Taking the oversized skull off the open doorway had been a relatively easy task with his enhanced body. Claude had practised his jumping abilities earlier and although the bone tooth club was able to stretch into a thinner form of rope he hadn’t been able to use it to swing up.

  Instead he had run straight for the wall and aimed to jump off and towards the open doorway and grab hold of the oversized skull. After a dozen tries he had managed to knock it off and watched it clatter to the floor.

  Thankfully, there had been no traps, no signs of movement from the open doorway which had remained dim but judging from the edges was made of smooth bone much as the room he was inside was.

  The edges of the doorway were ornate with patterns, drawings and a script which was unfamiliar to him. A similar symbol of a crown or a tiara was repeated every three patterns.

  Burial chamber? Storage? Sacred site? It would explain why this place is so clean and the lack of coffins or random skeletons and parts. Unless they have a cleaning crew who takes care of all that. Not that I’d like to meet them. Unless they tasted good. Huh. Mental breakdown thoughts again. How long has it been inside this place? Forget it. Focus Claude.

  Claude had stood there for a moment, allowing his hearing and other senses to try and pick up anything that was alive or moved beyond. Knocking the oversized skull and the noise could have been a trap or a lure for the unwary. At this point, he was going to make sure there wasn’t an issue which suddenly appeared.

  Besides, there was a minor sense to him based on his instinct that once he entered that open doorway there would be something there. Waiting. He couldn’t see anything in the relative darkness even with his enhanced vision.

  Likely, it was the same torches he had seen inside the compacted dirt tunnel which was the other exit in the room. They would activate or dim down to nothing accordingly to his presence or the movement of a living thing.

  He wasn’t clear if it was his own fears or a challenger abomination waiting for him but when he had wound back the strung out bone tooth club around his recovering wrist it had pulled his hand away from the doorway.

  I already chose to enter the compacted dirt tunnel. At least to shelter or try to dig into it to have a place to rest and take a quick look at this book. Don’t appear to be any secure places here and the ceiling is too smooth for me to get a grip and rest there.

  Without turning his back, Claude swooped up the oversized skull and stuck his fingers into the eye sockets and waited another moment for any signs or reaction or danger.

  When nothing happened he built up saliva in his mouth and decided on another alternative. His instinct was telling him that there was something waiting for him to enter. Claude wasn’t clear on how it worked but his stomach didn’t growl in hunger.

  If a random stranger walked out or a simple worker whose job was to clean up bone dust, then Claude didn’t want to suddenly lose control and break bones and flesh like the monster he had become when Kamryn had fed him shards of compacted bone.

  What to throw...the skull? Nah. The bone tooth club can elongate but if something grabs it then I risk being pulled in. Something is there but...splatter some of my blood? Nah.

  In the end Claude was beginning to grow tired of his paranoia and he knew that he had grown a full row of fresh teeth in his mouth. He angled the skull so he was loosely holding it with a finger in an empty socket while holding onto the book with his right hand.

  Then he stuck his free hand into his mouth and ripped out one of his teeth. This time it hurt, badly. A sudden sharp point of pain which he grimaced at as he held the tooth in front of him and shook the blood off a little.

  Casually throwing the tooth into the open doorway with the decorated edges he took a few cautious steps backwards aware that his wrist on his left hand continued to hurt.

  As soon as the single bloodied tooth entered the darkness Claude detected movement. He saw his tooth snatched from the air before it disappeared from sight. His eyes picked up the glow of his own blood on the tooth and the tooth itself rather than pick up on any sign of a creature or individual.

  Something is hungry. Or wants to play fetch. Nope. I need some me time. I’ll be back for you later. Or you’ll end up in my stomach. I don’t seem to need to defecate after all that bone, scones and tea. Thank the non-existent gods of Belphus for small mercies. Bye for now.

  When nothing leapt out at him with tooth and claw Claude shrugged his shoulders and spat a bloodied wad of spit into the open doorway to give whatever lived in there a taste of dessert.

  If whatever was in there liked the taste of his blood then it’d attack him. Better for him to draw it out into the open where he had a better chance or fighting it then he’d need to draw a few lines of his own blood on the bone floor.

