Sam entered the dark space to take a closer look, the words difficult to read at a distance. As he approached, the shapes began to form as each letter came into focus. 'Larvae we were, moths we have become.' It was a cryptic text, the words complete nonsense to someone of sane mind. 'May our wings spread fire across the plains until the goddess awakens.'
Whatever the message meant, Sam was sure that it was of no use to him, at least not for the moment. If the person they were searching for had ever been there, a woman who went by the name of Antoinette Dupont, then she was long gone. The blood was old and dried up, the red lettering close to flaking off the whitewashed wall.
"Is this her cell? Have we finally found it?" the younger looking wolf enquired from where he stood in the entryway.
Sam peered back at him and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure, Max. Maybe?" He had only recently learned the vampire's name, as he tended to keep to himself for the most part. It was something that they both had in common.
"No." Vincent gruffed, sniffing the air as he brushed past his packmate and entered the cell. "Two very different creatures inhabited this place."
"The lock isn't broken." Rahna added as she darkened the doorway. "Which means someone let them out."
"Indeed." Vincent said with a slight growl, his frustration beginning to show.
"Who were they?" Sam enquired, his nose not quite sensitive enough to pick up the same scent as the others.
"No one important." Vincent quickly replied. The large wolf showed no concern as to who or what had occupied the cell before their arrival, his focus entirely on finding the one that they had been charged to rescue. "Come. The spymaster can't be far now."
"Spymaster?" Sam wondered, his question completely ignored as everyone else began to file out of the room while Vincent took the lead.
There was a lot about Antoinette that Sam was yet to be told, that was if anyone would ever bother to do so. All he knew was that she was very dear to both the queen and Sir Chevalier, with any other information to be provided on a need to know basis only, and as far as they were concerned, he didn't need to know. Whoever she was, the title that they used when they referred to her intrigued him. However, Sam had already learned his lesson during his close encounter with Queen Marquette and would make sure that he kept his distance so as to not be manipulated again. He was more determined than ever to not let his curiosity get the better of him this time.
With a shrug of his shoulders Sam fell in line with the group, trailing behind by just a few feet. He left the cold confines of the cell and made his way back into the twisting hallway, the colourless hues making him feel uneasy in this long forgotten place. Trying to stay as close to the group as possible without tripping either them or himself up, he had a nagging feeling that they were being watched.
Glancing back down the hallway, Sam couldn't see anyone else there in the dark, just the barren surroundings that lacked any signs of life. There was no hope for those who entered this place, their deaths seemingly all but certain. However, he was already dead and so were his companions, giving them a distinct edge over any mortals who stumbled into the building unawares.
Sam couldn't shake the feeling that someone was spying on them, each action observed by an unseen presence that tracked their every move. It looked as though he was alone in that sense of dread, the group continuing to traverse another long corridor with him in tow as if nothing was amiss. Vincent's pace had begun to increase, the anger inside him now visible as it bubbled to the surface. It was clear that he didn't enjoy playing games, but that's all that the asylum had been doing with them.
What should have been another cell ended up being yet another corridor, with three more splitting off in various directions. Stairwells ascended upwards for longer than they should, the number of floors greater than their sum, far more than the size of the building should have allowed. It was enough to drive anyone mad as the unnatural labyrinth tried its best to break them.
Exploring the twisted shell of what the asylum had become, Sam couldn't even begin to imagine what such a place would have been like in its prime. He struggled to imagine the sheer number of patients that had been locked up and experimented on due to mental illnesses that were out of their control. It wasn't their fault that they had been committed, they didn't want to be that way, but it was the hand that they had been dealt in life and he was only just beginning to understand how that felt.
A near lifetime of supernatural experiences had driven Sam to the brink, his own death pushing him way past the line of what he should have been able to cope with. In fact, it was almost as if the line had been erased entirely. As the group continued to push on into the expansive maze of uncertainty, Sam couldn't help but wonder if he was actually dead and his body was still six feet under, this unholy place nothing more than his own personal form of purgatory.
A roar echoed down the hallway, its origin somewhere near yet out of sight. Victor raised a hand, bringing the entire procession to a halt as his loyal packmates followed his silent command. Whatever the noise was, it sounded like an animal, both feral and wild. It was enough to cause the wolves to show fear for the first time, the cracks in their brave facades beginning to show. Their defenses had been worn down by the self doubt that plagued their minds, their thoughts clouded as they were slowly consumed from the inside out.
There was no denying that the group was well and truly lost, with no idea as to where they were going or from which direction they had come from. Fortunately, Vincent and his friends had ears that were as acute as their sense of smell, a second roar allowing them to finally get their bearings, or at least gain some idea of where to go next as they honed in on their new target.
"This way." Vincent whispered, taking a left turn in a fork that had split their path. "We must be getting close now, so get ready for the worst."
Rahna simply nodded and looked back at Sam, her frightened eyes narrowing as a new look of determination took over. "Come." She kept her voice low, not wanting to give away their position any more than they already had.
