Chapter 59: A Glimpse of Hell

June 1999

We walked down the hall to the master staircase, heading to the large foyer by the front door. Tayla was already appearing out of the fog coming down the opposite staircase. I peered out the peephole of the front door to see a large group of well-dressed as well as oddly dressed familiars demanding entry to the Gathering. Dread and his guards stood ready, and armed I might add, to prevent anyone from rushing the door. I told Dread “It would be best if you kept them outside, and preferably away from the front door.”

Dread said, “On your order, I will give orders to shoot them.”

“No, only if they rush the door. Then we must hide the bodies. I would hate to have to answer to the police as to why there were over a hundred bodies on the front lawn.”

Tayla looked splendid in her royal robes of maroon, with white ermine trimming, and an array of jewels to make all the other monarchs of the world jealous. I could not help thinking that her European personality matched if not surpassed the majesty and aura of past monarchs she may have known. Her scepter shed its own glow of eerie light. Her crown was the oddest-looking crown I had ever seen. It rested upon a head of full, shiny, and radiant black hair, cupping the Queen’s face. Wings of gold cascaded down around her ears and moved forward as if to protect her face. The jeweled head of an eagle (or something) protruded from the crown in the center above her forehead. I once again smelled the wonderful fragrance I first caught scent of on that first night. Her slippers made no sound as she glided across the floor to Rachel and me. “Shall we go to the coliseum?” She extended her arm out as she intended for me to escort her.

Necro gave us our overcoats to conceal our equipment. We went to the elevators to begin our journey through the Gates of Hell. I had given them that name, as I was surer than ever that they were to be just that. As we began our descent, Rachel and I went into our prayer mode. All our thoughts were to be on the Lord. We spoke aloud, to each other, reciting the Lord’s Prayer, repeatedly. We were soon distracted. As we felt the elevator come to a halt, the icy grip of reality hit us both, with the cold air of the subterranean world embracing us all. That familiar scent that I had smelled before entered my nostrils. I looked at Rachel, her upturned nose indicating she had caught the scent also. The dampness and cold immediately caused us the button up our overcoats. The familiars had already buttoned up, as they were all too accustomed to the bone-chilling dampness here. The overwhelming darkness consumed us all.

Anubis had waited for us along with other familiars that I had become acquainted with. He and the others immediately bowed before the Queen. “All is prepared, your Majesty! Your audience awaits you in the coliseum. I am deeply sorry for their behavior but as your orders stated, we did nothing to interfere. Your troops are deployed to their assault positions, as are the supporting familiars.”

“Rise, Anubis, for your service is to be rewarded my faithful and loyal servant. In each and everyone’s quarters, I have placed a detailed account of your service, and the reward befitting of it. Enjoy my generosity, my faithful ones! Come now, for we have much to do!” Tayla led us to the gates, and as before, she commanded them to open.

Rachel and I both shivered from the cold and from the sound of the rusty iron grating upon itself.

“Tonight, Malcolm, we take a different route to the coliseum. You’ve never been this way before.”

We traveled about a half hour without anyone uttering a word. It was eerie. The silence of the underworld is ear shattering as your thoughts alone become louder than any voice. We departed from our usual route as before, taking a side passage. Our torches lit the way, yet the darkness was all too consuming. The water dripping from the ceiling and streaming down the walls in faint sluices and rivulets formed little puddles that we seemed to never be able to miss stepping into. The coldness was just above freezing it seemed. Perhaps it was the dampness. After a while, we came upon a torch-lit room, which revealed an elevator shaft. As we climbed into the cage, a generator started up. This ultimately began the descent of the steel caged gondola. It was extremely hard to concentrate in our prayer mode, as there were many distractions. Tayla had not mentioned this route before, as no doubt she did not want my thoughts to reveal it to the wrong minds. I was grateful that there was a shaft available for the escape route. No doubt that this would be the first place my enemies would try to seal off. As we started down, I looked up to see a group of heavy-duty UV lamps attached to the hoist plate above the caged gondola. I smiled. Leech and Moon had done a good job so far. We seemed to have dropped about a thousand feet, before we came to a stop.

“Actually, it is only about five hundred feet. The underworld plays tricks on your mind and distorts your sense of distance. Remember that my friends.” Tayla said casually as she strolled out of the gondola and onto the rocky floor.

Our elevator cage had stopped in a room that was dark, but a faint light from around a corner was visible. As we exited, and turned this corner, I saw a familiar sight. The stone door I had passed through before stood before us. We had entered a level that was even with the Stables of the Damned, bypassing The Crypt Cavern. The reason for this was to prevent our thoughts from leaking to the vampires of the Red Velvet Clan. As we entered the area of the Stables, my nose immediately picked up the smell of dead bodies. The electric lights along with the torches illuminated a glimpse of Hell. I held Rachel’s hand in mine, as we both knew what we were about to see. It did not take long as we came upon bodies lying on the ground outside of their catacomb like quarters. Their deaths were all identical. An assault on the body by the fangs of super predators, with their blood drained from them. Their attacker had mutilated some of the bodies, while others were not. Some had died while trying to put up a desperate but futile fight against the Black Velvet Clan’s onslaught. This was evident in the positions of some of the bodies clinging to the fencing, while others tried to swing clubs of the remnants of their meager furniture. However, there was no one left alive in the cells carved into the rock. All the doors were open, ripped either off their hinges, or off the chain link fencing torn from the rock in order to mock the Red Clan’s method of conserving the human food supply, as opposed to the Black Clan’s doctrine of annihilation. The slaughter was indescribable, as the stench of death was everywhere. We peered down each corridor of rock as we looked for survivors, hoping there might be some shred of life left. There were no cries, and no begging for mercy. In this place, the only life was our own beating hearts. It was an eerie quiet. Not even the generators made themselves known. I wondered if Julie was among the dead here.

“Malcolm, I do not sense her presence here. Rachel, I make mention of a girl whose name is Julie. Julie is, or perhaps was, a stable human of mine. That means a human being who provides their blood for my clan and me to survive. We had over two thousand down here. My familiars took care of them, much in the same way you would care for dairy cattle. A bit crude, yes, but needful as we felt it was not necessary to kill all our prey. Malcolm met Julie while down here on his tour of the underworld estate. Julie looked to Malcolm for help, and for that, I spared her, and punished the two who almost killed her. No doubt that those two may have come back to take their revenge on Julie and may have even betrayed me as well.” Tayla ordered all bodies burned after the battle. That would be easy enough, as our incendiary charges would burn them, even in here.