A swarm of rats gathered in an old warehouse, they swarmed in like rushing water, filling the air with the sound of small feet, claws hitting the cement floor in quick succession and squeaks. They began to merge into one, till each one was no longer an individual of its own. They grew taller and twisted into limbs and a torso as fur, snouts, whiskers and tails disappeared to give way to pale skin, beady and a scraggly nude form.
“You said no one but the woman would be there. Pretending to be an sweet old woman for three weeks is not fun.” The man said from a still forming mouth. The stupid old crone had not been easy to get rid of and she had not tasted good either. He detested stiff meat. To make matters worse his target was a real smart ass.
Carmilla stood close to a table full of potions and pieces of paper and parchment with incantations scribbled all over them. It looked like a messy mage's work table. It did belong to a mage, or at least had belonged to one. Paul had taken care of him a week ago. “Who was she with?” she asked leafing through a bundle of parchment.
“Loretta.” he answered.
“Who?” Carmilla asked uncaring, majority of her attention on the work table.
“One of the agents I had a run in with last week.” he said annoyed that she was giving this less concern than she did the stupid mage that once owned this warehouse.
Carmilla stopped what she doing and turned fiercely to face him. “What was she doing there?!”
“How should I know?!” he shouted.
She was not supposed to be there. If she was there then Princeton would be close behind. “Did he catch sight of you?” she questioned icily.
“Who? Loretta? No.” he scoffed. The fool!
“Princeton, you idiot!” she asked in the same icy tone.
Paul was about to speak when someone else beat him to the punch. “I didn't, but I did catch a scent.”
He turned to face where the person's voice came from and a bullet went through his head. The shot left a crater in his skull taking half his face with it. The force behind the bullet sent him a few inches from where he stood before he fell to the floor in a bloody heap, the remaining eye forever frozen between anger and surprise.
Crimson painted Samuel's arm, coated the table and the objects on it and pooled on the floor. With no Carmilla in sight. She was still in here, he could feel it.
This was nothing short of humiliating for Carmilla, first Sakaer's revolt and treason and now hiding from this half breed mortal dog. She was now even more of a joke than before. Everything was going to hell because of her impatience. She had not wanted to wait, she wanted Princeton gone, she wanted her freedom back. Her power. All of it. Now it seemed she would not be getting any of it. “Come out." The dog commanded.
She could feel the power of that damn medallion flowing through him, she had no choice but to obey. She came out of her hiding place and walked towards him. she glanced at the body and the ground before stopping in front of Princeton. She could not believe just how incapable he had been. If it had been up to her, she would have lengthened his suffering before consuming him. He would have made a good snack though. He would have been incredibly more useful as a snack.
"I thought i warned you off the first time. I don't know why expected anything different, demons are all the same, they never listen unless they are forced to."
He dug through his pant pocket and retrieved a small velvet pouch. He upended it in his hand, a white pearl sat in his palm. Carmilla's eyes widened, he could not be serious. First the medallion and now this?! Samuel looked right at her. "Swallow it." The command carried even more weight. She took the pearl from his hand, all the while screaming on the inside, refusing but unable to do anything but comply. She opened her mouth, dropped the pearl in and swallowed. She could feel the effects already, the power within the pearl stretching and enveloping. She crumpled to the ground on her knees, grasping her head in both her hands. No! NOOOOO!
"From now on you are my servant forever and always." he started. A scream tore from her throat, reflecting the pain and turmoil on the inside. She wanted to plead, beg, offer anything for him to stop but she could not. He continued despite her earbleeding screams and howls. "Bound to me and my bloodline for all eternity." Hot threads and chains, she could feel them working, binding. Doing the worst thing to a being of immortality. Erasing.
"You are no longer Carmilla, you are Isla, Daughter of hell's gatekeeper, daughter of night and sin, eternal servant of Samuel Olajuwan Princeton."
********
BEFORE SAMUEL ARRIVED
THe store was as greasy as the apartment, the middle aged man at the counter looked even greasier still. All signs of creep radiating off of him, especially the way those beady black of his followed her through the store, took being watched to a different kind of dimension and it further fed her anxiety. It did not exactly help that she was the only one in the store. She just needed to get the pesticides and the traps and get the hell out. The door bell rang or better yet squealed, announcing that someone else had walked into the store. Some of her anxiety load left but not all of it, still she let out a small sigh of relief and continued browsing the aisle to make sure she was getting actual pesticides and sticky traps and not a can of expired whipped cream or hair spray that went for another job as a flamethrower. She finally found what she was looking for, well, at least one of them.
Rita made her way to the counter with her item of purchase, the thought of saying a word to the cashier turning her stomach already or maybe it was the smell. A woman was by the counter, her hair was brown and looked as if a couple of industrial sized stem rollers had taken to it with a vengeance, it was so straight, she could recognize it anywhere, her stance too. In her hands were a clipboard and a pen, and by the way the guy at the counter looked like he wanted to run away, it was obvious he was not expecting her.
Rita walked over to the counter and presented the things she wanted to check out. “Hi Loretta.”
The woman turned to face her with an expression that said you would be just as straight as her hair, flat on the ground if you crossed her right now but it lit up with a smile when she saw Rita's face. “Rita, it's been so long.”
She gave her a hug, Rita returned it. “How are you?”
