Gregory was curled up in the corner of the kitchen.

For most of the time, he had his ears covered...but that didn't stop the screams.

How did it come to this? How did I end up here?

Basil had tried to fight: Gregory heard him shouting orders, instilling courage into his companions. Now he was dead.

Of course. There's no fighting against these monsters.

No fighting...and no begging either. He heard Melvin plead for his life just a few minutes before: then, he heard him cry out in horror. He had no idea of what happened to him, but most certainly nothing pleasant.

They'll kill us no matter what. Is this our punishment? Did we really deserve this?

Since the massacre started, he had only seen one of those monsters: the insect-girl had walked into the kitchen and spat her spiderweb at the window, thus sealing it. She didn't even look at him. But Gregory was not deluding himself: his turn was coming.

Dorea was his only hope. He thought of groveling at her feet, but that was probably not going to work either. She would never forgive him.

God, he thought, on the verge of tears, why did I have to do that to her? Couldn't I be satisfied with leaving her to die?

He knew why, though. He did that to her because she treated him like scum.

Gregory always liked Dorea. He may just be a worthless bandit...but wasn't she a worthless prostitute anyway? So, why act all hight and mighty? He even offered to help her, the night she almost got killed. He would have paid her for one hour together. If she hadn't rejected him at that time, nothing of this would have happened.

Yuri walked by the entrance of the kitchen. She just gave him a quick look: it felt like she was looking at a cockroach.

She's looking for survivors, he realized. He knew there were still a few Crimson Vipers alive in the house: he heard them trying to break through the backdoor, to no avail.

Is she leaving the front door unguarded?

Nothing surprising about that: she probably thought he was too scared to even move.

And, up to that moment, she had been absolutely right about it. But now, Gregory suddenly felt an uncontrollable, overwhelming will to live.

If I stay here, I'll be killed anyway!

Yuri was going after someone else: he had to move while she was busy killing other people.

Slowly, he got up from the floor. All of his body was shaking.

I have to make a run for it. I have to!

Then, a terrible thought occurred to him.

It's a trap.

What an idiot he was! Those monsters were cunning. They wanted him to misbehave, just so they could punish him even more! Also, were they not magic casters? They surely cast some kind of spell on the front door...a seal, or an alarm system…

Even if it's a trap...even if the front door is no good...I have to get out from here! If I just stay here, waiting for them, I'll lose my mind!

They would probably allow him to move, as long as he remained inside of the house.

The first floor was most surely escape-proof: he would go to second floor instead.

It took him all of his courage to get out of the kitchen.

The corridor was pretty dark.

He noticed the mangled bodies near the entrance, and promptly averted his gaze.

Then, he noticed something horrendous: on the ceiling, a few feet away from him, there was the huge silhouette of a human-sized spider. It was clinging to the body of a man wrapped in spiderweb: its abdomen was moving rhythmically back and forth.

Gregory didn't know what it was doing, and didn't want to know: he just ran away across the corridor.

While running, he happened to be looking to his right: Simon's room door was open.

Two human skeletons were inside. Their bones were still wet with fresh blood. Big black insects were scurrying all over them.

He reached the stairs, and tripped over something. He barely managed to not lose his footing. As he looked down, his eyes opened wide: he had stumbled upon a headless corpse. Gregory couldn't help it: he threw up. Then, he kept going.

On the second floor, he heard a suffocated moaning right beside him. He looked on his left.

Another man was completely wrapped in spiderweb, glued to the wall upside-down. It looked like he was in pain.

Gregory thought about just ignoring him: this was not the time to be helping others.

He moved a step away from the body...then, he stopped.

The hell, what's wrong with me…

He started tearing up the spiderweb covering the man's face with bare hands. The insect-girl said that not even a sword could cut it, but those threads were very thin, probably of lesser quality.

Gregory unveiled the man's face: it was Esmond, a guy he barely knew.

