CHAPTER 7

 

            Bubbles flew down the corridor as fast as she could for a while before finally stopping to look behind her.  Her breath came double-time as she watched to make sure nothing was following her.  She had lost control when she saw that dead thing get back up, as if all her fears were manifesting themselves into reality.  Maybe I was just seeing things, she tried to tell herself.  Nothing can do that…nothing can!

            It took her a few moments to realize that in her effort to distance herself from the zombie, she had also lost track of where she was.  Worst of all, Buttercup hadn’t followed her, and was nowhere in sight.  Tentatively, she called out, “Buttercup?”  When she received no reply, she called, “Blossom?” in the hopes that one of them would hear her; however, nothing but silence greeted her.

            The silence was broken by a sudden piercing scream from behind her.  Bubbles spun around to look in the direction it came from.  It didn’t sound like one of her sisters; it was an older, masculine scream.  She knew the Professor’s voice, and didn’t think this was it, but it was also too strained to tell for sure.  Without any further hesitation, she flew around the bend to see who—or what—it was.

            In the dim light of the tunnel, she finally spotted the silhouette of someone up ahead.  Whoever it was, they were struggling with something up in front of them, something that she couldn’t make out…like an animal, but thinner, more skeletal.  She squinted to see better, but the person had already collapsed to the ground, and now the animal was nowhere to be seen.  She flew the rest of the way over to find out what had happened, and who the person was.

            It wasn’t the professor…it was a slightly younger man with blonde hair, dressed in simple clothing, his face somewhat cut-up from the struggle he had just been in.  His outfit wasn’t remarkable, although she spotted something affixed to his collar, a symbol of a set of claws gripping a skull.  It matched the professor’s earlier description perfectly.  The Cabal, Bubbles realized.  Then they really are here…

            The man’s eyes flew open as she was examining him.  She gave a startled gasp, backing up slightly, as he started to get back to his feet.  “A-are you all right?” she asked.  She wasn’t sure why she would care how a Cabal member felt, but he was a living person, and that’s all that mattered right now.  “Do you…do you need any help?”

            The man stared at her with unblinking eyes, and suddenly clenched his fist, swinging a punch.  The blow took Bubbles by surprise, knocking her back against the wall.  It didn’t particularly hurt, but she wondered why he was doing this…she only wanted to help.  It was then that she noticed his stare…his face was expressionless, but his eyes seemed full of hatred, and he approached her again.

            “No, wait, stay back!” Bubbles shouted.  “I don’t want to hurt y—eek!”  She dodged to one side as the man’s fist slammed into the wall next to her.  She could swear that she heard some bones break in his hand from punching the near-impenetrable wall, but the man didn’t even so much as flinch.  Instead, he merely turned to face her again.

            That’s it, Bubbles thought, narrowing her eyes slightly.  I don’t know what’s wrong with him, but I’m not going to just stand here and let him try to hit me!  He’s one of the bad guys, after all!  As the man raised his fist to swing it again, Bubbles countered with a strong kick to his gut, followed by a punch to the jaw.  Any normal person would have been laid flat by this move, but as it was, the man just stumbled back, slightly dazed.  This surprised her, but she shook it off and prepared to attack again.

            The man suddenly arched his back…every muscle in his body seemed to be straining against something, even though during this whole time, his expression hadn’t changed in the slightest.  Bubbles halted for a moment, wondering what he was up to.  He looks like he’s in pain, she thought, but then why isn’t he…

            It happened so suddenly after that.  The man’s chest just burst open, splitting straight down the center as though he had been ripped in half.  Something tore out from the inside of him, spraying blood and entrails about…part of her realized that it was the same thing as she had seen the man struggling with before.  It was fairly small, with long, thin limbs, ending in curved, scythe-like claws.  Its tiny, angular head gave an unearthly hiss at Bubbles, who was starring in horror at the sight she just witnessed, too scared to even utter a sound.  The reality dawned on her at that moment…whatever this creature was, it had burrowed itself into the man before, wearing his body like a skin…

            With a powerful leap, the creature pounced at Bubbles so quickly that she could barely react.  She had just enough time to hold her arms out in front of her protectively, and she ended up catching the creature, although the force from its impact knocked her out of the air, its skeletal frame pinning her to the ground.  She finally found her voice, and screamed as she tried desperately to keep the thing’s claws away from her, slicing madly towards her face and just barely missing it.  They made several small cuts on her arm as they struggled…even though she was too terrified to think straight, she still knew what this meant: whatever the creature was, it was capable of hurting her.  Oh my god, she thought frantically, It’s trying to get into me too it’s gonna kill me and burrow inside me like it did with that guy oh my god oh my god…

            Out of desperation, she reached up with both of her legs and kicked as hard as she could, finally knocking the thing away from her.  Now was her chance to kill it, but she still couldn’t focus…she was too horrified at what she had been forced to see, and just fled down the corridor while it was stunned, towards a door on the far end.

