Chapter 14: The Labyrinth Arena
Sally and Annie ghost through the halls together, spending two or three minutes in each room to check the faces of every 'wolf in the cages. Annie was faster than Sally, her skill as a ghost was a bit more honed than the American's. But as long as she left some dust, the other girl had little trouble catching up. Sally understood it now- she understood that the British girl's devotion to her housemates was different from how Sally felt toward Josh and Aiden. It was obvious that Annie thought of George as a brother. It was also obvious that Annie thought of Mitchell as a lover.
The latter was a topic that Sally sorely wanted to ask Annie about. Foremost, how is it a non-corporeal individual could be in a relationship with someone she couldn't touch, or hold? If it was possible for a ghost and a vampire, maybe it was possible for Sally and a werewolf.
'A question only pertinent assuming we can find the werewolves in the first place,' thought Sally suddenly.
She then realized that her werewolf of interested couldn't see her or hear her, and that put an even colder dampener on this fantasy arrangement. They ghost into one of the last pens and instantly came face to face with Thom, slumped in the corner of his pen with his arms crossed over his chest looking unhappy. Blood littered the floors of the already filthy room and Annie panicked. "What is he doing here?" the British ghost jerked.
The other few wolves, maybe mostly new, started getting fidgety when the two ghosts suddenly materialized in the place where the fight had recently ended. Those not familiar with ghosts started whimpering. Others made unpleasant faces.
"Thom?" Sally started, equally surprised to see him alone in the vampire cages. "Shit, he can't hear us..."
But the wolf had pricked his ears up and listened again. He must have taken the cues from the other werewolves, their fear still heightened from the battle between the legacies and their captors. "Sally?"
"You can see us?"
He concentrated as if her voice was far away despite the fact that she was touching the silver bars of his cage.
"I can't see you. No, but I think I can hear you."
"Don't speak to them!" someone from another pen hissed, "They'll bring more of those other monsters here. And I want to get out."
Thom gave the old man a sharp glare then scanned the room for signs of the ghosts, "Is Annie with you?"
("I said don't speak to them!")
"Yeah, she's here. How can you hear me? Not that I'm complaining, or anything," Sally and Annie crouched by his cage and he inched closer to them till he was nose to nose with the girls.
"I'm coming down from a battle lust, I think. Don't whisper, you're not very clear."
"Sorry!" then Sally and Annie jerked when the old man hissed them to be quiet. "Aiden and Mitchell are trying to get Josh and George out of here. We can tell them where you are and get you out too."
"Hope has me covered; you don't need to worry about me." He pressed his body against the bars and strained to listen, "Where is George?"
"Could ask you the same question," stated Annie glumly.
Thom didn't seem to understand so Sally said, "We were just looking for him too. I didn't think you would be separated after the way they took you. Olfaq isn't telling us anything. That and we have another problem."
"Don't you guys have enough problems?" groaned Thom unpleasantly.
"If I could have told you earlier I would have. But it's possible that Mitchell is under the influence of Snow, and that we have to stop him from killing someone in the family."
"Oh, right," the werewolf rolled his eyes as if this were a casual event, "Of course: It's not a complete drama without crown battles."
"This is not a joke, Thom. If Aiden can't protect the family, Josh and I are going to be screwed. And if Mitchell doesn't complete his objective, then George and Annie are screwed."
"What am I to do about it?" Thom responded, though with much less venom than his normal retorts usually contained. "Has Fangs tried finding out who the target is?"
"Yeah, and we have no idea..."
"Well if Mitchell has not made a move yet, and it's already three weeks after his arrival, I'm willing to bet it's someone who is planning on being here, but isn't yet."
"Another Old visitor?" Annie asked, looking at Sally. The other shrugged, and admitted it's possible. "Who else is planning on attending the entertainment next week?"
Sally thought of it then said, "Aiden didn't mention many, but he did say that the only vampire who was equivalent to Snow would be some big-shot from the Myan days."
"Indian?"
"Native American," growled Sally, still striving to be politically correct. Then something dawned on her, "Come to think of it, a few weeks ago Mother had me in her office and I saw a letter addressed to the Great One."
"The Great One?" Thom repeated, his eyes narrowing deeply. "Really?" Then under his breath he snorted, "I get it: 'Mother'..."
"Yeah, do you think that maybe that's his name? If Mother is willing to spend the time and be on written-correspondence-terms with this Great guy, then he must be important."
Thom didn't respond and instead started scrambling around his cage looking with renewed enthusiasm for a way to escape his enclosure. Annie took this as a good sign. "We can tell Aiden who to watch when it comes to the time."
"Sally," the punk 'wolf inturrupted, "where is Mother's office?"
Sally balked, she tried to gage what expression was on Thoms face, but he wasn't even looking in her general direction. So she said: "Back at the Halloway Hotel. On the third floor. Why?"
"Right." Thom looked disappointed for a second then just shook his head. He grabbed the bars and looked seriously toward the space in the pen, "Listen to me: Hope has us under control. Don't worry about me. You need to find and free George and Josh. As ghosts, all you need to do is lock on to something that is spiritually anchored to them, and then the supernatural will lead you the rest of the way."
