Chapter 11 – The Passage

Claire's POV

They stood before the passage – that was what Amelie had called it when she told the group how to get to the exit of the building. It just looked like a door, camouflaged into the stone, but a door nonetheless. There was even a handle, though Claire was certain that it wasn't as easy as that. It was probably a decoration, or a way to bring hope to the people that may be lucky enough to find the escape when they are down in the Crypt.

We hadn't; Shane, Eve, Michael, not even Oliver. I had been unconscious most of the time, but I had been the first to wake up – with poison in her system at that – and she had had a look around, but she also did not see or discover the channel. So when Amelie had returned to her old self and come to rescue us, she had helped everyone see the roof of the Crypt for what it really was; our escape.

I had been updated on all of the things that I had missed while being unconscious, and I was beginning to take in what they had told me. Sam and Morley, Morley being the vampire that had been threatening to kill Amelie while possessing Myrnin's body, were still inside of Amelie and Myrnin. Amelie had explained that they were being suppressed by the poison that was now in both Amelie and Myrnin's bloodstreams; Amelie had drained me of the poison that Sam had put injected into me, and I had plunged the syringe containing the same poison into Myrnin's vein before he could kill Amelie – or, more accurately, before Morley could kill Amelie.

"You are always our saviour," they kept telling me. "Even when you're unconscious, you help, even without knowing, you save lives." But I didn't believe that, I couldn't believe that. While they had been either not in control of their bodies or waiting to starve to death in the Crypt, I had practically been sleeping through it. I had been at peace when all of the others had been trying to grip on to a slither of hope, fighting to hold on, to survive.

The thing that hadn't been talked about was how this event actually occurred in the first place. While they had told me about the fact that Sam was possessing Amelie and that Morley was possessing Myrnin, they hadn't said anything about what Amelie – what Sam – had said when Eve, Shane, Michael, Myrnin, Oliver and I had gone looking for the journal to find some sort of lead involving the disappearance of Amelie.

"I am Sam, Amelie's former lover." I had no doubt that there had been many questions asked when Amelie had come back to herself, but she obviously hadn't answered them yet because I knew that they would have told me already. They were being lenient with Amelie, giving her time to do whatever it was she would have to do. And anyway, getting out of here was the focus of today's events, not some ancient vampire gossip.

"So, how did you say you open it again?" Shane asked, his brows creasing together.

Amelie let out a dramatic sigh. "I am the only one here that can open and close it, apart from Myrnin, of course. I, though, have had more experience with opening this in the past." She coughed and quickly moved on before anyone could interject. "All I need to do is say a sequence, prick my hand, and drop my blood on the floor in front of the passage." So she did exactly what she said she would, the sequence being the humming of a tune, and the door opened.

"Well, that was easy," Eve said.

"Could it be too easy?" Michael asked.

Amelie turned to face the others, "This is the first time in thousands of years that I have used this while being in control of my own body. But this is how it has always worked." She turned away again and walked through, gesturing for the rest to follow.

Shane's POV

It wasn't what I had expected at the other side of the passage. In my mind, I saw bars and chains, blood and corpses. I smelled death, pure and clear, and I heard screams that came from every direction. This seemed more like a hospital, not one that sold blood bags to vampires or collected a pint of blood from the humans of the town for tax; this seemed like a normal hospital, for normal people. It smelled the same, the usual medical smell that you would expect when you enter a mainstream hospital. The same colour of walls, as there was colour. They were a nice light blue that seemed to make you smile even though you didn't know what you were smiling for.

And from where I had just been, from where we all had just been, this was like walking into another universe.

We walked through a few corridors that, if we turned to go back, I wouldn't be able to find the passage to the Crypt again on my own for all of the different directions that you could turn every time you were faced with a dead end.

Then we came to a stop, and there was no alternative direction – not even a direction at all. There was just a door. A door that had a blank plaque screwed into the wood.

Unlike all of the other plaques that we saw when passing all of the different doors in the all of the different corridors, this was completely empty. No writing, not even any scratches.

Amelie pushed on the handle and the door opened. Behind it was a hall – a big hall; one that contained pillars and curtains, a nice wooden floor, and grand wallpaper. It didn't have any furnishings, though. No place to sit, no place to rest a mug of coffee.

But it did have people. It had lots of people. And they stood in a triangle formation that consisted of about one hundred bodies – which only took up the first quarter of the room.

"Who the hell are you?" I demanded, facing the two men that stood at the front. But I already knew. They had been working for Sam and Morley, and now they were getting their revenge.

"You don't recognise me?" One of the two men at the front asked, the fakest look of betrayal crossing his features.

"You work for Sam and Morley," Eve stated, clearly annoyed.

"Close," the other man said. He was as enthusiastic as a dog being given a bone.

"We are Sam and Morley." And after giving it a few seconds to sink in, the man on the left continued. "You didn't think we would let you go without a fight. Oh, what am I saying? Of course you would! You haven't yet heard the big secret. Amelie's secret."

He turned to face the man that had spoken before. "What do you say, Morley?" So that was Sam. "Should we tell them?"

The man that was apparently Morley looked Amelie straight in the eye. "I think we should let her do that."

And two women came from behind a curtain to the right of where we stood, and once they were set on the ground and Sam and Morley were seated, Sam twiddled his fingers in an evil sort of way which matched the sly expression on his face. "Where is the popcorn? I think I'm going to enjoy this."