by Amy Cross
"But if I die, at least you can get away from here," she continues. "You could remember me as I am, and there'd be no risk of..." She pauses. "It's still inside me, Duncan. That other form, some other kind of creature, whatever it is that Dr. Cole did to me. I don't understand it, I don't even know what it looks like, but it's more powerful than anything I've ever felt before, and when it takes control, I can't do anything to stop it. Eventually it's going to come out again, and you won't be safe. I almost killed you the last time, and I can't stand the idea that I might hurt you. If I returned to my human form and found your dead body next to me... Please, Felix, don't let me face that moment."
"We'll find a way," I reply.
"You keep saying that," she says with a sad smile, "but we've already found a way. You just don't like it, because it doesn't give you what you want." She pauses. "You're a fool."
"But I'm your fool," I tell her. "To the end, if necessary."
Noticing movement to one side, I look down just in time to see that Nurse Fletcher has begun to crawl away from us. She probably realizes that the end of Dronigan's curse means it's absolutely possible for her to die now, and her earlier anger has been replaced by the survival instinct. I watch for a moment as she desperately tries to reach the next room, and finally I realize that there's no way I can allow such a cruel person to get away. Walking over to her, I grab her by the collar and lift her off the floor.
"Let me help you!" she gasps, her eyes finally filled with fear. "I know this place! I know how it works, and how to get the most from it! Whatever you want, I can get it for you!"
"An antidote," I reply, looking down at her. "It's the only thing that could make me spare your miserable life. Reverse whatever you did to Nurse Silk."
"But that's..." She pauses, and I can see from the look in her eyes that she knows it's not possible. "Of course," she adds. "I can get you an antidote. Why didn't you say earlier?"
"You're lying," I say firmly.
"No! I'm telling the truth! There's a simple injection -"
"I can smell it on you," I continue, interrupting her. "The lies. The fear. You're just trying to save your own skin!"
"Go fuck yourself!" she sneers. "You're nothing but a filthy werewolf, Felix. You always have been, and you always will be."
Ignoring her insults, I drag her to the middle of the corridor and set her back down. For a moment, I struggle to work out exactly how I should finish her off, but finally I realize that there's only one approach that would ever be appropriate. Slowly, and with a little difficulty since it has been so long, I begin to change; my bones creak and crack as they rearrange themselves, and I feel my human mind being pushed aside by a wilder, more ferocious wolf mind that feels energized and enlivened by the smell of her blood.
"No!" she shouts, trying to drag herself away from me. "I'm a vampire! I command you to stop! This isn't natural!"
I take a step closer, waiting as my lupine instincts reach their fullest potential. It has been so, so long since I scored a kill, and I've never had a vampire as my victim, so the thought of ripping this bitch's body apart is almost too much to savor. I want to do this right, to make it the perfect kill, and to ensure that Nurse Silk witnesses my power. For all the time I've been at Tor Cliff, people have seen me as a weak and mangy creature, something to be pitied and mocked. Now, finally, I'm on the verge of showing them all that there's far more to me.
"You haven't got the strength," Nurse Fletcher sneers. "You don't -"
And that's when I strike. Lunging at her, I bite down hard on her neck, almost severing her head from her body. Rich blood, the richest I've ever tasted, fills my mouth as she lets out a gargled half-scream. With my wolf instincts taking over completely, I bite down against her breast-bone, snapping it like a twig before pushing my snout deep into her flesh. She's still trying to fight back, of course, and I can feel her heart racing as I tear it from her body, finally holding the still-beating organ in my mouth for a second before biting down and bursting it. Blood flows down my throat and I tilt my head back, trying to get every drop into my body. Eventually, I swallow what remains of her heart, and then I look down and see that it's over.
She's dead.
