Disclaimer: I don't own Victorious or any of it's characters. Also, some names (in chapter two) were borrowed from Buffy the Vampire slayer, just cause.

Warning: Some torture in this chapter. May be triggering.

:}

It was after school on a Friday, and the gang was sitting around the Vega living room, enjoying some on line show about the hidden monsters that live in our world. "So, do you believe in Bigfoot?" Andre asked. Beck, from his place on the couch, smiled, but inside a warning was going off.

Jade smiled, shifting to get comfortable as her new girlfriend, Tori, snuggled into her. Jade had accepted that with a girlfriend, there was a certain amount of snuggling involved. "Bigfoot, huh?" Jade asked. "Yea, could be. There are a lot of things out there that science just can't seem to figure out. Things like the cult of the Beast."

"God, not this again." Beck groaned.

"Not what?" Robbie asked, confused.

"Oh, Jade believes there's this cult worshiping the Devil. You know, the Beast, as they refer to him someplace in the bible." Cat said, her nose then scrunching. "I think they refer to the Devil that way. My preacher called him the Beast, and I have no reason to doubt him, cause he was such an honest man. Maybe I should go back to church. I mean, it's been..." She checked her phone, "Three years. You think I missed anything?"

"Nah, things like that don't change too much." Andre said. "So, Jade, whats this about a devil worshiping cult?"

"Not a devil worshiping cult. Demons." Jade pointed out. "See, according to christian mysticism, the Devil fell for his attempt to overthrow god, but there were already demons around. Now, as I've tried to explain before, that's mysticism, not bible studies, cause the names of demons that show up all over the place, including the bible, if you look, come from other sources. However, this cult isn't even tangentially christian. They worship what they call a demon god, often called the Beasts, or the Glorious Beast, and that chiz is real. I know, cause I almost met it, the Beast, face to face."

"Yes, Jade, cause in a moment of terror, you hallucinated a monster that tore people to shreds." Beck said, showing a surprising lack of empathy for this subject.

"Say what now?" Tori asked, pulling away from her girlfriend long enough to look at her. "Whats this about you seeing this beast thingy?"

"I didn't actually see it." Jade admitted. "I passed out before it reached me. But I know what happened, I was there, back in Bowling Green Park..."

"Oh my god, where you there?" Robbie asked, showing a higher level of shock then most people would have expected. When Tori looked confused, he filled her in. "You remember, right. Back in 2008, there was this small desert town between Los Angeles and Mojave, called Bowling Green. Oh come on, surly you remember the Bowling Green Massacre, when someone slaughtered almost everyone who was in the town at the time? Please, you have to remember, cause over three hundred people lost their lives. It was one of the worst terrorist attacks ever to hit California."

"Only it wasn't terrorists." Jade said. "I woke up at the edge of the carnage, and saw what happened to the people. Hell, The rescue workers, they were sickened by what they saw. I watched them try to carry the remains out of there, through there attempts to cover my eyes so I wouldn't be scarred by memories of what had happened. Thing is, whatever killed those people was like a meat-grinder, turning the people into hamburger."

"And now I've lost my appetite." Beck announced. "See, thats what you get when you let Jade talk about this chiz. Jade, you were traumatized by that event, and the kidnapping." The Canadian realized he'd said too much, shutting down.

"Kidnapping?" Tori asked.

"Yea, her dad was, by that point, kinda rich. So naturally, someone grabbed her, took her to Bowling Green to hide out until they could send their ransom demands. Only, the terrorist struck, and now Jade's all mentally scarred." Cat smiled, blinking her eyes at the glare her friend was sending her. "What, we still love you. Maybe not Beck, cause you two broke up, and then you wound up dating Tori, who everyone could tell Beck wanted. But still, we all love you, with the noted possible exception of Beck..."

"We get it." Beck cut her off. "And Jade, don't take my being tired of you being fascinated by that chiz as me not caring. I do care. I care so much it worries me. I feel it's probably bad for your social life that you obsesses over some fictional demon god." His hand went up to stop her from protesting. "And yes, I know there are cults who worship it, but that doesn't make it real. It just makes people gullible as hell. That, or crazy."

"I'm vote we go with Crazy." Cat said. "Cause if that thing is real, I'd rather be crazy."

