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Legame Eterno

Chapter Eight.

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Heavy breathing echoes in the basement, it's my heavy breathing. They're both dead, sh...she killed them without a single sign of remorse. I tried to hide both of them away, but it all happened so quickly.

I couldn't help them! I was so useless.

Oh god...I-I can't break down right now. They are looking for me; Dannii, her men, and...the Juggernaut.

Yes. The Juggernaut...

I run past the trapped souls. I can hear them screaming and cursing at me. Ducking towards the right corridor, I can see the blurred images of Dennis, the Torso, the Hammer and the Pilgrimess. The main room to the basement is where the doors are being controlled. If I find that room, I'll be able to set them free.

Heavy boots slamming against the floor force me to hide behind a large crate. I try to calm my breathing and unfortunately the memories of the past hour rush back.

---

"The Juggernaut is free."

That was what Daniel told me as I tried to stop the bleeding from his wound.

The prison he was encased in was a fake. Daniel must have gotten a negative feeling the last time he and Mrs. Bennett came back up to the house. He told me, before he...died, that there was a mistake in the Latin spell etched into the glass.

A single letter made the difference between trapping the giant or cause massive destruction throughout the home.

One of the letters was not actually engraved into to glass, it was marked in with a special marker. A simple wipe with the hand could destroy the carefully placed spell and crumple it to mere nonsense.

I just needed a reason to get close to his containment box.

Dannii's pride was the only thing that allowed me to get close enough to the Juggernaut's cell. She wanted to gloat on how her collection of freaks was complete. While she blabbed about herself, I was busy looking for the mistake. It then dawned on me that all the time I spending translating Latin for Dannii while I was bedridden was finally paying off

It hadn't taken me long to find the error.

A lowercase 'L' was written in a slightly different shade and it didn't look as sunken in as the rest of the letters.

It only took an unnoticed tap to gain the large mans' attention. Of course he gave me a hateful look, but as soon as I had flattened my hand against his glass those dead eyes shifted to surprise. I dragged my hand down and in no less than two second wiped away the letter.

I had quickly stepped away from the glass and stared at the words that no longer held the powerful spell of confinement. Instead, it just read out a bunch of jumbled words.

He continued to look surprised, a mixture of confusion and hesitation spread across his face. Not wanting this change to go to waste, I swallowed the lump in my throat, threw caution and my raising fear to the wind and took in a deep breath.

Here goes.

"You're free!" I yelled at him, my eyes closed in pure fright and my body fell rigid.

I knew, I could tell from the sudden 'woosh' sound of bodies moving quickly, that Dannii, Jack, and the three men that came down with us all turned to see what I was talking about.

No shockingly, my eyes slowly opened and I was still scared to what was to happen next.

Horace "Breaker" Mahoney stood before all of us, still in his glass chamber, smiling from ear to ear. His disgusting rotten teeth were in full view for everyone to criticize, and, if it were even possibly, I could have sworn his pale blue skin flushed with excitement.

I took a larger step away.

The massive man moved towards the front of the glass. The others slowly began to move away, fearing for their safety. An angry Dannii turned towards me, grasped my arm painfully and pulled my shocked face towards her terrified one.

"WHAT did you do!" she hissed.

I didn't have a change to respond, my mouth hung open as I saw the blurred image of Horace launch himself towards the four men. Both Dannii and I pulled away from the men and watched in horror at the scene unfolding before us.

The three unnamed men tried to run from Horace, but it was obvious that they weren't going to get far. One was grabbed from the back of his neck and thrown towards us. Screaming, we both jumped in opposite directions to avoid the body. I dropped a foot away and kept my eye level towards the floor, but I could distinctively hear the crushing of bones.

Forcing myself to look over my shoulder, I pushed away some fallen hair from my face and saw Horace gripping a second man. His screams filled the air as his arm was pulled away from his body. I looked away as I noticed Horace was aiming to do the same damage to the mans legs. The laughter coming from farther down the basement added to the terrifying nightmare. I rose with shaky hands, but was quickly brought down by a new weight on my back.

"Damn it!"

Again I went to stand, whatever was on top of me easily slid down my back from my movements. Quickly brushing down my dress and looked at the thing that had landed on me. I let out a scream. It was a dismembered limb. I leveled myself with the help of a nearby glass cell and looked over again at the carnage.

Dannii was missing. Jack and the remaining nameless man were both pinned against a cell, both had bloodshot eyes and were struggling to be released.

"H-he-lp." the man struggled to say staring directly at me.

