Chapter 114: Blood in the Dust
The gunshot rang out.
Fred flinched—but the bullet didn't hit him.
It struck the ground at his feet, sending up a puff of dust.
Barton chuckled, low and mocking.
"If I wanted you dead, you'd already be bleeding out."
Behind Barton, the hunters and their hounds blocked every escape.
The door they'd come through groaned shut.
Trapped.
Fred's mind raced.
Clara was already raising her weapon, eyes burning with fury.
But Fred grabbed her wrist.
"No," he hissed under his breath. "Not yet."
Barton's smirk widened.
"Smart boy," he said. "At least smarter than the last few."
-
Barton stepped forward, boots crunching on broken stone.
"Here's the deal, Fred. You come with us willingly—no chains, no bloodshed. You even get to keep breathing for a little while longer."
Fred stared at him.
"And if I refuse?"
Barton's smile died.
"Then I tear the girl apart in front of you. Piece by piece."
The hounds growled, teeth flashing.
Clara didn't flinch. She merely tilted her head, coldly calculating her odds.
Fred swallowed hard.
His stomach twisted into knots.
He knew Barton wasn't bluffing.
Velmont's people never bluffed.
---
Somewhere behind the hunters, deeper in the ruins, Fred thought he heard something.
A different sound.
A faint mechanical whirring.
A low thud, like massive gears shifting.
The whole chamber seemed to tremble.
Even the hunters glanced around uneasily.
Barton's eyes narrowed.
"Choose, Fred. Before whatever's waking up down here decides for you."
Fred glanced at Clara.
At the fountain behind them.
At the statues.
Symbols. Patterns.
Maybe they weren't warnings.
Maybe they were instructions.
A mad idea formed in Fred's mind.
But it was the only shot they had.
---
Fred raised his hands slowly.
"Fine," he said. "I'll come."
Barton's smirk returned.
"Good boy."
The hunters closed in.
But just as Barton stepped forward to grab him, Fred lunged backward—
toward the fountain.
He slammed his palms onto the carvings.
The stone burned against his skin.
The entire floor shuddered.
From the mouths of the statues, mist poured out—thick and black, like smoke but heavier.
The hunters howled in surprise.
The hounds whined, recoiling.
Clara didn't hesitate.
She grabbed Fred's arm and yanked him sideways as the floor beneath Barton collapsed in a thunderous roar.
---
Barton's scream echoed as he plunged into darkness.
Fred barely had time to react.
The mist thickened, swallowing everything.
Clara shoved him forward, through the broken door, down a new tunnel that had cracked open in the chaos.
Behind them, the ruins groaned and shifted.
The city itself was moving.
Fred stumbled blindly through the dark, Clara's grip the only thing keeping him from falling.
They ran.
And ran.
Until they could run no more.
They collapsed against a wall, coughing and gasping.
Fred's hands shook.
His heart thundered in his ears.
They had survived.
But barely.
And Barton wasn't the only monster lurking in the depths.
---