Rendezvous

Riccardo drove back toward Belli Castle. He hated the thought of all the cleaning up he had to do, and now he was short a gardener and a maid, and the old man... but he could go to hell, anyway. He looked into the back seat, Fiona lying down sound asleep, actually looking quite peaceful, just like when he'd first taken her. He had put the mutt in the trunk, knowing that Fiona could never be happy again if she didn't have her dog. Not that he thought she would, anyway... but she would come to like him, in time. He knew it. He saw the castle looming on the horizon and drove faster, eager to get back.

As he got closer, though... he stopped the car. A confused expression crossed his face, then an angry one.

"...Fuck."

He should have seen this coming. Police. He saw red and blue lights flashing... But if they were doing an investigation, why would they have the lights on? Further inspection revealed that it was not a police car, but an ambulance. Then they must have found Debilitas... he had been long dead by now. But there were squad cars there. Even at two in the morning, he could see them, reflecting the ambulance lights. That was when he realized he would never be able to return to Belli Castle.

It hit him hard, and he wondered why he hadn't thought of this before. Of course Fiona spilled her guts as soon as she got out... He'd seen the police tape when he left, but thought nothing of it... now that everybody was dead at the castle, or so they thought, they would probably just sell the place to the highest bidder, or make it a national landmark. Either one gave him nothing. But... where could he go now? If the police caught him with Fiona, it would all be over.

He heard a pathetic bark from the trunk. That dog had better shut up, he thought, or I might reconsider. Then the thought came to him... he knew where he could go. Fendari had been the one who had revived him... he could go to the mansion in Dark Bay! It would be perfect, now that he thought about it... they would never find them there, and he and Fiona would be able to stay there quite comfortably the rest of their lives, or at least for the time being... but the plan had one little snag: Leonardo.

Riccardo wasn't worried about Fendari finding out he had Fiona, the man probably couldn't care less. But Leo... he had wanted Fiona. He was most likely furious that they'd lost her... and if he got to her, all of Riccardo's plans were ruined. He was the one running the mansion right now... but the place was huge. Riccardo could easily find a place to hide Fiona until he made sure Leonardo was properly disposed of. He turned around, smiling and taking one last look at the castle, and then left it forever, heading East, Fiona still sleeping quietly in the back seat.

Poppy thought Daniella seemed to be feeling a little better. She had been scared by whatever happened in that dark dungeon place... but at least the man was not chasing them anymore. They had started wandering the mansion again, and Poppy was getting quite tired. They had been awake for a long time, and it was not usual that he had such little sleep. She reached the large glass doors that led to the big garden-like place. He had never been in there, but had walked by these doors many times. She pressed her face against the glass, looking inside. Slowly, she opened the doors and entered, calling him in behind her.

It was a gigantic room. A massive glass ceiling hung over the circular room, bathing the room in moonlight, which added to the lights that were already on inside the room. A waterfall fell gracefully down from the top of the room into a pool below, coming out of a hole near the top and following a chute that crossed a balcony until it fell into the pool. Three large pillars stood next to the waterfall, all different sizes, each with a man's face carved at the top. The one closest to the cascade was tallest, and they got smaller in succession. There was another pool basin in the room, but it was empty.

Apart from that, the room felt like a natural habitat. Poppy could almost have mistaken it for a real jungle. Stone paths intertwined between lush vegetation, some trees growing nearly to the ceiling fifty feet up. Sprinklers were going off constantly, and mist from all the water settled on his fur, which felt quite good, actually. He noticed Daniella was looking at the balcony up near the ceiling. A single door stood on the balcony... he wondered where it went as he trotted on ahead, enjoying the feeling of the sprinklers as they passed over him.

Daniella, never wanting to be too far behind him, ran to catch up. Poppy spotted another door on the opposite side of the room and walked toward it, turning to look at her. Taking one more look back at the wondrous room, Daniella opened the door and found another dark hallway, with what appeared to be an elevator on one side, a large hole in the wall near the floor on the other, and a rusty blue door at the end. She walked up and examined the elevator, pressing some buttons, but after a few moments she gave up, examining the strange hole for a moment, then moving toward the other door. Poppy had always been fascinated by elevators, the few times he'd had a chance to go in them. One time, you're in one place, and when the doors open, it's completely different.

She came to the end of the passageway and tried to open the door, but the blue-painted door was made of rusty steel, and appeared to be locked. The room didn't smell right to Poppy... it smelled like death. He started growling softly, warning his master. He thought this unconsciously... he was beginning to see her as his master. She looked down at him with worry, then back to the door, and appeared as if she were about to leave, when something occured to her, and she took a small gold object out of her pocket. She pushed it into a small hole in the door beneath the handle, and Poppy heard something click. Poppy started growling louder, that vile scent growing ever stronger. Daniella slowly opened the door... and she gasped as she revealed a room full of human skeletons.