Wow, some of you liked the last chapter. However, some of you didn't, so I made it optional. The second thing you should notice is the absolutely fantastic cover I had drawn. Also, is it bad that I can write scenes of awfulness, yet cannot every bring myself to write a lemon? I think that's bad.
"Who's there? Where am I?"
Callie sat up in the darkness, wincing and putting a hand to the back of her head. Her hand came back slick. She groaned, and stood. It was completely dark, so she felt for a wall. She leaned on the one she found.
"Hello?"
In the distance, she saw a light switch on, then another, and another, the lights slowly drawing closer and illuminating the caverns she was in. She took one step forward before collapsing onto her knees, a voice erupting in her mind.
"You have all the time in the world to escape. Do not let us catch you."
Three different viewpoints opened in her mind at that moment. She could see lines of sight from three other points, one much taller than the rest. She could also hear singing, slow and off-key. She realised that she could see herself on one of the perspectives, from behind. She turned, caught off-guard by the eyeless girl approaching her at a steady pace. Not taking any chances, she ran in the opposite direction.
-Present-
"I lied. They only took one. They've taken Callie."
Marie stared out at Vytus for a few seconds, total silence inside the cell. Her tarnished gold irises darkened even further, becoming a solid black.
"Why..." She started, stepping towards the glass. Vytus stepped back. "Why did you waste your time- and Callie's- asking for my life story? Why not open with that? It would give me more time to work." Her actions became quicker, jerkier. She slammed her fists on the side of the cell, her manic phase taking control. "How long ago?"
"Half a day?"
"In that time she has suffered unspeakable horrors. Unspeakable. Hizo, my dear officer, I'm going to need you to open the door." Silence. She slammed her hands against the door. "Hizo."
She collapsed as the chamber filled with mist, the water vapour flowing from holes at the bottom of the cell. It burned Vytus slightly as it poured from the cell.
"No, I was talking to her! I need her help!"
"I can't let her out. She's a danger to herself and others."
"Vytus." Marie whispered, her mouth by one of the air-holes at the bottom of the cell. "If you want my help, I need you to put your finger through here."
She tapped the glass, and Vytus complied, screaming in pain when she bit clean through his finger and swallowed. A single percussive blast shattered the glass cage, the mist dissipating as it billowed around the room. Red lights immediately began flashing, accompanied by blaring sirens. She rolled her shoulders and neck, a black tendril rising above the collar of the straitjacket, the sharpened tip sawing through the different belts. She stretched as it fell away, black tar covering her body in the place of clothes. She finished chewing and swallowed, licking her lips.
"I don't suppose you'll let me have any more, will you?"
"No." He replied, keeping his voice steady despite his missing digit.
"So sad. Now then." She looked up at the siren in the room, and raised a hand to it. A blackened crystal shattered the device. She sighed as the room became quiet, apart from the sound of water vapour being pumped in.
"Hizo. You can stop pumping vapour now. It's not going to stop me."
A second pulse shattered the first glass wall.
"Alright, fine!" A voice crackled through the speakers. "Just stop smashing the walls, please. They're expensive."
The door in the next wall opened. Marie smiled.
"How sweet of you. Now to find the other."
"The other?" Vytus enquired.
"Yes. Gemini? The twins? Well, we're not actually twins, but that's beside the point. The point is, he's much stronger than me."
She stepped through the door and left the room, heading towards the nearest lift. She stopped Vytus from stepping inside and instead blasted a hole in the floor. She sent large tendrils inside the shaft, creating a support for her. She then sent another two to pick up Vytus. They descended into the facility, Marie forcing the lowest door open and standing Vytus in the corridor before stepping in herself.
"Follow me. I can sense him now."
She picked her way through the corridors, stopping before an enormous, armoured door.
"Hizo..."
"I don't have clearance for that."
"So useful."
She sprayed the door with tar, the sound of fizzing filling the air as the metal corroded and melted away.
"If you want to live, do not make any sparks."
"What?"
"Come on, Vytus. Speed up. Metal and Acid makes Metal Salt and Hydrogen."
He nodded, waiting for Marie to give the all-clear. She kicked the corroded section, the metal flying apart, creating a hole. More sirens. She rolled her eyes and shot them out when she saw them. Vytus followed her, gasping at the room inside.
