Going to confirm my period of no updates this Christmas as two weeks. It's a lot, I know, but I need a break both for family reasons and to slow down and take a few breaths. It's a chance for me to read some books, refresh my mind and take on a few lessons from great authors to further improve my style.
Dates there will be no uploads are:
Start (no update) – Thursday 22nd December
Return (update) – Thursday 5th January
Also, this chapter has distressing imagery, content and connotations. Be warned.
Cover Art: Kirire
Chapter 33
Despite the town hall building being thoroughly bombed out and destitute, it was filled with people. They came in dirty but whole suits of what once must have been high quality, and they continued about the place with empty clipboards, broken laptops and name badges, as if the crisis had never hit. There was even a burnt-out reception with a woman sat on a stack of metal boxes behind it, one leg crossed over the other and picking at her fingernails. Her skin was muddy and streaked with soot, and her hair was frazzled with split ends here and there. She looked up at them with wireframe glasses without the lenses and smiled.
"Welcome to town hall. Do you have an appointment?"
"What-" asked Blake.
"Yes." Juniper interrupted her. "We're here to speak with the council."
"Let me check if they are free." The receptionist picked up her phone and clicked away on the buttons. The fact the receiver hung in her hand with the wire long destroyed didn't occur to her, nor did the fact that the button presses achieved little more than dull clicks. There was no power anyway; the town hall was shrouded in darkness. In front of the both of them, the woman pretended her call had been answered. "Hello sir. I have two guests for you at reception. Hmhm. No, sir, I'll ask." She held her hand over the receiver. "Do you have an appointment?"
"Yes," said Blake, shrugging her shoulders. Juniper returned it.
"And who should I tell him is here?"
Blake had no idea. His wife felt like a long shot if the receptionist had known her, and though she was clearly insane that just meant the wrong answer might set her off. His masseurs? Local businesswomen? They were in suits. Luckily, Juniper had a better idea and took it while Blake hesitated. "We're ambassadors from Vale. We've been sent by Vale's Council."
"Oh, the Council!" The receptionist tittered and stood, wobbling on the spot. The reason was clear, as blood had already begun to spread across her ripped white blouse from an ugly stab wound in her abdomen. "I-I'm sorry I didn't recognise you. I'm all lightheaded today."
"That's fine," said Blake. "Why don't you sit down?"
"I'm sure we can find our own way," added Juniper. "You look like you need rest, girl."
The woman clunked back down with a gasp of relief. "It's a little too early for me to clock off," she said, "but I appreciate it. If you go straight through then you can ask anyone to show you the way. Just say Tiffany sent you."
"Thank you, dear." Juniper moved toward the double doors and pulled Blake along. "Have a good day."
They moved through the doors and into the corridor beyond, where a number of people were milling about aimlessly. There were no tasks to be done, no real work, and yet one person sat in front of a destroyed computer and tapped away at the keys, and another reached into a filing cabinet and pulled out a folder that was filled with ash instead of paper. At the end of the corridor, a man in a scorched police uniform stood to the left of a door, while another sat slumped and bloody at the right, with a metal pipe driven into his stomach. His lifeless eyes stared at them. No one else reacted to the dead body, not even his partner.
"What is going on here?"
"Shocking, isn't it?" said Juniper. She tugged Blake down the corridor but took a right before the lone officer, drawing her into what might once have been the records room. The desks were upturned and burnt now, and most of the filing cabinets had been tossed about. "If this weren't Mountain Glenn then you'd think they were under the effects of an anomaly trapping them in an illusion. The truth is worse. This is their coping mechanism. Some seek release in bloodshed and others in art or fetishism. These lot don't want release. They prefer to carry on and pretend everything is normal. Look at him."
She pointed, and Blake looked to the man at the computer. He was sweating, breathing feverishly, and his eyes kept flicking their way. He clearly saw them; there was no illusion involved; he knew they were there, and he was doing his best not to react. His eyes met Blake's and she stepped back at the sight of the tears in them. He was crying.
He knew the computer he was at was broken. He knew nothing was real. He knew who he was, where he was, and what he was doing.
Somehow, that was worse.
"This is messed up and all but it's been easy so far. Why did you have so much trouble?"
"Getting past Tiffany isn't the hard part. It's meeting Mountain Glenn's Council. It's getting information out of them." Juniper took a deep breath. "The truth is, we can't really expect to find any physical information here. The bombs have taken care of that." She opened a drawer and pulled out a handful of ash as evidence. "However, the city council have been here much longer than I have. They've been here since the start – and at the start they were doing their best to bring the Twilight City under control and order."