"Oh, I can do that!" Annie swallowed her excitement when she realized this wasn't the time or place to express happiness. Then she soberly asked, "What are you planning on doing?"
When he didn't hear her, Annie decided to focus her energy on finding George and crunched her brow as she stood in the middle of the pen, her whole being shaking with concentration. There, Annie was left alone to find the werewolves with her supernatural senses. So Sally repeated the question and Thom just shook his head.
"I think I'm losing my blood lust both of you are getting hard to hear. Sally, if I can't get out of here after all, I need you to do me a favor."
"We'll get you out," Sally insisted, suddenly realizing she should be worried.
"Promise you'll do this for me anyway. Pass a message on to Hope for me as soon as you see her. Say: 'Alda went ahead. She should meet us again when we're done here.'."
Sally waited, "Is that all?"
"It's very important Sally."
In the background somewhere, Annie said she had found them.
"Okay okay." Sally wrapped her ghost fingers around his bloody hands and said: "I'll do that."
Thom looked confused for a moment and he searched for her again. When she repeated the promise, and he didn't respond again, she knew he couldn't hear here anymore.
"I trust you," he added to the empty space.
"I won't let you down." Then Sally took Annie's hand and looked sadly at the caged werewolf. He didn't say anything to her so Annie took them off in the blink of an eye.
After a minute, the grouchy old man grumbled: "They're gone now."
Thom pressed his lips together, a little disappointed. Then he said: "Yeah. I know."
It was then, the dark and impressive silhouette of the entertainment guild filled the front door. All the wolves cowered, but for some reason, Thomas couldn't help but smirk.
"Well, if it isn't the 'butler'."
- - - -{Elsewhere}- - - -
Josh and George paced in identical circles around their luxurious vaulted room. The silver handle was bolted in from the outside, and there were no windows. There couldn't be any windows, since they were three stories underground. Despite being there for hours, they hadn't even touched the snacks in the mini fridge. The two 'wolves were effectively prisoners in a gold plated bedroom.
"At least it's better than the first accommodations they had me in," noted George with a shrug. Josh and he exchanged looks then resumed their pattern around the carpet. Both of them jerked when Sally and Annie appeared at the front door.
"George!" Annie flew to the werewolf's side and swallowed him in a warm and protective embrace. Sally and Josh looked at them for a moment in shock before Sally tried to wave her hands on Josh' shoulder. The young man looked visibly violated and he shuddered as her being passed through his blood stream.
"You're going to have to teach me how you do that," Sally said to Annie when she finally disconnected from the captive. "And how is it those vampires at the house could touch me. I'm dead. No touching."
"It's got something to do with confidence and supernatural strength, or something," And Annie didn't elaborate. Sally didn't suspect she knew the details herself. So she didn't pursue the issue.
Must be nice to touch and be touched.
"We've got to get you out of here." Sally said, "Olfaq wants to fight the two of you next week."
Josh made a jaded expression, but this news shocked George. He'd never been to the Cage, and he assumed the worst. "Where's Mitchell?"
"Beating the snot out of Olfaq, last we saw him," Annie looked reluctant to leave George again, so Sally volunteered. She disappeared in a cloud of ghost, and Annie stood adamantly by George's side.
"You should have gone with her."
"Yeah," Annie had thought the same thing and she looked woefully at her roommate.
"I'll be fine. What kind of trouble can I get into in a fancy four-star crypt?" George shrugged.
Annie gave his hand a squeeze and then blinked out of sight. Josh and George didn't know what to do from there, but the hope was already filling in and the British man decided he could relax enough to at least sit down. Then Josh suddenly realized, "We have to get out here before the fight."
"No shit, Sherlock," started George irritably.
"I mean, next week my girlfriend gives birth!"
"Oh." George suddenly remembered and felt sheepish for forgetting. "Yeah, huh?"
- - - -{The Labyrinth}- - - -
Hettie wasted no time to throw the little girl head first into the labyrinth. With her hands still tangled in silver chains, Hope landed bottoms up on the blackened concrete, her reflexes only barely sharp enough to brace her fall and protect her face. The little wolf tried to use her lip to push dry blood off of her nose as she sat up.
"Can we let them in now?" The little vampire whistled, turning upon Olfaq as if he were about to give her Christmas presents.
"I'll go speak with the new 'wolves presently," and the dark skinned vampire bowed his way out of their presence.
Aiden remained locked-jawed behind the Old One, sure that Hettie's desire for entertainment far outweighed his ability to charm her into satisfaction. Not for the first time in the last hundred years, the dark haired nurse was glad Mother was blasé enough about those she considered inconsequential. Hattie saw ants and wanted to watch them burn.
Hope was shaking the silver off of her wrist and gingerly unwound the chain around her neck- the silver had left a streaky green black welt encircled around her skin like a rotting pattern. She touched it gingerly and recoiled when her little dirty fingers dug into melting flesh. Then the tween took her her hand inside the relative saftey of her knitted sweater sleeve, picked up the chain, and tossed it into the corner of her section of the maze.
