7.
~ Victory was always sweet. The Monster had been formidable. A true adversary. Not like the Joker who gave into her so easily.
The Queen watched as her pets began devouring the Monster piece by piece. She was still alive as they feed. The blood still dripping wet off the scissors.
Inexplicably, The Queen's gaze was draw to the red door the Monster pointed out. An insatiable curiosity took hold of the demon. She had to see what lay beyond the door. If the women were truly there, the Child could wait. She wasn't going anywhere.
The spider's door was bright red and enticing. Like candy, one was forbidden to have. The scroll work on the door was fantastic and almost story book like. All the Queen had to do was to turn the key, and she would enter the Monster's heart.
The Queen could hear her pets feeding as she turned the key slowly in the lock. Her tall body crouching gracefully down to gain entrance into the dark recesses of the Monster's mind.
The power of the dreamer moved walls and the Queen fond herself standing on a sharp and narrow ledge. The fall below impossibly deep. So far the fall was, that light could not reach it.
The Queen, preserving herself, turned back around. Retreating back the way she came. Feeling nothing but cold slippery stone behind her. The red door leading into the Monster's cave was in front of her now, not behind. The door was not reachable from the queens high precipice. The well was too great. She was trapped.
"Paradox, Bitch." Came the Monster from the door.
The Queen watched in horror as the Monster appeared at the little opening of the spider's door. Her fiery hair and wild eyes gleaming at her from the warm cave into the cold depths of the well the Queen was trapped in.
"How? Your not the dreamer. You can't hijack this dream." The Queen said in her lovely melodic voice. Haunting this place she was now trapped in.
"What makes you think I'm not the dreamer?" The Arabella Marks laughed.
The Monster closed the small red door on the Queen. Leaving her howling in impotent rage. Her screams turning into screeches as the Harpie bloomed, too late. Trapped forever in the darkness with no way out.
~ The Monster turned to the things that hid in the shadows. Cowering before her now like beaten dogs.
"You have a new master now." The Monster growled. They cowered further into the shadows until they vanished. Not even ghosts of what they had been. Nothing was there in the darkness.
The Monster peered over the lip of the well. Seeing the Child helpless in the cold dank well. Her red dress floating all around her. Her dead ghost eye flashing.
"I see you." The Monster said softly.
The Child only whimpered.
"I am sorry, but this is the way it has to be. We can not have one without the other." Arabella said sadly. "So long as you live, so does the Red Queen." The Monster threw over a hidden trap door. Sealing the Child in the well for all time.
"No!" Screamed the little girl. "No! Please! I'll die!"
"I know." The Monster said sadly. "What sweet rest there must be in the grave." She added wearily as music began to play.
~ Arthur sat in the snow next to Ariadne as he heard the music. Not his own wake up music but another's.
"It's done." Arabella said emerging from the hidden depths of the rock maze. The Point Man guarded Ariadne's cold, unresponsive body as the Monster assisted him in placing the defibrillator pads on the Architect's chest.
With a violent jolt, Ariadne was forced back to them. Her body rocking in a sick dance as the electric charge of the machine ran through her.
"Your alright." Arthur shouted as he brought her back to him.
"Arthur." She coughed. Trying to remember to breath.
Her gaze finding a small door she had not noticed before because of the snow fall. The Architect not even seeing the Monster, who had concealed herself in the shadows.
"I know... I think I know where they are." Ariadne breathed. Her blood pumping in her body. Making her feel more alive then ever.
"Go." Arthur commanded. Pushing her to the door. The Architect didn't mind the snow now. Didn't feel the cold or the shadowy depths of the rock maze. She somehow felt powerful and strong. There were numbers and words worked into the face of the tiny door along with the scroll work. The Architect turning the rusted key until the black spider door swung creaking open.
"Ariadne." Arthur said cautiously.
The Architect looked in the dark room behind the door. Two women. Crying and scared.
"I found them." She whispered as the world turned white.
~ The Architect was the first to wake. Her delight at knowing where the women were now caused an exuberant joy to fill her.
"Miss?" The D.A said looking at her oddly as she freed herself from the PASIV machine.
"I know where they are. Their at 1849 Usher St." She said. Her eyes alight with the power of the information.
"Let's go." The D.A said nodding to one of the guards. They started to leave the infirmary. With a the remaining guards to watch over the sleeping Monster.
The Architect grabbed her black wool coat and hurried after the D.A not caring about the rest of the Team who was just returning to the waking world. Ignoring Arthur as he called for her to wait.
~ The Police car raced to the deserted part of the county. An industrial complex and the only building at the address was a disused factory.
"Are you sure their in here?" The D.A asked shining a flash light around the forgotten equipment. Dirt and debris scattered everywhere.
The living had long ago forsaken this place.
The Architect looked helplessly around the factory. They had to be here. Just had to be. Her eyes almost missed it. The door was small and rusty. It had once been black but time had abused it till all the fine scroll work was hidden by grime.
"Here." She said. Reaching for the handle. It was locked fast.
"We, we need to pry it open! Their inside!" Ariadne shouted excitedly to the guard/ The men searched for and brought back a long metal bar that they used to easily pop the handle off. The little door swung open. The D.A shining his light into the hidden room.
"It's black as pitch in there! I can't see." The man said. Shaking his head.
"Give that to me." Ariadne said crawling on hands and knees. She was the only one there small enough to fit into the door. Into the Monster's cave.
It was dark in that place, She could hear things moving around in the depths. She was no longer afraid of the dark. Her rational intelligent mind working and returning to her.
She shone the flashlight over the large room. Darkness was all around her. It was empty. Or very nearly. Something, huddled there away from the light. One of them moved at the sounds the Architect made.
"Miss? Are they in there?" The D.A shouted. His vision obscured by the darkness that was in the room. The Architect's flashlight was flickering like a candle as she glimpsed eyes peeping out behind the shadows. Pale skin, red lips.
Without any fear at all, Ariadne approached them.
"Yes! Their here!" She shouted. "Call an ambulance!" She called out happily.
The two women looked beaten and traumatized. They cried as they held fast to the Architect. Relief at seeing their rescuer.
"It's alright. Your going to be okay." She said soothingly.
She was confident and brave as she sat next to them in the dark. Her old self returning to her. Forgetting that she was ever scared of the the things in the darkness. Forgetting there ever were things in the darkness.
"Were getting you out." She told them.
She was smiling and never felt so happy, when her world went white.