It wasn't long before the surface below was taken away from him. The cement weakly cracked and surrendered, the blur of the world cascading by him. Overwhelming shock surged through him as his whole form was engulfed by a splitting sky of obsidian shadows. He descended swiftly, his attention fully on the impending gloom around him, his mind filled with fears of what awaited him below... filled with upsetting scenarios that determined the fate of Aemelia Vial.

His descent went on for quite some time, but the echoing sound of something dense being plunged into deep water was enough to spring him a scrap of hope. 

A few seconds later, he vertically landed within a viscous lake of grisly liquid, his fedora tumbling off to dart far away from his person. His polished winkle-pickers were the first to be totally submerged in the unpleasant water, the rest of his body soon following, the white fabric of his suit soaking up the particles of gruesome liquid. He kept his eyes shut as cool droplets sank into his being, but he desperately yearned to open them to check for his consultant's whereabouts.

He persuaded himself to squint open his eyes, the unexpected sight of thick transparent crimson certainly not reassuring him in any way. Light bounced over the surface of the water and its dim white rays impaled through the murky red liquid - if anything, the light was the only thing he could be thankful for in his situation. 

He propelled himself forwards despite feeling so weighed down in his layers of attire, forcibly swimming at a horizontal angle through the pool of thick red water. His suit clung to his form tightly and the tails of his coat floated through the water behind him, his chestnut hair gliding out to the rear and sides of his head in rippling wisps. His white eye seemed to take on an ethereal glow, acting as a vivid search-light in amongst the waves of deep scarlet, his arms violently chopping through the water as his heart raced at the lack of Miss Vial's presence. And due to his lack of awareness towards his new, troubling surroundings.

A few bubbles escaped his mouth as he spotted a dark shape slowly sinking in the distance and he scrambled through the water, darting towards it as fast as he could possibly go. Adrenaline was fuelling his actions and surged through him further once he realised it was the silhouette of another person, the outline of their form basking in a shimmering black glow. He shook his head, refusing to allow the person to sink, and frantically cut his arms through the water as forcefully as possible, hoping he would reach Aemelia's sinking body in time. 

Eventually, he reached her with ease, his eyes stinging from how much the murky sea of vermilion was invading his eyes. With his eyes now shut, his hands clutched around her middle and with great effort, he lugged her upwards, his legs cramping slightly since he was powering every one of his actions through them. He hugged her to his chest, not even wishing to squint a look at her or he knew that the sight of her unconscious would probably panic him even more. He lifted his head upwards, cracking his eyes open to peer towards the source of light, marking the surface of the water. He closed them again and pushed his legs harder, arms securely locking in place around her middle.

Out of nowhere, Copia was suddenly effortlessly powering them vertically through the water, fully able to generate a large amount of force. The black particles encapsulating Aemelia had enveloped around his form too, giving him the limitless energy that he was in need of. He let out a muffled grumble of amazement, squeezing his eyes shut even though he sensed that the heat of the light above was falling over his back and shoulders. Aemelia was still tightly in the grasp of his arms and his mind finally began to worry about her now that he had almost reached the surface...

He clung onto her rigidly as he surfaced first, blinking open his eyes frantically as he eagerly inhaled and exhaled, too glad of the fresh oxygen to notice the strangeness of his surroundings. He yanked her out of the water, keeping her upwards to ensure that everything over her shoulders was above the water. His eyes blinked away pesky droplets of water, each blood-shot iris lingering over her as he tread the liquid. Her plaits were sodden and loose red hair matted across her face, subtle stains of black eyeliner running down her cheeks to join the faint reveal of the pink skin of her lips, grey paint smudged away into non-existence. To his surprise he could hear her quietly panting and he knitted his eyebrows, unaware of her entity's dark mass swamping around their two forms, too focused on surviving at that moment in time.

Now reassured that she was at least breathing, Cardinal desperately flicked his head in all directions, slackening his grip on her to allow her to rest her head onto his collarbone. What he could make out around them definitely wasn't reassuring. His mind was trying make sense of it all, and why such a thing would be under a random cinema in a random French town... but he couldn't dwell on it. He had to deal with the present situation, despite the unsettling surroundings he could see.

To the west, was a vast expanse of more crimson lake-water, the light reflecting attractively to shimmer across the surface. 

To the north, was a distant towering pile consisting of beaten up furniture from eras passed, broken musical instruments, mounds of old, burnt-out film reel and dusty antiques - it was seemingly a treasure trove for any historical enthusiast. Copia's curiosity was certainly peaked but he couldn't ensure that such a place would be safe for them... after that strange apparition they had briefly encountered earlier, who knew what could have been lying in wait down there...

To the east was more promising. It was a thin stretch of wooden boards which was reminiscent of a salvaged theatre-stage, with a few battered arm chairs and a end-table supporting an old seventies telephone - which had its power wire cleanly sawed off. It seemed just as unnerving as the other options, but he already found himself slowly gliding through the water towards it, his decision only seeming more and more appropriate when he heard an incoherent moan escape Aemelia's mouth.

It didn't take him long to reach the edge of the wooden platform and he launched her upwards, perching her heavily sodden form onto the flat wooden boards. Once he was sure that she was safely balanced there, he took in a deep breath and pushed his gloved hands onto the ledge of the wood, his arms straining as he managed to loudly scramble up and out of the lake containing bloodied water. He coughed and spluttered as he slowly stood to his feet, feeling overly heavy from the wetness of his attire - which was now ruined and he couldn't deny that in the back of his mind, he was somewhat disappointed that one of his favourite suits was now utterly un-salvageable. 

He shook his head side-to-side, droplets spewing off of him like he was a wild animal, water continuing to drip from him as he proceeded to rush towards Aemelia, who was still completely unconscious as she laid on her right side. He crouched beside her and reached a glove down to shake her arm, still panting out as he gained his breath back. He seemed to be unaware that the dark mass of particles still clung to him, too concerned with her being out cold  to notice.

"Miss Vial?" he asked hopefully in a hushed tone, shaking her more impatiently. "Miss Vial, can you wake up?"

He briefly darted his eyes away from her to check their surroundings, still cautious that something else resided there. He was sure that there must have been something but reverted his attention to lay his eyes on her. 

"Miss Vial?" he continued to whisper, swallowing with nervousness. His eyes narrowed in interest as he attempted to wake her, the tattoo over her neck that had always been obscured by her plait now plainly visible to him. As he continued to try and bring her into reality with various calls of her name, he studied the tattoo intently, wondering what significance it had to her. It resembled "three" in Roman numerals which was intricately decorated in black ink, but it was fairly faded and must have been something she had adorned for quite some time. 

As he pondered over its relevance, she emitted an unholy wheeze, like everything she had experienced had just hit her and she flinched back into reality, her black eyes growing wide as she blinked them into use. She rolled them upwards and jumped out of her skin when she realised that Copia's dripping form was leaning over her. 

"Sorry, sorry!" he whispered fiercely, waving his black gloves at her apologetically. "I just wanted to make sure you were alive and well!"

She let out an exasperated moan of displeasure and rubbed the sides of her temples, uncomfortable with how flat the planks of wood felt over the ridges of her spine.

"Where the fuck are we?" she questioned in a blunt manner, wincing her eyes shut as the black particles around the two of them seeped back into her form like they had never been there in the first place.

"I am not so sure." Cardinal whispered, hovering beside her with an expression of uncomfortable unfamiliarity. "But try keep your voice down, I do not believe that we are alone here, Miss Vial."

She murmured in annoyance and squinted her eyes up at him, frowning at the sight of his ruined tuxedo, thickly stained in patches and streaks of scarlet liquid. 

"Is that blood?" she asked sharply, propping herself up slightly now that her mind seemed to be making sense of the world around her.

"I hope not." he responded quietly, glancing down at his dishevelled, damp clothes sadly. "But I think so, yes."

With a grunt of effort, Aemelia managed to prise herself up to a sitting position, her eyes scanning the length of his sodden form. She briefly paused and then inhaled sharply, hopping up to her feet, squeezing the ends of her plaits to expel some of the excess water.

"Didn't you have a hat, before?"

