BLACKEMBER ACADEMY:

BASEMENT: A DARK CORRIDOR CONVERTED TO A CHEMISTRY LAB

Industrialized metal grates weep with condensation, as various boilers and beakers gurgle and spew extraneous droplets of fizzing chemicals. Bunsen burners sizzle underneath large foaming cylinders, and hulking metallic barrels gleam with spilled acidic substances. Four figures stand in the centre of the corridor, their bodies translating as fuzzy silhouettes wrapped in suspicious darkness.

Doroda: “Houndz…. What’s with all of these beakers?”

Houndz: “Why, Doctor Scaley….it's the chemical magnificence of science! Wonder-filled things are occurring within these scientific containers, I assure you!…”

Houndz crosses his arms over his slender frame, turning his chin up towards the ceiling. He leans against a low standing, wooden desk that’s leveled with the centre of the room. With his long, yarn-like hair sweeping down his back, he looks almost like a kind of odd shaped broom, or a flimsy mop that rests tall and proud aside the low table.

Doroda: “Ahh… There better be… It smells like a dingy laundromat in here…”

Doctor Doroda Scaley lifts her arm and uses two of her fingers to pinch her nostrils shut, shifting her eyes left and right with honest skepticism.

Houndz: “Hmmm?…. Well, perhaps a laboratory that's functioning as efficiently as this one might smell a tad potent… However, I insist…whatever chemical aftertaste it leaves you with is better to be savoured!…. Why, this room is a scientific holy ground!”

Francis: “…Ehehe…. Houndz, this lab of yours is awfully drab to be considered a holy ground…. And, it does smell of hazardous waste… Well, it reeks of garbage, actually… Houndz, didn’t it ever occur to you that you should clean this place every once in a while?”

Houndz: “Aha!…. Francis, you are mistaken! Cleaning this laboratory would only disturb my ever enlightening scientific experiments…. My research would suffer exponentially from such a chaotic disturbance!”

Francis: “Eh? I think you have things backwards…. You really are mad… Ehehe!”

Fang: “….Hmmrgh…. Doctor Scaley’s lab…is nothing like this place…”

Fang shifts on his feet as he lingers at Doroda’s side. His face and neck are wrapped in gauze bandages so that only a narrow slit is left open for his eyes. Fang must keep positioning his head at uncomfortable angles so that he may look at the other ROA members as they speak. He holds his arms close to his body as moving them with careless enthusiasm would risk tearing open his fresh and still weeping wounds.

Francis: “Must be because Doroda is an actual doctor and not just some insane wannabe mad scientist… Haha!”

Francis clicks his heels together and grins towards his kismet, Houndz, with eyebrows raised in cheeky arches.

Houndz: “Hummm…. I also think those who are prone to lunacy should stay away from potentially dangerous scientific endeavours…. Those in charge should put restraints on such things, am I wrong?…”

Francis: “Ehh… Ehahaha! No!… You’re right, Houndz!”

Francis holds his chest with one hand as he belts out sonorous laughter, stamping his feet on the floor while doing so.

Doroda makes a clicking sound with her tongue and turns her head away from the other pair. With her hands clasped in front of her, she looks up towards Fang.

Doroda: “Ahh… Anyway… Fang, how are your wounds healing?… It's taking much longer for you to heal yourself this time…”

Fang: “It…seems so…. Perhaps, I got a bit too carried away at the theatre, and it's taking a long time for the energies to do their work…”

Doroda: “Oh well…. I’m sure you’ll be better by tomorrow…. So, you two, when did Monty say he and the others would be bringing in the test subjects?… We’ve been waiting far too long…”

Houndz: “Yes, yes, Montgomery and our other subordinates will arrive soon, I’m sure…. And then, we shall commence the experiment!”

Francis: “Eh, don't get so excited. It's probably going to be a complete failure, just like all of the other experiments…”

Houndz: “Hey! Don’t say that!”

Houndz shakes his shoulders and narrows his eyes at Francis, making the mischievous vampire sigh and look away.