"Hey, are you all right?" Gregory asked "I'll try to get you down"

Esmond opened his mouth: as he screamed, a swarm of black insects came flying out of his throat. Gregory let out a howl of horror: he frantically backed away, then started running again. There was nothing he could do for Esmond: his insides were already being devoured by insects.

He heard a voice from a room on his left. He froze.

""If he's into this kind of stuff, why not provide him with a farewell gift?"

It was Solution's voice. All of his body started shaking. Terror made it hard even to breath.

If she finds me now, he thought, if she finds me in this darkness, she is just going to swallow me on the spot! There's no way she'll wait for Dorea to pass judgment on me!

Then, he also heard Dorea's voice:

"This is what you like, right? Then, watch carefully as you descend to hell"

After that, he heard a man pleading for his life. Was it Jacob? He never heard the boss so scared before.

I must act now, while that monster is busy eating someone else!

There was a bedroom on his right. He walked into it. And he almost threw up again.

Two beheaded men were lying on the floor. Their bodies had been tied together with their own entrails. But his horror was immediately replaced by joy: the window had not been sealed with spiderweb yet.

He rushed to it and opened it up. The cold night air filled his lungs, and all of his body tingled with relief.

The ground was thirteen feet below, though. He thought about just jumping, like a man trying to flee a building on fire, but that was a bad idea.

If I break my legs, it's all over.

He climbed over the window sill; he sat on it, with legs hanging out in the air.

It was only thirteen feet, but they felt like twenty. His heart was beating too fast, now.

He slowly turned around a lowered himself down, clinging to the window sill with all of his strenght.

He was now hanging from the window.

His fingers supported all of his bodyweight: he couldn't resist long. He knew he had to let go: but he was afraid. There were still at least six feet to the ground, but they felt like double that. Gregory's fingers were in pain. He felt like crying.

Why did I end up in such a place?, he thought. Where did I go wrong…

The wind howled in his ears.

God, if you save me from this hell, I'll never touch a woman again.

Then he thought of Solution's ice-cold saphire eyes, and of Boyce's skinned hand emerging from her chest…

He immediately let go.

The impact with the ground forced a moan out of him.

He lay down for a few seconds; then, he tried to get up.

He had hurt his ankle: it was probably just a sprain, though. The ankle would have swollen up in a few minutes.

Whatever. I need to reach the horses.

He had to go around the back of the house, where the stable was. Dragging his hurt foot, he moved along the walls, ducking down every time he got close to a window, even if they were all sealed with spiderweb.

Please, don't let them find me now. Please…

It was only five minutes, but it felt like an eternity.

When he finally mounted on a horse, he felt like breaking down into tears.

"Go!" he yelled, spurring the horse with all of his strenght.

As he rode away from the house, he turned his head to look back. The building looked almost harmless, now: from the outside, nobody could tell what kind of hell that place had become.

They are not chasing me for now. God, please…

He reached the main path. He did his best to ignore Chuck and Randal's bodies on the ground.

The moon was out, making it possible to ride at night. He spurred the horse again, fleeing at full speed along the country trail, and never looked back again.

"Oh my" Yuri said, looking at the corpse in the corner of the room "that's pretty gross"

"You think so?" Lupusregina asked "I think that's pretty neat"

"What were you trying to accomplish, exactly?"

"Well, as you can see, I severed both his head and his penis, and tried to have them switch places. I used a healing spell to connect the penis to the neck, and the head to his groin. But he died either way. I guess the amount of bloodflow a human brain needs to survive is just too much to be provided by such small arteries"

"That's only natural"

"Oh well" Lupusregina shrugged "Looks like I lost my chance to have more fun with this one. I think it looks pretty great though, like some piece of modern art. Aren't there any men left to play with, though?"

"I trapped a few of them inside a bedroom" Yuri explained "But it's too late to have your fun with them. They're being dealt with as we speak"

The men inside the room couldn't take it anymore: the tension was tearing them apart.

"It's enough!" one of them yelled " I can't stay here any longer! I want to leave!"

