Chapter 2 - Too late to pologize

A loud knocking on my door grabbed my attention this morning. It hadn't woken me up as I was already awake collecting venom from some bane spiders. Little black and green bastards with a nasty burning venom. I hid my work and answered the door, “Oh hello ma'am, I was just about to head downstairs to start my duties.” She stood a few inches shorter than me 5’9 around I suppose. Honey brown hair, yellow eyes, a yellow summer dress with a red pattern to it, not sure how she got a dress like that, patterned clothing is very expensive. “Hello, we actually have a different issue you need to attend to, please follow me.” She lead me to the dungeon. Down a long hallway was a hidden trap door under a long rug.

She lifted the hatch “Down here. Watch your step.” A cold air surrounded the door. "What's  down there?” She stared at me for a moment. I felt something was wrong, she wasn't acting right and barely any emotion to her words. “I need to get something from my room.” I turned and saw three Manti ready to strike. I turned back towards her. Her beautiful skin tore away and turned green growing into a full grown Mantis. She strikes forward with her claws. I have nothing this time, I hadn't even taken any venom with me. I guess this is the end. Entrails splattered over the walls, blood not far behind and I'm on the floor. 

I don't feel any pain, I don't see any blood red stains anywhere, just a giant Mantis with yellow blood on it's mandibles. I can't stick around to analyze. I get up into running position. I need to, and then I was grabbed and thrown against the wall. She gnashes her mandibles at me. I hear some people running towards us. When they turned the corner all they found was dead Manti and their innards on the wall.

In a dark damp section of the dungeon seemingly forgotten lay a human man and a mantis female. "It's about time they left, don't you think?....Oh you probably can't see much. Let me fix that, I want you to see me." A flame lights a lantern on the wall.

The corners of the caged rooms had been partially lit, but in the empty chamber of the forgotten dungeon was what appeared to be a mantis female wearing the corpse of a human woman. "Surprised to see me again? You smug little bastard?!" She strikes at my neck and scrapes it just enough to tear skin but no blood pours out. 

"This feels oddly personal for an insect attack, I kill your brother or something?" She grabs me by the collar and throws me down to the floor coming face to face, "No, nothing so meaningless as that, not that it would've mattered to me if you did. I'm not too sure what you did actually." Well that sounds ominous as fuck. Let's prod the freak. "Surprise surprise, bug women are as testy as normal ones. So I'd have to assume to mean the mist I threw in your face?" She nods with a strange disturbing fleshy smile.

"Well in basic terms it was a combination of insect pheromones and human blood to create a fine chum like attraction for your kind, which is what attracted your kind to our party in the jungle. However it seems to be having unforseen side effects on you." Her mandibles chitter and her large eyes are fixated on me. "Hmm, I suppose that's why she's still in here then. Human blood. She's in here and she's fucking furious!" Who the fuck is she talking about?

"Who the fuck are you talking about?" Her sickles pulled back,mandibles retracted, eyes shrank, and skin reformed. It was one of the women from our party, the first girl killed, or so it seemed. Her face smug yet sad, possibly mournful. She takes a step towards me and punches as hard as she can. "While we can't both talk at the same time, I can hear everything she hears and even peak into her simple little bug brain. But to answer your earlier question, yes you did kill my brother, and my father, and my mother." 

It didn't really hurt too bad though, she wasn't exactly muscular. She seemed the bookworm type, suppose she was highly sheltered by her family. "I'd say I'm sorry but we both know I don't mean it." She tilted her head to the side like a curious puppy and had an emotionless frown. "Well I'm not looking for an apology, I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for but I suppose we can work on that later. For now I think we need to discuss living arrangements."


