Chapter 10
A/N I don't own them so don't sue, all right? For those who have played Koudelka, this contains a scene you only see if you DON'T do everything right – with Charlotte. Thanks again to darkannex for the hard work on getting the Koudelka script. Any errors are purely my own. Rated R for language and violence – just so you know. Please enjoy; and review if you have time.
They took the return path toward the underground shrine, and along the way met an ever-increasing array of monsters and walking dead. They had no sooner left the treasure room and returned to the lower levels, when a pair of headless female corpses accosted them. Yuri instantly recognized them as similar to the one he'd met in the courtyard before, and warned the others.
"These things may be headless, but they shoot out their guts, so watch yerselves," he said and pounced to the attack. With claws raised he slashed at the nearest headless body, razing down her right side. The creature fell backwards and Yuri pursued, jumping onto her torso, knees to either side of her, and his claws punching down repeatedly onto her bosom, tearing putrid flesh from rotting bones.
Meanwhile James had raised his rifle, firing point blank into the other female while Koudelka summoned. After a minute, she called out and James moved back as the fire exploded out and over, not only her chosen target, but the one Yuri was dismembering as well. With a shout of surprise, Yuri rolled away as the wall of flames descended and incinerated the two walking corpses.
"Jesus fucking Christ, warn a guy will ya?" Yuri yelled, still rolling on the floor, trying to douse the flames that threatened to engulf him.
Koudelka looked startled, her magic was stronger than she had anticipated and she was grateful she hadn't killed Yuri. As for the two walking dead, they were char on the floor. Koudelka went to the young fighter, patting him down and smiled wanly.
"I am so sorry, Yuri. Do you need healing?" she asked.
Yuri looked up at her from his back on the floor and smiled. "No, but you can sit on me if you want."
That earned him a boot to the ribs but he chuckled since the chain mail vest prevented any harm. Still grinning he climbed to his feet, crossed the room, and kicked open the door to the treasure room.
"No stopping to shop, James," he said with a chuckle.
James, swallowing his frown, followed silently behind Koudelka. At the door to the tunnel, they met more trouble. Yuri was not expecting anything to be there and flung open the door, coming face to face with a man standing on the ceiling and pointing a gun right into his face. With a curse, Yuri jumped back and slammed the door shut, letting the bullets thunk into the thick wood while an insane cackle echoed down the passage behind it.
"What was that?" James asked, coming up beside him.
"A – a man," Yuri stammered, "standing on the ceiling shooting at me?" Yuri looked at the priest, his own features blanched. "Damned thing startled me," he said.
James nodded once and raised the rifle, aiming it at the door.
"All right; open it," he said. Yuri pulled open the door and at the same time, James fired the rifle, sending several rounds thudding into the upside-down man, forcing him to step back. James could see him then, a tall, thin man with a crazed expression on his face; two other heads seemed to be merged with his own, as if they had been forced through and into his skull while another arm, its elbow bone exposed to the air, was grafted to his right arm, both hands grasping and moving as the inverted man regained his composure and raised his gun to fire again.
"Step back," Koudelka called and Yuri jumped behind the door as a fierce rush of magic swept past, tornado force winds thrusting though the narrow doorway and sweeping up to the man, twisting him around, snapping his legs and forcing him to the ground head first, his spine snapped, his legs broken and bending backward over his body. James raised the rifle again and put a bullet through the creature's head, ending the threat.
Yuri looked around the door at the crumpled corpse.
"Is it dead James?" he asked with a grin, and Koudelka pinched his arm in passing. "Okay, but you take the lead this time priest."
"I would be content if there were no more of your relatives lying in wait," James said and chuckled as he proceeded down the tunnel.
Yuri, slamming shut the door behind him, laughed. "James," he called, "you made a funny."
James led the way toward the underground shrine, hoping that no more monsters would jump out at them. He wondered why so many were beginning to appear, and why now. 'What has changed that wasn't here before? Is it Yuri? Or something else,' he pondered as he opened the last door to the shrine. Ahead, on his left, were the open chasm and the shattered door beneath the arbor, while on his right the path diverted to the shrine and he could hear the splashing water of the fountain. With a sigh, James headed for the shrine.
