Here we go.


Beta: College Fool

Cover Art: Dishwasher1910

Book 9: Chapter 11


The building was on fire.

The fact I was stood before it was suspicious, the torch in my hand was evidence and the look on my face spoke my confession. Not that there was much in the way of doubt there. I'd set the building on fire. At least with this one the people inside had been evacuated in time. The sun was setting over Vale, but bright light still covered the city, partly from the merrily burning buildings but also from the sacks of flesh-boring Grimm that rained down from the sky, caught and set on fire to become burning comets.

"Any more civilians?" Blake asked, coming up behind me, her face lit with an orange glow.

"None. I think the area has been sealed off. Everyone safe?"

"Yes." Blake wiped some gunk off her arm, remnants of what we'd quickly come to term `fleshborers`. Not the nicest of names but it fit their purpose. "The things are vicious but small and easily dispatched. They appear more a problem for civilians than Heroes."

"Salem is spreading terrors. News of this will get out across the city…"

"Not much we can do there." Blake tugged my arm. "Come. We should visit quarantine."

The barrage of fleshborers had begun to slow. There was no telling if that was Salem running out of material or deciding to hold off now that we had an answer. The occasional fiery rain from above heralded their arrivals but the Mages were useful at picking them off and no living fleshborers came out the burning sacks. Our main goal had been to clean up and isolate those which had before the fire was used. The carnage some of these things could cause if they escaped into the city would be immense.

To that effect a quarantine area had been set up around it. Soldiers stood in phalanxes on the streets to ensure no Grimm slipped by, and the buildings on the edge had been set to the torch. Their inhabitants were shuffled off deeper into the city, though not before visiting a quarantine area where they were processed and checked for parasites. Blake and I faced the same scrutiny.

"You're clear," a tired looking Priest said after running his hands up and down my body.

"If you don't mind me asking, how do you check for these?" I asked.

The man looked like he did mind my curiosity but answered regardless. "We look for open wounds. There's no spell to check if a Grimm has entered your body but these things are hardly subtle. Even if someone swallowed one, they'd be showing the effects as these things eat their way out."

That wasn't an image I needed, and I showed it with a grimace. They had a point, though, and the healers would be able to detect the entry wounds – or even wounds within the body. "Have there been any cases of infected civilians?"

"None. Infiltration doesn't seem to be their purpose. We are continuing regardless. Better safe than sorry."

Having a feeling my turn for asking questions was over, I hurried out in time to bump into Blake, who had also been given the all clear. Labour Caste members were being processed out at a similar pace, then taken by Soldiers and led deeper into the city, probably to refugee camps or communal accommodation. I wondered how many of these people had lashed insults at the refugees before, only to now find themselves among their number.

"All clear," Blake said. "You?"

"Same. As is everyone here, apparently."

"Those things were hardly subtle. I saw Soldiers wounded by them who died within minutes. I doubt anyone could have one inside them and make their way to the quarantine in one piece, let alone hide the fact and slip into the city."

"I'm just glad we dealt with them in time."

A blur of red heralded Ruby's arrival, the Reaper coming to a sudden halt with a sway of her red cloak. "Jaune, Blake," she gasped. "Orders." She held out a rolled-up piece of paper to each of us, then darted away before we could respond.

Blake unfurled hers and read it quickly. She was scowling by the time she was through. "Those idiots."

"What is it?"

"My cultists." Her lips twisted at the `my` part. "They're causing trouble downtown. They seem to think the raining fire is an omen of the end times and they're chanting prayers from the rooftops. I'm tempted to help them `slip` off. I've got to go." She loped off, ducking into an alley.

My own orders had me moving in the opposite direction. Apparently, some of the recently homeless had banded together to try and take food from one of the storage sites. Not sure why I was called to help but I ran in the direction, meeting up with Pyrrha en route.

"Food stores?" she asked, jogging alongside me. I nodded back. "Me too. Don't they realise we're in a siege?"

"They've lost their own food and homes." I said. "They must be afraid they'll starve."

"We wouldn't let them. Poverty and disease in the city would be the last thing we need right now. Can't they understand that?"

Wasn't it more that she couldn't understand them? Expecting normal folk to understand the nuances of a siege was too much. We weren't taught that. I wondered if that was why I'd been ordered to deal with it; because I might be able to understand and talk sense into them.

