Warnings: Hostage situation, isolation, starvation, disorientation, blood, drugging. Also, this oneshot contains a transgender character who discusses implied struggles in the past, though I myself am not trans.
Spoilers: For the Layton's Mystery Journey anime
Set: During the LMJ anime. A continuation from the previous chapter.
Song: Sea of Lovers by Christina Perri
Isolation (Marina)
Marina stumbled into the tiny room. The door slammed shut behind her.
Her arms were still tied up, but they had left her legs free...
She spun around, assessing her new prison. It was smaller than the storage room Luke had been locked in at the British museum, but slightly brighter with a single old bulb hanging from the ceiling.
Above, the cathedral bricks had been white and spotless, but down here in the crypt, they were black and grimy with age.
The whole place reeked of stale alcohol from the packed wine racks. Wooden wine racks that didn't look very stable...
Marina pushed her body against one of the racks. The wood groaned and bottles clinked together in protest. She tried again, throwing all of her weight into it. The rack wobbled perilously. A bottle came loose and fell to the floor. It smashed open, unleashing wine and shards of glass.
Marina grinned. Still, she waited a few moments to see if the cult members had heard her. It appeared that they had not.
She knelt down to pick up the biggest, sharpest piece of glass- which was no easy task while her hands were bound behind her. The glass scratched her fingers, but she kept hold of it, knowing her life- and Luke's- depended on it.
The next time that door opened, she would be ready.
After what felt like hours, she managed to cut through her ropes- though her hands suffered as a result, her blood mixing with the wine on the floor. She wasn't squeamish (performing a million dissections would knock that right out of you) but it made her dizzy. This wasn't helped at all by her grumbling stomach and her burning thirst...
Why couldn't she have grabbed something to eat before she got abducted?
After what felt like days, the door finally opened.
She had planned on jumping out at her captors from behind the door, wielding her piece of glass like a dagger...
But she was too weak from dehydration and hunger. She had to hold onto the wall to keep herself up. Two cult members were in the room before she could even raise her glass.
Raise her glass, hehe...
One cult member went to clean up the broken wine bottle and the... other messes she had made. (She couldn't see his face under that purple hood, but he was definitely scowling.)
His companion- assuming they were all male, Marina wasn't in the right frame of mind to ask- stared at her. Then he pointed at her useless 'weapon'.
"Hand it over..." He sounded young- maybe a similar age to her and Luke.
Luke, Marina remembered through all of her disorientation. If she was starving, she could only imagine how Luke was suffering.
Hands shaking, she lifted the shard of glass higher. "L-let me go," she croaked, "or I swear..."
The younger cult member pulled something out of his long sleeve. It looked like a small bottle of-
"Water!" Marina gasped.
"And food," he added, revealing a short loaf of bread as well. "Want some?"
Her mouth would have been watering if it wasn't so dry. She ran her tongue over her quivering lips.
How was she supposed to escape when she could barely walk?
I'm sorry, Luke.
She dropped the glass in defeat.
The young cult member took the shard away and rewarded her with the bread and water.
Marina didn't question why they were bothering to give her food and water- Water!- she just scooped up the bottle and drained every drop like a thirsty animal.
Then she inhaled the bread. Wait- she really should make it last. Who knew when her next meal would be? She tried to savour every mouthful. It was the best thing she had ever eaten- though it was grainy, hard and it had a weird taste...
Her head felt even heavier than before. She leant against the wall and slid down to the floor.
The one cult member kept watching her.
She woke up alone (not that that was unusual) and discovered that her left wrist was chained to the wall. Someone had bandaged her hands after her struggles to escape. How considerate of them...
Lifting her gaze, she saw that all the wine bottles had been removed. The smell had improved a little- something Marina was actually grateful for, since she felt nauseous.
The cult members had moved the room around- moved her- while she was unconscious.
No... while she was drugged. It must have been something in the bread or the water.
She was so desperate that she'd eaten it right out of the cult members' hands.
Now, she'd lost her weapon and the element of surprise. They knew she would try to escape, but she could easily be controlled.
Control her... why? Did the priest really want her to 'join' them, or was that just something he'd said to rile Luke up?
Luke... How long had he and the professor been in the 'chamber'- wherever that was?
"Someone will save us!" Those were Luke's last words to her.
Emmy Altava have must been the saviour Luke had in mind. Her roundhouse kick was legendary- capable of toppling enemies, rocks and solid walls.
But according to Luke, Emmy had left the professor years ago to become a travelling camera woman.
