AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm chugging along rather smoothly with this story, if I do say so myself. I try to update ASAP cuz I know I'm impatient and hate to be kept waiting so I Figure the rest of you don't like it either. I'm thinking there won't be too many more chapters following this one (maybe like 2 or 3, who knows though), but I'm definitely thinking sequel! Please continue to read and review!

Chapter 4: Intervention

Several weeks had passed since Pinhead had made his presence known to Victoria. She found the Cenobite, as Pinhead had explained his race was called, fascinating and spent any available time talking to him, asking him questions about his world. The demonic humanoid was always patient with the girl, even as she asked him question after endless question, demanding more of him every time. On a few occasions, she'd walked with him through the labyrinth, marveling at its seemingly endless and ever-changing design. She was particularly fascinated by the Leviathan, revolving ad infinitum above the labyrinth, shrouded not in light, but the absence of such. She encountered several of the other Cenobites; Chatterer, Butterball, and Angelique, the very creature de L'Isle had summoned hundreds of years previously. She marveled at their ability to survive despite the presence of their countless mutilations.

"How were you created?" Victoria asked as they stood in the shadow of the floating behemoth. "The Cenobites, I mean. You can't have been born this way."

"No, we were not," Pinhead explained. "We were human once, most of us. One way or another we stumbled across the box and were not as lucky as you. We were tortured in the depths of the labyrinth and for whatever reason Leviathan made us what we are. Not all who enter the labyrinth become one of us."

He looked up at the labyrinth's odd deity. He became very quiet, staring up at it intently, his head cocked slightly to one side as though comprehending some silent dialogue.

"Ah, Pinhead?" Victoria asked hesitantly, not wanting to disturb his meditation.

"Yes?" he replied abruptly, as though he'd been caught sleeping at an inopportune moment.

"You okay over there? You kinda spaced out for a second."

"Yes, I am fine. My apologies."

"It's cool. What was that anyway?"

"Nothing. No need to worry."

Victoria raised a skeptical eyebrow. Pinhead waved a hand, signaling the end of the discussion on that topic.

"Come," he said, the corners of his mouth twitching upward in a barely noticeable smile. "I have such sights to show you." He started to walk off.

Victoria, suddenly struck with déjà vu, watched him glide away. She looked up at the Leviathan, wondering what secrets it had been sharing with her inhuman mentor. She turned back toward Pinhead, who was standing a distance away patiently waiting for her to follow.

"Coming!" she called, and ran off to follow the demon into the bowels of the labyrinth, where the distant screaming was becoming louder.

~[ ]~

"Hello? Paging Victoria Isle! Come in, Ms. Isle!" Adrian said, cupping his hands around his mouth.

"What? Huh?" Victoria started. "Sorry, Ade."

"What is it with you and that thing? You take it everywhere."

Victoria looked at the Lament Configuration she had been staring at with such intensity. Adrian was right; she never went anywhere without the box in the month and a half since Pinhead had appeared. She hadn't told Adrian or Dimitri about him. Their unorthodox companionship was her dirty little secret. She sighed. Though it frightened her slightly to admit it, she actually missed the demon during their time apart.

"Well…" she started.

"Hold that thought!" Adrian exclaimed. "Gotta pee."

He got up from where they were seated in the courtyard and headed into the building. Graduation was two weeks away and the seniors were making the most out of their final week of classes. A palpable energy of excitement crackled throughout the school like lightning. Pranks were being hatched and final memories being made. Parties were planned, outfits for the ceremony were discussed, and tears were shed. Victoria returned her gaze to her treasured possession. She could care less about it all. These stepping stones of the transition to adulthood that had once seemed so enthralling had now become superficial. She'd seen true grandeur, witnessed splendors nearly inconceivable to the human psyche. This coming-of-age ritual had become nothing more than an inane necessity.