"I... lost it somewhere in there." he admitted sadly with a sigh, gesturing a black glove towards the blood-filled lake. "It is definitely worth diving back in there to find it, but... I have already disrespected this suit, and I do not wish to get wet again, you know? This may seem silly, but I do not approve of blood baths - they make me feel all... icky - so I avoid them where possible. Even if it means... losing a damn good hat."

His mourning over his hat didn't appear to interest her all that much, for she already had begun to follow a thin piece of driftwood. Several pieces had been laid out over the lake's shoreline to their right, serving as a pathway towards the large, dominant clump of antiques and dilapidated furniture. 

Copia raised his right hand and pushed back his wet hair, glancing at her over his shoulder, quietly murmuring his irritation at how quickly she got over things and how quickly she settled back into investigating. Despite how uncomfortable and confused with everything he was, he followed her regardless, not wishing to spend any time in the strange place on his own.

Neither of them uttered a word as their shoes slapped over the small layer of water lapping at the thin wooden path. The place seemed otherworldly and so out of place being where it was - Copia couldn't tell if it was some kind of cave or a rift to some kind of pocket dimension. He didn't know if the latter could even exist.

Soon, they circled the wide tower of hoarded goods, Aemelia leading them into a small concealed barricade in the middle. A lengthy dining table shaded them from view, shielding them from anything that may have been watching them. Copia relaxed his shoulders a little, glad that they had found some kind of hiding place. Aemelia crouched and he mirrored her, peering through the small gap between various dusty objects in front of them, watching the still scene of the lake of blood.

"We need to find a way out of here." she whispered, shuffling beside him so that they were shoulder to shoulder, a single strip of light falling across the snippets of their eyes. "Somehow don't think there'll be a ladder back up there."

"Maybe there is a door or something?"

"A door? Really? It's a fucking cave, Cardinal."

"It is? Where are the stalactites and... you know, the other ones that kinda look like big winkies?"

"I don't fucking know. I'm an alchemist, not a fucking cave-expert, Cardinal."

"I think you mean my occult consultant, Miss Vial."

She smirked slightly and flicked her dark eyes to settle on him, which he immediately caught notice of, returning her mirth-filled gaze with his own shining eyes - internally he was so grateful that he had been able to assist her earlier, he didn't know what predicament he would have been in if he hadn't been able to lift her to the surface...

Just as she opened her mouth to reply to him, a shadow sliced the line of light shining across their eyes, their attentions settling on the source of the new shadows. Black and mismatched eyes gleamed with horror as at least half a dozen shadowed figures cocooned themselves around fresh bodies, softly gliding downwards through the cavernous expanse above their heads. It appeared that the things had come from exactly where the two of them had fallen, like it was some kind of transportation system or door for the ghostly carriers. 

The victims were stiff, suffocated and incoherent due to the creeping blackness clutching at them, squelching a hold to trap the freshly plucked victim in place. Aemelia proceeded to count beneath her breath, eyes fixated on the apparitions as they all paused, waiting for the others to follow suit. Once they were all at the same level of height in the air, the hold on the victims was loosened in unison like the metallic claw in a twisted grabber machine.

"What time is it?" Miss Vial whispered, neither of them looking at one another as the sight of the six or so bodies splashing into the lake of blood was far too dire to ignore. Cardinal reluctantly lifted his soaked sleeve, bringing up his right forearm so that he could peer at his thin wrist-watch, immediately dropping it to resume watching the lake outside.

"Ten-thirty." he breathed with a confused frown, grimacing slightly when he saw that the bodies began to bob over the water, each one tucked into the same position, tightly bound like a succulent gift. 

"Of course... the cinema will have opened." he added in a murmur of realisation, following Aemelia's train of thought entirely. 

"Well, they certainly don't waste their time, do they? Greedy bastards." she quipped quietly, her black eyes hardening with annoyance.

The two of them had both seemingly come to the same silent assumption. The victims must have all been snatched from different cinema screens, to their knowledge the cinema had six screens - there were roughly six or so victims from what the two of them could see. What could the shadowed creatures have wanted with these people? Why had they just dropped them into the water like they were some kind of delivery?

Copia was the first to notice that the water around the people began to bubble and soon, the whole sea of blood began to shake. He pointed to the scene with his left glove and quickly patted Aemelia's shoulder, keeping a firm grip on her to ensure she was still close to him. Now that they both were witnesses, the vermilion sea spat out tens of human-sized creatures - they were built like scorpions, their skin and shells meshing into an interlocking blue-grey mass. Their eyes were hollow and black, reminiscent of dead shrimp, focused upon their food. Instead of pincers, the creatures had spindly arms with gnarled hands at the ends which were curled and crooked, perhaps to grapple onto things underwater or perhaps even to tear and scoop things up... 

As more of the ugly beings continued to emerge, they all shrieked in choked excitement, tipping their heads back to drop their jaws open, revealing throats filled with rows of sharp incisors.

Copia scoffed back the urge to vomit as the creatures began feasting upon each one of the bodies that had been delivered to them, the visible sight of each person's life shimmering out in opal particles as they sucked it up through the air like it was a delightful soup. Some others had begun to tuck into the physical flesh of the victims, peeling away strips here and there, scooping up anything meaty to chuck it down the back of their throats...

"Fuck me." Aemelia exclaimed in a quick whisper, reaching a hand up to rest it upon the one Copia had placed on her shoulder. "Soul Siphons? That explains a lot... no wonder you've been acting so bloody strange."

He frowned at her words, but didn't dare take his eyes from the hideous scene before them, afraid that he would miss something important.

"There are... many of them." he said emptily, suddenly feeling very out of his depth - what use were the two of them if there was going-on a hundred of those things?

"Lucky for you, I know exactly how to handle these buggers." Aemelia responded confidently, noticing the discomfort in his body language as she stared at him. She reached into the inside of her blazer, narrowing her eyes in thought.

"You do?!" Cardinal exclaimed, dropping his hand away from her to utter a loud sigh of relief as he combed a hand through his sodden hair."Oh-hoh! Thank Satan!  If you did not we would be - "

"Unfortunately..." she interrupted, pulling out her sodden box of matches from her blazer to wave them before his eyes. "We need fire and these are currently out of action."

"You got a lighter?" he quickly asked, his mind already filling with fairly decent alternatives to matchsticks.

"A what?" she cried out in an offended tone, thrusting the match-box back inside its rightful pocket.

"A lighter, you know, a zippo?" 

"Fuck no, why do you think I would carry one of those around?" she snapped and narrowed her eyes at him, folding her arms across her chest.

"Because you smoke!" he reasoned, gesturing his gloves towards her in exaggerated exasperation.

"Oi! I'm not that basic, thank you very much." 

Cardinal frowned at her stubborn demeanour and turned away from her, shaking his head. He took a step back, hunching down to avoid hitting his head on the bottom of the dining table above them. He hummed in thought, trailing his eyes to the sides to inspect the pile of items around them.

"We could always use all of this crap for fuel, no?" he proposed, sliding a gloved palm over the dining table's leg before he knocked on it for luck.

"That would be perfect actually." Aemelia considered, surprised that she was actually agreeing with one of Cardinal's suggestions for once. "Siphons are ever so sentimental so us burning their shit would certainly piss them off. They hoard this stuff for a reason."

"Piss them off? Do we really wanna... do that, Miss Vial?"

"Sure, why not?" she replied in an accepting tone, shrugging as her eyes explored the pile of various appropriate objects around them. "I'd rather that they all died passionately enraged. Wouldn't be any fun in giving them a deflated, depressing kind of death. These things thrive on the misery of others."

"Heh, it is settled then." Copia breathed out with a smile of proud victory, placing a black glove over his chest.

"Only thing left to do is find a reliable source of ignition."

As she took a step away from his side to hunt for something they could possibly use, he quickly reached out, his left glove firmly resting over her shoulder to ensure that she didn't stray away from him. His contact made her whip her head around to stare at him in confusion and his eyes were filled with a strange sense of honesty. Once he was certain that he had her attention, his firm hand left her shoulder in order to slide off his other glove, revealing the bare skin of his hand to her. She scowled in bewilderment, but stayed silent, sensing that he was about to share some kind of secret with her from the hushed way that he was acting. 

