~ Jed ~
"This way!" Jilly led us around to the other side of the building, taking off through the trees.
I did my best to keep up, forcing one foot in front of the other, but my lungs burned the whole way. We found her next to an old door built into the ground, ripped vines and dirt debris the only evidence that it'd been opened recently. With Ryan's help, we got it open, and it didn't squeak or protest, like the hinges had been recently oiled.
Inside were steps leading down underground. "It's dark. Should've brought a torch," I frowned.
"I can go back for one," Ryan offered, but I shook my head.
"There isn't time. Just leave the door propped open, we'll do the best we can."
"There's lights on up ahead," Jilly insisted, fairly dancing with impatience at our slow pace.
The moon did provide enough light for us to see the path ahead for a bit, and just when that started to fade, Ryan thought about using his mobile. That provided just enough light for us not to walk into walls when the corridor turned, and then it started to grow brighter from lights on ahead. The corridor reminded me of the ones in the cellar underneath the main building, with low hum of electricity, smell of damp and mold and something else dark and terrible.
We passed a lift and I could've sworn…
"What is it?" Ryan asked in a low voice.
"This is just like the lift I took down from the hidden room. This all looks very familiar. But you said there was some kind of collapse and Warren had this all filled in."
"That's what he said. That there was a structural collapse in the cellar and it had to be all filled in to maintain the integrity of the building."
"This is the same though, this is the same path," I insisted.
"Would you stop being a pair of old ladies about it an get a move on! Gemma's this way!" Jilly spluttered with impatience.
The door was the same one I'd been to before when I found the morgue, only this time it stood open. My heart beat faster, the pain in my lungs forgotten as my stomach seized with dread. My hands clenched into fists, not sure what I'd find inside, but the moment I saw Gemma lying on the examining table, I rushed to her side.
"Gemma," I murmured, checking for a pulse.
"Is she…" Ryan asked at my side.
I was rewarded by the slow but steady beat of her heart. "She's alive, but knocked out with something."
"That's the stuff they shot her up with," Jilly said, pointing to a hypodermic needle on a small tray of surgical instruments nearby.
"Looks like he's got more prepped here for her," Ryan frowned, checking out a tray at the same time.
I saw the tiny pinprick where he'd jabbed her in the neck, a blot of dried blood smeared beside it telling me he hadn't been all that careful with the needle. "We need to get her out of here," I murmured, working at the leather straps that held her down to the table. "Ryan, call an ambulance to meet us outside. Or… should we just get her to the car and take her to hospital ourselves?" The last buckle free, I gathered her into my arms.
"I'll call an ambulance just to be on the safe side," Ryan replied, already pulling out his mobile but just as quickly he tucked it away. "There's no signal down here. Do you want me to help?"
"I've got her," I said, cradling her to me. While my strength wasn't back at a hundred percent yet, I needed to keep her close.
"Look out!" Jilly screamed a warning and a flash of movement in my peripheral vision allowed me to duck partially out of the way, taking the blow on my shoulder instead of my head. I struggled to keep from dropping Gemma, watching helplessly as Warren struck out at Ryan next with a rusty old pipe. In a surprising burst of speed, Ryan darted aside and grabbed for the pipe, the two of them struggling to take it away from the other.
Carefully setting Gemma down out of the way as gently as I could, I picked up the surgical tray and hit Warren upside the head with it. The cheap metal crumpled, but it was enough to make Warren lose his hold on the pipe and stagger back. I threw my best punch at him, hating that I wasn't up to full strength yet. Warren went down, but he wasn't out, merely sat dazed, holding his jaw.
"Hit the bastard again!" Jilly screamed, "Fong him in the head!"
Ryan clutched the pipe, indecision warring over his features as to whether he should attack Warren with it or not.
"Get Gemma out of here!" I yelled at him, freeing him from making the choice.
Flinging the rusty pipe down the hallway, Ryan picked up Gemma awkwardly, but got her out of the room. Jilly followed, leaving me alone with Warren.
"You won't be able to stop this," Warren said, rubbing his head.
"No, you're going to fucking jail," I taunted him right back. "And there will be no more dead girls."
"You're going to call the police? Be my guest. They won't believe you," he said with a smug smile. "I'll just telling them you're having another psychotic break. I'll say I found you down here living out some kind of twisted PTSD episode. You'll be back in a straightjacket before sunrise."
