the culprit

The young man began to observe the small room.Except for the room full of people, there is no decoration here, and the windows are opened at odd angles. This place is more like an attic for storing sundries.He looked up at the roof. It was low, and the beams looked stout and well-painted—though he couldn't be sure.He listened intently, the sound of breathing in the room came and went, but outside the window was as dead as a tomb, it seemed that they were in some remote place.

I don't know if there will be guards outside.

If he wanted to escape through other means, he could only find a way to pry open the wooden strips that sealed the windows.

He stared blankly at the window, wondering what tool he could use to pry out the nail without being noticed.Just as he was thinking, there was a creaking sound from the side, the door opened, and the dozen or so people crowded in the space let out fearful exclamations at the same time, and crowded together in unison, as if they could get shelter in this way.His heart trembled, and he lowered his head subconsciously along with the crowd, allowing the young girl beside him to bury her face in her shoulder socket.

A tall brown-haired man walked in. He squinted his eyes and looked back and forth between the heads that were lowered at the same time. Finally, he raised both hands and grabbed a man by the back collar with one hand, lifting them up effortlessly. up.

"Come with me," he said, with an odd accent.

"Y-where are you going?"

One of them was shaking like chaff, but he still couldn't help asking.

The man glanced at him blankly and said nothing.He dragged the two of them out of the room, and the rest of the people in the room quietly looked out the door, nervous, scared, and with a hint of dangerous expectation.However, the door that closed in the next second immediately shattered this tiny expectation.

Still breathing one after another.

Cyril heard soft sobbing.

No one knows what will happen next.

The atmosphere of speculation and terror infected everyone present like a plague. Some people were crying, some were chanting scriptures, some were praying, and some were biting their lips.Suddenly, there was a shrill scream, everyone was startled, some people cried out in fright, the man next to Cyril yelled the name of God and knocked hard on the back of his head Walls, as if that would save them from bad luck.

But that's just the beginning.There were screams one after another. At first it seemed to be just a cry of pain, but gradually, the scream seemed to be mixed with mania, more like the roar of a wounded and hungry animal.

The people in the room had already huddled together unknowingly, they were squeezing each other, regardless of etiquette and decency, arms rubbing against arms, thighs against thighs.The constant yelling almost tore off everyone's tense nerves, ruthlessly revealing their illusion of calmness, the cries were endless, someone yelled to let them out, and banged their foreheads against the wall, echoing in the attic With a dull thumping sound.

But after a while, the door opened again, and it was still the brown-haired man.He saw the young man who hit his head against the wall at first sight, went up and grabbed him without saying a word, and then grabbed another flaxen-haired woman while he was terrified begging for mercy.

Everyone is trembling.

A terrible unknown fate awaits them.

torture?or die?

No one knows.

The two shook their heads desperately, crying for mercy, and the others just bowed their heads and shrunk their shoulders even more, as if that way the scary brown-haired man couldn't see them.

Cyril felt a fire burning in her heart.

Clothes were already soaked with sweat.

He found himself shaking too.

He wants to get out of here, he wants to get out of here alive.

Felix's face came to mind.

And the cries of men and women are endless.

It was as if he had been thrown into a cauldron of boiling water.

He felt like he was being cooked.

"I……"

Sweat dripped from his forehead, pooled on his chin, and finally dripped onto his pants.

He raised his head and looked at the brown-haired man who was about to go out.

The man also seemed to have heard his voice, stopped and turned around, without even trying to find it, he saw the young man who had raised his head to meet him from the crowd.

"I'll take her place."

Cyril heard the chatter of his teeth.The man's expressionless face was like a ghost, which easily aroused the deepest fear in his heart, but he didn't lower his head, and didn't avoid the other party's sight. The joints are whitish.

He didn't like the stories about dragon slaying knights since he was a child.

He likes travel notes, poems, flower gardens and starry sky, and the world of swords and guns is too far away from him.

The hero's story is also too far away from him.

He's just...he's just tormented by that cry, and desperately needs a way out.

He looked directly at the man, clenched his teeth tightly, and strangled his neck desperately, not letting himself look away, not letting himself lower his head.He knew that once he did that, his courage would fade away.