They were stood inside an enormous spherical room. Equally huge magnets levitated another massive sphere. As Marie walked along the thin bridge, mist began to pour from between the magnets: the unstoppable security features of the building.
"He's at the centre."
"How many spheres are there?"
"Five."
Marie sprayed the next sphere, highly pressurised mist spewing from the holes as the metal was eaten away. Once the mist was in safe quantities, Marie moved forward and the process repeated, each sphere containing a security measure. The next contained water. The third, automatic turrets that Marie circumvented by throwing up walls of tar. The fourth had more water in it.
Inside the fifth, suspended by magnetism in a metal-capped glass cage, sat Raaz. A blue mist sat inside his cell, keeping him sedated. Vytus was still staggered by the scale of the security between Raaz and the outside world.
"Just how powerful is he?"
"Powerful enough that he can travel through solid objects using the tar."
Marie prepared a quick blast and fired it at the chamber, the glass shattering and Raaz falling. She darted forward, intending to catch him, but several tentacles- his own- broke his fall before she could. He clutched his head, groaning in the bright light.
"I don't normally get..." He trailed off as he opened his eyes, his previously pink irises similarly tarnished and darkened like Marie's. "...visitors. Marie?"
"Hello Raaz, we have a problem."
"Go on."
"Well, first and foremost, we've both been here for a year."
"Plenty of time to think and learn."
"Second, the Culus have Callie."
Raaz's eyes narrowed.
"I see."
"Follow me. There's somewhere we can stay first. Recover for a bit."
"I can't let you leave." Hizo's voice crackled through the speakers.
"Hizo, you don't have a choice."
The trio left the spheres; Raaz immediately began sinking into the floor once they were on solid ground, taking Marie's hand while she took Vytus'.
"Hold your breath, eyes and mouth shut."
He did as instructed, his hearing overtaken by the sound of liquid rushing through crevices, and the feeling of acceleration. He soon felt freezing air as they reached the surface, Marie and Raaz only just learning where their prison was.
"How far away is Inkopolis?" Marie asked Vytus.
"That way." He pointed towards the horizon. "Follow my lead."
He began to super jump, Marie and Raaz shifting form to match his speed and bearing. They landed outside the city.
"My turn." Marie said, jumping towards a specific building.
Evading the creature was exhausting. It was utterly relentless, continuing its pursuit at the same pace and always closing the gap, no matter how fast Callie ran. So far, she hadn't appeared on either of the other two perspectives, meaning whatever they were, they hadn't found her yet. She slowed her current pace, leaning against the wall and catching her breath. She was used to swinging a Roller around, but she was beginning to flag. She leant into the wall, stretching her arms above her head to help her catch her breath again and closed her eyes, ignoring the viewpoints in her head and just trying to calm herself. Then she heard it- a different noise, not singing, but instead, laughter. She looked at the perspectives- where she had heard singing when she appeared on the left view, she was now in the right view. She saw her left side, and turned towards the viewer- an eyeless boy.
"What do you want from me?"
She stood up straight, standing her ground against one of her pursuers, balling her hands into fists as it drew closer, laughing the whole time. It faced the floor, never raising its head yet heading straight towards her. Callie charged. Suddenly, when it got within two metres of her, its head shot up, the laughter intensifying as it rose up off the ground, its arms lengthening and disappearing under the surface, only to emerge and entangle Callie's legs, holding her in place as the boy approached, its arms remaining lengthened and tapered, much like a whip.
"No, let go of me! Let go!"
The sound of a knife falling against a board filled the apartment, each swing cleaving a piece from the vegetable on the board, the holder swept the pieces into a pot before moving onto the next, sighing.
So lonely without them.
She looked towards a picture on the window sill, a framed photograph of Marie beaming at the camera with a young girl with a massive gun and a giant of a man with a gun that only he could wield. A small, circular headpiece sat next to the photo. She sat there until a small bell ringed, and she ladled the contents of the pot into three bowls, setting them down on the table, complete with cutlery and a glass of wine. She took a seat, and wept.
"I miss you... So... So much..."
Her head bowed, shoulders shaking, she cried. Only when she heard the sound of clinking silverware did she suddenly look up. Marie was sat at the other end of the table, taking spoonfuls of the stew. The afflicted Inkling looked back, a playful, taunting expression on her face.