What Rahna hadn't realised was that it didn't really matter how much noise they made, as their presence within the asylum was already known. Sam knew that someone or something had been watching them for quite some time, but he didn't want to cause any panic. It may have been foolish for him to keep that knowledge from the rest of the group, but he seriously doubted that it would keep them out of harm's way.
Entering the confines of a particularly narrow hall, the group formed a single line, with Vincent at the front and Max in the rear. Sam found himself sandwiched behind Rahna, following her a little too closely for comfort with his face almost pressed up against the red leather of her jacket. The odd thing was that the corridor itself felt as though it was shrinking in size, the opening that they found themselves in growing smaller as they progressed.
It wasn't long before the hall became so tight that it seemed as though it was closing in on them from all sides, their shoulders brushing against both walls at once. They were forced to squeeze through one by one, leaving Sam impressed by the fact that someone as immense as Vincent could make it, his own smaller frame struggling to push through. It was an awkward and claustrophobic experience that left him feeling trapped, with nowhere else left to go but forwards.
Just when Sam began to believe that he couldn't make it any further, the confined space opened up into a much larger room. It was a relief to stretch his arms and legs as he stood up straight, shaking them out in a fruitless attempt to get his dead blood flowing. He couldn't see what awaited them at first, as Vincent's large form blocked his view of the room, but he could hear that something else was in there with them. A savage roar rang out from somewhere nearby, the noise deafening to those who had only just entered. Whatever was causing the commotion, its close proximity was alarming and set him on edge. From the sound of it, a vicious beast roamed in there, and they had all mistakenly wandered into its lair.
Moving to support her alp
ha, Rahna stepped to the side to take a look for herself. She soon stopped in her tracks, seemingly stunned by whatever she had witnessed. Both of them stood motionless, unable to comprehend whatever they had just laid their eyes upon. It was difficult to see past them, but they had left just enough room for Sam to peer through as poor Max was left none the wiser. Expecting to see a hulking creature so large that it matched the horrific sounds that it made, Sam too was taken by surprise. What he saw there within the black painted room wasn't what he had expected at all, the sight before him causing his jaw to drop.
Suspended in the center of the blackened room, a glass box appeared to hover. There was nothing holding it there as far as Sam could see, an invisible force somehow keeping it in place, but as strange as that was, it wasn't quite as odd as what was kept within its transparent walls.
Crouching in a clear cage too small to hold her and illuminated by a single spotlight that was set deep in the ceiling, a feral looking woman clawed at the glass as she let out another ear piercing roar. Her long blonde hair was unkempt, matted and missing clumps where it had been torn from her scalp, the handfuls discarded upon the cage floor. Her wide blue eyes were full of a ferocity that one would expect from a wild animal, not a woman as pretty as her; her primitive beauty almost too terrifying to behold.
Noticing that the woman's pale skin was bare and lacking any sort of clothing, Sam felt shame for staring, but found that he couldn't look away for long as she beat her hands against the side of her cage over and over. The longer he looked, the more he came to realise that she looked a lot like Alice, her features so similar that he could have sworn it was her if he didn't know any better. There were some small differences that set them apart however, as her nose was a different shape and her eyebrows weren't quite as thick as those of his friend. Her face was over a decade older too, with the wrinkles of someone who had lived much longer, although it was clear that she was not of the living. This woman was as dead as they were, her sharp fangs and pasty white flesh just some of the telltale signs of her true nature.
The woman displayed an untamed savagery that petrified Sam. It was something that he had seen in Alice at times, but taken to an extreme that made him want to keep his distance. She had obviously been broken, her control over the beast inside of her completely lost as it was allowed to take the reigns. She continued to roar and howl, smashing her body against the side of the box as she tried her very best to shatter it. The glass was all that was holding her back, and the only thing that could stop her from tearing him apart.
"This is obscene…" Vincent muttered, his voice lacking it's usual certainty.
"Poor girl." Rahna agreed, her own tone one of complete disgust. "No one should be caged like an animal."
Max finally saw what all the fuss was about, his own gasp saying more than his words ever could. Mirroring the reaction, Sam found that his own words escaped him too, his brain struggling to form any semblance of a sentence.
"She's a wonder, is she not? My little Amelia." Sam felt his muscles tense as the unfamiliar voice of a stranger came from somewhere in the darkness. "She's not the same as she once was, but I just couldn't bear to let her go." The man's accent was distinctly English, sounding as prim and proper as one would expect from someone of high society.
As she heard the voice of her captor, the caged woman stopped her assault, turning her head to look around the room as she searched for the man who had put her there. Her roaring changed to a low growl as she tilted her head and listened to the continuing conversation in which she was unable to take part.
"Harold? Show yourself, you coward!" Vincent yelled, his fangs gnashing angrily.
The reply wasn't quite so favourable, the stranger clearly insulted by the sudden outburst. "You dare to break into my home and then proceed to insult me? How very rude of you, Vincent! Then again, I should expect no less from an animal such as yourself..."
