The Dark Messenger (39 page)

And engage it he would. Longinus felt sure
that the lying, treacherous bastard of a slithering little toe rag
was sure to fall into his trap.

-----------------------------

When Longinus had been thrown into the cells
on Day One, he had realised that there were no telepathic thoughts
coming down from the coven above. This had caught his curiosity and
made him think.

Could this in fact somehow be used as a way
for him to escape? But it would have to be at the right time. He
had to time it so that he could rush out the main doors upstairs,
finally free of the putrid stench, as night time began to unfurl
its splendor. Even though he had no watch, his instincts told him
that it was about night time right then.

A dripping sound had come from the next-door
cell, which seemed to always be on cue. Every eight seconds,
whatever it was, dripped. After he’d gotten over the almost loss of
sanity hearing the thing, he had realized it could be used to guide
him like a watch. It was monotonously repetitive, but whilst zoning
out he had counted the drips. This was how he knew that now, if
there was a chance to escape outside, it should be safe to flee.
There would be little to no chance that he could burst out the
doors upstairs and find himself committing suicide, as he ran
headlong into the deathly rays of sunlight.

The only drawbacks had been the damn pangs
for blood and the misty swamp. Could he have been out each time,
just long enough to ruin his counting and without realizing it,
have got the timing badly wrong? Raffious had said they only lasted
a couple of minutes each time though, so with one swamp an hour, as
it had seemed to be, he reckoned that his mental watch was still
somewhat accurate.

-----------------------------

‘Apology accepted,’ Hoidrious said to
Longinus for ignoring him, ‘but the next incidence of insolence
will be punishable by death.’

Longinus swallowed deeply. Raffious chose
this time to open his eyes, curious as to what was going on.

Hoidrious then claimed he had something
extremely funny to show them. He paused for a moment to allow their
curiosity to grow, then told Longinus to remove the arrow from
Raffious’ leg.

Longinus paused, then slowly reached down.
Just as his hand was beginning to pass through the gases coming off
the thing, Hoidrious startled him.

‘Not bare handed you fool. The thing will
kill you. Take this.’ He threw a leather glove through the
bars.

Longinus picked up the glove cautiously, not
really sure he wanted to take it to pull the arrow out, in case
Raffious just left him there on his own. He knew the old boy had
said he would never leave him after all the caring he had done for
him in the cell, but then again Raffious was the reason he was
there to start with. Surely he would just laugh as he vanished—a
cold, demeaning laugh, as on the hillsides of Brighton with
Vius.

Longinus knew his plan for escape involved
Raffious, and wouldn’t work without him.

‘Do it!’ Hoidrious shouted.

With the glove on, Longinus took hold of the
arrow. Looking up into Raffious’ eyes, he whispered furtively to
him, ’Take me with you!’

Raffious blinked twice, a pre-agreed Morse
code between them for “yes”.

Behind them, Hoidrious burst out
laughing.

Longinus quickly pulled backwards and the
arrow ripped out of the old boys leg.

Instantly, Raffious leapt up. He intoned some
words as Longinus stood there gaping, the luminescent shaft in his
gloved hand, glowing.

Dropping the arrow behind him, Longinus
grabbed hold of Raffious, knowing that he was summoning spells and
was just about to leap out of there.

Raffious booted him in the stomach, winding
him. Then he pushed him away.

Longinus had had his suspicions confirmed—the
old boy was trying to leave him there. But as the words were
spoken, Raffious looked more and more shocked.

Hoidrious burst out laughing again, and his
goons joined in.

Longinus grabbed Raffious by the arm again,
desperate to be taken out of there.

Not understanding what was happening himself,
the old boy screamed out, ‘My spells are gone! Nothing works!’ Then
he aggressively ripped his sleeve out of Longinus’ grip and said,
‘Get off, you fucking idiot!’

Longinus was shocked, but Raffious more. All
the time they had spent arguing in the past week about pulling the
arrow out, it hadn’t matter anyway; his spells wouldn’t work.

‘Did you really think I would leave you down
here in the same cell if there was a chance Longinus might pull it
out and both of you then vanished?’ Hoidrious chortled, looking at
his goons.

Longinus was furious. All the caring he had
done and all the bullying Raffious had done to him before in the
outside world, and still, given the chance, the fucker was going to
leave him there. He had just proven it.

Almost bent over double now in hysterics,
Hoidrious was banging the rust-flaked bars of the cell with his
hand whilst stamping a foot. ‘Fucking hilarious, wouldn’t, you
agree?’ His croaky voice stammered. He stumbled slightly as he
stepped backwards, because he found the whole scene so funny.

Kaine reappeared. He was dressed in his
perfectly clean and fully ironed battle gear that Regina had washed
for him. His hair was slicked back and his face was now much paler,
which meant he was feeling a lot better.

‘They are digging again, darling,’ Regina
said, pausing to see his reaction before continuing. ‘I guess
because you decided the answer was no to accepting the offer and
then I told Becky that I had decided I am not going to accept it
either, Heaven restarted time again.’ She was looking quite
worried.

‘Don’t worry about those fools just yet,
darling, as I have some more tricks to come their way.’ At the
alarmed looks he was getting, he hastened to say, ‘And not oxy
acetylene either, so please stop with the looks. I doubt I will
ever blow that up again—damn nearly killed myself with that stuff.’
He laughed.

He then said in a more serious tone, ‘Anyway,
first I want to say that the angel was definitely not Raffious.
Don't ask me how I know, I just know. I also believe we should
concentrate all our thoughts on an escape plan now, rather than
anything else. I'm not overly concerned though, because if we don't
find a way out and they break through the rubble, they have fucked
me off so much with all of this, im gonna fucking kill em all.’ He
said, changing his tone as rage then began to build within him.

