Jesse heaved a huge sigh, feeling as though the weights of the world were pressing down on her. She was now virtually powerless, and even if she wanted to stop Catan or the other enemy he had mentioned about, it would be futile. She just didn’t have the reinforcements or backups to help her defeat any one of them.
Then, Jesse tilted her head to look at Catan straight in the face. “Tell me why are you keeping me locked up in your chamber. I know I serve a purpose here, but I don't know what. Please tell me.” There was such firmness in her voice that it actually made Catan tremble a little.
“You want to know the reason?” Catan asked, almost in a taunting voice. “Are you sure?”
Jesse was pretty sure that she wouldn’t like to hear the answer, but the curiosity was practically killing her inside. She needed to know the answer now. “Yes, I need to know it now!” Jesse howled, unable to contain the curiosity that was tearing her apart inside.
“You have to die, Jesse,” Catan responded drily, looking at Jesse straight in the eye. There were no emotions in those eyes, and it was as though Catan had announced something so trivial that it didn’t require him to muster even an ounce of emotion.
A lump of gulp went down Jesse’s throat. Sirens were blaring inside her head, and everything around her seemed blurry for one split second. The response she’d heard from Catan practically pummeled her insides, making her feel as though she could collapse at any moment. She knew that she would die sooner or later in the hands of this evil vampire serial killer, but she had no idea that she would hear those words directly from Catan’s mouth, as if he’d just sentenced her to death.
“Wh-what?” Jesse sputtered, feeling as though she was in a trance. “Wh-why do I have to die?”
Catan let out a wicked laugh, as if Jesse had said something so ridiculous for the very first time. “Jesse, don’t you know that you’re one of the most important beings in the world? That you actually serve a greater purpose? That you have to die for the greater good? Don’t you know that you’re the … Key?”
At the mention of the word Key, Jesse’s heart suddenly pounded so hard that it almost burst through her ribcage. She’d heard about the Key, alright. But she didn’t know much about it. She knew that the Keys were assigned to protect the Universe or something. But she knew that there was a tremendous amount of significance to being the Key, and when Catan mentioned that she was the Key, it didn’t make an iota of sense at all. Why would she be the Key? She was a vampire. Period. She didn’t need to haul some other responsibility of being the Guardian of the Universe or something. Being a vampire was responsibility enough. And to add, she’d never asked to become the Key.
“You’re crazy!” Jesse cried, feeling much calmer as minutes passed, but the anger was still burning within her like unstoppable flames. “I’m no Key, OK? I don’t even know what you’re talking about!”
Seeing that Jesse was being resistant to the idea of being the Key, Catan edged closer toward her, staring hard at her to let her know that he was being utterly serious about what he’d said.
“You are the Key, Jesse,” Catan said firmly, not peeling his eyes away from her for even a split second. “Whether you like it or not, you’re the Key which unlocks the Good Pole. Haven’t you heard about the Keys? There are two Keys assigned to protect the Poles, one being the Dark Pole and the other being the Good Pole.”
“I’m not familiar with the story,” Jesse admitted, “even though I’ve heard about it before from my friends in the supernatural circle.”
Catan let out a quick sigh. “Fine, I’ll explain the whole thing to you.” Catan began to elaborate on what the Keys actually were, and that each generation would be assigned two Keys which would guard both the Dark and Good Poles. One Key would be assigned to the Dark Pole, and the other the Good Pole. He went on saying that one of the Keys would have to be sacrificed, or in other words, die, in order to unlock the Pole that the Key was in charge of guarding. Once the Key died and the Pole was unlocked, tremendous amounts of magical energies would be unleashed from it. Sooner or later, a new Key would be assigned to the Pole, to replace the sacrificed Key. It would be the job of the Universe to choose the Keys, and Catan admitted that even he had no idea how the Keys were being chosen. He was also baffled as to why Jesse was chosen to be the Key to the Good Pole, but since he knew that she was the Key, he would stop at nothing to ensure that he had access to the Good Pole.
Jesse gasped incredulously after hearing the whole thing from Catan. “How did you find out that I am the Key?”
