Chapter 14
Using her phone's light, Dusk illuminated the corridor. Strange markings were inscribed on the walls and silver bars ran along the entire passage. If they weren't in a hurry, Luna and Thorn would've made her stop and help them identify the symbols. Yet she still had to slow her pace and let her friends catch up to her.
"Hurry up," Dusk called out to her friends.
"We are!" Luna shouted, the panic in her voice was distinct.
"Damnit," Dusk muttered to herself. She felt bad for her friends as neither were in good condition. While Luna was certainly the better of the two at handling their situation, she still looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack; knowing Luna, she was probably thinking of every way their escape plan could go wrong and was overwhelmed by the stress. Thorn, understandably, was in terrible shape. She'd been through so much and Dusk knew the poor girl was moments away from crying. Unfortunately, both girls in their present conditions would make escaping difficult.
"Ugh…just keep close to me and keep quiet," Dusk grunted.
They continued through the dimly lit corridor at a frustratingly slow pace. Dusk could hear Luna's footsteps right behind her but Thorn was a problem. Dusk stopped as she heard Thorn's sniffles grow distant. She turned around and saw that Thorn was trailing behind. Dusk ran to Thorn and grabbed her hand.
"We need to move faster," Dusk said. The Wiccan stumbled forward as Dusk pulled her along the dark passageway.
Fortunately, the corridor came to an abrupt end after a few minutes. Dusk found the switch and the wall slid open a few moments later. She looked over the room. There were several large crates and barrels stacked up. Once Dusk confirmed that it was empty, she led her friends into the room.
"Wait here," Dusk said as she stopped by some crates. Luna nodded and Thorn sat down on one of the crates.
Dusk made her way to the door and crouched below the window. Cautiously, she cracked open the door and peeked outside. She smiled and fully opened it.
"We're clear, if we run we can make it," she called to her friends.
Regrouped, they followed George's directions and took off down the hall with Dusk taking the lead. They made it to an intersection when Dusk stopped and pulled her friends into a nearby doorway.
"What's happening?" Luna nervously asked.
Dusk hushed her and blocked her friends with her arm to prevent them from leaving or leaning forward. The footsteps grew louder as they approached and Dusk heard a conversation between two individuals.
"Did you know that the Feds just sentenced those SALF scientists?"
"Wait, you mean the guys who dressed up as those broccoli-headed aliens?"
"Yep. They got ten years. Who knew a dog's testimony would land them in prison?"
"Damn. Didn't they claim to see real aliens?"
Two assault rifle toting guards who looked like they should be patrolling a military base in Afghanistan rather than a cult lair came into view laughing.
"Aliens. Ha. I'll believe it when I see it!"
Dusk sighed with relief as the guards continued walking straight down the hall. Once they cleared the intersection, the blonde crept out from the doorway and motioned Luna and Thorn to follow her. But as she reached the center of the intersection, she froze. There was radio chatter. Something about prisoners escaping. Use of deadly force permitted.
"Copy that. Will investigate."
Shit! Dusk scowled as she turned around and ran back to the door.
"Get inside," she said with haste. Thorn barely had the door open before Dusk pushed her and Luna inside, the keyboardist and guitarist falling to the ground. Dusk rushed inside, shut the door and locked it. She braced herself against the door and expected the worse.
But the worse never happened. She heard the guards run past the door, likely heading to the storage room. She slumped to the ground, back against the door, and sighed. The cultists knew they were missing and Dusk was certain that it was only a matter of time before they were discovered.
The drummer stood up and cracked open the door. They were in the clear…for now.
"Alright get up, we need to move," Dusk stated.
"They know we escaped," Luna gasped.
"We're dead," Thorn wept.
The blonde rubbed her temples and angrily sighed. The stress starting to get to her. They were like two hapless children that she had to carry around, and their inaction was only causing more problems. "Can you two cut it with that shit!? You both need to pull up your big-girl pants and do something productive with our situation."
Luna and Thorn glanced away from Dusk before Luna spoke. "We need a better plan."
Dusk snapped. "Well Kim we don't have better one and we don't have time to sit around and come up with a new plan. So unless you secretly have something else, you can just shut up and follow my lead!"
Luna lowered her head.
"Don't talk to her like that," Thorn said between sobs.
"Sally you need to stop with the self-loathing because your guilt trip is going to get us all killed!" Dusk shouted. "I need you to be that badass witch who fought Matella. If you're not going to do that, then like I said to Kim, you can shut up and follow my lead."
Luna and Thorn slowly got up, both taken back by Dusk's outburst. The blonde sighed; she couldn't recall a time when she lashed out at her bandmates so harshly. It pained her to do so, but Luna and Thorn needed to hear it.
