~O~

Alice was in the middle of a dream; thankfully one that wasn't a nightmare. It was the first time she had had a dream that hadn't gone downhill and left her screaming in her sleep. Although, this dream was still far from normal. In her dream, she saw short flashes of her ancestor, Arthur, fighting Vampires. But even though these short images were going by quickly, she could tell he wasn't human; this was after the Countess had Turned him as punishment for his crimes against Vampires.

There didn't appear to be any significance behind the dream, nothing that stood out and would have made her worry about her sanity or well-being. If anything, it might as well have been more of her Vampiric nature waking and bringing these old memories with it. Alice decided not to let it bother her and continue sleeping, despite all the images dancing in her subconscious.

The only thing that woke her, was sunlight hitting her face. She didn't immediately feel the light until it started to burn. When that happened, her eyes flew open and she bolted up from her bed to escape the sun's rays. Worried she had sustained burns, Alice felt over her face for any damaged skin and, thankfully, she found none; her face had simply gotten hot.

She then looked back at the bed and found that it was lined up perfectly with the window overhead, which was allowing sunlight to filter into the room. Alice let out a sigh of aggravation; she should have figured that the sun would have come through the window and moved her bed or chosen another room. She examined the bed and saw the frame was made of heavy steel, something that, even with her new Vampire strength, she would be unable to move on her own.

She thought about waking Shun and asking him to help her, but decided against it; there was no point in disturbing his sleep for something so trivial. The sun will move eventually, she reasoned with herself. With a sigh, she decided to go and explore the tunnels while everyone else was asleep. Alice moved the privacy curtain out of the way and stepped out into the main tunnel.

Being that it was daytime, the tunnels were a bit more illuminated than when they first arrived. She started down the tunnel, taking in small details here and there so she'd be able to find her way back; scratches on the wall, a missing chunk of concrete, or a piece of stray trash.

Anything would work as a breadcrumb trail back to her room. The tunnels felt like they went on forever and ever, and Alice actually thought about going back to her room when she finally reached the end. Now, she was faced with a large, manmade hole that had several levels, each one with its own tunnel built in; a whole network. At the very bottom of this hole, she saw railroad tracks and slightly larger passageways.

This must have been a subway at one point. Alice pictured trains zooming by on the tracks while workers patrolled the tunnels, working on the city's underground workings. Now, the only life the tracks saw was from the occasional stray mouse, or, in their case, Vampire.

A curiosity began to form in Alice. She wanted to go down there and explore the old railways. I might as well. Not like I have anything better to do, she reasoned to herself. Alice began to look for a way down, and eventually found a metal ladder that led all the way down to the bottom of the structure. She started down the ladder, rung by rung, until she couldn't go any further.

At the base of the manmade hole, things were a bit colder and damper, due to the fact that sunlight didn't reach here very often. Tracks led to four different tunnels, each one looking the same as the last. In the center was an elaborate menagerie of crossed tracks that, when they were used, would serve as a way to redirect the trains to their correct terminal.

Alice decided to pick the tunnel in the middle and followed the track inside. Graffiti from a long time ago was painted on the walls, spelling out names, obscene words, or gang signs. Some of the paint looked more recent, perhaps from weeks or months ago.

This didn't bother Alice, though. If she met any wannabe-thugs along the way, she knew she would be more than capable of fleeing, or, if it came down to it, fighting them off. After all, a Vampire was much stronger than a human. The deeper she went into the tunnel, the darker it got. The darkness didn't bother her, though, for her enhanced eyes could see right through it.

Her footsteps would scare away rodents and other creatures that called this place home. The passageway was starting to become monotonous, and Alice debated on going back and journeying through another tunnel to see if it was any different, when a foul stench caught her off guard. Instinctively, she covered her nose and mouth to stop the smell from assaulting her senses.

It did little good. Alice felt bile rising up in the back of her throat as her body threatened to expel its contents from the odor. "What is that?" she asked aloud, and wished she hadn't, for when she opened her mouth, the smell found its way in. Curious to know what this awful stench was, she walked a little bit further down the tunnel. That was when she found it; a mass grave.

Bodies were piled on top of each other, all of them at different stages of decomposition. Alice stared in shock at the pile of death before her, and while she stared, she noticed one distinct thing about these deceased people; they were all Vampires. In each of their mouths, two sharp fangs stuck out from behind their lips. She didn't know what to make of this.

Logic said that somebody had to have put them all there, because there was no way it was a coincidence that several hundred Vampires suddenly died in this tunnel. This made Alice wonder if the other subway tunnels held the same gruesome site. She shuddered at the possibility. I have to tell Sinclair, she thought, rather than said. Alice turned on her heels and ran back the way she came from.