"A cigarette, if you have one?" he whispered, backing away from the pile of hoarded items so that he had a little more room around him. She shuffled to stand before him and slid out her packet of smokes - seemingly the only thing that had actually stayed dry - drawing out a single cigarette as he had requested. She clutched it for a few seconds but soon shook her head, extending it out for him to take it.

Instead of grabbing onto it, he reached his bare hand over to it and flipped it over, motioning a beckoning gesture to the very end of the cigarette... and it immediately set the thing alight with vivid cyan flames which were outlined with a hazy black hue. Aemelia stared in quiet shock, amazed that the thing still burned so normally and hadn't been burnt into an immediate pile of ash. He dropped his arm down by his side to lean forwards and part his lips, his eyes motioning for her to give him the cigarette. She slowly obliged his wishes with wide eyes and slipped the smouldering cigarette between his lips. He puffed it confidently and bent down slightly to retrieve his glove which had fallen to the floor, his attention straying from her look of wonder for a second.

"That was fucking something, Cardinal!" she whispered with frantic enthusiasm, watching him tuck his discarded glove into his waistcoat. "No wonder you wear those gloves all the time..."

He smirked and nodded, keeping his eyes on the ground beneath his feet like he was suddenly feeling quite bashful about everything. He had never showed anyone any of his unusual abilities before - he was a little embarrassed as he knew he could use his abilities far more adequately when he was alone. He felt that it was a little different now that he had an audience.

"It is not so bad, I can turn it on and off whenever I like." he answered simply, keeping his eyes on the ground so that he could avoid her fascinated eyes. "The gloves are... so I do not get so cold. But they do remind me not to be so tempted to set things alight."

"Makes sense." she agreed, dropping her attention towards him as she realised he seemed slightly uncomfortable for some reason. She hadn't asked him to disclose any kind of abilities that he had, but she sensed that he was maybe regretting informing her of his unusual talent for some reason.  

"The trouble is, I can only use certain fuels to be able to do it, you know?" Copia explained in a more optimistic tone, his voice trembling a little from how unfamiliar he was with talking about his own abilities. "And... the energy you emit, it is perfect, it seems. I never really considered it until now."

"You're welcome, then." she replied simply, nodding her head at him with eyes that gleamed with amazement.

Copia continued to smoke aptly as she drew out another cigarette from the pack, perching it between her lips. He extended out his bare hand again and she leaned forwards, licks of blue hell-fire setting the end alight in a single flash. They nodded at one another as she returned the smokes to her inside pocket, taking one long drag before she turned away from him to gander at the enormous pile of useless items.

"We could get rid of these suckers pretty fast." she murmured, already snatching hold of the nearest item to her - an ugly bust, supposedly of some kind of American president that was carved out of a large chunk of wood.

Copia exhaled out a large cloud of smoke and narrowed his eyes at her in challenge, "Just tell me what we have to do..."

After a straight-forward explanation from Aemelia, Copia nodded and the two of them set to trailing around the pile of knick-knacks, snatching up any combustible items to add them to a new heap for Copia to ignite. Their fuming cigarettes hung limply in their mouths, ash dropping down across the thin puddles under their feet as they carried the items in bundles in their arms, placing them down as quietly as they could, trying to ignore the loudly snacking siphons as much as possible.

The two of them were desperate to intervene, for the squelching sounds of the creatures feeding was eerily loud and unnerving, the sounds of small splashes of water urging them both to hurry their actions - the last thing that they wanted was to be spotted now.

Aemelia stood beside the new pile of fuel they had made, Copia peeking around the tower of clutter to assess the location of the siphons. He removed his left glove, the leather creaking as he squeezed it firmly to slide it into his waistcoat.

Both of them stayed silent and readied their stances as they glanced at one another, nodding their heads to signify that they were prepared. From that moment, it was like a whistle had been blown for Aemelia darted forwards lugging the nearest object from the pile into her grasp, the dark energy simmering around her form as her eyes were black hollows in their sockets. The energy coated around the wood panel she was holding and she swung herself around swiftly to fling it away from her, causing it to soar through the air.

Copia caught the panel with ease, the energy she provided fuelling the blue sparks that ignited the sides he was holding with his palms. He side-stepped around the large tower of clutter, his eyes narrowing in challenge. He expelled a low grunt of effort, throwing the panel - dangerously searing with his hell-fire - like it was nothing but a frisbee, sending it hurtling towards the mass of feeding Soul Siphons.

Copia decided not to check whether he was successful and instead quickly swivelled to face his consultant. She had already tossed another object his way and he jumped towards it, catching it like a baseball, before he turned back around and flung it with ease, high-pitched shrieks of pain squeaking out as a consequence.

Aemelia kept feeding him more and more items doused with her darkness - she lost count of how many things she ended up throwing him. She threw chairs, small table units, sheets of wallpaper, parts of shelves, rolling pins, old alarm clocks that had stopped dead on six, broomsticks, wooden utensils, stacks of papers, snapped acoustic guitars, moth-bitten curtains, worn teddy-bears... the list of flammable goods went on.

As Copia ignited more, his throws towards the small army of siphons grew more aggressive and purposeful, like he was lobbing a fireball at them... in a lot of ways he certainly was.

When ten minutes sunk in, their pile of items had diminished and to their surprise, the vivid blue flames of hell-fire flickered brightly as they spread from siphon to siphon, most of them collapsing over the water to curl up as they ceased to exist.

Copia dusted his hands together, faint cyan sparking from them as he watched the last few of the many siphons scramble across the water - the creatures were incredibly confused why the liquid wasn't extinguishing the flames and they fought through the lake, hoping to find solace on land...

But none of them ever reached such a place, shrivelling up before they ever got there, their lifeless charred corpses floating peacefully across the surface of the lake water.

When the screaming of the siphons disappeared, Copia shoved his hands back inside his gloves like they were leather holsters, sending a sincere look towards Aemelia. His dark expression of sincerity was enough for her to realise that the siphons were no more and she jogged passed him, rounding the tower of antiques to head back to the theatre-like platform, black eyes scouring the bloodied water to ensure the dead creatures were indeed dead.

As a few siphon-corpses floated across towards the edge of the wooden planks where she was now stood, the lurking blackness above seemed to lift, becoming a little more translucent. Copia raised his head to explore the high cave-like ceiling, still unsure of their surroundings as he blindly wandered to stand by his consultant's side.

When he reached her, she had tugged one of the corpses ashore, one hand holding it down as the other scooped a sample up from the flaking skin of the creature. He ignored her actions, even when she bunged the end of the tube with a cork, too engrossed in the mass of dead creatures bobbing across the lake water. 

Copia's eyes soon picked out the last few remnants of flesh from the victims, and his expression saddened. Somehow he felt like they had failed massively despite the fact they had annihilated the creatures - but then again, those people's fates had probably been determined before they even set foot into the cinema. Even if Copia and Vial had acted sooner, there would still have been nothing they could have done to save those unfortunate human beings.  

Aemelia slowly stood from her crouched position, her eyes taking on the same sadness that Copia's had as she gazed at him. She didn't think he was so bothered about the victims, but it seemed like he really was. His brows knitted and he inhaled a shuddered breath, the leather of his gloves creaking as his hands clenched into fists.

"There's nothing more we could've done, Cardinal." she spoke softly, and he nodded reluctantly, setting his jaw in disappointment. Her eyes flicked away from him to settle upon the depressing remains he gazed at.

"Suppose that we'd better inform the cinema that their problem has gone." Aemelia announced in a serious tone, sadness gleaming in her eyes as she tore them away from the disheartening sight.

"A good idea." Copia replied quietly with a nod, shooting a glance towards her over his shoulder. "Let's see if we can find a way out of here."

Miss Vial crouched back down to his surprise and she began to wrestle with the dead siphon's outer shell. The tearing sounds as she prised it from the creature made him audibly shiver as he glared at her - he was afraid of asking what she was doing, for the time being he preferred not knowing.