Pausing and then adding, ‘And I say this only
once. I want to fight them alone. Sorry Becky, but I can’t be
watching out for you. Nor you, my beautiful wife. I know that you
all have a feeling I'm better off left alone in battle, I'm sure of
that. Well, trust that feeling, because when they start coming up
the stairs I'm going to go absolutely crazy. Walls will get
destroyed, concrete stairs smashed to pieces and used as
weapons…you really don't want to be there, trust me.’

‘What about the dogs?’ Regina asked as a wave
of fear raced through Jenny.

‘I fight alone. They stay and protect you
women, and you hide together with them. Don't worry though, because
I will be coming back. You must not come out of hiding, whatever
you hear. If it sounds like I'm screaming, just think to yourselves
that it is part of a plan. You never come out of hiding, do you
understand, my lovely ladies?’

They all nodded, exchanging worried looks
among themselves.

The noise inside the walls was getting
increasingly much louder now.

Becky remembered back to when she was a
little girl at the orphanage, and there were builders in their
basement. They were digging out the downstairs two floors below
them for the new playroom. They had big machines and there were
lots of men too. She couldn't remember nearly as much noise from
them, or at least nowhere near the same as what she could now hear
coming from these evil vampires, who were also, only a couple of
floors below them too.

‘Jenny, do you remember when we had those
builders digging the basement playroom out at the orphanage? Well
that was only two floors below us in an old building too. We
couldn’t even hear them banging away down there. How come then the
noise is so loud here? We are two floors above the vampires,’ she
said.

‘What are you saying, Becky?’ Kaine asked,
looking at her inquisitively.

‘I don't know, it’s just much louder. Are the
walls maybe hollow in here or something, Kaine?’ she asked, looking
at him questioningly.

Kaine thought about her question for a second
and then had a flash back. He remembered back to when he was doing
a job putting up some shelves in the lounge. The drill he had been
using, had hardly started going into the wall before it had pushed
forwards, as if it had gone into thin air behind it. He had loads
of hassle finishing that job, as he had to go out specially to get
some cavity wall brackets that were designed for hollow walls. At
the time he had asked himself the same question.

Doubting Becky had something but still, he
ran over to the wall and started tapping on it in different places.
Within seconds, his curiosity got the better of him. Stepping back,
he gave the surface an under arm punch from waist height and was
shocked as his arm vanished into a void behind.

Pulling his arm back out with bits of plaster
dropping everywhere, he crouched down and then peered inside.
Waiting milliseconds for his vampire vision to take over, he was
shocked because of what he saw.

‘I can’t believe it. There’s a set of steps
inside that seem to be leading down. Hang on…yes, there’s a
passageway at the bottom,’ he said with a delighted chuckle.

This was perhaps the answer to his
long-unanswered question of how the old cable cars were drawn back
and forth many years before. All the time he had lived there with
his wife, they hadn’t figured it out and it had annoyed him.

Standing back up, he took a couple of paces
back before hurling a frenzied attack on the innocent wall,
punching and kicking it until there was a huge hole that he could
walk through.

‘Well done, Becky!’ Regina said as she looked
across at her. Becky could only grin at her own serendipitous
cleverness.

‘I’m going in,’ Kaine said eagerly, then he
disappeared into the darkness beyond without waiting to discuss
whether he should or maybe shouldn’t go.

‘Why don't you go and help Kaine?’ Regina
said to Becky, knowing that this was a perfect time for her to try
out her new vampire eyes.

Becky glanced across at Jenny as if in need
of approval, and Jenny nodded before saying, ‘Go on then.’

So she did.

Stepping cautiously forwards into the
darkness, she found that as she did, so the blackness suddenly
vanished. Everything was bright all around her, as if somehow there
were lights concealed in the ceiling, or she was outside on a
gorgeous mid-summer’s day.

‘Wow, this is absolutely amazing! I can see
as if it’s daylight!’ she shouted excitedly, like a child getting
the perfect Christmas present.

Regina laughed ‘I knew you would like it. But
hurry—we have no time, so go and try to find a place to hide in
there. Or better still, see if there is another way out.’

Jenny watched as her friend started running
down the stairs, sidestepping fallen bricks from the demolished
wall that were lying precariously in front of her. A moment later,
she could only see Becky’s silhouette, then nothing at all as she
disappeared into the darkness.

Regina put her arm around Jenny and gave her
a little squeeze, ‘Come on, we need to go in there too. You can’t
see, so we have to be really quick and make some torches.’ She
leaned in, a devilish grin on her face. ‘Unless you want me to turn
you into a vampire, that is.’

Jenny smiled back at her, realizing just how
much she had grown to understand her new mate in the short time
that she had known her. If she had said that line to her a couple
of days previously, she felt sure she would have shit herself and
screamed. Now though she knew straight away it was only a joke.

‘Where are you?’ Kaine messaged, pausing for
a second before sending another thought. ‘I can’t believe this! All
these years we sat in the lounge and never knew this existed. The
steps go down really far, then they turn left along a corridor to a
room. Looks like the machinery for the cable car in the valley was
fitted inside here at some stage. You have to come down here,
darling!’

Regina could sense the sheer excitement in
her husband’s mind—like a big kid playing with his new toys.

‘Be there in a minute, just sorting out some
torches for Jenny,’ she replied as she felt the dog’s fur brushing
her legs and realized they were keen to go down too.

‘Go,’ she said as she clicked her fingers,
then smiled as they both charged down the steps side by side into
the darkness below.

‘I sent your boys down,’ she messaged.