She was torn from her thoughts by a sudden upheaval. She looked up to see Adrian overtaken by a large group of boys, led by the very one whose nose he'd broken the day the box had arrived. Adrian was desperately fighting to remain on his feet, but he was unfairly outnumbered and brought to the ground, obscured from view by the pandemonium swirling around him. An agonized cry from her friend sent Victoria rushing toward the expanding bedlam. She was stopped dead in her tracks by a group of girls, mostly girlfriends of the boys attacking Adrian.

"Where do you think you're going, bitch?" one of them snarled.

"FUCK YOU!" Victoria spat.

She could've taken any of them in a fair fight, but like Adrian, she was outnumbered. She was shoved backwards into a niche created by the wall of the building and two large concrete planters. She struck her head hard enough to muddle her thoughts, but not hard enough to render her unconscious. She looked up at her tormentors, shaking her head in a desperate attempt to clear her head. A series of loud cracks and another cry from Adrian brought her out of her daze. They were going to kill him, maybe not intentionally, but they seemed to show no sign of letting up and the massive cluster-fuck of onlookers made it impossible for intervention to arrive. Victoria suddenly remembered the box. It had fallen from her grasp when she hit the wall and lay a few feet away. She scooped it up, solving practically blind, her vision clouded by the tears that had begun to pour down her face. In a matter of seconds the carnage-fueled cries of encouragement and blood lust became screams of terror.

"Move now or I shall show you no mercy!" a comfortingly familiar voice bellowed.

The girls who had attacked Victoria scampered away without further repercussions. Pinhead extended a pale hand to Victoria, yanking her to her feet. She lost what little composure she had and began to sob loudly. The demon held the trembling girl against his side, keeping her clear of the wounds on his torso. She clung to his robes like a frightened child. The mob had backed away from their victim; many were now huddled back against the walls, watching to see what would happen next. The air reeked with the scent of blood and fresh urine. In a different situation, Victoria would've found the fact that the school's biggest assholes had pissed themselves like small children humorous, but this was no laughing matter. Pinhead had not acted alone. The Chatter Beast was hovering around the edge of remnants of the crowd, daring them to move or speak. Chatterer, Butterball, and the nameless female cenobite stood around a bloody mass upon the ground. Victoria realized with dawning horror that the mass was Adrian. She tore free of Pinhead and ran to the aid of her injured friend, hoping that Pinhead and his cohorts hadn't arrived too late.

"Ade?" she sobbed. "Oh, God, please answer me!"

He blinked at her with one eye; the other was bruised and swollen shut.

"The…box. Everything was true," he gasped weakly. He winced, raggedly drawing in breath. It was clear that several ribs were broken.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about them," Victoria said. "It was stupid of me."

"They saved my…life," he whispered. Speaking caused him obvious pain.

"Don't talk, Ade. I can see that it hurts you," she replied. "You tell me whatever you need to when your better."

"Get the hell out of my way!" Dimiti's unmistakable voice called from a distant point. He was clearly trying to get through the mass of people.

"We should go," the female cenobite said to Pinhead.

"Yes," he agreed. He snapped his fingers. The Chatter Beast turned away from the terrified teenagers and heeled to his master's side. "We take our leave now, Victoria. Your friend is safe." And with that, the demons disappeared. The box returned to its original state and Victoria slipped it into her bag. Dimitri made it through the crowd flustered and agitated, strands of dark hair hanging loose from the low ponytail that usually kept them at bay. He cried out in shock at the sight before him and joined Victoria at Adrian's side.

"I'm glad I called the paramedics after all," he said. With Pinhead gone, he took over for comforting the distraught girl, who sobbed uncontrollably into his shoulder.

The EMTs arrived, carting Adrian off to the hospital. His parents were no doubt on their way, infuriated and frantic, their lawyer in tow. On the ride to the hospital, Victoria sat huddled in the passenger seat, staring blankly out the window.

"Are you alright?" Dimitri asked from the driver's seat.

"I have so much to tell you," she said, not taking her gaze away from the window. "I should have told you most of it weeks ago."