The mind-forg'd manacles I hear
"Benny?" called out Tony. "Benny, where are you?"
He stared hard into the blackness, shining his torch along the corridor. "Benny –"
"Here," said Benny, tapping him lightly on the arm. Tony turned to look at him. He was shaking.
"Are you OK, Benny?" asked Tony.
Benny shook his head and gulped. "I saw – I saw – there was this huge, tall, thin – it was leaning over a body – I think – I might have seen –"
"The demon?" said Tony, anxious.
"N-no – it was – it was a vampire. I think it had just attacked someone." Benny suddenly crammed his fist into his mouth. "What if – " His eyes started to water. "Oh, no. What if it was Sarah, or one of – one of the others?"
"Benny," said Tony, trying to be reassuring, but also trying to restrain his own fear, "it couldn't have been a vampire. There's no such thing. It had to have been a demon." He frowned. "Though might that be worse?"
"I'm telling you," said Benny, in an increasingly high pitched voice, "it was drinking blood. Vampires are real! And they want to kill us all. That's all they want."
"Look," said Tony, irritably mastering his fear, "we don't have time to discuss why I'm right and why vampires are just myths. We've got to stop this demon, and save whoever it is. Where was it?"
Benny squeezed his eyes together tightly and trembled. "This way," he said, in a tiny voice. He disappeared through a side door.
How complicated could this place be?
Aloysius glared at the blank walls. He half-suspected that it was some kind of illusion – an elaborate labyrinth of no great size, but of a cyclical complexity that kept them all separate. For all he knew, these walls could be millimetres thick, and Rory, Erica, and Sarah could be walking, equally ignorant, just on the other side.
He opened another door, expecting another empty corridor. And he found himself proved correct. There was nothing in this one except another door at the far end, despite the fact it was about twenty metres long. What a waste of space. What a waste of time. He sighed. At least it meant that there was only one way to go. He wondered what would happen if he kept going. Would he end up at a dead end? Would he just have to turn back? Would –
He broke off his thought process, distracted. Had he heard something? He strained his hearing. Nothing. He was just deluding himself into thinking –
But, no – there it was again! Footsteps? Breathing?
He stopped walking and stood very still in the corridor, squinting at the closed door at the end. Who was it? What was it?
He waited. Nothing, it seemed. It was nothing. A trick of his imagination –
Then the door started to open.
"Shh!" hissed Benny.
"I didn't –" started Tony, but felt a hand clamped over his mouth. Benny glared at him, and then jerked his head towards the closed door. He mouthed the word 'Listen' at Tony, and then took his hand away.
Slowly, Benny edged forwards and pushed the door open. It slid smoothly back on its hinges. He went through. Tony strained to see past him with the flickering torch, but Benny blocked most of the view. Tony was sure that he could see a shape –
Suddenly, there was an enormous pressure on his head. With a groan, Tony sank to his knees, the world swimming in front of him in flashes of lurid colours. It felt like his skull was going to explode. The pressure grew and grew, and, crumpled, Tony opened his mouth to yell –
And then, with a barely audible crunch, the world came back again, and Tony was plunged, with some relief, into what was now comforting, soothing darkness, since his torch had rolled away during his convulsion. The pain in his head had totally gone, and –
Tony's mind reeled as images flooded across it. There were tall figures, short figures, all figures with long teeth, snapping and snarling. For some weird reason, everything seemed to be in black and white, apart from some dark red streaks that seemed highlighted. All the blurry people he saw either were slumped with blood at their necks, or were grinning with blood at their mouths.
Vampires, vampires – vampires were real! He remembered everything he'd ever known about them. What they did to people. How they hunted. Their powers. How to recognise them. How to kill them. And then, at last, he saw a thin white face bearing down on him, fangs extended, eyes flashing –it was Aloysius. He was a vampire. Benny had been right. And he was attacking Sarah! He had to do something –
– Tony lurched up from the floor, the wash of memories dissipating from his mind. His vision cleared. Benny was gone, but, down the corridor, in the darkness, Tony could see the unmistakeable figure of the vampire.
He clenched his fist, but found something stopping him. There was a wooden stake in his hand. Lucky. With a yell, he launched himself through the door and towards the sinister, hateful creature.
Aloysius blinked at the screaming blur of Tony racing towards him. It took him a moment to realise what was in his hand. He backed away quickly from the stake.
"Tony!" he said, "It's me, Aloysius! Calm down!"
"I know!" growled Tony, his eyes bulging. "And you're a vampire! You've killed Sarah! And Benny! And this is all a trap! And you want to kill me! But I'm going to kill you first!"
"What? No! None of that is true. Well, uh, I suppose, except for –" Aloysius drew back along the corridor, feeling behind him for the door. He kept his hand outstretched to fend off any of Tony's frenzied swiped. "It's the strain of being down here. Everything looks like it's a monster – besides, if I killed them, where are they? And why would I? And Benny isn't even here. I've never met the boy!"
"You're a vampire!" snarled Tony. "You're evil! And you're a liar!" He jabbed the stake at him, grazing Aloysius' hand.
Staring into Tony's maddened eyes, Aloysius put all decorum to the wind, turned, and fled down the corridor, towards the open door.
Somehow, there was a rush of air, and the door slammed shut. He reached, and, scrabbling with his fingers, tried to pry it open. It was stuck tight, even with his strength.
Tony advanced slowly down the corridor, stake raised, an eerie grin spread across his face. "You can't escape me, fiend! I represent the forces of good – and light!"
Just at that moment, Tony's torch failed. Aloysius used the momentary distraction to pat wildly at the walls. In desperation, he slammed himself against one of them.
To his great surprise, it caved in, and he tumbled through the plaster and into another corridor. A thought briefly crossed his mind about him being right, before some ragged breathing alerted him to Tony's presence.
Aloysius sprang up and charged down the corridor. He skidded around the corner, and crashed straight into Sarah, Erica, and Rory, who stared at him in astonishment. Before he had a chance to say anything, they were even more surprised to see Tony sprint into them, slashing at Aloysius with his stake.
Thinking quickly, Erica grabbed Tony's arm; Sarah grabbed the other. His momentum suddenly checked, Tony staggered forwards, losing his grip on the stake, which clattered across the floor. Rory kicked it away.
The three of them looked, amazed, at Tony, his eyes bloodshot, his lips flecked with spittle, and his face contorted angrily as he struggled against them.
"Tony!" cried Sarah. "Stop!"
He glared savagely at her. "It's him. He's the monster. He's a vampire! He wants to kill us all!"
"What!" said Sarah. "Who told you that?"
"Benny!" panted Tony. "He said it. He was attacked by that thing!"
"Benny?" said Rory, frowning. "But he's not here. I left him in Whitechapel."
"I tell you, I found him in the corridor." Tony squirmed in their grip, staring around. "Aloysius killed him – he must have done – and eaten up every scrap, because he was there – and then he was gone! And – and –"
Tony twisted his head around and gasped. "He's there!"
The four of them looked up at the boy leaning nonchalantly against the wall, his arms crossed, and a sly, amused smile on his face.
"That's not Benny…" said Rory, slowly.
"No," grinned Ethan. "It really isn't, is it?"
(Well done to MBAV fan, by the way.)
