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blind eyes of a particular and bygone woman, perhaps an
echo of something that forgot how beautiful it once was.
When the night sank into its deepest darkness, I
proceeded to follow a specific cannibal—who had once
thought to stalk and insult me—to a diner that sat lightless
yet heavily attended near the center of the town. After I had
entered the building through the back door, I was delivered
the unwholesome sight of a man-eater’s kitchen. Corpses
wrapped in plastic bags filled with sweet-smelling marinades
swung from stained hooks, and piled atop stained trays were
the raw tubers and organs of the human body, sliced into cold
cuts. Now, there did seem to be some lingering conventions
of the human condition still clinging to the degenerates, as
there were several recently used ovens and stovetop burners
where meat had actually been cooked, though to what degree
remained a mystery.
However, one area seemed out of place—a pile of
decaying bodies lay in the corner, all showing enormous
bite marks. Initially I believed the cannibals to be ghoulish
creatures, preferring their food rotted and fly-covered. Later
insights, however, showed it was only their breath, and not
their appetites, that concerned the spoiling dead. Further,
none of the creatures I had so far witnessed possessed
jaws large enough to leave such enormous and ragged
marks. It was at that moment the answer to my previously
posited question concerning the compensation of certain
underground customers was made apparent. A massive
creature hauled itself into view, emerging from a distant
hole in the floor I had failed to notice. It was something far
afield the beings occupying the town—it formed no visible
relationship with even the darker features the citizens shared
in varying proportions and extents. The beast was an alien
among monsters, most likely one of the remunerations I had
earlier wondered about, gifted to the cannibals for services
rendered. It seemed little more than a large roiling sack of
greyish muscle surmounted with a wide, featureless head—
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