Doroda: “Well…actually I do believe…I might have figured it out this time…”

Doroda raises her eyebrows at the others, tilting her face up with an ambiguous stare.

Houndz: “At last?…. You’ve discovered the correct method?”

Doroda: “I think so…”

Houndz: “How!?”

Doroda clears her throat and fixes the collar on her jacket before answering. The smile that creeps across her face is disturbing in its innocence…

Doroda: “Ehem…. To put things simply…Fang and I have conducted a series of tests and experiments on a smaller scale, but the theories we have tested…. Well, they show exhilarating levels of promise…”

As Doroda’s voice trails off to silence, Fang shudders beneath his bandages, as if his wounds still possess the ghosts of the agonizing pain the briars have left as remnants.

The sounds of feet stamping nearer from the far end of the corridor come echoing through the walls. The faded lights lining the walkway flicker as a large metal door slides open. The door creaks and catches on its hinges until it is ajar. Through the doorway, Monty, along with the remaining ROA members and two other strange, submissive individuals come walking with no apparent haste into the fume fogged laboratory.

Francis: “Ah! There’s Monty now!…”

Monty leads the group down the long, shadow shrouded corridor. Octavia skips through the hallway next to Venus who walks with slow, dainty steps. In front of Venus and Octavia, two figures struggle to keep with the pace of the others. A man and a woman, both of their heads are covered with grey sheets, and their hands and feet are restrained with black, metal chained cuffs. The pair hang their sheeted heads as they shuffle along the corridor, the chains around their ankles clicking as they scrape across the floor. The two individuals slump forward with their laborious paces, as if they had previously been sedated.

Monty and the group stop in front of the other four ROA members, as the suspicious, dim lighting of the laboratory makes their silhouettes shine with a malicious glow.

Houndz: “Montgomery… Greetings. I see you brought the test subjects.”

Monty: “Quit with the pleasantries, Houndz…. These two were damn hard to get… Of course…you aren’t even going to thank me for bringing them here for you…”

Monty scratches at his neck, turning his head at a gruesome angle and showing Houndz a scathing grimace. The length of the corridor goes quiet for a moment. Silent, but for the rasping sound of the two captives’ distressed breathing.

Venus: “…. Well, then…should we not get started with the experiments?… We did kidnap this poor couple on their wedding day, after all. We shouldn’t make them wait any longer… Huhuhu…”

Venus places a slender, white hand to her chin as she chuckles.

Monty: “… Right… Houndz, where do you want these two?”

Houndz: “Oh… Over there… In those two, steel chairs…. Those should hold them down splendidly!”

Over on the far side of the corridor, to the right there are two large and hulking steel chairs, each welded at the joints and riddled with crude bolts.

Monty: “… Octavia…”

Monty nods to the female vampire. Octavia bounces on her feet and hops over to the steel chairs at the far wall. She grins with her hands on the backs of the two chairs and pushes them forward. The steel chairs slide across the floor under the small wheels that are attached to the bases of each of the chairs’ four legs. The wheels groan and squeak like the rodents that inhabit the building’s basement, as Octavia brings the chairs over to where the group waits.

Octavia: “Eheha!… This is getting me so excited!…”

After setting the steel chairs in the centre of the laboratory, Octavia tosses her hands in the air and scurries to the back of the group once more. The elated grin on her face twisting into a more manic expression, with severe folds and wrinkles in places that seem impossible for a face to produce them.

The steel chairs are damp to the touch, as they are slick from the excess oils that carry through the chemical fumes that radiate throughout the room. Monty and Houndz each grab one of the two captives by the shoulders, forcing them forward and into the seats of the heavy, metal chairs. The captives do nothing to protest this, seeming to have already been frightened to the highest extent by the events that got them into this situation in the first place. The pair whimper, making almost soundless cries as Houndz and Monty move to unclasp the chained cuffs around their wrists and ankles. They tie the two captives down with more convenient restraints, as thick, leather straps are attached to the steel chairs to bind the captives at their limbs.

Houndz: “… Now then…. We shall commence!…”

Houndz stands before the captives with his head tilted towards the light coming from the ceiling. Monty steps back, a scrutinizing scowl tearing over his face along with a judgemental eye roll.

