The Dungeon's Worst Little Mistake

There are no dreams. One moment she is asleep, and the next, her groggy mind is suddenly pulling itself from the mire of deep sleep like it is being pulled from sucking, sticky mud. With a start, Susan jolts awake and grimaces, her entire body feeling like an open wound. If someone had told her that she had been beaten from head to toe with a cudgel, she would have believed them.

Her mouth is dry, stomach empty and complaining, and her body feels like it is made of a block of lead and just as willing to be moved. Slowly opening her eyes, she finds nothing but red bricks filling her vision, her face practically glued to the floor in a small puddle of her own drool and blood.

Her mind still full of fog, it takes a monumental amount of effort to simply raise her head, every muscle in her body complaining at the unwanted movement and straining against her orders.

She manages to raise it just a little, her cheek unsticking itself from the brick and feeling tender, her vision expanding somewhat. The light here is moving, shadows on the walls dancing, the air is warm, and as her brain continues to wake up, she can hear the sound of water gently flowing somewhere behind her. Shifting a little more, she finally manages to set her eyes on a large central hearth that is filling the room's middle. Sitting there, looking rather comfortable with one leg up on her knee as she reads a book and sips some hot drink, is Bug.

It all comes back to her.

She wants to scream and curse. To beg for Death to take her. To swear revenge against the little bitch that is just sitting there and looking oh so comfy. But she doesn't. She just doesn't have the energy. The will. The fight left inside of her.

She had already lost, and it cost her everything.

"Why am I still alive…?" Susan manages to croak out through chapped lips, her dry tongue rasping against the roof of her mouth with every syllable. She tries to wet her mouth, to get some spit to start flowing, but her body has nothing to give. She is so incredible thirsty right now.

Bug clearly hears her, one of her fluffy ears twitching on the side of her head as the words find her. But she doesn't respond. Instead, she takes a satisfying sip of her hot beverage, flips the page, and keeps reading. Her eyes don't even dart over the prone Susan, just remaining on the page and going back and forth over the words.

Susan tries to move around some more but finds it difficult to do so. Besides her sore body complaining and resisting her entirely, she is also bound and tied up for good measure. Looking down at herself, she can see layers of rope tightly wrapped around her body again and again until she is almost like a bag worm. Her arms are even more tightly bound behind her back, with the bindings around her wrists being so tight that she can hardly even feel her hands anymore.

Very thoroughly done, and rightly so. For an adventurer of Susan's level, normal bindings wouldn't be able to hold her. Bug is clearly taking no chances.

Not that it matters. Even if she could, Susan doubts that she would even try at this point. Why won't Bug just kill her? She's already won, hasn't she?

"Wh-why and I, still alive?" Susan rasps out again, but Bug simply continues to say nothing, simply raising a finger up to maybe indicate that Susan should wait for a little bit longer, or that she should be quiet. Probably both, honestly. She flips another page in her book.

All she can do is watch as Bug continue to read in silence. Another page getting flipped. After a moment, Bug pulls a bookmark out of thin air and places it between the pages, snapping the book shut.

"Apologies, I wanted to finish the chapter I was on. I've had a bunch of free time recently, while wasting all my time on trying to get my kidnapped minions back, and I've taken inspiration from my friend to give reading a try. It's pretty fun. I'm currently enjoying a book about a girl getting reincarnated into another world and becoming a villainess-princess, that killed the forty-year-old duke she was arranged to marry, who was definitely a pedophile… And then gets shipped off to a fort at the border as punishment because her father, the king, doesn't know how to handle her. Also, she's like, really magically gifted or whatever and great with a sword, which makes her very powerful, and I think she is planning on trying to take over the world or whatever… I don't know. I'm enjoying it so far. There was a bunch like this one under the Ise'kai -whatever that is- section of books in the Item Shop, so they must be pretty popular." Bug says with a shrug as she makes the book disappear.

Susan doesn't bother responding to any of that nonsense, just looking up at Bug as she walks closer, her original question still hanging up in the air.

Bug stops right in front of her face, naked scale covered toes wiggling on the cold floor, claws digging against the brick. She squats down, bending her knees and getting closer to Susan's level on the floor, big breast bouncing a little with the motion, her wings and long shark tail pooling on the floor behind her. Her face is still injured, a red mark of an angry burn running across the left side of her face from chin to ear and even reaching her left eye, the wound still in the process of slowly scabbing over. It is hard to tell, but the burn apparently even reaches her ear, where a freshly regrown layer of fur is now covering the healing skin, while further down, part of her neck and chest had been apparently singed as well, though not as badly as her face, now covered by a new black shirt.

If the pain is bothering her any, Susan can't tell. Bug just gives her a smile like she is talking to a friend. Behind those soft lips, which managed to avoid the fire, Susan can see that Bug's teeth, while still sharp looking, aren't as monstrous as they used to be.

"So, how you doing?"