It takes a couple of minutes, but gradually I return to my human form. I'm still covered in blood, and a little out of breath, but after a moment Nurse Silk comes and kneels next to me. I can tell she wants to say something, but no words seem adequate and finally she simply puts a hand on the side of my face, tilts my head toward her, and kisses me tenderly on the lips. It's a kiss that lingers, becoming more passionate with every breath, until finally I grab her by the waist and twist her round, placing her flat on the ground while climbing on top of her. She doesn't resist; instead, she draws me closer. I'm happy for now just to kiss her, to be with her, but after a few seconds it becomes clear that she wants more, and although I know that we should be trying to find another way out of this place, I can't deny her what might be her final wish.
The blood in my mouth, and the thrill of the kill, heightens every sensation in my body.
Chapter Three
Abby Hart
"I knew you couldn't resist," the beast says, not looking over at me as I enter the room. "I knew you'd be back."
I've finally found him in a laboratory at the very top of Tor Cliff, all the way up on the fifth floor. He's clearly working on some kind of project, and I can't shake the feeling that he's been expecting me to show up. I guess he's got what he wants from me now, so he views me as little more than a distraction. He certainly doesn't seem to think that I'm a threat.
"Where is it?" I ask.
"Where's what?"
"Whatever you took from me."
He smiles, but still he doesn't look up from the ledger in which he's writing a series of notes.
"Don't make me force it out of you," I continue. "If you're really as smart as you think you are, you know damn well what I'm capable of."
"Oh, I do," he replies. "I do, absolutely." After a moment, he sets his pen down and turns to me. "I know all about you, Abigail Hart. Perhaps I even know more than you know. I mean, I've seen the secret that was kept hidden deep in your mind. I know its nature, and it won't take me too long to crack it open and get the details. I view the whole thing as something of a challenge." Grabbing another notebook, he opens it and seems engrossed for a moment. "Would I be right," he continues eventually, "in assuming that you believe me to be a monster?"
"The thought had crossed my mind," I reply, making my way cautiously toward him. He seems so calm and confident, it's hard not to worry that he has some kind of back-up plan in place.
"Because of this place?"
"You're human, aren't you?" I ask. "Beneath all the cruelty and the attempts to make yourself seem terrifying, you're just a human."
"Every species has certain powers that they use to distinguish themselves," he replies. "Vampires drink blood. Werewolves shift their form. And humans..." He smiles. "We have the ability to reach just that little bit deeper into our own souls, Ms. Hart, and summon up the most tremendous cruelty. Or, in some instances, compassion and love. But mostly cruelty."
"And you embrace that," I reply. "You see it as a good thing, don't you?"
"You poor fool," he continues, still examining the notebook. "What would people like you do without people like me?" He turns to me. "If men like me, and like Dr. Cole, didn't take on the burden of committing all these horrible acts, you'd have to do them yourself. You should be thanking us for taking the sins from your shoulders and carrying them with us. The dark arts have to be practiced, Ms. Hart, so why not let others do the heavy lifting for you? I'm sure you can still benefit from our work once you've torn us apart in the name of glory and honor!"
"I can deal with my own sins," I tell him.
"But what about the sins of an entire species?" he asks. "I have no doubt that you intend to kill me, Abby, but let me point something out to you first. The secret in your head... For many years, the whole
of Tor Cliff has been run with only one purpose in mind. We needed to find a way to crack that secret. Only when we were ready did we bring you here, and we got what we wanted. The secret is out. In fact..." He picks up a small box from his desk and holds it out to me. "It's contained in here," he continues. "It still isn't fully decrypted. I know now what was hidden in your mind, but not why, or exactly what details were included. If you let me live, I can discover those things."
"Who put it inside me?" I ask.
"Someone with access to the darkest secrets of the vampire race," he replies. "Someone who understood your importance. Someone who who knew that even the strongest prophecy cannot stand forever". He smiles. "I'm sure we can both guess who it might have been. Your father was a man of many talents, Abby, but compassion was not necessarily one of them. After all, look at the way he treated your mother."
"He loved her," I say firmly, and perhaps a little defensively.
