“Get over it,” he snapped back.
“You do realize where you get your contestants, right? I’m not your average citizen and my dislike of being told what to do has sort of defined my fucking life. Hence the prison location you so graciously plucked me out of so I could star in your show for every gorehound across the globe.”
He opened his mouth, ready to argue more. I cut him off.
“No, you don’t get it. I really don’t like being told what to do. It’s a fucking diagnosable condition. You know what I did to get into prison for life?” I asked. His eyes darted around nervously and he cleared his throat, refusing to answer.
“I killed every man, woman,andchild who told me what to do,” I said.
“I know you did a shitty job of robbing a bank so you can stop with this bullshit. Remember, sixth sense for bullshit? But also, I’m the show's host. I know everything about you so please. I’m not scared of you,” he scoffed.
I lunged at him and he screamed running down the hallway with me chasing him.
Chapter5
Thracker
When I awoke the island was dark, the trees shaking with monsters shifting in the night. My skull felt full of sand and water as I clambered to my knees. The waves of the nearby beach were a loud roar then a soft hiss as the water was dragged back out to sea. Bugs gave a low hum around me, highlighting how much my head throbbed in pain.
Something was wrong.
Quickly I climbed to my feet, swaying towards the dense jungle in front of me. My hands wrapped around palm trees as I tried to keep myself upright. The trees kept breaking when I put my weight on them, unable to support me.Snap, snap, snapbetween the heavy booms of my feet stomping into the earth beneath me.
The island shifted, listening to me for a moment, and then ran. The birds and mammals came alive in panic, rushing through the island’s flora to escape the giant ogre. Only the bugs were dumb enough to stay close, buzzing in my ears and stabbing my skin to get fat on my blood.
I moved aimlessly toward the middle of the island, some unknown goal propelling me forward. Someone took something of mine. The realization made me grind my teeth as if my enemy’s bones were already in my mouth.
It started to come back to me.
Stomp. There had been a team of humans in gear, different from the normal humans that showed up to be killed.Stomp. Gunfire.Stomp. Cold metal mosquitos shot into my arms and legs. I’d ripped them out and roared but felt weakened from their bite.
My anger was growing. My rage. The berserker inside me was starting to boil, a lava wanting out to destroy everything in its path.
Something was taken from me. Something important. Something I cared about.
A roar ripped from between my teeth, rage blasting the island. I could feel the earth shivering in fear beneath my feet as even the other monsters ran now.
Sammie.
They took my Sammie.
My hands wrapped around trees and I pulled. The muscles in my arms bulged, the veins throbbing as I ripped them up from the root and threw them.
An hour later I was regretting all the trees I’d pulled up. There was a line a mile long behind me and the berserker hangover was a vicious bitch. I groaned, flat on my back, staring at the dark sky and trying to count the stars to distract myself from the painful exhaustion soaked into my limbs.
A dark head popped into my view. Her long silky strands of hair hung down above me.
“Go away,” I grumbled to the spider. She was always annoying. A sneaky thing that watched with all her many eyes. She was down a limb, something I was responsible for. I didn’t like her trying to kill my human earlier.
“I saw where they took her,” she said and I whipped my head towards her. All those eyes would be useful today at least.
“Where?” I growled. She backed up quickly as I sat up, her seven legs twisting gracefully around themselves. Her eyes blinked at me. They were scattered across her human-like face, red and apathetic.
“The humans have a metal cave beneath the ground,” she said, fangs protruding from her mouth. Humans were here? On our island? The spider saw my anger and dipped her head but kept her eyes on me.
“Yesss,” she hissed. “They sneak around on our land. Unafraid of us while hiding behind their walls.” I was angry again. I felt the berserker inside me chomping its teeth to come out again. Humans dared to walk on our land?
“Tell me where,” I said. She smiled widely, her many eyes widening in delight. I lunged for her but her many legs made her fast. Long thin appendages moved frantically to help her climb a tree. Her heavy thorax produced a rope of web. Slowly she dropped from a branch, dangling down closer to me.