Yuri caught up with Koudelka and the two walked companionably through the narrow tunnel. Yuri, not expecting another attack in the narrow confines and with James just ahead, was not paying especial attention. They were walking shoulder to shoulder and approaching the open door when a shadow rolled into the tunnel from beyond the exit, blocking them. Yuri scowled at the shadow, and pushed Koudelka behind him.
"Ah why now, just when I was gonna…" he muttered and then realized what was waiting ahead.
The monster was one he'd seen earlier in the library; a rolling plant-like thing with the body of a human baby on top. He hesitated for only a moment and that was nearly his undoing. The baby raised his sweet little head, his eyes dead and glassy and opened his toothless mouth to scream. A heart-wrenching wail issued from his delicate mouth and the force of the magic behind it threw both Yuri and Koudelka to the floor. Yuri shook his head, trying to clear his spotted vision and turned to check on Koudelka. The force of the magic had pushed them back and Koudelka had landed against the tunnel wall, face down in the dirt, and Yuri found she could not move - her muscles had been paralyzed by the wailing cry; worse, she could not breathe.
"Oh shit," Yuri growled, "hang on Koudelka." He climbed to his feet and adjusted his claws, ready to take on the whining infant and break the spell when James returned. He had heard the baby's cry of despair and returned to help, but realized at the last minute that the baby was a monster; standing in the doorway to the tunnel, he raised his rifle to fire. That forced Yuri to hesitate, and the baby-headed monstrosity rolled a few feet closer, arms waiving, distorted limbs flailing and grasping as it wobbled about, and James missed the shot, sending a bullet pinging into the back of the tunnel.
"God damn it James," Yuri cursed and jumped for the little monster, grabbing its nearest limbs and pulling it close even as it opened its mouth once more.
"Oh shit! Not again –" and the wailing cry broke over Yuri, flinging him back to land next to Koudelka while James suddenly collapsed in the doorway. With a groan, Yuri once more climbed to his feet.
"All right you, enough with me bein' nice about this," he said and leapt, landing next to the rolling menace. Once more he grabbed a handful of waving appendages, and brought one clawed fist down onto its soft plant-like body, the fist plunging through and then pulling out with a sucking sound and trailing entrails. The baby face turned in glassy eyed horror at Yuri and opened his mouth to scream again but Yuri punched downward again, claws slicing into the belly, taking out the lungs and stomach before descending a third time into the head, severing it from the neck. With a snort of disgust Yuri spun around to check on Koudelka, the body of the monster rolling at his feet and the head impaled on his claws, but Koudelka was moving already, sitting on her knees, and shaking her head.
"Yer all right," Yuri breathed a sigh of relief, until she looked up at him.
"Oh blessed Lord Jesus," James said from behind him and he looked to see the priest climbing to his feet, crossing himself as he did so, a look of horror and disgust on his face. Yuri looked down at the baby's head impaled on his claws and then back up at James and knew Koudelka would echo his look of shock and revulsion. 'Ah man, an' now I'm a baby killer,' he thought and shook off the baby's head onto the tunnel ground and watched it roll into the dirt at his feet.
Koudelka didn't say anything, merely crossing behind Yuri and James to exit the tunnel, her head down and shoulders slumped. Fatigue was in every step and Yuri knew she had to be as tired are the rest of them. Maybe she was just too tired to say anything. Kicking the corpse out of the way Yuri followed, sparing a hard stare at James as he pushed his way past and out of the tunnel. James did not respond either, following the young fighter to the underground shrine and watching as he knelt by the fountain and splashed water over himself.
'As if water could wash away the sins of infanticide, of murder, or theft,' James thought and stepped up onto the platform as well. Koudelka was leaning against the near wall, her face wet, and water dribbling down onto her lacy front from having washed.
"Koudelka, are you all right?" James asked and silently Koudelka nodded, her head resting against the stone wall.