As she expertly rifled through the remains of the siphon - revealing more miniature test tubes she had brought with her to extract samples as she did so - Cardinal stayed a few strafes away from her, bending down to pick up two thin pieces of shale that had gotten lodged into the wood of the platform. He peered out at the mass of dead bodies again, his mind firmly on the amount of death they had brought to the place... and on how much he missed that damn fedora.

He held the two eroded stones to his chest, bowing his head as he stood to his feet like he was thinking of a silent prayer.

"You were good to me, fedora." he murmured, knitting his eyebrows together like he was pained that he had to say goodbye - it seemed to be his unusual way of coping with the fact that there had been people they couldn't save. "May this be a celebration of your memory!"

He took in a deep breath and placed one of the stones in his left hand, squeezing the other one in his right like he was making some kind of wish. Then he threw it out over the lake, his eyes following it as it depressingly plopped into the lake of blood, not having the desired effect at all.

"Shit..." he murmured, swinging up a fist in exaggerated frustration. Luckily, he had a second one, and he flipped the last stone into his right palm, repeating his actions.

It skimmed over the water perfectly, hopping across the surface between the floating corpses with ease. He placed a hand over his heart and wore a warm smile, briefly closing his eyes in respect of the fallen beings... but mostly, his hat.

He sighed and his body language instantly changed, his eulogy bluntly coming to an end.

"Ah well." he announced loudly, throwing out his arms by his sides in a shrug. "I'll just get my tailor to fashion me another. Was kinda shitty and past its best anyways."

Aemelia rolled her eyes at him as she snapped off more pieces of the siphon with her bare hands, her concentration still fully on her actions. Copia turned towards her, furrowing his brow in bewilderment.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm looking for a way out." she explained curtly, not even bothering to turn her head to face him.

"I do not think our way out of here would be inside a rotting corpse, Miss Vial!" he exclaimed with a nervous chuckle, scratching the back of his head.

"Yes, it would. Just bear with me, Cardinal." she responded firmly, her voice straining as he was clearly grating on her nerves. "I know it's tremendously difficult for you to be so patient and understand and be fucking quiet. Please, just give me a few - "

She cut off and she gasped aloud, her annoyance plastered over with shining eyes and a wide smile as her hand laid upon whatever she had been searching for. She beamed with victory, the sound of cracking erupting out as she yanked out the strange object from the torso of the body. She held the strange organ in front of her eyes, both palms cupping around the heart-shaped object like it was a rare, whimsical treasure. The sight of her fascination was contagious and he found an amazed smile emerging on his own mouth as he watched her, oblivious to anything she appeared to be excited about.

"These things are like fairy-dust." she exclaimed in a hushed tone, black eyes gleaming as the heart made up of glass-like tissue glowed with unreal light. "They have all these insanely human hopes trapped inside their hearts. What you see here, is hope in its truest form."

Cardinal approached her side, captured by the sight of visual hope dancing about inside the thick glass of the siphon's heart. He was unsure how such an organ from a creature could assist them, but he implored her to go on.

"Seems a real fucking shame that we have to use it to get out of here. I could have used one of these without this bloody predicament." she admitted brashly, the brief glimpse of her fascinated joy disappearing as she hopped up to her feet, clutching the heart to her chest. "We're granted one wish. It's guaranteed to come true."

He opened his mouth to say something, raising a finger up in the air... but before he could, she sighed heavily and clawed her fingers around the siphon heart, the glittering ribbons of hope inside dancing about in excitement. 

"Touch me." she instructed firmly, causing Copia to widen his eyes eagerly as he quickly advanced towards her, standing closely to her right side. He awkwardly reached his hands towards her waist, clearly misunderstanding her order and she scowled.

"Not like that, you fuckwit! Just wrap your arm around mine or something." she scolded with accusing black eyes, shaking her head in quiet irritation. He let out a little "Oh!" of realisation and quickly apologised. He linked his arm around hers, ensuring that he was careful not to knock the heart out of her hands. He wore an alarmed expression as he flicked his eyes around them, like he was waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, he shut his eyes, sensing that Miss Vial probably had them closed too.

Aemelia did indeed have her eyes shut and clamped his arm closely to her side, her mind filled with the honest wish that they were back inside the cinema above them, back to a form of normality, back to a fun environment without the cave-world full of soul-sucking monsters lurking underneath... 

Aemelia's hands were entirely out of her own control and they violently clenched around the heart, crushing the glass-work into nothing but ribbons of light and magenta smithereens. Upon the sound of it shattering, they both blinked in unison, their eyes wide with amazement as they were back in the lobby of the cinema...

Their presence had seemingly drawn an audience - to the public, it must have appeared that the two of them had somehow popped into existence. Aemelia swallowed, internally grateful that the wish had been successful but she was incredibly uncomfortable with the entire lobby glaring at them in shock.

Cardinal immediately dropped his arm away from her and cleared his throat, taking a single step before her like he was obscuring her from view so that she could gain back her own confidence.

"Hey there folks!" he announced highly, gesturing out his arms to start an over-confident out-pouring of performance. "Any of you lot got a moment to spare to have a lil' chat about Satan? 'Cause let me tell ya, he's a really fuckin' cool dude." 

7 : Compromise

It was funny how easily things between the cardinal and the alchemist returned to normal. One minute they were up to their eyeballs in the supernatural, the next minute they were back to the monotony of their daily duties. Copia surrounded by mountains of paperwork, Vial surrounded by simmering pots and crackling substances.

After the ordeal of the cinema, Cardinal had felt an enormous weight lift from his shoulders - it was odd how those creatures had easily affected his mood, how they had subconsciously berated him and beaten him down. Yet now, he found even the dullest of his duties to be somewhat calming. What he had previously found a chore or another thing for him to fail at, he now revelled in. He knew he may not have been the best at trivial tasks, but he was content being at least capable of something. Copia often bragged about excelling at being a showman and a driving force of optimism whenever he had his stage, certain of his skill. Yet he enjoyed the simpler tasks for the time being, knowing he really wasn't the greatest scribe or listener, knowing he really wasn't the greatest satanic cardinal the Ministry had ever had.

But what did it matter? Who said he had to be any of those things? 

As soon as those questions had filled his mind, he could only smile to himself. Because he knew that the answer was no one. 

Now that a few days had passed and the effect of the siphons upon Copia had passed, he'd had time to reflect upon things. Although he was a lot more content and accepting of himself - and his mistakes - he still felt that he needed to atone to Miss Vial for putting up with his perplexing behaviour, and at the very least, thank her for helping him find his true self again.

This time, he was adamant that he would not forget to thank her. 

Copia knocked on the door to the apothecary just after five, hearing the enticing sounds of her crafting simmering through the thick wood of the door. He waited for about ten seconds and then grew too impatient, deciding to enter of his own accord, quietly shutting the door after himself.

From Aemelia's appearance, he realised she must have had a challenging day. She had her shirt sleeves rolled up to her elbows, her plaits fraying out from the constraints of her hair ties, her black tie was skewed out of place and her eye makeup had smudged downwards towards the centre of her cheeks. Tall blue flames emitted from the flame pit in the centre of the alchemy station, reflecting as azure tessellations in her hollow black eyes.

"Cardinal!" she hailed casually over the roar of the flames, not even raising her head to acknowledge him as her focus was still firmly upon her work.

"Miss Vial." he greeted with a polite half-bow, only just raising his voice enough to be heard. "I haven't seen you for a few days, what have you been up to?"

She didn't seem to hear him as she was too mesmerised by the substance she had cupped in her hands. She carefully leaned forwards, resting her elbows on the edge of the alchemy station to pour the white coloured powder into the fire pit. Copia watched with wonder as the roaring flames were extinguished in a matter of split seconds, leaving the place silent and much less stuffy. As much as he hadn't expected to interrupt her during some kind of experiment, he was at least glad that they were now free to talk without shouting at one another. He cautiously approached the desk, small remnants of blue particles in the air peaking his interest.

She sighed out with what he sensed to be relief and placed her hands flat on the table like she was steadying herself from exhaustion.

"Sister Imperator really knows how to throw a curve-ball, let's put it that way. And how strange it is, Cardinal, how strange that she has asked me if there's any way of snuffing out hell-fire in a matter of seconds - "

"I can see that you have been very... ahm, successful..." he interrupted quickly, peering down at the few particles fizzing away into nothing in the middle of the fire pit.

