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Audrey
As we were about to find out, there wasn’t anything normal about this research station.
Since Katie has a map showing us which way to go, getting to the research station should be easy. Some of my energy has returned, so I have my book shining to light the way around us. Whoever used this place as a mine before left a lot of equipment lying around.
Kaleb breaks the silence, “So, besides Astaroth and Croatoan, do you two think there are any other demons here?”
“There probably aren’t any demons of their caliber here. Although, it is impossible to know. They usually travel in ones to threes, but Astaroth is almost always alone. Nobody knows much about him because any base that sees him is destroyed completely.” Katie says.
“Hmm. Of their caliber? I read about there being different types of demons, but none of the books I had were specific.” Kaleb sounds intrigued.
“There are lesser demons, so it is possible we could run into some of them. Mostly, they are the foot soldiers of their army. Those have been seen less often since they’ve been brainwashing demigods. There is also a medium level for demons as well. Those are more like direct servants that could one day have commander potential. Nobody knows how the commanders are picked, but there are rotations sometimes. I’d say we would be most likely to run into hellhounds or other types of creatures.” Katie explains.
“Do we know who the seven commanders are?” I ask. I’m assuming Lilith is one, but I’d like to know for sure.
Katie nods, “For the most part, we know their names at least. Gluation the soul glutton. Shax the fiery wrath. Legion the envious multitude. Syphos the forest of pride. Then there is Lilith the lustful scientist. They may have monikers of the seven deadly sins, but those titles were only taken from the demons before them. For example, there once was a demon named Abaddon who had the title of the envious swarm. They are really just testaments to the actual seven deadly sins that were defeated long ago. Lucifer’s original commanders.”
She made it sound like Abaddon was dead, but I know that isn’t true. We fought him briefly in Hell. He had been turned into a hellhound. I wonder if there are other powerful beings that met the same fate down there.
“Then, counting Astaroth, there is only one that we don’t know. Wait, so Croatoan isn’t one of the commanders?” I ask shocked.
“No, he is just a servant. We think he serves Lilith, but we don’t know to what degree. He is almost as mysterious as Astaroth.” She says.
“That would explain all of the high-tech equipment they had when trying to absorb you guys and the townspeople. That had Lilith written all over it.” I say.
We come up to a dead end. Katie taps her foot along the base of the wall, and a stone pushes in. The rock in front of us pops back to reveal that it can be pushed to the side. From the look of things, nobody came in before us, so I don’t think we’re walking into a trap. In fact, this place doesn’t appear to have been disturbed in decades. Plus, there are only two rooms. This one filled with rows of computers and an office to our right.
“But where do we go from here?” I ask.
Katie wipes some dust off an old computer, “This is it. This is the base.”
Kaleb is walking around the room. He gives a small chuckle, “Well, you were right. This base is not deep underground. Not nearly enough to study geothermal energy in a mountain.”
Kaleb walks over to the switch for cutting on the power. He flips it, but nothing happens. His face crinkles. He opens up the fuse board next to it and begins pulling out some things.
“We’re lucky that they had some replacement fuses in here.” He says while still working on the board.
He closes the fuse board door and flips the power switch again. The lights flicker, and slowly the whole room stirs to life. Now, he tries powering the computer in the office.
“You aren’t going to find anything on there. All of the computers were supposed to be wiped.” Katie says.
The computer whirls loudly. All Kaleb says is, “With all the papers they left lying around, I wouldn’t be so sure. I guess we’ll find out. Dang, it needs a password.”
Kaleb sorts through the papers. Most of them are pretty faded. Next, he looks under the desk holding the monitor. He pulls up a sticky note.
He looks at the note and sighs, “Did they really make the password...password? I expected much more from a research lab. Why did they even need a note to remember?”
He types it on the computer, and it lets him through. He sifts through the files for a moment and says, “Well, there is geothermal data on here, but it definitely wasn’t wiped. The data actually looks legitimate. That means...Audrey?”
“Yeah?” I ask.
He doesn’t turn from the screen, “Can you look around the rest of the room? See if you can find anything out of the ordinary. Knock things around if you have to. I just have a feeling.”
Katie says insulted, “What are you trying to prove, Kaleb? The data may still be here, but that doesn’t mean anything.”
He turns to her, “Look, I’m trying to tread lightly on this for your sake, but there are a lot of things that don’t add up. We’re above ground level with seemingly no equipment to measure underground. You said the research was destroyed. Yet here it all is. I don’t know as much about Olympus as all of you, but I did a quick review of their history while I locked myself in the library. I do know that they have had research groups go rogue before.”