  A shame that the bones seem to absorb blood dropped onto them. Back to the tunnel. At least then I’ll have the option to return here or go back the other way where Sally was floating. Are they both watching me still? Not comfortable. The idea of someone watching my actions. Yeah. I’m watching you as well. Or I’m continually just trying my best not have a serious mental breakdown. How long have I been talking to myself internally? Not good.

  Claude wanted to leave this place. Badly. He’d been suffering more trauma than he cared to admit but quitting wasn’t going to be an option. His job working as for the Acqua Foundation on the long range operation boat had been one of the best jobs he had actually wanted after being in a difficult situation.

  He’d worked for that time by himself. The money was good but he’d found a meaningful job. Being kidnapped and forcefully transformed into a creature which feasted on bone wasn’t his choice.

  ‘I need to talk out loud. I’ve tried to suppress it but I’m either going to keep talking to myself internally or I can accept this situation for what it is. A nightmare. A living nightmare. You, the thing in there that ate my tooth. That was my tooth and I’m going to beat it out of your digestive tract or eat you and leave this place. But first, I’m going to read a book that may or may not be made from human skin. Or worse. You heard me.’ said Claude as he decided to turn his back and risk it.

  The bone room remained much the same, there was little to see or break. The sheer number of bones had either meant a depleted population or it was built and added to over time.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Claude hadn’t seen a single living or moving thing so far despite Kamryn and Sally having rescued him from a coastal beach filled with some abominations of nature.

  The thing in the darkness of that doorway was waiting but he’d find out what it was and how it tasted if necessary. If it was a human being who had been dropped here and become insane over time then he’d simply have a hard choice to make.

  Part of his mind was already becoming fractured or even detached. The old him, the one who lived on Belphus and suffered a bad breakup with his girlfriend would never have considered eating another human to survive.

  ‘Not going to make a habit of talking to myself. Let’s pretend this time I’m talking to you. Thing in the darkness. Worse comes to worse I’ll end up talking to a damn oversized skull. Say, let’s take a look at you. Oh wow, those teeth, that overbite. And...of course you have several rows of teeth. Like I was growing. Great, infected by a fungus and a virus.’ said Claude as he balanced the oversized skull on his bare palm.

  Sticking it to the extended bone tooth club as it wrapped itself around his waist and detached itself from the

  He walked towards the compacted dirt tunnel on the other side of the room with smooth down, compacted bones covering the walls, floors and ceilings.

  His feet moved faster than he had originally wanted and his movements became more fluid as his bare feet began to turn a light grey colour. Claude never noticed the tooth rolling back out of the darkened open doorway. Nor the second or third that followed it. The patterned and images around the frame of the doorway glowed a red hue.

  As he entered the compacted dirt corridor the torches on either side which were bound to the walls with brackets made from bone. The sight of them almost made Claude salivate. He had used up a decent amount of energy inside the room of smooth bone.

  Claude slumped against the interior of the compacted dirt tunnel against one of the walls. He’d needed to rest himself for a little bit for a long while now and he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d allowed himself to rest.

  Closing his eyes he crashed out as he dropped unconscious. His body began to twitch as one hand rose up in the air and was stopped by the other which had turned into greyish skin.

  Claude’s eyes twitched as his heart rate, muscle activity slowed then a reddish hue flowed around his body except for his grey coloured hand which twitched lightly and grabbed hold of the leathery book, fingers digging into the surface material.

  Both his arms dropped down as he fell onto his side, unconscious on the compacted dirt floor as the tooth he had ripped out earlier began to gradually regrow inside his mouth.

  His body became paralysed as his blood pressure rose as his heart beat faster and he began to dream.

  ***

  ‘We have heard fresh news from our diplomats and our soldiers. The war has been ended. In return for sufficient tribute we will no longer have to sacrifice our daughters and sons in conflict. The flows of blood will end as long as we accept. And in truth….in truth….Empress. Please. This is for your Empire, this is for our survival. A dinner at this time would feed so many of your subjects who openly starve in the capital. Please.’ said the deep voice tinged with an undercurrent of fear.

  Claude opened his eyes. He smelled roasted meats, alcohol and spices and fires and even more exotic substances which were entirely unfamiliar to him but caused him sufficient dizziness.

  He was stood at a balcony overseeing a vast singular table stacked with plates and dishes of freshly cooked food. There were servants dressed in black wearing caged masks carrying forward trays of foodstuffs and fine crystal glasses of liquids to be placed on the barest space on the table.

