Ernest Jones: "The control humans have secured over nature has far outrun their control over themselves."
’This is bad,’ he thought to himself, panicking.
"Food! Food! Food!" the worm said, clamoring and throwing a tantrum.
Try as he might, his body refused to move. Since he couldn’t win, he said to the worm, "Fine. You win."
As soon as he gave up resisting, his body shot up from the ground and dashed towards the Cabin. The four Squires behind them had to start running to keep up with them.
Within his body, he felt like a prisoner being taken for a ride. It was a novel feeling that he didn’t care for at all.
He was still trying to wrap his head around how the worm was able to control his body, though. His surrender was temporary, and he was trying to find a solution.
’What happened?’ he asked in confusion.
’Could it always do this, or did it learn to do this now? Did it become stronger or just plain desperate?’
’I hope this is just a result of its desperation. Either way, this is not good for me. If this gets worse, I might lose control of my body forever.’
The thought of being trapped in his body for all of eternity made a wave of panic wash over him for a moment. The feeling of panic was so bad that if not for the fact that he couldn’t control his breathing, he would be hyperventilating.
But being unable to relax by hyperventilating only made his fear for the future increase. His fear increased, climbing to new peaks, until he saw that Robert and Barnabas had stopped and saw why they had stopped.
By now, they had entered the Cabin. A long table full of food sat at the center of the first floor. Many people sat at the table, eating.
Seven people sat at the table. They had stopped eating and were now looking at the newcomers.
Whether it was the cooked food on the table or the raw food walking around within the skin of the seven people, both were palatable to Robert and Barnabas. They weren’t picky eaters and were willing to eat anything in sight. But Tessa was standing in their way and blocked the path to the table.
Actually, Tessa wasn’t big enough to block the way. There was plenty of space to her sides for them to pass.
If they could worm their way through a hole barely large enough to fit their head, they could surely fit through the large open space beside her. It was a no-brainer, but none of them seemed to have considered this possibility.
They stood frozen in place, looking like stupid deer caught in the light of the headlights of a car. Whatever had frozen them in place also seemed to work on Alex as his body came to a sudden stop at the entrance.
Tessa’s eyes roamed over them, examining them with disdain as she said, "You people need to work on your control. Fortunately, I have just the right way to help you control your impulses."
Then she said, "Follow me."
After speaking, she turned towards the stairs. She didn’t wait for them and began ascending the stairs to the second floor.
An expression of immense struggle appeared on Robert and Barnabas’s faces for a while. Within them, two wills were struggling for dominance, causing them to hesitate.
Eventually, the dominant will won, and they decided what to do. Both of them took one look at the table and salivated before wrenching their gazes away and following Tessa.
As for Alex, there was no struggle. As soon as Tessa was out of sight and the other two cleared the way for him, he rushed towards the table.
There was no hesitation whatsoever. The worm wanted food, and food was right there for the taking. Since it was in control, it went for the food without regard for the consequences. It even dropped his body onto all fours to run on all fours and reach the food faster, making him look like a deranged beast.
"Boom!"
Just then, there was an explosion. The explosion came from Tessa’s location, but he ignored it. There was only one thing in his sight, and he didn’t care about anything else.
But in the next moment, pain surged through his entire body. There was another explosion, but he didn’t seem to notice it. This was because the explosion had occurred within his body.
Something had popped within his body, sending waves of pain through his body and making his consciousness teeter on the edge of collapse. And for some reason, his feet had left the ground.
The pain was too much for the worm, making it lose hold of Alex’s body. The pain was also a lot for Alex, but his mind had become impossible to break with pain, so he was able to remain conscious and take stock of his situation.
When his vision stopped flickering and he could focus again, he saw that Tessa was very close to him. In fact, her face was mere inches away from his face, and her four eyes were examining him with interest.
He found this strange because she was supposed to be on the staircase. But he didn’t dwell too much on this anomaly because he had a more important matter to deal with.
He had to solve the problem of the immense pain threatening to tear him apart from within, so he looked down towards the source of the pain.
When he looked down, he saw that her arm was inside his chest. Apparently, her entire arm had impaled his torso from back to front like a spear.
’Her arm shouldn’t be there, right?’ he asked in confusion.