It’s not natural: a Sunset Coven Omake Episode 2 (Part II-c)

‘Just on time,’ Kane said as Trice walked in. Immediately he took notice of her deshelved look. ‘You must have had a wild night yesterday.’

‘Not in the mood.’ She shuffled in.

‘Where were you and where did you sleep again?’ He watched her walk past him towards the room she was supposed to be staying at.

Trice was stopped in her tracks by a ghoul offering her a bottle. She accepted it, smelled it and after screwing the cap tightly back on it, she used it to hit the ghoul on his head. ‘That’s kerosene you dumbass.’

Ever since she arrived, except that one time they had captured her, she never used that room except as a private study. It troubled him that though she said they were comrades and all that she never stayed over. Where did she even sleep? ‘You don’t want to go to the Hypogeum anymore?’ he called after her.

After she shut the door Kane went back to the plans of the Hypogeum and took a sip from his bottle of whiskey. Whatever happened, it couldn’t be rowdier than whatever could happen in there.

It’s (still) not natural!

Another Sunset Coven Omake: E2-P2c

Trice tossed a bag on the bed and started to take off her torn clothes. Once in her undies she scanned her body. All her cuts were healed, only… She stretched her arms. All her bones were still fragile. If she over exerted herself, it’d snap back in two.

Well, there was no reason to stay here anymore. She could rest some more on the ship going back to the mainland.

The vamp gotten a silver flask out of her travel bag and drank. After half-emptying it she glanced down to her body again, more precisely to her fading tattoo that peeked out, from under her sports bra. She had to go back to the Wherwell…

‘Could you kill me as well?’

‘I don’t exactly kill for fun or because I’m asked to,’ she rejected flatly. The more that she hated killing beasts. Of course, she wouldn’t hesitate twice when she was in danger herself, just like with Franco. ‘If you want to die, just take care of it yourself.’

‘Myself…’ she breathed and it seemed as though she wanted to laugh but was too weak to. ‘Lift the covers a little will you? I feel a little stuffy.’

‘I don’t…’ Trice rolled her eyes, then decided to do as she was asked anyway. When she lift the covers, her eyes widened. The lower part of the woman’s body was in its snake form. Only it was thin, dry and shedding as well. ‘What’s happening?’

‘If I could kill myself, I would’ve done so a long time ago. My brother is the only one who persisted to keep me alive. Now he’s gone, I’ll die as well… But since it wasn’t long ago since I was fed it might take some days. I don’t want it to take so long… I’m tired.’

Trice lowered the covers and assured Perfidia was well tucked in. ‘Fine. I’ll kill you, but first tell me everything.’

Kane knocked on her door. ‘Hey Trice, are you still up for the trip? We’ll be gathering in front of the house in 30 minutes.’

She grabbed a terracotta flowerpot, cleared the plant and potting, then dumped her clothes in it to pour it over with the rest of her drink over. Next, the vamp opened the window and crawled out to the tiny terrace. About to set fire to her clothes to erase all of her traces, she hesitated…

‘My brother told you the truth, he didn’t kill Calypso. If he had been able to do so, he would have done it sooner,’ Perfidia told.

‘I figured as much…’

‘However, he did kill the Nemean lion,’ she said.

Trice’s jaw tightened. While it was pretty much how nature works and she respected as much, she was glad she killed the bloody bastard.

‘As you can see I’m not in a good shape and Malta doesn’t really have a big diversity of cattle… My condition has been going downhill lately and since we can’t feed on any humans, he figured that Calypso’s pet would do.’

‘He left the skin behind to get back at Calypso?’ Trice guessed. Perfidia smiled weakly as an answer.  If they ate it, Trice would never be able to find the bones as they digested it. This meant the end of her little adventure here in Malta.

Trice climbed in again, fetched a bottle of water from the fridge that was in the room . Then, she went back to set the clothes on fire.

‘My brother and I are from… I guess it’s what’s now modern Peru. I don’t know if you’re familiar with folklore from there, but people used to believe that there was a mother of the forests, they called it Sach'amama.’

