75

Into the Dark

"Once a lean, black-and-white cat edged between his feet and tripped him, overturning at the same time a beaker half full of a red liquid. The shock was severe, and to this day Malone is not certain of what he saw; but in dreams he still pictures that cat as it scuttled away with certain monstrous alterations and peculiarities." – H. P. Lovecraft, "The Horror at Red Hook"

Taichi's mind took a moment to register what he was seeing. It was Tailmon, but the color scheme was all wrong – black instead of white, with purple gloves – and that couldn't be due entirely to the evening shadows. Suspicion followed confusion, and soon crystalized into a certainty that this creature was nothing close to Tailmon. The expression was as far from hers as the coat was. Another second of silence followed his realization, just long enough for the memory of the Greymon in the Server coliseum to flash through his head. "See," he heard Etemon say, "You are surprised!"

That brought anger. This had to have been intentional. Something like his little sister's Digimon. This was a taunt aimed directly at him. He took one lunging step in its direction and stopped, his fists clenched in front of him. The Digimon seemed unconcerned. Even if it had been afraid of him, there was still a distance between them, and surely it could have outrun him if it wanted to.

"Taichi!"

Agumon was beside him, and behind him Mimi and the other Digimon were approaching, Gabumon and Piyomon heading towards their partners, who were coming up from Taichi's left.

"Are you Lilithmon's messenger?" Agumon asked, addressing the black Tailmon.

"If you're the Chosen Ones," it replied. The voice was feminine, and sounded younger than Tailmon's, but with an edge of sarcasm that hers lacked.

"Then, you're going to lead us to her?" Mimi asked.

"That is why I'm here."

"Is it true, then?" Yamato asked, coming to a stop at a safe distance from the creature. "Our friends are there? Lilithmon's got them?"

The messenger looked sidelong at him. They mistook her expression for mockery, but it was in fact genuine confusion.

"That's right…" she said, "Aren't there supposed to be more of you?

"Koshiro-kun and Jou-senpai…" Sora said, pulling out her D-Terminal. "I'll let them know."

"Where's that girl and her Tailmon friend?" the black Digimon asked, ignoring her.

"You—" Taichi took another step forward, but Agumon positioned himself between his partner and the enemy.

"If you're going to be rude, I'm leaving," BlackTailmon said.

"No!" Yamato shouted, startling the others. "Don't – Don't go."

"Doesn't Lilithmon have Hikari-chan and the others?" Mimi asked. BlackTailmon turned her yellow eyes in Mimi's direction.

"She could," BlackTailmon said slowly, thinking about what her masters would want her to say in such a situation. It wouldn't be a good idea to spoil any of their schemes with a slip of the tongue. "They don't tell me anything. But if she does, you'd better hurry up, or there won't be much left of them."

She looked at the mix of anger and fear in the faces around her. She probably shouldn't push her luck any further with people this upset.

"Well, are you coming?" she asked. "I can't be late."

"Koshiro said he and the others were on their way," Sora said.

"Guess I'll have to wait, then. You'd be doing them a favor if you went without them, though. You don't know Lilithmon. I've heard she can kill you in a way that the pain won't stop even after you're dead."

"Lilithmon won't be killing anybody," Piyomon said.

"She's the one who's going to be destroyed," Gabumon said with a nod.

BlackTailmon shrugged. "Whatever. I don't get why you guys want to take a risk like this."

"To stop people from being hurt!" Mimi said.

"And to save the people important to us," Yamato added, grimly.

"What does it matter?" BlackTailmon asked. "Always helping people when you don't get anything back. I just can't understand it."

"Digimon like you never do," Taichi said through gritted teeth. "You're lucky we need you to find Lilithmon. But if we meet again, you won't be getting away!"

"Now, being angry…" BlackTailmon said. "Wanting to kill someone. Now that's something I can understand. I'll remember what you've said, human."

There was a long silence. Neither BlackTailmon nor the Chosen moved as they waited for the others to arrive. Taichi was breathing hard, fighting against his fear-born anger, afraid that another comment or motion might send the messenger disappearing back into the darkness she had emerged from. On her part, BlackTailmon didn't want to provoke any of these emotional idiots into attacking her. They didn't realize it, but she couldn't leave them behind if she expected to avoid the already simmering fury of Lilithmon.

Finally the evening silence was broken by the buzz of insectile wings, and Kabuterimon came into view over the top of one of the buildings. He settled to the ground in the center of the plaza, allowing Koshiro, Jou, and Gomamon to disembark. BlackTailmon tensed at the arrival of the much larger Digimon, but he made no move to attack her, and she relaxed again.

"This is it, then?" she asked, as the wings stopped moving and quiet returned. She looked in Sora and Yamato's direction, and Yamato nodded. He wanted to lash out at her, telling her that this was not all, and accusing her of knowing it, but like Taichi he was afraid of chasing her off. Besides, he was beginning to have doubts about whether he would really find Takeru and the others where Lilithmon was. It was the logical place for them to be, but BlackTailmon's show of ignorance worried him.

"Alright, they're here," Taichi said. "Now where's Lilithmon?"

"Just over here a little ways," BlackTailmon answered, dropping to all fours and shooting off across the plaza, towards the steps that Mimi had descended the previous night in the unwelcome company of Phelesmon. The Chosen wasted no time on hesitation, running at their top speed to keep up with her. Kabuterimon took once more to the sky, determined not to lose the little black Digimon below him.