"No thanks to you, James," Yuri said from the font. His hands were cupped in front of him and water ran down his face in rivulets, his hair too was wet and droplets glinted on the corner of exposed mail beneath his shirt.
James frowned. "You were doing just fine killing a baby without me," he grumbled.
Yuri threw down the water and rose to his feet.
"What?"
James moved past him to the main pool of the font and knelt, taking a handful of water and washing his face with it.
"You heard me. It was only a baby," James said calmly.
"No it wasn't – you saw that thing before. It's a fucking monster. An' you were shooting at it so don't give me that crap!"
James frowned, his veneer of calm cracking.
"I don't know why I bother with you. Once again, you have proven yourself a ruffian and a cad. It was a baby."
Yuri stood, fists clenched at his sides, razor claws gripped tightly, a low growl issuing from his clenched teeth.
"In the library," James said slowly, enunciating each word carefully, "you kicked it down the stairs and splattered it over the library floor; how do I know what it was before you destroyed it? You are a maniac!" James' calm splintered and he rose from the font, his frown turning to a scowl that threatened to have his brows and chin meeting.
"You lying sack of sanctimonious shit!"
Koudelka, from her position against the wall, raised her hand to get their attention.
"James, Yuri. It was a monster; just let it go at that. We need to move on."
"I was trying to shoot you and missed," James said darkly.
Yuri turned away and finished washing his face and hands, running wet fingers through his hair and his bangs standing up on end. "I am willing to let it go, but Mister 'I am on a mission from god' isn't! Stupid fucking shit!" he growled.
"Yuri, enough!" Koudelka shouted.
"Well I don't do magic for chrisakes!" he said to James and then turned toward Koudelka. "If I had it would have been faster; cleaner. So teach me some willya? I dare ya! Teach me some of yer god damned magic and see what good it will do!" he was shouting now, turned toward James again, his eyes changing from amber to orange. "You were lying on yer god damned sanctimonious ass; Koudelka couldn't breath. Tell me how I'm gonna kill that thing and not make a mess! It wasn't a baby it was a monster and fuck you priest! Fuck you!"
Before anyone could respond, Yuri turned and fled from the shrine, his angry footsteps echoing as he thudded his way around the chamber to the dark stairway beyond. He kicked open the metal doors and stood in the dark chamber, his fists clenched at his side, panting with anger and exertion. He looked around the chamber, once more spotting the locked door and the two mummies still lying side by side against the wall with a glint of metal lying between them.
"God damn stupid priest, he just won't let it rest," he grumbled and crossed the intervening space to bend down and take a closer at the two mummies. They were children, maybe five years of age, their ancient dresses protected by simple smocks and aprons; and between them, held in their mummified hands, was a key. Yuri reached down to snatch it up.
His fingers on the key, Yuri heard a soft voice whispering in his ears.
"Give me my doll," it said and Yuri looked first over his left shoulder then his right. With a shrug, he pulled on the key again.
"Give me my doll," the soft, childlike voice said again and Yuri blinked, suddenly aware that the two mummies were looking at him, their eyes open. "I want my doll."
Yuri stood up and smirked. "I ain't got yer stinkin' doll, so shut up," he snarled at the two mummies and kicked them, turning their legs into dust. The two bodies slid to the floor, the key still in their bony hands and Yuri bent down to retrieve it.
"That's right, just hand it over," he said, but when his fingers once more touched the key he felt a surge of power that arced from the key to his hand and threw him across the room, his back slamming into the stone wall. When he stood up, shaking himself, he was looking at two apparitions floating in the air above him, the lower half of their bodies missing. The two children still looked like desiccated mummies, but their eyes were alive and glowing with green and white energy and Yuri felt a tightening in his chest and stomach.
"Why me?"
"Because you're stupid and do stupid things," James said from the doorway and moved in to stand at the foot of the small stairway. "What did you do? Steal from them?" he asked, not bothering to look at Yuri.
"Steal? What you mean steal? They're dead; what do they need with a fucking key!"
"Give us our dolls," the apparitions stated, their eyes now sparking and sending out tendrils of energy that had Yuri's hair standing on end.
