Chapter 1452: Story 1452: The Feeding Chamber

The silence ahead wasn’t comforting. It was thick, as if the air itself had congealed. Mira and Elena staggered forward, their breaths ragged, boots slick with yellow slime and blood. The shrieks of the hatchlings echoed faintly behind them, never fading completely.

The corridor widened, its walls arching upward into a vaulted cavern. At first, it seemed like any other part of the bone labyrinth—ribs, spines, skull fragments fused together. But then the smell hit them.

Not just rot. Meat. Fresh, living meat.

Elena covered her mouth. “Mira… look.”

The chamber was vast, tiered like an amphitheater. Instead of seats, the tiers were made of hollowed bone troughs, each one filled with figures slumped inside. Dozens, maybe hundreds—men, women, children—still alive. Their bodies were bound in sinewy strands that grew directly from the walls, pinning them like insects in webbing.

And they were breathing. Barely.

The troughs overflowed with a thick, reddish fluid that rose and fell as though pumped by veins in the floor. Every few seconds, the bound captives would twitch, shudder, and release muffled screams as tubes of bone extended from the ceiling, dipping into their mouths, throats, and chests.

Feeding them. Or draining them.

Mira’s stomach lurched. “It’s keeping them alive… to fatten them.”

As if on cue, a hatchling skittered down the wall and plunged its teeth into one of the captives’ arms. The person wailed, but the webbing held them firm. The hatchling tore flesh, swallowed, and grew—its limbs lengthening, its jaw splitting further apart as new teeth sprouted mid-chew.

The others would follow.

Elena’s eyes were wild. “We can’t leave them here.”

Mira grabbed her arm hard. “We can’t save them, Elena. Look at this—this is a farm. We cut one loose, ten more will come. They’ll feed whether we’re here or not.”

But her voice wavered. Each scream from the captives clawed at her chest.

Then the chamber shuddered. The bone troughs pulsed faster, the veins in the floor glowing a dull orange. More tubes dropped from the ceiling, piercing into the captives. Their muffled cries became frantic, bodies convulsing as blood and marrow drained from them in streams.

The hatchlings shrieked, swarming down the walls in anticipation.

Elena shook Mira’s hand off. “If we do nothing, we’re no better than them.”

Before Mira could stop her, Elena ran to the nearest trough. She snapped a shard of bone from the floor and hacked at the sinewy webbing. The strands split with a wet snap, spraying black fluid.

The captive’s eyes rolled open—clouded, terrified. Their mouth worked soundlessly, gagging on the tube rammed down their throat.

“Hold still!” Elena cried, tearing at the bindings.

The hatchlings noticed. Dozens of them. Their heads turned in unison, their jaws snapping in a single, hungry chorus.

Mira cursed, sprinting after her. “You just rang the dinner bell.”

The swarm descended, claws rattling against bone as they closed in. The air filled with the stink of bile and blood.

Mira yanked Elena away just as the freed captive convulsed. Something bulged beneath their skin, crawling upward. Their scream tore through the chamber as their chest split open—revealing another hatchling, wet and gnashing, forcing its way out.

Elena’s horror froze her. Mira dragged her back toward the tunnel.

The farm wasn’t for feeding. It was for breeding.

And they were standing in the nursery.