"You know, there have been a string of illogical terrorist attacks lately." Robbie pointed out. "Illogical cause you can usually guess at what kind of point the terrorist is trying to make based on the target. Those attacks have little to no strategic or symbolic value. Then again, the logic of the target only matters to the one launching the attack." Everyone looked at him for a moment, then went back to what they were doing.

"So, Tori, you okay with Jade being into this cult of the Beast thingy?" Cat asked.

"Cat, this isn't just my imagination." Jade protested. "I know how this thing works. I've told you, many times. The Beast manifests in our existence, often disrupting the world around it, and that can be explosive. Then, the Beast, when it manifest in this world, it's all rage, tearing things apart. I should know, I was the one who woke up surrounded by human hamburger meat. Twice…."

Tori leaned in and kissed her girl on the lips, silencing the rant before it got too graphic. Then she whispered to her girl "Jade, I'm not gonna judge you for what you think you experienced. Hell, it could be true. Just, it's making Robbie sick, and Andre's ready to bounce. Lets talk about more group friendly things, okay?'

"Fine." Jade huffed, and Beck gave what looked to be an annoyed groan. She defiantly saw him roll his eyes. 'She's mine, Beck. I wanna be your friend. I care about you, I really do, but this, it happened, and I feel good, loved. My parents, not so good at making me feel wanted, so I need this relationship. I'm sorry, but I'd rather fall in love with Vega then be alone.' Jade rarely didn't say what was on her mind. This time, she did, just so she could keep her friendship with Beck, who everyone knew had his eyes set on Tori once he and Jade had split. However, Jade was actuality afraid of losing friends at that moment, given what she'd just admitted. She'd been vulnerable, telling them about her obsession, listening as they found out about her past, and it was only now downing on her how big a risk she'd taken.

"Hay, I'm just glad Jade isn't trying to turn her enemies into Zombies." Tori joked.

"They don't sell any instructions on how to do that at the local bookstore." Jade replied, and the group laughed a nervous laugh.

"So, anyone wanna hear about my new one man play?" Robbie asked. "Technically, it's Rex's play, but I had to put my name on the forms, cause apparently Rex isn't officially a student at Hollywood Arts. So I'm getting some credit..."

Jade leaned back and enjoyed the weight of her girlfriend on her shoulder as Robbie and Andre discussed their upcoming performances. 'Yea, things are getting better.' She decided.

A short time later, her dad texted her. "Guys, I gotta head home. Tori, sorry I couldn't stay longer, but Dad's been on an authority kick for a while now, so I kinda have to go." Jade frowned, her face looking adorable in it's sad configuration. Tori kissed it, and the goth smiled, just for a second. "I really wanna stay and hear your untalented sister talk about her new school. I mean, she's going to Northridge Community Collage, and apparently is the highest scoring student there. Whats up with that? I mean, if she's that smart, she could have gone to any school she wanted. Or is Nothridge just that bad a school?""

"Okay, first, Trina is good, but Northridge, for a community collage, is a good school. Second, they have a good transfer program with UCLA, so she's spending her first two years saving us money, studying at a smaller school, and in general enjoying the usually hard first two years of her college education." Tori said, pulling her girlfriend off the couch and to the door. "Second," her voice dropped, more base, and softer, "I kinda had something planned. Thing is, while we've only been dating a short time, we've known one another a lot longer. Our feelings, or at least mine, I suspect there not so much developing as developed. If I'm right, then we can take a couple of risks we otherwise might wait for. Thats why, there's something special I really wanted to show you."

There was a whistle, and Tori spun around, in Jade's arm, and pointed a finger at Rex. "Clean your mind. We're not talking about sex."

"Sure you weren't, cupcake." Rex said, but they let it slide, so Jade could get her goodbye kiss from Tori.

"Text me as soon as you get home." Tori instructed.

"Yes mom." Jade dismissed, waving her hand as she walked out to her car.

"And you claimed you weren't talking about sex." Rex joked.

"Sorry about her." Beck said. "Jade had one bad experience, and now believes she was that close to s0mething supernatural."

"Do you believe in the Beast?" Tori asked.

"I don't." Cat said. "Now, I do believe there's some demon out there claiming it's a god, to fool the unwary. But a demon god? That would mean that there are such things as demon gods, and I'm not ready to believe in that. Or climate change." The redhead nodded, confirming her belief in what Fox News told her.

