In every voice: in every ban

Tony's torch flickered. "Sarah?" he called out. "I can't see you. Where did you go?"

He waited, walking forwards. There was a loud clang somewhere in the distance, but it echoed around the corridor so that he had no idea which direction it had come from.

"Sarah?" he said again. ""Are you there?"

He flashed his failing torch into some side passages. "Sarah?" The beam passed over a dark shape. Tony didn't see it as it happened, but, a moment or so later, his mind in overdrive, he focused the torch, with a little trepidation, on the figure. It was crouched on the floor, slumped against the wall. It didn't look up, even though Tony had the full beam on it. "Hello?" said Tony, nervous.

He took a few steps towards it. "Sarah, is that you –"

With a frightened gasp, the shadow turned its face towards Tony, apparently noticing him for the first time. It was a boy. How had he ended up down here? No matter. He'd look after him. It was, after all, what they did.

Tony, more confident now, came closer to the boy. "Hey, are you OK?" The boy just stared at him, as if transfixed. Tony frowned to himself. The kid seemed familiar, but he couldn't think why. Round-ish face, dark hair, big eyes… Then it struck him – the photo that used to be on Sarah's desk of the two boys. So this one was…?

Tony crouched down next to the boy. "Hi," he whispered, "I'm Tony. Are you –" he hesitated, and then took a random guess "- are you Benny?"

The boy blinked, and then nodded. "Yeah," he said, in a hoarse voice, "but I don't know how I got here." He frowned. "Where is here? And how do you know my name – and if you're Tony, is this Toronto? Where's Sarah – is she OK – And –"

"Calm down, Benny," said Tony. "Everything's fine." He hesitated. "Except, er, I don't know where we are. Or how we get out. Or where Sarah is. Oh, yeah, and someone's trying to raise a demon down here. Unless they have already. And there are giant rats."

"But, apart from that, everything's just swell?" said Benny, raising an eyebrow. "And did you say demon?"

Tony gulped, and nodded. "There's a prophecy."

Benny seemed to laugh.

"What's funny?" asked Tony, frowning.

"Oh, nothing, nothing," said Benny. "So where did you leave Sarah?"

"Well, uh, I didn't, because I thought I was following her. I thought she came this way, but now I have no idea where she might have gone." Tony looked around at the various different open doors. "It could be any one of these." He looked at Benny. "Did you see anything?"

The boy shook his head. "One minute I was at home, sitting on my bed, the next I was here." He looked enquiringly at Tony. "Is there anyone else here?"

"Erica, and Rory –"

"Rory?" asked Benny, frowning.

"Yeah," said Tony, a little surprised. "He said everything had quietened down a little, so he could get away."

"Oh. He didn't say." Benny shrugged. "Anyone else?"

"Aloysius. He was with Erica and Rory," explained Tony.

"Right. And what are you looking for?"

"The middle. That's where the rats have been coming from – and Sarah and Aloysius reckon that these prophecies that they've read say that it's also where some demon will be raised."

"Summoned," cut in Benny. He took in Tony's puzzled expression. "The dead are raised. Demons are summoned." He looked at Tony. "Well, it looks like we've all got a problem here, being separated. But, if we continue to head for the middle, hopefully everyone else will have the sense to do the same. Plus, it's more efficient than running around trying to find each other before defeating this demon summoner. That's the priority."

Tony nodded. "So, which way do you reckon leads to the middle."

The other boy shrugged. "How should I know? This is your university. But –" He closed his eyes, his lips moving oddly "- most tunnels have a pattern to them. And I reckon it's this way."

"How –" started Tony, but Benny had already set off down one of the corridors.


"Left or right?" said Erica, having just gone through another door.

"Left," said Rory, decisively.

"How do you know?" snorted Erica.

"Why did you ask then?" snapped back Rory. He bit his lip. "Sorry. It's just a bit – creepy down here. Anyway, if you look to the right, you'll see a closed metal door. A closed, locked, and bolted door, looking much like the one that we were stuck on the other side of."

