Chapter V

Escaping the Catacombs

Stella felt that situations were beginning to look up, both figuratively and literally. The tunnel they were in was sloping upwards, which meant they were going the right way. Even so, she was beginning to feel uneasy. Something wasn't right about these caverns but she couldn't figure out what. It wouldn't surprise her if they were haunted, but why hadn't the creature haunting them shown itself yet?

"Maybe it already has, and we just can't see it," Loretta offered.

"Was I thinking out loud?"

"I'm afraid so. But I know how you feel. This place is…disturbing."

"So, you have two friends lost in the catacombs?" Scarlet asked, "That's not good. They have to get out fast."

"Why?" asked Charlotte, praying that her suspicions were wrong, "Is there really something down there?"

"Unfortunately for them, yes there is."

"How long do they have before it finds them, do you think?"

"Oh, it found them the moment they stepped into its tunnels. For their sake, I hope they're almost out of there. Otherwise you probably wouldn't recognize their bodies even if you found them."

"Is it really that dangerous?" Jonathan asked, giving Scarlet a questioning look, "I mean Stella and Loretta are pretty tough."

"Well…are they demons?"

"No…" Jonathan responded slowly.

"Yeah, they're dead meat."

"Wait!" Charlotte interrupted, "Why did you ask if they were demons?"

"Because this particular demon won't attack other demons."

"Then we've got a job for you. Go down there and fight it yourself. If it can't fight back, it can't win."

"It'll still retaliate! And the only way I'd ever have a chance of beating that guy would be if I had a weapon. And even then, he can't be hit!"
She received some greatly concerned glances at this statement.

"What do you mean when you say, 'he can't be hit'?" Alucard asked.

Stella jumped a foot in the air as a knife embedded itself into the wall in front of her. Turning to look at where it was thrown from, she was unnerved to see only an empty wall.

"Loretta, we'd better move quickly," Stella began as Loretta interrupted her.

"Stella!"

"We should try and get out of he—" Stella suddenly felt something wrap itself tightly around her neck. She barely managed to turn her head enough to see who it was that was depriving her of air. What she saw made her shudder. A purple-skinned man had her by the throat in the crook of his arm, holding a razor sharp knife frighteningly close to her jugular. The man had long jet-black hair that was spiked into various knife-like shapes. His face was eerily similar to a description Jonathan gave of a demon called Zephyr. Also similar to Zephyr was his leather armor and the fact that he had knives strapped to his hands. But what frightened her most about this demon wasn't anything involving his physical appearance: Her fear of this creature was stemming from a completely rational fear: All she could see of his body was above its waist. The other half of his body was only showing up as a shadow on the wall.

"Not good," Stella hissed, coughing for air.

He was staring at Loretta with smoldering orange eyes. The expression on his face was nothing less than psychotic.

"Move a muscle," he snarled, pricking Stella with the tip of his knife, "and I'll pull her eyes out through her throat."

"He can melt into the shadows!" Charlotte gasped.

"He's called ShadowStalker. He's Zephyr's younger and much more dangerous brother."

"Should we head down there?"

"No, I can handle this one. I tried flirting with him once. He likes me, but he's a total creep. Besides I don't think it'd make much sense in a bunch of us getting killed. If I die, I still need someone to forcibly castrate Orlok for me. If you don't I swear, I'll come back to haunt you."

Charlotte rolled her eyes, "Sure thing."

"So, you're okay with killing NightStalker because you find him annoying?" Maria asked unimpressed.

"I don't know whether I should be flattered that you're holding me to such high standards, or whether I should call you stupid and leave it at that. Face it! I'm a demon! I do bad stuff! And he's ShadowStalker by the way."

"Okay, sheesh…"

"I'll see you guys later then," Scarlet flapped her wings and dashed off towards the stairs that Charlotte and Jonathan had used earlier.

Loretta was frozen to the spot, and metaphorical or not, the irony saddened her tremendously. She was trying to think of a way to stop the demon from killing her sister when something she couldn't have expected happened. The demon holding her sister captive was attacked by another demon. Shrieking in rage, the knife demon momentarily let go of Stella. That moment was all she needed to escape, knee him in the groin and run back to Loretta's side where she drew her rapier from its scabbard.

"Let's take them both out while we still can!" Loretta suggested.
"I'll second that," Stella.

The second demon suddenly looked up at them with wide eyes, "Wait! I'm on your side!"

ShadowStalker took the opportunity to sink into the shadows. The second demon got up off of the ground. "He's still here, pay attention to any shadows you can see."

"Oh, that's easy, there are only about five flickering torches in the immediate area. Why are you helping us anyway?"

"Your four friends that are topside sent me to find you."