“Well, through some magical means,” Catan said in a mysterious voice, looking like he was reluctant to share more about how he was able to determine that Jesse was the Key. “I have my ways.” A grin was plastered on his face, making him look like the Grim Reaper who was about to take a life.
“Why do you need to unlock the Good Pole?” Jesse demanded to know. She knew that the Good Pole contained the source of all good magic, and Catan was of the dark side. What use was good magic to him if he was filled with sheer darkness and evil? “Good magic would be of no use to you, since you’re from the dark side. And wouldn’t absorbing tremendous amount of good magic … kill you?” Jesse suddenly recalled about all of this. Decades ago, she had hung out with a group of supernatural friends of hers, who happened to mention about that to her during one of their random supernatural chat topics. The more she recalled about it, the more confident she felt, and she was able to shoot questions at Catan without a single tremble in her body.
“I’m sorry, but I won’t die. There’s always a loophole in the system. I’ve figured a way to tap onto the magical energies of the Good Pole without getting killed.”
“And how are you going to do that?” Jesse asked, mystified.
“Through the Filter.”
“What? The Filter? What is that?” Jesse stared at Catan as though he’d just said that the sky was meant to be green and the sea was meant to be yellow.
“I guess I’ll tell you anyway, since you’re going to die.” Catan whirled around, his eyes wandering at the room around him. Jesse’s gaze followed, and she wondered what Catan was trying to tell her. “You do know that you’re inside the Maze of Doom, right?”
Jesse didn’t even feel like responding to that. Of course she knew that she was in the Maze of Doom, and she didn’t want to fuel Catan’s ego by nodding her head.
“You’re inside the Maze of Doom, where part of the source of my dark powers come from. Aeons ago, I was able to locate and kill the Key who guarded the Dark Pole. Because of that, I was able to tap onto the dark powers of the Dark Pole. I garnered as much dark powers as I could as the tremendous amount of dark energies flowed from the Dark Pole onto me. However, an Enchantress named Melinda discovered that the Dark Pole had been unlocked, and all its powers were channeled unto me. Melinda was smart, of course. She knew that if all the powers were sucked out of the Dark Pole and were bestowed upon me, I would be practically unstoppable. During that time, I hadn’t completely absorbed all the powers of the Dark Pole as tapping onto such tremendous amount of powers required some time. Melinda knew that she had to find a way to lock up the Dark Pole before all its powers were transferred to me. It meant that she had to find a new Key to be assigned to the Dark Pole, to lock it once more to prevent its powers from flowing onto me. When a Key dies, a new Key will be assigned. However, it takes a window period of about a month before the Universe assigns a new Key to replace the fallen Key. Don’t ask me why, but that’s how the Universe works. Melinda couldn’t wait for one month, because that was too long of a time, and by then, I’d have completely sucked all the Dark Pole clean. Melinda knew that she had to speed up the process of assigning the new Key for the Dark Pole, but even with her powerful magic, she wasn’t able to conjure enough power to do that. Her power was not strong enough. Assigning a new Key required tremendous amount of power, and that is why Keys are always assigned by the Universe, which holds enough power to do that. Melinda couldn’t wa
it for the Universe any longer to do the official assigning, and she realized that she’d have to be the One who assigned the Key. In order to do that, she’d have to use tremendous amounts of power, surpassing her own. She needed to tap onto the powers of the Good Pole. She was finally able to track the Key to the Good Pole, who happened to be one of her dear Enchantress friend, Liesel. Melinda couldn’t bear to sacrifice her own friend to unlock the Good Pole to gain those powers, but Liesel knew the gravity of the situation, and eventually, she made the decision to sacrifice herself in order to prevent me from taking all the powers of the Dark Pole. Melinda finally gained access to the Good Pole, and when she had enough powers transferred from the Good Pole to her, she was able to conjure up enough power to assign the new Key to the Dark Pole. She assigned one of her vampire friends to be the Key, whose name was Claire. Before she assigned Claire as the new Key, she did ask for Claire’s permission if she wanted to become the Key, as she knew that being the Key was no easy task. Melinda also emphasized on the fact that Claire could also face the risk of death as she could be hunted down by evil beings who might want to use her unlock the Dark Pole. Claire agreed, knowing the terms. Claire was one of those people who would sacrifice her life for the greater good. So when Claire was assigned as the Key to the Dark Pole, the Dark Pole was instantly locked, and the supply of those dark energies to me was cut off. I was furious, mad, whatever you want to call it. I couldn’t become the Supreme Ruler yet, because in order to become one, you would have to absorb all the powers of the Dark Pole, because that would truly and irrevocably make you invincible. I was devastated, knowing that I only possessed a portion of the powers of the Dark Pole. With all those dark energies I’d sucked from the Dark Pole, I knew that I needed somewhere secure and safe to store those energies, so I could tap onto them whenever I needed to use them. So I single-handedly created the Maze of Doom with those powers that I had sucked from the Dark Pole, and I stored those dark energies in a secret chamber inside the Maze of Doom. I constructed the Maze of Doom high in the remote clouds, and concealed it magically so it won’t detected by anyone. If someone manages to break in and tamper with that source of magic I’ve kept stored inside here, then I would be … doomed.”