            Rushing inside the small, empty room, Bubbles slammed the door shut behind her and kept her back braced against it, hoping that the creature wouldn’t follow.  She began to cry through gasps of breath, the image of the creature exploding out from the man’s chest replaying over and over in her mind, an image that would have been horrifying for even a normal person to see, let alone someone at her tender age.  I-I shouldn’t have c-come here, she thought, I should’ve l-listened to the professor…but now it’s t-too late…w-what am I gonna do…?

 

*          *            *

 

            The strange markings along the walls still puzzled Blossom as she continued her direction down the tunnels.  It still didn’t make any sense, how anything could have carved these tunnels when the rock was practically indestructible as it was.  Her best explanation was that it was made indestructible later on, after it had been carved.  I just wish I knew what those carvings meant, she thought.  It might give some clue as to where we are.

            That was another thing that she couldn’t figure out.  Was this some sort of ancient temple?  How long, she wondered, had it been hidden here?  Probably for ages…it looked like it pre-dated Townsville easily.  Maybe it was constructed by some followers of those old ones that the Professor mentioned?  She laughed to herself a little bit at that.  Even though this place was surely proof of what the professor had been talking about, it certainly wasn’t proof that these old ones actually existed…

            Another scurrying sound from behind Blossom made her turn to look, landing for a moment.  Rats, maybe?  She wasn’t sure, although she had the vague feeling she was being followed.  Still, she hadn’t seen anything, even when doubling back a bit to check, so she figured it was just her imagination, maybe some loose rock settling or something.  Besides, she had more important things to worry about, and knew better than to be paranoid.

            Looking back in the direction she was heading, she was about to start flying again, when her surroundings abruptly started to change.  Everything began to melt and ripple around her, almost like a pond that someone had thrown a handful of stones into.  She froze, and blinked her eyes a few times just to make sure that it wasn’t just the dusty air that was doing this.

            When Blossom finally cleared her eyes, she gasped as she realized that she was somewhere else entirely.  It looked like she was in a marble hall, a very tall and thin room, the ceiling opening up to an alien sky.  A single platform, like a bridge, was extended along the length of the hall, of which she was standing on one end; around it, there was nothing but darkness extending to the far depths beneath.  Statues lined the platform, most of them crumbled or too poorly chiseled to make out clearly.  At the far end was a larger, round platform, upon which there was what looked like a large, skeletal hand, closed up.

            There was a sound coming from around her, too…it was like the soft whisper of voices.  Blossom took a few cautious steps forward, heading for the opposite end, and even as she did so, the voices became louder, turning into a soft cacophony of screams.  It was then that she noticed the platform’s surface was covered by hundreds of featureless faces, writhing and flowing towards the clenched hand on the other end.  Blossom wasn’t sure what to make of it…it was as if a thousand tormented souls were trapped here, in this place.  The screams seemed to grow even louder as she made her way across, chilling her…she wanted to just turn and find a way out, but her curiosity drove her forward.

            As Blossom neared the skeletal hand, the fingers slowly spread open, as though in offering.  Something was resting in its palm, and though the nearly deafening screams around her seemed to protest, she got closer so that she could see it more clearly.  It was a book…a large book, in a thick binding, with more of those mysterious markings on the cover, like the ones she had seen along the walls.  She reached out for it slowly, and even as she did so, she felt its power…it was surely something not of this world…

            Taking a deep breath, she lifted the book from its cradle…the moment she laid her hands on it, she reeled as something impacted her mentally almost as soundly as if she had been physically struck.  Images, memories, flashed through her mind…memories that spanned centuries, with people and places of all sorts, speeding by almost too quickly for her to comprehend.  She saw in that instant everyone who had possessed the book, in all the ages it had been in existence…the combined knowledge of dozens of different people, offered to her at once if she could only piece it together…

            The flood of images ended just as suddenly as it had begun.  Blossom recovered from it, gasping for air as she looked around, realizing that she was back in the corridor where she was just before she had been pulled to that place.  Was…was I dreaming? she thought, although she had her answer almost as quickly as she had asked the question, as she glanced down and saw it in her arms, the book she had just claimed.

            She knew what it was…she knew it all, now.  The Tome of Eternal Darkness…created by Mantorok himself, but written by countless others.  The symbol on the cover she now recognized instantly as Mantorok’s; she knew what the runes meant, finally, and glancing up at the designs on the walls, she understood them as well.  This was indeed a former temple of Mantorok…not his resting place, but a place of worship from his followers.