We sprinted down the street and came out onto a crossroad. Remembering the direction wasn't necessary. A large mob of people waving torches and assembled craft tools were shouting to the south. About one hundred strong, the mob weren't quite at the pitchfork waving stage, but only because they weren't farmers. Hammers, brooms and lone stick were the order of the day. On the other side of them, a nervous collection of guards stood before a food silo. Only six in number, they were almost certainly low-level Soldiers set to defend what was an important, but expected to be unchallenged, location. I'd put them level twenty to twenty-five at best. Most of the Labour Caste were probably around level fourteen to sixteen.

If the mob moved on them, they'd sweep the soldiers away.

"Around," I hissed, catching Pyrrha's arm and dragging her off the road. "We approach from their back and we'll scare them forward, right into the guards."

Pyrrha nodded and ran ahead, ducking through a thin alley between two buildings. It led out onto the street perpendicular to the food store, allowing us to run back down and reinforce the beleaguered guards from the side. The crowd hesitated at our arrival, but only for a second. There was just the two of us, and while we could easily force all these people back, they didn't know that. We must have looked young to them.

"Silence!" I yelled, and predictably earned nothing more than louder shouting and threats. Had I been a Noble, or even a real Knight, my high Charisma would have probably shut them up in an instant. I tried to raise my voice over it. "Let us talk! Shouting and waving tools does no one any good. We are not your enemies!"

That seemed to work. Some of the people stopped shouting; not all – a mob was only as smart as its dumbest member – but a good half of them quietened down a little, though they didn't drop their weapons or move away.

"We need food!" someone yelled. They weren't particularly loud but the roar of agreement and the chants of "Food! Food! Food!" worked to fill in the gaps. The chant was taken up quickly, soon eclipsing anything else.

I waved my hands to try and win a chance to speak.

"They're not listening," Pyrrha said.

"Give me a chance at least!" I turned back to the crowd. "You will have food! No one is trying to make you starve. Your homes may have been lost tonight but we are handing out food every morning. No one in Vale will starve."

"We ain't got none!" a woman shrieked. "Our pantries burned down!"

The refugees and tribespeople from Vacuo didn't even have pantries or food stores, and they weren't forming mobs threatening to burn the place down. I didn't bother pointing that out for obvious reasons. "You will be given food tomorrow!" I said instead. "Morning is only five or six hours away. There's no need to resort to violence."

"Easy for you to say! You're a Hero! I bet you eat food constantly!"

"I'm Labour Caste!" I cried out.

"Greedy hero!"

"Caste traitor!"

"King's dog!"

"Food! Food! Food!"

"Rahh! Rahh! Rahh!"

Shit. They were really going to do it – working themselves up into a frenzy and clashing impromptu weapons together. I looked back, all too aware that the food store had a wooden roof and door. The food inside would be stored in barrels, crates and sacks as well, all flammable. One misplaced torch and the whole thing could go up, starving so many more people.

Even if Pyrrha and I could defeat them all, there was no guarantee someone wouldn't slip through. Beside me, Pyrrha readied herself for combat, shield held before her.

Pain blossomed as something struck my face. I staggered back – complete silence falling over the scene as I almost fell. A hand came up, touching my cheek. Blood. Not much, but a small smear across my skin.

A rock sat on the floor before me.

The mob tensed. There was no telling who threw it, but I saw in an instant that they were prepared for violence and wouldn't give the thrower up. Anger burned through me, fed by the pain I felt but also from how quickly the people my friends were risking their lives to protect could turn on us. And all because they refused to believe we'd provide them food in the morning. Anger, bitter and afraid, they lashed out at the only people they could. The Grimm were out of their reach.

"Open the stores," I snapped. "Give them food."

"What?" Pyrrha stared at me. "Jaune, we can force them back. They can't break through us."

"And risk the whole place burning down? I'm not worried about us, Pyrrha. I'm worried about these guards. About the food and the people it'll keep alive in the coming days." I raised my voice, speaking both to the crowd and the soldiers. "Give them enough for a small meal each but no more. If a single one of them tries to take more or force the issue." I drew my sword with a rasp. "Cut them down."

The threat, bluff or not, did its job. The soldiers grumbled but opened the wooden door, ferrying out supplies which they placed in front of me. I called up people two at a time, letting them take enough for themselves and no more. They glared at me, frustrated at even that, but I'd given them what they wanted, and they couldn't complain.

