EVIL SYSTEM

Ben stared intently at the door. The darkness blurred his features, and all that could be seen were two glowing eyes that resembled those of a beast on the hunt.

Minutes and hours passed quickly, but for Ben, it was irrelevant.

The only sounds that could be heard were the chirping of crickets and the rustling of trees as they trembled in the cold, strong night breeze.

Ben began to doubt. Maybe his thoughts and worries were all unnecessary.

But Ben wasn't the type to wait and react to what happened.

He got up from his bed and prepared to explore the house.

Opening the door was the hardest part, as it creaked loudly when he tried to open it. So Ben had to do it very slowly to avoid making any noise.

They were on the second floor, so he decided to explore the entire second floor first.

There were three other rooms on the second floor, as well as a bathroom.

After searching each of the rooms, he discovered that every single one of them was empty.

It was almost midnight, and none of the family members were in their beds.

This situation reinforced his idea that something was really wrong with this family.

He also looked for a way out of the house, but just like in the room they were staying in, all the windows and exits were sealed with iron bars.

Since he couldn't find anything on the second floor, he headed downstairs to the first floor.

As he descended the stairs, he could hear some voices in the distance. While going down as slowly as possible, he sharpened his hearing to listen more clearly.

"Are they asleep yet?" The voice of a young girl reached Ben's ears, and he recognized it as the girl who had interrupted him and the old man in the kitchen.

"Yes," another young voice replied. "I put enough sleeping pills in their drinks to knock out an elephant."

"That's good. Now we can eat in peace."

Ben's pupils dilated, and his mouth went dry.

Some of his suspicions were confirmed, but the question of *why* still remained.

More voices were heard, but for some reason, they all began to whisper.

He wanted to get closer and listen to their whispers, but the family was in the kitchen, which was well-lit.

Ben continued exploring, camouflaging himself in the darkness and shadows.

He tried to open the front door, but it was impossible. The windows were also sealed, and even the back door couldn't be opened.

Slowly, Ben began to understand his situation.

*They've kidnapped us!*

This conclusion didn't rattle him at all. None of the family members were strong enough to be a threat.

Maybe that's why they used sleeping pills.

Ben searched all the places he had been before, like the dining room and the living room, but he couldn't find anything suspicious.

*What are their motives?*

As he passed by the pantry door, he noticed something.

The lock was gone.

When they had been taken to their room, Ben had passed by this same spot and noticed that the door was locked with a large padlock.

Now the padlock was nowhere to be found, and that piqued his curiosity.

With caution and care, he slowly opened the door, and the smell he had noticed when he first entered the house hit him in the face—this time much more intense and strong.

Ben's breath stopped for a second as he finally recognized the smell.

"No way!" he whispered under his breath.

The door led to a set of stairs that descended into the basement.

Ben went down the stairs slowly, his heart heavy with a vague idea of what he might find.

As he descended, the temperature began to drop until the surroundings felt like a freezer.

Ben was completely shocked, his eyes wide open, unable to fully comprehend the horror he was witnessing.

He had a vague idea of what he might find, but he never imagined something like this.

Because the smell he had recognized... was the smell of blood.

In front of him was what looked like a cold storage room. But unlike a normal cold storage room, this one was filled with what appeared to be parts of human bodies.

Severed arms and legs hung from iron hooks. In the center of the room were about five torsos, missing their heads and limbs.

Even more horrifying was that these torsos seemed mutilated, with chunks of flesh torn off and cut away.

On an iron table in the corner, Ben saw the corpse of the old man who had spoken to him in the kitchen.

His head was still attached to his body, but his legs and arms had been severed. His chest was wide open, as were his eyes, which stared at the ceiling in terror.

Ben's hands began to sweat, and slowly, all the pieces in his mind began to fall into place.

Why, during dinner, most of them only took small bites but didn't really eat much.

The conversation he had just overheard.

*"Now we can eat in peace."*

Why they had drugged and kidnapped them. Why this door was now unlocked.

"Damn it!" Ben clenched his teeth and ran upstairs. "They're fucking cannibals!"

He didn't care about the noise he might make because he was determined to kill this family of sick individuals.

He reached the first floor and headed to the kitchen, where he had heard them earlier.

He kicked the door open but didn't find any of them there.

All he saw was a bloody mess and what looked like human remains on the kitchen counter.

Ben fought back the urge to vomit and searched for the axe the old man had given him.

With the axe in hand, he ran to the room where Dante was sleeping. He was terrified at the thought of what they might have done to him while he was exploring.

"Where's the other one?" Ben heard a shout and sighed in relief.

The shout meant they had just entered the room and realized he was missing.

Without stopping to think, Ben ran with all his might and reached the room.

"I'll go look for him!"

At the same time Ben was arriving at the room, a young man was coming out of it.

Their eyes met for a second.

Ben's gaze was cold and emotionless as he used his momentum to deliver a punch to the young man's throat.

The young man's neck deformed immediately, and he fell to the ground, clutching his throat, trying to breathe.

As Ben entered the room, he found the middle-aged woman and the girl.

Without thinking much, he shoved them aside and, with his incredible strength, slammed them against the wall.

As he pushed them away, he noticed the father of the family standing next to Dante, holding what looked like a butcher's knife.

Ben's face twisted, and with his heart racing, he threw his axe.

The axe spun through the air before embedding itself in the man's head.

The man turned halfway, and Ben saw that his head was practically split in half.

Blood splattered onto Dante's face, but even that didn't wake him up.

Slowly, the man fell to his knees and then collapsed completely.

[Evil Points +50,000]

Much more relieved, Ben walked over to the body and yanked the axe out of his head.

He looked at the middle-aged woman, who seemed terrified, but the girl beside her appeared much calmer.

"Why aren't you asleep?"

Ben ignored her question and, with the axe resting on his shoulder, slowly walked toward her.

Halfway there, he heard another notification.

[Evil Points +50,000]

Apparently, the young man in the hallway had already died.

The woman didn't move from her spot, simply staring at Ben.

Ben also stared at her for a second before raising his axe and beginning the carnage.

He started by slicing open her fat stomach, cut off her limbs, and finished by opening her chest, just as they had done to the old man.

[Evil Points +50,000]

Throughout the entire process, the woman didn't make a single sound. She just stared at him with a gaze that seemed devoid of all emotion.

When he was done with her, Ben slowly approached the girl and, just like with her mother, stared into her eyes.

"Did you have fun?" the girl asked Ben, which made him frown in annoyance.

"I don't enjoy killing."

"That's a shame," the girl looked at him with the same emotionless expression as her mother. Her eyes had turned black, devoid of light, which was strange because, if he remembered correctly, the girl had blue eyes. "I had fun."

"It's time for the fun to end," Ben said as he gripped his axe and prepared to kill the girl.

"No," the girl returned his gaze without fear. "The fun is just beginning."

Her face began to melt while she still maintained her smile, making her look even more eerie.

Her torso began to break apart as the girl screamed in pain. Tentacles and deformed limbs began to emerge from her body.

Her body stretched in an unnatural way, with her mouth growing larger than Ben's entire height.

"Benjamin Clay," a guttural voice came from the depths of that horrendous creature. "You challenged the Horrors... and they heard you."