It rang a bell. ‘The two headed serpent? I’ve heard of it.’

‘It wasn’t two headed though. That’s an exaggeration from humans so was the transformation into a tree,’ Perfidia said. ‘In any case, we’re her decedents.’

She poured the water over the fire and assured it was put down well.

‘I know you must be thinking I’m delusional… Especially looking like this. Half-human, half anaconda… According the stories of our tribe, Mother had eaten some sort of priest or shaman its powers were only transferred to her children she bore. One of these powers enabled us to transform into a human form.

To preserve this power and the tribe, they mated amongst each other to put forth the next generation. But as they did the lineage weakened…

My brother and I were both born with physical defects. He had a dysfunction and my health wasn’t good. You see, in this condition I wasn’t able to carry children and that was very important for our tribe.

I managed to stay alive for a while by deceiving the others, but I couldn’t keep it up for long. One day they decided I should eat my brother.

Normally a female would eat the male after she mated with him. It was believed that it would help her to bear better children. But since my brother was damaged goods, they chose to bet on me rather him. I selfishly thought this could be a good chance and that I would able to save myself… And he readily agreed to it. As long he could save me.’

‘You fled.’

‘Yes. I couldn’t kill my own brother in the end.’ She pinched her eyes shut as she recalled this memory. ‘We somehow found out about the Lore and the Underground and were able to flee to Europe. We roamed through a few countries until we ended up in Malta. We couldn’t get any further because of my health. The shedding became too painful for me to stand, so my brother did the necessary for us to remain here as “noblemen”.

            Then the Order of St John came and Valette forced us to sign a Treaty with our blood. Apparently someone told him that we weren’t human... And that information was inscribed in the Book of the Order.’

‘Book?’

‘Hm. It’s some kind of book in which the Order has kept all the creatures of the Lore they have faced and how to kill them. It is passed along every Grand Master of the Order and in there he had put their copy. As long the Order had a power over Malta and were in possession of that book, we were not free to eat… I couldn’t move anymore and my brother didn’t want to leave me alone. So we decided to wait for time to pass, such kind of institution won’t last forever. Only, Calypso decided to carry on with this Treaty.’

‘Then was she the one to tell Valette about your identity?’

‘I’m not sure since I’ve never been in contact with Calypso myself, but my brother is sure it was someone else. I don’t know why he thought so, but he always suspected that it was one of Valette’s lovers who did. I think he had a child with her.’

Next she gotten away from the window and went through her loot from the Noblemen’s residence. She had gotten some interesting English books that didn’t crumble plus some other things like weapons, but also… She shoved her hand in her bra and pulled out an old piece of paper from it. She unfolded it and attempted to read it once more. But no matter what, she’d never be able to read Latin. Why did she even bother to take this scrap of paper with her? It had nothing to do with her.

‘Franco told me he found a way to get better food. I was suspicious and he assured me it wouldn’t be human flesh. Just some nutritious animal he would get thanks to someone. It was rather surprising he’d ask for someone’s help, but I let it go. He never told me directly that it was the Nemean lion, but I heard him speak to someone over the phone or something about it… About Calypso being mad and all. Connecting the dots was easy, he might have unskinned it and chopped it into bits, but the taste didn’t lie. It wasn’t some human bred cattle he had gotten…’

‘You don’t know who killed the humans or Calypso then…’ Trice clicked her tongue and noted, ‘You’re telling me awfully a lot.’

‘It’s just that you listen well,’ Perfidia replied. ‘I’ve lived so long and yet I have nothing to tell beside how I’ve been depending on my brother. Now I have no one to depend on and I told you everything…’

Trice rose the pitchfork over Perfidia’s body.

She wasn’t Sherlock, but if she had to take a stab, Franco knew that Calypso wouldn’t last. For someone who put his sister above anything else, he wouldn’t take any risk after 500 years of waiting.

