legs—wrinkled on the left side and smooth on the right.
The fact that these brothers were born simultaneously, yet appeared to belong to entirely different generations, defied reason.
Alissa wondered whether this anomaly could be the result of a mutation caused by the energies within the canyons.
“Forgive my friend, gentlemen. We’re not yet accustomed to the wonders of this world,” Alissa said.
“It’s been a while since we last heard an accent quite like yours.” Astonished, the older man looked to his right to face his brother. “We must have been in the cave for longer than we thought if her people are walking among us again, brother.”
“Wise observation, brother,” the younger one said.
Eldric frowned.
Alissa didn’t really understand what the old man meant at first, but when Freyah spoke, she realized he was referring to the people of Bryniard. The use of the word “again” brought a bitter taste to her tongue.
“Not our people, just the two of us,” Freyah said, her hands on her waist as her feet tapped nervously.
Alissa glanced around, taking in her surroundings.
Dozens of candles illuminated the cave, spread across every flat surface.
Surrounding them, countless shelves were carved out of the thick stone.
She took a step closer to study the contents of the several glass jars on display.
The view was so twisted that this woman, who was used to eviscerating animals herself, grimaced.
Inside those jars were body parts once belonging to people of all ages and ethnicities.
She saw a jar full of mutilated index fingers, another with strands of hair of all colors and textures, a third one filled with blood, and the fourth one with content that was better left unsaid.
All conceivable human body parts were there, inside the vials or simply hanging from the ceiling.
Exhibited in their collection for all to see.
A piece of another person’s body, now devoid of life, presented as a collection.
The extent of cruelty was staggering. Alissa swallowed, wondering what part of her body would soon join those shelves.
“I see you appreciate our collection,” the younger sibling spoke, his teeth showing in a creepy smile.
“Oh, yes. Very… interesting indeed,” Alissa said, a forced smile on her lips.
The brothers slowly walked beside her, staring at the collection on display with pride. “I wish I could remember each and every one of these souvenirs,” the elderly-like twin said.
“They certainly remember us, brother,” the younger one answered, eliciting scandalous laughter from his twin, which soon morphed into a series of harsh coughs.
He bent over, trying to catch his breath. “Oh, you’re killing me, brother.”
Alissa exchanged awkward glances with Freyah, who seemed mortified, standing on the opposite corner of the room, trying to avoid looking at the human parts on display. Alissa instantly flinched when the arms of the younger twin wrapped around her shoulder.
Noticing her distress, Eldric took a long stride and grabbed the hands of the creature, twisting it sideways. “Touch her again, and it will be your body parts hanging from the ceilings next,” he said in a low, threatening voice.
Alissa turned her face to look at him, her mouth half open, stunned by his sudden change of attitude.
As she studied him, she could see for the first time the true strength of the man in their company.
Eldric had no obligation to defend her, especially when she’d been holding him captive for days.
Yet he acted as if he would not stand by any sort of abuse.
She wondered if there was more to him hidden underneath his brute facade.
Could she actually trust him? Could he become an asset in this world that’s proven to be more dangerous than she had anticipated?
She couldn’t know for sure.
Alissa stepped back from the brothers, whose merciless scrutiny was on Eldric. She decided to intervene since she could not risk being prohibited from entering the canyons. “Might I ask you, what motivated you to start such a unique collection?”
“We do not do this out of cruelty, little person. Not entirely, at least. You see, it turns out the cure to our condition is in another’s body somehow, and so, we keep searching in the hopes of someday finding the answer.”
She turned to them, seeing past their ghastly appearances and noticing for the first time two poor men, born in a shared body, hoping for the day they would finally be free from the prison of flesh and skin that tied them together since birth.
“Didn’t the canyons give you the answer you seek?” Freyah interrupted, her voice barely audible.
The brothers chuckled. “The canyons showed us the cure lies in another living being. It is up to us now to figure the rest. The same way that the canyons will not give you the answer you seek but the means to find it, little person.” They glanced around, surveying their visitors with watchful eyes.
“Which one of you will help us increase our collection today?”
“It’s me,” Alissa promptly answered. “My companions will stay here and wait for me.” They had agreed previously—although not with little reluctance from Freyah—that Alissa would enter the canyons while her friend stayed behind to keep an eye on Eldric.
“Very well.” The brothers circled Alissa, rubbing their chins as they observed her actions.
They approached her from time to time to sniff her hair, raise her arms to look at her armpits, or poke her knees.
It was apparently part of their assessment to define the price she would have to pay for free passage to the canyons.
Alissa’s heart thundered as the elder brother pulled a hatchet from a drawer and handed it to her. “We demand your right hand.”
Alissa didn’t need a mirror to know all the blood drained from her face. She had been hopeful that the twins would not demand something as vital to her survival. Her hands were her tools as much as the bow and the arrow. How was she supposed to hunt without the hand that pulled the string?
Freyah stepped up, taking the hatchet from her hands and giving it back to the twins. “I’m sorry, the answer is no. Thank you for your help.” Her hand closed around Alissa’s as she tried to pull her towards the exit.
Alissa, still petrified, dug her heels into the ground, making it impossible for Freyah to move.
