Razed By The Wolves

A Wolf in Human's Clothing

I stared at the ceiling, desperately trying to figure out Victoria's ulterior motive. I'd felt first-hand the fury of a grieving vampire, and given that she clearly still blamed me for Ashley's death, it seemed obvious that she was out for revenge. But how? A knock on the bedroom door derailed my train of thought. It swung open to reveal Elizabeth standing in the hallway, clearly in a state of shock.

"Kier, you have to see this!" She grabbed my hand and dragged me down the corridor until we reached a door that seemed identical to all the others. I cautiously opened it, wishing I had my Winchester to hand. As it turned out, I wouldn't have needed it. All the room contained was a gaping hole in the floor, too dark to see the bottom. With a hesitant glance over my shoulder, I stepped closer to the edge and knelt down to investigate.

"How deep do you think it goes?" Elizabeth whispered from just behind me, putting her hand on my shoulder.

"I don't know, it's too dark to tell, even for our eyesight. We could throw something down and listen for the noise when it hits the bottom?"

"My thoughts exactly." she said with a slight trace of a laugh in her voice, and as I turned my head to look at her she gave my shoulder a hard shove which sent me over the edge.

I fell for what felt like hours before I suddenly jerked to a halt in mid-air, still obviously far away from the bottom. A large television screen flickered into life on the wall, showing Elizabeth with a huge grin on her face.

"Hello sweetie," she laughed. "I suppose you're wondering what could have led your adoring wife to deceive you like this." She laughed again, and right before my eyes her hair changed from brown to black and her face morphed into that of... I snarled as I realised what had happened. Victoria had used her Eternal powers to transform herself into the one person I trusted in order to trick me into this pit. A robotic voice from off-screen caught my attention. It'd been heavily synthesised, but I still couldn't make out the owner.

"Do you have him? Is Kier Royle really there?" It asked. Victoria stepped aside and a robotic figure took her place. I groaned. It seemed Victoria had created android slaves. Wait, no... I looked more carefully at the shape on the screen. It was dressed in what looked to be an armour of some kind, but one that had been heavily mechanised. I could just about make out two solid steel katanas jutting out over its shoulders.

"Kier Royle..." It muttered in a synthetic whisper. "As I live and breathe. Though you'll be doing neither of those when I get my hands on you. Now I know you have lots of questions. But there'll be plenty of time for answers as I'm chopping off that pretty little head of yours. Just know this: The Samurai has you on its list, and there's only one way off it." The Samurai skulked away and Victoria returned.

"Well, my new friend certainly has a way with words. While I have you here, let me give you a little advice. See, there's two wolves that battle inside us all. One's good, the other one is evil. Now you're probably wondering which wolf inside you will win. The answer to that is simple; it's the one that you feed. You'll understand soon enough." Victoria beamed before she carried on.

"You probably know by now that this pit is essentially your grave. But I figured six feet just wouldn't do, so I decided to dig a little deeper just for you. Only the best for my big brother. You're in for a treat at the bottom, so I'd better let you go." One final laugh echoed across the walls of the hole, and as the screen shut off I started to fall again.

As I eventually hit the ground at the bottom of the pit with a thud, I felt someone stir beside me. I turned, and as I saw Elizabeth's face I recoiled. For all I knew this was another trap.

"Before you say a word, answer me this: What song did we play at Ashley's funeral?" Victoria had already gone rogue by that point, I reasoned, so only the real Elizabeth would know the answer. She smiled sadly.