Houndz: “Hummm…. Let’s see… What do we have here?….”

Houndz leans forward and yanks the grey sheets off of each of the two captives' heads, revealing their faces to the group. In the left chair, the woman sinks into her seat, quivering as she stares up at the figures that lurk around her. The man in the chair on the right squints his eyes at the ROA officials, his eyebrows twisting into painful humps.

This man is a vampire, and the woman is his new wife, a human. The pair had just been married less than two days before. The already controversial marriage between a vampire and a human had been secured by a certain group of lenient agents from the VLAD organization. However, to their dismay, the couple were kidnapped from the hotel suite the wedding procession members were staying in. No longer with the protection from VLAD agents, the husband and wife were ambushed by Monty and his subordinates, Venus and Octavia, and were forced to comply with them as they were unable to defend themselves. The couple had been heavily sedated and held by tough restraints, as captives in the dark depths of Blackember Academy’s basement.

Captive Man: “… Please—…. Don’t…hurt us! Please!”

The vampire shakes within the restraints on the chair.

Houndz: “Ehahahaa!…. Well, since we have yet to achieve complete success in our experimentation, I cannot guarantee whether the process will be painful or not…. But, if I were you, sir, I’d anticipate the worst!…”

Houndz leans so close to the man that the long strands of his hair fall onto the captive man’s lap. Houndz exaggerates his widened eyes as he glares at the man without blinking even once. He breathes through his open mouth, his breath steaming into wet curls of condensation. The man sputters at Houndz’s breath.

Captive Man: “Eghhnn—!”

Francis: “Step aside, you mangy mutt!…. This isn’t the time for your delusional antics!…”

Francis forces himself in between Houndz and the captive man, using the back of his arm to shove Houndz to the side. Houndz takes this action as a deep attack on his own scientific competency and expresses this with a distraught scowl that makes his eyebrows form a bulk like barbed wire.

Francis: “… Let a real scientific professional handle this one, Houndz. Ehehe!”

Doroda: “Step aside please…”

Doroda commands Francis without caring to produce any sort of polite tone within her words. Francis steps back with an expectant, wide-mouthed look on his face.

Doctor Scaley paces forward with her hands clasped behind her back. She peers at the captive vampire with vacant yet focused eyes that hold a profound stare upon the man. Her eyes do not waver in their attentiveness, simulating the leering gaze a predator casts down as it stalks its prey.

Doroda accentuates that fearsome stare for numerous moments before moving her gaze onto the other captive individual. The captive vampire’s bride sits quivering in the opposite chair, her head and upper body shaking in frightful convulsions that defy any yearnings for peace.

Doroda: “Hmmm…. Fang, you brought my supply case, didn’t you?… Pass me those syringes…”

Fang does as he is told with an immediate response, turning on his heels and retrieving a black, rectangular case from a work table behind the group. He sets it down on another bench ledge beside him and unhooks the clasps to open the case. From inside it, Fang removes another narrow box. This one is made of a lustreless metal and is filled with other metal objects that make clicking noises as they shift around within the box.

Doroda takes the metal box from Fang’s bandage wrapped hand, not even meeting the tall vampire’s gaze as she conducts this transaction with him. She turns back towards the two captives and clicks open the side of the metal box. The box’s open face reveals several skinny, metal and glass syringes that vary in size and length.

Doroda waves her fingers in the air as she chooses one of the syringes. The sharp edges of each of these objects glint under the faint light, and the tops of the syringes scrape together as Doroda sorts through them.

Doroda: “Hah, I suppose I should explain the theory we are about to put to test in this experiment to those of you who don't already know, correct?…”

None of the other ROA members answer Doctor Scaley’s question. Without considering this response, Doroda continues with the explanation. She furthers her examination of the syringes in her hand as she speaks with a loud and confident voice.