"I, for one, am glad she showed us this side of her." Robbie said. "I sometimes feel like she doesn't trust us with her secrets."

"Why wouldn't she trust the host of Robbarazzi?" Andre asked.

"Starring Robbie Shapiro." Tori, Beck and Cat all echoed one another, their unified voices making the puppeteer shrink in his seat.

"But yea, I think maybe we could have been more open to her." Dre continued.

"Just don't encourage her." Beck said. "I'm afraid it'll hurt her chances at finding someone." He glanced at Tori. "You know, long term."

It was Tori's turn to roll her eyes and remain silent in the name of keeping a friendship.

Jade drove home, taking the most direct rout. Normally, she'd drive up into Shadow Creek park, just for the beauty of the drive, but her father had been on her case for her practice of taking the long rout when he needed her. Jade was confused as to what to do. She wanted to defy the man who showed her so little affection, but at the same time, desperately wanted whatever affection he'd let slip her way. Caught up in her thoughts, Jade hadn't noticed the oddity of there being road construction late in the evening. City roads usually had construction in the middle of the day, ending just before, or after, rush hour. It was only freeways that had construction after dark, so as to avoid the majority of the traffic. But in the evening, there shouldn't have been any, a fact Jade normally would have known, if she weren't so distracted..

Jade followed the instructions, both the signs diverting cars, then the men in orange vests and hard hats, telling her to pull her car over, following the other cars driving that stretch of road that evening. She was directed down the detour, down a smaller street, and from there to the side where a man knocked on her window.

"What?" Jade asked, not bothering to lower the glass. She hoped this was something minor, and not some creep taking advantage. However, he was wearing the same shiny orange vest and hard hat as the other construction crew members.

"Sorry, but the police are kinda stickers, and you have a rear light out." The man said. "You can fix it when yo get home, but I thought I'd tell you now, maybe save you a 'fix it' ticket."

"So what? I get out of my car, and you show me?" Jade asked, pulling out a long, sharp pair of scissors.

"Nahh, just being neighborly." The construction crew member said. The man started to turn away, when there was a crash, and several heavy looking pipes rolled into the street ahead of Jade. "You, stay in the car." The man instructed.

Jade watched the man head over to check out the noise, not realizing she was the only car on the road. Worried about what was going on, a knock drew her out of her semi trance. A woman was standing there next tot he passenger side of her car. "There's an exposed wire. I'm gonna need you to get out of your car, on this side of the road, away from the danger."

Jade crawled across her front seat, to the passengers side, and got out of her car, where the woman helped her out of the vehicle, and used the close proximity to taise her. Jade felt her muscles tighten, and then she started to fall. As Jade tried to recover, shake off the effects of the taiser, a needle was stuck into her body, near her neck, and the goth was quickly dossed with some drug. Seconds later, her world went gray, fuzzy and blurry, and she felt herself being picked up and carried away.

The pale girl felt a bag puled over her head, and in her impaired state, it started to feel like she was unable to breath. The difficulty in drawing air through the material, while not impossible, made her muddled mind feel as if she were suffocating. Her bound, drugged limbs couldn't reach up and pull the bag free, while her addled mind let her fear run wild. Panic started to eat away at her, even as she became more and more disorientated. 'Tori, my god, Toir, I'm so sorry.' She thought, pushing her mind to focus on anything other then her difficulty breathing. 'I'm sorry I'm going to die, alone and afraid. I'm sorry I won't be there to protect you, like Beck never was for me. Daddy, I'm so sorry for whatever it was that made you keep your distance. I love you. Mommy….'

Her mind danced from one person to the next, including her ex, who she begged, silently, for forgiveness. 'Beck, I'm so sorry. I know it's my fault we could never work. I could have tried harder, been a better person, less of a gank. I could have lied to myself, pretended that Tori didn't have such a powerful effect on me. I-I could have told you, long before we broke up, about how I was feeling about her. How I suspected I was crushing on her, and that was why I lashed out at her. Maybe it wouldn't have saved us, but at least we'd still be friends… I'm so sorry I never was able to make it up to you, taking you away from all those girls who would love you, no mater what. At least, maybe, you'll have Tori. She deserves the best...' Her sadness and regret almost broke through the panic. Almost.

