CHAPTER 154: FOUND AN ESCAPE PATH?

"W-Wait! Let’s talk about this..." Raphael’s friend said with a panicked tone, her voice trembling as her wide eyes locked on Dracula.

The Mother edged closer, each step echoing like a death bell as their backs pressed helplessly against the cold wall.

Raphael gulped in fear, her throat dry and aching.

Her entire body shook with horror, trembling no differently than her friend, yet their hands stayed clenched together. No matter how close death drew, neither was willing to let go, as if their grip alone could keep them alive.

Dracula smirked, a cruel curl spreading across his pale lips. "Talk? I don’t think you ever talk to the food you eat... have you?" mocking as he closed the distance with leisurely steps.

Raphael’s friend swallowed hard as she glanced at Raphael.

This... all of this, was her fault!! Her reckless choice had dragged Raphael into this nightmare.

She shouldn’t have insisted on wandering the city... she shouldn’t have let her hunger for alcohol affect her thoughts... she... she had failed her.

Dracula’s face twisted into a pitiful sneer, "Tsk, I... I really didn’t mean for this to happen. I am not interested in eating useless cattle..." He shook his head with sorrow before his voice sharpened into a growl.

"But that boy—that fucking low animal—tricked me. He humiliated me with his pathetic trick, reduced me to some starving beast who fights over scraps of food.

Do you know how much humiliation I’m enduring because of that thing? HUH?!" His voice cracked like thunder.

Both of them flinched, hearts hammering, unable to understand what he was ranting about. If anything, it seemed as though someone else had enraged him, and now they were caught in the storm.

Raphael’s friend stammered, forcing out trembling words. "I-I really don’t get it... Please, just let us leave..." tears shimmering in her eyes.

Dracula shook his head slowly, as though savouring their fear. "It’s you who came to me... in fact, I didn’t expect to find anyone wandering around here. Tonight is my lucky night... more than one feast, handed to me." His tongue dragged across his lips as he licked them with deliberate hunger.

His mouth parted wider, and his fangs slid down... even though it was dark, but enough for them to see what’s going on before them.

Both women shuddered in horror. Raphael’s friend suddenly dropped to her knees, begging, "P-Please! At least let her go... it’s my fault that she’s here... please!"

Raphael flinched in shock. "W-What are you doing?"

"T-This is the only way... I-I’m so sorry," her friend whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Raphael shook her head violently. "I-I am not leaving you!"

But her friend pressed on, "Please... unlike me, you still have family. Your nephew needs his aunt... don’t forget that."

Raphael’s lips trembled.... The mention of her nephew shaking her violently inside.

Would she die here, without even mending the bond she had broken with him?

Would she never see his face again, never have a chance to make things right?

"OH? So sweet..." Dracula mocked, "I’ve seen countless people abandon each other, running the moment they taste true fear. But this—this is the first time I’ve ever seen something so... heartfelt."

Raphael and her friend recoiled together, pressing tighter against the wall. Just then, her friend’s trembling hand moved, raising her gun from behind her back.

She hadn’t lost it after all.

Raphael blinked, hope sparking in her desperate eyes. But Dracula didn’t even falter—his red gaze narrowed, his body still striding forward without a care.

"Do you really think that small thing is going to hurt me... or even scratch me?"

Raphael’s friend, with trembling lips and a shaking hand, "I-I don’t know but—"

BANG!!!

PUFF~

The gunshot cracked through the tunnel like thunder. The bullet tore forward, and for a split second, faint blue flames flickered around it—like the air itself had ignited under its spark.

Raphael froze, taken aback, her eyes widening as she looked at Dracula.

A hole split open in the centre of his forehead, his head snapping back with the impact. For a fleeting heartbeat, hope sparked... only to die as his head slowly tilted forward again, his crimson gaze locking back onto them.

The wound closed unnaturally, the hole knitting together as if it had never been.

Both she and her friend recoiled in horror, their faces paling at the impossible sight.

The bullet slid from his forehead, clinking against the wet ground. Dracula smirked, "Not bad..." His tone was almost amused before his expression twisted, his eyes glowing with fury.

"But not enough!!"

He lunged forward.

BANG!!

BANG!!!

PUFFFFF~

Two shots rang out, hammering into his face. The bullets struck directly into his eyes.

Blue flames erupted around the impact, swelling into a blaze nearly the height of a grown man.

The flickering inferno lit the tunnel in ghostly light, forcing Raphael’s friend to stumble back in shock.

Raphael stared, breath caught in her throat, as Dracula clutched at his face, "Arhh—" He staggered, not healing as quickly this time, the agony clearly tearing through him.

"L-Let’s run!" Her friend grabbed Raphael’s wrist, yanking her away.

They bolted, her friend casting one last terrified look over her shoulder. One of Dracula’s eyes was already reforming, his voice booming through the tunnel,

"YOU MONGRELS!!"

Before he could reach them, their legs carried them forward, desperation pushing them faster than they thought possible.

They darted around corner after corner, not even searching for an exit anymore—only to put as much space as possible between themselves and the beast that hunted them.

"Bullets... they’re not killing them..." Raphael muttered breathlessly, her voice trembling with despair.

If not bullets, then what could stop a creature like that?

What were they even facing?

Her friend’s face was rigid, eyes wild with fear and... guilt?

"This is not your mistake..." Raphael whispered. But her friend gave no reply... her lips trembled, her teeth biting down hard as she kept running.

They turned another corner, another tunnel... just where was the end... but they skidded to a halt, breath catching in their throats.