"I still don't understand how you get beef, Mira."
Very slowly, the Octoling stood up, rising from her seat and staring at Marie, aghast. The Inkling noticed that she was repeatedly pinching herself.
"But... You... They told me you were dead... One year ago..."
"Who told you that?" Marie enquired, a look of confusion on her face.
"The police... But..."
"Ignore them. Hello." Marie waved.
Mira lurched forward, bolting across the room and tackling Marie into a hug, bawling into her shoulder and wrapping her arms around her back and waist. Marie put her own arms around Mira, resigning herself to her crushing embrace.
"It's okay, it's okay... I'm here now."
Marie felt something in her chest, the stab of emotion she hadn't felt in so long- not since the Culus had ripped the capacity to feel out of her.
"Where... have you been... All this time?" Mira managed between gasping sobs.
"In a cage."
"But why?"
"Mental instability. I may have tried to eat someone. I can't remember."
Mira went very still.
"You... You're not going to eat me, are you?"
"Hmm." Marie mused, thinking for a second. "No, not going to eat you. Saying that, I may actually eat you... Out."
Mira screamed and flushed bright red, lightly slapping Marie on the shoulder.
"You're terrible!" She calmed down slightly, only now noticing the two men stood by the door. "Who is he? I recognise Vytus, who's the other one?"
"That's Raaz. He was taken at the same time as me."
"And you've been imprisoned all this time? Why?"
"We... It's not a table subject." Raaz said.
Mira backed away, turning back to the pot. "If you're staying, I have plenty of stew."
"Excellent. Flesh is so... Tasteless." A hand immediately flew to her mouth. "Oh dear. I really shouldn't make jokes about that."
The four of them sat down, each eating a bowl of Mira's stew. Once everyone had finished, she cleared the crockery away, leaving the table empty. She leaned forward.
"What happened to Callie?"
"Hmm." Marie held up a finger, finished chewing, and swallowed. "Vytus tells me she was taken by the Culus. We need to get to her as soon as possible, but there was no way that was happening with Raaz and I running on empty. I can actually do things now I've had a proper meal, no just uncontrolled bursts of energy." She ordered the tar clutching to her to form armour, the liquid setting in thick plates. Mira was stunned.
"I thought that was just a bodysuit... But you can control the tar? How?"
"Not a table subject." Raaz repeated.
"Take out word for it. It wasn't pleasant. Both of us have stopped feeling emotion to a degree because I the trauma we went through down there. If we don't hurry, Callie will end up, at best, like us and at worse, dead." Marie stretched, the tar becoming slick again. "I think we'll stay the night though. We need to be fully rested before we attack. Find a place for-"
She was cut off by sirens from outside. Flashes of blue and red could be seen flickering around the window. Marie looked down sheepishly.
"Marie, what did you do?"
"We may have broken containment."
"So you broke out of prison."
"Pretty much. I'm going to have to knock you out."
"What? Why?!"
"Because then you won't be charged with harbouring us. Don't worry, I'll make it painless."
"Hurry back."
Marie pursed her lips. "Yeah."
She directed a concussive wave of energy at Mira, and it carried her backwards a short distance before dropping her unconscious form to the ground. The rest of the apartment was undamaged.
"Raaz, if you'd be so kind..."
The Inkling took hold of her and Vytus, sinking into the floor and flowing down the inside of the walls, into the ground beneath the police's feet. It felt different this time, like the ground was offering less resistance now that Raaz had eaten. They surfaced a good distance away, in the treeline. Shrugging off the excess tar as it was pulled back to Raaz, Marie turned to Vytus.
"Now then. Where was this place? Cameroon, was it?"
"I have the coordinates, but we'll need a helicopter to get there. It'll take a good few hours to get there."
"What about the warehouse where the original Culus portal was?"
"That's toward Walleye. Well, I think it is based on what I read."
"Good."
The trio super jumped, watching the world rush past below them. Flashing lights filled the streets, and in the distance, Marie could just pick out the flash of yellow tape spread across the entrance to Flounder Heights. She was forced to look away as they finished their arc, hitting the ground outside a complex of warehouses of which the first was Walleye. Vytus winced.