I couldn't do anything. What did he expect me to do? I pulled myself closer to the glass and moved as quietly as possible away from the scene. His eyes open wider and his free hand reached out towards me. Oh god. I couldn't take it. I closed my eyes and turned my full body towards the glass. My forehead pressed hard against the cell and I brought my hands up to the sides of my face to hide away the fact that I was having a mental breakdown.

The giggle of the sadistic rapist wasn't helping, the loud pounding of the ghosts that were farther way against their walls was driving me insane and their screams...they only brought more tears. Soon there was only grunting coming from the murderous event.

I opened my eyes and continued to stare forward, my hands dropped in a painfully slow pace and I bit back fresh tears that were threatening to fall. I had to get out of there, if I continued to stay put like a dumb puppy I was the next person Horace was going to let his rage out on.

I must have been to engulfed with my sorrows that I didn't even notice which cell I was curling up to for comfort. What were the odds, seriously, that I picked the Prince's cube to ball out my eyes at. It took me until that moment to realize he had been standing by my side since I had gotten back to my feet.

His bat was firmly grasped in his right hand, his left was on the glass where my shoulder had been leaning against. If it weren't for the glass, I might had mistaken the stance for one of trying to comfort someone. But that was impossible. The Torn Prince was not one to show emotions...

The tapping of his bat against the glass caught my attention, instinctively I looked at his face and took a moment to really get a look at him. The injury on his face was large and an angry red. His right ear was partially missing, the lack of skin made his brain visible a bit, but those blue-eyes held an emotion that sent chills down my spine.

I noticed he was wording something.

It took me a moment to figure out what he was saying, but as soon as I recognized the letters I pushed away from the cube and ran down the hall. Horace was finished with Jack and the men. Now it was time to play with the rest of the house.

---

I peak from behind the crate and sigh quietly in relief. They're no one, living or dead, standing in the way to continue the search. Cautiously standing, I slink down the hall and make sure to say as close to the shadows as possible. The last thing need is to be found by one of those goons, or worse...be caught by the Breaker.

No, can't have that happening.

There aren't many 'rooms' in the basement, so why is it so hard to find that freaking main room! This is too frustrating, but I have to do it. I'm not going to die and just let that bitch get away with this. She'll get what she deserves, both here and in hell.

Farther down the hall, possibly closer towards the entrance to the basement, I hear the spells hypnotizing chant. That made me smile for about a minute. The recording has also been tampered with, Daniel had replaced the original tape with a double he made. He had thought of everything. It's making me think that maybe he knew that there wasn't a possibly way to escape this. But, if he did, why didn't he try to stop this?

Yells cut of my thoughts.

I shake my head and stumble into the main room.

'Finally!' I look around the room and notice all the technology and machinery decorating the small space. Running shy finger across levers and carefully reading the Latin symbols, I try to figure out how to open the doors.

"Find her!"

My head shoots towards the entrance, that voice sounded to close for comfort. Looking back before me, I search for a lever that signified door...but nothing is jumping out at me. Damn! I need to clear up my head, what was Latin for door? P-something ia-something?

"You idiots! She's in the control room!"

That was closer that the last comment, crap.

I can hear their fast approaching footsteps, their heavy breathing echoes along side the footsteps loud crunching. Concentrate, it's such a simple word. How the hell am I going to forget an easy word at a time like this! Think, think, think. No pressure. Just...

"GRAB HER!"

Propinquus Ianua!

I stare down and push the button with those exact words without a second thought. Unconsciously, my eyes closed at the loud slam of door closing and the sound of a gasping man fills the small control room. Turning towards the gasp, I hold back the shriek caught in my throat. The door was closed, but between the two slabs of glass is a man. Eyes wide, mouth open in a silent scream...he's slided in half. From the tip of his head to the bottoms of both feet.

From behind the sliced man, I could see Dannie, her face filled with shock, and two new men I had never seen before.

For some odd reason, my brain besides this would be the perfect time to let all my Latin studies return to normal and I remember I had mistranslated what I wanted. Instead of opening all the doors, I successfully closed, and possibly locked down, all the doors in the house.

I've just doomed every persons change of escaping from this house alive. And from my view, I could see that the same thought had just crossed past Dannii's mind.

"Y-you moron! What have you done? You've killed us all!"

I couldn't help the smile, the sadistic giggle that followed even frightened me, "...I'm already dead."

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This one's just a tad bit longer than the last chapter, hopefully I can have the next chapter by Monday or Tuesday. I'm not making any promises though. Thank you for the reviews. I likes.

By the way, in case you were wondering: Propinquus Ianua means (or loosely means) Close Door.