"Too right. It's taken all bloody day but I have it down."

"You, ahm... don't think she was perhaps, joking with you?" he suggested, swallowing nervously for some reason as her black eyes shot towards him with slight disdain for what he was inferring.

"Well if she was, I can fucking well do it." she spat, very irked by his possible explanation which he was internally quite surprised at. But then again, he would have been pretty pissed off too if he had been working hard on something that didn't really matter in the end... of course, Copia knew otherwise. He knew the exact reason why Sister would suggest Miss Vial to research such a thing... from Aemelia's frustrated state alone, he decided that he wouldn't conjure hell-fire anywhere inside the Ministry anymore... for a little while.

Yet all he did to actually reply to Miss Vial, was widen his eyes with a nod of his head, still very impressed by the fact she had managed to rise to the challenge. She was certainly a talented alchemist.

"So... what was it that worked in the end? Table salt?" he inquired in a small voice, not wishing to irritate her any further.

"I'm not sure actually." she admitted with a sigh, blowing up a stray red hair to catch it with a finger and tuck it behind her ear. "I used all manner of fucking things I have stored in here, nothing worked..."

She paused and then motioned towards the desk with her eyes, grasping her palms over the edge of it like she was holding herself up.

"Then I found this random brown paper bag underneath here." she continued, nodding down to a thin compartment which was nestled neatly into the confines of the table.

Cardinal froze abruptly and had a startled look about him but averted his eyes to the ground, ensuring that she couldn't catch sight of his concern.

"Alrighty, alrighty... seems, very... fortunate." he murmured, internally already trying to come up with something to change the subject. She was clueless to his rapid nervous disposition and she continued to talk with him casually, and honestly, he was becoming far more uncomfortable with every second that went by.

"Yeah, it certainly was. I hadn't the faintest what it was so I tried - "

He swiftly raised his head upwards and blatantly glared at her, her head tilting up so she could catch sight of him this time.

"You tried it?!" he interjected worriedly, his voice peaking with obvious distress. "H-How did you do that?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, bewildered by his anxious manner, but she decided to set it aside for the moment. In her mind she was hoping that his strange behaviour from the week prior wasn't making a return...

"I dipped my finger in it and tasted it, how else would you test for salt?" she responded quizzically, brushing her hands together to ensure she didn't have any particles of powder left on her skin.

He breathed out a deep wheeze and his panic dropped, one of his gloved hands patting his chest, "Thank fuck."

She scowled at his reaction and wore a sneer, folding her arms across her chest like she was assessing his body language.

"I did recognise, however, the taste of cocaine."

Copia's face paled into ashen, and his arms stiffened by his sides, consequently the front of his black cassock creased and folded, making it seem like the garment was a lot tighter than it actually was. In that moment, he reminded her of a young child - pure terror of being discovered was present in his eyes and all she could do was shake her head in quiet expectancy. In all honesty, she wasn't at all surprised.

"You... did?" he asked in a timid voice and gave off a slight hint that he was a tad impressed with her judgement.

She nodded and reached below, towards the gap beneath the alchemy desk, lifting a brown paper bag from the secretive place it had been hidden. The paper crinkled as she tightly squeezed her hand around the bag, her dark, accusing eyes burning into his - which were no longer full of concern but he was somewhat... intrigued.

"Now," she began with utmost purpose, feigning an expression of deduction. "who could have possibly put such a thing there?"

"Some badass, probably." Copia muttered with a slight snicker, his face remaining incredibly still as he rubbed the palms of his gloves together.

"Personal stash, is it?"

He felt the corners of his mouth twitch at her assumption but he resisted the smile, though his eyes still gave away his amusement.

"Not strictly, Miss Vial." he finally admitted, gesturing his hands about like it was no big deal - their discussion seemed very casual to him. "It's good to... liven up the mood sometimes, you know?"

"Well I think it's pretty fucking unprofessional."

"Professional?" he repeated with a wobbling voice, clearly immensely amused at her comment. "Heh, and what is so professional about being a rock star, hm?"

"Alright, you've got me there, Copia. To be fair, I do forget that you are sometimes." Aemelia responded in a defeated tone as she squinted her eyes at him in thought, still clutching the bag of cocaine tightly. 

Cardinal wasn't sure if he should have felt honoured or offended by her confession... 

There was an uneasy silence and they stared at each other, both at opposite sides of the alchemy station, Copia's eyes dancing with mirth, Vial's eyes hardened with wisdom. He quickly darted himself forwards to snatch it from her grasp but she scowled deeply at him and threw up her arm behind her, holding the brown bag like it was a dangling carrot in the air.

"I'm not allowing this, Cardinal." she warned, her free hand pointing towards him like she was scolding a child rather than someone who was even older than she was. "I could have been fucked over because of this being here... at any time."

"Hey, hey! You would have been fiiiiine - "

"Fine? Things didn't end up fine, anyway. No wonder those Soul Siphons got their claws into you so easy..." she argued bitterly, her fist clenching around the brown paper of the bag. "This is just the icing on the fucking cake."

His playful expression dropped and his hands hung limply by his sides, his eyes softening once he realised that she was completely right. He hadn't even considered that such a thing would have implicated her - what a fool he'd been.

She sighed at the puppy eyes he was shooting at her, gritting her teeth in defeat as he lifted his arms to place his palms together, like he was praying for her forgiveness. Though she thought praying for Satan's assistance was probably more likely...

"Alright... look." she began sincerely as she thumped down the bag of cocaine on the desk, still firmly holding it within her clutches. "If it's nothing but recreational, fine, I can't stop you. I'm perfectly content storing it in here, as long as it is to my terms, alright? The only reason I'm compromising is because... I obviously need it now as well. In case of any miraculous hell-fire emergencies. And I suppose you probably need it to... fire you up and make up for the fact that you're probably going a bit senile."

"Excuse me?" Copia yelped out, taking full offence at her words.

She pursed her lips, holding in a laugh despite the seriousness of the situation. She could only feel even more amused at how insulted he was the more she thought about things.

"I am nowhere near senile, thank you. The junk is still very much in the trunk, and often appears to look like a trunk of an - "

"Alright, alright!" she hurriedly interrupted, holding her free hand up to signify that she really did not want to hear him carry on. "That's it settled. I'll have it in a jar on the top shelf. Dispense some as you see fit. I'll be keeping a close eye on how much is in there."

He sighed out in understanding and nodded in acceptance, keeping quiet as she tucked the brown bag back into the spot she had found it for the time being. He felt guilty for burdening her with so much, every time he saw her she was learning more things about him that she had to keep a secret. He knew he could trust her though, he certainly wasn't worried about her blabbing to whole Ministry.

"Why did you come here anyway?" Aemelia asked with slight annoyance, clearly irritated by his presence suddenly.

"To see my cocaine." he replied in a feigned stern tone, which he immediately dropped as soon as he shook his head with amusement.

"Nah, just kidding." he said sincerely, waving his gloves to dismiss his joviality. "I just ahm, wanted to applaud you for your assistance back at... the last investigation. There has been time for things to sink in and, I realised that I never got chance to thank you before."

"Oh... alright." she said highly, uncomfortably surprised at the good will he had intended to bring her. 

"You made me realise that we can't be positive all the time." he carried on, lowering his head like he was ashamed of himself for some reason. "But we cannot let our worry loom over us all the time either. Thank you for helping me understand that."

She knitted her eyebrows and kept quiet, nodding at his thanks as she stared at the alchemy desk, unfamiliar with how polite and kind his words were.

"Sorry for being such an arse about the cocaine." she muttered in a small voice, keeping her eyes on the ground as she couldn't bring herself to stare into his eyes, which were swimming with grateful affection in that moment. "You're free to do what you wish, of course. You're adult, for goodness sake. I'm just pissed that it could have been found by anyone. And they would probably assume that it was mine."

"Your frustration is understandable." he replied, his voice rich with honesty as his eyes intensely gazed at her. "I accept your kind terms, Miss Vial, and I can honestly assure you, I have allll the composure. I never intended for another person to find it... truthfully, I forgot where the fuck I put it. I must have placed it there quite some time ago..."