A ribbon of fear went through me at his words, but I shook my head. "It's not just me this time. It's Ryan, it's Gemma, they'll all be able to swear out a complaint against you."
"What, your best mate and the girl you've been shagging? Not very reliable witnesses, I'm afraid." Warren got to his feet, his expression smoothing out from the taunt to something more sympathetic. "Look, this doesn't have to concern you. You want that girl, fine you can have her. I'll find another."
"Doesn't have to concern me? Are you serious? Do you really expect me to turn a blind eye? Like I'd be able to live with myself knowing I'd traded Gemma's life for another?" I scoffed. Now who was the delusional one?
He just shook his head. "You don't understand, you never did."
"No, I bloody well don't. What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you doing this?"
"A sacrifice must be made. I have no choice." His hands came up in a conciliatory gesture.
"A sacrifice to who? To Ba'laam?"
His expression changed, as he was clearly surprised to hear me say that name. "I take it back, you're not as ignorant as I thought."
"About a number of things. Like the fact that I'm your brother."
Warren blinked. "Where did you hear that?"
"Then you did know. How could you constantly try to shove me out of this family then? When I've just as much right to be here as you do?" I demanded to know, and he scowled.
"Kindly save me the bleeding heart claptrap about your birthright. You have no idea what I've had to do for this family."
"I'm starting to. How many girls have you killed, Warren? For what possible purpose? A sacrifice for what?"
"For our family," he hissed, his eyes burning bright. "Do you think building a legacy that lasts is an easy thing? I assure you it is not. There are always sacrifices to be made. This one is just a bit more literal than some. And why not? It's not as though any of their lives were all that important. No one hardly bats an eye that those wretched girls have gone missing."
"And that somehow justifies murder?"
"I haven't murdered anyone," he denied, drawing himself up with indignation. "It's He who does the killing."
"But you bring them to him, don't you?" I stooped and picked up the discarded hypodermic needle that'd fallen to the ground. "Doped up, docile. Too weak to fight back. That's just as bad." Did he not see that he was as much to blame as if he'd slashed their throats himself?
"He needs it," he insisted. "When I don't feed him that's when He starts taking it from others. Don't you see? I've been helping, keeping the other tenants safe."
I had to laugh. "You actually believe that, don't you? As if you're some kind of fucking hero." He'd spent so long rationalizing it in his mind that he'd completely justified his despicable acts. "This whole place needs to be razed to the ground."
His eyes flared wide with panic, but then narrowed, changing tacks, his voice softening. "This is your legacy too. I realize I should've brought you in a long time ago and I'm sorry about that. But there's still time. For years He's fed from the patients here, but now they're gone, it falls to us to feed Him. There are rewards, power, riches, and all He needs is a little misery and terror every now and then, that's all. Take part in this and take your rightful place in this family." Warren held out his hand to me.
"A little misery and terror. That's all." I nodded, choking back the urge to follow Jilly's advice and fong him in the head. "Maybe you're right. It's not too much to ask, is it?" Looking down at the hypodermic still in my hand, I held it up. "Maybe it's time you experienced it from the other side of the needle?"
"What are you doing with that? Put that down," he said, backing away.
"You said He has to be fed. That's the only way to keep the other residents safe," I said, advancing on him, brandishing the needle. "It's a public service, really."
"That isn't something to play around with, Jed." Warren continued to back up, but miscalculated his direction and his back came up against the wall, not the doorway.
"Oh, I'm not playing, brother. I'm deadly serious," I smiled. "You wanted me to join the family legacy? Here I am, participating."
"Don't do this! No…"
I grinned, raising the needle between us. He never even saw my fist coming from the opposite side, and I clocked him right in the face, his head snapping back to hit the stone wall with a thud. Warren slid down the wall, knocked out.
"I might be a bastard, but I'm not half the bastard you are," I muttered, setting the hypo aside and dragging him across the room to the examining table. It took longer than I'd have liked, but I got him up on the table and strapped down with the same restraints he'd used on Gemma. "We'll see who they believe this time," I muttered, leaving him down there for the police to find.
A/N: Well, what did you think? Did Warren get what he deserved? I hate that guy!
~ Feedback is Love ~