"You think they'll know something."
"They're the last sane people here. Or, well, they're the least insane of the original founders. They're cowardly, terrified little things, but I suppose that makes sense in a city filled with monsters. There's sanity in fear. It's when they stop showing fear at all that you need to be worried."
"Then you need my help for, what? Interrogating them?"
"Yes. When things go bad – and they will – I will hold off the reinforcements. You will continue applying pressure. Find out what you can. If needs be, run and leave me. I can die and return here in under a day. If that happens, find your way underground by the sewers. The napalm won't hit you there. Come back up after and wait in the lobby and I'll return. Or push on alone if you feel confident," she added, shrugging.
"I'll wait."
"Probably the wiser choice. I can't promise your survival, Blake, but I'll put the effort in. It's the least I can do." She moved away from the panicking and crying man, patting him on the shoulder as she went. "Let's go meet with the council. Leave Jeff here. There's not much that can be done for him."
They could kill him. Grant him mercy. Blake wasn't sure that was what he wanted however, and it might draw negative attention. If the officers and other staff were desperate to act like all was normal then the normal thing to do was challenge anyone threatening a member of staff. Blake shook her head and moved out the records room after Juniper, hearing dimly as Jeff broke down and started to sob into his destroyed keyboard. She kept her eyes ahead, on the officer, and approached the door.
"Ambassadors from Vale," said Juniper. "Tiffany urged us through."
"Where is she?" asked the officer.
"Still in reception. Poor girl is feeling a little under the weather." Juniper's eyes strayed to the man's partner, dead as he was. "Your friend isn't looking so hot either."
"Who, Steve? New father. Probably been kept up all night by the baby." He chuckled and opened the door for them. "Please forgive him. He's usually the life of the party."
He wasn't the life of anything at the moment. Blake wondered at the baby part, and how that might have worked. Mountain Glenn fell at 14:00 hours, so Steve had probably been on the job at the time. He would come back to life here, far away from his presumed wife and child. Could he ever make it back to them in time, or were they always dead when he got there? Blake shook the thoughts out her head and followed Juniper through and down a final corridor, toward an open door and the sound of chattering voices within.
It was a decently sized room with a long wooden table that had, by virtue of being deep inside the building, maintained its brown colour. The chairs, too, were in decent condition, even if a few had torn upholstery showing. The flag of Mountain Glenn hung ragged and torn at the back, behind the man who must have been the mayor. His table was flanked, left and right, by six people. Or, well, five now. One of them, a woman, had her face down on the wood and was bleeding out over it.
Five sets of faces turned their way. They were anxious, twitchy, wrinkled faces with haunted eyes. Their suits were frayed and torn, and their hands were clutched tight against their chests. Once, these had been the most powerful people in Mountain Glenn. Now, they reminded Blake of scared faunus trying to stay out the limelight and not draw attention.
"Who are you!?" barked the man at the head of the table. "What do you want!?"
"Ambassadors-" said Blake.
"LIES! The city is closed off!"
"They know the truth," said Juniper. "When this all started, they were some of the first to try and reach out. They know about the blockade, about the napalm and about the official story disseminated across Vale."
"A-And we know who you are!" warbled a woman on the left. "Y-You're ARC Corp. C-Come to kill us, have you? What good will it do? We're not anomalies, only victims of them. We're not your enemies. We tried our best."
If they were in the know then why hadn't they cooperated with Juniper in the past? Presumably, they'd been informed even before Mountain Glenn fell, in the same way the Councils of every kingdom knew who they were and what they did. There had always been the chance ARC Corp might have to operate in the city after all, and that meant they'd need help with cover stories. The council was supposed to provide that, as well as grease palms when the police or other groups started to get curious.
"We're not here to kill you," said Blake. "We're here to find and destroy the anomaly chaining you here. Get rid of it once and for all. Save you." Blake smiled in what she hoped was a comforting manner. Sympathy – or at least showing it outwardly - had never been her strongest suit. "We're here to put an end to this nightmare."
Juniper chuckled darkly. "That's my cue to hold the corridor." She walked out the door and closed it behind her. "Do what you must, Blake. Remember. No sacrifice is too great if it means saving Remnant from this."