Did Emmy have any idea where the professor and Luke had gone? Could Rosa tell her, or Flora...?
These days, Flora didn't have much to do with the professor unless it involved Kat. (She would have to take care of Kat even more now in the professor's absence.)
Flora kept in touch with Luke- he had proudly read her letters to Marina- but who knew how much he had told Flora about the Relics. Probably even less than he had told Marina...
Rosa was bound to go to the police when the professor and Luke didn't return home. But would the police be able to track them down?
Marina had only managed to follow Luke to Southampton thanks to one of his maps... which the cult had confiscated, along with the rest of Marina's stuff.
She couldn't figure out how they had found her. At Luke's request, she hadn't talked to anyone... and ironically, no one she trusted knew where she had run off to.
Most of Luke's friends didn't even know who she was.
She never did give her parents her new address...
A rock dropped in Marina's stomach as she grasped how dire her situation truly was. This really could be it- she could just disappear and no one would ever realise what had happened to her.
Sure, everyone would notice if Professor Layton- the most famous detective in London- went missing. Maybe even his old apprentice would get a mention.
But her…?
The door opened. Marina gasped, praying a middle-aged lady would kick her way into the room. But it was just a cult member.
"Ah, I thought you'd still be asleep..." The same cult member- the young one.
He placed another bottle of water at her feet. This was followed by a bowl of chunky porridge and a spoon. It smelled so good, but Marina turned her nose up at it.
The man snorted. "You're not in any position to be picky."
"You drugged me last time," she grumbled.
He shrugged. "Wasn't my idea..." He prodded the bowl closer to her. "This is exactly the same thing that I had for breakfast."
"Prove it."
"Fine." Without hesitation, he took a bite of the porridge. (Her porridge!)
She held back for a moment, trying to get a glimpse of his eyes under his hood. They looked clear and green as grass.
Gosh, she missed being outdoors...
She sighed and he passed her the porridge. Eating while she was chained up was no easy task. The cult member continued watching her in amusement.
"What?" she snapped.
"You're American," he noted.
Shouldn't the cult already know that if they had been stalking Luke?
"And?" she said, putting her entire accent into it.
"...How are things over there?" he wondered.
Marina couldn't believe they were having this conversation, but it was the only normal conversation she'd had in about a week.
She shrugged hard. "Don't know. I haven't been home in like six months."
And now she never would go home again.
A tear slipped into her porridge. She turned away from the cult member. He walked out and locked the door.
She wondered if he heard her crying, or if he even cared.
From then on, he visited her every day- once in the morning and once in the evening.
This was how she kept hold of time... and hope.
If anything, she was grateful to that one cult member, who she started calling the warden. She would much rather face him everyday then the brutes who had caught her, or that horrible excuse for a priest...
"Why a cathedral?" she asked the warden one morning. Porridge was on the menu, as usual.
"My family were devout Catholics," he replied through his own porridge. (Some days, he ate with her.)
"No, I mean- why hide the Relics here, of all places?" Why not in a top secret facility or on a private island?
"Oh..." He almost sounded disappointed that she wasn't inquiring about him specifically. "It was Earl Dellendar's idea. He was on he brink of death and wanted to 'devote himself to God', so he built this place to store the Relics-"
"And to keep himself alive," Marina finished, amazed. That must be the purpose of the Relics- to extend the life of whoever possessed them. What did that mean for Luke and the professor?
The warden snorted. "Didn't work, though."
"Yeah... Professor Layton said Dellendar died."
She didn't ask why, but the warden filled her in anyway.
"There was a... maintenance error with the coffins," he revealed in a low voice.
"I-is it fixed now?" she gasped. She hoped the same thing wouldn't happen to Luke and the professor!
"Apparently..." The warden shrugged. "There'll be trouble if the problem arises again. The priest is meant to be keeping a close eye on things."
Was that meant to reassure her? Marina's eyes narrowed. "Why are you telling me all this?"
"Priest's orders," he said quickly.
Marina folded her arms. "If this is his plan to recruit me for the cult, tell him it's not working."
The warden let out a short laugh. "Will do... Want me take that?"
She'd polished off her entire bowl of porridge while they were talking. She gave him the empty bowl. As he got up to leave, she smiled a little.
No one entered her prison that evening.
She had gotten used to living off two square meals a day. She'd even come to expect it.
But without dinner, her stomach rumbled and her headaches returned.
Mercifully, her door opened the next morning.