"Here," Koudelka said, and Yuri jumped away from the door when she came in.
"Why is everyone sneaking in like that?" Yuri growled.
Koudelka paused at the foot of the stairs and pulled two cloth-wrapped bundles from her pouch. She unwrapped two small porcelain dolls each one dressed in finery with signs of love and care showing on their clean, clear faces. She laid them on the ground and the two children floated slowly forward, pausing over the porcelain dolls.
"Valna ... Vigna... Our dolls... ourselves... thank you." Instantly the apparitions vanished and the mummies lay once more on the floor, dormant, the key left abandoned on the floor.
Yuri looked from the mummies to Koudelka and back. "Well, that was interesting. Why'd you do that?"
Koudelka bent and picked up the key. "Because sometimes you don't need to fight, Yuri," she said. "Here," she handed the key to him. "Use it."
Yuri took the key and looked at it, then glanced at the two mummies before looking up at Koudelka.
"All right, I will."
The key opened the locked door beside the recumbent mummies and led to another prison cell, this one with stairs climbing up to the first floor. It was dark up those stairs and Yuri led the way, his own eyesight pretty fair in the dark and even better when enhanced by his fusions. Up the stairs and through a hatchway to the first level, brought them to a dead end; there was a wall with bars at their feet and looking down and through, Yuri could see a hallway, but no way to get to it. Koudelka was feeling her way around the small landing and found an opening into a small, narrow access way.
"Come on, this way," she said and crawled on hands and knees down the narrow tunnel. At the end, she met a wooden door with a latch and she pushed this open and climbed down into a cell. Lit with warm yellow candles, the room was surprisingly homey; a table was laden with fine china and food still warm from the oven. The walls were lined with tall bookshelves and hundreds of books filled them. Koudelka walked around the table and looked at the first row of books.
"Children's books, adventure tales, dating back quiet a way," she said. James, who climbed out last shook himself and marveled at the room.
"A child's room – in this place," he said and then looked at the center of the carpeted floor. A shadow was growing there and he pointed just as Koudelka suddenly spun around and stared.
The shadow grew and a little girl's soft laugh bubbled from the shadow. Suddenly furniture from around the room began to vibrate and jumped into the air, flinging themselves at Koudelka and the others. Yuri, who had followed behind Koudelka, was standing at the table and poking at the morsels of food; he looked up at the laughter and with a sweep of his arm, knocked the food and place settings to the floor, vaulting over the table.
Koudelka moved into the center of the room, fending off flying chairs and candlesticks; books exploded from the nearby shelves and pelted her from all sides. Meanwhile James was hunched down next to the dinning table loading his rifle. Yuri leapt forward, covering Koudelka and taking a heavy hit from a small nightstand. He looked out at the rest of the room's furnishings and noticed the canopy bed too was beginning to shift and twist.
"Koudelka, if yer gonna do somethin', I suggest it be fast. I don't wanna be wearing bedding," Yuri said, looking back at the young gypsy. She was on one knee, concentrating on her magic, pulling magical energies around her like a vacuum before standing and letting the magic fly. Suddenly, the airborne furnishings were being caught up in another wind, a counter force that spun them gyrating around the outer edges of the room; the bed too flew into the air, the canopy of pink and white lace floating up like a parachute and then twisting like a rope, the bedstead and footboards cracking and collapsing inward, pinning down the goose down comforter and other bedding. Spinning like a top, the bed suddenly collapsed in the center of the room, piles of broken furnishings landing with a wood-splintering crash on top as Koudelka's tornado winds finished whipping around the room, and subsided with a whoosh of spent energy.
The force of her magic spent, Koudelka sunk to one knee again, her breath short. Yuri had squatted down when Koudelka's tornado-force winds began and he could see the strain on her face. He reached into his pouch and offered her a piece of dried fish.
"Yer usin' more advanced magic, huh? It's harder," he said. "Eat that, now," and he rose to face the room's center. "Come on girlie," he called out to the now demolished room. "Time to stop playin' games. The only one getting hurt here is you," he said and rolled his neck and cracked his knuckles preparatory to a fight.
