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“Hey, found something!” The boy’s voice echoed from somewhere deeper in the dark. After a moment, a switch flipped and a few flickering lights sputtered to life.
You saw… well, cadavers? Bodies? Not only from human scientists. That was a given at this point, but also Grimm. That was the strange part. Grimm corpses didn’t usually linger. They didn’t fade immediately, sure, but they never lasted for days. These had.
A few Sabyrs lay in a corner near the boy, several Swindles piled together, half-torn Beowolves scattered across the floor. An Ursa’s lifeless body hung suspended from a pair of chains. And almost all of them shared one thing: clusters of those orange crystals growing near or out of their bodies. Like some kind of fungus.
Yeah. Best not touch those crystals.
“Approach.”
A faint woman’s whisper slipped into your mind. You snapped your head up, spotting a broken glass containment unit reinforced with steel beams. The siblings looked up at the exact same moment. Clearly, you all heard it.
“Stop with the games, brother. I told you I’m busy.” The girl’s voice cut through the silence, annoyed.
“I swear it wasn’t me! I can’t do that.” He sounded… offended. When he lied, he rambled, deflected, talked in circles. This time he didn’t. A bad sign. It meant he probably wasn’t lying.
“That’s a lie. I know you can. Please don’t do that again, okay?” she murmured, her attention never leaving Cerise as she continued examining her forehead and chest.
You barely caught sight of the kid peering into the broken glass cage. He looked… mesmerized. You couldn’t blame him. That whisper was creepy as hell. But after everything lately, you were used to this sort of thing. Your head needed a break.
A few bloodstained papers lay scattered on the floor. You grabbed one and skimmed it, noticing scientific jargon so convoluted you couldn’t make sense of it. Not that you were focused enough to try. The boy’s behavior wasn’t normal (by his standards, at least). You needed to keep an eye on him.
He started moving toward the cage. He was small enough to slip through the gaps.
“Come to me.”
The woman’s whisper echoed again, louder this time. Your skin crawled. Maybe it was a Grimm. Maybe not. There were too many species to rule anything out.
“I told you to stop doing that. Don’t make me repeat myself. Did you hear me?” The girl’s voice finally cracked with some emotion. Rage, irritation.
“I don’t think he’s the one doing that.” You had to speak. Something about this wasn’t him. You didn’t feel compelled to follow him as he squeezed through the bars. Instead, you felt compelled to step into the darkness of the shattered cage… enter… listen… and kneel.