Unaware of being moved, having been placed in the back of a van, the goth found herself focusing on other feelings. Lost, panicked and terrified and holding onto whatever hope she could find, Jade was only aware that she couldn't catch a decent breath, and she felt like she was drowning. The hope that Tori would be taken care of was a cold comfort to a mind that vacillated back and forth into panic, where thoughts were lost in a cloud of hysteria. She felt like she was dying, all while she tried to make whatever deal she could with the universe to pull any good out of this fear that she could.

Only her fear seemed to grow upon itself, taking up more and more of her thoughts. Memories that flashed through her mind drew muted responses, as the fear ate away at her ability to have any other emotional reaction. Only pain, sadness and regret seemed to burn a temporary path through her fears. Unable to accept she was that scared, Jade clung to those dark memories, finding new regrets in moments where rage ruled her life, even when the anger was justified. But the anger of those moments had died. Under that hood, Jade felt no rage, only the cold bite of her fears, growing in bounds as she was left to her own memories and her dread at suffocating. Jade even begged to pass out, just to stop the pain, but fear based begging didn't seem to draw mercy from any higher, or lower, powers.

Jade was a blubbering mess by the time the bag was pulled off of her head. Crying had overtaken the last of her self control, leaving her lost and scared, a child left alone in a strange place. However, the crying goth still only took a few moments of tears to realize two things. One, that she could breath more freely, and two, that the bag was off her head.

It took her a good ten minutes to gain control. She slowly found her way out of the terror of dying she'd fought most of the drive up, only to see that the initial panic was unnecessary, caused by the combination of drugs and the bag, creating a perverse form of waterboarding. Now, however, she could see she was in some dark, isolated place surrounded by masked men who probably meant her some form of harm. "Wha..?" She tried, but her voice was too horse to be understood. 'god, how bad is it gonna get?' She reached for her rage, to free her and give her some kind of power in this dark situation, only to find fear, and the men around her.

"You, girl, have been marked by the Beast. Because of that mark, your experience, you shall be the sacrifice that opens the way for it to manifest. You are it's way into this world." Explained a man dressed in a loose, long brown coat over his blue jeans and tee shirt. A mask, basically a thin strip of cloth with eye holes tied around his head, concealed his identity from casual observation. Overall, he gave of the image of the high priest in a low budget horror film, where they couldn't even afford costumes, and had everyone bring whatever they had from home to use as costumes. "But first," he continued, "you must be cleansed, and cleansed in pain."

Still weak from the earlier panic, Jade found herself chained to a post, and her body manipulated so that just two muscles held most of her weight. She'd been forcefully placed in stress positions, chained in place, and watched by the cultists until she started to wobble. The threat of pain, not being able to breath, was used to keep her in place, but slowly, as the hours passed, that became harder and harder. Her body was shifted from one position to the next, weakening her overall while adding to her supposed 'baptism.' The one consistent was, after a short while, every position hurt. And each set of muscles continued to hurt as she was moved to the next position.

Then, after a few hours, her muscles aching, her body unable to stand on her own, she was led in to a room where the entire cult was gathered, man and the few women. There, chains hanging from the roof, near the center of the room, where attached to her wrists. Her arms were pulled up until she was almost standing, hanging by those limbs, and the pain to her shoulders was immediate. Then, her cloths were removed, cut with her own scissors before being ripped off her body. Her naked form drew whistles, hoots and jeers from the men, and the only sympathetic looks she'd ever draw from the pitifully few girls there. Two of those girls carried a thin leather cloth in their hands, hanging it from Jade's shoulders, covering her back. It was her only warning.

Jade was dimply aware of the embarrassment, the shame, because the pain in her limbs had dulled her to all human emotions. The first snap of the whip, however, awoken her to those feelings, as new pain shot through her body. Each stroke of the lash added to her overall ache, while also waking her to the fact that she was still able to be hurt even more. Stroke after stroke hit her back, causing Jade to cry out in pain. Her mind was far past bargaining, far past worrying about those she loved. All nobility was gone, replaced by the pain, her animalistic desire to live, and fear. An odd fear that denied all rage, only allowing terror to eat away at anything human, leaving only a wounded animal hanging there, hurting, waiting to die, while too scared to do anything but try to live.