"When was that, last week?" she poked playfully as she raised her head up to face him and he chuckled, his cheeks reddening from his amusement. 

"Your old man jokes are growing on me, Miss Vial, I have to admit." he spoke with a little more pitch to his voice, shaking a pointed finger at her.

"I have to say that your jokes... certainly aren't growing on me."

Her clever quip made the two of them pause, their gazes finally meeting for the first time in quite a few minutes. And then they both burst out into chuckles, flying into fits of giggles as their minds finally realised the surrealism of their blossoming friendship in that moment.

8 : A Lurking Trial

Copia had been hurriedly scouring the Ministry's rooms for Miss Vial all afternoon - she hadn't been in her usual place in the apothecary. When he had checked there, the whole room was in a state of disarray. She had seemingly abandoned the place while she had been in the middle of something, for there were various substances inside tubes that had been thrust into the grips of clamps, matchsticks strewn across the length of the alchemy station and a pile of scrawled requests damply clinging to the floor of the place.

After tearing away from her no-show at the apothecary, he had poked his head around door-frames of other rooms that he guessed she could have possibly been in... but all of his searching had been in vain. The only place left that he could think to check was her attic room - he rarely headed up there considering it was her own private space, but he figured it was an emergency and she would surely understand if she resided there. It wasn't often that Cardinal intruded on Miss Vial, but whenever he did, he always seemed to have a good reason to do so... 

It wasn't long before he arrived by her attic room, wringing his hands together in apprehension. In truth, he hoped she wasn't there at all, even though he desperately needed her assistance. Without hesitation, he took in a deep breath and burst into her attic space, an expression of sincerity on his features.

"Miss Vial?! Are you in here? I am in need of your assistance! Miss Vi - ?"

He took a few steps inside her quarters and there appeared to be no visible sign of her. But she must have been in the loft-space somewhere due to the record player pulsing out Cities In Dust at a rather loud volume. He briefly flicked his eyes towards the music system, his ears pricking up at the sound of another voice humming along to the record. Immediately, his eyes traced the source of the voice and panic was present within them as they settled upon the bathtub, which had its curtain drawn but it was clear from the shadowy figure standing behind it, that Aemelia was currently mid-shower. Suddenly, his throat felt extremely dry.

"Ah shit..." he mumbled, taking a few steps back towards the door - but it was too late. The grey shower curtain scraped back and Aemelia's head popped around it, burgundy hair sopping wet with soap suds, streaks of faded eyeliner streaking down her cheeks.

"The fuck are you doing in here?!"

The attic's door slammed behind him as he stumbled over his words, and such a thing seemed to happen to his legs too as he stuttered forwards, shielding a glove over his eyes even though she had ensured that he couldn't see anything. She wanted to smirk at how flustered and out of his depth he seemed to be, but she thought it would only make things worse, so she spared him for the time being.

"I'm surprised at your lack of courtesy, Cardinal." she spoke with a pang of warning in her tone, the consistent spitting of the shower head pouring droplets down over her back and shoulder blades.

"I - ahm... I did not think you would be so - " he paused as his breath caught in his throat and decided not to finish what he was about to say, turning his back towards her so that she couldn't see the red spreading across his cheeks. "You do not usually shower this early in the day... I mean, who fucking showers at 3pm?"

"Had a bit of an accident when I was crafting. Fucking thing was a skin irritant so I needed to wash it off before it started eating into my skin, that good enough reasoning?" she snapped, narrowing her dark eyes at him even though he still had his back to her.

"Yep." he replied highly, not wishing to argue with her further. He heard her backing away from the curtain to stand under the shower again and he actually briefly glanced over his shoulder towards her... he immediately cursed himself and raised a hand next to his head like he was asking himself why he did such a thing, instantly averting his gaze to the floorboards below.

"So..." she yelled, the sound of the shower curtain closing causing his eyes to flicker towards the slight outline of her through the curtain. "What is it that's got your vestments in a twist?"

He kept his gleaming eyes upon the shower-curtain and blindly made his way towards her bed, perching himself on the end of it. He really shouldn't have been staring at her silhouette so intently, but he really couldn't help it.

"Oh, I... need some help with Papa, that is all. But it is fine. It can wait until you are done." he replied mindlessly, now staring down at the ground in deep thought, the glowing of his cheeks only seeming to grow in redness.

"What... kind of help are we talking?" she responded, the sound of scrubbing and lathering pleasant to his ears.

"Oh, you know... ahm... " he hesitated, his mind trying to remember why he had even visited her in the first place. Apparently, Miss Vial taking a shower had been far too distracting for him.

The sounds of her washing halted and she threw the curtain open dramatically, her head popping around the edge of it again with wide eyes, her hair dripping as it hung in a sodden, messy mid-parting.

"He's not possessed, is he?!" she whispered loudly in excitement, black eyes shining with wonder... or perhaps it was a bit of soap that was stinging her eyes.

"What? No, no, nothing like that."

"Oh." she replied emptily, clearly disappointed and he actually raised his eyes towards her. He caught a glimpse of more pale skin than he had anticipated seeing and he inhaled sharply, heat burning across the cheeks of his face. Before she spotted his reaction, the curtain was violently drawn again, and her attention on washing herself was welcome to him, he needed to find his cool again...

"So, come on, don't leave me in suspense. What am I helping with?"

Cardinal sighed in defeat, tipping off his biretta into his hands so that he could stroke his hair back in the bashful hope that she wouldn't deny helping him.

"He's... stuck on the stairs again."

The sounds of her washing stopped again. The lonely sound of droplets from the shower and the prominent drums and bass-line of Siouxsie and the Banshees from the music player only seemed to add to the awkward silence between them. He heard her stifle a laugh, even though he was located at the opposite side of the room and he sighed again, leaning forward to shield his face with his gloved palms.

"How does this concern me?" she questioned in an amused, inquisitive tone - she hadn't expected such a simple problem as he usually needed help with something otherworldly or fantastical. It was odd how a more rational, simplistic problem was something that really peaked her interest.

"I need assistance getting him out of his chair-lift." he replied with utmost apathy, his voice muffled from the hands cupping around his face.

"Can't you, like... summon a Ghoul to do that sort of thing?"

"Sure, I could. And sure, they'd help him. But once he was out? They'd push him down the fucking stairs." he explained sadly, and Aemelia was immensely glad that the curtain was obstructing his view of her for the flash of amusement briefly appeared across her face.

"Lovely..." she muttered with cynicism, continuing to shower, now, as quickly as she could. "Of course I'll help you, Cardinal."

He quickly raised his head out of his hands at her acceptance and decided that he could be waiting a little while longer for her, so he opted to nosy around her room. 

Confidence flooded over his awkward demeanour as he stood up, eyes full of curiosity as he trailed them over the various record sleeves she had strewn over the bed-covers. He lifted one into his gloves, admiring the artwork with interest. He smiled to himself as she began to sing along to the song again regardless of him being there and he found himself nodding along, just feeling grateful that she could help him out. 

He placed the vinyl sleeve back where it had previously been and swivelled around, his winkle-pickers clacking slightly as he twirled across to the rounded centre, where her bureau was located, piled high with novels and journals. He continued to nod his head to the beat of the music, his eyes peering down at one particular notebook...

An unfamiliar symbol was embellished upon the front of the leather journal, it was white with a black background and resembled some kind of moth. At first, Copia thought it must have been some kind of band logo, but he couldn't fit the logo to any band he knew. It was distinctive - one side of the creature appeared to be normal, whereas the other looked as if it was withering, one of its wings dismantled and on display a few millimetres away from its body.

It definitely had some significance but he kept his mouth shut, his frown deepening with quiet contemplation. He slid the journal to the side and his eyes softened at the sight of something that had been residing underneath.

"What is this you have, ah?" he asked with a small smile, already attaching his hands onto the thin lengths of papers backed in glue and plastic. It was a reel of at least thirty to forty rectangular stickers, and from the smell of ink it seemed like they had been recently printed. He brought them up close enough so that he could read them and it wasn't long before mirth filled his eyes.