The door opened and closed before Blake could ask what she meant – and before that could even happen, the mayor threw back his head and screamed. No words, no meaning, just a mindless, wordless howl of abject fear that was soon taken up by his consorts. Before she could question them, she heard answering shouts outside, and then combat as Juniper took to the horde.
"Calm down!" snapped Blake. "I'm on your side-"
"You're here to kill us!" howled one man. "As if it wasn't enough we're consigned to this half-life, now you want to take that away from us!"
"I'm the mayor!" shrieked the man at the head of the table. "Me! Me! Me! I worked hard to get this position, to win votes, and I won't give it up! Not until the next election!"
"It's been over twenty years. There should have been-" Blake pulled her head aside as one of them threw a brick at her. It struck the door and burst into dust. "Look, you have a duty to support ARC Corp in any investi-"
"HELP! HELP!" screamed the woman. "POLICE! POLICE!"
The small room devolved into absolute panic. One man rushed her, then backed away and started sobbing on the floor when she raised her weapon. Another ran to the back corner and started scratching on the wood as if to burrow through the wall. Another went under the table, while the mayor kept shouting for them to give their lives to protect him. No one made to.
They didn't want to be saved, she realised. Or, they did, but they also didn't want to die. Those two wishes were at odds with themselves as they couldn't be saved without dying, but it was human nature to cling onto hope where possible. Most people in Mountain Glenn had lost that and turned into monsters, but these people had clung to their day-to-day lives and civility. In doing so, they'd clung onto the hope that things would get better.
And ARC Corp didn't have the capability to make that happen. All they could do was end the madness and stop the spread, which was something that terrified them. Blake grimaced, remembering Juniper's warning. No sacrifice was too great. Now, she realised the sacrifice that was being asked of her was not just her life or her time. It was a sacrifice of her morals. To do something that she'd never done before, and that she hated. Oh, how Adam would laugh to see her. Or maybe he'd cry. Maybe even he had never wanted to see her do this.
Blake raised Gambol Shroud and pulled the trigger.
The woman at the table expired as her head exploded.
Dead, but not dead. Gone, but not gone forever. The others trembled but did not break. Threats on their life had little meaning. Helplessly, Blake stepped on the wrist of the man who had submitted before her and pressed down. He screamed and wailed as the bones in his wrist cracked. Blake felt sick.
"I am looking for the cause of this anomaly. You will tell me what I want to know."
The mayor stood. "Nev-" Gambol Shroud barked. The shot took him in the left leg and he went down screaming. "Arghhhhh!"
"I'm strapped for time," said Blake, all too aware of Juniper fighting in the hallway behind her. She had no idea how long the operative would be able to hold them off for. The hardest part was keeping her voice from wavering.
These people both hated and feared ARC Corp, and that worked to her favour, but if they so much as smelt her hesitation or her reluctance, then they would never break. She had one chance to make this work, and that meant she had to sell it. That meant she had to do it. Blake clenched her eyes shut, reared her leg back and struck her polished shoe into the man on the floor's chin, breaking it and throwing him on his back. He cried on blood and spit and fragments of bone, just as Blake cried inside at the fact she'd done it.
I never wanted this. Even when Adam and I joined Sienna, I swore it would never come to this.
"I'm not playing games." It was a wonder her voice stayed steady. "I don't have the time for them. I will count to five. If you don't tell me what I want, I'll kill one of you. Painfully. I'll make sure it's slow. I want to know where the anomaly is. One. Two." Blake let the second stretch out, hoping they'd take it. "Three." They were holding on. Stubborn. "Four."
Please, thought Blake. Please don't make me do this.
Terrified eyes stared back at her.
"Five…"
A bullet tore into the lower back of the man trying to claw his way out the room. He slumped and slid, paralysed by the shot through his spine but still, for now, alive. It wouldn't last long. He'd be dead within the minute. A painful minute, she could tell, as the man wept and sobbed like a broken child. Blake felt the shudder spread across her whole body.
"One," she croaked out. "Two…"
It continued like that. Blake blanked much of it out, keeping her eyes above their heads as she squeezed the trigger, as she smashed Gambol Shroud down onto their skulls, as she stepped on, kicked and used her ribbon to strangle them.
Within less than half a minute her gloves were stained with blood. Her shoes clicked on the wooden floor, and her nostrils filled with the coppery scent of it all, mixed with urine as they voided their bowels. Five were already dead. The sixth expired under her, choking and gasping for air before falling blissfully still.