“There have been cases, but Olympus has always stopped them. If this group were one of those, I believe it would have been in the report. The paper says they sent a team to oversee the closure.” She says angrily.
Kaleb opens his mouth, but his face crinkles again. All he does is close his mouth and turn back to the screen. I hear him clicking away.
Katie isn’t looking at this objectively. This place hasn’t been running for about fifty years. Who really knows at this point?
I walk along the edges of the room. If I see a shelf or desk, I pull them from the wall or knock it over. I’ve also been tearing down paintings. Katie gives me a dirty look after I turn over an entire bookshelf.
“Huh.” I say out loud.
“What is it?” Kaleb asks.
“This bookshelf isn’t budging from the wall. I took some books off of it. The back is made out of metal, but the sides out of the wall are wooden.” I say.
“Take off all the books. Maybe this is some mystery movie cliché.” Kaleb chuckles.
I do as he says but nothing happens. I check along the sides. There doesn’t seem to be anything unordinary. I knock on the back. It sounds hollow. There is definitely an entrance behind it.
Well, screw this. I speak into my book. My body glows red, and I beat my fist into the bookshelf. The fake wall crumbles to the ground. The air turns completely different. It feels as if I broke open a door holding back something dark and sinister.
I hear the grinding of gears. I jump and change my book into a sword. The shelf’s wooden frame, that now has no use, slowly creaks open and passes around me. I turn to Kaleb.
I hold up my arms, “Really?”
He says nervously, “Uh...I just figured out how to open it from the computer... Sorry.”
I sigh. Guess I was a little impatient. Still, I don’t have a good feeling.
Katie looks hurt, “This shouldn’t be here. There was no record of this.”
Kaleb walks up to us and lays his hand on Katie’s arm, “Audrey, let me go first. I sense death up ahead.”
It was a surprise to us all that Hades was Kaleb’s father. Hades actually fought adamantly behind the scenes for Luke and us to go on our last mission. We didn’t find out any of that until much later. He’s a scary god, but I don’t think he’s bad.
I believe Kaleb knows what he’s doing, so I let him lead us down the tunnel. Luckily, there isn’t any need for my light spell. Since Kaleb got the power on, this tunnel is lit dimly as well. I definitely smell unpleasant things, but I’m not sure if I would describe it only as death.
We come up to some metal bars running along the tunnel walls. They appear to be cells. There are human skeletons in them... It reminds me of Lilith’s lab. What was Olympus doing here?
The keys to the cages were hanging on the wall. I open the doors of some of the cells to try to get some sense of what was happening. I can tell that they were chained up, but not much more. Kaleb touches his finger against one of the fingers of a skeleton.
He twitches and someone else’s voice comes out of his mouth, “Kidnapped off the streets of Olympus...experiments...he knew about them...relentless.” Kaleb groans loudly.
Katie grabs Kaleb’s hand, “Are you alright?”
Kaleb gasps, “Woah. I wasn’t expecting that. That was glimpses of what this person had experienced in life. I could...feel what he felt.”
Katie’s voice sounds less sure as she talks, “Surely Olympus didn’t know about this. I...we should move on.”
A clinking sound comes from one of the other cells that I haven’t opened yet. I walk to the door. I think...I see someone in there.
The person’s body is so thin it basically blends in with the skeletons. His hair and beard are overgrown and shaggy. His eyes widen with fear. He slides as close to the wall away from me as he can. The walls of his cell are etched in writing. All of it is one word repeating, Serath.
“There’s no way. It’s been fifty years. No demigod could survive this long without food or water.” Katie says in shock.
The ghastly man says, “De-de-mo?”
I open the door to his cage and step inside. He flattens himself against the wall in fear. I don’t move.
“It’s alright. We’re not here to hurt you.” I say to him. He relaxes his guard slightly.
His chains are still attached to him. I have to handle this carefully. I think these keys will unlock the cuffs on his hands, but he is very unstable.
“I don’t think this is a good idea.” Katie says behind me.
His eyes widen again. He throws his hands in front of his face as if trying to hide. I can’t just leave him here. It’s not right.
I slowly take his arm in my hand. After trying two keys, I’m able to release his right arm. He screams suddenly.
“St-st-stay AWAY.” He yells terrified.
I grab his other arm forcibly and release the cuff. As soon as I do, his eyes turn black. He knocks me against a wall and rushes for the door. Katie and Kaleb jump back. He speeds past them and out the way we came.
Kaleb runs up to me, “Audrey! Are you okay?”
“I-I think he was trying to save me.” I say.
The place he touched on my arm is black. Almost like my skin decayed. I don’t think he could control his power. I need to see something. I place one of the cuffs on my arm.