Doroda: “… Vampires have long been known as a species of supernatural beings who are very different from humans…. The most notable of these differences is their ability to use varying supernatural powers….and vampires are considered immortal, as they can endure unimaginable injuries, yet they cannot be killed…”

Fang looks to the floor as he listens to his kismet speak. For an unidentifiable reason something within him aches at hearing these well known truths.

Doroda: “Yes… Vampires are immortal beings…. But, I believe I have found a way to make vampires die…”

Doroda shifts her head to look over her shoulder. She spends a brief moment eyeing over her subordinates with particular attention towards those of the ROA officials who are, themselves, vampires. She sees no change in any of their expressions. The two captives in front of her however, still persist in the wide array of fear induced variations within their facial movements.

Doroda: “Another, perhaps, less understood fact about vampires is the mysterious concoction of two opposing energies that surge through their bloodstream…. Vital and trivial energies… Few scientific professionals have even tried to describe these substances, yet humans too have these energies existing within them… Vampires and humans are made of the exact same things, yet what is it that makes vampires so different? What gives them such immeasurable power?…”

Doctor Scaley pauses for a moment. She scratches an itch on the tip of her nose before continuing.

Doroda: “Well…. The truth is, vampires have such differing levels of these two energies that it grants them seemingly eternal life and the ability to use divine powers… Humans, or more specifically, the vampire’s kismet functions as a sort of catalyst for the potent effects brought from differing vital and trivial energies…”

Doroda quits speaking once more and humphs as she finds the exact syringe she desired from her wide selection of needle rigged tools.

Doroda: “… This natural state of vampires…is dangerous…because if the mixture of these energies were to be thrown off balance…or if a vampire were to be flooded with too much of one energy over the other…well, what would happen then?…”

Doroda holds her selected syringe up closer to the light. It casts a thin line of a shadow across her face and she smiles.

Doroda: “Hmmm…. This question is what I intend to answer….”

Doctor Scaley takes the long, metal syringe and holds it close to the female captives neck. She holds the restrained woman’s right shoulder with her left hand and uses the other to rest the tip of the needle against the skin on the woman’s collarbone. Doroda slides the needle into the captive woman’s flesh with a slow movement of her hand. The woman flinches and yelps from the pain, or perhaps from the severe panic brought on by the situation itself.

Doctor Scaley slides the syringe back and lets the blood trickle into the glass container. The captive woman’s blood is dark red and warm within the syringe, but most important for the sake of testing Doroda’s theory is that her blood is teaming with unknown levels of vital and trivial energies. The intense, negative emotions the restrained woman is experiencing makes the amount of trivial energy in her blood to be elevated for the time being. However, the potency of the deep red liquid cannot be measured just yet…

Doroda holds the full syringe back and stares at the liquid inside for a moment. She turns to the male vampire who fights his restraints by pulling and jerking his arms and legs, but this weak exertion is useless as the man can do nothing to break free from the chair’s tight grasp. He flinches and surges forward in his seat at the site of his human wife’s blood.

Doctor Scaley is about to force the tip of the needle into the captured vampire’s flesh, and she comes close to stabbing the man with the pointed end of the syringe, not caring about precision. Doroda stops what she is doing and ceases her impatient movements as the door at the end of the long corridor bursts agape.

At the end of the dark, fear swamped corridor, the near colossal figure of a crimson haired, female vampire enters into the thick silence of the laboratory. Dagger lifts her heavy, booted feet as she takes slow steps towards the group in the centre of the corridor.

Dagger: “Wait!…. You lousy, halfwitted idiots… What gives you the audacity to start without me?...”

Dagger’s voice echoes through the corridor, the sharpness of her tone shattering against the room’s four walls like the jagged edges of smashed glass prepped for a devious fight.

As Dagger approaches her face deepens into a devilish half-smile that her ROA subordinates have come to know well. Monty pushes himself forward from the group and trips past the two captives. He stops himself a few paces away from where Dagger arrives, his hands planting themselves down atop his knees and his head bowing at a cautious angle, as if he were a worthless servant showing grace to a tyrant royal.

Monty: “… Dagger!— …. Dagger, you’re here…”

Dagger: “Hrmmgh!… And so what?!… Move aside!”

