Children of the Clergy

Season 1 | Episode 3 | The Pack

The room fell silent as the tall figure emerged from the darkened corridor. Its glowing blue eyes remained locked onto Primo's, seemingly draining his thoughts away and leaving nothing but fear. It crept into the room, dragging the shadows in behind it.

Primo tore his eyes away from it for only a meer moment as he turned to see Papa Nihil gently escorting Secondo away from him and to a less crounded part of the room. He had started crying from the pain caused by the thoughts of all the people in the room. Primo felt bad for him. If only his brother had enough control over his abilities to choose when he would listen to people's thoughts and when he wouldn't. But, unfortunately, Secondo wasn't that experienced yet.

Primo turned back only to find that the creature was now towering over him, stood only a few inches away. Its eyes pierced his soal with the same unearthly glare it had had in his dream. A low growl erupted from its chest and sent chills down Promo's spine. If looks could kill, the whole room would have been dead by now. The creature was not there by choice, but it was about to make its unintended presence worth it.

Primo let out a shaky breath and, to his surprise, the creature's eyes widened and its expression turned soft. It leaned down until its eyes were level with his, poking its head into him as if it were looking for something. It wore a sleek black helmet which covered everything except for its flaming blue eyes. Its body was covered with a long black robe and soft black shoes but its hands and most of its neck were still visible. It had pure black skin and sharp claw-like fingers, that would most likely leave a very deep gash if used on a human. The creature continued to stare at him and, once again, the feeling of his soal being drawn towards it returned. Except, this time, it wasn't an unpleasant feeling. It was comforting and gentle. He could feel it slowly draining his fear away. It rose back up, maintaining eye contact with him the entire time. Suddenly and unexplainably, it looked so much more gentle.

A loud snap sounded from behind them and Primo and the creature jumped. It turned around, growling at whatever had made that noise. The large black gate infront of the summoning corridor was being shut, trapping the creature inside the control room. It snarled as the Siblings of Sin moved to circle around it. A few of them were holding various items that Primo didn't recognise. They weren't used for anything he knew of.

The creature continued growling and hissing at them as they closed in around it. It was in clear distress and definately wasn't liking being trapped in a room filled with people it wasn't at all familiar with. One of the Sons of Sin crept up behind it, holding a large metal ring. It was currently open but there was a clear close lock at the front. He jumped up, fastening it around the creature's neck and ducking away as it turned to swipe at him. The metal ring turned out to be some sort of collar and it held tightly around the creature's neck. It screached, trying to pry the collar off but the lock stayed firmly shut and wouldnt seem to budge. Another two sisters holding large metal poles ran up and clipped them onto the collar. With the sisters standing on opposite sides of the creature, it made it imposible for it to move to either side. Another pole was clipped to the back, keeping it even more securely in place. A shorter Sister of Sin ran up and tried to clip a pole to the front of the collar but the creature snarled, lunging forwards and bitting at the air. The other Siblings holding it in place steadied themselves, stopping it from moving to attack the Sister. She tried again, this time ducking away from its head as the snap of the collar sounded, clipping onto the pole. The creature growled and jerked its head from side to side, clearly petrified at being help in place so firmly.

Primo stood, frozen. Why were they so worried? It hadn't shown signs of intending to do anything even remotely dangerous, and still they tried to contain it, "Wait! Stop! What are you doing?"

"Primo!" Papa Nihil yelled. His father ran up from behind and rapped his arms around his waist, trying to drag him away, "Calm down. This is what they're suppose to do."

Primo watched as one of the Sons of Sin pulled out a tranquilizer gun and pointed it at the small portion of the creature's neck that remained uncovered by the collar. He paniked, fighting against his father desperately. He didnt know why, but the creature had chosen not to hurt him. It had helped him, taken away his fear and calmed him down. And this was how they were repaying that mercy? By treating it like a monster?

The creature let out a deafening screach as the tranquilizer dart pierced through its skin, into its neck. It shook its head vigorously, desperately trying to avoid giving into the effects of the dart. But it was no use. The creature went limp and sank to the floor, trapped in an unintended sleep. Primo shuddered. They'd really just shot it with a tranquilizer for no real reason. Primo watched it lying on the floor, noticing the slow rise and fall of its chest as its breathing pattern evened out.

Out of nowhere, three more growls echoed out from the shadowy corridor. All eyes in the room turned to see five more of the same creature yowling and snarling as they clawed at the gate that blocked them off from the room. Most of the Siblings of Sin ran back to their monitors, pushing buttons and pulling levers as the creatures continued to pound on the thick silver bars. A large cload of purple gass suddenly seeped into the corridor from somewhere apove, enveloping the creatures in a wave of colour. They growled and screached as the gass began to take effect. Within moments, the five of them were all lying on the floor, stuck in the same unconsious state as the one still lying in the centre of the control room.

Everyone in the room fell silent as they all tried to process what had just happened. Primo noticed that Secondo was still crying, but was also now being escorted out of the room by Anya and Seren. He hadn't even noticed them entering. Seestor Imperator sighed dramatically, clearly pretending to have been frightened by all the comotion.

Papa Nihil bent down to kneel next to Primo, "These are you ghouls, Primo. Form the bond." He tapped the red pin on Primo's poncho, gesturing for him to do the same. He hesitated for a moment, still very confused and in shock. Slowly, his hand began to drift upward and towards the pin, his fingers floating lightly over the cold metal. He placed his hand gently on the pin, feeling the small surge of magic coming from it. It began to glow, the light seeping out from between his fingers. The sound of the control room doors closing signalled to him that Secondo had just been taken out, but he couldnt bring himself to care. He was much to enveloped in the events that were unfolding before him.

In a single second, Primo and all of the ghouls became caged in a blinding white light. He could feel their energies merging with his own as the bond began to form. At first, it was overwhelming but, after a while, he got used to the feeling of holding their emotions within himself. He could almoust feel their heartbeats inside of his own chest. It was oddly comforting to have that connection with them and it made him feel like he could understand them better. Like they were all one.

The light faded away and Primo noticed that all of his ghouls were now stood to attention, fully awake and gazing back at him with a blank stare. They were all waring the same metallic black masks that the creature in his dream had been waring. They must have been put onto them while the bond was forming.

Papa Nihil smiled, "You see? I told you we wouldn't be giving them a choice."

A tear ran down Primo's cheek as he felt the waves of embedded fear within his ghouls and realised that this had been the Clergy's plan all along. To force the ghouls into submission using cruel techniques such as this.

"Those masks are implanted with powerful nerological control waves. As long as they ware them, they will remain entirely enslaved by your comands and entirely at your disposal." Papa said, proudly, "They have no idea what they're doing. All they know is that they want to serve you."