  He took in his surroundings, they were opulent. The trappings of nobility, four massive chandeliers hung from the ceiling in the banquet hall. Each one filled with hundreds of red candles which created an aroma.

  One of the servants wearing a caged mask stumbled before they were set on by their fellows. Other black suited servants pulled out hidden knives and stabbed repeatedly until the figure stood up once more.

  Claude didn’t see any traces of blood from the wounds but a thicker red liquid more solid and slowly coming dripping out as the stabbed servant stood and bowed in his presence before setting more foodstuffs and drinks on the massive singular long table.

  ‘Your Majesty….please. We have an opportunity for peace. I fear if we do not comply with the demands of the kingdoms then they will force even worse on us. I am merely repeating what your diplomats have….have...your Majesty?’ said the voice again.

  From his viewpoint on the balcony, Claude lay his arms out. He was half in control of his actions, or as least as much as he could within his dream state.

  He didn’t realise that the voice had been calling behind him. Not to him but to a figure seated on a throne behind him. This time a high pitched voice, a feminine one called in his immediate direction.

  ‘Grand Chamberlain Limze. You would observe the feast set out for those nobles who respond to our summons but offer little respect to your Eternal Empress. You, who was raised from a peasant village, you, whom I saved from the fate of a mellified man after your own parents sold to a wandering trader of young flesh. I would ask your counsel on this affair. The kingdoms oppose our Reign. Our culture, our fabric of our Empire but demand food in the form of crops, grain and our livestock. They know how little we have. Do we submit to this...demand? Or do we unpack our medicinal stores once more to create more monsters to fight our wars? Speak. Speak to me or suffer the fate you once avoided with my blessing. Old sweetened flesh with honey would taste as sweet as young meat.’

  A shudder passed through Claude as hands which weren’t his own clenched tight. Not out of fear but disgust of her words. Innocent soldiers turned into monsters, abominations which could kill dozens before they succumbed to wounds. Men and women alike turned into beasts. He could tolerate the affairs of the nobility of the Eternal Empire, how they ate flesh and bone of humankind for rules of ceremony and celebration.

  You. This is a memory. Who are you to enter my memories? My recordings? A stranger to our lands. Like the giant. No. An innocent like the giant. Allow me to guide you stranger. I did not die then and you will not die now.

  The impression of a man, a saddened man who cared deeply for his family, his nation and was scared of what they would become in excess shared Claude’s consciousness as it took hold of his present form.

  With a fluid movement the man, dressed in simple black and red robes who was balding but remained taut and lean bowed towards the Eternal Empress.

  She was sat on a raised throne made of human bones topped with skulls and other malformed bone which had been shaped into a small archway above her head. Her clothing was simple, a militaristic style leather tunic and matching boots.

  Her eyes and pupils were entirely red and she had a wry smile on her face. She had ruled their Eternal Empire for close to fifty years but showed little signs of ageing beyond a woman in her early twenties.

  ‘All that matters is that your reign continues and the Eternal Empire survives. We will outlast those two kingdoms of merchants and fisherfolk who are scared of our potential. To sacrifice a single hand to preserve the rest of the body is a small cost if you lived for a lifetime. Your Majesty, I am your Grand Chamberlin. My flesh, my marrow, my skin and eyes are yours. My heart remains with those I love but my soul is yours to command.’ said the Grand Chamberlin Linze as tears of blood dripped from the corners of his eyes.

  A smaller man, his clothing entirely red but with clear patches of worn out fabric and a thin matching cloak was stood with head down on the side of the throne made of bones.

  A stool was sat next to him with a human adult spine forming a central area with a smoothened femur lying flat and two femurs supporting it.

  Behold the Eternal Empress stranger. I am aware of this memory and others I stored in flesh and bone using the power of the fungus. Who are you? Speak. We have a moment before she will respond. This happened and will happen again. All is memory. Who are you?

  ‘Welcome to the . Please confirm your destination to your chosen Seed world or Variant of the planet Belphus.

  All Visitors please register with your nearest available Tour Guide. The Tourism Board is Above All.’

  [This has been a sponsored message from . Choose yours today!]

  Nicholas A. Ostheimer [Original Founder of the Tourism Board and Creator of Fictional Realities.]