The Beast Inside

by David Horrocks

  Losing all sight of Matty as the bus screeched to a halt, Alice struggled to stand but was so determined to rush to his aid that she managed to pull herself to her feet with a shaky start. She wanted to scream his name, but couldn't as she hobbled over to where the vehicle had stopped. He had to be okay. She needed to believe that Matty was too tough to be taken out like that. His story couldn't end that way.

  Stumbling towards the front end of the bus, Alice was beside herself as tears of blood welled up in her eyes, cascading down her pale cheeks. The road was soaked red too, leaving the surface slippery and wet as it made walking difficult.

  Stopping just shy of the nose of the bus, Alice froze in horror as she saw the near unrecognisable body of Matty lying there as roadkill. She fell to her knees, trying her best to desperately scoop up what little of him remained. He was a puzzle waiting to be put together, but she wasn't sure if she had all the pieces.

  Alice was oblivious to the bus doors opening and the figures that emerged from inside as she stayed there, wallowing in her misery and despair. Barely aware of the situation unfolding around her, she wept uncontrollably as she was overcome with grief. She only realised that someone else was there when they pulled her off Matty's mess of a corpse and proceeded to drag her away.

  It wasn't until Alice had lost sight of Matty's remains that she recognised the men who were restraining her. Two familiar faces looked down upon her, with their short hair and cold, uncaring eyes that had no interest in her other than what their orders dictated. The accident hadn't been an accident at all, but another stage of the attack.

  Elijah and Dariel, Alice's brothers and the only surviving sons of her mother, Caitlyn McKay, had found her within the crowds of the city. She felt contempt for them as they took her from her soulmate, just as they had taken him from her. The emotional pain that she felt in that very moment was almost too much to bare as she failed to suppress the anger that she felt inside.

  It hadn't been the queen's forces stalking Alice that night and Katherine had never been the target. The McKays were in town and they weren't leaving without their chosen one.

  Alice wasn't sure if her brothers were now in league with the bestial man, who she had previously been told was a member of another group that wanted the McKay family dead. Maybe Jolee's rescue had been staged, or perhaps it was just a coincidence that both groups had arrived at the same time.

  If the car crash had been a ruse, then Jolee couldn't possibly have been in on it. He wasn't that complicated a man and from Alice's own experiences with him, she knew that he had a hard time lying. Either way, she was now a captive and was likely being taken to see her birth mother.

  Alice summoned all her strength to try and overpower her brothers, but it seemed that they too had been turned into immortals, with power strong enough to resist. A hint of a smile crossed their dead faces as one brandished a sharp, wooden stake that had been crudely crafted from a table leg. They were silent in their words as the stake was raised and then plunged straight through her chest cavity and into the very depths of her heart.

  There was a stabbing pain at first, followed by a dull ache as Alice's body went limp, shutting down one bit at a time until she found herself unable to move. It wasn't until she lost all motion that her mind followed, falling into a deep sleep. It was a nightmare that she could only awaken from if the stake was ever removed.

  Chapter Fourteen: Making the right choice.

  A scream echoed out through the decrepit old corridors of the mental asylum, sending shivers up Alice’s spine as the air around her grew cold and unwelcoming. She knew that it was a dream, but that didn’t stop it from feeling real. There was a terrible sense of foreboding that loomed over her with frightful intent. The very walls around her were all too familiar, closing in on her from all sides as a sense of claustrophobia crept in.

  The building was sentient and it somehow knew that Alice was there within its halls. It watched her quietly and inquisitively as she found herself lost in the never ending maze once more. The cruel and unusual man that resided there wasn't home and so she wandered the hallways alone, exploring its dark depths with morbid curiosity.

  Alice followed the sounds of screaming down winding corridors that were at one time straight. Stairs twisted and corkscrewed, but she never fell from them, defying all gravity. Physics didn't follow scientific rules as walls became floors that lead to ceilings that were doors. She could be upside down, but rightside up at the same time. The windows were portals to mirror dimensions, which when looked through could show you yourself in another life. Alternate paths that existed, but a fork in the road and a different choice meant that they had never been wandered.

  In one such window, Sam was still alive and they were living together happily in Birchfield. In another, the Delaney's had stayed with Alice on the farm and although she grew strange, the McKay family had never found them there. A third showed Alice growing up and spending her entire life within the McKay compound as Riley, becoming the brainwashed servant of the fanged goddess for all eternity.

  Some of the portals showed lives in which Alice thrived, while others were much less favourable and left her wanting more. Time had no meaning in that place and she could stare out, watching each version of her life unfold before her very eyes. She stopped at every window, taking all the time in the world to observe, with no desire to rush and see where she was being lead. Something about the whole experience was enlightening and it expanded her mind with the potential for the unknown.

  The screams eventually led Alice to a dark room, where she hovered over liquid black floors and in between the similarly shiny surfaces of shimmering walls, flowing slowly downwards like tar. Within the centre of the room lay a large glass box, hovering high above the oily blackness below. Caged within it was a feral creature, naked in its fury as it bashed against the clear glass with bloodied hands that left behind red prints. It screamed and howled at Alice, aggressively gnashing its teeth with reckless abandon.