Here she was, Blake Belladonna, murdering the democratically elected. Torturing them.
Even Adam hadn't gone that far.
"Four. Five." Woodenly, sullenly, Blake made her way behind another man sat at the table. The mayor had already bled out on the floor. "Another dies," she said, emotionless, at least on the outside, as she lay her blade over the man's throat. A quick slash, a gurgle, and he fell onto the table. "One. Two-"
"The hospital!"
Blake almost didn't hear it, so lost was she.
"No!" roared another man. Blake shot him dead before he could get out his seat and attack the one who had first spoken. He was a thin, wiry man with scraggly brown hair, and he was younger than the others by a fair margin. Young enough that it was a surprise to see him in power. Young enough that he'd had plenty of life left to live.
"Talk," said Blake. "Why the hospital?"
"B-Because it's the one place we were never able to penetrate. I don't know for certain, but when we first tried to bring the city under control the hospital was lost to us. It always has been. You can take the first two floors, but the third… it's alive. Like… Like some kind of flesh garden. The corridors are blocked by walls of skin and muscle and blood. They beat like a heart. It… It has to be the place. Whatever it is, it's there." His façade cracked and he asked, weakly, "Is… Is that enough? Do I… get to live…?"
I'm not a monster, thought Blake, then looked around at the absolute carnage she had wrought. Oh. I guess I am a monster…
"You get to live." Blake holstered Gambol Shroud. "I'm sorry this had to be done."
No sacrifice too great. If it meant protecting her mother and father from this. If it meant protecting helpless children, good people like Ruby, and the many millions of innocents who would be slaughtered by these rabid people running through the tunnels. Of if it would just stop the Council of Vale having to purge the city. Blake pushed the door open and walked out, only to freeze.
Juniper Arc stood transfixed by numerous hastily made spears. Dying. It didn't seem possible that she could be killed by normal people wielding crude weaponry, but then the answer hit her. Anomalies could not influence one another, nor be contained within the same individual. Juniper would have had Light of the Soul – aura – before she died in Mountain Glenn. Her aura would have been drained, reduced to nothing, and then she would have died before it could recuperate. Either that had killed the anomaly providing it within her, at which point the Twilight City took hold, or it meant that she woke up every time with no aura, and never had the time to recover it. Either way, she had always been vulnerable. As vulnerable as any other human being.
The woman heard the door and looked back, blood streaming down her chin. "W… Where…?" she croaked. Even dying, she was focused.
"Hospital," said Blake, a whisper. "Third floor."
Juniper smiled. "Good job. M-My son… chose…"
The woman dropped.
Blake ran.
Blake ran directly through them, her aura pushed to its max and causing weapons to bounce off her arms and shoulders. She burst through and to the other side, then sprinted away and out the building. Most of those attacking her went the other way, rushing to the aid of the council. Blake hit the outside and turned right, in the direction of the hospital, even as she realised she was alone in the middle of this fucked-up city. Alone and helpless.
Better to hide and wait for Juniper to come back. And she would. Now she knew the answer, she'd come unerringly here, and all Blake had to do was find somewhere safe to hide from the napalm-
An engine.
The sound of a rumbling engine.
She saw the headlights before she saw it, and she heard it first. One of the APCs that ARC Corp had brought – hopefully still driven by ARC Corp. It was coming down the road in such a way that it would pass the town hall. Blake moved without thinking, shucking off her jacket and flapping it wildly in the air like a flag.
When she had driven before, she'd been unable to see through a windscreen of cracked glass and blood and body parts, and she had stopped for nothing, running people over. There was just as good a chance this would do the same as she ran out onto the road in its path and flapped her jacket furiously. She might survive the impact if it knocked her away thanks to her aura, but if she was pulled under the wheels then she was as good as dead.
Then again, she was as good as dead anyway if she stayed here. Juniper had probably always suspected Blake might die, but that at least if she died close to the objective she could carry on and be found again. No sacrifice too great. None.
"Stop!" begged Blake as the APC tore toward her. "Please, stop! STOP!"
In what felt like the last second, she saw Jaune's face in the driving seat.
And he saw her.
Blake flinched and closed her eyes, only to hear the vehicle swerve with an agonising screech of its many huge tyres. Wind whistled past her and caused her hair to flap, even as the vehicle came to a horrifying stop several metres past her. It lurched on its wheels and then fell back, rumbling unhappily as its engine was killed. Her hands were shaking. Her whole body was shaking. There was a metallic crack as the door was slammed open.
