Chapter 113: _ Hellbound
Heidi is about to ask her wolf what the hell that means when the rest of the Moon Blessed stagger to their feet, gasping and clutching each other. Slowly, those who had shifted begin to convulse again. Their bones crack and fur recedes, until they are one again, in their human form.
Clothes—or what’s left of them, hang shredded, and ripped to indecent tatters on them. Girls squeal, slapping hands over their eyes at the boys whose cocks are either dangling from their torn porn or balls straining against some hole. The boys, however, gape at the girls’ bare shoulders, midriffs, and thighs.
Someone hisses, "Oh my god, my bra’s gone," while another shouts, "Dude, stop staring!"
Val, who is panting, drags a hand down her blood-smeared face. "Really? You all almost died and now it’s horny middle school locker room energy? Get a grip!"
Still, one boy coughs and tries to cover himself with what looks like a shred of wolf fur clinging to his hip.
The chaos breaks for one second into awkward, ridiculous giggles until...
"Uhhhgghhh..." Junie groans.
Everyone snaps back to reality at the sound. The laughter seizes. Heidi and Val drop to their knees beside her.
Her stump is no longer spraying blood. The skin is knitting together, slow but surely, like stitches pulled by invisible hands. But the pain on her face says it’s excruciating. Tears streak her cheeks.
Heidi shifts back into human, half-naked but not caring, and grabs her friend’s face gently. "Junie, hey. Look at me. You’re okay. You’re alive. Your body’s healing."
"I said it... I wanted to remain in the shield." Junie sobs instead, shrugging Heidi’s hand off.
Val brushes sweaty hair out of Junie’s eyes as she speaks. "Not the time to throw blame around. You did what you had to do. You saved us."
The latter shakes her head weakly, still sobbing. "I didn’t want to... I didn’t want to drop the shield. I messed up. If I’d just—if I’d held on..."
"STOP." Heidi cuts her off sternly, voice high like a mother whose toddler just rampaged her makeup kit. "Don’t you dare blame yourself. You hear me? Don’t."
Val nods fiercely. "Exactly. And hey, look—the bleeding stopped. That’s good, yeah? That’s healing."
Junie lets out a bitter laugh that chokes on itself. Her lips twist into a half-sarcastic sneer, though her tears don’t stop. "Oh, sure. Totally healing. Because of course my body will just sprout another arm out of nowhere, right?"
Her voice rises, breaking into manic hysteria. "Except—it won’t. I don’t even have an awakened wolf yet. You know how slow I’ll heal? At this rate, maybe in ten years I’ll get a cool zombie stump. Perfect."
Her good hand curls into a fist. She raises it, trembling, then gestures at her empty sleeve with a bitter snarl. "And even if it did grow back? The hand with the rune is already gone. How am I supposed to leave the labyrinth once the damn exit portal opens?"
OH!
The words settle over the group. Even the boys who had been sneaking glances at half-naked girls fall silent. Junie’s sobbing fills the space hollowly. And Heidi... she’s staring at her new best friend who is broken on the floor and feels that same crushing weight drop into her chest like a stone:
Junie might be stuck in this hellhole forever.
The poor girl’s laughter dies into a shaky cough. Her good hand presses harder against the stump that has sealed itself over in raw, blistered pink, but the sight of it makes every stomach in the group churn. There’s something about an arm missing that screams finality.
Heidi kneels beside her, the cold damp stone soaking through the tatters of what’s left of her jeans. Her wolf wants to nuzzle and lick the wound like instinct demands, but the human side knows there’s no comfort to give. Her heart sinks lower with every tremble in Junie’s breath.
Valentina, who is usually so commanding, sits down hard on her knees in front of Junie. She takes her friend’s face in both blood-stained hands. "You’re fine. You hear me? You’re fine. You’re going to heal, bella. You’re going to get out of here. We’ll figure it out. Maybe the rune will regrow as your hand rejuvenates."
Junie just stares at her. But suddenly, her eyes don’t carry the panic and tears anymore. They have gone flat and dull. Like the realization has finally dawned and it drained all the fight out of her.
"No, I’m not."
Val shakes her head as she can physically bat the words out of the air. "Don’t say that. Don’t you dare say that. We’re not doing this doom speech nonsense, okay? We’re Moon Blessed, touched by the goddess herself. We survive."
Junie lets out a small laugh that sounds like glass breaking. "We survive?" She scoffs. "Look around you, boo. We don’t. We are livestock, hellbound, fated to perish. And now, I am without the one hand that can literally take me back. You know what that makes me, Val?" She lifts the stub of her arm, jaw trembling but her eyes fixed dead on Val’s. "It makes me useless."
Heidi flinches like the word is a demon’s teeth gnashing into her skin.
Val’s tears flow freely now. "No! No, no, no... don’t you dare say that about yourself. You’ve been protecting us this whole time. You’ve been the one holding the shield. You saved lives. Mine. Heidi’s. All of them. Look at them." She gestures wildly to the ragged crowd of Moon Blessed behind her. "They’re breathing because of you."
Junie doesn’t answer because she knows the flattery is just to make her feel better. Her lips press together, quivering, as if words are too heavy to waste. She just keeps staring past Val, past Heidi, and into the darkness of the maze like she’s already saying goodbye.
Heidi feels her throat tighten until it hurts. She remembers Lady Mirenia’s cold voice: Only those with the runes can cross the exit portal.
Junie’s rune had been carved into the hand that’s now rotting on some labyrinth floor. Even if her arm grew back... the rune wouldn’t.
Heidi knows it. Junie knows it. And Val... Val knows it too, but she won’t admit it yet.
She’s shaking Junie now, as if the force of will can stitch fate back together. "We’ll find another way. We’ll... there has to be another way, sì? We can carve a new rune, we can..."
Junie pulls in a sharp breath, tears finally cutting paths down her blood-caked cheeks. She forces a shaky smile that looks more like a grimace. "You’re sweet, Val. But you don’t get it. This is it. I’m not leaving this place. Not with you. Not with anyone."
The words land like stones in water.
The silence that follows is stale enough to choke on. Some of the other Moon Blessed glance away, like they can’t bear to watch someone their age crumble like this. A few others sniff quietly, but no one speaks.
Val collapses forward, forehead pressing against Junie’s as she sobs so messily, that one wouldn’t imagine she had only first met Junie last night. "No! Don’t you say that! You don’t get to decide that. You don’t get to just—just give up."
Junie stiffens but doesn’t push her away. Her good hand comes up slowly and rests on Val’s tangled dark hair. "I’m not giving up. I’m just... being real. It’s better if you start being real too."
Heidi feels her own tears building hot behind her eyes, but she blinks them back. She doesn’t want to cry here, in front of everyone, not when her friend needs her steady. Still, the ache in her chest gnaws at her ribs. She doesn’t know what to say, because every word feels like a lie.
She settles for gripping Junie’s good hand, squeezing hard enough that their knuckles go white.
Val is still crumbling, her whole body shaking as she whispers, "No, no, no, no..." over and over, like a broken record stuck on grief.
It’s like the three of them have fallen into their own bubble of despair. The sounds of others muttering, the slow shuffles of movement, fade into background static.
Until a voice cuts through the fog.
"Uh... guys? Where’s everyone going?"