  It wasn't until she floated closer to get a better look that Alice saw the creature for what it was. A human. A human female to be exact. With matted hair and dirt caked skin, nails split and hands calloused. Her wild blue eyes were heavily dilated as she tried her best to break out from the clear cage that held her captive there.

  Alice knew who the woman was as she had seen her a thousand times before, staring out at her from the other side of the bathroom mirror. A remnant of herself from when she had been discovered in the barn of the Delaney farm. It was still there somewhere, locked away in the depths of her mind. Her animalistic instincts personified. She had since learned to control it and hid that part of herself away, and yet here it was before her. Ever present. Always trying to escape. Waiting to be unleashed.

  Nearing the glass until her nose was but a hair's breadth from its surface, Alice noticed a small chip that had begun to fracture. In fact it was growing in size the longer she stared at it. That little crack could one day shatter altogether, leaving nothing to stop the beast inside from getting out. The curse of vampirism had left the barrier weakened, and years of abuse meant that it was now nothing more than a thin veil. She was well practiced at building mental blocks and walls, but they wouldn't hold forever. Nothing ever did, despite what the so called immortals had told her.

  “You can keep the beast caged, or you can release it. The choice is ultimately yours to make.”

  The calming voice of a teenage boy let her know that she was no longer alone. She hadn't forgotten the person that it belonged to, as he always had a place in her heart. Her best friend and the greatest part of her childhood. She couldn't see him, but he sounded exactly the same as he always had.

  “Sam?”

  Alice felt a flood of emotions that caused the cage to shatter completely, showering her with glass. Shielding her face with her arms, she covered her eyes to protect them from the thousands of shards that rained down upon her.

  Once she had lowered her hands again, Alice found t
hat the feral woman had gone and she had been left alone, surrounded by a shrouding mist.

  “They've found you, but you don't have to be their victim. The choice is yours.”

  It wasn't Sam's voice speaking this time, but the warm and friendly words of Martha Delaney. They weren't related by blood, but she was still the person that Alice considered to be her true mother nonetheless.

  The next voice that spoke was that of her adoptive father, Bill.

  “The choice is yours. It has always been yours.”

  He sounded as strong and certain of himself as he had always been in life.

  The final utterance came from a woman who wasn't as familiar to Alice as the others, but she still knew her identity somehow.

  “There will soon be a time where you will have to make a choice. Will you take the difficult path and resist the beast? Or will you choose the easy way out and give in to its every whim?”

  Years had passed since they met, but there was no mistaking the red witch from the woods.

  “Only you can walk the path of redemption, child. No-one else can guide you along the way.”

  The words repeated in Alice's mind, over and over. They stayed there, rattling around in her brain and echoing throughout, leaving her with a feeling of melancholy. She was left to ponder on the importance of the voices words as the echoes faded, leaving nothing but a deafening silence.

  As she floated there in the darkness, Alice sensed movement coming from somewhere above. She inclined her head as to get get a better look and caught sight of what appeared to be a giant hand reaching out at her through the fog. She tried to rear away from it, but couldn't move fast enough. Strong fingers plucked her out of the air, lifting her up through choking clouds that left her gasping for breaths that she hadn't needed to take in a long time. It took a moment for Alice to work out that she was being woken from her dream and pulled back into consciousness with no idea as to where her corporeal form had been taken.

  **********

  “Welcome back to the land of the living, Riley. You were missed.”

  Alice felt weak and drowsy as she began to wake, the strength had been sapped from her body and left her as an empty husk. She could feel the gaping hole in her chest where the wooden stake had been, but it no longer seemed to hurt. The wound was left numb and painless for now at least.

  It took a moment for Alice’s vision to adjust as blurred shapes began to take form, revealing the face of her birth mother. Caitlyn McKay was leaning over her, her smug expression mere inches away.

  “You're back with your family now. No one else can take you from us.”

  Managing to speak with a hushed, raspy voice, Alice's sore throat let her know that she wasn't done healing.

  “How… How did you find me?”

  Caitlyn stepped back and began to pace back and forth in front of the solid steel chair that Alice had been bound to. The increased distance allowed her to expand her field of view and examine her surroundings.

  They appeared to be alone in an abandoned warehouse somewhere, with the whole place empty of everything except a couple of shelves, a crate and the chair in which Alice was now sat. It must have been daylight outside as sun beams shone through a single broken window on the far end of the room, when the rest of them had been blacked out with thick paint.

  Alice struggled and failed to break her bonds as her mother revealed the sadistic activity that had kept her occupied for the past few months with pride.

  “Jolee lead us right to you. It took me a while to break him, as he seemed to care for you a great deal, but he still broke nonetheless. Let's just say that there wasn't much left of his treacherous mind before his body gave up and his spirit passed on.”

  A feeling of contempt for the woman who gave her life washed over Alice. She found that she wasn't upset about Jolee, as part of her had always known that she would never see him again. Instead, her sadness had been replaced with anger. An anger that burned hot for Caitlyn and the entire McKay family.

  “Why? How could you do that to someone you claimed to love?”