The brown-haired man stared at Cyril with red eyes for a long time, then suddenly showed a twisted and weird smile, lowered his head and said to the crying woman in his hand: "Good luck, baby." He left the woman and strode go up.The huddled people twisted their bodies and tried desperately to avoid him, but Cyril was still kneeling there, trembling and motionless.

"Who hasn't dreamed of being a hero?" The man muttered while picking up Cyril's collar, "Maybe I can get my wish fulfilled today." Cyril bit his lip and said nothing.And the other man who was caught was still crying and begging for mercy, desperately begging someone else to replace him.

They were taken out of the attic.

"Do you know what I'm going to take you to?" Maybe it was Cyril's act of righteousness that aroused the man's interest. What would it be like for Cyril, crushed by fear.

"do not know."

Heart beating so fast and sweating so much that Cyril felt dizzy and sick.He had a straight face, his face turned livid.

The man laughed strangely again, looked down at the beautiful young man, whistled, and said, "I'll take you to be a hero."

Cyril stopped talking.

He regretted his carelessness, but at this moment, he did not regret his choice just now.Perhaps each of them cannot escape this terrible fate in the end, but before everything comes, time means hope.

At this moment, he suddenly thought of many people, the father he hated, the Uncle Hickey he despised, the Mary he missed so much, and those people who appeared in his life, old Jack, the cook, Doris, Bray... , Wei Ya... All the faces appeared in his mind like a revolving lantern. He didn't know if this meant that he had given up hope, so he indulged in memories at the end of his life.

He was taken into another dimly lit room, and the smell of blood hit his face.He was blindfolded by black cloth strips. Someone tried to force something into his mouth. He struggled and was suddenly punched in the stomach.The strange-tasting liquid slid down his throat and into his stomach. He coughed loudly, lowered his head and wanted to spit out what he drank, and then his jaw was tightly pinched by one hand.He was forced to look up, and someone untied him, but before he could react, he was held up.

"Whoever wins will survive and be a hero."

He heard a voice say so.

win?hero?

What are they going to do?

Fight like a gladiator?

As he thought, he was carried to a chair, his hands were firmly tied to the armrests, and his feet were also tied to the legs of the chair.

"This, what is this!"

Suddenly there was a crying cry, it was the man who was arrested with him just now.

"Your mother's blood, dear."

"What, what..."

Retching sounded, and Cyril heard the man's cry of collapse. He almost frantically asked what the group of people did to his mother. He asked them why they hurt his family and why they murdered his sisters.

"The younger the child under each bloodline, the stronger the ability."

Cyril was listening, but unexpectedly his jaw was grabbed by another hand, he was forced to open his mouth, and then another liquid poured into his mouth.

The taste of blood.

Like the man, Cyril also began to retch.The hand covered his mouth, lifting his chin and forcing him to swallow the liquid in his mouth.He didn't know what kind of blood it was, he just felt disgusted and terrible.

"Funny, you're the only one who didn't ask whose blood it was."

With his hands removed from his mouth, Cyril immediately bent down, but his lips were covered as soon as they opened, and the other hand grabbed his hair and pulled his chin up, preventing him from vomiting.

"Aren't you curious? Your father is not dead, whose blood would it be?"

The feeling of vomiting surged in his chest, and Cyril felt extremely uncomfortable. He struggled desperately to get rid of the shackles, but only got more rough confinement.

"The blood of the collateral line is not as good as the blood of the direct line, but since you can't get your father's blood, you only need to use your brother and sister's blood. Does the blood of the three people feel very different?"

The faces of brothers and sisters flashed through his mind one by one.They never looked him in the eye, and he would be avoided if he chased them to talk to them. They were strangers living under the same roof, but that didn't mean—he wanted them to be sacrifices.

Sorrow and anger exploded in his heart like erupting magma, and Cyril struggled even harder. He got rid of those two hands, leaned over to vomit, and was kicked in the stomach by a foot in the next second, just like that The person took the chair and fell into the bloody filth all over the floor.

But he's still vomiting.

He was going to spit out what he had swallowed.

The blindfold was wet.

He knew he was crying.

Not because of fear.

Soon, he was pulled up again, and his jaw was clamped again.

He was poured with blood again.

This is the blood of loved ones.

He swallowed and vomited again, his face pale with suffering.But this group of people did not let him go.

He trembled with rage and hatred.

At this moment, the man who had been crying all the time suddenly let out a painful scream.