"There's no way of breaking through that door" another one said.

" But I can't just stay here, not knowing what's gonna happen to me!"

"M-maybe, if we swear fealty to them, they'll let us live" suggested a third one.

"Hey! The fuck is that!?"

Something was coming in from under the door. A weird fluid. It looked like water at first, but they soon noticed it looked more like jelly. It was forming a puddle. They all instinctively backed away from it.

"What the hell is that?" asked one of them, with quivering voice.

Then, the jelly started to rise up. They were all left speechless, as it acquired a human shape. In a few seconds, a beautiful naked woman appeared in front of them: it was the blonde beauty they had been ogling all evening.

She posed sensually, throwing her head back and offering her profile to them.

"Were you waiting for me, guys?" she asked, in a coquettish voice.

A few seconds later, screams of horror and pain echoed in the building.

Sun was rising.

Yuri, Dorea, Lupusregina and Entoma were gathered in front of the house.

Solution walked out unhurriedly.

She had several human arms sticking out of her shoulders, desperately wriggling in the air, as if searching for something, anything to cling to.

"That's pretty cool" Lupusregina said " they almost looks like wings on your back!"

"I think it's gross" Yuri said "It's like you're eating with your mouth open"

"Okay" Solution sighed "Time to get in, boys"

She closed her eyes, as she was focusing on something, and all of the arms were slowly pulled into her body.

"I think I'll apply pressure to them, to the point their melted flesh will fuse" Solution said, as if sharing an exciting project with her sisters "They'll become one giant lump of agonizing flesh"

Then, she frowned.

"Where is that other man? I believe his name was Gregory?"

"That's what we were talking about. He managed to escape, somehow"

"You let him escape?!"

" You're just as much at fault as we are" Yuri replied.

"Let's admit it" Lupusregina said " We were having too much fun to pay any attention to him"

"Don't you worry" Yuri told Dorea "We can track him down fairly easily"

Dorea hesitated before speaking.

"No" she said " It's fine"

"I beg your pardon?"

Dorea took a deep breath. She gazed at the rising sun: her eyes were still red from crying.

"I would ask you to let him go, if possible. I wish for him to keep on living"

Yuri was surprised.

"Why is that?"

"He is...a wicked man. No doubt about that. I'll never forgive him for what he did to me. And yet...I do not wish for him to die".

She kept quiet for a moment, probably because she had a lump in her throat.

"My sister and my father are avenged" she explained " The Crimson Vipers left in town will probably disband: they lost all of their leaders, and they'll think a powerful enemy is targetting them. Also...I'm tired of death. There's only so much horror I can withstand. I do not wish for anyone else to die. Gregory may not be a decent man...but maybe, he got enough scared from this that he won't hurt anyone else. I may be deluding myself...but I'm still willing to give him a chance"

Yuri nodded.

"If that's really how you feel, we'll respect your wish"

"Well, that's one big let down" Solution sighed.

"How boring" Lupusregina commented.

"A true pity" Entoma said.

"I really wanted that man, though" Solution frowned " I found the smell of his fear to be absolutely arousing"

"Well, I'd say you had your fun" Yuri said " Don't get greedy Solution"

" I'm okay with it" Entoma said "I ate a lot. Also it felt good, mating after such a long time"

Yuri turned her head to Dorea.

"What will you do now?"

She shrugged.

"Who knows. There's nobody waiting for me in town. I'll probably just leave. I'll try to find my way elsewhere".

Yuri handed her a sack of coins.

"This is gold. Take it. And may you find your way"

"G-gold? All of it?"

Dorea's eyes filled with tears of gratitude.

"We must go now" Yuri said "We must report to Lord Ainz"

Dorea bowed before them.

"Thank you, all of you. I'll be forever grateful"

A few miles from them, on the top of a hill, Gregory finally get off the horse and fell to his knees. He gazed at the rising sun.

Another day to live, he thought.

Then, he covered his face with his hands and started crying.