“Freyah, wait,” she murmured and turned to the guardians of the canyons. “Please, I could give you some fingers or toes—”
The twins interrupted her attempts to negotiate. “There’s nothing else you could give us, little person. The price is set.”
Alissa nodded slightly, a thin line on her lips.
“Lissa, you can’t do this!”
For a moment, she stood there, speechless.
This was the highest price the twins could have demanded, but in the end, denying them her hand could be the reason she failed to save Dhalia.
Alissa could find a way to survive without hunting; she could learn another craft.
But she would not survive the loss of her daughter.
“I need to find the answer more badly than I need my hands, Frey,” she whispered, her lips wobbling.
Freyah didn’t say anything; she couldn’t, not when she fell apart in sobs.
“I accept your price,” Alissa told the twins, and before she even realized it, the weapon was back in her hands.
She wished she didn’t have to ask more of her friend than she had already, but she couldn’t do this alone. “If they needed my left hand, I would do it myself. But being the right one…”
Freyah’s lips parted in horror. “Please don’t ask me to do this to you, Lissa! It’s too much, I can’t!”
A strong hand suddenly settled over Alissa’s. She lifted her face to meet the man who looked at her with so much resolve. His stare was so intense she almost felt intimidated by his presence.
“I’ll do it,” Eldric spoke in a hard, controlled voice. “If that is really what you want, I’ll do it.”
She narrowed her eyes, her fingers tightened around the hatchet handle, unsure if she should trust him with this. He could use it to kill them and gain back his freedom.
As if Eldric could read her mind, he rolled his eyes. “If I take this weapon from your hands, it will be only to do what you requested of me. This situation is already absurd as it is.”
Her gaze fell on Freyah, standing in the corner and barely breathing, then shifted to the man whose hand was still around hers, somehow looking so confident and sincere. He stretched his arms forward—a plea to be set free.
She hesitated. “I will still hold on to your sword. You’ll have it once I’m back from the canyons.”
“And if you never return…”
Alissa shrugged. “Then I guess you’ll have to hope that I do, Van Myr.”
Eldric snorted but agreed to her terms; the man just wanted this to be over with.
Using the weapon that was destined to take her hand, Alissa cut off the ropes binding his wrists.
Eldric wasted no time; he picked up the hatchet and gently placed Alissa’s right hand on the wooden desk in front of them. “Do not move.”
She felt the cold, sharp blade of the weapon touch the soft skin on the back of her wrist as Eldric tested the sharpness of the blade. Alissa hissed when blood dripped from the small cut he inflicted. She knew then that the blade was sharp enough to sever her hand without much effort.
Eldric raised his arm, the weapon hovering above her. His brows were knitted, the green of his eyes darker, heavy with the weight of what he was about to do. She realized, in that moment, he was waiting for her permission once again.
Alissa took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
She couldn’t see; she could only sense the twins drawing closer, likely wanting to witness the act up close.
Her heart beat so fast she thought it might jump out of her chest, yet she nodded and braced herself for the blow, for the indescribable pain that was coming.
“Stop!” shouted the younger twin.
She opened her eyes to find the brothers staring so closely at her wrist that she jolted back. The younger one traced a finger along the small cut where blood had slicked her skin, then lifted it to his lips and licked it. A gasp escaped him immediately afterward.
Alissa couldn’t tell whether she should be disgusted by the scene or grateful that they’d stopped her hand from being cut.
“We changed our minds.” The older brother picked up a small vial. “Your fee to access the canyons will be your blood. Please fill this vial with it, and you are free to find your destiny within the fissures of truth, little person.”
Alissa’s legs trembled. Eldric’s arm was still raised, frozen in the motion that was meant to sever her right hand. He looked just as shocked.
“Is this some kind of twisted joke?” she asked.
When the twins shook their heads in unison, she felt Freyah’s arms wrap around her, and she was grateful; it was the only thing keeping her from collapsing. Eldric sighed in relief and set the hatchet down in a corner on the floor.
Alissa pulled the dagger she had hidden in her boot.
With one movement, she stretched the cut on the back of her wrist wider.
She watched her blood fill the vial, drop after drop.
Even in that moment, she wondered how many of these vials it would take to fill with the blood of all the animals she had killed.
At least she was lucky enough to keep her hand.
The older brother fetched the vial from her, sniffing its contents, his eyes filled with something that resembled lust, and his brother’s smile widened. “Your blood is rare, little person. It might be what we were looking for all along.”
Alissa grimaced, not knowing what to say next.
“Are you ready?” Both brothers spoke at once, the sound sending a shiver down her spine.
Alissa walked to Freyah, who had managed to stop crying. She squeezed her friend’s hands tight. “If I haven’t returned by the evening, you go back home and let the man go.”
“Please, be careful, Lissa!”
“I will, I promise.” She glanced at Eldric, who had returned to his stoic facade. She gave him a nod of farewell.
“I’m ready,” she said, turning to face the brothers.
“Remember to keep the answer you seek always at heart and the essence of who you are at mind, little person, otherwise you might not find your way back,” the brothers pronounced in unison.
The words worked as a key when a passageway that hadn’t been there a second before opened before her eyes. Alissa stared at it; the glimpse of the canyons, though fleeting, was overwhelming.
“Good luck, little person,” the guardians spoke at last before pushing Alissa into the fissures and closing the door behind her.