Susan doesn't answer, just looking up at her.

"Like shit, right? Yeah, I thought so…"

"…"

"Fine! Ha… You're still alive because I don't want to kill you. It would be a waste. I mean, sure. I could turn you into a rather strong skeleton. You would definitely end up as a special one, what with how good you are with a sword and all. But it would be a waste. Instead, I have a better idea!" Bug declares with a bright smile.

"What are you going to do with me?" Susan asks, struggling just to keep her neck up off the ground so she can look up at this bitch's smug face.

Bug just gets this evil look in her eyes, her smile growing a little more sinister.

"Well… Originally, I was going to do something really fucked up and maybe turn you into a meatball like a disformed mess of limbs and eyeballs and stuff~. Send you back up to the surface, all wiggly and screaming, with a letter stappled to your forehead. Buuuuut… again, that would just be pretty fucked up if I did that. I'm willing to do some cruel things, but I honestly think that would just be a bit too much, yeah? I mean sure, you guys made me mad, destroyed a bunch of my minions, and burned my damn face, but… Meh. Plus, there is like, the whole logistics of it all, you know? I would have had to carry you around like that, all squirming and begging for death, all the way down to the next teleporter, because I am not going back up. And then after that, it would be a whole matter of how the people outside would even receive my message? Maybe they would decide to leave me alone, or maybe they would just see me as even more of a threat that needs to be put down. Damn the risks, send more bodies! and all that..." She just shrugs. "Meh, just not worth the effort… So! After I had myself a cookie and calmed down, I had an even BETTER idea!" Bug declares with a happy little clap of her hands like she is congratulating her own genius.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"You see, I've had this problem for a while now, and this is something that I have only recently been able to fully admit to myself. Quite frankly, I'm rather embarrassed to admit it to a stranger… But we aren't really strangers now, are we? After all, you put in so much effort just to reach me, and I to avoid getting reached~ You tried to kill me, and I you~ Hardly strangers at this point, right?" Bug asks, but Susan refuses to respond, just waiting for her to get to the point already and secretly being thankful that she didn't get turned into a living meatball.

Bug shrugs again. "Anyways. I have come to admit that I… am lonely. I crave the company of others. Always have, you see. I mean, sure, the vast majority of people I have met, I've ended up murdering them, but still. I wanted their company. I craved it! Talking to people, observing them, just having someone nearby… It's weird, isn't it? Sadly, most people are idiots, and I ended up having to kill them. Either that, or they don't want to be around me because they are scared that I will kill them… At least I have Hannah, she's cool. She actually likes me and wants to be with me… well, how much she wants to is… she's a friend and that's all that matters… Are you sexually attracted to woman by the way? I feel like I should ask this before I proceed."

That actually gets a response out of Susan, causing her pull back a little.

"What?!" She's not going to keep me as a sex slave, is she!?

"No? Ok then, so I don't have to worry about you getting handsy with me… Seriously, what is up with humans and wanting to… Ah, not important, not important… Anyways! I am lonely. Hannah isn't here, which while that does make me sad, it is honestly for the best. This place is far too dangerous for her, and I wouldn't want to risk losing her down here."

That hits Susan a bit too close to home, and she almost starts to cry.

Goddess, why did I ever let her convince me to bring her down here. I should have just left Elaine back at base. I'm such a fucking fool.

But Bug is still happily rambling on about her own problems.

"And then there is Mimmie. Have you met? He, she… it, it's my pet over there. Cute little bugger, loves scratches, and hands… It started with just fingers, but now it is always trying to eat my hand whenever it gets the chance. I know it is tempting to pet Mimmie, the cute little shit, but just be careful if you do… Where was I? Oh, right. Lonely. Anyways! I have this issue, you see? And initially, I tried to get around it by talking to and naming my skeletons, a few of which you killed by the way. Again, still upset about that… Regardless, they are a bunch of braindead idiots and aren't even people. It doesn't matter how much I humanize them, or whatever the word is, in my head. They just aren't people. I can't have an actual discussion with them. They can't talk back, or feel anything, or be my friends. They aren't real; I might as well just have a pet rock!"

Susan is getting a really bad feeling now. A sense of dread slowly creeping up her spine and pushing aside her depression.

"Please ignore the fact that Mimmie used to basically be a pet rock by the way… And as for Mimmie. I love the little hand eating bastard/bitch/whatever it is. But at the end of the day, Mimmie is just my pet. It can't talk to me. And while it certainly keeps me company, it just isn't the same. Mimmie isn't a person."

Bug reaches down and gives Susan's messy, tangled, and blood-soaked hair some gentle pets, tucking a stray strand of crimson hair out of her face and behind her ear. Susan is going pale in the face now, the blood draining away to be replaced by a cold sweat and a chilled shiver.

"Wha-What are you, going to do to me?"

