53: The Inner Circle
Phoenie shivered. She couldn’t shake the feeling this avalanche of events she’d coerced everyone into was gathering pace, threatening to crush their childhood innocence with brutal force. She’d hoped that they’d learn over time, that they wouldn’t be thrust into the horror unprepared as she had once been. It wasn’t meant to be like this.
The group had reached the central dome of the castle. Some time in the past, part of the cavern had fallen in, pulverising the smooth perfection of the labyrinth below and smashing holes into the rounded roof. It provided a useful vantage point from which to spy on events inside. The chamber was lit by flickering torches as tall as a grown man, arranged at precise points around the chamber so their shadows formed an interwoven pattern around the true horror.
A group of figures stood guard around it, their rag-and-bone clothing more elaborate than any seen previously, their heads hidden under long, thin skulls crowned with pointed hoods. Their low chanting echoed around the chamber, driven by the rhythmic drumming of their staves around another strange geometric pattern tattooed across the floor. At regular points around its circumference hung twelve naked, bruised bodies from crossed beams. Some of the sacrifices were barely conscious, while others wept quietly to themselves. In their midst, at the chamber’s very centre, was a single girl, limbs fastened behind her back. Odd symbols, perhaps runes, had been painted across her midsection, while smaller patterns traced the curves of her body like stitching.
“The hell is this?” whispered Theseus sharply.
The ones adorned with horse skulls are the high priests of Alastor, his most dedicated human followers. This is their planned sacrifice. The female at the centre has been designated the ‘Mother’. She will be the focal point of the manifestation. The head priest will impregnate her. The others provide suffering and physical matter necessary to give birth to the demon’s new body.
Phoenie wished Faye hadn’t told them. Her stomach was churning at the revelation, the reality far worse than she’d imaged. She didn’t want to know any further details.
The most extravagantly decorated of the ‘high priests’ stepped into the circle and stood over the ‘Mother’, obscuring the young girl from sight behind heavy golden robes. His fellow cultists approached the hung sacrifices and pulled long, curved knives. How utterly helpless were Phoenie and the others to stop any of this! It was a leader’s duty to give instructions and boost morale, but right now Phoenie felt like the worst leader ever. There was nothing she could do. Not even an inkling of a strategy formed in her horrified mind.
Then a loud bang rang through the chamber. A gunshot. At first Phoenie thought it to be Theseus, but a quick glance confirmed otherwise – he’d been caught unawares while preparing his own weapon. That moment of realisation felt like an eternity compared to what followed.
With a thud the head priest fell to his knees, hands clutching at his robes. Then another bang, and another, and two of the knife-wielders fell. Theseus pulled himself up into a sniping position and joined the offensive, taking down another with tranquilliser shots. Then a familiar warcry filled the chamber as Joel Gibson, who had clambered down to the dome’s entrance, charged into the fray with his weapon slung ready for attack. Before he’d even crossed half the distance between the walls and the inner circle, though, he stumbled forward and landed with a painful crunch. Kaori screamed and ran to his aid. As several more of the cult fell, one member pulled away from the others and back-pedalled towards an escape.
Things are getting intense!