Moonlust

Chapter Fourteen, The Red Hours I.

Closer to the fire and further away from home, Abigail walked. Her understanding of the intentions of her surrounding was childish, she wouldn't know what others wanted from her. Time was not on anyone's side. The grand clock ticked like a doomsday reminder, every second stole any integrity those behind the wooden doors felt, the red hours begun.

I. The Church Of White.

Abigail held Miles' hand as she followed him blindly. It wasn't long till he stopped at a certain spot. He kicked the ground with his leg. "That's it." He panted. "Where are we going?" Abigail asked in distress. "Down the tunnels, to the church." He looked at her with an excited warm smile. Abigail gulped as she looked at him removing the snow off a portal. The portal had the same sign engraved on Miles' gloves. "You go first." He ordered her as he removed the lid, Abigail hesitated. "Listen to the grand clock." He looked up. "The red hours begun." He continued. Abigail didn't know what the red hours were, but as she noticed the change in the rhythm of the grand clock and how its sound became louder and grimmer, she jumped into the portal.

Down the tunnel, the bleak darkness activated Abigail's night vision which she never knew she had. "Strange.." She uttered. She could see a long straight road, skulls hanging on the walls with candles inside them. Although she could see everything, Miles couldn't and so, he lit every candle along the way making this peculiar tunnel's details emerge.

"What am I looking at.." Abigail gasped as she noticed what the walls were. "These are catacombs." Miles explained, "These are real skulls?" She wondered, "Of course, they are!" He replied, "By the ending of this tunnel, you'll see the skull of the last American soldier from the united nations that tried to attack us." Miles enthusiastically said, Abigail's face grew pale.

It was very narrow, very eerie and somehow loud. It felt like those skulls possessed sentient voices that fought for freedom, they didn't wish to be here. Abigail's mind was troubled, she wondered if Carvo was looking for her, but did she wish to be with him again?

After thirty minutes of walking, Miles stopped. "There it is." Miles said, Abigail could see the door that marked the ending of those catacombs that Abigail suffocated in. "Now, look at that." Miles pointed at the last skull in the first row. This one had a date engraved on it

"19th of May 1980, Henry West." Abigail traced the carvings with her finger. "American scum. Tried to blow the city from the inside, we caught him, hung him in the public square till he died of dehydration." Miles boasted, and Abigail seemed horrified. "We, the white sect, proudly retrieved his decaying body and put it in our catacombs for years. A reminder for the impure outsiders and their attempts at interfering in our affairs." Miles proudly smiled as Abigail's face grew even more pale. She looked at the gate in subtle nervousness, unaware of what lied beyond it, and what it meant for her to join those anomalous faction. All that she knew was that Miles was the only one who never gasped at the sight of her.

Abigail took few steps back as Miles stood in front of the heavy iron gate. He inserted a silvery key and swiftly opened it to reveal another hallway with a door much closer.

"How long do we have to keep going?" Abigail asked. "I can't go on like this." She complained. "Its right there."He pointed. "Can't you hear it?" He continued. As Abigail walked closer to the other door, her ears caught the bewildering chant of the white church. An angelic hymn that seduced the ones behind that door. The words where of a language she never heard before, but that voice was enough to pull Abigail in without any hesitation.

"Are you ready?" Miles asked as they stood in front of the last door, a white one with the same silver star engraved on it. The chanting was louder than Abigail's weariness and fear, she nodded, thrilled to see what lied behind that door. Miles lift his right hand and without taking off his glove, he put his hand in the middle of that silver star. Not long after, the mechanics of this door were unscrewed and the church was right in front of them.