Importantly, I had Pyrrha filter them off to the left and right, dispersing the size of the mob with each new person that came forward. No one argued, perhaps knowing that if they walked back through the hungry mob with food in hand, they'd only have it taken from them. As the size of the crowd dwindled, so did their threat.

We could stop feeding them here, but it might feed their anger. Better to cut this off at the source. I kept the food coming until the last of them were walking away, cheering their so-called victory over us and snacking on fruit and veg. The guards sealed the storehouse and stood before it glumly. I doubted they were much pleased.

"We'll ask for more guards for you tomorrow," I said, earning a few tired but grateful nods. "If anyone blames you for giving food out, tell them I ordered it."

"Aye, sir." The apparent leader sighed. "Not much to do, was there? Better this than losing everything."

"The problem is whether this will inspire them to try again," Pyrrha said. "It's worked for them once so they may come by the next time they're hungry. Not to mention everyone who sees them parading their ill-gotten gains through the city. I'll be surprised if they make it back to the camps without being mugged."

"Do you think I was wrong to let them have it?"

"I don't know." Pyrrha offered me a tired smile of her own, sheathing her sword and looping her shield onto her back. "If it were because you felt sorry for them I'd say yes, but you made the call out of fear the storehouse would be torched. If it had been, we'd have lost a hundred times as much."

I didn't like letting them get away with it either. It felt like I was rewarding bad behaviour.

Pyrrha sighed. "We'll just have to trust in the guards to look over it. Or ask Coco to post some of the other students here. I'll talk to her," she said. "I doubt there will be another mob like this tonight. You should go back to the Lodge and rest. You'll be needed in the CCT again tomorrow morning."

"Right." I didn't argue this time. They could sleep through the next two shifts if they had to, but I needed to rise with the sun. "Tell the others I'm okay if they ask. Good luck."

I loped away, feeling heavy and worn. As I cut through the streets and passed the quarantined area, I saw Nora and Ren guarding Mages using water magic to quell the fires, working from the outside in to prevent them spreading. No sooner had their Mages seen to one was Ruby there with fresh orders for them in the guise of a scroll. They rolled it out, read, and jogged off in that direction, Ruby in the other, shouting a `goodnight` as she blurred past me.

It was a busy night for all, both within and without the walls. The barrage had well and truly stopped now, the only light that from the shattered moon and burning buildings, which were slowly being put out. I had no idea how many had died but it felt to me like we'd handled ourselves well.

One more night bought with blood and sweat. I dreaded to think what Vale would look like in a week's time. Or in a month. When I reached the Lodge, I was the only one there; everyone else was out dealing with fires, fleshborers or leading the new refugees to camps. Making my way up to my bedroom alone, I laid down and was asleep almost immediately.

/-/

Though I'd gone to bed alone I woke up with Blake under the covers beside me. She was fast asleep when I crawled out of bed and wrapped herself in the blankets without opening an eye when my heat disappeared. She rolled into the warm spot I'd left and began to snore quietly. I smiled and debated a kiss on her forehead but decided she needed sleep more than affection and let her be. There was no telling for how long she'd been made to watch the cultists.

I was the only one awake with the sun and the first bell. Even Velvet was asleep, probably having stayed up to make food for the others. I crept by her room and into the kitchen, made myself a quick sandwich and ate it on the cold journey up toward the CCT. On the way I passed by Coco and instructing a squad of young students.

"-job is to watch the food stores and show a united front. Don't start anything and follow the orders of your older students. You'll have someone from my Guild leading each group. Remember, people will be at their most desperate when you're handing food out. Be firm and don't put up with any shit. It might seem nice to toss food into the crowd, but you'll start a riot."

A chorus of understanding met her words and Coco sent them off. I caught sight of Ellayne among them – and she saw me, waving happily. I wasn't sure how she could smile like that, possibly because she hadn't seen the fleshborers. I waved back and tried for my best grin.

"I heard about last night," Coco said, stepping up to me once the kids were gone. Where I felt tired, she looked like a corpse resurrected. Her skin was pale and the bags under her eyes looked more like trenches. "Good work on – yawn – sorting that mob out."

"You need sleep," I said. "It'll not do the defence any good if you collapse."