"Which one was it, Vytus?"
"I can't remember."
The afflicted pair glared at him, Raaz rolling his eyes.
"Shit. We best get searching then."
A hole opened in one of the walls of the cavern, a tentacle throwing Callie out and delivering one final lash before vanishing. She hit the floor, lying limp for a few second as her entire body screamed with pain; she too screamed, but it came out as a hoarse moan. She forced herself to her feet, ignoring the hundreds of bleeding lashes that covered her. She whimpered as she walked, any movement causing some of the lashes to open, causing even more pain. She leaned heavily into the wall as her head ached, the perspectives reappearing and the haunting laughter beginning almost immediately- the boy was close. There was no way she was getting close, not after what she just went through. She ran as long as she heard laughter, only slowing when it no longer echoed around the tunnels. She tried to catch her breath, unable to lean on anything due to her wounds. Looking up to head on again, she realised that the tunnel tapered off before her, a small hole in the ceiling telling her all she needed to know. She had to go upwards.
She pressed herself into the corner the best she could, another moan escaping her as the movement caused some of her cuts to open again. She pushed up, climbing the wall with ease despite the agony such movements caused her and stood in the corridor above, beginning her search for the exit anew.
"Damn, there are far too many warehouses here."
The trio stood around a crude map of the estate, a large number of boxes representing the different warehouses. They hadn't even bothered with the one marked with the turf war emblem- that was Walleye, and not what they were searching for. A number of the warehouses had crosses through them. They had been searched, to no result. Marie rubbed her eyes, sighing.
"I'll go and search another row. You two do whatever."
Marie picked her way through the roads around the warehouses, searching the vast expanses for any sign of the incursion made one year ago. She knew that the longer she took, the more pain Callie had to endure, and that was not something she could deal with. Marie watched Raaz flow through walls in the next row, his power speeding up the process considerably. She watched as he entered a warehouse, appeared on the other side and went to move on before he stopped, heading back into the warehouse. Marie ran towards him, heading inside and immediately being overcome by a headache.
"This is... Familiar."
Some of the tar covering Raaz uncoiled, tendrils of black converging on a point in the air as Vytus ran into the warehouse.
"You've found it?" He watched Marie send a pair of her own tentacles towards Raaz's. "I guess so."
The two of them strained, attempting to step backwards against a resistive force.
"It's been closed. It was much easier to open from the other side."
The pair took another step apart, and Vytus saw a hole begin to form in the air. The afflicted duo's tentacles curled around the edge, getting a better grip before pulling again, the hole widening to about half a metre in diameter.
"Just a bit more..." Marie spoke through a gritted beak. She raised her arms in front of her and quickly swept them out to the side, her tentacles mimicking the move and jerking the hole open another half-metre. Raaz leaned forward, shaking off the aching in his limbs.
"Back into the heart of darkness..." He turned to Marie. "After you."
Inside the caverns, Callie ran. Behind her, laughter. Laughter that always seemed to draw closer no matter how fast she ran. Up ahead, the cavern branched in two directions. Making a quick decision, she decided that she'd take the left tunnel, but she rapidly slowed down when the sound of singing drifted from the tunnel, the Culus girl stepping out of the tunnel and blocking Callie's path. It giggled as it approached, forcing the Inkling to take a step back. She turned and ran, hoping that there was some unseen tunnel she passed while running. To her deepening dread, there were none- she was trapped in a tunnel between the boy and the girl. The pair of monsters closed in, always keeping their deliberately slow pace. They raised in unison, their arms plunging into the ground. Callie had not chance to evade the hands that burst from the ground in a spray of dirt, and was restrained, facing the boy. The girl's arms reached around Callie's body, the song she sang never missing a beat even as she slowly began to cut the remaining clothes from the resisting Inkling. Callie bowed her head, waiting for the torture to begin. The first lash fell across her back, causing her to scream out. A second, third and fourth met their mark, fresh wounds opening across Callie's back. Suddenly, the boy stopped laughing, and the girl stopped singing; Callie looked up and saw that their malicious grins had been replaced by neutral confusion, and then anger. They stared at an unseen entity before growling and disappearing into the walls. The hands around Callie's arms and legs receded, and she staggered forward, trying to move her back as little as possible.
What's going on? What's drawn them away?