It took a moment before Sam caught sight of him, a shadowy figure standing still in the far corner. From what he could see, the man was exceptionally tall and thin, his height accentuated by a top hat that rested upon his head. He held a long cane, not to support himself, but out of style, his white gloved hands clutching the ivory handle. His facial features were hidden from view, except for the pearly whites of his fangs as they protruded from his mouth and the faint glint of a circular monocle. The man was a little too well presented for someone who resided in an abandoned building such as this, his demeanor far too pleasant, albeit a little on the ominous side.
Losing control of herself again, the feral woman turned her attention towards the stranger in the corner and lashed out at him. Her hands crashed against the glass, the prison rattling around her as she desperately tried to break free. She roared and hissed like the beast that she was, any humanity that she once had now completely absent.
Unable to avert his eyes any longer, Sam caught a glimpse of a tattoo that adorned the woman's back. It was a large butterfly that covered the space between her shoulder blades, black and purple ink embellishing the intricate design. The image reminded him of a vision that Alice had once described to him, a butterfly with broken wings. If this was the butterfly that she had seen, the wings had to represent her damaged psyche.
"Curse you! You're nothing but a crazy old fool!" Vincent growled again, his voice only just audible over the horrendous racket that the caged woman was making.
"Crazy? Fool?" The shadowy figure laughed heartily. "If that's true, then I must be in the right place."
Blocking out the absurd exchange, Sam wanted nothing more than to help the poor woman. He wanted to release her from her cell, but there was no way that he was getting between Vincent and the stranger who opposed him. He had learned enough to know that this wasn't the time to play the hero, especially as he could see black claws extending from the tips of the wolf's fingers.
Rahna followed suit, acting on her own volition without a single word shared between them, her own nails beginning to grow rapidly as she flexed her muscles. It was clear to see that they were mere moments away from a physical conflict, the two of them squaring up against the mysterious man who had yet to move an inch.
The stranger in the shadows shook his head dejectedly, however his tone was that of mockery. "Oh dear... I should never have expected you to act in a civilised manner. After all, the word isn't even in your limited vocabulary."
"Enough talk!" Vincent barked. "The Blood Queen's kingdom will fall, starting with you!"
The man in the shadows seemed almost offended by the outburst, resorting to further insults. "You've changed your tune, sir. It wasn't so long ago that you were licking her feet like the dog that you are!"
Vincent leapt past the glass cage and the raging creature inside, closing the distance between him and his antagonist in a matter of seconds. He slashed at the man with his claws fully extended, but the strike was deftly parried by a swift flick of the cane. They traded blows again, the wolf's attacks deflected by precise and calculated moves. It was an impressive sight to behold, but one that Sam had no time to admire.
"Max!" Rahna yelled, briefly turning to address her stunned looking packmate who was gawking at the action as it unfolded. "Take Sam and go find Antoinette! We'll deal with this scum!"
"But Rah…" Max's response was quickly interrupted.
"I said go!" she shouted again before turning her attention back to the ongoing fight. Vincent and his opponent were locked in battle, their silhouettes large and impressive against the back wall.
It was Sam who snapped into motion first, dragging Max along with him as he headed towards another open door nearby. The stranger made no move to stop them, his focus entirely on the two aggressors who stayed behind to face him.
There was a cacophony of sounds as the battle raged on, causing Sam to check back over his shoulder every time there was a loud clatter. He resisted the urge to go back and help, hurrying down the hallway in the opposite direction to where they had entered. Max was hot on his tr
ail as they darted around a corner, the corridor strangely closer to normality than any others that they had been in so far.
The pair passed by dozens of doors that led to empty rooms, with nothing more than stripped beds and rickety old chairs inside. In fact the whole place actually looked like an abandoned asylum now, without the twists and turns that had defied all logic and made it feel so uninviting. Sam wondered if the sudden change was due to the distraction that Vincent and Rahna had caused, the stranger's focus entirely on them as he fought to preserve his unlife.
The noise coming from the black room had begun to dwindle, the sound lessening with each and every step that they took. Sam hoped that the wolves would come out on top, no matter how poorly they had treated him. Whoever the man was who ran this place, the control that he had over his surroundings was a truly terrible thing to experience, and the thought of it caused Sam great concern. If someone that powerful reported to Katherine, then she had to be stronger yet. She was in a league of her own, high above those who opposed her, whereas Sam was somewhere at the opposite end of the scale. If Katherine Louviere was a shark in the ocean of existence, then he was a lowly bottom feeder.
Picking another hallway at random, the two of them skidded to a halt as they reached a dead end. They had no clue as to where they were going and were convinced that they had taken a wrong turn. However, just as they were about to head back, Sam caught sight of something that caused him to reevaluate the situation. The rows of doors on each side led to yet more empty cells, all of them open and unlocked, except for one.
A single doorway at the end of the hall was bolted shut, a thick chain wrapped around the handle to keep it in place. There was a small window near the top, the safety glass reinforced by a mesh of wire. The whole thing looked a little out of place, especially as none of the other cells had been given such care as to keep them sealed.
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