"He killed her," he points out. "He tore her apart. If she forgave him for that, then what the hell kind of person was she?"
"She loved him."
"Well, maybe..." He pauses. "It's a pattern repeated throughout time, isn't it? The abused women who can't stop loving the men who hurt them. The excuses that are conjured up to excuse barbarity."
"Is there a reason we're talking about my parents?" I ask, barely able to control my anger. "Or are you just trying really, really hard to piss me off?"
"I'm trying to make you understand that sometimes we all have to do terrible, cruel things." He sets the box down on the table. "Sometimes we're able to get other people to do those things for us. That way, we can keep our consciences clean. When you kill me, for example, you can write me off as just another evil lunatic, a madman who was in love with cruelty and pain. But will you have the strength of will to abstain from benefiting from the results of my work?" He pushes the box toward me. "Don't you want to know?"
"I can live without it," I say firmly.
"The location of Karakh," he replies. "That's the secret that was hidden in your mind. The precise coordinates, and a guide to the journey."
"That means nothing to me," I tell him.
"Of course not. You don't know the history of your own race." He pauses. "The vampires had Gothos, which is now long-since left barren and destroyed. The werewolves had Sangreth, the church of a madman. And the spiders had Karakh, their home and palace, their heartland. You must have noticed, dear Abigail, that there are an awful lot of spiders around these days."
"I'll be sure to call in an exterminator."
He smiles. "You know what I'm talking about," he says after a moment. "You might pretend not to, but deep down, you understand. You will journey to Karakh one day, and you will face the truth about what lies buried there. Why else would the secret have been left in your mind?" He slides the box even closer to me. "Take it. I did all the hard work. I saw a challenge, and I couldn't help myself. I had to solve it. Perhaps that's the curse of a great scientific mind. But I did all the cruel and terrible things, and now... look! You can just kill me, pick up the box, and walk out of here without a stain on your conscience."
"This is all just bullshit," I reply.
"Then leave the box," he continues. "Once you've killed me and this place begins to fall, leave the box behind."
"I will."
Before he can reply, the whole building starts to shake.
"Dronigan knows that the time has come," the beast says with a sad, haunted smile. "I created him to hold back death, so that I could use the inmates here over and over again without having to worry about acquiring new ones. It worked for a while, but now that the whole thing is over, I have no idea what will become of him. He is, in a way, the closest thing I have to a child. I hope he remembers me."
Staring at the box, I'm overcome for a moment by the feeling that perhaps I should look inside. After all, if my father really hid something in my mind, it stands to reason that he wanted me to find it one day. Still, I know that it has only been extracted thanks to the work of a madman, and taking the box would make me little better than the beast and all the other people who've caused such cruelty in this place.
"You must have a very empty core," the beast says after a moment. "There's no need to make a moral stand here, Abby. You have nothing to prove." Getting to his feet, he wanders over to another workbench and picks up what appears to be a tray containing some kind of powder. "So have you decided how you're going to kill me yet?" he asks. "I'd prefer it if you make it quick, but I totally understand if you need to draw things out a little and make me suffer. For the sake of your conscience, naturally."
"I don't want to kill you at all," I tell him.
"That's very nice of you," he replies, "but you have no choice. You see, there's one thing I neglected to mention earlier. The secret I removed from your head... It's rather valuable, and I already have a buyer lined up, so if you really wanted to stop me, you should have made your move by now instead of posturing."
I open my mouth to ask what he means, but it's too late. As soon as he throws the powder at me, I feel my eyes start to sting and I'm forced to drop down to my knees. Reaching out in an attempt to grab the beast, I slam into the side of a table as he hurries past me. I try to open my eyes, but it's as if the powder is starting to glue the lids together, and all I can do is scream as the pain gets worse and worse.
Chapter Four
Felix
"There's no antidote!" Dr. Cole shouts as I pin him against the wall. "There's nothing I can do to help her!"