"BLAKE!"
Jaune was out, stumbling onto the road. The back hatch opened as well and people poured out. A lot of people but, she noticed, not all of them. "Wait!" shouted Nicholas Arc. "We don't know if she's a part of the anomaly now!"
Jaune didn't stop. He ran forward and engulfed her in a hug, and Blake let him hold her full weight. She was too tired, physically and mentally, to stand on her own. The moment was broken as Terra cocked her rifle, however. Blake was all too aware she might kill the both of them "just to be sure".
"I didn't die!" shouted Blake. "I haven't died yet!"
"You would say that if you wanted us to take you safely out the city," said Nicholas. "How can we-"
"Actually, we can know," interrupted Coral. Blake had never felt so grateful for her still being alive. "There has not yet been a reset of the people killed since we arrived, so there would have been no opportunity for her to be resurrected had she died. As impossible as it sounds, she is still alive. Though how she got ahead of us and all the way here I don't know."
"I walked," said Blake, then felt stupid when their eyebrows rose. "I mean, I came straight here." They'd probably had to fight at the CCT and then search more places, and it was obvious they'd found the other group at some point because she could see Pyrrha in the passenger seat of the APC. "It doesn't matter – I've found where the anomaly is!"
That was enough to win over Nicholas. "How?" He shook his head. "No. Where?"
"The hospital." Blake pointed to it. "Third floor. I interrogated the city council and they said it's the one place in Mountain Glenn they've never been able to reclaim in over twenty years. They say it's alive. It's the only thing I can think of that fits."
"It's more than we have," said Nicholas. "But how did you know to come here at all?"
"Juniper brought me."
Silence.
Blake hadn't really thought about how shocking that statement would be when she said it. In her defence, she'd been almost hit and run down by them, and was now dealing with relief so powerful it was almost overwhelming. Jaune was supporting her by her arms now, and if not for that she probably would have collapsed.
"Mom…?" croaked Jaune.
Shit. Blake's eyes snapped open. "She's here- No, she's…" A wince. "Juniper brought me here, helped me find this place, but she had to hold the council's forces off while I interrogated them. She… didn't make it. I'm sorry."
No one knew what to say.
In which case, Nicholas offered his own brand of answer. "We're on a clock, people. We make for the hospital. You can talk while you walk."
Before they could follow, Jaune hugged her again. "You have no idea how relieved I am to see you," he whispered. "I thought... I thought..."
"I'm sorry..."
"Don't be." He let go of her and wiped at his eyes. If his family had seen him on the edge of tears she knew they would have mocked him. Fuck them. "Don't ever apologise for coming back alive, Blake. Never."
Blake smiled back. "I'm glad you're alive too."
"Wasting time!" shouted Nicholas. "Get a move on!"
/-/
The hospital was within walking distance, but that didn't mean they couldn't take advantage of the APC. They pulled up in front of it and parked it in the entranceway, then left Saphron, Terra and Pyrrha to man it and hold off anyone who came near. With everyone else piling out, Blake was able to get a proper look at what remained of ARC Corp, and it was worse than she'd imagined. Pyrrha was the last remaining employee, but the family had not come away untouched either.
One of the twins was gone, as was the youngest of the group, who she thought was called Lavender. Of the older ones, Coral's sister was absent, leaving only Saphron, Coral, Jade and Jaune alive. And the one girl, the absolute youngest, who had been left back in Vale. Three of the Arc children had presumably perished in Mountain Glenn. Dully, Blake was surprised Jaune was still alive without aura, or that he was still sane with his sisters dropping like flies.
The survivors naturally asked her about Juniper as they made their way into the abandoned hospital and up the stone staircase at the back. Blake told them what she could, both about her rescue and about how Juniper had kept to her sanity by committing herself wholly to ARC Corp's mission and tyring to rid Mountain Glenn of the anomaly, day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year.
"That sounds like her," said Nicholas, oddly proud. Emotionless, however. "A true operative until the very end, and then beyond it. We will finish this so that she can rest."
"Did… Did she have anything to say about us?" asked Jaune.