9 days later

It was almost noon.

The inn was crowded.

Gregory was sitting at the table, eating as fast as he could. He had spent the night there, but he didn't want to linger in that place anymore. Afterall, he was a man on the run.

He had spent the last nine days watching his back. He honestly didn't know if those monsters were still chasing him, but he wasn't too eager to find out.

He couldn't eat or sleep for three days straight. After that, he robbed an old man to finally buy some food. His ankle was now finally healed, which was a godsend: that damn leg had slowed him down a lot.

Will I ever stop running? He thought. Will I keep moving from town to town for the rest of my life?

He honestly didn't know. What he did know, was that he wasn't going to stop moving just yet.

Someone walked through the front door: a stranger wearing a hood and a long cloak.

The newcomer took his hood off, and Gregory's blood froze.

It was Dorea.

As their eyes met, Gregory stopped breathing.

Then, as adrenaline kicked in, he got off the table and started running away from her.

He got behind the counter, ignoring the owner who tried to stop him, and went through the backdoor.

She's after me! He thought, givin in to panic. Dorea and her monster friends are hunting me down!

But as he moved a few steps outside, he stopped.

Wait a second…

Scared as he was, he didn't even took a second to think about Dorea's reaction. Didn't she look just as scared as he was?

Yes, she did.

She had raised her eyebrows and opened her mouth in surprise. There was definitely fear in her eyes.

Does that mean...that she's alone? Why is she here, then?

She didn't expect to see him. So, she wasn't hunting him down after all?

Maybe she just decided to leave town as well. Maybe, she feared retaliation from the surviving members of the Crimson Viper. If she followed the main road as he did, meeting each other at the same inn was not so unlikely.

If she really is alone...if she's really scared of me...does that mean she's trying to flee from this place as well?

He went around the building, where the horses were hitched up.

There she was.

Dorea had his back to him. She was frantically untying her mount.

She's running from me…

In that moment, something got into him. Fear was replaced by shame. Shame was replaced by anger. An uncontrollable, blinding rage.

He thought about that night he spent with hands on his ears, curlep up in the corner of the kitchen. He thought about Boyce, who begged for his help while he was on his knees, powerless, with a broken arm.

Gregory unsheated his knife.

Bitch is gonna pay.

He moved quickly.

Before she knew it, he was behind her.

He put the knife to her throat.

"Don't move" he growled "Or I'll cut you up"

"Gregory..."

"Hello, Dorea. How have you been these days?"

She had stiffened up.

"What do you want?" she asked. Yes, he wasn't wrong: there was fear in her voice.

"Let me think...how about hurting you? That would be appropriate, don't you think?"

She was trembling. Only slightly, like she was trying to fight it, but he could tell.

"I saved you" she said "Those women were going to track you down in the blink of an eye. But I stopped them. I told them I wanted you to live. I gave you another chance"

"Oh, really?"

Tears of anger filled Gregory's eyes.

"What about Boyce, then? What about Chuck, Randal, Basil and Melvin? They did nothing to you. They never hurt you. Why did they have to die?"

She didn't answer.

They stayed still for a few seconds, without saying anything.

"Are you going to kill me, now?" Dorea finally asked, with quivering voice.

Gregory hesitated.

"No" he snarled "Not yet, anyway. You're not getting off so easily. You're coming with me"

"Coming...where to?"

"To my room" he said, with a grin on his face "Don't try to flee or ask for help. If you behave real nice, maybe, just maybe I'll let you live"

They walked through the front door again.

Gregory had put an arm under her cloak, pointing the knife at her heart. They walked across the dining room and went upstairs.

Once they finally entered Gregory's room, he pushed her on the bed.

She looked at him with big, scared eyes; but Gregory was not going to show her any mercy.

How many Crimson Vipers begged for their lives? He thought, clenching his teeth.

"Strip" he ordered.

He saw anger in her eyes. Ah yes, that pride Dorea always showed, and that Gregory loathed so much.