In front of him, a pale shimmer of light began to appear and Yuri jumped back, keeping Koudelka to his rear, with his fists raised. The shimmer spread like a blossoming flower, forming the transparent body of the young girl, Charlotte. She did not manifest as she had before, instead remaining as a ghostly presence dressed in a faded pink gown. Gone was her doll, her hands were empty at her side, her face a blur.
"I'm not fooling around," the ghostly girl said and her voice sounded as if she spoke from very far away. "I don't want your pity. I've had enough!" This last said looking at James, who had risen and joined Koudelka.
"Charlotte," Koudelka began, "listen to me please. I understand you; I know what you've gone through. We're very similar, you and I," Koudelka said from her knees.
Charlotte's shimmering form gestured angrily. "You could never understand me! How could you? I've never been out of this place," and her ghostly arms rose taking in the whole of Nemeton and the room especially. "I was born and I was executed; and on the day I was killed, a priest came to me and said 'dear lord, please accept into your kingdom this poor sinful lamb'." Charlotte's blurry visage stared at James and James had a sense of foreboding at the look of hate that seemed to grow in her undefined face.
"Tell me," Charlotte continued, turning back to Koudelka, "what did I do that was so bad? Is it my fault I was born? If I was born just to be killed, why did she have me?"
"My mother abandoned me too, Charlotte," Koudelka said. "I've been alone since I was a child..."
"Yeah, me too," chimed in Yuri. "But that's no excuse for bein' a bad ghost."
The flickering image of Charlotte raised a semi-transparent hand and pointed at them. "And this is how you understand me?" her voice, still echoing in the distance, grew angry. "This is how you are like me?" Charlotte shook her head, her long silver hair flowing freely around her like a cloak while her dress flared out beneath her bell-like, energy beginning to grow around her. "You're not like me – you're alive! What do you mean you're alone? What do you mean you understand?"
Koudelka rose to her feet and stood next to Yuri, her hand outstretched toward the ghostly figure.
"Oh, Charlotte, please listen. I want you to understand; I really do understand, it's not that hard," Koudelka had tears in her eyes and her voice wore the emotions she was feeling, trying to reach out to Charlotte.
Charlotte moved closer, approaching Koudelka and Yuri. "A curse upon you," she said abruptly.
Startled, Koudelka moved back a step. "What?"
Energy was forming around Charlotte, beginning to spin and twist like before and Yuri reset himself, fists firmly in defensive stance but ready to attack.
"A curse upon you," Charlotte said again. "On you, on your friends - a curse upon all of you. I will kill everything!" Charlotte was now the focus of spinning energies, her eyes the only sharp image on her face and they were glowing a feral red.
"Why don't you just die! Die! When everything is dead and gone, then, then we'll be the same. Then will you understand my pain, and my regret. I will kill you, kill you!"
"Here she comes," Yuri warned and there was an explosion of energy from the ghostly Charlotte as she manifested in the room. Large, sanguineous, with yet a baby-like face, she was part slug, part human and all malice. Her first act was a scream of defiance, a sound so piercing that it deafened her opponents. She followed that with a wave of magical ire that hit first Yuri, then Koudelka and James, sending them to their knees, gasping for breath. Yuri shook his head and leapt forward, ignoring the pain he was feeling in his guts, and gave the monstrous Charlotte a right arm punch that sank deep into her chest. It proved a bad move, as it did little to harm the transformed girl and added greatly to Yuri's distress. He pulled back his arm, blackened with some kind of poisonous fluid and he gritted his teeth, falling back to Koudelka.
"She's p-poisoned us," James gasped and reached for a panacea in his pouch.
"Yuri, can you hold on?" Koudelka asked and Yuri nodded, keeping one wary eye on Charlotte.
"She's determined to nail us good," Yuri said and grimaced as the effort caused him greater pain. "God damn that hurts," he cursed looking down at his maimed arm.
