Chapter 017

Chapter 17: The Door

All the sounds mixed together. Frenzied thoughts wrestled with the demon fox’s last bit of reason. Yu Sheng heard Foxy’s painful whimpers at his ear, but his mind boomed with more wild, broken voices. There was the demon fox’s near-out-of-control appetite, the clawing hunger, the murky lure in the dark, and the urgent cry telling him to run.

He sucked in a breath, crouched low, and rushed toward a gap between the demon fox and the monster. He did not run away like Foxy begged. Instead, he grabbed a broken blue stone slab off the ground and charged at the monster’s flank.

He knew he almost surely could not beat it. He also knew that on human legs there was no way he could outrun this place. Ruined walls blocked every path. The only open exit to the outside had been sealed by the monster’s bulk. In that kind of maze, running would only make him die faster.

Better to grit his teeth and hit it head on. He could not win, but since he wasn’t afraid to die, he might at least trade his life for a little result. And if he could distract the monster, maybe Foxy could break free of that terrible trap. She was still holding on to reason. If she got loose, they might even counterattack.

All these thoughts flashed by in a heartbeat. He knew the plan was full of holes, but he had no choice. His body burst again with strange strength. He hurled the heavy stone like a cannon shot at the flesh behemoth.

He had no time to see if it worked. A huge warning rose from his gut. He “saw” the monster’s counterattack a second early and threw himself aside.

A black shadow like a steel whip smashed the spot where he had stood. A snake tail had split off from the monster’s surface. Earth and stone exploded. Solid slabs and shattered brick turned to dust. As he flew through the air, a wave of force slammed into him. Chunks of rubble hit him like bullets, ringing against him like metal on stone.

He ignored the pain. He hit the ground, rolled fast, and dodged the tail’s follow up. Out of the corner of his eye he looked toward Foxy.

The silver white demon fox thrashed among the black spikes and bone shards. The blue foxfire around her tails flickered hard, like it would blow up any second.

She was still pinned tight. The things binding her felt made just for her. Yu Sheng’s interference did nothing.

He could tell at a glance that this fox girl was far stronger than he was, but in front of that monster she had no way to fight back. There was a clear kind of restraint between them.

Back at the open ground, though, she had rushed in without fear to “save” him. She failed in the end, but she truly meant to help.

The memory flickered. Yu Sheng bit down and started forward again. He would try that life for life plan, see if he could tear off a few more pieces.

He did not know why his strength and healing had grown. But he remembered that before the changes first showed up, he had bitten a chunk of meat off the monster. He was not sure the two things were linked, but there was no other path. He was not afraid to die, so he would test every bold guess.

Foxy cried out again, voice fraying: “Don’t worry about me. It can’t kill… me. You, run!”

“It’s fine. It can’t kill me,” Yu Sheng said, spitting out a mouthful of bloody spit from where a rock had clipped his chin. He turned to the demon fox and grinned: “In a bit, I might die, but don’t worry. I’ll come back to find you.”

Her struggling paused, like she didn’t understand.

Yu Sheng did not explain. He walked at the monster with light steps and a wider smile. It looked like he was going to a feast.

He muttered to the flesh behemoth: “You like talking people into eating, right? Fine. I’ll eat.”

He leaped into the air like a starving wolf diving for the table.

The flesh monster’s dozens of eyes shivered. For the first time, those chaotic eyes seemed to show a hint of fear.

Its many mouths gave hoarse howls. Several tentacles like black scaled snake tails split from the heap and shot at Yu Sheng.

He felt his body get pierced. Fatal wounds. He could not tell how many. Warm blood poured out, carrying away his life.

But an indescribable appetite roared up from his core. He ignored the pain. He ignored the fear of dying. He grabbed the tail that had stabbed through his belly, bared his teeth, and bit down.

The monster let out a high, twisted scream and snapped the tail like it was trying to shake off a deadly bug.

Yu Sheng held on. No matter how hard it flung him, he did not let go. He was smashed into the ground, then through a broken wall. His tough body did not break under the blows, and the pain only sharpened his mind.

The snake tail curled high again and whipped toward a wide hole in the temple wall.

A strange flash of gold slid across the edge of his vision.

With wind roaring past his ears, Yu Sheng lifted his head. The gold shot toward him. He did not have time to see what it was. On instinct, he raised a hand.

His fingers closed on something. It was a handle.

Yu Sheng thought: [Huh?]

A faint creak threaded through the rushing air. In his mind, the shape of a Door sprang up, a plain, ordinary Door that led somewhere, led to…

The moment a place rose in his thoughts, the Door swung open.

In the next second, Yu Sheng and the black scaled tail fell into the Door. With a sharp, grating squeal, the Door slammed shut.

The monster’s tail was cut clean by the Door that had appeared and vanished. Mad, broken howls rolled across the valley. The pain drove it wild. It raged through the ruins, smashing and chewing everything in sight, even its own body. Only after a long time did it calm. Its bulk sank into shadow and slowly faded into the night.

The black spikes and bone shards vanished without a sound. The wounded silver white demon fox tumbled to the ground and lay still, like a corpse.

Minutes passed. Foxy finally opened her eyes. She looked around in a daze. The golden red in her gaze had lost all human light.

After a while, her eyes settled on a spot in the ruins.

It was the steps where she and her benefactor had been sitting.

She dragged her huge demon fox body there and saw a plastic bag and scraps of wilted greens scattered below the steps. Whimpering, she lowered her head and swallowed every bit.

She was still hungry.

A coaxing voice, like endless demons speaking from inside the hunger, whispered: “Eat. You know where you can fill your belly. You buried them in the woods. Bones, meat, and blood. Go. Eat, and you won’t be hungry.”

The demon fox hung her head and whimpered as if crying. She curled up under the steps, stretched her neck, and gnawed on broken bricks. Then she dug into the dirt and the rotted wood under the rubble and pushed it all into her mouth, chewing again and again.

She murmured as she chewed: “I’m not hungry. I’m not hungry. Someone gave me food. He’ll bring me more soon. I’m not hungry.”

She kept gnawing like that until, the same as in so many years past, she slowly passed out.

The feeling of falling shocked Yu Sheng awake. He could still feel the handle of the Door in his hand. A heartbeat later he realized he had crossed some kind of boundary.

He opened his eyes and saw he was lying by a roadside. Familiar streetlights, poles, and the old, low houses along Wutong Road filled his sight.

Not far ahead, the stained outer wall and the door of No. 66 Wutong Road stood quiet in the pale morning light.

He turned his head. A phantom Door was fading away. Inside the last traces of the shadow, he could still make out the valley, the ruined temple, and a white fox dragging herself through the rubble.

He reached out a hand to her.

The last of the shadow vanished before his fingers could touch it.