CHAPTER 8

 

            Bubbles pressed on, further down the twisting corridors of the temple…what else could she do?  She still had to find the professor, but that wasn’t foremost on her mind…she wanted to distance herself from whatever it was she saw earlier, so that hopefully it wouldn’t continue to follow her.  But she still felt its eyes, even though it wasn’t near, like it was watching her at all times, waiting to sneak up on her.  Or were those the eyes of other horrors, lurking in the shadows?  She couldn’t be sure…

            After traveling a bit further, she slumped down against the wall to rest, looking at the deep cuts in her arm.  She recalled what the professor had told them, how their powers couldn’t stand against the might of the old ones.  My god, she thought.  It’s true…all of it’s true…everything the professor told us about these things…I can’t believe it…and we…we can’t do anything to fight them…can we?  They can hurt us, they won’t die…that one even grew his head back, just from nothing…

            As Bubbles inspected the cuts, her imagination began to run wild, and she wondered if a new creature would just grow if even the smallest bit of it was left behind on her…maybe a bit of flesh, left deep within the wounds she received.  The very idea of its possibility made her shudder.  That’s ridiculous, she thought.  But they…they can do it, can’t they?  What if…no, no that’s crazy, just forget it!  Try as she might, though, she couldn’t pull her eyes away from her cuts…it was so bizarre by itself just to see her own blood, as it happened so rarely in the past.  She wanted to look away, but she stared, imagining bits of that creature still lingering in her arm, growing larger by the minute…

            A brief pulse of pain through her arm snapped her out of her thoughts, but also chilled her, and she stared even more intently at the cuts now.  She watched in disbelief, as her skin seemed to move, as if on its own, bulging out slightly, like something was pressing from the other side.  Her breathing quickened, and she clenched her teeth as she felt pain shoot through her arm again.  No, it can’t be, she thought, it’s impossible…

            All at once, her skin burst open on the spot, causing a brief spray of blood to splatter outwards, and a scream to escape her lips.  A pair of tiny claws dug their way out, clamping down on the edges of the gaping wound it had just created.  Thrusting her arm out reflexively further away from herself, Bubbles pressed her back up tighter against the wall and turned her head away, covering her face with her other arm and clenching her eyes shut, shaking violently and thinking, No no no no, this isn’t happening…this…this isn’t real!  This can’t be happening!!

            Too paralyzed to do anything else, she waited for the inevitable strike the thing would make on her.  It didn’t come, though…still shaking, she managed to open one eye and look out from behind her arm, glimpsing tentatively at her wounds.  There was nothing, though…no gaping tear in her flesh, no clawed creature, nothing except the cuts she had before.  She still stared with one eye, for almost a whole minute after that, watching and waiting, but it never changed.

            Letting out a shaky sigh of relief, she closed her now tear-filled eyes and hung her head.  Her thoughts were a jumble, trying to sort out what had happened, and as those same thoughts screamed in protest, reminding her endlessly that she should just try and escape, she became aware of a whisper beneath them…a voice in the darkness, speaking her name.  She wouldn’t have been so concerned, except that the voice wasn’t her own.  It wasn’t even a voice that she recognized, and yet it felt so familiar, like it had been with her forever.

            Bubbles’ thoughts briefly turned to Ulyaoth’s essence, deep within her…was that what she was hearing?  Was it trying to speak to her?  And how long has it been doing so?  Has it been speaking to her for her entire life, telling her what to do, affecting her behavior, which she passed off as mere conscience?  More and more voices seemed to well up from inside her, growing louder, and she could no longer tell what was her own thoughts, or that of Ulyaoth’s…she tried to shut it out, to just ignore it…

            Her eyes opened as she realized that it wasn’t all in her head…some of the voices were coming from the distance.  The Cabal, she wondered, or maybe the professor?  Or both?  Gathering what was left of her courage, she pulled herself away from the wall and started off towards it, giving only the briefest of glimpses to her arm as she moved forward…