A hulking figure stood ahead, its shadow blotting out the narrow light. In its grasp was a man, thrashing helplessly in its hold.

"N-No, No please."

The figure bent its head, jaws widening, and with one horrifying snap, the man’s head was bitten clean off.

"AARRHHHH—"

The scream ended abruptly.

Blood sprayed across the stone.

Both Raphael and her friend froze, their trembling legs nearly collapsing beneath them. Breath came in ragged gasps, their faces twisted in horror.

Their knees shook so violently they could barely remain standing.

Everywhere they turned, every path, every shadow... was horror.

Could they even leave this place?

Before it could notice them, they turned back, they started to run again, desperate to find any way out.

This was getting out of hand... Even bullets weren’t working anymore—what else could they possibly do now?

Just run like rats, scurrying in circles, only to be eaten in the end?

Or was that exactly what these monsters wished for?

As they stumbled through the twisting tunnels, they suddenly came upon another man.

He was crouched in the corner, trembling violently, tears and snot streaking down his pale face. His entire body shivered like a broken leaf in the wind.

Raphael raised her hand, waving for him to come toward them. But the man, the same shopkeeper they had seen before, looked paralysed, petrified by the horror before him.

Raphael and her friend crept closer. When they peered past him into the shadows of the corner, their breath caught.

A massive, monstrous bat hunched there, its grotesque form hungrily gnawing at flesh. Its bare mouth ripped straight into the man’s stomach, coughing up blood and bile as it devoured everything inside.

And that was it!

That sight shattered Raphael. Her legs gave out beneath her, but her friend’s arms shot out, holding her up before she hit the ground.

Neither of them could move.

They stood frozen, petrified, forced to watch the most horrific thing they had ever seen.

The man was still alive.

His eyes were wide, his screams choked as he watched his insides torn from him piece by piece, his body convulsing as he slowly died.

It was the cruellest fate imaginable... beyond pain.

If they fell into this monster’s claws, this would be their end... Being eaten alive!!

Raphael’s tears rolled down her face. Her chest heaved as her mind was unable to process the madness any longer.

She wanted nothing more than to go home, to cling to her only nephew, to bury herself in his arms and never let go.

She had been acting tough this whole time because her friend was with her, because she had someone to lean on.

Otherwise, she would have already broken down, crying long ago, unable even to take another step.

Her friend’s face had gone ghostly pale, her lips parted but silent, no words of comfort, no confidence left to give.

She blamed herself.

’I-I am so sorry...’ she thought bitterly, clenching her trembling fists so hard her nails dug into her skin.

She couldn’t cry now—not in front of Raphael. If she broke, Raphael would shatter with her.

They couldn’t afford that... Not now!

Just as she braced herself to move, her eyes caught sudden movement down the tunnel.

A woman darted past the far end, her feet light and quick, her mouth stretched into a strange smile, as though she had discovered something she wanted.

Raphael’s friend immediately seized her hand, pulling her close, whispering firmly, "Let’s move."

Raphael trembled, voice breaking as tears streaked down her cheeks. "I-I can’t..." Her legs shook so violently they ached with pain, refusing to obey her.

Her friend leaned close, whispering harshly,

"Do you want to leave Leo the way his parents did? Are you going to prove his words true—that he is nothing but an orphan?"

Raphael’s lips quivered. Her head jerked slightly as she rubbed at her tears with the back of her trembling hand.

Slowly, painfully, she forced herself to rise again... Her eyes lifted toward the Camazotz feasting in the corner, its grotesque body hunched over the half-devoured man.

They began to move, step by step, every motion deliberate, every breath hushed, careful not to make a single sound.

"Shh... let’s go," Raphael whispered to the frozen shopkeeper in the corner.

"Hmmfffasrrhh!"

Camazotz, still munching and slurping, glanced over his shoulder. His blood-smeared face turned briefly toward the noise... yet he saw nothing, and with a wet smack of lips, he continued feasting.

Raphael and her friend, along with the man they had pulled along, hurried down the tunnel.

They turned left... and there, not too far away, their eyes fell upon something that made their breath catch.

A manhole ladder.

Their eyes widened in shock, then glimmered with sudden joy.

A hope.

A single fragile hope to finally escape this nightmare.

They had seen the woman ahead of them running toward it with a bright, desperate smile, and just like her, they surged forward.

"If we get out... I swear I’m never going to drink again," Raphael’s friend panted, her face twisted between exhaustion and relief.

Raphael let out a broken laugh, tears trembling in her eyes. "Y-You bet!" she cried, nodding fiercely.

The ladder drew closer, salvation only steps away. The woman had already scrambled up, her fingers reaching for the manhole plate above. She pushed, straining, almost at the edge of freedom.

"I-I go first!" The shopkeeper shoved forward as he tried to claim the ladder.

But Raphael’s friend snapped, blocking his path with her arm. "She goes first," she said coldly, motioning for Raphael to climb.

The man clenched his teeth. This wasn’t a time for "ladies first."

This was survival—his life on the line.

His mouth opened, ready to scream—until the cold barrel of her gun levelled against his chest.

His voice stuck in his throat instantly.

Raphael felt guilt as she brushed past him, but there was no choice. She began to climb... Her hands gripped the rungs tightly, one after another, pulling herself upward.

Above, the woman struggled, pushing against the manhole plate with all her strength.

As soon as Raphael reached halfway—

Thuck!

A wet splattering sound echoed through the tunnel.

The noise froze them all.