"Fuck off, Cardinal." he read with the most monotonous tone she had ever heard from him and he shook his head in disbelief, discarding them back onto the bureau like he had just touched something disgusting.

"Thought I would have them printed in case you ever end up going deaf." she quipped loudly, and even though Cardinal couldn't see her, he could sense that she was smirking.

"Y'know... you never need to say anything, Aemelia." he responded, gesturing a hand towards her as he slowly shook his head in disapproval. "I can tell perfectly well when you want me to fuck off just from the look on your face."

"Alright, don't push your luck, Copia." she scolded, rounding an arm around the curtain so she could stick two fingers up at him. "I'll be out in five."

He smirked and for once, he was eternally thankful that she was unable to see it.

---

The last place that Miss Vial had expected Copia to lead her was to Papa's private quarters. As they approached the extravagant door, Cardinal shot his eyes towards her, her expression of nervous reluctance present on her features. He had thought that overlooking a few rules wouldn't have bothered her, but it clearly seemed to.

He placed a glove over his chest as they came to a stop before Papa's door. He used the other to lightly land three swift knocks in the centre of the wood, swivelling on the spot. He made sure that he turned towards Aemelia to give her a reassuring and over-confident nod of the head. She rolled her eyes in response, tucking a damp bunch of her darkened hair behind her left ear. 

Ever since he had intruded upon her shower, it had seemed to cause his behaviour towards her to shift. He was still very much himself but he felt like he had something to prove, completely forgetting that he couldn't exactly prove anything considering that he had asked her for assistance. 

He returned his attention to the door and stepped back away from it expectantly. He shot another quick glance towards her and she met his stare - he held his eyes upon her and found that he couldn't look away, her worried black eyes freezing him to the ground and interrupting his thought process.

Before he could open his mouth to say anything, the door slowly swung open, a Ghoul adorning a chrome mask emerging from the warm, fiery atmosphere of the room on the other side. The Ghoul tilted his head to the left, spindly arms holding the heaviness of the door open with very little effort. His attention was directly upon Copia, who was still gazing at Aemelia with a ridiculous look upon his face. She had lost interest in his stare sometime ago, not that he had seemed to notice.

The Ghoul stamped his foot like he was impatient, or perhaps it was his only way of demanding attention. Copia immediately cleared his throat as a consequence, blinking away whatever thoughts he had been distracted by. Without a word, he gave the Ghoul a single stern stare and immediately, the Ghoul shifted aside, bowing his head in respect of the two of them.

Copia entered, ignoring the Ghoul who manned the door to Nihil's quarters. Aemelia was hot on Copia's tail, nodding gratefully at the door-Ghoul who merely swiped a hand towards her in dismissal of her thanks, but the eyes gleamed with honest appreciation. He ensured the door shut quietly and then calmly stood in a dormant manner, back straight with his hands crossed over the black fabric of his stomach.

Miss Vial took her attention away from the mysterious Ghoul to instead study the room before her. The place seemed like a treasure trove of items from the late sixties and early-seventies - classic movie posters framed the walls, rainbow-themed carpeting and floor mats dominated the floor and the most vivid source of light was being churned out of two orange lava lamps, situated either side of the fireplace. The whole room had a funky mood and she could only feel that it was reminiscent of a room belonging to sixties rock star - strangely, she was completely correct with her assumptions.

She followed Copia closely, noticing how out of place he appeared to be in amongst all of the strangely colourful and novel decor, his cassock an opaque, heavy void... she supposed she wouldn't lose sight of him in a hurry. As much as she felt that she too was out of place and should not have been stepping a single foot into Nihil's living space, her curiosity peaked and she allowed Copia to lead her through the area, regardless of how much it made her feel uncomfortable... after all, she was intruding on the quarters belonging to the head of the Ministry and she hadn't even visited Copia's quarters.

"Where are his stairs?" she whispered harshly, her breaths landing onto the small snippet of his nape's skin and he paused to visibly shiver. She too paused, and he quickly swivelled to face her, a sincere expression on his face.

"Why are you whispering? We are not robbing the place, Miss Vial. Lighten up!" he replied in a hushed tone with a prominent strain to his voice, gesturing towards her with a lazily pointed finger. "Shit! Now you got me whispering!"

He cleared his throat and turned from her, continuing to guide them forwards through Nihil's living room.

"His stairs are not far - he is bone idle." he added in a louder volume, the sound of his usual tone quite reassuring to her at that moment. "And he is a bone idol, heh! He had the stairs made in the centre. Makes travelling to different rooms easy for him."

It wasn't long before they reached a wide and surprisingly white-walled space, limestone stairs immaculately glistening and gold laced banisters gleaming with excellence. At first glance, Aemelia could tell that the staircase was indeed the central hub for Nihil's other spacious rooms. From her spot at the bottom step, she could trail her eyes either side of her and was surrounded by an open-plan choice of rooms. As much as she wished that she could explore the place, she already felt immoral for even being there.

Cardinal cleared his throat and was leaning against the golden banister and she instantly faced him, sensing how amused and aware of her curiosity he was. He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head in mock disappointment like he was criticising her for being distracted on the job.

She ignored his playful actions and instead, raised her eyes to focus on the elaborate staircase. It was quite steep and had white wires wrapped around each thin wooden support attached to the banister, a metal strip descending the wall on the opposite side of the stairs. At first she wasn't exactly sure what the fittings were for, but it became clear when she recalled that Copia had said Nihil was stuck on the stairs... clearly, Papa had installed a stair-lift.

"Is he really that frail?" she murmured to herself, hearing Copia's shoes scuff as he began to slowly scale a few of the steps.

"Oh, not at all, Miss Vial." he explained with a small smile as she began to follow him up the stairs. "He's an old bitter fuck, what do you expect? A fragile, fragile man, by all means, yes. But only on the inside, you know? You think he had this lift installed for his frail body? No, he just cannot be bothered to take the stairs anymore. His legs work perfectly fucking fine, I shit you not."

Miss Vial wasn't certain that she found Copia's negativity to be any help whatsoever, and nor did she find it that funny, so she kept quiet, her eyes catching a glimpse of the old man up ahead.

It wasn't many more steps until they were level with him. Snores intermittently snorted out from Nihil's nose and throat. His head was faced downwards, his greyed eyelids concealing the existence of reality occurring around him. His pale cream robes were ruffled and his arms lightly clutched around his tummy like he was subconsciously using his robes as a snug blanket as he heavily napped.

Despite the slight slobber coating his bottom lip and the position of his head - his chin grazing over the rough embroidery of his vestments - his personal skull-paint wasn't a smudge out of place, and nor was the mitre atop his head.

Aemelia felt uncomfortable as she laid eyes on him. To see somebody who was allegedly immensely powerful in a state of complete slumber, left her realising how vulnerable even the most powerful of people could be. A chill ran across her spine, like her mind was taking note of her own vulnerability - she too, may have had a powerful force tamed and encased within her, but she had to remember that she was not exempt to vulnerability.

"I ah... don't want to touch him..." Copia confessed, his gloves creaking as he wriggled his fingers in physical reluctance.

"You're wearing gloves." Aemelia retorted in annoyance, shaking her head in disbelief of how pathetic he was being. She neared Nihil regardless of Cardinal's complaint, already crouching slightly to lift Papa out from his chair.

"Yeeeeah, I am, but - "

"You're so full of shit, Copia." she snapped firmly, flinging her body around to face him with a scolding glare. "Come and help, would you?"

He sighed and waved at her to stop chastising him and rounded the opposite side of Nihil, attempting to focus on the task at hand. It was obvious that he wasn't too keen on assisting Nihil at all and had presumably planned on having Miss Vial take care of the entire problem for him - but he was weak to the animosity in her black eyes.

"Does this happen often?" she whispered softly, gently sliding her arm around Nihil's left arm as Copia mirrored her actions with the right. They carefully lifted him from the plastic olive-green seat and he began to topple to the right, landing his cheek onto Cardinal's left shoulder to use it as a pillow. Copia let out a quiet noise of disgust and merely pulled his head as far away from Nihil as possible, not wishing to wake him but very much wishing for less physical contact.