‘Hey, Trice, you coming?’ Kane called from downstairs.

Dammit, she hated when she did care. The more that this time there were no potential pets to save and gain. There were even no remains for her to recover. She took out her hunter’s knife out of the back and changed clothes. While she was doing so, she laid her eyes on her packs of cattle blood she had taken with her. Thanks to the magic pocket they were in, they remained fresh. She could have one now and leave the remaining two just on case off…

As she weighed in her options, Trice loaded the gun she had stolen from the Noble’s and packed her weapons.

***

 ‘I get that you all want to find out who took out Calypso and the humans,’ Trice said looking at the worthless pack she was leading along Kane through the Hypogeum. ‘But did you really all have to come here with booze?’

‘What are you complaining about?’ Kane asked. ‘If nothing happens, we can still have fun here. None of us actually came here before you know.’

‘Whatever,’ she snarled. To be fair, before she left she restocked her flask with vodka and took it with her. Even if she left her backpack at Kane’s (not that anything important was in it since she had all her weapons on her and the Treaty was still in her bra), she always carried her flask with her. You never knew when you needed a drink. 

Crouching down as she followed Kane into the smaller passageways, Trice wondered if one evening would be enough to find anything at all. ‘Are we still in the parts tourists frequent?’

‘Well, we’re in the third sub-basement now and… this is the last chamber…’ Pretty much the same as the others. Dark, stuffy and narrow.

‘According to some stories there’s a way to go further… Ah, I think it’s there.’ Kane went flat on his stomach and crawled through a small passageway.

‘I hate this,’ Trice cussed, tagging along.

‘Then you won’t like this either,’ Kane guessed from the other room as he inspected a chasm. He put the back of his light in his mouth and wedged himself into the chasm.

‘Oh come on, I didn’t sign up for this shit.’ Instead of throwing a real fit and quit, she still stuck close to Kane.

When the vamp finally reached the next chamber, which was more spacious, she found Kane dumbstruck, staring at his feet. She lowered the light to the floor, which was covered with bones. ‘Oh…’ After picking a few bones up, she angled her flashlight towards Kane. ‘Human bones. Maybe coming here was worth it after all.’

‘There are also remnants from other than humans,’ Kane added after a moment of hesitation.

‘Hm? What did you-’ A draft blew through the cavern, making Trice stand on her toes. ‘Get ready.’

‘What?’

She pulled out her hunter’s knife and scanned the room. The little group of ghouls and Kaw kaws entered the cavern the one after the other. But that was not it, something was coming. ‘Tell your boys to guard that exit,’ she whispered to Kane and zipped soundlessly to the other side of the room.

  

A hard breathing hit against the back of her neck. She turned round, but was beaten to the ground at once. In attempt to protect herself she instinctively tried to lift her right arm, but she couldn’t.  She rolled away from whatever that tried to stomp her and pushed herself up, immediately running after her flashlight she had dropped.

‘Trice!’ Kane tackled her attacker and planted his knife into its chest. But instead of hurting it, the knife bent. ‘What the..’

The creature slapped Kane off him. When he attempted to get back up, Trice yelled ‘Duck!’

She shot the creature at its head and as it hardly budged she frowned. It was the first time she was able to cast a light onto it and study it. It was nothing she had ever seen, a large form with an elongated skull and covered with hair from head to toe. This wasn’t going to be a piece of cake… Especially now that her right arm was broken and that they were more than one it appeared.

Kane neared her and pressed his back against hers as three of these things were circling them. ‘This is bad. How do we even…’

‘Anything broken?’ she ask him.

‘A few ribs,’ he replied and smirked. ‘And my hip must be busted again too… Dang, things haven’t been this intense since the Great War.’

‘Instead of being impressed, you should find a solution,’ she hissed and looked towards the exit. ‘They haven’t spotted your little muppet show over there.’

‘They’re probably caught in a drunken stupor,’ he replied.

