"This smells so bad."
"In a den you eat, shit and sleep. Now shut up."
The pace was slow but, despite the fear, they had already traveled at least thirty meters under the angular vault. After the first bend, which seemed to throw itself head down into absolute darkness, they had discovered that the cave did not descend to great depth. Light filtered through numerous interstices, creating a play of shadows every time a body crossed the rays. Drops of moisture condensed until they fell on the loose ground, with obvious signs of dragging. The view wasn't great, but enough to spot what was moving in the narrow tunnels.
More than once they stopped to listen, straining their ears to pick up every slightest sign of the presence of the wolves. They found hair, blood, and huge footprints, but no traces of the animals.
"Will they be out yet?"
"I have never seen such active wolves" Johan muttered, less and less convinced. However, he gestured to continue: the end of the cave must have been near. He wasn't wrong.
The narrow corridor opened without warning into a room at least eight meters wide, deep enough to comfortably house a litter of bears. Rolf raised a hand to touch the vault, without succeeding.
The stench of death was suffocating. No window on the outside let the air circulate, nor filter the light, so they had to be content with the one that came in from the corridor behind them.
Alan had remained in the queue of the other two, intimidated. Johan gripped his weapon firmly and moved away. Inadvertently kicking something soft, a damp sound followed. As his pupils got used to the darkness as much as possible, Johan realized with an effort that there was a body at his feet. A human being. He was missing large pieces of meat in various places, and his face was a lump of moods. From the clothes, however, Johan was able to recognize him.
"It's Hildemar."
Rolf and Alan didn't answer right away. Alan had joined Johan, his eyes full of terror. Rolf, on his side, was digging with the tip of his rifle in a mountain of smelly scraps. Bones, bones and flesh everywhere.
Alan raised his head. He felt an unbreathable hood obstructing his senses. Behind his brother, however, he saw something that further confused him.
"Rolf. What are those?"
The blond-haired young man tried to focus. It didn't make sense. Yet, up close, it was not possible to get confused. "Handcuffs?"
Three pairs of rusty iron bolts hung from the wall. Heavy metal handcuffs that appeared to have been used recently.
Johan went further. "This isn't a wild animal's lair."
It was impossible. That some beasts had found an abandoned refuge for who knows what smuggler? The chains, however, bore marks of dried blood. The dirt on the floor was loosened. And now a patched-up bed was visible on a wide flat ledge.
The echo of light footsteps reached Johan's ears. He listened for a few moments: they were really direct steps in their direction.
"They're coming back." Rolf was excited. He aimed the rifle at the mouth of the room and closed one eye to take aim.
"They aren't wolves" said Johan. The sound he heard was of human feet, not the four-legged gait of an animal. Still, something bothered him.
Alan moved behind the lumberjack. He was afraid, but he wasn't the only one. The heart in his chest was drumming as if it were going to explode at any moment. When the footsteps reached the last corner, the three were ready to strike. But it was only Katia who showed her face.
"Holy shit, little girl, what do you think you are doing?" Johan was furious for the fright. Rolf lowered the weapon.
"Katia," Alan called, "you should have stayed out! It's dangerous here."
The sound of footsteps had not stopped, Rolf had noticed it. Now, closer, the harsh echo of drag was also clear.
"Where is Gobel? Where is your sister?"
Katia looked at Rolf as the boy would never have expected. He had only had the young woman's body that night, but what he was now facing was a completely different person. There was darkness around them and around Katia. His eyes sparkled.
From behind the barrier came Isik, a small and defenseless creature of six, who was struggling to drag something behind her. What strength could such a child possibly possess? This was what Johan himself wondered, open-mouthed, as he realized that the dead weight he was carrying was Gobel's curly corpse. Ten years older than her and forty kilos of difference.
Katia made a lightning-fast, unnatural movement, jumping around Johan's neck. The lumberjack held the ax firmly in his hands but did not have time to use it. The superhuman violence of the girl overwhelmed him and feral teeth bit his jugular.
A gush of blood accompanied Johan's last screams. Rolf had raised the rifle in a flash, exploding a shot towards the terrifying Katia, who shielded herself with Johan's body. The bullet entered the old man's back who, by now, no longer had a throat to scream with.
Katia jumped on all fours like an animal, dashing on Rolf and breaking his rifle with her bare hands. Deformed hands, equipped with claws.
Rolf fell to the ground. Alan, in a panic, threw the ax and smashed himself against the cave walls.
Rolf's breathing was steady and labored. "What are you?!"
Katia's face was a canvas of warm blood. Johan's life still dripped from her mouth. Sharp teeth, a hint of a canine muzzle, feral eyes that looked at Rolf with amusement.
"Katia..." Alan muttered. He was trembling like a leaf, unable to help himself or his brother.
Isik left Gobel where he was, going to drink gently from Johan's torn neck.
"My name is Selina" the girl growled. The voice had changed too, now cavernous.
Alan didn't understand. Rolf, on the other hand, who was stuck under her strangely heavy body, spat in her face. "You're a goddamn bitch. You came to the village making fun of everyone, didn't you? You're the damned monster."
"My daughter needs to grow up. And we both have to feed ourselves."
Alan looked at Isik. So small, so innocent, spontaneously attached to the man her mother - not her sister - had just killed.
"Come on, bitch, get it over with." Rolf had always been extreme. Once his destiny was fulfilled, he just wanted it to come quickly.
Katia, or Selina, laughed. A sadistic, monstrous smile from that misshapen mouth full of teeth.
"Oh, you're not going to die now" she said to the blond brother Kaiser.
Rolf didn't understand. Then Selina, keeping him pressed to the ground, put her hand between his legs. She let the claws disappear and her fingers became small and delicate again. She began to massage Rolf's manhood, staring into his increasingly terrified eyes.
After a few moments, she felt the desired effect in her hands.
She made a horrible sound, which Alan and Rolf interpreted as a laugh of satisfaction.
Selina lifted Rolf up, with such violence that he was out of breath, and closed his wrists in the handcuffs. The chains were high, he could only touch the ground on tiptoe.
Then it passed to Alan.
"Please let us go" whined the younger of the brothers.
Selina lifted him and tied him a short distance from Rolf.
"You won't die now, too" Selina said with cold determination. Then she stared at his face, kissed him on the cheek, and with a single gesture tore off his pants, leaving the bare skin in contact with the fetid air. Under the poor canvas, Alan wore nothing.
"We don't just need food and company."
With a loving gesture, she took a bone the size of a man's femur from Isik's mouth.
The little girl had her face and hands covered in red. Selina gently pushed her towards Alan. Her face was distorted, her hands outstretched, her eyes innocent.
"The little girl has yet to get her teeth."