"Oh," said Erica. She beamed. "We did it!"

"Yeah…" said Rory, looking the other way. "Now we have to find out why it was shut."

"Is it me," said Erica, as they started to walk, "or does this place seem unrealistically big?"

"Maybe we've been walking around in circle this whole time. Do we even know what we're looking for – Erica?"

Rory glanced back as Erica shrieked, frowning. "What's the matter?"

"There was a rat!" she said, trembling.

Rory grinned. "Where?"

"It went through the second door on the right." She put a hand on Rory's arm as they edged forwards. "Careful, Rory. It was huge!"

He nodded, and put a finger to his lips. He motioned with his head, and they stood either side of the door. In silence, he counted down on his fingers from three, mouthing the numbers as he did so. "Now!" he breathed, clenching his fist and slamming the door open.

The pair of them rushed in. They froze and looked about the room, horrified. There was a strangely elongated silence, before the dozens of giant rats crammed into the room all started to squeak at once, and crowded towards the pair.

Both of them screamed and raced for the door on the other side of the room, bursting through it, then slamming it shut, aware of the sounds of the mass of rats slamming up against it. As they leaned with their backs against it, Erica looked over at Rory, who was shaking.

"Too many rats, too many rats…" he gibbered, staring in front of him, a curiously detached look on his face.

There was the sound of rapid footsteps around the corner. They tensed, but, as the hurrying figure came into view, they saw, to their relief, that it was Sarah.

"What's wrong?" she said, running up to them. "I heard you screaming."

"How did you know it was us?" asked Rory.

"Years of practising," smiled Sarah, before looking concerned again. "What caused it?"

"We've found out where the rats are, Sarah," said Erica. She jerked her head backwards, before forcing the bolt across, securing the door. "We're going to need a new plan."


Aloysius frowned. This didn't seem right at all. And where were Erica and Rory? He was sure that they'd been just behind him. He sighed. Trust them to get lost. But, on the other hand, now he seemed lost. Maybe they were right, being lost, and he, being right, was lost. Hmm. Or maybe they were just all lost.

But, at least it gave him time to think while he blundered about. What was going to happen with this demon? He wished that those books hadn't been destroyed. The other thing that was odd was the identity of the person responsible. He thought he knew everyone of a supernatural bent in the city, and certainly someone powerful enough to summon a demon. But he had no idea who it might be.

It was Tony.

Aloysius blinked. Where had that thought come from? That was ridiculous. For a start, Tony was good. However much he, as a vampire, distrusted that word. Plus, Tony was, if you were going to admit it, pretty useless – one them always needed to protect him. He'd never shown any magical inclination, either. No. That thought, which had popped out of nowhere, needed to pop back into nowhere again. There was no point suspecting each other, particularly now that they were all separated.

Tony had wanted them separated.

Aloysius shook his head. Another sudden, unwanted thought. It had been Tony's suggestion, but he, and all the others, had gone along with it. And how would that have benefited Tony anyway. He did live here, though. He had access to this area. But, still, Tony? No.

Tony knew about demons.

Aloysius grimaced in distaste. Why should he suspect that that was anything sinister? Tony had been trained in the supernatural. Theory, not practice. Presumably… He was also familiar with prophecies – he'd given Tony his key to his own collection, including –

Including those that had been destroyed.

But that couldn't have been Tony. Could it? He hadn't even been aware of them. Had he?

Tony had told them about what was happening tonight.

But that didn't mean anything, surely? He and Sarah had agreed on the threat. Or Tony had convinced her, or something. Somehow. Maybe. Tony usually was their chief look-out, and he normally found the problems that they dealt with.

Tony usually found the problems. Did he cause them?

Aloysius wrinkled his nose. He couldn't believe that. After all, he helped stop them, too. But, still, he was always first on the scene. Or almost always. And, at times, he didn't seem to help much –

No!

Yes!

He had to find the others. Or Tony.