Purified by Suffering: Chapter 2 – Barbed Wire Meeting Flesh and Bone

Chapter 2 – Barbed Wire Meeting Flesh and Bone

The maze of the expansive sewers that forces Vera to go further down somehow becomes dirtier and dirtier. There’s more blood, body parts, trash, and human waste in the lower levels of the sewer. Certain pathways are blocked by waste while others are filled with traps. Every now and then, Vera hears other people either talking or sounds of struggle. She does her best to avoid contact by hiding or taking a different path when possible. When hiding, she watches the bodies of people being dragged off. One of the bodies is taken away by Susurro of all people. Vera tries to remain calm while not making any noises, however, when she comes out of hiding, Susurro comes out of one of his holes.

“It’s a surprise seeing a woman of your caliber here. You must’ve been given a very special ability,” he says.

“Are there other people will abilities like mine?”

“Of course. You aren’t the only special one here. Most people are sent here with these enhancements done to them to scrape by. The enhancement that you get is based on what who sent you here thought about you. You didn’t think that I naturally look like this, do you?”

“No.”

“I’ve already heard what you’ve done. I’m impressed so much so that I want to know your name.”

“Do you really need to know?”

“Your life depends on it, so yes.”

“Vera.”

“Vera. Vera! I like your name.”

Vera tries to stand her ground while Susurro circles around her and examines her.

“Vera, you should know that there’s another woman who has the same abilities as you. She will take a particular interest in you and she will find you.”

“Is she dangerous?”

“She’s probably the most dangerous woman in the sewer. You should feel honored.”

“What does she look like? Can you tell me more about her?”

“She’s easy to pick out. Just look for the barbed wire woman. That’s all I can say for now. I wish you the best.”

Susurro leaves Vera through his tunnels with his new bodies.

“Hey, wait! Tell me more!”

Vera is left in silence as she looks up at Susurro’s tunnels. One of which has blood and limbs falling from it, so Vera moves on. The way forward becomes more linear as most pathways are blocked. This path ends in a large gate guarded by people with who are already transformed.

Vera cautiously approaches them and asks, “Can I…get through here?”

The guards take a good look at her before letting her through. Beyond the gate is a small town made of scrap thrown away from the city. The town is made of a hotel that is more of a brothel than a place of rest, a bar, a place that sells human flesh, and a place that sells slightly clean sewer water and trashy food that is sold at a high price. There are other buildings with people that sold other services such as; protection, so-called miracle cures and equipment, and religions. Vera goes into one Christian-looking building to find a priest nailed to the wall with most of the nails in his eyes, mouth, hands, feet, and chest.

Vera winces in response and is about to leave, but the priest says, “Ah, please don’t be afraid. I’m not dead and I can give you advice or hear confessions if you wish.”

“O-okay.” Vera sits down near the priest. “Can you first tell me why you are nailed to the wall?”

“I had an affair with a nun at the church I worked at and the Church gave me this penance, to hear confessions and to give the sinners here advice until I die. I’ve already done my confession and this penance should pay for the sins I’ve committed.”

“That’s some dedication to paying for your sins.”

“It’s not something that I want to do. It’s something that the Church imposed on me because of my acts.”

Vera isn’t a very religious woman so she just grunts in response then says, “People like us don’t belong here.”

“You could say that. I’d say that most belong here. Maybe if you confess your sins, I can tell you if you are one of these people.”

“I didn’t do anything that I consider wrong.”

“What sins are you most weak to?”

“Lust.”

“Everybody is weak to that. It’s said that most souls go to Hell because of the sins of the flesh.”

“What should I do?”

“Learn to control yourself. I know it’s easier said than done, but you must if you wish to get control over yourself.”

“But if I lose control, my special ability activates.”

“Then your lust may be your salvation if you use it correctly but take my advice with a grain of salt. I’m merely a sinful priest so my opinion may not be that valuable.”

“Come out, Vera! The Black Barbed Mistress Belladonna wishes to speak with you,” someone says in the town center.

“You best see what Belladonna wants of you,” the priest says.

“I guess I don’t have a choice.”

From her title, Vera thinks that this is the barbed wire woman that Susurro warned her about and when she sees her, it confirms it. Belladonna is a woman similar in appearance to Vera except she wears a dress of barbed wire. The woman even has barbed wire hair and her eyes appeared to have the wire in it. She is also pregnant with her belly appearing as if she is going to give birth soon.

“You’re Belladonna?” Vera asks her.

“I am. Heh, I can see why people were afraid of you. You look like me.”

“What do you want?”

“I’ll tell you over a drink. Sit and relax! I’m not going to kill you.”

Vera sits with Belladonna at the bar as everyone clears out. Both get a drink for free. Belladonna downs her drink within seconds while Vera looks at the homemade alcohol with doubt and worry, so she doesn’t drink it.

“Should you really be drinking?” Vera asks.