Jade wouldn't, couldn't admit it, but at that moment, she would have traded anything just to live. The pain had taken her will, her desire, her pride. Jade just knew she was hurting, and that was all. Later, shame at what she'd been willing, in that moment, to do to ends her pain would tear her up. That was, assuming she had a later.

In time, a blissfully short time later, the flogging stopped, and Jade was taken down from where she was hanging, then placed in a small animal cage where everyone could see her naked form. It was uncomfortable, in that dog crate, but at least she didn't have to support any of her body on her tired, weakened limbs. Jade couldn't stand on a bet. But the cage was too small, giving her almost no room to move, while keeping her in a painfully uncomfortable position.

The high priest from earlier drew everyone's attention, declaring "We will now get ready for the ritual. Further cleansing of the sacrifice may commence in one hour. Until then, she may recover from he ordeal so far. Gentlemen, enjoy her, because tonight she dies."

Jade lay in the confined space, desperately trying to regain some level of ease from the body's constant aching. Her body hurt, the floor was steel mesh over concrete, with a thin layer of some kind of material laid down to keep her from hypothermia before they were ready to sacrifice her. Not so much comfort as preventing her from going numb.

"I hope I get to ride her first." One guy said. "If I have to wait too long, it'll take a major assault to get her to feel anything. I wanna hear her screaming while I make her feel both so good, and the pain. I'm gonna rape her clean."

"Oh, how many of us do you think they'll let have her before they kill her?" Another man asked.

'That depends on how much she's resisting." A third tossed out. "As long as she suffering, they may let us all have a turn. But when she gives in, just lets it happen, they're done with that, and she'll be taken to the place of sacrifice and given to the Beast."

Jade lay there, listening, when one of the women made her way closer. "Listen, it may sound like you wanna just give in and die, but thats not gonna help you any. They're giving you a chance to recover some feeling before the sacrifice. They're gonna cut you, shallow cuts to let you bleed, and then they'll let you bleed out, hurting, in pain, but bleeding as long as possible. They think that this, in the right place, will open the portal and let the avatar of the Beast come forth. Then, we'll all get rewarded. So, struggle as long as possible, so you lose feeling. There's no real reason you should suffer any more then you already have. Just, make sure you're strong enough to last, so the Beast can have enough time to enjoy itself here, before it devours your soul and returns to it's own world."

The pale girl felt like one continuous bruise, hurting from so many places, while ashamed of what she'd been willing to offer just to make the pain stop. Jade was hanging by a threat, waiting to be violated before being offered up to the Beast. 'Tori, please, find some happiness, cause me, I'm gone. If their wrong, and for the first time, I'm wishing they are, I'll bleed to death, naked and in pain, while a crowd watches. But whats left of me when they do that, it won't be fit for anyone to love. No, it's better if I die, and then you'll be free to love again, maybe even make Beck happy. And if their right, I'm just praying to whatever gods are out there that you remain safe, because the Beast, when it manifests, it brings destruction. I don't want you to die with me. I want you to live, and hope we're far enough away that it doesn't reach you. I… I'll do what I can to get killed, die before they can slice me open. Just forget about me and live, okay...' Her tears, fresh one's staining wet flesh over older tears, flowed freely. Jade didn't realize she could cry this much.

Just when Jade felt she was ready, had a plan of action, they came for her. The men pulled Jade's naked form out of the dog crate, and dragged her along until they reached a door. Jade, for all her plotting, couldn't even begin to resist, her body hurting too much, her limbs too sore from the stress positions and from the beating she'd taken. Even the rage she tried to summon, to help her overcome the pain, just turned to fear, eating away at whatever resolve she had, while denying her the adrenaline rush she'd hoped to use to break free.

Once they reached the door, and it was opened, the cultists who were dragging her along, almost absentmindedly took her outside, and into the moon lit night, with her legs dragging along the ground. The pale girl shivered in the cold, but that was just about the only moment she could muster, as her body hadn't regained any strength yet. 'The stress positions, those were meant to weaken me, take away my ability to fight. Those bastards knew what they were doing...' Her eyes locked on the men she'd already picked out to fight, to end her life before they could use her. Only now, she knew she wasn't about to die.