 

*          *            *

 

            Total panic flooded every fiber of Buttercup’s being…that, and pain from the claws in the darkness raking through her flesh.  Between her terror and the pain, she couldn’t even think straight…she continued to swing her fists blindly, knocking back whoever she could, but it seemed almost like each corpse she knocked away was replaced by two more.  There was no way out…not through the raw mass of dead that surrounded her.  This room, much like with the corpses within, would surely become her tomb…

            Forcing her eyes open, she blasted with her eyebeams, giving it all she had.  It was a final, desperate move, as she knew that her eyebeams wouldn’t be powerful enough to stop even one zombie, let alone a roomful.  But something unexpected happened when she did… the beams struck the zombie directly in front of her, and at once, the rags that bound it together were set aflame.  The fire spread quickly across the zombie, and it fell back, thrashing around as if to try and put it out.

            Buttercup could see now, too…the flames had cast a dim light in the room, briefly illuminating the shapes of dozens more corpses surrounding her.  Realizing that this was her only chance, she spun in a circle, firing her eyebeams in a wide arc to hit as many of them as she could.  Incredibly, it worked…all of them stumbled back or collapsed as the fire consumed them, and as they began to fall, she could spot the edges of the door in the dim light.  She charged for it immediately, thinking, I’m going to make it I’m going to make it!!

            She reached the door and, without any further hesitation, swung it open and charged through, slamming it shut behind her.  Catching her breath, she collapsed out of the air, landing on her stomach on the ground, and coughed, spitting blood out from her mouth.  Even though she was too weak to look at herself properly, blood began to collect around her, and she knew that she was hurt very badly.  The pain actually began to build, and she clenched her eyes tightly, crying out in agony.  I made it out, she thought…but I’m…I’m gonna die anyway…I’m sorry, Professor…I…I tried, but…I can’t…go on…  With a dull throb, Buttercup felt her heart pounding in her chest, and as she began to slip towards unconsciousness, she could hear a voice, not unlike the one she heard when she picked up the pendant.  It echoed through her mind, and she listened, certain it would be the last thing she would ever hear…

            She barely noticed when she heard another sound…a deep, evil voice, like the darkest creature imaginable.  Unlike the other voice, though, this one was clearer, and it came from right next to her rather from within…

            […narokath… santak…pargon…Chattur’gha…pargon…]

            Abruptly, she felt different.  Warmth spread through her unlike anything she had felt before.  Her pain had almost entirely vanished, and she felt her strength returning as well.  Opening her eyes in shock, she lifted her head from the ground, her gaze searching the room and finally settling on a familiar shape.  Blossom was hovering near her, with some strange-looking book in her hands, and was looking back at her with concern.  “Buttercup,” she said, “are you all right?”

            “B…Blossom?” Buttercup managed to say, as she carefully lifted herself from the ground, looking at herself incredulously.  There were still a few small cuts and bruises across her, but for the most part, she was fine.  Certainly no sign of the massive injuries that had created the pool of blood still surrounding her on the ground.  “Blossom, wha…what happ…”

            Blossom dropped the book she was holding and flew forward, grasping Buttercup in a tight hug, “Oh, thank goodness…I-I heard your scream, and rushed over, a-and when I saw you…I wasn’t sure I could save you in time…”

            Buttercup hugged back and said, “Thank you…I thought…I was so sure I was gonna die there…what on Earth did you do?”

            Releasing her, Blossom went back over and picked the book up, staring at the cover as she said, “This book I found…I don’t fully understand it, but it…it gave me the power to…to tap into the essences of the old ones, the ancients…with it, I cast a spell that healed your wounds.”

            “It’s a good thing you found it, then,” Buttercup said.  “What else does it say?”

            Blossom briefly let her eyes fall and answered, “Too much.”  She looked over at Buttercup finally and continued, “The danger’s even greater than I ever imagined.  We need to find the professor immediately.  Where’s Bubbles?”