"I'm sorry," Dusk said while lowering her voice in an attempt to calm herself down. "I know neither of you are taking this well, but I can't keep dragging you guys around. I need you two to get your heads in the game so we can survive this, okay? We can cry after we escape."
"No you're right," Luna said. Her voice was softer, almost like a whisper. "We have to stay calm and focused."
Dusk looked at Thorn. There was so much pain behind her emerald eyes and Dusk pitied her. She knew what that was like as memories from long ago trickled into view; Dusk quickly brushed them aside and focused on surviving their present ordeal.
"I'll…I'll try," Thorn said wiping her eyes.
Dusk smiled. That was all she could ask of her.
The blonde led them out of the room. The hallway was still empty, so they ran. They ran as fast as they could past the intersection, past mysterious rooms and derivative halls. She could see the end of hall, where it intersected a perpendicular one. They were so close, all they had to do was find the switch and sneak past whatever the Revelation was.
Dusk looked behind her to make sure her friends were there. She gave them a wink; everything was going well. Unfortunately, Dusk didn't see the last door on the right open nor did she see the hooded individual step out. The cultist also failed to see the running blonde girl.
Dusk found herself on the ground and her head hurt. She groaned and slowly sat up. Oh shit. In front of her was a cultist trying to stand back up. She quickly eyed the knife on his belt and noticed that the cultist reaching for it.
Acting more on instinct than rational thought, Dusk climbed to her feet and charged at the cultist, tackling him to the ground. She punched the cultist's face, a move she instantly regretted. Her bare fist hit the metal mask and she reeled back in pain clutching her throbbing hand. Grunting, the cultist shoved Dusk off him and drew his knife.
"I could use some fucking help here!" Dusk shouted from the floor as the cultist lunged at her with the knife. She managed to roll out of the way and his momentum made him stumble past her. Dusk scrambled to her feet as the cultist swung back around with the knife raised. In downward swing, he tried to strike Dusk but the blonde managed to grab his arm and she held back the attack. But the cultist was strong and he pushed her against the wall.
"HELP!" Dusk yelled as she struggled to keep the knife away from her.
Dusk watched as Thorn panicked and thrust her arm forward. The blonde gasped as she and her assailant were hit with a tremendous force. This must've been what getting hit by a car felt like as Dusk and the cultist were hurled down the remainder of the hall like a pair of rag dolls before coming to rest mere inches from the wall.
"Fuck Thorn! You're causing more harm than this asshole is!" Dusk shouted as she rubbed her now bruised thigh. As the pain slowly subsided, she noticed how close her head was to the wall. If she had collided with the wall at the speed Thorn launched her…Dusk shuddered.
"I'm sorry," Thorn cried as she covered her face and turned away from the fight.
Dusk sighed. Thorn still wasn't thinking clearly and if she didn't start soon, Dusk wondered if deranged cultists were the greatest threats here.
The tug of her leg reminded her that the cultist was still dangerous. With her free leg, she kicked him in face, knocking him back. But the cultist recovered quickly and rearmed himself with the knife. He made another lunge and once again Dusk was able to catch his arm. But unlike last time, Dusk was on the ground and the cultist used his weight to his advantage. Her arms buckled and the knife fell closer to her chest.
"Luna! Can you help me!?" Dusk screamed as the knife fell closer to her.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Luna mumbled as she pulled on her hair. The cultist had Dusk pinned and Thorn was a trembling mess after her magical mishap almost gave their periled friend a serious head injury. I don't know what to do. She couldn't hold herself in a brawl and she didn't have any magic or weapons. She felt completely useless. She anxiously looked around in search of anything that could possibly be of use. And then she spotted it.
Next to the doorway the cultist had emerged from was a metal trash can. This isn't going to work. She didn't have time to weigh the pros and cons of weaponizing a trash can. She sprinted toward the can and grabbed the round, metal lid.
She ran to her friend and with one strong swing, bashed the cultist in the head with the lid. He shouted and his grip on Dusk loosened.
"Fuck you!" Dusk yelled at the cultist as she kicked him in the groin. The assailant screamed in agony and fell over, writhing in pain. The blonde climbed to her feat.
"Thanks Captain America," Dusk teased. Luna still wielded the dented lid like the aforementioned comic book hero. She rolled her eyes and tossed the lid aside.
"Do you really need to make jokes at a time like this?" Luna said.
"Yup," Dusk replied grabbing the cultist's knife. "But if you want to get serious, we need to kill this guy."
Luna was shocked at how quickly Dusk went from irksome teasing to suggesting murder. She watched as Dusk knelt down and prepared to slit the cultist's throat. Yet the sight before her didn't trouble her. If anything, it calmed her and she almost felt like she was enjoying it. She did nothing but watch as Dusk went in for the kill.