Koudelka had also reached into her pouch, extracting a couple of antidotes, giving one to Yuri to chew on as she took the other. She then began concentrating her magic, summoning vital health for Yuri to help stem the tide of the poisons coursing through his veins. After half a minute, healing energy cascaded down onto his arm, adding to the healing already begun with the antidote and with a grunt, Yuri rose to his feet and stared hard at the slug-shaped Charlotte.
Meanwhile James' antidote had taken affect and he was summoning magic, a gusher of fire that sprang up beneath Charlotte's bloated scarlet belly. She wailed, more in anger than pain, and let fly with another wave of magic. Yuri blocked the onslaught that would have flattened Koudelka, letting her summon her flare magic, and he spared a glance at James; the priest had knelt after using his magic and the poisonous assault had only grazed him. He looked up at Yuri, nodded his good condition, and began another summons.
'I'm gonna hate myself for this,' he thought, feeling the beginning tendrils of poison working their way through his body. 'But I gotta keep this thing busy.' With a growl, he launched himself at Charlotte, knowing he would be severely poisoned, but he had to keep the bloated bitch from attacking Koudelka and James. He used his claws to graze a line of pain along Charlotte's face, scoring her deeply before following up with a leg kick to the neck. His leather trouser leg burned and smoldered from contact with her venomous skin but held, and Yuri was thankful, but did not hesitate to spin around and put his boot to her face as well. A second later Koudelka's called warning had him rolling to the side and safety, as her flare magic exploded like a bomb over Charlotte.
"Damn, she's getting' good," Yuri muttered to himself as he waited for the magma wave to recede. Charlotte screamed in pain and Yuri grinned, watching as her skin flamed red and peeled back to reveal pulsing veins. "Oh yeah, she's good." Standing he reached in for a fusion soul. "If she doesn't like fire," he called to Koudelka, "let's give her lots of it!"
With a shout he merged his soul with that of Forron, transforming to the seven foot Lord of the Gates of Hell and, not waiting for a response from the others, he slammed his fist down into the floor, rapidly summoning those fiery gates, pulling them up from the bowels of Hell and opening them in a heartbeat, sending out a wall of searing fire and magma that surged out like a tide and flooded the room. Nor did he wait to see the results of his magic, for he leapt forward even as the tide was turning back and, wading through the burning hellfire, attacked Charlotte with fists and claws. Blow after blow he rained down on the slug-like body, using razor sharp claws to lacerate, puncture, and score the already maimed exterior until Charlotte cried out, a scream of ear-splitting proportions that stunned Koudelka and James in their places and forced Forron back a few feet.
Face scowling, black lips snarling, Forron summoned Hell Fire again and watched with satisfaction as the ghostly girl-turned-monster wailed in pain, her manifested body crisping, blackening and peeling back in a fog of smoke and, as the magma slid back through Hell's gates, he watched as bits and pieces of the monster went with it – Charlotte, the nine year old girl, killed in the monastery and haunting that monastery for hundreds of years, was now gone.
Turning to his companions, Forron thudded heavily across the floor. With a gesture, he told them to stay put and then called forth his magical First Fire, that warming and healing flame that gently bathed all of them, removing toxins from their bodies and filling them with good health. Then finally, Yuri released the fusion and sank to one knee, looking at both James and Koudelka with a sad expression on his face.
"Ya know, much as I hate to say it, I'm sad to have killed her."
Koudelka shook her head. "Yuri, she was already dead; that was the problem."
Yuri ran one clawed hand through his shaggy locks, the razor sharp blades snipping and slicing through tangles and sending a small shower of soft brown hair floating to the floor.
"Yeah, well, still…" he chuckled softly. "Are we good to go?" he finally asked.
Both James and Koudelka nodded and Koudelka led the way back toward the cupboard. She spotted a small door next to the cupboard and opening it, and found it lead into a narrow passage; they took this, finally coming to another door that used the blue-tipped key that Koudelka was carrying, and they stepped through into opulence.
A/N Redux: Hope this one didn't bore you too much. Next time we visit Patrick's mansion, and find an old friend. And warnings in advance: the next one is, as AriesCelestial has told me, over the top on violence.