by Diana Graves
Alistair looked strong willed, but disappointed at how many people walked past us to the staircase. I couldn’t help but think they were all going to die. Maybe we were going to die too, but they were going to die first.
What was left was a much smaller group of people consisting of mostly women and children, the rest were almost all non-humans; elves, fae, vampires, witches. I don’t know what I would have done if any of the adults with children tried to leave with their kids. I would have felt compelled to stop them, to force them to stay. I wouldn’t have let their prejudice and stupidity kill their children.
“Should we seal the door, master?” Cory asked.
“Not yet. More will soon come,” Alistair said after a few quiet moments. He looked so tired.
“What are we going to do down here,” asked a father holding his infant son. “I trust you, sir. You took us in when you didn’t have to. You made us feel safe. I trust you, I do, but what are we going to do down here?”
“There are lower levels that can be accessed from this floor only,” Alistair said. “The lowest floor is lined with lead.”
“Those other people were so stupid,” said a teenager standing by her parents.
“Yes, and I’m afraid more will leave when I tell them what they can expect to see when we get there,” Alistair said. “I wish there was some way of informing everyone of what they’ll see while at the same time reassuring them that it wasn’t me who built this place. It wasn’t me who did those things.”
“What will we see?” asked the man with the handlebar mustache, who evidently decided to stay.
“My sister was a creature of nightmares and lore in ancient Britannia. She built this place and the lowest floors were her dungeons, her laboratory.”
A thought occurred to me, but I wasn’t sure if it was even worth mentioning because I wasn’t sure I could do it. “Alistair,” I began tentatively. “We don’t have time for more arguing. We don’t have time for people to fight or ask questions or make stupid remarks.”
“No we don’t, but I cannot force people into those torture rooms without an explanation.”
“Then tell them everything you want to tell them, but tell them through me. I can help you speak to each and every person, mind to mind, the same way I helped you and Nick. I can act at a conduit. If they know everything you know, then they have no cause for questions.”
“Can you do that?” asked a guard. He had no badge. It looked as though it’d been ripped off during a struggle, so he was just ‘the guard.’ Though, he had bright blue eyes, almost as true blue as Alistair’s. So, I could call him Cobalt…Or I could ask him his name…But now that I thought of it, I really liked Cobalt.
“I hope so. I’ve done mass mind control before, but I had this pendent that helped me.”
“You mean the locket?” Nick said as he popped out of thin fucking air and scared the goddess right out of me. Isobel screamed, and Thomas jumped with fright were he stood.
Cobalt raised his gun for a second before realizing it was just a vampire, but Trever and Cory already had their flashlights out and were smacking him repeatedly before I told them to stop…I let it go on a bit because he deserved a beating after giving me such a scare.
“Sorry,” Cory said, and he did look very apologetic. So did Trever. They put their flashlights away and backed up a bit, giving an angry Nick plenty of room.
“How long have you been standing there?” I asked him.
“Since you stopped at the fourth floor,” he shrugged.
“You have a very unique gift, Nicholas,” said Alistair. “I’ve never met a vampire that could hide their presences so completely.”
“Guess I’m lucky,” Nick said as he dug his hand deep into his jean’s pocket. He turned to me. “When I took your remains, I took this as well.” He pulled his hand out of his pocket and showed me something that resembled my locket, a gift given to me by the Goddess, Mel.
“Oh my,” I said.
“When Raphael had you killed it was cut up along with you, but I put it back together. It took a long time.” What he held out to me looked like small pieces of black glass made into a strange bit of artwork hanging from a chain. It was sort of a jagged sphere. “I’m not a skilled jeweler or anything. Hopefully it still works.”
“Works!” Raphael laughed. “It never worked, except as an unintentional placebo.”
“What are you talking about? Every time I’ve ever put that thing on I felt my power grow.”
“You felt more aware of your power. That thing was never meant as anything more than a trinket. It was a bit of jewelry Mel gave to her first daughter, who died at the hands of a god, and she wanted you to have it as a token of love. You assumed the rest.”
A placebo? Damn… “Where have you been anyway?”
“Shutting the fuck up. That is what you wanted, right? You’re not my plaything anymore. As if I ever needed your permission for that…”
“You’re an ass-hole.”
“Clever comeback.”
Whatever…even with the knowledge of the broken necklace’s uselessness in mind, I accepted the thing from my brother. After all, he went to all the trouble of putting the thing back together.
As people came from the fourth floor I strained to find familiar faces. I found Kamaria in the first wave of people, and she chose to stand by us while the rest mingled with the remaining residents of the fifth floor. Katie and Everett came down and I let out a little breath of relief. The hallway was becoming very crowded again, and most people’s state of mind ranged from scared shitless to pissed at the world.
I felt a flutter of panic when I didn’t see Michael or Tristan come down. Where were they? As the door closed behind Bridgette the panic set in, it was real. I turned to Nick, “Where’s Michael and Tristan? Have you seen them?” He shook his head. I looked to Alistair.
“The last time I saw Mick he was in the main corridor, just before they broke down the doors. I heard Tristan was volunteering in the clinic before the attack, but the clinic was lost. I fear Gabriel was lost with it.”