Monty huffs in a couple frenzied breaths before jumping to reply.

Monty: “Ahh!… It's just…you…hardly ever come out of your room these days…. That’s all.”

Dagger: “… Gaghh!…”

Dagger makes an abrupt toss of her arm and sends the point of her elbow slicing down into the side of Monty’s shoulder, forcing him to fall backwards and away from her path.

Dagger: “…. Get out of my way, you low-grade lackey!… Stop interfering!…”

Dagger snaps her head back, looking down at Monty with the flames of Hell flashing through the shines of light in her eyes. Dagger lifts her huge arm and uses the claw of her hand to swipe a piece of fallen, blood red hair away from her face. She walks past the two ghost-white and trembling captives, not so much as taking the impromptu opportunity to shock another death storm of fear into their fragile hearts with a small glance of hers.

Dagger stomps up towards where Doroda stands with the gleaming syringe, filled with dark red liquid still clasped tight in her hand. Behind Doroda, Houndz, Venus and the other three vampires are motionless and their faces display the apt submissive stares that prove they are unwilling to show any sort of emotion.

Dagger: “You!… Give me that!”

Dagger barks at Doctor Scaley who ignores the droplets of saliva that spew from the tall vampire’s mouth as she bellows out her unkind words. Doroda hands Dagger the syringe without hesitation. Despite being the only real doctor and experienced chemist in the room, she does not even think to challenge Dagger’s will.

Dagger squeezes the syringe between her fingertips and turns towards the pair of captives in their chairs. She pauses with the syringe held up in the air so the blood inside it sloshes back, the red liquid so thick and foamy that it has begun to cling and clot around the edges of its container.

Dagger: “Nobody told you fools?…. I want to be the one to do it for the first time…”

Dagger looks down to the two individuals ahead of her and brings the syringe descending so fast that it makes a hissing sound in the air, as Dagger stabs at the vampire who is restrained in front of her.

The syringe pokes through the man’s tight flesh in the spot at the centre of his collarbone, just at the base of his neck. Dagger forces her fingers down on the cool metal of the syringe, emptying the entirety of its contents into the man’s bloodstream.

The male vampire shrieks out at the surprise of pain and the surging of defiant energies that are relenting to be contained within his body. He yells so loud the others in the room move with an instinct to cover their ears from such an assaulting auditory specimen. The vampire attempts to fling his body back and forth within his seat but is unsuccessful, as this convulsion only causes his back to slam against the heavy, metal chair with repeated swells of pain. He goes on moaning for a few short moments before he loses consciousness in his movements and eventually dies out in an impossible, wicked miracle.

The vampire’s head slouches forward with his last fit of movement. The heave of breath no longer makes his chest rise, indicating that he is indeed deceased. The vampire’s bride in the opposite chair yells out.

Captive Woman: “Ahhhgh! No!…. No! No, what did you—”

Dagger swings her fist across the woman’s face, knocking her out.

Dagger: “Haa…Ha… Hahaha!…. Ending a deviant vampire’s life was really so simple all along!… Haha!… I am tempted to try it out on myself next… Hmmm, but…there’s something I want to do first…”

Dagger drops the empty syringe, the hollowness of it makes a high pitched ‘clink’ sound echo throughout the room. Dagger begins her slow walk to exit the corridor. She stops as she comes to where Monty is sitting against the wall, kneeling with one foot on the floor. Dagger grabs at the hair on the top of Monty’s head and pulls him up, forcing their eyes to meet.

Monty’s mouth hangs open, but he would never use it to be defiant towards Dagger… He says nothing, despite the stinging sensation on his scalp that resonates as Dagger yanks on it harder.

Dagger: “Listen Monty….you can go tell Retribution about the great success we’ve made here…. I know he’ll be delighted to hear that vampires are no longer immortal…. Humph…”

Dagger lets go of Monty’s hair and lets his head drop. She turns and walks away, leaving the rest of the group to deal with the mess and the dead body. She lets the door slam as she exits the corridor leading out of the laboratory. Vampires and death are the only two things on her mind, as she moves out of sight once again.