Still half-asleep, she demanded, "What time do you call...?" She trailed off, however, as an older man with flowing white robes glided in.
Marina bolted up and shrank back against the wall. Why was he here? Where was her warden?
The priest smirked at her confusion and her fear.
"Good- you've gained some respect," he purred. "That will serve you well in your next life."
Next life? What did he mean? Was this it? Had he decided to kill her after all?
It had been months and no on had come to rescue her. Luke had been wrong. The cult didn't need a hostage anymore.
Marina braved a glance beyond the door. There were cult members accompanying the priest. Amongst them, Marina thought she recognised the warden.
So that... that was why he had shared the cult's secrets with her. He knew she was going to die.
Marina wished she was strong enough to fight, clever enough to negotiate, or bold enough to go out in a blaze of glory.
But she wasn't enough.
"Don't look so glum," the priest sneered as tears streamed down her face. "You should be grateful! This is a tremendous opportunity. You'll be the first woman welcomed into the cathedral."
"H-huh?" Shocked, Marina looked from the priest to the warden, who was shuffling his feet.
After everything, did they honestly expect her to join their deranged cult?
"Your initiation will begin tomorrow," the priest decreed. "Unfortunately, you won't be able to leave your quarters quite yet, but if you continue to behave... then we will see."
In other words, they would only release her when she was a brainwashed pawn.
Marina wanted to spit in the priest's face. Instead, she forced herself to nod.
The priest seemed satisfied.
He snapped his fingers and a cult member brought in a small purple robe. The priest presented the robe to Marina.
She accepted it with a "Thank you". (At least it would keep her warm.)
The priest smiled and left her prison, locking the door once more.
Marina had never been so glad to be alone.
"Hey-"
Marina threw her sneaker at the warden. She would probably never get it back, but it was a worthy sacrifice to see him retreat behind the door.
"It's just me," he hissed, poking his head back into the room. His hood had fallen down. For the first time, Marina could fully see his face: Green eyes, pointed chin and plaited blonde hair. She didn't care how young he looked.
"You," she seethed. "Because of you I'm going to become a zombiefied cult member!"
"Not all of us are zombies," he muttered. He did a quick check outside before he crept back in and shut the door.
She glared at him. "Then why don't you do something? Why don't you release me?"
"I can't do that-"
"Then you can just leave!" Stockholm syndrome- that was all it had been. She didn't need his company.
"I don't have anywhere else to go," he argued. "I'm just as trapped as you are!"
"Oh, please..." Marina raised her chained-up wrist. "There are plenty of cathedrals- plenty of cults- that don't kidnap people!"
"There's nowhere on Earth where I would feel safe." He gripped his plait, closing his eyes. Tears glittered in his lashes, but they were gone when he gazed at Marina again. "My only hope lies in the future."
"You want... to use the Relics," Marina realised, "for yourself."
He nodded and huffed, "But I can't do that while your husband and father-in-law are hogging the coffins!"
Marina didn't bother correcting him. "So... If I join the cult and figure out how the Relics work, you'll help me free them?"
"It won't be easy," he warned. "If you mess up the coffins, I... um, they could die, like Dellendar."
"We'll study the coffins," Marina suggested. "We'll watch how the priest maintains them."
"I've been here four years and I've never been allowed down that staircase."
Marina frowned. "Just how old are you?"
"Twenty-two."
He was even younger than her! While she and Luke had been at university, this man... this kid, had fallen in with the cult.
She couldn't begin to imagine what he had experienced- missing his family, learning the cult's ways, being cut off from the outside world...
Marina would have to embrace that kind of life if she wanted to survive.
She could try to escape when she had earned their trust. But what if she hadn't learned enough about the Relics to save Luke and the professor?
What if the priest pulled the plug on their coffins?
Marina sighed, feeling the weight of the mission on her shoulders.
She looked at her warden- now her ally- and promised, "I'll stay. But if you ever turn on me, I'll rat you out to the priest."
He smiled. "That seems fair."
They shook hands on it.
He winced at her chains. "Hopefully we'll get those off you soon..." He approached the door and tossed her sneaker back to her.
"Thank you," she said before he opened the door. There was something else... "Um, what's your name?"
"Joseph to the rest of the cult. But when we're alone, you can call me Josie."
He- or she- smiled, and Marina finally understood.
The two of them may have been trapped, but they were in this together. They would remain with the cult until they fully understood how the Relics worked.
Marina put on on her purple robe.
Even if it took a hundred years, she wouldn't leave without Luke.