Only she was, just not the way she'd chosen. In front of her was a tower of some sort, pushing up into the sky. Jade had no idea where it came from, or how high it was, she just realized they meant to take her to the top. There was a crude elevator, powered by pulleys, rope and human effort, that the men placed her in, tying her so she couldn't just roll out of it and fall to her death. Then, people started pulling the roped, using a winch to anchor the rope and prevent sliding.

Slowly Jade found herself being hoisted up, higher and higher, towards the platform at the top. Quickly, the ground fell away, revealing a view that hinted both at how height she was, and how far away they were from civilization. Jade could guess that they were in a small part of the acres of undeveloped land that dotted throughout the Los Angeles area. The platform, she guessed, was maybe sixty feet up in the air, near a building that probably wasn't supposed to be there anyways, that had been housing the entirety of the cult.

Jade watched as the members of the cult were surrounding the structure, maybe forty of them in all,. Dressed causally, but wearing strips of cloth tied around their heads, with eye holes, making masks to hide who they really were. It was intimidating, the entire situation, even if a bit B movie. However, the goth felt oddly at peace, because she had accepted there was nothing she could do about it until she reached the top. Inside, however, she was making plans. 'Either I get away, or I fall off, and they lose their sacrifice. Who would have thought Blazing Saddles had it right. Take myself hostage.'

Jade was in for a shock, however, when she reached the top and saw her own father, tied to a chair on the far side of the platform, near where the stairs reached that level, with a clear view of the X shaped frame where they were going to force jade to stand. He looked upset, betrayed, and angry at what was about to happen. But he was also tied down, so the only thing he could do was watch as two cultists removed her from the elevator, putting some kind of sefety harness on her before untying her, then muscling her over to the cross where they'd tie her into place, then finally removing the harness, once again leaving her naked. Jade was now at the top of the tower, on the platform, presumably in the right spot to open this portal. She was also cold, shivering in the frigid night breeze, as she was waiting to die.

The high priest had been waiting int eh shadows near the top, and started leading the cult in some kind of chant, spoken in a language Jade didn't quite understand. As the cult went through their incantations, jade found herself looking at her father, naked to the world, wondering why it had to end like this.

'Dad, I know we never got along that well, and I could have been a better daughter. I'm sorry...' Fresh tears welled forth, adding to the deluge she was already crying out. She felt even weaker now, exposed to her father in a way she wished never to be shown off to anyone. No matter how she thought about it, she'd lost. Completely and unquestionably, Jade was defeated, and she would die here, naked, in front of her father.

Her mind raced back to her past, how her relationship with her father always felt a bit off, like somehow she wasn't quite right. 'I tried. I tried being the good girl, and you just left me. I tried achievement, and you never once showed. I tried being a discipline problem, and mom told me not to get caught, while you just had others handle me. It always felt like I wasn't good enough. I was never able to win your love, because I just wants good enough...' Her body would have collapsed if the frame wasn't holding her up.

'I eventually decided I was going to succeed, cause that was he one thing you seemed to notice, but I was going to do it as an actress, or writer, or anything creative, cause I have talent, and I'd show you how good I could be. Damn it, dad, would that have helped you love me? I love you, I've always loved you, and it felt like maybe I just couldn't reach you. Is that why their torturing you too? Because you did love me? I just...' There was a sound, an odd houwling, off in the distance, that drew cheers from the cultists. It also reminded her how little time she had left.

"Dad, I love you." Jade said, trying to be heard. But the only reaction to her attempt to talk, through the tears and regret and pain, was a mumbling sound that caused one of her handlers to gag her. 'Dad, please, don't remember me like this. Remember me as your little girl, the girl who loved you, no mater what...'

The high priest, robed in his brown coat, stepped forward, knife in hand, and for a moment, Jade hoped it would be over quickly. She hoped that the girl had lied about the cuts, like she'd lied about the rape, and the priest would slice her throat or stab her in the heart. Jade didn't want her father to see her die, but if he had to, she wanted it to be over quickly.

"Now, shallow cuts." The man said, slicing her open along her thighs. "Bleed out, girl, and last as long as you can. When the Beast devours your soul, you will have served your purpose."

Then, the priest turned to the attendant. "Why's she gagged?"

"I think she was begging for something." The man said with a shrug.