The journey back felt a lot shorter than the walk there, and not just because she was running as fast as her legs would take her. It didn't take long for her to reach the main terminal and climb back up the ladder she had ventured down at the start of her adventure.

Alice wasn't sure where Sinclair was at, so the only thing she could think to do was check into each room and see if he was in one of them. She started down one tunnel and began pulling back privacy curtains and taking quick looks inside the rooms. At first, all Alice found were her sleeping Clan mates. And after pulling back at least thirty privacy curtains and no sign of Sinclair, she was starting to grow annoyed.

Finally, after much searching, she stumbled upon Sinclair's room. She darted inside and shook the Vampire Lord awake, which, in hindsight, might not have been the smartest thing to do at the time. Sinclair sat up straight, his eyes wide and confused as he tried to figure out what was going on. He finally locked onto Alice and asked harshly, "What is the meaning of this?"

Alice, panting hard from running, said between breaths, "I…..I found bodies…Vampire bodies….Lots of them." This seemed to gain Sinclair's attention. "What?" he asked, "What did you say?" Alice had somewhat caught her breath and was able to say more clearly, "I went walking through the tunnels and stumbled upon a mass grave, everyone of them Vampires." Sinclair threw his blanket off and stood up from his bed.

Alice quickly looked away and felt her face heat up the moment she realized that the Vampire Lord had been sleeping without a shirt on. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him grab a shirt and pull it on. "Which tunnel was it?" he asked.

It took Alice a moment to realize what he had asked her, but when she did, she said, "The middle one. The bodies were a good way down there, maybe half or right at a mile. You'll know you're there though when you get hit by the smell."

Her stomach did a flip at the thought of it. Sinclair nodded and told her, "Alright, I'll go and wake Gillfrey and Alucard, and the three of us will investigate the tunnel and try and make sense of it." Alice nodded and watched as Sinclair left out of the room to go wake the other two Vampires. It then occurred to her to go wake Shun and inform him. Why, she wasn't sure.

Perhaps to tell somebody else to make it a bit more real, or maybe she felt that this was something he needed to know, since Sinclair was involved. Alice left out of the Vampire Lord's room and started towards Shun. When she reached his room, she pulled back the privacy curtain and entered. Shun was sound asleep on the small twin bed, his blanket half on him and half hanging off the side.

She reached down and shook his shoulder to wake him. His eyes fluttered open and he looked around sleepily before he finally locked onto Alice. "Huh, Alice? Is everything okay? Did you have another nightmare?" he asked as he rubbed sleep from his eyes. Alice wasn't sure if she could classify what she saw in the tunnel as a nightmare, since she wasn't asleep.

"Kind of," she said, "I woke up and decided to go looking through the tunnels and found something….Something awful." Shun tilted his head to the side and asked, "What did you find?" She sat on the edge of the bed and told him, "A bunch of dead Vampire bodies."

Shun stared at her for a moment before finally asking, "Are you sure you weren't having a nightmare? This place is supposed to be safe for Vampires, remember?" Alice shook her head and said, "No, I wasn't dreaming. I know what I saw and right now, as we speak, Sinclair is down there checking it out."

Shun held his hands up defensively and said, "Alright, alright, I believe you. Since Sinclair is looking at this mass grave you found, maybe I should be there with him, seeing as I'm usual called to go with him for stuff like this." He climbed out of the bed and slipped his shoes on.

"Alright, show me where these bodies are," he said. Alice nodded and led Shun down through the hallways till they reached the opening that led down to the train tracks below. Shun looked around and took in his surroundings; he was obviously surprised to see that something like this was beneath the City, much like Alice had been when she stumbled upon it.

"Down this ladder," she instructed and started down the rungs, Shun following behind her. When they touched down to the bottom, they were met by Sinclair, Gillfrey, and Alucard, and they all appeared pale as ghosts, even in the dim light. "Did you find it?" Alice asked, eager to know. Gillfrey glanced back at the tunnel and said flatly, "Oh yeah, we found it, alright."

Alice never thought she'd see the great Count disturbed by something, but it was obvious that he had been shaken by the mass grave in that tunnel. She looked back to Sinclair and asked, "So, do you know anything about why that's there?"

The Vampire Lord, whose face was the palest out of the three, said, "I have an idea as to why those bodies are there, but I know for a fact what this means." Shun arched an eyebrow and asked, "And what would that be?" Sinclair looked at him and said darkly, "It means we're not as safe here as I thought we were."


Had my AP Government test today and I BS'd the heck out it, especially the essay portion. I don't really care though, seeing as it doesn't determine whether or not I graduate from high school. My best friend's graduation is tomorrow, so I'm going to it and have to find her something as a gift before she walks across the stage. My own graduation is a week from today and I can't wait! Anywho, hope you all enjoyed this chapter, so please read and leave a review on the way out. ~Copperpelt~