"I want a friend. I want a companion. Someone who can stick by my side and keep me company all the way down to the bottom of the Dungeon. And you just so happen to be the strongest human I have even met. But…"

Susan doesn't speak. She can't. Dread has claimed her heart and sealed her lips.

"… I can't trust you to not stab me in the back at a moment's notice. Or to run away from me. Or anything else. And don't bother trying to lie to me; I know that you have no desire to be my friend. At least, not yet… No, I just need to make sure that you can't, and that you will be compelled to stay by my side. Plus!, you owe me, like, two whole minions and a Sam. Your friends replaced the other two that you destroyed." Bug says with a nod towards a corner of the room were Dale's corpse is standing motionless. Not too far away is the flyer and the insect, still waiting for repairs after Susan had cut them.

Susan opens her lips again to ask the same question, but the words fail to leave her dry mouth. Bug just gives her a reassuring little smile and continues on.

"Don't worry. I won't turn you into a mindless slave. After all, I'm not particularly fond of the idea myself. You will retain your free will, your mind, your ability to think for yourself. I won't force you to love me, or make you forget inconvenient things. I'm not a monster after all. But you will have to do as I say. You will accompany me. And you will remain with me until I choose to release you. And after you came here, completely of your own volition and will, to hunt me down and KILL ME, this is nothing more than a bit of justified revenge on my part. Also, you'll still be alive, sort of, so you can warn people away from ever trying to do what you did. A physical reminder of your past mistakes, which will hopefully help to spare others from doing the same. Awesome, right?"

Susan is just waiting for the other shoe to drop, and it finally does. Bug finishes blabbering and finally gets to the point. She finally tells her, and Susan can feel as something dies inside of her heart.

"I'm going to turn you into a Ghoul. A sentient, thinking, Undead with a human soul still trapped inside. You will effectively be immortal, unageing, undying. Sure, it comes with some downsides, like twisting your soul so much that you become unable to reenter the cycle of reincarnation, trapped forevermore on this plane of existence… but that isn't important right now! What is important, is that you and me –" Bug says as she points to Susan and then herself with a smile. " – are going to be together for a long time. We'll do everything together! And before you know it, you'll be setting aside all this nasty business, forgetting about the past, and eventually, you and I, we'll be the best of friends. I hope you're looking forward to it, because I am. Susan. My new buddy."

"Please, just kill me."

"No."

Bug stands back up and pulls a new book out of thin air, this one black and a little aged with the cover peeling back and the pages looking yellowed and worn.

She heads back over to her seat and opens the book, getting comfortable once again. As she opens it, she keeps talking to Susan in a casual tone.

"I considered just buying the Spell from the S%$#3& but I am still saving up my points for something else. Especially after getting these damn burns. Fucking Fire mage!" She throws her cup at the zombie of Ben, who currently has his nose in the corner like a kid in timeout, nailing him in the back of the head and getting warm tea or whatever it was she was drinking all over him. He moans in response.

"Anyways… I didn't want to waste my points on something that isn't a priority. Not that you aren't important, of course. Don't sell yourself short, new buddy. But regardless, I recently discovered that Spells can be earned and even learned! Can you believe that? So, I bought a grimoire for advanced magics and rituals on raising the dead. It's… a bit of a read, I'll be honest. I mean, geez. The author seriously has their head so far up their own ass, the way they write. It feels like they think they are the smartest and greatest person in the world. And every other word, it's like they were pulling shit out of a thesaurus! I'm going to be honest with you, Susan, this is probably going to take me a little while to learn. Plus, I have to buy some reagents for the ritual, practice drawing the magic circle… Drawing circles is hard, especially on brick." Bug says as she points to a couple of failed attempts in the corner. Susan can't see them from where she is on the floor though. Not that it matters, she is still too busy dreading.

Bug just shrugs and gets back to reading.

"Anyways, anyways, anyways… not important. Just try and stay comfortable until I'm done. Dinner is in three hours, and I'll make us some grilled frog legs. If you get thirsty, let me know and I'll have Billy bring you a cup of water."

"What if I have to pee?" Susan tries, considering that she might be able to escape if they loosen her bindings and give her some privacy.

"Then pee yourself. I'm not taking any chances, and the Dungeon will clean up any puddles in a couple of hours or so…" Bug says with a shrug and flips a page in her book.

…

"I should have never come here…"

"No. No you shouldn't have. But we all have to live with the consequences of our actions."

"Will you?"

"… One day, yes. But I'll at least get to see the Sun first."

The conversation dies there. Bug focusing on her reading, and Susan slowly lowering her head to the floor. She doesn't know what to do, other than just wallow in her own grief and dread. She is thirsty; she could ask for water from the cute little skeleton waiting nearby. But part of her want to suffer. After all, she got her sister killed… She deserves it…

Her eyes going to the sleeping treasure chest by the hearth, Susan simply lies their and watches it. Maybe if she gets lucky, the Mimic will wake up and eat her while its master isn't watching. At least then, she can be with Elaine again…