Behind the shadows: The starving cave (Part III)

This is the third and final part of my entry to @Ozzyy and @Hanzell 's contest.

Part I : https://read.cash/@hamedbkh/behind-the-shadows-the-starving-cave-part-i-f72b2ea8

Part II: https://read.cash/@hamedbkh/behind-the-shadows-the-starving-cave-part-ii-cfec9973

PS: This part contains violence and gore.

Peter was trying to keep his blubbering as quiet as he could. He looked like a child threatened to be beaten if he cried more. The young guy was a person who can't even stand seeing blood on TV. He choked on his own words trying to whisper:

-Ch..Chris..please..I'm begging you! Get out of there now...I don't want you to be their next prey..

-For the first time in my life I will agree with you. I'm leaving this slaughterhouse now. I can't take any more risk. I will talk to you once I'm close to the exit. Don't turn your radio off.

Nothing is harder than waiting. Mix it with a dangerous situation and you might have a breakdown. Unfortunately, Peter had to learn this the hard way. Not before the heavy silent was broken with chris' whispers:

- Peter? Still with me I hope?

-Of course! I'm not leaving you alone there! what's the matter? Why are you still there?

-Yeah...About that...Well I twisted my ankle while trying to walk down the stairs running. I still can walk on my own but barely. And like that's not enough already, something is wrong with the flashlight. It's no use anymore and it's as dark as hell. I need your help now. You have to enter the cave and light the way for me. Don't panick! If my assumption is right, you will find me just after walking few meters inside.

This request made Peter's hair stood on end with a pale face like he had just seen a ghost. He barely managed to keep his voice down:

-Don't panick you said? How am I supposed to do so when you are dragging me to enter the damn cave! You know very well that i can't do that. I'm sorry...

-Oh, so now you are giving up on your big bro? I thought our brotherhood is way stronger than this. I've never let you down before yet you are betraying me when I nedded you the most? How low can you be?

-No! It's ...Just...I'm....UGH!...

Chris took the chance and decided to pressure his young brother further more.

-Can't you remember all the memories we had together? We were always together for better or worse. You won't leave your injured brother drowning in the drakness alone awaiting for those things to eat him alive, right? Please! Hurry up and save me while they are still busy eating that person..

Throughout his life, that was the first time ever Peter heard Christopher begging him. He was always the type who would never beg or apologize no matter what. A flood of memories was clogging his mind. Both kids were so different but inseparable, just like twins. If he leaves his brother to die, how is he supposed to keep on living with all the feelings of shame and regret? He gathered what was left of his courage and replied:

-You owe me so much for this. I totally went nuts for doing this, no doubt. After leaving this cave I will be the one drinking your blood, not them!

-Thank you brother. I will be waiting you. We will be together very, very soon...

As much as Peter wanted to reply with the usual "You are welcome" but he couldn't. Welcome? For what? For making him enter this cursed Bellua cave? or for making him feel like a soldier in a battlefield where he isn't even sure what's going to happen next? With a mind sinking in dark thoughts, he slowly made his way inside. His feet were barely able to lift his trembling body. It was just as Chris described it. Tremendously stinking smell and freezing cold air.

A couple of minutes later, and still no trace of Chris. Peter arrived at the corpses room. Anxiety and panick attacks are smashing him. Waving his flashlight right and left, he stumbled across the heinous view of a freshly devoured body: A featureless indefinable face with one missed eyeball and another popping out of its socket. An utterly skinned body. Huge chunks of the flesh were lost. Add to that a wide deep cut throughout all of the torso, making it easy to notice that all of the internal organs were missing, except for a small part of the intestines.

Needless to say, Peter had never faced such a disturbing sight and almost immediately, he couldn't pull himself together and emptied all what's in his stomach out on a withered husk thrown nearby. But wait a second... Peter felt something about the newly misshapen corpse. It was still dripping blood which meant that person was killed minutes ago! Some ripped out clothes were close to the body. Isn't this Chris' shirt?! No doubt! They preyed on him!

Like that's already not hard enough to deal with, and before recovering from the shock, Peter felt something behind him. A catastrophe always brings another one like they say, so he knew what was awaiting him. And hell, he was right. One of the "creatures" Chris mentioned was standing at his back. The fact that"Its" face was covered with blood, Chris' blood obviously, didn't make "its" shape any easier to swallow.

The maniac creature opened his black hole of a mouth and said, mimicking Chris' voice with a sarcastic laugh:

-I'm sorry for doing this to you, brother! But you know, you looks delicious too.

Peter stared at the beast with a wide open mouth. Did he just hear him talking with Chris' voice? How? and the most important is...

-"If you can mimic voices.. then that means..." He mumbled in a shaking voice. Without budging, the demon waved his hand in a fast move, slashing Peter's eyes. The scream of pain mixed with terror the boy shouted felt like rocking the whole cave, and he wished it did. Enjoying himself watching the blind Peter trying desperately to escape the cave, tumbling all around the place and running into walls like a mouse in a trap, the "thing" that looked like an inhabitant of inferno addressed the kid with a thundering voice:

- Your brother was very tasty. It has been a while since we ate a meal as delicious as him. Young humans are my favourite dish indeed.

He licked the blood stuck on his nails and went on to say:

-Your guessing is right though. You were talking to me the whole time almost. Your brother was dead since he came across this room. Eating him and talking to you simultaneously was quite fun. Using that kids' voice, I lured you to enter the cave and face your pathetic fate. After all, we are demons, and our abilities are way greater than yours. But for you and your kind, we have one thing in common. We both need food. Yet you already are aware of that. You will be an appealing meal yourself. I already described in details how we devoured your dear brother so you have a fair idea what to expect yourself.

The demon whistled to summon another not less ugly devil. He pointed his nail at Peter and ordered him:

-Take him, he is going to be our next meal. But I'm warning you, I will be the one eating the heart this time!

THE END.