Blood Rebel [COMPLETED]

Chapter Twenty Four - Hiding Place

In the darkness Selene heard the sound of a key being inserted into a lock, and a mechanical crunching as Richard twisted it. A heavy door made of the same brick as the sewer walls opened, and from somewhere deep inside light emanated. Richard held it open, ushering the two girls and ten men inside, and quickly closed the door behind them, locking it again.

"What is this?" asked Selene.

"This is a hiding place I have been preparing; I found it just like this as though someone had been living here until recently, but it's entirely deserted. And before you get fussy, you're lucky to be here." Richard switched on an overhead light. It was just a bare bulb and it shone dimly, but they had been in the darkness of the tunnels for such a long time that it seemed dazzling.

Selene looked around, blinking rapidly. Electric wires hung around the room, dangling from the ceiling, bare and exposed. It was generally filthy, the floor was dark red with sewage, and the pungent rusty odour of blood filled the room. A lumpy blue, or rather used-to-be-blue, sofa was pushed up against the wall, and two wooden chairs sat at a small wooden table nearby. Everything looked like it had been stolen from a skip outside a brothel; and it probably had been. Selene didn't want to sit anywhere or touch anything, instead twisting her arms about her; the room was cold.

She watched as the prisoners moved around, peering into the rooms. She began to creep round the rooms herself; there weren't many other than the room she stood in; there was a bedroom off to the left with a small and dirty bed in it, the sheets rumpled as though someone had only just woken up and left the room.

There was also a small kitchen with an old hob in it, sticky with a layer of congealed grease, and a blackened pot and kettle sitting on top. There didn't seem to be a bathroom at all, but there was a bucket in the corner or the room with the sofa, and a grubby little sponge lay next to it on the floor.

Jackie began to pace the tiny sitting room, her body full of nervous energy. Selene had spent long enough watching her movements while she was dancing to recognise the tension she was carrying in her muscles.

"There isn't room for us all to stay here," she said.

Richard Mason emerged from the bedroom and put his hand on Jackie's shoulder, forcing her to pause mid-stride.

"We can't ask for more than this Jackie. We're outlaws now." Selene was sure she saw sadness in his eyes as he spoke.

"I don't understand. Who are you?" Asked Selene, as she looked round the room at the men that stood there, their sewage-dampened clothes clinging to their huge limbs.

"They used to be a dance troupe. Like us, but male. They worked in one of the Soho theatres close to where I used to dance," said Jackie.

"They shut the theatre down because they thought we were whoring," added a prisoner.

"Were you?" Selene saw some of the men smirk as she asked the question.

"That's irrelevant. The point is they arrested all of us, and would have bled us immediately if they hadn't realised what use we would be in the ceremonial dance. They chose us to perform and forced us to comply. The training was rigorous, but nothing we couldn't handle. For over a year we prepared for that one performance." The prisoner with the scar spoke now; he seemed to be the leader of the group. "I'm Harland," he added, holding out his hand to Selene. She took it, and felt him enclose her fingers in a fist that could break a skull.

He began to introduce the other men, but Selene was finding it hard to concentrate so she tried to remember a detail about each man. There was Michael, with black hair; Curtis, with blonde hair; Thomas, with a broken nose that bent to one side; Virgil, with beautiful green eyes; Marcus, whose top was torn down the middle revealing rippling muscles; Jaime, who was shorter than the rest; Robert, whose hair was long and pulled back in a ponytail; Daniel, who had lost a tooth in the fight and pressed a finger to the bloody gap; and finally a young looking man with thick eyebrows that hung over his eyes, called Will.

"We will have to sleep here tonight. We need rest before we continue tomorrow. The girls can share the bed, and we will sleep in here."

"Bagsy the sofa!" Shouted Curtis, throwing himself down on it. The others laughed as they heard it creak and saw it sag beneath his weight. His blonde hair flopped onto the armrest.

"Shhhh," hissed Richard. "Don't get complacent. Remember we need to keep the noise down."

Selene looked into the bedroom, just to check that the bed was as small as she had at first thought. Yes, it was tiny. How could she share it with Jackie? She would rather sleep on the floor than try and fit in there with her. She walked over to the bed and sat down on it, distancing herself from the mumbling of the others next door.

Next to the bed was a small table, and on it was a half-full glass of water that had a layer of grey scum floating on the top. She picked it up and noticed a ring mark on the wood beneath, interlinking with lots of other marks. She ran her hand over them and placed the glass back on the table, but as she did so she noticed some markings on the wall in black ink, next to the head of the bed. It looked like whoever had slept here had drawn them there in a moment of boredom whilst waiting for sleep to take over.

She leaned closer, and touched them. She rang her finger over the shape, and then repeated the motion to check what she saw. She lifted her hand away from the wall as though it had scalded it.

It was an ampersand! Just like the one Xander had tattooed on his wrist. Selene stood up and took a step away from the bed. She turned about and looked around the room. There were crumpled clothes in the corner; shorts and a t-shirt, and a pair of leather shoes sat next to the shorts. The more she looked, the more certain she was. They were in Xander's home; this was where he had lived all those years since Alexander had died. The thought filled her with conflicting emotions and she raised a hand to her forehead.

It was pitiable that someone should live here alone, in the dark, in a few filthy little rooms down in the sewers. But he had lived freely down here, or at least as freely as possible when he was permanently in hiding. But despite all that freedom meant, Selene wished she was back in the comfort and cleanliness of Cadogan Place. She thought of her own room, the crisps sheets that smelt freshly laundered, the carpets, the chandeliers, the grand staircase, Io, Callisto and Europa and all the glamour of that house.

"Can I get you something to eat?" Richard Mason's head was poking into the bedroom, and smiling at her. He stepped into the room and opened the back pouch of his camera case and pulled out a biscuit. Selene almost smiled at the unexpectedness of it, but shook her head instead; eating was not something she could stomach right now.

"Well, I'm going to eat," he said, stuffing the biscuit into his mouth. "We don't know when we'll next have the opportunity, or the supplies," he mused and wandered back next door, where Selene assumed he was sharing out the rest of the biscuits.

"Selene?" Selene recognised this voice as Harland's. "Won't you come in here?"

She stepped into the sitting room to see them all standing around, some munching on biscuits, others wiping their mouths. But without fail they had all turned to stare at her.

"Will you sit down?" He asked, gesturing towards the sofa. Curtis immediately stood up and moved away to make space for Selene to sit down.

She was confused, but under the pressure of their unified gaze she moved to the sofa and sat down, arranging her dirtied dress around her feet. Something didn't feel right, and she struggled to keep her expression neutral and made an effort to straightened her spine and press her shoulders back and down. She didn't want them to think that she feared them or didn't trust them. After all, they were all she had now. Harland's mouth moved into a smile and snapped back into a dark line:

"There's something you should know about Hector."