"Strip, or I'll put this knife through your heart and be done with it. I'm not fooling around"

Slowly, as it cost her any bit of willpower she had, she started undressing.

Yes, he thought, overwhelmed by a ferocious joy. Where is your pride now, you whore?

As she unveiled her perfect body, Gregory stopped thinking about his dead comrades.

He had desired her for so long: even now that he felt hatred for her, she was a dream come true.

Dorea was still trying to act proud, but she was almost in tears. This only aroused Gregory even more.

He laid on her, still holding the knife in one hand; with the other one, he grabbed one of her tits.

"Don't even think about acting funny now" he gasped, already suffering the effects of his own sexual drive. He squeezed her breast with all of his strenght; she moaned in pain.

"Not so tough without your monster friends, uh? You fucking whore"

At that moment, Gregory understood something about himself: he truly loved her, in the wrongest way. He both hated and loved her: he wanted her for himself, he wanted her to cower in fear before him...he wanted to squeeze her tits like he just did, inflicting pain on her while she was helpless.

And Gregory also learned something else: he truly was scum. He enjoyed hurting the weak. He enjoyed subjugating and hurting women. He enjoyed feeling in control.

Yes, he thought, while squeezing her breast even harder. This is who I am. This is what I love. And nothing will ever change that.

"How do you like it, you fucking who-..."

He didn't finish that sentence. Because something very strange had just happened.

His hand had just sunk into Dorea's breast.

Speechless, he looked at her. The corners of Dorea's mouth were now curved up to an unnatural degree, in the huge, distorted smile of a monster.

"I was praying for you to do that" she whispered.

This voice…

That wasn't Dorea's voice at all. He knew whose voice that was.

Upon realizing the truth, he tried to scream, but she covered his mouth with a hand.

"Shhh, don't spoil the moment, darling" she said. Gregory tried to pull his hand out, but it sank even deeper. Then, with fight-or-flight reaction finally kicking in, he stabbed her through the chest, with all of his strenght. Both knife and hand were sucked into her body, without doing any damage.

"You know, I feared I wouldn't be able to have you" she said " When we reported our actions to Lord Ainz, he was so pleased he wanted to reward us. I asked for you, and he agreed, on one condition: I had to make sure you still were scum. How fortunate that you didn't disappoint me"

Pain started. His fingers were being pierced by thousands of needles. With Solution's hand covering his mouth, he could only let out suffocated screams.

"It wasn't hard to assume this form" she said " Shaping my larynx to the point of reproducing her voice took a bit of practice, though. I don't mind devouring you while looking like this: she is quite beautiful, afterall, and you lusted for her, didn't you?"

Gregory tried to beg, as his arms sank up to the shoulders. His face was just two inches away from her breasts.

"Oh" she added " I almost forgot. You missed your friends, right? Well, I kept them alive all this time just for you..."

Several skinned arms burst out Solution's chest. The stench of burning flesh filled the room. They were wriggling in pain, and they grabbed him, clinging to him as he were a lifeline. Then, several faces emerged as well. They were almost completely fleshless; some of them were horribly fused together.

"Heeelp meeeee!" one of the faces yelled.

"Pull...me...ooout!" gasped another one.

The hands kept pulling him in.

No, he thought, completely givin in to panic, let me go, I don't want to end up like you…

"Yes!" Solution screamed in pleasure,as Gregory's face entered her "Yes! Come! Come to mama!"

At the first floor of the inn, screams and moans from Gregory's room could be heard.

"Youngsters sure are lively" an old man said, taking a sip of beer.

"She was such a beautiful woman" another one said "I'm jelous"

"Is he...is he crying?" a third guy asked "Damn, it sounds like she's destroying him!"

The old man shrugged.

"Bah! Women these days...they'll eat you alive!"

THE END

Writing this story was fun, but also hard work. Please share with me your thoughts about it. Any kind of feedback means a lot.

If you'd like to read more stories like this, check my Hokuto no Ken fanfiction.