            “I was looking for her,” Buttercup replied, then her eyes widened as she quickly realized the danger she was in, “Oh man, I hope she’s not running into more of these things, too!”

            “Bubbles can take care of herself,” Blossom said.  “We have more important things to worry about right now…”

            Buttercup shook her head, “No way, we can’t just leave her!  You don’t know what these things are like!  They can’t be stopped, and they just keep com—…”

            “Our first priority is to stop the Cabal from unlocking Mantorok’s powers,” Blossom interrupted.  “Everything else comes second, do you understand?  Everything.”  Buttercup wanted to protest, but Blossom spoke firmly, and there was something in her eyes she could see…it was like she was trying to mask some great fear.  She knew something that Buttercup didn’t, and it scared her…

            With a final sigh, Buttercup reluctantly agreed, “Fine…let’s go, then.”  The two of them picked one of the other doors and headed for it together.  She added, “I hope you know what you’re doing…I’ve seen these things, and I know what they can do.”

            “So have I, Buttercup,” Blossom told her, glancing at the cover of the Tome once again.  “So have I…”  Opening the door, the two of them disappeared from the room, closing it behind them.  All was silent, now, except for the shadow of some unseen beast that followed not far behind…it paused briefly over the puddle of fresh blood left from Buttercup, gave a low growl of appreciation, and moved on towards the door they had left through…

 

*          *            *

 

            Fiends, demons, nightmares…Bubbles knew they were just around every corner, waiting to strike, to do horrible things to her, and she was defenseless against them.  Even her powers, which she had come to rely on her entire life, were useless here.  If they cornered her, she wouldn’t be able to fight them, or they would kill her…she wouldn’t be able to flee, since the walls were impenetrable to even their great strength…she wouldn’t be able to plead for her life, as they probably wouldn’t understand her, and she suspected they wouldn’t listen anyway…

            Still, she pressed on, towards the voices she heard.  If there was even a chance that the professor was still alive, then there was a chance that they could be saved.  The professor would know what to do…he always knew what to do.  She knew that he’d have the answer, and it was only a matter of finding him.

            Questions began to build in her mind, though…did the professor really have the answer?  What if he didn’t?  What if, despite everything he’s done, she and her sisters, and all of mankind, were still doomed?  Or what if he was already dead, the answers lost to all of them forever?  What if their efforts was all futile, right from the start?  She shook her head and tried to drive out these thoughts, but they persisted, nagging her endlessly…

            The voices in the distant became clearer as Bubbles approached, and she focused on them.  It sounded like two men…she didn’t recognize either of their voices, but listened in as they spoke to one another.  “But what next?” the first voice spoke.  “These rituals won’t keep them at bay forever.”

            “They can, and they must,” the second voice declared firmly.  “Mantorok’s influence is strong here, and he will do everything to keep us from taking his essence for our own.”

            The first voice resumed, although not with much confidence, “But…the beasts our men have sighted are not Mantorok’s doing at all…what of them?”

            “The essences of the other ancients are near to us,” the second voice said.  “Their minions are drawing out of their dwellings and gathering here.  This is a good sign, for it means we will not have far to look.”  As Bubbles listened to this, she glanced down and held a hand to her chest.  The essence of Ulyaoth, even though it was contained deep within her, was still able to affect things around her?  Was this what was causing all the monsters in the temple?  This, and the essences contained in Blossom and Buttercup?

            “But it is far more resistance than we expected!” the first voice protested.  “Our men can’t withst—…”

            “They will hold!” the second voice interrupted angrily.  “I will not tolerate failure, not when we’re this close!  They need only to last until the final incantations are completed, and the beasts will no longer be a problem.  Now, complete your work here…I must return to the summoning chamber.”