            Blossom continued down the path, carrying the Tome with her, now confident that she was heading in the right direction.  She had learned so much just from picking up this book, knowledge that would surely help in combating the evil here…but even as the knowledge was useful, it was also a bane.  It was the proof that she had sought, proof that the old ones really did exist, and proof of their power, their vileness…proof that she regretted ever wanting in the first place, now that she had it.  It may have given her valuable insight, but she also realized just how futile it would be to ever fight the old ones, just how powerful and unstoppable they really were, and just what it would mean for the world if they eventually succeeded…no, when they eventually succeeded.  Clutching the Tome tighter, she fought a tear from her eye, and prayed for the sake of humanity that she and her sisters could manage to hold the old ones at bay, if even for a little while…

 

*          *            *

 

            “Bubbles?  C’mon, where are you?” Buttercup called out down the corridor.  She was getting increasingly worried…if there were more of those zombies or worse running around, her sisters could be in great danger.  She still couldn’t shake that awful feeling that began to creep up on her, that they might be out of their league here.  No, that’s crazy, she told herself.  You’re a Powerpuff Girl, and the Powerpuff Girls never lose!  You’re stronger than anything they can toss at you!  Just concentrate on finding the Cabal, and the professor…

            She came to a set of three doors at the end of the corridor.  As she reached for the handle of one of them, she felt a chill, like a sixth sense.  Hesitating only briefly, she chided herself and grasped the handle to carefully pull the door open and peek inside.  The room was dark, without any light whatsoever other than that which was coming through the door she had just opened.  Sliding it open wider, she tried to get a better look.

            Every square inch of the walls, ceiling, and even the floor of the room were covered with what looked like intricate statues set into them.  Looking closer, however, Buttercup realized that they were people…each one of them frozen in place behind something that looked like concrete, as though their bodies were piled up and the concrete poured right over them, molded into the walls of the room.  Judging by their writhing positions, they look like they had been buried alive.  She shuddered slightly at the thought, and was about to turn away from the room, when she spotted the light glinting from something in the middle, and squinted to make it out.

            It looked like a small amulet or a pendant, a silver charm attached to a length of chain.  From a distance, it didn’t look very remarkable, except for the fact that it was just hovering there, in the center of the room, suspended by some unknown means.  She looked at it in surprise, and then decided to hover carefully towards it.  As she passed through the room, something else caught her eye: there were a few skeletons in various places across the room, broken apart and with gnaw marks on the bone.  There were also pools of blood around some of them…and the pools looked oddly fresh.  She swallowed, and focused back on the pendant again.

            Buttercup reached it, and looked at it closely in wonder, at the way it was just hovering in place.  Five small runes were etched in the surface of it, and now that she was this close, she could see that it was glowing, very faintly, with a soft green light.  It was a beautiful silver pendant, though; she had to admit.  Reaching out carefully, she grasped the chain, pulling it from the air just as easily as if she were picking it up from a table.  This has to be important somehow, she thought.  Maybe it’s some clue about this place…well, even if it isn’t, it’s a nice thing to keep…

            The runes on the surface abruptly glowed a brighter green than before, and she almost dropped the pendant in shock.  As the runes glowed, she heard a vaguely feminine voice echo from around her, although it sounded more like many similar voices speaking together…and oddly, it vibrated through the center of her body as well…

            […tier…aretak…pargon…Xel’lotath…pargon…]

            What happened next was the last thing she had expected…one of the shapes that were stuck in the concrete on the wall flashed green, and the stone melted away, becoming flesh and blood once again.  It pulled free from the wall, a decayed corpse, much like the one she had seen before, except with a few bandages binding it together almost like a mummy, and with a sickly green hue to its rotted flesh.  Buttercup gasped, and backed up slightly as it lumbered for her…but as she did, there were more flashes across the room she could see…other corpses coming to life and pulling free from the walls.

            Continuing to back up, Buttercup bumped into the wall, but against something soft, instead of hard like stone.  She looked back and saw that the one right against the wall where she was at had come to life as well, and was reaching for her.  With a startled shout, she grabbed hold of the arm to stop it, and yanked, ripping it free from the zombie’s shoulder.  Her mouth fell open in complete disbelief, however, when she saw that although the physical arm had been pulled away, a strange, glowing ghostly limb was still present where the arm had been before.

            Before she could react further, it grabbed her shoulder with the ghostly limb…its touch felt like acid, and she screamed, pulling away from it.  She barely got a foot distance before one of the corpses on the ground reached up with a twisted hand and grabbed hold of her leg, and another hand grasped her by the hair, from a zombie that had half emerged from the ceiling.  Buttercup kicked hard to try and free herself, but even as she did, more and more of them were coming out of the walls, until she was completely surrounded by them.  Oh god, oh god!! she thought.  Let me out of here!!  PLEASE!!  She looked around frantically for the exit through the mass of zombies as she tried to fight them back, before finally spotting the small column of light…her heart sank as she saw the light narrowing, the door to the room slowly swung shut.  With a dull thud, it sealed, swallowing the room in total darkness, and Buttercup panicked, thrashing out around herself blindly and screaming as loud as she possibly could…

 

TO BE CONTINUED…