"DON'T!"
Both girls turned to Thorn.
"Please don't," she softly repeated.
"But we can't just leave him here!" Dusk replied. "He'll go get help and then we're screwed."
Luna sighed. "She's not wrong…" The redhead stopped when she realized what she just said. I just condoned murder. She didn't have time to dwell on it as Thorn slowly approached them.
"Please don't." Thorn pleaded. "Don't become them. You're both better than that."
Luna had to give Thorn credit for sticking to her Wiccan principles despite the circumstances. As Luna had showed herself, she couldn't do the same with her own morals. She and Dusk jumped right to murder when they had the advantage, just like the cultist. Luna sighed and lowered her head in shame. Am I really this bad?
Dusk bit her lip and shot glances between the cultist and Thorn.
"Damnit!" Dusk threw the knife down the hall.
"Alright," Luna said trying to reduce the tension. "We can't just leave him here. We should tie him up." She and Dusk both looked to Thorn.
"Capiō," Thorn sighed before shying away from the man. A pair of green rings formed around him, ensuring he couldn't use his arms or legs.
"We still gotta gag him or knock him out so he can't call for help," Dusk said. She grabbed the trash can lid and hit him over the head with it. He groaned a few times before slumping to the ground.
"Now what?" Luna asked.
Dusk rummaged through his robes and pulled out a wallet and some papers; Thorn gave her a disapproving look but said nothing.
"He tried to kill me, so I'm taking his money," Dusk grunted as she pocketed some cash from his wallet. She briefly looked over the papers and tossed them away.
"What do they say?" Luna asked wondering if it could provide useful information about the facility.
"I don't know, something about a loan and his witch daughter enrolling into some school," the blonde replied before she stared rummaging through his pockets looking for anything of value.
The redhead picked up the papers and skimmed through them. The first document was a request for a loan from the cult totaling $60,000 which was evidently granted. The second was an acceptance letter for a young witch to Miss Grimwood's Finishing School for Ghouls. Luna raised an eyebrow. Weird name for a school…Luna shook her head and returned the papers to unconscious man's pocket; there were more pressing matters to worry about than some unknown school.
"Shouldn't we move him out of the way?" Luna finally said. "You know, so nobody sees him."
"Hmm. Yeah I guess so," the blonde replied.
The two of them dragged the cultist into the room he came from and closed the door as they left. It wasn't the most effective way to hide someone and he could certainly break out of his confinement if he had silver, but it was their only option.
With the cultist disposed of, the three musicians made their way to the wall where George said there was a hidden door. They searched the wall and they found was a small triangle. Luna tried pushing, turning and pulling the shape but nothing happened.
"I think we need magic for this," Luna said to Thorn.
The black-haired girl sighed and raised her hand to the symbol. Just like the mausoleum, a blue circle formed between the triangle and her hand. She turned the circle and the wall slid away.
"Great work," Luna said trying to cheer up her friend. Thorn looked at the ground and backed away from the door, saying nothing to the redhead.
"What's wrong?" Luna asked.
"Nothing," the Wiccan mumbled. She followed Dusk into the passageway.
Luna grabbed Thorn by the arm and asked Dusk to wait. "No, something's wrong with you."
Thorn pulled her arm away. "Just drop it!"
"No, you need to tell us what's wrong," Luna demanded.
Luna wasn't sure if Thorn was going to cast a spell on her or start crying.
"Fine! You wanna know what's wrong me!? I'm a witch who almost killed her friend! If Dusk was a foot closer to the wall…" Thorn didn't finish the thought.
"But you didn't." Dusk's voice surprised Luna as she stepped out from the doorway. "I called for help and you tried to help me. Despite what I said earlier, I'm not mad at you for that."
Thorn went to say something but Dusk shushed her.
"You made one bad call, big deal; I made the mistake of punching the guy's mask and he could've killed me after that but you don't see me sulking around," Dusk said. "Accept your mistakes, learn from them and move on. Just don't feel sorry for yourself."
Damn… Luna thought. Thorn was also taken back by the blonde's comments.
"Now can we get the hell outta here?" Dusk said turning her back to her friends and entering the hidden passage.
Shrugging, Luna followed Dusk into the unknown, with Thorn close behind. The Wiccan closed the door and released the spell. They were then consumed in darkness.
A/N
Hey everyone. Hope everyone following along is still enjoying the story. Getting out a shorter chapter cause the next couple chapters require some major revisions and a larger than normal overhaul. That said, I still plan to have a post on Friday like usual. As always, feedback, reviews and criticism is appreciated and welcomed.