Chapter 140: Level Five
Traveling from one wing to another, Junk made it to level five after following the piece of information that Jamie gave to him.
That level of the cauldron prison was most likely the scariest that Junk had seen yet. The place was dark. Barely lit by only a few lanterns there and there. The Minotaur could hear people crying in the distance. Men. He could also hear prisoners grunting and screaming at times.
There were no employees. No guards. Nothing like that. The horned beast searched a lot. And he didn't find anyone here, save for the prisoners behind the iron bars. Jamie was right. This was definitely and without the shadow of a doubt the place where all the most dangerous and high risk 'tenants' of the prison were. Junk kept looking from one side to another as he walked in the various and shadowy corridors of that floor.
He saw half-giants. Centaurs. Creatures that looked like they were decaying and rotting, much like living dead.
He also saw men in robes with no facial features. Prisoners missing limbs. But he also saw a couple of humans in the cell of that level. Junk wasn't frightened here. But he certainly didn't want any of these prisoners to get out of their cell. Not while he was there, anyway. Junk didn't bother calling for September. He didn't want to be shouting in this place and to be drawing even more attention to himself. It was already pretty bad that more than half of the dangerous prisoners were staring at him as he walked in the many corridors of the level. Too many looks on him. Too many eyes watching him.
Naturally, the Minotaur wasn't going to be going on there and not be noticed. Even when he tried walking as quietly as possible, he ended up stomping and barging all over the place. The sooner he found September, and the quicker they were going to be able to leave the cauldron prison and to make it back to the Autumn Tower. It took a short while, but he finally managed to detect something, a voice that wasn't one of the many voices he kept hearing over and over again with the prisoners. He heard something quite unique at the end of the tunnel, at the far end of level five.
He heard a woman's voice for the first time since left Jamie downstairs, and began searching for the Autumn witch. He clearly heard her.
"You have to understand: I will replace you. Just like I replaced all the others," it was clearly September. Junk could tell her it was her voice. Especially now, since she was most likely the only woman on this floor at the moment, but Junk could very well tell her voice apart among hundreds and hundreds of different women. Her romantic, seducing, but yet, drastically dark and commanding voice, pulled a string in the soul of the horned beast. To him: She was the most gorgeous and sexy and powerful woman he knew. He wished to guard her and eventually to make her, his woman. Yet, he just heard something coming from her that wasn't exactly exciting. While he didn't, exactly, entirely hear her correctly, he pretty much understood what she just said. This thing about her, replacing people, wasn't exactly what he enjoyed hearing from her. He walked closer. Progressed throughout level five. Followed her voice. Followed it with haste. He was getting closer. He knew it. She was nearby.
"I nearly no longer have any use for you," her voice was becoming clearer and louder. "I'll come back for you once I need your parts or your soul. But in the meantime, you are going to stay here," the Autumn witch continued talking. Junk turned a corner and finally made it to the very end of level five. She made it to the resurrected creature's cell. The door of the cell was wide open.
What? Junk asked himself. And the witch was in there, in the cell with him. September was seductively sitting on a wooden bench with her delicious-looking legs crossed together.
"What can I help you with, Junk?" September asked him as she directly saw him turning the corner and coming face to face with her. She had been aware of his presence all along. She knew he was coming for her. Once again, the creature was chained up. His cock and his testicles were all chained up to the back wall within his cell. September was comfortably sitting. His head was still no longer attached to his body. The creature's head was mounted on a pillar in the cell. The creature was still breathing. A bit. The monster was still moving and blinking. Slowly and barely, but he was still alive.
"Milk… Milk…" the creature could be heard saying that word, over and over again… He wouldn't shut up about it.
"We are leaving. I came to see you where you were," he said.
"Great. I was saying goodbye to a certain someone," she said.
"I can't believe he is still alive after I cut his head off…"
"He has seen tougher and darker days than this. I can tell you that," the Autumn witch said as she eventually stood up again.
"Can you also tell me why you were just talking about replacing him, like you did with all the others?" he asked her. "Is that the same fate that is waiting for me? Head cut off. Chained up. Left in a coffin in a church and now on level five. Who are all those prisoners on this level? Are they all your old guardians?" he questioned her.
"You are thinking about it too much…" She looked the other way and basically tried to ignore him and his questions.
"Milk… Milk. Milk!" As the witch slowly walked in front of the pillar where the severed head was, the creature's head seized this opportunity to push himself off the pillar and jumped toward her. He accidentally and luckily ended up crashing pretty close to September.
Right at her feet. Between her heels.
"Milk… Milk…" Milk…" the creature kept saying…
"It's over. I'm leaving. Get back on your pillar," she told him. Then, Junk suddenly did it for her. Pulled the severed head off the ground and placed it back on the pillar. The two left the cell. The horned beast closed the door behind them. Pulled the key out of the keyhole and handed it to the witch. But as he handed it to her, he aggressively moved her closer to him.
"..." she was suspicious of him.
"In any case, you better never think about replacing me or this will then be the last replacement you ever do…" he warned her.
Silence.
The two stared at one another.
She turned around.
She left.
Disappeared into the dark corridor of level five.