Jesse had listened so intently that she didn’t even budge. So Catan actually had a source of power kept inside the Maze of Doom, the source of power which he’d stolen from the Dark Pole aeons ago. If Jesse could find where he kept that source of power, she could destroy it and that would end his life. The prospect of being able to kill Catan with such ease suddenly brought a surge of hope and confidence through Jesse.
“Why are you telling me all this?” Jesse asked, her mind working overtime to figure a way to locate that source of power kept hidden inside the Maze of Doom. Where was that secret chamber which Catan had mentioned about? If she could find it, then it would be the end of Catan, the end of Catan’s tyranny and darkness.
Catan heaved a sigh, as if he had just realized his mistake of telling Jesse all his private secrets. “I don’t know … but I guess it doesn’t bother me that much anyway since you’re going to die soon.”
“Why not kill me now since you have the chance?” Jesse demanded. Somewhere deep in her heart, she knew that Catan wouldn’t kill her just yet because it seemed as though he needed some time for some reason.
“I can’t just immediately tap onto the powers of the Good Pole yet … since it will kill me. I need some time to activate the Filter.”
“The Filter?” Jesse suddenly recalled about the Filter which Catan had mentioned earlier before diving into the story of his past about Melinda. “What’s the Filter?”
“Since you are going to die, I may as well tell you,” Catan said with a sigh. Jesse was pleasantly surprised that Catan was willing to divulge his deepest secrets, even though he didn’t seem like the kind who would confide. Maybe it was because Jesse played a substantial role in being the sacrifice to unlock the Good Pole, and it somehow gave Catan a sense of gratitude, enough to let her in on his secrets, bit by bit. If it wasn’t a sense of gratitude that lowered Catan’s defenses, then Jesse didn’t know what it was.
“The Filter is …,” Catan trailed off, and for a moment, Jesse thought that maybe Catan had suddenly changed his mind about telling her, but then he continued, “… the Maze of Doom. This whole Maze of Doom will act as the Filter, which will literally as as a filter to iron out out traces of good magic from the Good Pole, turning it dark and evil.”
Jesse gasped. “Is that even possible? I mean, to turn good magic to dark magic?”
“With the magical backup from the Maze of Doom, it would be possible. Once I unlock the Good Pole, an ocean of good magic will spill over from the Good Pole toward the Maze of Doom, and once it reaches here, the Maze of Doom will filter out all traces of good magic, and at the same time contaminating them with darkness. And once all the magic has been contaminated, it will be channeled to me, and I shall have the ultimate powers of darkness, eventually making me so invincible that I would reign as the Supreme Ruler.” Catan stopped for a brief moment, taking in Jesse’s bewildered expression. But he ignored her and continued. “I’ve used all the leftover sources of dark power to turn the Maze of Doom into the Filter, but it will take it some time for the transformation to complete as this is a complicated transformation which requires tremendous amount of dark magic. Once the Filter has been completely used up to turn the traces of good magic into dark magic, the Filter will automatically be destroyed due to the intensity of the magic being used. But by then, I’d have absorbed all the dark powers which have been filtered, and with those new powers I’m going to have, I will reconstruct the Maze of Doom once more, and stash a portion of my newly obtained dark powers in a safe chamber for a rainy day in case of an emergency. Good plan of the century, don’t you think?” Catan finished that last sentence with a smirk on his face.
