Chapter Ten- Labyrinth Horror

Elisa leaped down into an abandoned tunnel that led to the Labyrinth, landing on all four paws. She sniffed the air and found no smell of humans. She proceeded down the tunnel, pausing once in a while to sniff out humans. She found none, but knew they would be some in the Labyrinth: Derek and the Mutates protected them and gave them a safe place to live. But not anymore, she thought.

She reached the entrance and eased herself in. Her appearance received a mixture of surprise and fear. The smell of fear which came from the humans was intoxicating to her and made her want to attack them, but she knew if she tried, the Mutates would attack her to protect them. So, to kill the humans, I have to kill the Mutates. Not a problem.

She moved past the humans, her eyes were now gold as they focused on the winged black panther who stared at her in surprise. Does he recognize me? Or does he think I'm a stray lost wolf who found her way into the city and into the tunnels below? Derek crouched down to look at her more closely. "Elisa?" he said softly. "Is that you?"

She nodded and Derek reached out to cup her lower jaw and gently scratched her chin making her whine in pleasure and her tail swished. Oh, that feels great, but he needs to die. They all need to die. She opened her eyes, jerked back, and bit his hand. He yelled in pain before she ripped out his throat. A feline scream sounded and Elisa leaped aside to avoid a twin blast of electricity courtesy of Maggie and Claw. She faced them, growling and snarling, her survival instincts surfacing: Killing humans was easy as her speed and strength enabled her to kill quickly and efficiently. But, not this time, at least not quickly. Her prey were able to protect themselves and keep her at bay until she could devise a strategy.

Claw fired another blast and hit the ground in front of her paws; clearly a warning shot. Elisa retreated, running into a tunnel that led deeper into the Mutates' home. She heard the rustle of their wings and the pounding of their paws as they gave chase. She came to a brief halt as two tunnels faced her. Two directions. Perfect! They'll likely split up to find me and that'll give me the chance to kill them. She chuckled low in her throat- more growl than snarl before spreading her scent in front of both tunnels before taking the left.

Maggie and Claw raced down the tunnel, the former's eyes actually glowing with anger. She couldn't believe Elisa killed her Derek, the one she loved and who had convinced her to stay as she was. It seems the werewolf nature got to Elisa. She's killing whenever she pleases. Well, we're going to capture her and imprison her just like what we're doing to Fang right now. The two cats stopped before two tunnels and Maggie groaned inwardly. Which way did she go?

"Claw, take the right, I'll go left. Lucky for us both tunnels are dead ends. Take her alive and hopefully we'll get answers in the morning." Claw nodded and the pair split up.

Maggie crept down the tunnel, her cat's eyes giving her excellent vision. The scent of wolf was strong which meant Elisa took this tunnel! I've got her now. She'll pay for killing Derek.

She came to the end of the tunnel and blinked in confusion. That's strange. She's got to be here; her scent's very strong. Suddenly, she was tackled from behind and she hit the ground face-down. Her hands crackled but they faded and she screamed as teeth latched onto her neck and bit down hard, killing her.

Elisa pulled back before running her claws across the neck, breaking the bones to insure she was dead before leaving the tunnel, sticking to the shadows in case Claw heard the scream and came running. She had almost reached the entrance when she heard someone coming. She crouched behind a rock and watched as Claw cautiously entered, his fists sparking with electricity. He passed her position and she inwardly smirked: Clearly canines had a sharper sense of smell than cats did. She slowly came up behind him, crouched down, and leaped high, hitting him between the wings. He fell forward and Elisa brought her paw around and slashed his throat, severing the jugular and the arteries. Claw hit the ground and bled to death.

Elisa headed out of the tunnel and back to the tunnel heading to the living area. She found it interesting that when faced with attacking and killing the Mutates, her eyes remained gold; only when killing humans did the eyes glow and turn red. And speaking of the humans, she thought as she entered the area. Her eyes turned red and glowed as she growled at them. There were screams and they started to run. Elisa selected the largest group that was running and chased them down. She managed to corner ten of the fifteen humans of that group at which point the butchering began in earnest. She slashed, bit, tore, and rent to her heart's content and gave a loud joyous howl once they were all dead. She then proceeded to eat not one, but two humans.

She emerged from the Labyrinth hours later, licking her chops and laughing in that growling/snarling way. She had hunted down more humans after killing and eating that large group. She had eaten one or two of each group she killed as she burned energy and calories from her transformation, her stalking, running, and killing. She had even found a way to kill Fang who had been trapped behind shock-proof glass. It had been a very productive and very satisfying evening. She looked forward to tomorrow and hoped she killed almost as much as she did tonight.

She started trotting home, thinking about where she would like to hunt. Hmm, the park is always a good place to hunt as is the slums section of town. Of course, I'll go after any homeless people I come across as well as any just walking around. She reached her apartment building, quickly bounded up the fire escapes, and landed on the roof. She came around to enter her apartment and stopped. Her way in was blocked by four gargoyles: Brooklyn, Lexington, Angela, and of course, Goliath. The clan leader stood in front of the other three.

"Elisa," Goliath said in a firm, stern, no-nonsense tone. "Stop all this violence. We heard what happened at your parents' place. I don't know if you're in control or if there's a wolf you in control. If it's the latter, you need to fight back. All this senseless killing is not who you are. Do you hear me?"

Elisa made a show of blinking several times, shaking her head, and jerking her head up to stare at Goliath with wide shocked eyes. She slicked her ears back, tucked her tail, and made whimpering sounds to indicate remorse and horror.

Goliath felt his heart and demeanor melt at seeing his mate come back to her senses and showing that her action's horrified her and she felt ashamed. He crouched down in front of her and scratched her chin. "It's all right, my love. You're in control now and you won't be killing anymore, right?"

Elisa whined and nodded once Goliath removed his hand. She headed for her apartment, the others moving aside and following Goliath into the sky once they saw Elisa head for her bedroom.

The moment she shut her door, Elisa snarled in anger. Now, the clan was poking themselves into her affairs. They believed she couldn't control herself, but the notion that they could tell her to stop killing was insulting!

Why is everyone trying to stop me from killing!? I love killing, eating, and being dark, cruel, and vicious. I intend to kill tomorrow and will avoid the clan's attention. Then, a day or two later, I will kill them and the Xanatos family to while I'm at it. After all, they know my secret and sooner or later, they would involve themselves in my affairs.