"You're with Jonathan and Charlotte?"

"Yep! I'm Scar—AAH!" The succubus screamed as a knife dug into her shoulder. She pulled away and spun around to face ShadowStalker, a trail of blackish-red blood flowing down her back. The knife demon grinned psychotically and dived back into the shadows. Three sets of eyes desperately tried to figure out where he would reappear; not an easy task considering that there were so many shadows everywhere. They were too busy trying to watch their own backs to be ready for him when he erupted out of the wall, leaping across the tunnel with the grace of a dolphin. He threw three knives at them before coming into contact with his own shadow projected onto the opposite wall by the flickering torches, diving into it head first.

Looking around apprehensively, Stella noticed one of the flickering shadows behaving strangely. Doing her best to appear unaware, she slowly approached the strange shadow. He was waiting for her. But not where she had expected him to be. After she had taken a swing at the shadow, it darted underneath her, and then went in a number of directions before ShadowStalker finally revealed himself, not from the strange shadow, but from a shaded corner of the tunnel to her left. He leaped out of the wall similarly to its previous attack. This time she was ready. She stood her ground and the moment before he hit her…

"Secret Strike!" Stella seemed to flash out of existence, immediately reappearing right behind the demon as he landed and slashing him in the back, opening up a deep gash. But she wasn't done; she never used this particular attack without following up with another. He had already begun to sink into the shadows when she shouted "Furious Wave!" and an immense concentration of wind gathered around her rapier. As she swung it in an upward circular arc, the winds roared to life, manifesting as a wave of tornado strength winds flowing along the ground. ShadowStalker was actually knocked out of his shadow and was sent flying. He didn't get a chance to hit a wall before Loretta finished casting Blizzard Storm and sent another powerful gust in the opposite direction. The ice shards coupled with the pressure of two conflicting atmospheric distortions seemed to be having a devastating effect. Stella's attack dissipated and Loretta's concluded as the knife demon was tossed into a wall by the blizzard. He crumpled to the ground. But when he looked up, his expression only served to unnerve them even more: His usual psychotic grin was still plastered on his face.

"Think you've beaten me do you?" he hissed, "Think again! And do it quick 'cause it'll be the last thing you do!" He cackled maniacally and quickly sank into his shadow. A moment later, a trio of knives came flying out of a shadow on the adjacent wall, all aimed at Stella.

"Sister! Look—" Loretta's warning of conscience was cut short as three more knives embedded themselves in her left arm and shoulder.

"Loretta!" Stella ducked under the incoming knives reflexively but was unprepared for ShadowStalker as he leaped out of the floor, stuck one of his knives clean through her right hand and snatched her rapier—all in the same flawless motion as he entered a shadow on the ceiling. Moments later, the demon's shadow appeared on the cave wall holding what could only be Stella's rapier. There was a noise that seemed to be something like a hiss but that also sounded alike a balloon popping as the demonic silhouette positioned the rapier between its hands end to end and effortlessly compressed it like an accordion, when it was tossed out of the wall, Stella found her rapier mangled and completely beyond any kind of repair.

ShadowStalker continued his knife throwing tactics. And as it was, Stella could only do her best to dodge the knives flying everywhere that were embedding themselves in the tunnel walls. The demon claiming to be helping them wasn't able to move without risking getting her wings pierced, and Loretta was unconscious on the ground. If things continued for much longer, they were utterly doomed. And that was when Stella realized something important.

"Hey, demon girl, can you see in the dark? Like, even if it were pitch black?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"And you're really here to help us?"

"Yes!"

"Good," Stella replied smugly, dodging another volley of knives, "Give me one second."

Stella ran over to a torch, she grabbed it and then ran to another, picking it up as well. She deftly avoided ShadowStalker again as he jumped out of the wall and tried to slash at her with the knives on his hands before letting himself be swallowed by another shadow. She reached the end of the hallway that they had come from, and tossed the torches down the long flight of stairs. By the time they reached the bottom, they provided no illumination to where she was standing whatsoever. She ran back to fetch the second pair of torches and did the same with them; and then there was only one torch left. She took it too, and dodged ShadowStalker again as he came out of the wall. There was no light left in the cavern once she threw the last torch down the stairs. As she ran back to where they were fighting one last time, she ended up stumbling and tripped just as ShadowStalker leaped out of the wall again. That fall ended up saving her life, and the knives aimed at her throat past harmlessly by the back of her neck. The demon prepared to fall back into the wall and—

—Thud!—

Stella grinned savagely. Her plan had worked.

"What! How?" the knife demon cried in terror, his only method of defense seemingly inaccessible.

"Didn't you ever learn that you can't have a shadow…without a light!" Stella cackled.

