by Lumi Laura
*
Jaklin stood aside the door through which Alex had disappeared while Zosimos used his crowbar to pop the latch and pry it open. Jaklin shot inside, followed the steps down. Her stomach retched. Something, someone was nude and stretched out along the length of the table in the center of a small room. Siting in chairs crowded about it so close that they could hardly move were vampires feeding off the corpse. Like a pride of lions devouring their fresh kill, a small community gnawed a carcass. She saw the ferals feeding on Missy. Jaklin screamed. She felt faint, yet the glow of the smoke cloud was something special, a divine light. She saw silver angels and ashen daemons hovering in it.
Jaklin felt Mikhail grab her arm, pull her back up the stairs. "We can't leave her," said Jaklin, shaking his arm loose.
"We have to," said Mikhail. "This is her moment. She told me of this, and it's as she and I feared. It's her destiny."
"Back!" shouted Zosimos. "We'll all be killed by these fetid fumes."
Jaklin stumbled and felt Mikhail pull her back up the stairs, and out through the door. Zosimos slammed it to, bolted it. The room seemed to rumble, the ground tremble, and then a tremendous explosion blew the door out, off its hinges, and catapulted them to the far side of the chamber. Jaklin stumbled about trying to regain her footing. Mikhail had collapsed to his knees and was consumed in a fit of coughing.
"What was that?" asked Jaklin.
"Spontaneous combustion," Mikhail said.
Once the smoke cleared, they reentered the chamber. They found desolation and death. Nothing alive. Broken bottles and wine splashed the walls and puddled on the cement floor, a deep crimson, like blood.