"I want the Beast to hear her screams." There was a joy in the priests voice that sent a chill down Jade's spine, even as her bleeding wound stung, and her muscles and back ached, and pain lanced through her entire body. "I want us all to revel in her pain, as her life, her very essence, brings us the Beast's blessing."

Jade knew she was dying, and no force could save her. Even if the horror from her nightmares never showed, she would bleed out before anyone would even realize she was taken. 'God, please help save my dad. Protect him, and Tori, and Cat, and hell, even Beck. Protect them cause if the Beast comes, they'll all need help, and if it doesn't, these monsters may just go after one of them. Daddy...' Her eyes locked on his, watching as he looked on, horror on his face.

Then, a sound ripped through the air, drawing all eyes towards it's source. It sounded like a roar, one Jade remembered from her worst days, when the Beast's sounds echoed through the remains of Bowling Green. Jade's blood froze, and her body shook, as she realized they may have done it, and summoned the Beast incarnate. Not even questioning why it was coming from the side, down on the ground, as opposed to some portal high in the air, right in front of her, Jade cried out to the heavens. Fear and regret tore through the night in one desperate, echoing sound.

Moments later, the gathering below was flooded by people in red-brown monks robes, the color reminiscent of dried blood. The new cultists were armed with swords and similar medieval weapons, even as they closed in on the guards around the camp, slicing and killing in a maddened frenzy.

Gun fire broke the charge of the robed cultists. The people in brown robes dove for cover, avoiding the often wild shots that the local cult retaliated with. For several moments, Jade almost forgot that this was all mute, and the monster from her nightmares, the one she'd been so close to but could never remember seeing, was about to correct the mistake of leaving her alive.

In a blur of gray fur, it entered the fray. Jade wasn't sure what it looked like, only that something bounced among the more causally dressed cultists, slashing and killing with abandon, moving so fast that only a lucky shot might hit it. The form must have been huge, at least seven feet tall, and probably larger, with massive musculation under the gray fur. It seemed unworried about the cultists who'd grabbed Jade, but avoided hurting the people dressed in the reddish-brown robes. But to Jade, it didn't much matter, she was seeing her own end moving among the people down there, even as the high priest called out for it to stop.

"Oh great and mighty Beast, we are the one's who called to you. Why, or lord, are you slaughtering your faithful?" The priest called out.

"DUDE, FORGET THAT." One of his assistants screamed. "WE HAVE TO END THE RITUAL. WE HAVE TO KILL THE SACRIFICE."

At that, a figure dressed in magenta robes, with azure trimmings, walked into the clearing, looking up at where Jade was. It had a demonic visage, and screamed in a deep, guttural voice "Recover the girl!" Followed by a series of nonsense sounds that Jade swore somehow drew her, and everyone else's, full attention straight to it.

Moments or minutes, Jade couldn't tell how long she stared at the demon face of the priest in magenta. Her mind reeled, horror filtering in, along with a dread sense of familiarity to it's voice that was impossible to believe. 'It can't be, but somehow, I get the feeling I know that voice. Like I've heard it before...'

A scream by her ear drew Jade's attention back in time to see one of the assistants ripped in half by the beasts strength. The other was already dead, while the high priest was falling to the ground, swept aside by the monsters terrible power. It was like it didn't try to kill him, just push him out of the way, and the priest flew from the platform.

Fangs dripping with some kind of ectoplasmic saliva poking impossibly out of it's animalistic face, the beast towered over Jade, watching her. Moments passed, Jade's heart hammering against her chest, as the monster loomed above her, before that familiar voice from below called out again, instructing the creature to 'Gt the girl,' and a clawed hand reached for Jade….

And past her to the bindings that secured her to the frame. Bindings that snapped at the creatures strength. Then Jade felt herself being lifted up, away from the frame, and moments later she was falling, feeling as if her body was floating in air, waiting for the bone crushing impact that was expected at the end, even as the Beast seemed to cradle her in it's huge, harry arms. Far too much for her to process, let alone understand, Jade felt herself just give up, and the world went black.

:}

So, thats my first attempt at horror. Felt like I slipped into the bad habit of trying to make my bad cultists as evil as possible, but in all honesty, there's a reason their like that. Too bad we'll probably never know why their the way they are. However, there is a second chapter, in case anyone wants it. I'll probably post it in a few days, regardless of what people want.

So, thoughts? I'm interested to know, what do you think?