Pretty intense chapter. You have been warned. It gets better though.

Shepherd's Warning

"Red sky at night shepherd's delight, Red sky in morning shepherd's warning."

Chapter 7: Of Love, Fear and Blood

A large violent thump, followed by a scream of pain caused Vincent to look up sharply from his books. He had heard the front door close a couple of minutes ago and voices talking in happy conversation after. It must have been the girls. He had heard footsteps travel from the front door to their dorm room. He slapped his forehead. 'Stupid boy, stupid kid. You should never have assumed that both of them went to their room. One of them must have gone downstairs and found Father Wolf praying. How could either of them know that he used White Claudia to induce a trance so he could talk directly to God? It's a secret that has only just been revealed to me after years of study.'

"THUMP." It sounded like a wrestling match was taking place in the alter room. Vincent burst open his door and saw Alessa standing in her doorway, the same fear and urging in her eyes. Vincent's eyes filled with more fear when he realised who was being beaten. 'Oh my God Claudia, my love. NO. Stop him quickly. Get down there now before he kills her. Where is the director? Oh God where the hell is everyone?' Panicked thoughts rushed through his mind as he raced down the old stairs to save Claudia. He would do anything for her, and as much as he respected Father Wolf, he would make his life a living hell if he hurt Claudia. Death was too good for anyone that harmed even a single hair on her precious head.

The banister shook; as he rushed down the stairs and went to kick open the basement door. To his surprise he found the door already open. 'Of course, Claudia had Dahlia make her a spare key so that she could talk to God herself. Without White Claudia of course but she did not know its secrets yet, her faith was enough for her.' Alessa had a key too. The keys were kept inside their favourite dolls. Claudia had told Vincent this one-day while they shared a picnic under a large oak tree. Vincent could not move when he saw them. He stood, paralysed by fear as he saw the monstrous Father Wolf beat and kick Claudia raving on about how the world had defiled her. She was her mother's child and was born to betray him. The White Claudia had given him the countenance of a madman.

Alessa followed Vincent as closely as she could, praying to God that they would get there in time. 'Claudia must have gone to ask him about the strange message. How can he do this to her? She's his daughter for God's sake.' Fire burned within Alessa. 'Must stop him. Stop him for good.' Alessa didn't know what she was going to do but it had to be big and it had to be now. Then she saw them. Vincent was obviously frozen to the spot with fear as his whole world was brought crashing down around him. Poor kid had probably never seen his precious Father Wolf behave like this. Alessa pushed Vincent back out of the way so that he wouldn't see anymore. Rage consumed Alessa when she finally saw what Vincent had witnessed…

Claudia was lying on the floor in a heap, by the alter. Fresh blood dripped down from the alter onto Claudia's face. She was struggling to breathe, gasping for air like a fish out of water.

"Traitorous spawn of a witch. Why don't you call to her? Maybe your precious mother will save you. Or maybe she's too busy in the director's office stabbing me in the back and taking away everything that I have worked for. Either way we will soon find out." Leonard roared as he picked up a chair and raised it above his head.

Claudia raised her arm in front of her face to defend herself. "Please father. I did nothing to you. Stop Daddy please. NOO." Claudia stopped screaming when she realised that the chair had frozen inches above her face.

Claudia looked around and saw Alessa standing in the doorway. There was a fiery aura surrounding her and her eyes had turned completely black with thin, jagged streaks of orange, like fiery coals. Her arms were outstretched as if she were casting a spell. Claudia then smiled and promptly blacked out. The blood from the alter still dripping down her face.

Alessa called to Vincent "Grab her and take her up to her bed then call Doctor Kaufmann. He should know what to do. " Vincent nodded and sprinted to his beloved's side. He put his head under her shoulder and his arm around her waist, then attempted to half-lift, half-drag her out of the room. When she heard them reach the landing Alessa made the room key float out of Leonard's pocket and into her hands. As it travelled across the room she noticed what was on the alter.

"Scamp? NOOOO." He had run on ahead with Claudia when she went to talk to Father Wolf, he must have been the first to suffer. Alessa ran to the alter and grabbed the puppy. Leonard was still frozen in mid-air, Alessa gave him a hateful look and wished right there and then that he would die. She found that she didn't have the strength to kill him with her powers, as just at the boiling point of her rage something started absorbing her anger. Her power ebbing away, she realised that the only thing she could do was lock him in the basement and hold him there until her mum showed up. Alessa gently laid Scamp on the stairs while she locked the door. Once the door was locked she heard a thump against the door and a loud cry of rage sound from the other side. She picked Scamp up again and took him to the bathroom. His body was a bloody mess. It seemed that he had been skinned and his head cut cleanly in half. The cut was vertical and made the two halves of his head flap and join in perfect symmetry.

Alessa's cheeks were wet with tears, her eyes red and puffy from rubbing them. She had done her best to bandage Scamp up to stop the bleeding. She had laid him on her bed. The room was empty, as Vincent had laid Claudia on the living room couch for a while so he could get her some water to drink. Claudia slipped in and out of sleep and barely responded to his voice. He spent a good bit of time just talking to her and trying to give her some nourishment to keep her health up. Alessa was glad they were out of the way as she didn't want either of them to see what she was about to do.

She planned to heal Scamp with her powers. She was nervous as she had only used her powers to hurt others or defend herself, but never to heal. She laid her hands on his small wrapped body. It was still warm. She looked into her innermost self, gathering all the power she had. Suddenly her body bolted upright and a strange voice uttered an unknown language from her lips.

"Sire delaeh eb dna esidarap ydobme. Esidarap ot htaed morf. Htaed ot dertah morf. Dertah ot nis morf." The puppy's dead body was suddenly wracked with violent convulsions as if something was being forced back in. It rose about two feet off the mattress and then fell. Scamp collapsed on the bed, his breathing was shallow but Alessa was glad that he was breathing at all.

She gently scratched behind his ear, speaking in a soothing manner, "There, there now. It's all over. Shhhh. That bad man will never hurt you again."

Vincent entered the room and laid Claudia on her bed. She was mumbling in her sleep. He put his hand to her forehead trying to soothe her.

"There my love. Sleep peacefully, there will be no more hurt. No more pain from him." Vincent saw Alessa and turned to face her. He too had been crying. His belief was shaken to its very foundations. 'How can God suffer one man to choose between faith and love?' Vincent knew he was weak and could not choose, so both suffered nearly to the point of death. With an angry heart, he now chose which one to destroy. Although his choice was late, he would still make it count. After all how could he believe in a God full of the promise of love, yet the same God was still willing to let love suffer under the anger of a so called messenger of God? The man beat up his own daughter. One of the people he should have loved the most. Vincent came to the conclusion there and then that he followed a religion that worshipped a dead God. He was almost right.

He took his glasses off to clean the tears off the lenses with his T-shirt.

He looked directly at Alessa, "He will pay dearly for this. I am going to see to it that he never darkens this happy home again. I warn you, do not try to stop me."

Alessa spoke calmly, "I will not stop your efforts. In fact I fully support you in this matter."

Vincent nodded his head once solemnly, "Thank you. What the hell is that mess on the bed?"

Alessa held back the sobs that were begging to be released in a tidal wave of bitter emotion, "It's what that bastard did to Scamp."

Vincent gritted his teeth, stood up and started walking out of the room. "Take care of Claudia. Dr Kaufmann should be here soon. I have a call to make…" Alessa watched him close the door and heard him walk down the stairs. She wondered who he was going to call.

Anyone else got the ghostbusters theme tune in their head right now? Haha. Hope you enjoyed it. More will be posted up soon.
Cheers
Wolf