“You shouldn’t worry about the baby. It’ll serve its purpose later. Tell me what crimes you’ve committed. You have to do something terrible to be put down here.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You’re one of the delusional ones then that has done something beyond terrible.”

“You don’t know anything about me.”

“I know everything about the types of people that get put down here. By the way you look, you’ve maybe done something worse than even I have and I’m the worst woman in these sewers.”

“I said you don’t know anything about me. I’m nothing like the people here. Tell me what you want from me.”

Belladonna grabs Vera’s neck. Her hold is painful as the barbed wire on Belladonna’s hand cuts at Vera’s throat.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do. I’m the one who’s in control of this situation. If I want you to drown to death in feces and piss, then that’s what’s going to happen. Do you understand me?”

“Y-yes.”

Belladonna let’s go of Vera.

“Since you’re so anxious, I’ll tell you what I want from you. I want you to work with me. We have similar abilities and personalities if you want to admit it or not.”

“I want to leave the sewers! I don’t want to be in this hellhole!”

Belladonna slaps Vera across the face then puts her hands around her throat again.

“What did I say?”

“I’m not going to join you. I’m nothing like you!”

“We’ll see about that.” Belladonna throws Vera to her escorts. “Have your way with her.”

The escorts slap Vera around and slap her face, breasts, butt, legs, and in her crotch. Her feelings well up inside of her until her body transforms.

“Yes…keep punishing me!”

She kills the escorts before turning her attention to Belladonna.

“You are like me. I knew it,” Belladonna says with a smile.

“I’m nothing like the freaks here!”

“You’re exactly like us.”

Belladonna tightens the barbed wire around her body to transform. A second set of teeth grow underneath her own, her breasts lactate acid that burns through the floor, her arms become pincers, her legs are elongated, and the baby bursts out and becomes its own monster. It doesn’t have a jaw and instead has two arms made of bone that appear sharp and deadly. The two women fight each other and appear to be evenly matched despite their different abilities.

“You’re not too bad,” Belladonna says before making her breasts use their acid to destroy the ground beneath them.

They fall into a large room filled with dead bodies and starving cannibals who are eating and defiling the corpses. The cannibals scatter and attack the two as they fight each other. Vera sees that Belladonna is left wide open for an attack because so many cannibals go after her, but her child shields her. Before connecting her attack, Vera hesitates. Belladonna sees this and uses her barbed wire hair that stretches and slashes everything around it. Vera blocks this attack and sustains a lot of damage as a result.

“Haha, you actually have a little bit of empathy in that vile soul of yours,” Belladonna says before cutting her own child out of her. “I don’t. I can always get another in no time. It’s one of my special abilities.”

“You devil!”

“Says the monster.”

Vera fights Belladonna even more viciously despite her injuries. The fight seems to be in her favor until Belladonna spews her acid at Vera. The acid doesn’t melt her skin, but it is painful and melts the sewer grates around them which makes them fall again. This time they’ve fallen a shorter distance into a room filled with bodies that were being cooked in a secret restaurant. Vera falls in a way that she is knocked out both from what she fell on and from the pains of battle. Belladonna stands over her as the restaurant’s inhabitants clear out.

She says, “You don’t know this, but you’re the first person in a while to give me a run for my money. You’re going to want to stay here sooner or later. I know it. For now, I’ll move you into a ‘safer’ area to rest.”

When Vera wakes up, she sees several cannibals without teeth sucking on nearly every part of her body in a kitchen. She screams while pushing them away, which scares them off. When looking at her skin, she sees that it’s regenerating while expelling the cannibal’s saliva.

A woman dressed in a chef-like outfit comes into the kitchen and says, “Don’t be scared or anything! Let me explain!”

“Where am I?!” Vera says as she partially transforms with her scythe-like arms and half of her face changed.

“You’re in-in a kitchen. Now, don’t take this the wrong way, but-”

“I already am.”

“Just give me a second to explain! Belladonna took you here after her fight with you. She said that you were the first person in a while to give her a real fight. She gave you to us so that you could relax and see your regeneration ability.”

Vera sees that the marks on her body from the fight are gone as if the fight never happened.

“How long has it been since she left?”

“About three hours.”

“It took me three hours to recover?”

“N-no, it actually took you five minutes. My customers here wanted a taste of you and since there’s no harm done, there’s no reason to be mad at me!”

“…No, there isn’t a reason for me to be mad, but there is a reason for me to be livid.”

Vera cuts down the woman before cutting down the rest of the cannibalistic restaurant. Once she’s finished, she notices that the blood on her slowly falls off. This is the first time she’s paid attention to the state of her body. The thought of why the muck and dirt of the sewer along with the blood and guts of its criminals never stuck to her never entered her mind until now.

“How convenient,” she quietly says to herself.

She also now knows that she can transform halfway with her will if the situation feels dire enough. With this information, she continues her way downward glad to not be food anymore, but nervous for what horrors may lay ahead.