Every once in a while BlackTailmon would pause so that her pursuers didn't fall too far behind – once at the top of the steps, again at their foot, and again across the street after dodging through the late afternoon traffic. After verifying that the Chosen Children and their partners were trying to make their way over to her, she disappeared into the shadows of the small park that lay between the Searea apartments and the beach.

Of the Chosen Children, Taichi and Yamato were in the front, running across the street with hardly a glance at the vehicles using it. There were some brakes applied as the entire group of humans and Digimon crossed, but the runners never faltered.

In the darkness under the trees they could not immediately spot her. It occurred to several of them that maybe BlackTailmon had only come to yank their chains, and had scurried out of their reach. But as their eyes adjusted to the shadows, they were able to pick out BlackTailmon's own eyes, gleaming in the dark like a cat's.

A tall black object stood beside her, or seemed to, but they could make out none of its details no matter how closely they looked.

"It leads right to where she's at," BlackTailmon said. "No sense in dragging you all over the city when we have Lilithmon's magic."

"What is it?" Mimi asked quietly.

"A gate of some sort?" Koshiro suggested.

"But it's pitch black…" Jou said.

"Where does this lead?" Sora asked BlackTailmon.

"The building where Lilithmon is hiding out," BlackTailmon said. "Don't tell me you're scared to go through?"

But they were scared. Of course they were. They had been scared all day, riding the crest of a wave of fear that had begun gathering speed and power several days earlier. They had been presented with possibilities of what might lie through that portal, but in the end they couldn't know. Maybe their friends were there and maybe they weren't. Before them was the step off into the deep end, a step that the younger Chosen Children had taken that morning… and had never resurfaced.

Then the moment's indecision passed, leaving them ashamed of it.

"We'll go," Taichi said softly.

Yamato nodded.

"We already knew that this was a trap," he said, and behind him the others nodded emphatically.

"Even if the others aren't there," Sora said, "We still have to end this."

"We're right here with you," Piyomon said.

"As long as you've got us," said Gomamon, "What's there to be afraid of?"

A rustle in the branches overhead signaled the arrival of Tentomon, who had devolved to hover by his partner's side. The group of twelve was assembled.

Taichi put out a hand and grasped Yamato's shoulder, squeezing hard, drawing the courage that was his defining trait from the presence of his friends. "Let's go," he said. The six humans and their partners walked into the black portal.

Left by herself, BlackTailmon gave an incredulous smirk and shook her head.

"Idiots."

Their passage through the portal was unlike going through a Digital Gate. It was deathly cold after their run through the muggy summer evening, and with the exception of Gomamon they were all shivering when they found themselves on the other side. The place they now stood in was dark, but was not the pitch blackness of the portal itself, which now gaped behind them.

Exactly where they were couldn't be determined. It could have been any room in any building in Tokyo, uncarpeted and unfurnished. The scant light came from a little bulb plugged into a wall socket, rendered feeble by the size of the room, which wasn't small. The Chosen could just make out two doors as possible exits.

"I smell something, Taichi," Agumon said, the first to break the silence. "It's really weird. I don't know what it is."

"Where's it coming from?" Taichi asked, looking from one door to the other.

Agumon made a growling grunt.

"I can't tell. It's too faint."

"I don't smell anything," Tentomon said, "But I do feel strange."

The Chosen Children could see that all of their Digimon seemed uneasy all of a sudden. They weren't feeling too great themselves, but that was hardly surprising under the circumstances.

"Can't you sense it?" Tentomon asked of no one in particular. "There's an evil power here."

"Should we evolve, Taichi?" Agumon asked, but it was Yamato who answered.

"Let's wait a while," he said. "Until Lilithmon shows herself. If you evolved now you wouldn't be able to fit through those doors."

"Anyway," Jou said, "Which door should we go through? It might be a bad idea to split up."

The others agreed, and without much deliberation they decided to try the door on the wall to their left. The doorknob was of cold silver metal, like what one would expect to find in an office building. Taichi turned it and flung the door open. Agumon and Gabumon rushed into the room, but stopped suddenly as they saw what it contained, and heard the sounds of horror the humans made behind them.

It was clear now, at least, what Agumon had been smelling. Some of the blood had flecked the walls and ceiling, but most of it had seeped off the metal table onto the floor, where it had pooled in half-congealed puddles. Worse was the corpse itself, which had been gashed in dozens of places, and parts of which had been charred as if by an electrical current.

The same thought had come to all of those present, but it didn't take more than a second sickening glance to tell them that they didn't know the person whose body lay before them. It was the body of a full-grown man. What made it so easy to tell was the lighting. The corners of the room were in deep shadow, but track lighting hung from the ceiling, with every bulb shining directly upon the corpse.

While most of the Chosen Children stood frozen with shock, and Mimi covered her eyes and began whimpering, Sora turned away, ready to retch. Incongruously and horribly, a thought of the silly "haunted houses" set up every once in a while at the school popped into her head. Was that what they had walked into? A haunted house attraction that Lilithmon had designed especially for them, where every horror was real? Could they even open another door after that?

Taichi shut the door again, once everyone had retreated into the first room. His legs felt weak, but he didn't want to even lean against it. He looked down at the floor, suddenly nauseous, but looked up when Koshiro managed to gather enough moisture in his mouth to speak.

"It's gone."

At first they didn't understand him. He was looking at one of the empty corners of the room.

"The portal is gone," he said. "We're stuck here."