“Managing. What about you?”
“I'm doing okay, besides being in this biohazard of a store.” she replied, the last part aimed at the greasy counter guy.
“Are you living here?” she asked. Rita did not miss the sound of disbelief in her tone. Maybe this was just her head but she heard disgust too.
“I live in one of the apartments over.” Rita answered.
“What happened to your other place?”
“First one was a camera trap and let's just say the last one just couldn't be helped.” The thing with Theo, Carmilla and Sakaer just messed up her year to the extent she found it hard to call anywhere home or sleep peacefully. “When did you get back to Alvas?” she asked. Loretta left the city about a month before the whole Theo incident. They had not seen each other much
“About two weeks ago. Finally got to spend quality time with the ladies.” Loretta smiled.
“You're making the move permanent.” Rita asked. If she was maybe it would not be so hard to ground herself again.
The counter guy tried to make a break for it but Loretta grabbed hold of his grossly stained shirt and held him in a tight grip. “We'll talk more later, as soon as I'm finished with this guy.” Loretta said. The guy was still trying to get away. “Where did you say your apartment was?”
“Just three houses from here, second floor.” Rita illustrated her hands. Loretta nodded. “Ok, see you in a bit.”
Rita left the store, went into her apartment and got right to business. She tied a handkerchief around her mouth and nose and started with the mass fumigation of her apartment. At least the bug spray was working, the roaches and other insects she had not known she had been living with crawled and flew out of their hiding places trying to escape the spray. If Rita could have she would have laughed out loud maniacally but her mind would have to do. She must have used half the canister of bug spray before she went for the pesticide. She brandished it like some sort of ultimate weapon as she sprayed with a vengeance, sure enough rats even mice scampered around, trying to escape.
She was more than happy to see the spray work until it was not. Only some of them scampered and died, some just sat there on their hunches in the air full of spray as if the chemicals did not even so much as twitch their whiskers staring at her. It started with just two, she ignored them thinking they would succumb eventually but they did not then two turned into five, then eleven, until they outnumbered the fallen bugs and other pests on the floor. She sprayed at them and ended up finishing the rest of the entire jumbo can. These were not normal rats, not at all. They started advancing towards her and that scared the living shit out of her.
She ran to the door, rats nipping at her heels. She toppled furniture over and threw just about anything she could at the swarm, what she got in response were hisses and malevolent displays of agitation and yellow teeth. Rita launched herself out and closed the door behind her, panting erratically. ‘What the hell was that?!’
“Rita, what's going on?”
Oh great Loretta was here. She was on the stairs looking quizzically at her.
“Oh hi Loretta . Nice to see you this afternoon.” she s The door banged. From the inside.
“Why did you run out of your apartment?”
Beneath the grease and oil, Rita smelt something odd but that was the least of her worries. She could not say that she ran out because she had a pack of vengeful rats inside. “Oh nothing.”
The door banged again. Louder this time and with more force that surprised even her.
“That was not nothing.” Loretta said, eyes fixed on the door behind Rita.
Rita gave her a horrified look. “We need to run.” This shit had graduated from scary to terrifying. The door bucked one last time before whatever was on the other side blasted the door off its hinges and sent Rita flying to the opposite wall. She crashed on her side, the heavy smell of bug spray and pesticide bombarded the hallway. In the back of her mind Rita registered that the door was open, that those things could get her now. She waited more pain to join the already over inflated dread but nothing came.
Instead of claws digits, squeaks, whiskers and teeth she felt hands gathering her off the floor instead. Rita forced her eyes open to see Loretta helping her up. Rita scrambled to her feet, less than ready to face the pack of rabid hungry looking rats but there was no sign of them.
She could not have imagined it all. They were real and banged against the door. She turned to Loretta with confused eyes, she saw, she heard it too. No imagination could do that to the door all on its own.
“Rita, what was behind the door?” Loretta asked, eyeing the doorway.
Rita responded, her voice much like the rest of her, shaken up. “Rats. Lots and lots of rats.”
Loretta stepped forward and Rita tried to hold her back. They waited for sound, any sound at all. Nothing came, even from the other apartments, which come to think of it, their various owners would have been out now trying to see what was going on. “Get whatever you can carry or find valuable, you can not staying here anymore.”
Rita did not need to be told twice. She rushed inside, avoiding the dead creatures littering the floor and packed up a bag of clothes, all her underwear, her toothbrush, her combs, her phone and laptop. Little precautionary advice from Marlene and Lucinda, take anything that can be used to get a location on you or turn you into an occult puppet. She raced to the kitchen and took out what was in her safe from behind the cabinet, her money, whatever little jewellery she had and a stash of passwords and key codes. She spied the present and grabbed it.
She hurried to the door to find Loretta staring wide eyed at the sheer amount of dead things everywhere. Not the best first impression but there was nothing she could do about that. “Ok, let's go.” Loretta nodded and led the way. They raced down the rickety stairs, out the building, across the street and into Loretta's black car. Rita tossed her things in the back seat. “Where are we going?” Rita asked breathless, clicking her seatbelt in place.
“My place.” Loretta replied, not bothering with hers before moving the car into ignition and driving off. Two black rats perched on the roof top watched them drive off and let out an angry unified hiss before turning around and leaving an apartment building flowing with blood, death and half eaten bodies in their wake.
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