“What are you doing?” Katie asks.
I speak into my spell book. Nothing happens. I say to them, “These cuffs dampen powers. That also explains why none of these demigods were able to escape.”
“If they were demigods, I’m not so sure about the one that we released.” Kaleb says.
“Should we go after him?” Katie asks me.
“No, he’s not why we’re here. Besides, you left plenty of traps on our way in. Chances are we will see him again.” I say.
“There were multiple tunnels, so it’s not a sure thing, but I do agree. Whatever he was, he’s seen enough.” Kaleb says.
We continue down the makeshift tunnel. Those black eyes on that man though. I’ve seen Luke’s do something similar before. I don’t know if it’s related. Still, if just being touched by the guy can cause skin decay, we didn’t need to be anywhere near him. I hate to be coldhearted, but this mission is too important for side trips. That’s the role I have to play.
I’m surprised by what I see next. The trunk of a giant tree is passing through the next room. It has to be the tree I saw towering over the rest of the mountain. It takes up over half of the room’s space by itself. The branches in the room are thin and withered. As we walk around the trunk, we see more skeletons.
“These are Olympus uniforms, but they aren’t researchers. They were definitely officers. I believe the uniform style is over fifty years old as well. I don’t understand. Why didn’t Olympus report that we lost troops. How did no one know about this?” Katie asks bewildered.
“It’s too early to say anything. We need to keep moving.” Kaleb says.
I walk up to two large metal doors. I pull the handle, but they don’t budge. I use my red aura, ready my fist, and give it a good strike. Nothing happens except my aura fades. That’s odd. This is also much thicker than that fake bookshelf. It will take a lot to break them down if I even can. There is a keyhole. I try all of the keys on the ring I brought from the cells. None of them work.
“Audrey, come look at this.” Kaleb says from the other side of the tree that we didn’t come around from.
There’s a carving of a woman in the tree. It’s extremely realistic. Her hands are grasping a large wooden key close to her body.
“You don’t think that’s the key to the door, do you?” Kaleb asks me.
I reach for the key. As soon as my hands touch the handle, the eyes of the wooden woman open, and a white light glows out of them. A rumbling sound can be heard around us.
The mouth of the carving opens. The giant trunk is beginning to grow thinner. I think...the tree is being sucked into the carving.
“No, Dyl-” I vaguely hear from the statue.
The rumbling is growing worse. The wood on the carving is slowly beginning to look more like skin. Shortly after, a black-haired woman is kneeling on the ground and gasping for air. She’s wearing that old military uniform. The wood on the key she was holding is also sucked into her hands revealing that it is actually a metal key.
The rumbling around us is uncontrollable by this point, and I realize the floor is falling out from under us. After growing through the floor, the tree must have been the only thing holding up the surrounding area. I speak into my book, and my red aura glows around me. I pick up and toss Kaleb and Katie to the edge of the room that’s not being affected.
I grab the girl and the key. I run towards Kaleb and Katie, but the floor is falling fast. I jump off of one piece of rubble to another. The roof is also caving in, but less so. A piece of rubble flies straight to my face, but I notice too late. I can feel the top of my head is bleeding.
I clasp the key into the mystery girl’s hand, “Katie! Catch!”
I toss the girl to them. They’re able to grab ahold of her... That’s good. Katie yells out my name.
I jump off one more piece of rubble to the wall below them. Thanks to my red aura, my hands dig into the side of the wall, but I can feel it. That rock hit me pretty bad. I’m fading fast.
My hand slips, and I fall into the abyss below. I barely see a guy seemingly appear from nowhere. He catches me in his arms. I still feel that we’re falling.
“Kaleb?” I whisper before closing my eyes.
––––––––
“Ah darling, you’re back again. You have a resilient will to be able to regain consciousness so quickly.” Lilith sneers.
I struggle my right arm against the straps. She’s tightened them all. If they were any tighter, I don’t think blood would be able to flow well from my hands and feet.
She laughs shrilly, “Do you know why I haven’t killed you yet? Or even turned you into a mindless slave?”
I struggle out, “Because...you’re a sick freak.”
She smiles as one of her long red nails digs into my hand, “Partially, but you don’t see the bigger picture. At this point, you are nothing more than a bargaining chip for Lucifer. If the hybrid boy just so happens to make it to him then we will either let you all go or kill you all. Depending on how negotiations go, of course.”
“He’s going to try and negotiate with Luke? What could he possibly want from him?” I ask. I trace my finger along my side until I find my locket. I feel it in my pocket. If I can only touch it...