For the most part, the top of the labyrinth partisans was barely 10 meters below the bleachers, and the tops of those walls were only four meters high. It was a two acre playing ground that the Cage had designed for special events during the '20s. Usually for Vampires in the mood for human hunts, the popularity of that entertainment rivaled Wolf fights during Prohibition. Olfaq had limited the maze events to once or twice a year now, since it was becoming harder and harder to find enough cheap meat.
Hettie's convoy were already getting eager, some were excited enough to have dropped fangs. She counted them, at least two fangs were old enough to smell like cinnamon. And a dozen or so more who accompanied Hettie like disposable toys. Even for an Old one, she had a large harem. Hope chuckled under her breath, thinking of all the wonderful things she could do to young fangs.
A few of the local hires were starting to gather curiously. Olfaq must have had dozens under his employment, maybe more. And with the upcoming entertainment, many of them were there manning the pens that night. In all there were about twenty to thirty vampire custodians in the Cage.
Hope could sense all twenty werewolves in the pens around her. She concentrated on their aura. She breathed in their mystical presence and she forced her heart to pump that blood loudly through her body. She could build a hunt just from their smell alone. And she felt a strength fill up her fingertips, seal up her wounds, and charge her senses.
From nowhere, Sally materialized behind Aiden and the vampire tried not to jump. Even Sally seemed a bit surprised as to where she had appeared. Then she saw Hettie, who made a grimace as if to say 'I know you'. But when Sally saw Hope the panic filled her face and before anyone could say anything, the free-spirit ghosted herself from the balcony to the arena floor and reached out to the little child. "What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?" repeated Hope, a little stricken by her concern.
"Did they hurt you? I mean, duh they hurt you. God," Hope waved away her concerns so Sally replied, "I'm looking for Josh and George."
"Did you find them?"
"Yeah, they're under the main lodge, not at the pens," Not knowing why, Hope looked southward to the cages and the pens. "I also saw Thom."
"Right, he's the reason I'm here in the first place."
"He needs your help. I want to help him but I can't so you need to help him!"
Hope just chuckled, "You two are hopeless."
Confused, Sally took a beat and half intrigued fished: "What do you mean? Did he say anything about me?"
"I'm standing in a bloody vampire arena, and you can still gossip?" Hope shook her head and sighed 'adults' before saying, "I've run with Thom for years now. And he's never once opened up to someone the way he's opened up to you. You made a difference in his life, Sally—and he's never even met you."
Sally hesitated. It was odd to hear something so desirable, in a time that was so un-desirable. Then she shook some sense into herself: "Wait. What is going on? Where is Mitchell? Why is that ten-year-old-terror here?"
"You know her?" Hope looked at the little vampire, who was now arguing with Aiden.
"She broke into my house." Sally looked upset, "My house."
"She's their superior." Hope glared at the other girl and then added, "She's not very nice."
Sally just agreed with her and then tried to beckon the little werewolf follow her. "Come on, let's get out of here."
"Not right now, thank you Sally," Hope shook out the kinks in her shoulder and then wiped some blood off of her nose. "But you should get out of here, and encourage Aiden to do the same."
Sally looked miserably at the redhead as she tied her hair back with a tight band. "You're not seriously going to fight in the pens are you? Whatever the Cage has in store for you, it's not going to be pleasant."
Hope just smiled and repeated, "Get Aiden out of here. Lead him to George and Josh and whatever you do, do not come back through this way. If all goes well, Thom, Alda and I will meet you back at the house in the morning."
"You're just like Thom," Sally complained. Then she remembered: "Oh, Thom wanted to tell you that Alda's gone ahead or something…"
Hope looked deeply troubled for a moment, "oh. Well." Suddenly Sally thought the worst had happened to Alda, what Hope said next didn't ease her feelings. "I would have liked to have her fighting by my side right now."
"You don't mean she's—" Sally would have said 'dead'- but it was that moment, Olfaq approached the vampires pleasantly.
And with his 'professional butler voice', the guide announced, "We have five volunteers."
As if she wasn't prepared, Hope shuffled Sally out of the arena and said urgently under her breath, "Take Aiden and free George and Josh. Now. Do not let Aiden back in here." She didn't seem to used to giving orders to people who didn't obey. For a fleeting moment, Sally found it funny.
"And you, little werewolf," Olfaq ignored the fact that Sally disappeared from the arena to the viewing seats. "Don't think you can get them to rally against us, since I have so thoroughly convinced them you're not human." And his blackened lusty eyes held the remnants of his vampire persuasion and pleasure.
The gates to the maze started to open and there were three that Hope could see directly from where she waited in the maze clearing. One was a giant beast of a man who stepped out of the gate to her left. And an old and cranky man stepped out from a gate to her front right. And behind her, Thom appeared, battle hot on his breath. They had been compelled to fight her and she could smell their hunger.
"Huh," started the tiny little girl as the exceptionally large and violent men closed around her, "Well shit."
And she thought about it, "I guess I'm not human, am I?"