"I'm going for that now," she replied, waving me off. "A good six hours if I can manage it. Just needed to see the brats off before I do. You saw those things, right? The fleshborers. I need your honest opinion. Can first years deal with them?"

I sucked in a breath through my teeth. The question was a heavy one, especially since it would determine whether people were sent against those things. I wanted to say no on principle but knew Coco needed to know the truth. Not what I wanted to say.

"Level twenty and above shouldn't have problems. Tell people to stick in pairs. Those things need exposed skin so people in heavier armour will have an easier time. Or those with fire-based Skills. The Soldiers were only in trouble when they got surrounded."

Coco yawned again. "Level twenty. Got it."

"And if one gets on you, pull it off. Out your body if you have to. If it gets inside…"

"Fleshborers. Got it." It wasn't hard to figure out what they might do once inside. "Thanks for that. I was getting nothing but fucking horror stories last night. With any luck we won't have to deal with them again, but I wouldn't put it past that bitch to launch some at Beacon sooner or later. I need to know what to do when that happens."

Not if, I noticed. When. Maybe she was just preparing for every eventuality. I couldn't fault it.

"Quarantine the area and set it alight is about the best we have at the moment. I don't want to suggest that in the Guild Village, but that might be the only option. At least you can draw your drawbridge up."

"Yeah, sure, and leave the people on the walls to die. We're already getting smacked in one siege. I'm not going to condemn my Guild to another." She paused and rubbed her eyes, sighing. "Sorry. Not in the best of moods right now."

"It's fine. Get some sleep."

"I'll do that." The Archer turned away, waving over one shoulder. "Good luck today, kid."

Kid. I shook my head, wondering if I was higher level than Coco now. I probably was, being artificially inflated by Raven's torture and my own month of high-intensity smithing. Some things would never change, though. I'd had Coco boost me once and she'd hold that over my head for the rest of my life. If she could promise me a long one, I'd let her.

For now, time for another day in the CCT.

/-/

"Again!"

"PURIFY OBJECT!"

The tower rocked under the assault. My body and mind were rocked as well and I bit down, riding it out with my teeth clenched together. Dull pain throbbed through my jaw. The trembling subsided, the tingling and burning sensation in my hands dimming.

"Another!" Winter warned.

I pushed down again. "PURIFY OBJECT!"

A fresh wave struck the tower, imbued with my spell, and yet again the black energy was blown aside, shattering left and right of the tower and burning in the air, fading away in motes of dark light. Yet again, the tower stood, gleaming and unbowed.

The same could not be said for me.

"Hold." Ironwood commanded. "There doesn't seem to be any more coming."

"You did well," Winter said, kneeling and holding out a canteen of water, pouring it out over my hands while I moaned in relief. The crystal water, cold as ice, felt sinfully good. "Take a break," she said. "We'll shout if another attack occurs."

"I doubt there will be," Ironwood said. "She only ever launches three."

I'd noted that as well, though I'd been afraid to point it out in case she tossed a fourth and my words cost us the CCT. It seemed like the thing she might do. But every day now, Salem cast three spells on the CCT. Three just so happened to be as many as I could block before spellburn set in. Coincidence? Probably. It wasn't like she was modulating her attacks to suit my needs.

"At this point I've no idea what it means," Ironwood said. "It could be that her spell is draining, but it might just as easily be her way of gauging your location. By casting on the CCT she ensures you are here at all times."

"Why is she afraid of me…?"

"I doubt she is. It's more the versatility of your spell. If I wove the walls of Vale with Ironwood as I'd originally planned, you could make the walls impervious to her attacks. Perhaps even to the Grimm themselves."

The initial rush of joy I felt was muted with a cold dash of reality. I couldn't sustain my spell. It was cast for a moment and only lasted a few more. The amount I imbued the CCT with was drawn aside by the very attack it blocked, so it wasn't like I'd have been able to make the walls completely invulnerable. At best, I could block a couple of attacks. Three to be precise.

He had a point, though. Salem might want me kept here and away from anywhere else, where she needed her spells not to be interrupted. Even knowing that might be her plan it wasn't like I could afford to travel. The CCT was too important to give up.

Looking through the Augur, I could see that the Constructs were still holding the breach in the wall. Penny was there, a whirlwind of green energy – and she'd been there since the first moment the wall fell, fighting ceaselessly and killing hundreds or even thousands of Grimm in what had to be almost sixty hours of constant combat for her. No human could match that.