  A venomous grin crossed Caitlyn's face as she walked back over to Alice and placed a hand on each of her cheeks, looking deep into her eyes. Her bitter tone was equally filled with the poison of a woman who didn't seem to know the real meaning of family. At least in Alice's own definition of the word. True family were people who loved and cared for each other unconditionally.

  “He took you away from us, and I cannot abide traitors… But I admit that I found pleasure in his death. My only regret is that he did not suffer longer.”

  Alice saw the truth behind her mother's eyes. For once she wasn't lying and was actually speaking with candor. Jolee was dead. Caitlyn had murdered him for his betrayal of the McKays and for stealing their precious chosen one away. She had indeed taken great pleasure in torturing and killing her nephew with her own two hands.

  Alice nearly spat at the woman as she raised her voice in distaste.

  “He deserved better then that… Better than you. He didn't deserve to die!”

  Apparently Caitlyn didn’t agree, pulling away from her daughter as she resumed her pacing.

  “That boy deserved everything he got. His insolence could not go unpunished.”

  Alice knew that arguing with the woman was pointless, as she was as stubborn as she was evil. As such, she instead decided to go along a different path of questioning.

  “Where are we?”

  Caitlyn kept smiling wickedly, clearly having waited for that very question to be asked.

  “Oh. We’re still in Calgary, my precious girl. We have some loose ends to wrap up before we can go home. Preparations are being made as we speak.”

  The response came as quite a surprise, as Alice had presumed that Caitlyn would have been fearful of a reprisal from Katherine. It would have surely benefitted them to be hundreds of miles away, across the border and out of her reach.

  Caitlyn continued, as if she had somehow sensed Alice's confusion.

  “The fanged goddess approaches, and she has a bone to pick with the false god that you have placed your misguided faith in.”

  False god? Alice surmised that it was Katherine that she was referring to. The woman must have truly been delusional to see vampires as deities. Caitlyn continued to recite her monologue, seemingly oblivious of Alice's continued attempts at getting free.

  “All false gods and their prophets must be destroyed. There is only one true goddess and those that worship her have been blessed, as have you. She has forgiven your trespasses and only demands that you be returned to her unharmed.”

  Trying to ignore the ravings of the crazed priestess, Alice kept pulling at the knots that kept her in place. Her waning strength left her vulnerable and she found that she didn't have enough left in her to escape.

  Knowing she was trapped there, Alice considered taking the time to ask her mother if she had something to do with the death of Bill and Martha Delaney, but she wasn't sure if she could cope with knowing that the woman who gave her life had indirectly killed almost everyone she held dear. Caitlyn McKay had destroyed every ounce of happiness that Alice had ever known, and she wasn't about to give her mother the satisfaction of gloating further.

  Alice's thoughts returned to Matty and the sight of his body smeared across the road. She couldn't bring herself to believe that he was gone, but it seemed impossible that anyone could survive such a crash. Vampires weren't indestructible, no matter how much some of them wanted to believe it.

  Drowning out Caitlyn's continued ramblings, Alice pictured Matty how he was before the crash. His warm smile beaming down at her as he held her tightly in his arms. She wished that she had told him how she felt before it was too late. If he was actually gone, then her biggest regret would be not sharing her feelings with him. She made a silent vow to herself that she would never love anyone as much as she had loved him.

  **********

  Alice sat still on the cold metal of the chair, hands bound
tightly behind her back, with her legs tied underneath. Caitlyn stood behind her, ceremoniously dressed in her red robes, hood up to shroud her face in darkness. Beside her stood two silent sentinels, dressed in grey robes of their own and armed with large wooden stakes that had been carved with runes, as well as strange serpent iconography.

  Even though the men didn't make a sound, Alice still recognised them as her brothers. The emotionless auras that emanated from beneath their thick clothes were as unmistakable as they had always been. They were the very same men who had run a bus into Matty before taking her captive and carting her back to the warehouse where their mother was waiting.

  It was dark outside now, with nothing but a large, metal brazier lighting up the immediate vicinity from its resting place just a few feet in front of them. It caused shadows to stretch out across concrete floors and up the load bearing beams that held up the sheet metal ceiling. They flickered with false life, refusing to stay still as they danced around the room like demonic shades.

  From her vantage point, Alice could see no sign of the fanged goddess, but she knew that her maker was there somewhere, watching from the shadows as she waited for the one who had made her to show. And she wasn't the only one hidden there, as dozens of armed men straight from the McKay's rag tag militia waited around the building's outskirts, ready to spring their trap the very moment the signal was given.

  A whistle from somewhere outside the warehouse signified the arrival of Katherine and what Alice expected to be an entourage of rescuers. Even though they hadn't seen eye to eye on a number of occasions recently, she knew that Katherine still cared for her in her own way. No one could take something from Katherine Louviere and not expect some form of retaliation.

  Alice waited quietly, unable to talk due to the dirty rag in her mouth that was being used as a gag. She was forced to watch in silence as the large door that lead out to the yard slid open with an unoiled, metallic screech. In the open air of the night beyond stood the familiar silhouette of Katherine herself, dressed as impeccably as ever.