Heart part 1

Chapter 12 - The Blood Guzzler part 4: Cold Heart Caught On Fire

Running across the room with light steps, Heart and Cyclops ran to the other door. Without another second passing, they creaked it open and headed inside. As soon as she stepped inside, Cyclops was startled back.

Littering the room and adorning the walls were...well, to be honest, she had no idea how to describe them. It was somewhat like taxidermy, but instead of animals, it was people who were stuffed. The most common thing that was stuffed among all of them was people's bodies without their heads, hands, or feet. There were also some shelves that held jars that contained some human body parts floating in some liquid. The sight made Cyclops want to puke.

" Come on. We better go before he finds out you're gone." Heart uttered, pacing further into the madness without even batting an eye.

Shielding her eyes and looking down to the ground, Cyclops followed the sound of Heart's clacking boots across the room.

Suddenly coming to a stop, Heart paused and smirked, " Found it."

Stopping once she heard the clacks of their boots fall silent, Cyclops uncovered her eyes and saw that they had stopped in front of a large toolbox. Strangely though, it wasn't perfectly lined up against the wall but was sitting a couple of inches away from it. It was almost as if it had been moved recently.

" Hold this." Heart abruptly muttered, pushing the axe in Cyclops' direction and letting go without looking back to see if she had got it. Fumbling her hands, Cyclops caught the axe just barely before it hit the floor.

Heart proceeded forward and put their hand on the toolbox's edge. With no effort, they pulled and pushed it out of the way, further revealing the brick wall behind it. Without even needing to feel around, they pushed their fingers into the second brick in the bottom right corner. Like a button, it pushed inwards. After it was pressed, the wall began to sink back and to the side, revealing a small hidden passageway behind it.

Without saying a word, Heart snatched the axe from Cyclops' hands and proceeded inside. Without any choice, Cyclops followed them in.

The secret passageway was incredibly tight, dusty, and dark. The two could only manage to shuffle just a few feet at a time. As they trudged along through long abandoned cobwebs and patches of dust, Cyclops couldn't help but eye Heart's axe.

" Hey, where did you get that axe anyway?" She asked.

Heart glanced an eye back at her. " From that zombie."

" Zombie?" Cyclops muttered, raising an eyebrow. Heart let out a sigh.

" I got it from that one human with the crooked neck. After she was done with you and left the room, I caught her by surprise and took her down."

" It was quite easy. She was extremely weak!" Heart said, the edge of their mouth forming a crooked grin.

" After that, I stuffed her body in one of the barrels we hid in, grabbed the axe, snuck into the room, and hid. Then that idiotic human arrived. And I think you know what happened after that." They answered.

" Oh, okay..." Cyclops replied. Abruptly, an idea then popped into her head. " Wait...if she was in that room the whole time...then did she hear me say 'that'?..."

" By the look on your face, I can tell what you're thinking about." Heart uttered, suddenly pulling Cyclops out of her thoughts. " To answer you're question, yes. I did hear you attempt to save yourself by telling that human what I was planning. But there's no need to worry yourself about it, human. It was a logical decision."

All of a sudden, they slowed to a stopped and shifted their head around. " I don't blame you. After all, 'you' is all you should care about. Nothing else matters. And plus, going through this passage is just one part of this plan. Even if you did say something, it wouldn't have mattered at all."