We couldn't afford to lose it.

The other Constructs fell more regularly, and the occasional Grimm made it through; cut down by Soldiers in formation on the other side of the Constructs. The Constructs kept the Grimm from attacking those soldiers however and had probably saved hundreds of lives by dying in the place of living people.

On the walls to the left and right of the breach, and around all of Vale and Beacon itself, the fighting was fierce. Due to the unending nature of the Grimm's attack, there was never any sense of a reset. No opportunity to put the Mages back out in front and have them clear the fields as they had on the initial assault. Instead, they hurled magic up into the air and over like catapults. Explosions rent through the advancing hordes but unfortunately never came close to destroying the `living siege ramps` formed by the Grimm at the walls. I had to assume that was out of fear of spells hitting our own side and giving the Grimm an easy foothold.

The siege ramps themselves were an odd and ceaseless thing. By their very nature the Grimm at the bottom were crushed and dissipated, causing the ramps to lose height continuously. But that only mean that the Grimm ascending them were added to the construction, the whole thing dropping by several feet and then rising again as more packed on.

Ironically, the gates of Vale were the safest parts. While Grimm bunched up against them in ridiculous numbers, they did so with so much weight packed together that those at the front couldn't attack or damage the doors. They probably couldn't even move. The metal-studded wood was several feet thick and showed no sign of buckling. Instead of going through the gates, the Grimm were trying to rise over.

And so far, there was no sign of subterranean Grimm. Just the Nevermore, who had backed off since their bombardment the night before.

I wasn't sure if we were holding or not. It felt like things were going to plan for we still had the walls and the breach Salem caused hadn't enabled the Grimm to get into the city. With the apparent strategy being to hold the walls and hope she ran out of Grimm, it looked like we were doing well.

But it was by its very nature a meatgrinder of a battle. Individual losses counted more than ground gained, especially on our side where we had quality against Salem's quantity.

"Isn't there some way for us to take a shot at her?" I asked the Archmage. "She keeps hurling spells our way. Why not return some?"

"The distance is a problem," he said. "Every spell requires a degree of force behind it, which is raw magical power, usually determined by how much of yourself you put into a spell. Salem is a good five hundred metres away at least. That she can reach us is an indication of her power, not the norm we can all stand by."

"We don't have the range, then? Can't we do an array like with portals?"

"We could, and that might grant the power required to reach her, but it would take a lot of Mages working together and it would exhaust them." Ironwood pointed to the augur showing Salem in the distance. "And the spell would take time to travel. That is our biggest problem. The CCT is a stationary object and cannot react or move. Salem is not bound by these same rules."

Meaning that she'd have all the time in the world to get out the way while a fireball or lightning bolt had to travel half a kilometre. I knew from experience she was fast enough to do that, beating both Raven and myself in speed. To say nothing of her blocking it, either with a spell of her own or a flock of Nevermore.

"Damn it."

"If she moves closer, we will try. Less travel time and a bigger chance of surprising her."

"Why would she move closer?"

"She'll have to when the walls fall." Ironwood leaned on his staff and gazed mournfully at the scenes of Vale's defence. "Right now, we're all but waiting for her to tire and bring another section of wall down. And another. Then another. But once the walls are well and truly lost, she won't be able to interact with the battle from such a distance."

"You think she'll enter the city!?"

"She'll almost certainly have to. When the fighting is house to house and street to street, she will need a closer view of what she wishes to destroy. That is not something to look forward to, however. It will mean we've been pushed back to the point that Labour Caste will be expected to take up arms."

I knew there was no offence there. He didn't mean me; I was the exception. He was referring to those honestly weak people who couldn't hope to stand up to the average Grimm, let alone an army of them. Armed with my weapons as they would be, they'd be able to strike harder but not survive any better than they had before.

But I could see what he meant. If Salem had to walk among the streets of Vale then Assassins, Mages and Archers could sneak up on her and shoot from buildings. Alone, they might not be able to kill her, but damage would be dealt. Even if Salem was fast and powerful, she could make mistakes. If she was caught by surprise enough times, she would fall.

In theory. A lot of this was theoretical.

"Can we maybe open a portal close to her?" I asked. "Could we open a portal and fire into it, using that to cut the distance and reaction time down?"

