MonkeyVault-Chapter 6

Chapter 6



Alula shook with unrepentant anger as she bolted down the crumbling, dark tunnels of the catacombs. Her pain was like a snake-bite, a vicious poison that careened through her veins.

Jael, her honey coated spider of a sister had ensnared her in a web of betrayal and to say Alula was pissed was an understatement. The fact she was unaware of how fast she was running or where she was exactly heading to was testament of that. Her gait was practically a sprint into one splatter of bloodshot lighting to the next. The fetid air clawed her throat but she pressed on regardless, fleeing deeper and deeper into the catacombs begrimed bowels. All she could think of was Jael and Devlin, and the trouble she now was in. Nothing else mattered, she could lose everything.

Her thighs began to burn and tremble in protest, ordering her to rest. Alula surrendered and sagged beneath a rosy glow of a lamp, pressing her spine against the cold, moist stone of the wall. Panting, she turned to face the way she'd come, sucking at the air and filling her starved lungs with oxygen. Between taking huge gasps and dry retching over the air’s cloying solidity, Alula realised that she was probably lost. All the passageways and alcoves looked the same, misleading doppelgangers of the next. In her haste and fury, she hadn’t watched where she was going.

“Fuck.” Alula hissed and threw her head back against the wall, letting the sweat dry off her skin as she tried to recall the route she'd taken.

She peered into the darkness, hoping that it would reveal some sort of clue that would help her re-orientate herself. It was then that she heard the sharp, gritty scuffle of a boot against stone somewhere in the shadows.

“Devlin?” She called uncertainly and reached down to her thigh, groping for the familiar companion strapped there. Alula always carried a gun with her despite how illegal it was. She favoured the micro-Uzi for everyday use as far as fire-arms went and carrying one was a welcome friend in her line of work.

Alula's hand trailed along the cool, smooth metal and her fingers coiled around the trigger. Slowly, she eased the gun out of its holder.

Her eyes narrowed, hunting the dark abyss ahead, waiting for another movement...

“Hello?” She called again.

Nothing except tension filled the tunnel. Alula couldn’t even detect the sound of rats anymore, only the thump of her own heart. Whatever it was that was in here with her, it had managed to scare the vermin away.

The bloody pool of light above her head spasmed and snapped off, consuming her in darkness. Alula glanced up in alarm, and then down the hallway in which she’d came. One by one the gas lights blinked out, coming to a final explosion at the end of corridor. Golden sparks showered like the last hurrah of a Catherine wheel and illuminated a figure. For a moment, time was suspended and Alula absorbed the vision before her. It was a man, tall and broad shouldered. A cowl concealed most of his face but what she could see was unearthly beautiful. His skin was swarthy like the fade of a twilight, stretching across perfectly chiselled features. His lips were full and handsome, combusting with an almost lewd sensuality. The indecent lips smirked at her as glints of fire lit up his face. Alula understood the unspoken challenge and ran to him. It was if she had fallen into a dream. The world was moving in slow motion, her legs were pumping but at an indolent pace. All she wanted was him and yet she couldn’t reach him. It was like she was trying to run through water. Alula watched the firework of sparks fade to a drizzle and the stranger turned and ran, slipping away into the embrace of the shadows.

Alula followed sluggishly, the gun barely lingering in her grasp. It was like she was floating as manoeuvred through the black web of intricate alleyways after him

She saw him dart through one of the catacombs many archways and somewhere in the haze of her mind, she could hear the gentle gush and trickle of water. She followed and found herself before the shivering blue waters of an underground canal. Alula glanced from side to side, looking for him, hair floating peculiarly like platinum tentacles around her face like she was submerged in water.

She spotted him in one of the pitch-black vaults on the other side of the large expanse of inky water. His silhouette was crouched and she could see his hands dangling idly between his knees. His head was bent down towards the canal as if he was scrutinising the waters unfathomable depths. Alula didn’t even wonder how he’d gotten to the other side, all she wanted to do was speak and capture his attention. When she went to talk but no words would come and all she could muster was a cracked gasp. He glanced up at the sound and it was as if the spell he held over her, suddenly shattered. Alula’s heart fluttered like a hummingbird inside her rib cage, jolting at first then pulsating in her ears. A strange, innate fear tore the breath from her lungs. She could taste him, all smoke and flames. Smell his musky lupine scent. His head fell into an animalistic tilt and he studied her for a moment, a black creature with brutal slanting eyes that glowed like the dying embers of a fire. Dark, feral hair sliced across the gleaming, crimson stare. And although she couldn’t see the playful smirk, Alula could sense it dissipate from his lips.