"W-well, it's not like you can do anything! Understand this: I can see you, whereas you can't see me! And even if you could, you're still unarmed! You still die!" ShadowStalker lunged at her and Stella felt the tip of a knife prick her left breast before it seemed to get tugged away—which is exactly what had happened: The moment that ShadowStalker jumped, the other demon dashed to his momentary position, getting to him right on time. She tugged him around and he spun in a quick wobbly circle. She had her fangs in his neck the same instant.

ShadowStalker's screams would have woken the dead were there any in the vicinity. When the demon girl finally released him from her fangs he was little more than an emaciated husk.

"I think that that's over and done with. If you wouldn't mind carrying your sister, you have a couple friends waiting for you upstairs. Anyway, my name's Scarlet."

"Well, I'm surprised that we were helped by a succubus, but I guess it's nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Scarlet said cheerfully, "Now follow me. I'm kinda playing the part of the delivery girl at the moment, and you two are the packages."

"Do you think they're all right?" asked Charlotte.

"I'm sure they're fine," Maria said, placing a hand on Charlotte's shoulder comfortingly.

"Yeah. Besides, they've been hired for missions on their own before this, haven't they?" asked Jonathan, "Wasn't there that old man who wanted them to destroy a plague of zombies overtaking his town?"

"I thought you guys said that zombies were harmless!" Maria shouted apprehensively.

"They can pose a threat en mass. But it'd still take a lot of them."

"Hey! What are we talking about?" a voice came from around the corner.

"Scarlet? Is that you?" Maria asked.

"Yeah, most of me at least," she said, finally coming into view. Stella and Loretta were following her closely.

"Wow, you had us worried!"

"Yeah, I can imagine. We found some pretty disturbing things down there ourselves. There was also a locked door down there. We think that if we can find a key that might fit we should check back down there as soon as possible."

"I agree."

Alucard cleared his throat loudly, interrupting their conversation.

"I apologize but I feel that it would be a wise for us to proceed. We shall only get ourselves caught by the denizens of the castle if we remain here any longer."

"Where should we go though?" asked Jonathan, "We still haven't found a way out of the garden yet."

"Then I would suggest that we find such an exit," Alucard continued, "If it helps, I will take the lead for the moment. Do you have any objections?"

"Sure, go ahead," Jonathan agreed.

Alucard began walking down the open-air corridor without another word. He was thrown off balance however by an immense rumbling noise in their vicinity. Just beyond a nearby wall, a tower began to rise out of the ground. The sisters steadied themselves against each other; Charlotte and Maria were both plugging their ears, and Jonathan was trying to balance himself with one hand against a pillar. Alucard seemed to be completely unaffected by the quaking of the ground and he simply continued walking. When the world around them finally grew still again, Charlotte seemed to come to a realization.

"I see…so the castle hasn't been fully reconstructed yet."

"So it would seem," said Alucard

"Anyway, I'm off," Scarlet announced, "If I find out where Orlok's quarter's are I'll be sure to let you guys know." Without waiting for an answer, Scarlet spread her wings and flew up to a high window about halfway up the tower.

"We should get moving too," Jonathan agreed, who's up for checking out that new tower?"

"I have no objections," Alucard began, "but I would suggest against going inside there yet. I sense a powerful demonic presence coming from within."

"Then where should we go?" asked Jonathan.

"While you were waiting for the three women to return, I took it the liberty to scout the area. I found another route out of the garden into another part of the castle. It looked lie it might head back to the entrance as well as several other areas, so I would suggest taking this opportunity to restock on supplies."

"Nothing can replace my rapier," Stella sighed miserably, "Father bought me that the day I started learning to fence."

"Wow, that's rough," said Charlotte, "What happened down there?"

"Goddamn knife demon broke my sword. At least he got what was coming to him. What your succubus did to him was brutal. Even when I was a vampire, I don't think I ever sucked anything dry like that."

The moment Stella mentioned her former life of vampirism, Alucard did a double take at her. It was impossible to cure the Vampire's curse. If there were a way to do that, he wouldn't have had to leave Maria three hundred years ago. He kept his questions silent for the time being, but he was determined to find out what she meant when she said that. This wasn't something that he could let slide.

Author's Note: Short chapter, I know, but I didn't want to start on another chapter before on the wrong foot. If I didn't stop right then, I'd have had to stop in the middle of a gag that's coming up early next chapter. I'm just going to admit it: I got the idea for ShadowStalker from the Yu-Gi-Oh card Wall Shadow and the way it was featured in the TV show. I just made it humanoid and slightly more dangerous. Anyway, Oliver is back for the next chapter, just to make sure he doesn't become obsolete.