"Same problems," Ironwood said, apparently not upset by my questions. "She would have time to react to the portal, which she would surely sense being opened close to her. If she were to send an attack through it before we could react… let's just say it wouldn't be pretty."

Yet again, she had the initiative. All we could do was react to her attacks and that was partly because we held the defensible location. I supposed it was no different to a regular siege, where unless you sallied out you had to wait for the attacker to make the first move. Salem's spells could easily have been replaced with siege weapons from Mistral, and with much the same devastation.

Unbidden, my eyes strayed to Ironwood's desk, where a still-live fleshborer was bound in a small metal cage. It wasn't moving but I knew from how it had been earlier that it was alive.

"It enters an inert state when it doesn't have enough blood," Ironwood said, tracing my vision. "The Soldiers have reported that not five hours after the quarantine was officially instilled, the fleshborers in the streets have stopped moving and fallen into a slumber of some kind. They've been easy to round up and kill since."

"They need blood to keep eating?"

"Seems that way. I doubt this was a design choice so much as a necessity. They were far too quick and aggressive for what are essentially worms – and they were delivered in chrysalis pods. That makes me think blood was included in the pods to keep them sustained until she sacks landed, dispersing them ready to hunt and feast."

I shivered. It was easy for me to think them not a threat given my high level, but I could just imagine how helpless the average person would feel. There could be no surviving something like that and the death they granted was a horrible one.

"They're harmless now, then?"

"Harmless? No. Inert, yes." Ironwood came over to the cage and pricked his finger on the corner of his metallic table. He let a drop of blood fall through the bars, onto the face of the terrifying little creature. It dripped down into the mouth.

Suddenly, the thing came back to life, thrashing and slamming its little body against the bars in an effort to reach us. I stepped back, disgusted. Ironwood held a hand above. His eyes flickered and glowed.

The fleshborer was incinerated.

"The information has been passed on," he said, dusting his hands clean. "Anyone wounded will be prevented from working on clean-up of the fleshborers. They are to be burned where they lay. We won't take the risk of transporting them and causing an outbreak."

"Salem can make more. She made a dragon on the Mirage Isles…"

"Yes. These were created by her to suit a purpose. That is not what worries me, however."

"What is?" I asked.

"The pods they came within contained blood to keep the fleshborers active. This must have been human blood because I tested this one with blood from a cow and it yielded no result." Ironwood's face became haunted. "The question is, where did she acquire this sudden bounty of human blood?"

My entire world twisted.

Ansel. My family. They hadn't made it to Beacon.

No. No! I couldn't just assume the worst. Not like that. I shook my head and tried to stand, swayed and had to be caught by Winter. My fingers found her arm, trying to pull free, but all I could do was hold on and struggle to breathe.

"M-My family…"

"Calm," she said. "We know nothing. There are many villages outside Vale."

Yes, but Ansel was the closest. So close that they should have made it to Vale with weeks to spare. I had no way of knowing for sure, no way of sending a message out past the horde surrounding us. The not knowing was the worst part. Nausea tore through me and I was nearly sick.

"Can you stand?" Winter asked. "Or shall I take you to the healers?"

"N-No. It's fine." I doubted she believed that. "There isn't much I can do from here."

They would have seen Salem coming and they had plenty of warning. I have to trust they'd have made a run for it. There's no way mom and dad would have risked the girls like that. They weren't idiots. None of them were.

I sat up in Winter's arms. "I'm okay. Or I'll be okay."

"Take the time to rest if you need it." Ironwood said. "You're too important to let fall to exhaustion. If you can, you may sleep here. We will wake you if the situation changes."

Not having anything better to do, I followed their advice.

Two hours later, Winter woke me. The situation had changed.

"The storehouse you worked at last night is ablaze."


Welp. Honestly, fleshborers makes me think of Warhammer. I think the Tyranids had a species or something that was called that. Didn't take inspiration from that; didn't even have a name for these things last week, only that they were inspired from The Mummy and various other horror movies where worms and insects eat people. But "fleshborer" just sort of made sense.

I've always been terrified of that idea of being helpless. Like, the monsters in films themselves are usually fine because it's one big thing, or several big things and you can do something to escape it. But the idea of tiny little things jumping all over you and bearing you down under an onslaught of biting and clawing and digging into your skin…

Yeah, that scares me.


Next Chapter: 9th September

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