“Is that his name, Luke? How boring. He wants this Luke fellow to lead our demigod army to Olympus. My serum can’t control demigods to the level we need, so that wouldn’t do the trick. Nor are our current actual recruits worthy enough of such a thing. No, we need a symbol of a leader that could sway demigods, angels and demons alike.” She sneers, “What better puppet than one we hold all the strings to?”
I laugh, “He would never agree to that. He’s not an idiot. Do you think he would trade our lives for all of those on Olympus? We came here assuming this would be suicide.”
She flips her hair, “You could be right, but you haven’t met Lucifer. He is a very persuasive being. He also has the best vision for how this world should be.” Lilith goes back over to her vials. She seems to be preparing another one of her concoctions.
I’ve been digging my nail into the fabric of my pants. I need to tear through it. Just enough for the tip of my finger to touch.
“So, while I won’t kill or turn you yet, I will test all of my other serums on you.” She turns her head, and her eyes pierce into my soul, “Who knows? Maybe we could be best friends after this day is over. I could always use another pet.”
I look around at the cages that used to hold all of her pets. I had to fight most of them earlier. Demigods that had lost all sense of reason and were just madly beating on their cages, or different animals fused together into horrific chimeras. She plans to fill the cages again. She disgusts me.
Lilith comes back over to me. Her needle is next to my arm. Suddenly, I hear explosions sound across the room. Lilith looks to one of the entrances.
I take my chance and rip through my pocket. The locket touches my finger, and I am able to take a shadowy appearance. For only a moment, I can compress my body and slide out of my restraints, but that is all the time I need. I flip over the table and take cover behind.
Lilith hisses, “All of my lab equipment! How destroyed is my lab going to become from these insects!”
“Should’ve thought about that when you hurt my sister!”
Flames are spreading across the room. It’s Austin. He’s in the center of the room now. His large flamethrower is spewing everywhere. He has a few more grenades attached to his belt. He must have picked them up from Brooke.
Flames are Lilith’s weakness. I would think she would go for the sprinkler system again, but she doesn’t. She just yells,
“Computer! I’m starting over. Activate the failsafe!”
The giant monitor on the back-wall glows and responds, “Yes, Mistress Lilith. Activating failsafe. Your recovery time will be two weeks.”
The room begins to rumble and shake. I decide it is no time for me to see what she is up to. I grab my book off of the table next to me, and I run for the entrance that leads out of Hell. I’m in no shape to continue forward.
Austin is running in my direction too although he is farther behind. Lilith is rapidly gaining on him. I almost lose my footing as the ground is opening up beneath us. The green mind control liquid...there is so much collected below us.
The floor is opening up too fast. Austin has even dropped his flamethrower to the ground. I use my book to make my red aura, and I jump for the way out of here.
I make it fine enough, so I turn and yell to Austin, “Jump!”
When he jumps, Lilith tackles into him. My hand just barely connects to his. Lilith stomps her high heels into the wall beneath. Her heels have to be made of metal because they dig into the wall easily. The green liquid is still a good drop below.
Not only all of that, but...Austin is still bleeding from the wound Lilith gave him earlier. He shouldn’t be doing any of this. Lilith is pulling Austin and trying to take me with them.
My red aura is strong, but Lilith is more powerful still. I don’t think I can do this. No Audrey, you have to do this.
I pull with everything I have and punch my left arm into the wall beside me. She isn’t the only one who can be an anchor. I won’t let her have her way.
Austin is flinching in pain. I didn’t even notice, but my grip is on the verge of breaking his hand. Also, Lilith is digging her nails into him. I...don’t know what to do.
Austin forces a smile, “This is one of my talents. Distraction.” He pulls loose of my hand...
I reach downward further, “NO!”
I watch Austin and Lilith get swallowed into the green liquid. Her face...is still smiling. That witch got what she wanted again. Austin’s body is barely moving. He’s still bleeding pretty bad. The floor to the room closes again.
I pound my fist into the wall beside me. Then I do it again and again. I just wail into it, creating a deeper crater all the while.
“Dang it! Dang it! Screw this place! Why can’t I do ANYTHING?!” I smash my fist deep. The red aura is fading, but I don’t care.
“I COULDN’T SAVE ANYONE!” I yell. The aura fades, and I bloody my hand as I attack the wall.
I go for another meaningless strike when a hand grabs my arm, “Audrey, just stop. Leave the rest to us.”
Gabriel pulls me in close, and I sob into his cloak.
––––––––
Why was I forced to live through that again? Why does Lilith have such a hold on me? I just want my nightmare to be over.
I hear the chirping of birds. Where? Where am I being forced to now?
“Are you okay, Audrey?” That voice...I know it.