Shit, Gabe. Come to think of it I hadn’t seen Seth, Fauna, Mato, Melvern or Alicia. I felt sick, and I breathed out hard. I’d lost too much. I looked out and watched as people argued and cried in the hall, as they prayed on their hands and knees for their god to save them. I wasn’t the only one who’d lost too much. We were all in the same boat; filled with monsters and about to go nuclear.
“Are you okay?” Nick asked me.
I looked up at my brother and tears welled in my eyes. “No, I’m not okay.” He moved closer and gave me a hug, wrapping his arms around Isobel and me both.
I looked at Alistair from over my brother’s shoulder. “Let what you want them to know flow into your mind. Say to yourself, what you would say to them, show them what you know.”
“What about the children?” the mother with three kids interjected. “Should they see and know everything as well?” she asked.
I moved out of Nick’s arms and looked down at Isobel, still sitting snug and frightened on my hip. “Maybe—.”
“It’s their lives, too. They’ll soon be in the midst of Adia’s evil. Should they be left in the dark?” Nick asked.
“Will you expose your daughter to it?” she asked me.
“After all that she’s been through, putting her through more is the last thing I want, but it’s not a question of want. It’s a question of survival.”
I hugged Isobel tighter before I looked back at Alistair. “I’m ready when you are,” I said.
“Alright,” he said, and he cleared his mind of everything but Adia and what we were about to see, and why we were about to go where no one had any business going.
Like invisible tentacles running down the long length of the winding hall, I found every mind, a couple hundred people all together; man, woman and child, nymphs, satires, big foots, were-animals and more, so much more! They all received Alistair’s thoughts directly to their minds. It was actual
ly easier than most other great mental feats I’d performed. There was no mass control, no struggle of willpower, just openness. They heard the conversation he had over the phone with Detective Fillips as she apologized for the government choosing to abandon Washington State altogether. Military personnel alone were escaping to quarantined boats in Grey’s Harbour. Everyone got the general feeling of who Adia was, how evil she’d been, how different she was from her twin brother. But they understood the danger of radiation poisoning. We were some five-hundred feet underground, but was that far enough to avoid contamination? Our best bet for survival was to venture where no man had dare gone for over a hundred years. And for once, there was a consensus. Everyone understood. Some cried, some made sounds of disgust or anger. A natural reaction to our current situation.
“I’m ready to get the hell out of the hall,” said an elderly man still wearing his pajamas.
ADIA’S CHAMBER
WHEN ALISTAIR TOLD me he couldn’t open the door to the two lowest floors, what he really meant was that he couldn’t make himself do it. He didn’t want to see in person the images he’d seen only through Adia’s memories. Now that same reluctance belonged to every man, woman and child, some two hundred and eleven minds if I counted them correctly. Collectively we stood in front of the door with dread in our eyes. Hell, I think half the anxiety we were all experiencing wasn’t so much the prospect of what we were about to see, but the terror Alistair felt during his exposure to Adia’s memories; having lost complete control of his mind and being forced to see and do horrible things. Meaning, we were all feeling something close to what Alistair felt. The transference was my fault. The link I created between everyone was too far reaching.
But a wave of new panic ran through the crowd as we heard the zombies crashing down the staircase that would lead them straight to us. The enchantment had run its course and the zombies knew exactly where to find fresh meat! Hopefully the magical seal Bridgette put around the old wooden door would hold them off long enough for everyone to clear the floor.
I, like everyone else, saw what Adia had shown Alistair. I knew what we would see. Gutted, deformed, tortured humans in glass tubes, grotesque drawings covering the walls, torture devices, and piles and piles of bodies. It was a regular house of horrors, but walking into that was still a hell of a lot better than being eaten alive. Anyway, zombies were fuck ugly. I’d rather see men in jars than a zombie any day of the week.
The only way to the lower levels was through Adia’s personal chambers. The door was hidden, hence the reason it was never discovered by anyone in the years since Adia was master here. At the end of the long winding hallway, was a brick wall. Alistair said this was where the door was, and since nobody else was moving I handed Isobel to Alistair and approached it.
I rubbed my hands up and down the wall until I found a brick that felt different from the others. It felt loose to the touch and it had a crack down the very center of it. I wiggled the brick out of the wall to reveal a round metal handle.
“Raina,” Alistair warned. I looked back at him. “Be careful.”
I gave him a reassuring thumbs up accompanied be a weak smile and tired eyes. I found it curious that Adia never once wanted to step foot into her old room once she had control over her brother’s body, but once I pulled on the handle and the brick wall came forward to reveal itself to be nothing more than a thin veneer for a larger metal door, I understood. “It’s locked from the inside.” I turned the handle and pushed against it, but it would not budge.
“Well, you’re a vampire. Just melt it or break it down!” argued handlebar mustache man.
“We want to be able to shut the door once on the other side,” said Alistair calmly, even though calm was the last thing he was in that moment.
The crowd went a bit wild for a moment, but I hushed them all with a hand and a loud, “PLEASE!” I looked deep into the crowd, but I couldn’t see who I was looking for. “Nick!” I shouted, and suddenly he was standing before me. Teleportation.