Trice flickered her eyes back towards the exit and on the monsters. She took out something from the back pocket of her jeans and pushed into Kane’s hand. ‘Take this and go see if your friends still have a couple of bottles left.’

‘What?’ He looked at what he gave her and whispered, ‘You think that’s going to work?’

Instead of offering him false words of encouragement as she didn’t have a clue either, the vamp took off her jacket singlehandedly to give it to him after taking some stuff out. ‘Use some of your clothing as well and whatever the ghouls use to cover their asses.’

‘And these things here?’

‘I’ll stall them…’ she said, shrugging with her left shoulder only, ‘somehow.’

‘You’re a nutcase.’

‘You ain’t bad either.’ They both laughed to themselves, but stopped when one of the three monsters made a step forward. They both took it as a signal to set the plan in motion. Kane sprung away without looking back.

One tried to stop him, but gotten smashed away by one of Trice’s kicks. She looked at the threesome with a pained grin. ‘Looks having finishing my stock of blood before leaving wasn’t such a bad idea,’ she said.  Indeed. Since she didn’t know what she would be faced with, Trice had decided to drink them all in the hope her bones would strengthen by the time they reached their destination.

It looked like it was the right choice to make (although her right arm was busted already). She rose her gun and emptied it on the three monsters that were coming to get her. It was of course in vain, and thus she resorted on using the manchete she had been hiding under her coat. Another treasure she had nabbed shamelessly.

From what she observed the upper body and head were solid as a rock. In that case she’d go for the legs.

In the meantime Kane had reached his friends and asked them all to drench whatever piece of clothing they had in alcohol. ‘Quick,’ he barked and looked around the room. It would never be enough, this room was way too big. A loud thud followed. He directed his torch towards Tice who had somehow been able to put one of these hairball on his knees. ‘She’s good.’

‘Master Kane,’ one said to announce they were done.

‘Hey, Trice,’ Kane yelled. She didn’t react, too preoccupied fighting them off. While he tried to keep up with her moves, something caught his attention in the very back. It looked like two shadows emerged from nothing which sent him chills down his spine. ‘Dammit Trice, more are coming!’

‘Don’t wait for me and do it!’ she finally screamed back.

Kane breathed in and out deeply, then turned to his crew. ‘You guys return to the surface quick.’ They were about to protest, but the leader reassured them about the importance of this task. ‘You have to make sure no humans will be able to catch us for the exit. It’s important you guys know that.’

After making sure the last one disappeared into the shaft, Kane ran along the walls of the room. In a swift motion he ran up the wall, kicked himself off it so that he would swoop above the heads of these dirty fellows and drop all the pieces of clothing on them… Along Trice’s lighter.

When one caught fire, it ran against the other in panic. The domino effect went on between the few he was able to reach and they all caught fire. Apparently their hairiness aided the fire to keep on burning. He then ran back to the shaft and waited for Trice to follow, but she didn’t. The few he hadn’t been able to reach were still onto her.

‘Good.’ It went on as planned so far. Trice grabbed her flask of vodka she had tucked between her belt and body, opened it and splashed some on the monsters attacking her. She kicked one fiercely back and it hit one of his mates that had caught fire. Before she knew it they were all running around as the flames were consuming them.

As this was the best opportunity to leave, she dashed back to the shaft. Seeing Kane was still there, she barked, ‘Go.’

He wedged himself between and tried to yank her in, when he saw one of the monsters was running after them. Trice detached herself from Kane’s grip and faced what had to come properly. Though caught into a frenzy and shrieking like mad, the monster knew exactly who to attack. However Trice this time was ready to strike back; she tightened every muscle in her body and when it lunged at her, she gave him a piece of her leftie.

The blow had been so hard, that he flew a few meters away. Trice hunched over, gnashing her teeth.

Kane had shuffled back and tucked at the back of her shirt. When Trice stood up straight again all sound were blocked aside a ringing that got stuck in her ear. Through her cloudy eyes she noticed how the flames gotten ablaze.

She smiled and then everything went dark.