Jade and Coral listened, though in the latter's case it looked more out of morbid curiosity than love. Jade and Jaune, on the other hand, had desperate looks to them. This was their mother. That was a problem. Blake bit her lip and thought over the mixed memories Juniper offered. None of them were what you would call motherly. She had only brought Jaune up because Blake was his partner, and she barely spoke of the others at all, except to say she'd probably stopped loving them as Mountain Glenn sapped at her mind.
"Juniper said she loved you all," lied Blake. It felt bitter, but the way Jaune's eyes watered told her it was needed. Jade smiled as well, though Coral had obviously sensed the deceit because her eyes narrowed. She didn't call Blake out, however. "We weren't together for long, and we were obviously focused on finding the anomaly, but she talked about you all a bit. Her…" Blake grimaced. "Her final words were to tell you all that she loves you."
A little white lie.
That was all it was. The real Juniper, the Juniper who had first died in Mountain Glenn, would have probably said that as well. The Juniper that was left at the end was one that only cared for the anomaly and killing it, much like the people in the town hall only cared for their positions of power. They were not so different in the end.
"How did she die?" asked Jaune.
"Killed by people wielding spears made out of knives strapped to wood and metal posts. Her aura didn't protect her. I think the Twilight City either kills your aura when it takes you, or that you wake up with none left and don't have time to recover it."
"Plausible," said Coral, interested now that it was an academic topic. "We've theorised that two anomalies cannot exist together based on evidence, and that would support it. Anomalies can be killed, so Light of the Soul could in theory be removed. Though only be death. We've just never had a case before now where the death wasn't permanent. Which is a good thing," she added, "as it means we should never have to worry about anomalous effects combining and compounding together."
"That's good news at least," remarked Nicholas. "This is the third floor. Let's see if your…" He trailed off, chuffing. "Well. Good work."
The corridor ahead, on the third floor, was pink and red in colour, and covered in a layer of flesh that reminded Blake of the Welcoming House. The air was fetid and hot, and a thin layer of skin-like membrane connected the floor and ceiling, so thin that it could be seen through. It was twitching slightly, as if it were breathing or being drawn by tiny muscle contractions. Nicholas wasted no time in drawing his sword and cutting through it, and the membrane snapped back. The fleshy walls trembled as if in pain.
"It looks like the whole floor has been overtaken," said Jade, looking far ahead. "If no two anomalies can exist together then this has to be it, right?"
"Not definitively," said Nicholas. "This could be a second anomaly that just so happens to live in Mountain Glenn. All Coral said was that this would not be saved by the other if that were true." He rubbed his chin. "That said, in the absence of any other that can be found I'm hopeful this is the one. What do you think, Coral?"
"I think it's alive. The flesh is warm." To Blake's disgust, Coral had removed a glove to press her bare skin to the flesh on the wall. "I can feel it moving under my hand, and a distant beating like a heart. That said, it's grown over the walls almost like fungus, but it's also fleshy and rich with blood."
"If it's organic then it can be killed," said Nicholas. "Which is good. Easier to deal with than some small object we'd have to search for."
"Cutting it here won't make it bleed out," said Coral. "This is just tissue and it's an extremity at best. We're going to need to find the heart." She chuckled. "The beating heart of the city. There's poetry in there, I suppose. Though…" Her eyes narrowed, and she pressed harder on the wall. "It's double. Almost like there are two heartbeats."
Blake's eyes were drawn to a gap in the flesh, and a plaque on the wall. Her stomach churned as she read it. "The third floor is the maternity ward." There were even arrows beneath, telling people where to go for delivery, the obstetric unit and a visitor waiting area. Blake looked again to the membrane they'd cut through and felt ill. "We're not inside a body. We're inside a womb. And there are two heartbeats because it's pregnant."
The rest of them took that in with various states of distress, disgust, or both. All except for Coral, who stood with wide eyes, and rounded on Jaune.
"Jaune!" she said. "Congratulations!"
"Huh. For what?"
"This is the deepest you'll ever be inside a woman."
"Fuck you, Coral."
Classy, Coral. Classy.
So, I couldn't really say what that distressing imagery would be at the top without literally spoiling the reveal. I.e. "This chapter has distressing imagery surrounding childbirth and the womb" without you instantly knowing the ending. Same for the torture scene before that.
Still, if shit like this was okay to include in a video game for kids (Earthbound) then I'm sure it's fine here. And if it grosses you out then don't worry – you, too, were grown in a bloody sack being fed nutrients by a tube that connected to your stomach.
Shudders.
Next Chapter: 12th December
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