Coalesce In Darkness ♡ Frerard

TWENTY THREE

Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. Just kidding. This is the final chapter before the epilogue, I hope you're ready for what's in store. TW FOR VIOLENCE.
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Fire caught onto the most flammable items inside the castle first, flourishing quickly to swallow up the expensive rugs and the curtains bellowing out to the floor in front of the tall windows. Blackness swirled along the ruined fabric and scorched the ground it touched, skipping over the broken glass strewn across the floor from vampires dropping everything in their hands and escaping as soon as possible. Frank could smell the blood mixed in with the heavy scent of ash thickening in his throat, making him cough into his fist as he charged into the building. He struggled to track Lindsey and Jamia's scent, knowing they must have been hiding somewhere, and he stole a precious moment of time to think the way Lindsey would if he planned an extravagant escape. Panting, he shut his eyes, holding the stake so tight in his hands that his skin stretched over his knuckles.

Lindsey hid her coven of vampires underground, inside the catacombs under a lavish mansion slowly rotting from age, but the appearance of abandon was only show to persuade those passing by not to enter. Although the castle was sprung to life tonight, Lindsey wouldn't be so foolish to shelter herself in a room stowed away in one of the towers; she would make her way into a place were she intended to stay hidden for as long as possible.

Frank's eyes snapped open. He surged past the shards of broken glass, dodging the fire, nearing the staircase until he caught of a whiff of a disturbingly familiar scent breaking through the overwhelming smell of fire. Frank trusted his instincts and followed the trail to the bottom of the staircase where it seemed to end. The orange lighting and that of the brilliant chandelier swinging dangerously overhead casted a glow onto a small door hidden under the stairs, a smear of blood streaking across the bottom of the doorknob in the slightest amount, no human would be able to detect it. The scent of both female vampires clung to the door like a sickening perfume fumigating Frank's lungs. He yanked the door open with force, shattering the lock from the strength of his arm pulling at the knob. Shoving the door away, Frank was not faced with a measly broom closet as one might have imagined.

The doorway led to pitch darkness, an abyss containing a splintered wooden ladder descending downwards into the black smelling of molding and rainwater. Layering over the unpleasant scent was the smell of the two vampires moving downwards into what must have been yet another catacomb Frank was forced to venture into. Contamination must have lived in the underground due to the age of the castle, but cobwebs and black mold wouldn't stop Frank from doing everything in his ability to track Lindsey down and plunge a stake deep into her chest.

Frank tucked the stake into the pocket of his blazer and lowered himself down onto the first bar of the ladder with care, making sure his foot wouldn't slip before he guided his steps down the questionable item with his fingers gripping as tightly as they could to every surface he could find balance in. The darkness he descended into was deathly quiet compared to the bright chaos taking place above ground. Unease slipped into the bottom of Frank's stomach, twisting his insides into fearsome knots he attempted to keep down or else it would overcome him. Being renewed into a stronger form of existence didn't completely erase his human traits, his wide quantity of fear brimming over every other rational feeling raking up his blood. His breath shook as he struggled with himself, shakily moving himself down the groaning latter with a silent fear that it would snap and send him falling to whatever laid at the bottom. The grating of the wood underneath his palms would have easily penetrated his flesh if he didn't loosen his grip quickly enough as he moved down, averting from twisting his fists.

Dim light suddenly swelling up towards Frank filled him with extravagant amounts of relief just as his restlessness began to kick in. Peering down, he saw stone flooring surrounded by walls of the same material, puddles caking around the dingy ground. He quickened his pace until he reached the bottom, hopping down from the ladder when he realized he'd wasted enough time trekking down the length of it with fear pounding in the remnants of his humanity. Frank spun around and found himself inside of an abandoned catacombs coated in spiderwebs, ridden with leaks coming from the fissures ripping through the high ceiling above. The molding came from the water dripping onto the walls and the flooring, a neverending leak collecting into murky puddles eventually turning into a pungent, thick substance. The lighting came from lanterns hanging randomly along the walls, some fallen to the floors ages ago and shattered with broken glass stained by time. The flames bursting inside the faded glass must have been kissed by the flame peeking out from Lindsey's lighter, that being the only explanation for it.