            Reluctantly, the first voice said, “As you wish, Ireseth.  I will do as you command…”

            Footsteps left out of the room, and Bubbles decided to edge closer, trying to search her memory to figure out where she had heard that name before…Ireseth…it sounded so familiar.  All at once, she remembered…the professor’s journal!  He mentioned the name before…that was the leader of the Cabal!  She narrowed her eyes and decided she’d better head in, carefully, to see what they’re doing, and if she can do anything to stop it.  Maybe, she thought, I can do this myself…I hope I can…if we can’t find the professor, then I’ll have to, I’ll have no choice…

 

*          *            *

 

            As Blossom and Buttercup made their way through the corridors deeper into the temple, Buttercup started to feel more and more nervous…in a straight fight, she could handle anything, and she was quite proud of that.  But these things…they wouldn’t stop, and fought endlessly, long after they should have been able to.  How do you stop something that won’t give up?  They were relentless…Buttercup knew that every moment she stayed down here, she risked death, while they risked nothing.  Her resolve was shaken, especially after her own brush with death.  She wanted to run, but two things kept here there: determination to find the professor, and her thirst to get even on these things for besting her, no matter how futile that may be.

            She kept hearing sounds behind her, scurrying noises, like rats or something, but every time she turned to look, there was nothing.  Blossom noticed her repeated glances back the way they came and asked, “What’s wrong?”

            “I dunno,” Buttercup told her.  “I just have the funny feeling we’re being followed…”

            “I’ve felt it, too,” Blossom said.  “But in a way, we are…the ancients have not taken their eyes off us the whole time we’ve been in here.  They’re watching our every move.”  They entered into a room as they spoke, a square room sunken down into the ground by small sets of steps leading up to several doors along the edge.

            Buttercup looked at her and asked, “How do you know all this?  It can’t be all from that book.  You sound more paranoid than m—…”  Cutting herself off, she shook her head, “Look, can you tell anything about this place?  Which way do we need to go?”

            “That way,” Blossom answered, pointing at one of the doors.  “This will lead us to a chamber where it was common to call upon the old ones.  My guess is that they’ll use it for whatever ritual they’re planning on.”

            “Well, then, what are we waiting for?  Let’s…” Buttercup began, but then she heard it again, the scurrying sound…only it sounded closer, and more hurried, like something was running towards them.  She looked in the direction, but still saw nothing… Is my imagination playing tricks on me? she wondered…

            Something slammed into her, hard, knocking her out of the air and pinning her on the ground against some steps.  It faded into view, a hideous lump of red flesh, hunched over, with large claws and legs, and a toothy mouth.  She just gaped at it as it pulled back its head like it was about to strike.  Instead, though, an invisible force seemed to tear into Buttercup’s throat from the inside, choking her and forcing her mouth open.  Paralyzed from the grip it had on her, she could only watch wide-eyed in horror as she both felt and saw a stream of blood pour out from her mouth, flowing through the air as the creature began drawing the blood into its own mouth.  Buttercup couldn’t move, and couldn’t speak, but even if she could, she was too terrified to do so…

            All of this happened in a matter of seconds, and was interrupted as Blossom cried out, slamming into the side of the creature’s head with a kick.  The creature was knocked aside, and the grip on Buttercup was broken…she clutched at her neck, coughing.  The creature, in the meantime, became invisible once again, vanishing completely.

            Still gasping for air, Buttercup cried out, “What the heck was that?!”

            “Shh!” Blossom said, focusing intently and trying to listen for the thing’s footsteps as it moved around the room, but she quickly lost track of it, the sounds echoing against the walls of the room.  She didn’t let down her guard for a minute, as she knew it would try to strike at them again at any moment.  But worst of all, she knew this was delaying them from their main goal, and every second counted now.  The ancients are doing this, she thought.  They want us to fail.  They want Mantorok’s power to be unleashed, because they know it’ll be just what they need to free themselves onto our world.  They’re going to do everything in their power to keep us from stopping them.  With this thought in mind, Blossom felt that it was hopeless, now more than ever…

 

TO BE CONTINUED…