“Interesting,” Alistair said. “I’ve never met a vampire that could teleport. You do have some interesting talents.”
“The sort that come in handy when one is a wanted man,” Nick replied.
“Yes,” I said to get his attention. “But can you teleport through that door and unlock it from the other side?”
Nick looked at the door. He put his hand on the cool metal surface. “Yup,” he said casually, and then he was gone. A moment later I could hear gears moving from within the door.
“Your brother is truly remarkable,” said Alistair. I agreed.
The door swung inward to Nick standing in a dark room. “I can’t find the light switch.”
“There should be a crank near the door,” said Alistair as he gave Isobel back to me and cautiously stepped past me and Nick to enter the room. He was lost in the dark of the room but his absence was soon replaced by the sounds of gears and metal parts moving against each other. “Needs oil!” he shouted back.
Metal cans rattled, gears moved faster and faster and then sparks flew and dim lights flickered into existence. I could see Alistair standing over a very large metal contraption with many moving parts, and past him the dustiest yet most extravagant room I’d ever laid eyes on. It was a large room with a twenty-foot ceiling and tall crimson curtains with gold floral designs that hung on the walls where stained glass windows were fixed into place by steel frames bolted to brick walls painted black. Large elegantly crafted wood furnishing with plush colorful upholstery sat here and there covered in dust and cobwebs. All the lights are extraordinary, with leafy metal vines and frosted glass. The whole image was very high society Victorian England meets Steampunk machinery.
“Damn,” breathed an elven woman as she walked past me.
“Where’s the entrance to the other floors?” the old pajama man asked bluntly, not at all willing to waste a moment gawking at some dusty old bedchamber.
“Just this way,” Alistair said.
Past the sitting area and an old oil painting station, with its ancient looking painting easel and dried up paints in old jars, was a large brick arch over a huge pair of steel doors in the far wall. Alistair approached the right side of the arch and pulled on a giant painting of a blond vampire making love to a black figure, a self-portrait of Adia and one of her barguest lovers…maybe Damon. The painting swung from the wall on hinges to expose a large switch set in the wall. He pulled it and the doors within the archway opened loudly and slowly to a wide staircase leading down into yet another dark room. However, once the doors were almost completely open, bare light bulbs hanging from a tall ceiling by wires started flickering on all over the place. Some of the bulbs couldn’t stand being lit, and they broke where they hung with a series of loud bursts, and I shielded Isobel with my body, turning my back on the falling glass.
I and many others wandered down the stairs and into the incredibly large open space with our eyes taking in as much as possible. The ground was a metal grate, and in the very center was a spiral staircase going down and down. The walls did indeed have drawings pinned all over, but the markings had been faded by time. Darkened, dust covered glass tubes lined much of the walls, but their contents were hidden so long as the lights inside the tubes were left off. Small blessings. One teenaged boy approached the tubes. He cleared off some of the dust and pressed his face against it to see what was inside, but abruptly fell back with a horrified gasp.
I grabbed Alistair’s hand. “This isn’t so scary.”
“No? Don’t look down,” he said, and so I looked down.
Through the metal grate I saw bones piled high and other human remains. Many of the skeletons still had hair and patches of dry skin and meat clinging to their bones, holding bits together enough to know what the body had been through. There were dead people nailed to boards, strapped to medieval devices such as spiked chairs and burning wheels, stretched over racks, wearing strange spiked head gear, hanging upside down and sawed in half. People had been b
uried into the wall, leaving only their heads exposed. There were bodies contorted by chains. There was a large vat of a black substance that might have been boiling water at one time, but now partially decomposed remains floated about. Though the bodies were mostly bone, it didn’t take much of an imagination to picture the kind of blood and carnage that had taken place here. What it must have looked and sounded like one hundred years ago, the blood, the smell, and the screams! And Damon had been a part of it?
“This wasn’t science, this wasn’t a testing facility. It was nothing more than Adia and her barguest lovers taking out their issues on humans,” I said, and my words were thick with disgust.
“Look,” Nick said, pointing down in one corner of the lower room. “There’s some test tubes and a book. Science,” he said almost jokingly. I gave him a tired mean look. This was not the time or place for jokes.
Screams erupted from those still in the hall of the fifth floor and a rush of people came running into the room. Alistair and I fought against the current to see what the matter was.
“What is it?” I asked a beautiful nymph who stumbled in front of me. I helped her up and looked into her wide eyes.
“The zombies are breaking through the door!” she screamed.
Shit! I looked for Alistair and found him several feet in front of me. Everett nodded at me as he ran past me with Katie and Thomas coming up behind him. I handed Isobel off to Thomas and ran on. The crowd bottlenecked at the door to Adia’s chambers, as it was only wide enough for two to cross the threshold at a time. That’s where I got stuck. I ushered people in with impatience.
“Go, go, go!” I yelled.
Looking beyond the door I could see the hall alight with blue flames. If Alistair was lighting up the hall that could only mean one thing. The zombies had indeed gotten through the door Bridgette sealed shut! Finally the last of the people ran into the room and I started down the hall toward the fire.