Jesse felt like spitting at his face, but restrained. Her heart pummeling within her chest, she was thinking hard of a way to locate the secret chamber where Catan had kept the source of his dark powers. If she could destroy that source, she would prevent the Filter from being activated, and hence Catan wouldn’t be able to use the Filter, thwarting his evil plans.
Catan closed his eyes, as if trying to sense something. “Ahh …,” Catan said with a slight grin curving his lips. “I can feel that the Filter is almost complete, and will be ready for use soon. I could feel dark magic enveloping through every nook and cranny of the Maze of Doom, slowly turning it into the Filter. Once it’s complete …,” Catan paused and jerked his eyes open, staring at Jesse, “I’ll have to kill you.”
And without another word, Catan swirled around majestically and stalked out of the room, slamming the door shut and locking it from outside.
Waves of frustration and madness surged through Jesse, and she tugged at her hair so hard that a tuft of her hair almost came off. She had to act fast. Time was running out.
Jesse dashed to the door, and tried to pry the door open with both her arms, but to no avail. The cotton white door might seem so flimsy, but it was as tough as steel.
“Oh, God!” Jesse exclaimed, cursing along the way. “What am I going to do? Once the Filter is complete, Catan will come for me next! What must I do?”
Jesse whirled around frantically, trying to find something that might help her escape. But there was nothing inside her chamber except for the tray that held her food, which she wasn’t going to consume at all. For what it was worth, it might even contain poison, and Jesse wasn’t willing to risk that.
Jesse wanted to smash against the door with all her might, but she knew that it would make her condition worse, since she was practically frail and weak now. She had almost lost all her vampire supernatural strength, and she was as weak as a human now. What could she do now? It seemed that all hope was lost.
But the fire within her was burning, spurring her to keep fighting on. Jesse wasn’t going to let Catan win this battle no matter what. Wit
h all the strength she could muster, Jesse grunted heavily as she propelled herself toward the door, smashing hard against it and drawing screams of pain from her throat. Jesse tumbled onto the floor, her body weakened by the impact, bruised up.
Jesse flicked a glance at her shoulder, and gasped when she saw that she was bleeding. It wasn’t the blue vampire blood she was used to seeing whenever she got bruised up. It was the color of red … human blood!
Jesse’s head started throbbing so hard that she felt as though her skull would crack. Thoughts swirled in endless tendrils inside her head, making her so dizzy that her vision was momentarily blurred. Why was she bleeding red blood … instead of blue? That couldn’t possibly happen to her! No, it couldn’t. She was a vampire, not a human being. Only humans shed red blood. Did that mean that she was a … human?
Jesse gasped aloud at the realization that she might be a human being. But how could that even be possible? There was no way to turn a vampire into a human. Unless … magic was involved. Jesse thought hard and tried to pluck every possibility, and eventually came to the conclusion that magic had to be used to cause this abnormal transformation back into a human from a vampire. And Jesse had no doubt that dark magic was involved.
Jesse couldn’t believe that she was now a human. No wonder she had felt so weak, just like what a human would feel if he or she had been battered like this. But why? Why was she turned into a human instead of a vampire? Questions pounded inside her head, aggravating the frustration and panic she was feeling. She knew that Catan was behind all this, but why would he need to turn her into a human? For what purpose would that serve?
Jesse tried to recall what had happened before she was abducted by Catan, but her memories were blurred by the rising panic pummeling her thoughts. She had a vague recollection of what had happened to her. But she could remember that she was at Maggie’s house before she got abducted. She had been having tea with Maggie when all of a sudden, something happened to her. Somebody broke into Maggie’s house and tried to abduct her. But who?
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