“Do not fear me, Alula,” His voice was dark chocolate gliding over gravel, “You know I would never hurt you.”

“Who...?” Alula’s hand began to shake and she suddenly remembered the gun she held. That luring voice, his voice, why was it was so familiar? It teased at her subconscious, begging her to remember something, a voice that beckoned, seduced her and drew her to him.

In what was like the sound of a thousand fluttering feathers, suddenly he was next to her, holding her. The darkness clung to him, ensconcing what she knew to be unvanquished beauty. All she could see was the phosphorescence of his eyes.

“Alula,” He breathed and brushed the silvery strands of hair out of her face, his gaze softened, roaming along her face and lingered on her mouth.

Her heart palpitated and her stomach fluttered with the dance of courting butterflies. She closed her eyes, waiting to feel his lips on hers. It was if this was she’d been stood around waiting for this moment all her life.

A shot sounded and a flash of harsh, white light suddenly pierced the near pitch darkness.

Alula jumped, her eyes snapping open instantly.

The stranger instead of kissing her glanced over his shoulder, glaring at the threat and urgently tugged Alula’s ear to his mouth, “Remember me...” He whispered and swirls of charcoal smoke seethed around him. The was darkness appeared under his grim command and writhed like the eager touch of a lover about him, melting his silhouette.

Another shot sounded and a shrill, almost resentful shriek from a bird of prey sliced the air. In an erratic flitter, her stranger seemed to be gone. Alula turned to see Devlin and her sister racing towards her but she couldn't recollect them somehow. It was just a girl and guy waving a gun in his hand and he was pointing at in the air, aiming at a circling, looming shadow of a large hawk.

“No!” Alula shouted just as Devlin took another shot at the creature.

The hawk flew haphazardly across the canal, swooping low, grazing the rippling water and dipped into nearby by vault.

Devlin’s finger threatened the trigger again but this time Alula stopped him. A fear more powerful than she had ever felt before raged through her body. It was like her she was on fire again like her every nerve and instinct ordered her to protect the creature.

“I said no!” Alula screamed and before he got the opportunity, her own gun smashed against his temple.

Devlin could hear Alula’s deep ragged breathing in his ears and the cold steel of the barrel against his skin.

“I swear to God, I will blow your fucking skull to pieces if you don't put that fucking gun down.” Alula warned, her chest heaving, rasping with every breath she took.

Baptiste gave her a side-wards glance and looked into a face of a girl he didn’t recognise. Alula’s iris’s gleamed cerise and yellow. Delirium and insanity plagued them, raging like a ruthless inferno. Blood dripped down her chin and Devlin could see long, pearly canines had formed in her mouth, icy little daggers of menace that pressed against the fullness of bottom lip. Sensing the immediate danger, he had no choice but to drop his weapon.

“Alula!” Jael’s concerned voice called out, severing the hostility that prickled between her sister and Baptiste.

Alula’s wild eyes darted towards the bird's escape vault and then widened, innocent blue now replaced the toxic cerise. She looked startled and confused, as though she had awoken from a nightmare.She stared in muted horror at the Uzi jammed against Devlin’s head.

“What’s going on?” Alula whimpered to him through bloody, quaking lips.

The hand that clutched the gun began to tremble and she began to sob uncontrollably.

“Put the gun down, Alula. It’s okay, everything will be okay.” Jael soothed, approaching her sister with the caution as one would take towards a charmed cobra.

“What happened?” Alula pleaded and sank to her knees. Repulsed, she tossed the gun away from her, looking at the offending object as if it had just contaminated her with a disease.

She turned to Baptiste and suddenly her eyes rolled back to the whites. She vomited on herself and suddenly the world, along with this weird situation, was engulfed in darkness.