"For your sake," I snarl, leaning closer to his terrified face, "I hope you're lying."
"I swear to God," he continues, "the process was never designed to be reversible. It's on the genetic level! We went in and changed the building blocks of her body; even if I wanted to go back in and put everything back to how it used to be, I wouldn't know where to begin! It's not possbile!"
"Liar!" I shout, throwing his body across the room until he smashes into the far wall and drops to the floor. The sound of his bones cracking is somewhat satisfying, but there's no way I want this asshole to die until I'm finished with him. Stalking across the room, I haul him back up by the collar, and it's clear from the blood pouring out of his mouth that he doesn't have long left.
"Don't you think I'd help you if I could?" he whimpers, spitting out a couple of teeth. "Everything I did, I did in the name of science. Everything! The beast had other motives, but at least I was trying to get to some kind of hidden truth. I wanted to create the ultimate form of life, something that united the best of all the species. If people suffered, I'm sorry, but something there has to be pain if scientific knowledge is going to move forward! There has to be suffering, and someone has to take responsibility for moving things forward! Don't you understand?"
"I understand that you and the beast tortured a lot of people," I reply. "I also understand that you clearly never thought to find a way to reverse any of the damage that you did. You ripped into her body and used her like some kind of toy, and now she's of no further use to you. That's about it, right?"
"Do you want my advice, Felix?" he asks. "Kill me quickly and then go to her. She'll be suffering, and if she has to die, she should at least have someone with her. The experiment was never meant to last forever. Dronigan was keeping her alive, but now his curse has been broken, her body will quickly start to fall apart. She'll be in immense pain, but take this from someone who knows: even in the face of great agony, she'll take comfort from your presence. Love is -"
"Don't talk to me about love," I reply, dragging him across the room until we reach the glass pane in the door. "Any last words?" I ask. "Whatever they are, make them good."
"Just that I don't fear death," he says calmly. "Since the first moment I walked into this place, I've been waiting for the moment to end the madness. I was just following my -"
Before he can finish, I smash his head through the glass and then ram it down onto a thick shard, piercing his brain and killing him
instantly. I take a step back, and for a moment it occurs to me that I was far too lenient with him. After all, a man like Dr. Cole deserves to suffer a thousand times over for all the pain he caused to other creatures, yet I let him die quickly. Reaching down, I tilt his head up and stare into his dead eye, and it's clear that he's long gone. I can only hope that wherever he is now, he has plenty of time to contemplate the horrors of his work.
Heading through to the next room, I realize that there's no sign of Nurse Silk. I hurry out to the corridor and then I begin to check each room one by one, determined to find her. Just as I'm starting to give up hope, I reach Dr. Cole's office, and I spot her curled up in the corner, naked and shivering, clutching her belly.
"It's okay," I say, hurrying over and kneeling next to her. "I'm here. I've dealt with them."
"Something's wrong," she whispers, barely even to keep her eyes open. "It's like there's a whole other version of me, fighting to get out. I can feel it, screaming in my head, tearing at my mind as it tries to burst out. I've tried resisting, but I can tell that it's getting stronger and stronger. Please, you have to turn and run. It's going to take control of me eventually."
"You must let it," I reply. "If you keep holding it back, it'll tear you apart."
"I don't want to become that monster again," she continues. "I'm a woman and a vampire, but the wolf he placed in my genes... It's too horrific to live. It's an unnatural creation, something that never should have existed. He's turned me into some kind of mutant, Felix, and I can feel my body ripping itself apart."
"You'll die if you don't let it loose," I tell her.
"I'd rather die than risk hurting you," she replies, shifting onto her back and staring up at me. She reaches out and runs a hand along the side of my face, and a faint smile crosses her lips. "You know I can't control it, Felix. Maybe it'll happen today, or tomorrow, or next week, but this creature is inside my body and it's desperate to get out. I'd rather just die and take it with me. Just promise me that when I'm gone -"