Blood and Beasts

Chapter 57

The chanting was almost overwhelming once in the inner sanctum, with all members of the Imperial Cult throwing their voices out in jubilant celebration. The words didn't even make sense to Bethany and Andie's ears, but they were screamed with vicious delight.

The two women slunk around the back of the chamber. It was far larger than Bethany could have comprehended. The walls were barely visible from one side to the other, and the massive pillars, carved with intricate designs of demonic faces, lifted skyward into an impenetrable darkness.

Many of the cultists held candles in their upraised fists, so that the floor of the chamber at least glowed like a blazing hearth. It was hard to peer through the horde of dark cloaks, but the floor seemed to have a slight angle towards the centre, with the carved lines and patterns in the ground still providing a path for the blood to follow.  There wasn't much reaching this far in, barely a trickle now. In the middle of the floor though, they saw the pool of blood, and on the edge a boy was screaming as he was being skinned alive. Bethany clocked the werewolf chained to the ground across from the boy.

Andie gazed around the room, unable to stop shuddering. "We can't do this. There's too many."

"Hush," Bethany said, not unkindly. "See the pillars closest to the centre." There were two pillars set about sixty feet away from the pool on opposite sides and four other pillars further out. "If we can knock down those ones, it might be enough to bring the whole ceiling crashing down. Might not be enough to finish them all off, but maybe enough to stop the ceremony."

Looking around nervously, Andie nodded. "Why did Cara leave? You think she ran away?"

Bethany shook her head vigourously. "Never. We have to trust her, whatever she's doing. I do trust her." Bethany took Andie's hand underneath their robes and squeezed it tight. "You'll take the one of the right, I'll take the left. Now listen to me. Once you have planted the explosives, I want you to get out of here, figure out a way to escape. You don't have to die here."

"And what about you?" Andie asked, frightened.

"I need to get my son back, whatever the cost." Andie looked ready to argue more, so Bethany clenched her hand tighter and gave a stern look. "Please do as I say. I love you." Before any protests could come, Bethany let go and slipped away into the crowd, weaving a path to the pillar. Andie steeled herself and did the same.

She made her way steadily forward, swiftly, but never running; she could not afford to attract any attention. Feeling the explosives tucked in her pocket, Andie ran her finger over them, knowing by feel which button would start the short timer, and which would set off the explosives immediately should that be necessary.

Getting closer to the pillar now, she could see more clearly through the crowd toward the centre. A ring of guards had formed a protective barrier around the pool, and unlike all the others, they were not looking inwards, but out for signs of trouble. Andie cautiously slowed her pace to avoid their gaze.

Unfortunately there was already one moving through the crowd toward her. She tried to ignore him and slip back into the crowd without raising any alarms. They weren't playing that game tonight. The guard opened fire in Andie's direction. She saw the head of the cultist in front of her split open before he dropped, the woman beside him shrieking at the sight.

Andie darted into the crowd, still moving in the direction of the pillar. Other cultists around her fell as stray bullets intended for her hit them. The gunfire could barely be heard over the chanting. More guards were pursuing her now, but the crowd itself became an organism intent on seizing her.

They grasped the robes she wore, tightening their grips. Andie took hold of the explosives and pistol in her pockets, slipped down to the floor and free of the robes. She didn't get far though as the horde closed around her, daggers outstretched at her as well as hands now. Cold fingers closed down on her arms, her dress, her hair. A dagger cut her cheek as she struggled against them.

That's when the explosion rattled the room, rising even higher than the chants (though those continued). A cloud of dust and debris was shooting out from the other pillar. Bethany had gotten hers in place. A loud crack broke upward from the base of the pillar, as great granite chunks began to topple off to the floor. New screams rang out as cultists were crushed under the falling stones.

And then new gunshots, raining towards the centre, Andie could only assume from Bethany's gun. She didn't have time to confirm it. The blast and following gunshots had stunned the crowd around her into a moment of stillness, and she was intent of utilizing that. She brought her gun up and fired into the face of one cultist holding her and then another. Muscling her way out of the others' feeble grips, she ran toward the pillar, which stood less than thirty feet away now.

More hands grabbed at her, and the cultists swarmed to block her path. She wasn't getting through, and only two options seemed available. The better of the two would be to set the explosives off now; it would kill her and those around her, it would be a quick death, versus whatever torture might follow afterward. But if she did that, the other pillar would stay standing, and though Bethany had cracked and rattled the one, it hadn't brought the ceiling crashing down and the ritual would continue. It was a slim chance that she could do any better, but she had to try.

She clicked the button to start the timer on the explosives as she tried to push through the crowd, firing her gun at anyone who grabbed hold of her, until the clip was empty. They towered over her small frame, restraining her from all sides. In her head she counted. They ripped the gun out of her hand, tore at her dress, made her drip blood as daggers poked into her, but she kept her arm with the explosives free.

Five seconds left. She started to throw it. But the hand of a cultist reached up and pulled her arm back. She shoved her way past him, but the damage was done, there was no time left. Desperate, she threw it.

The heads of several cultists exploded in a grisly spectacle of blood and brain. Andie was tossed back from the force of the blast, a heavy pain shooting over her body. Her head sang with a reverberating note as she lay on the cold stone floor. Moving her right hand up toward her face (the one that had thrown the bomb) it felt heavy and ached ferociously. As she looked through blurry eyes, she saw there was no hand, only mangled bloody strands ending at the wrist. She gasped, but this was not the worst of it. She had missed.

The cultists around her had been tossed aside in the explosion too, but now that it had cleared, others were moving in, guards still with their sights on her. Hands grabbed, dragging her away, closer towards the centre, and then tossing her down inside the ring of guards, two keeping guns levelled on her.

Sitting up slowly, fearfully, she gazed around. The pool was only twenty feet away now, and there were only a dozen or so cultists standing in front of her. They chanted different words than the masses, more complex words. She saw Daniel in his werewolf form, bound in heavy restraints, trying to struggle free but unable to move. The boy across from him was barely more than a bloody carcass now, twitching on the ground. His legs still had skin though, and the man she recognized from the picture as Abraham was working to peel that off. Abraham spared a momentary glance in her direction. There was an unmistakable joyous gleam in his eye.

"Andie," a voice whispered beside her. She hadn't noticed the person just beside her, bent over on their knees at gunpoint too. It was Bethany. Her teeth were gritted, beads of sweat rolling down her face, and her hand was pressed tightly on her side. Andie saw the blood dripping out slowly underneath. She looked down at her own bloody wound, cradling the stub with her other arm.

Bethany looked at her, with sad eyes. "It'll be okay." Andie wished she could believe the lie.