"It is becoming more frequent." he whispered back through gritted teeth. "Sister usually has some of the Siblings deal with this, but I do not think she peeped in on him like she usually does. I could not ensure that a Sibling would stay quiet if I required their help. They are not all so friendly to me."

"Well, I'm more than happy to help, Cardinal." she breathed out, leaning heavily to the right to keep Nihil on a straight path towards the living room. 

They maneuvered him effortlessly unbeknownst to his knowledge, even when their grips on him became a little more firm as they had to steer him around various ornaments and pieces of abstract furniture. Miss Vial knew there was something not quite right about just how asleep Nihil appeared to be, but she kept her thoughts to herself.

"The couch!" Cardinal instructed in a forceful whisper, the soles of his winkle-pickers loudly rustling over the tubed bristles of the multicoloured rug beneath their feet.

She quietly abided by his order and continued to assist moving the surprisingly hefty old man, her black eyes narrowing in speculation. No way was he merely asleep. She knew he must have been unconscious because she was aware that if he had truly been asleep, he would easily have felt or at least have been aware of being moved... but he was none-the-wiser.

They soon carried him across the length of his living room between the two of them, reaching his leather recliner where his preferred seat was heavily worn and grooved from use. Aemelia ensured she had a careful grip upon him as she lowered him onto the couch, unlike Copia, who had snatched his hands away from his superior as soon as the backs of the old man's legs had been grazing the leather of the cushions. As a consequence, Nihil was propelled backwards in one overly dramatic movement, until he fell into his seat with a loud thump.

Aemelia scowled and gave Copia an accusing glare, to which he raised up his gloves in surrender like he'd had no choice in his actions whatsoever. Rolling her dark eyes away from him to settle them back on Nihil, her mirthless hardened expression deteriorated into one of deep concern.

As she worriedly gazed upon Nihil, who still had his head angled toward the ground, Copia was growing quietly impatient, lightly hopping from foot to foot as he stood opposite the alchemist, waiting for her to return her attention to him.

As he milled around, hoping for her to acknowledge him, her face was diminishing in colour with every second that passed. She kept silent and leaned down, narrowing her eyes to study and understand what she was witnessing in front of her.

Nihil was still slobbering but was now murmuring incoherently, small delicate black droplets trickling down from the sides of his mouth. Upon a passing glance, it could have easily have been mistaken as a smudge in his facial paint, but to her skilled eye, it was clear what such a substance was.

It was a dense, diluted poison that she had been consistently concocting for a few months, solely for the purpose of handing it over to Sister Imperator. And there it was, presently mixing with Nihil's saliva and trailing towards his chin... her heart felt like it was about to explode from how much horror she felt, realising how much of a vital role she was currently playing in the plans of Sister Imperator. In a split second, Aemelia decided that it was about time that such a thing stopped. She had trusted Imperator implicitly, but now she knew to question the woman's every move, regardless of whatever reasoning she would inevitably have.

"You, ah... you doing anything tonight?" Cardinal inquired with a peaked voice, breaking the implied rules of their hushed voices to interrupt the jarring revelation she was having. "Y'know, just asking... for no reason. I just figured if you will be alone... I... ahm... I will also be... alone. We could maybe try play some Satan-themed Scrabble... or just fucking summon something. I am so bored of all the work and no play. I wish to break the monotony of routine, Miss Vial. I hope you would not mind if - Miss Vial?"

She didn't respond to his hope-filled admittance, unaware of how his mismatched eyes shined, yearning for her to stare back at him and accept his offer.

"Is... everything okie-dokie, Aemelia?" he breathed, leaning forwards so that he could place a reassuring glove upon her shoulder, worry clearly upon his features as he could feel how tense her muscles were beneath his touch.

"It's fine." she quickly whispered, her heart pounding with such painful regret that she had to lie to him - but what other choice did she have? 

She couldn't admit she had aided Sister Imperator in poisoning Papa Nihil. As much as she had previously had no inkling of what the poison was for, she was internally beating herself up. She shouldn't have treated Sister any different to any other stranger that entered the apothecary.

From that single realisation, Miss Vial knew that she could no longer trust anyone.

9 : A Delicious Manifestation

After some contemplation, Aemelia Vial had unusually decided to make two things right. 

Even after a few days since she and Copia had lifted Nihil from his stair-lift, she still held tremendous guilt for being an accomplice to the anti-pope's poisoning and it was constantly on her mind. She felt that merely changing the concoction - which she still planned on passing over to Sister every few weeks - wasn't enough. She needed to do something else to make up for her unintended action, even if it appeared to be something out of the blue.

She cast her mind back a little while and recalled that Cardinal had spoken of Papa Nihil's passion for junk food and it seemed like the easiest way of doing something kind for Nihil. She didn't wish for the old man's thanks, as she figured that she could also soften out the rocky relationship between Nihil and Copia. She was hoping that Papa would assume the gesture was from Cardinal at the very least and reward him accordingly. Given that the last few weeks had been quite depressing and lack-luster for Cardinal, she wished to ensure that he was due some definite positivity.

It was seven-thirty on a Friday, and there she was, waiting patiently outside Papa's quarters, taking deep breaths to keep herself calm as she clutched onto a deluxe-sized pizza box with her palms. She needed to get a grip - she planned on repeating the gesture every week so she couldn't feel so anxious every time she ended up delivering him a bit of food. She supposed the anxiety would ease once it was routine, after all, the last time she had visited his quarters he had been heavily docile as a side-effect of the poison. She really hoped he wouldn't spot her sneaking in...

Without another thought, she rapped one set of knuckles across the thickly polished wood of the door. She had anticipated waiting a little bit, but to her surprise, the door slowly creaked open, revealing the same Ghoul from the time before who was still tending to door duties. He bowed his masked-head in acceptance of her presence and moved aside, earning a quizzical expression from her - she could only assume that he must have remembered her visiting last time, and of course, she had been with Copia. Perhaps the cardinal's presence had been enough to show the Ghoul that she had some sort of exemption or importance.

She ignored the many questions flying around her mind and nodded her head gratefully towards the thin Ghoul, whose eyes gleamed as she passed by him. He could only bow lower to show how much he appreciated her thanks and then once again, returned to his door duties. 

The living room was exactly how she had recalled it being last time. Nothing obvious had moved out of place, other than probably a couple of puzzle-books upon the coffee table and the remote to the television set. She really didn't want to dawdle about in there as her nerves were beginning to spike again and she crept through the space as quickly as she could, widening her black eyes once she heard the disconcerting sound of a choked breath...

She halted immediately, her eyes scanning the area around her to search for the source of the noise. Once she settled her sights upon Papa Nihil in his place on the heavily worn couch, she exhaled out quietly, realising he was completely asleep from the subtle hum of snores coming from him. He seemed completely out of it like last time, but she couldn't see any black droplets of poison this time, it was reassuring, at least. She continued her actions regardless of the anti-pope's slumbering presence, hoping that he would keep his eyelids firmly shut.

The soles of her black oxfords rustled slightly over the multicoloured fibres of the rug beneath her feet  and she clenched her teeth in concern, her hands tightly gripping onto the sides of pizza box - her grasp on the box was so firm in fact, that she really wouldn't have been surprised if her fingertips had pushed holes through the warm cardboard.

Nihil's snores grew into a snorting crescendo and she froze in her tracks, arms extended out and poised over his garish teak coffee table. His head slowly fell back and his mouth hung open, his loud snores continuing to rise up from his throat.

As much as the sound of his snores grated on her and peaked her anxiety, she focused on her task and lowered the pizza box down to the coffee table, her hands shaking with nerves. The box quietly landed onto the sprawl of various puzzle-books and magazines and she was thankful for the amount of reading material that was located there, it seemed to cushion out the sound perfectly.

His ear-prickling snores subsided and she visibly relaxed her stance, fishing out a luminous pink pad of post-it notes from one of the pockets inside of her blazer. To save time she had already scrawled a message on the first layer of paper, and she peeled it from the pad, leaning down to smack it firmly against the lid of the pizza box. She rubbed the top of the note to ensure that the glue had enough grip and once she was content with everything, she swiftly swivelled around to quietly tip-toe out the way she had came.

It had been much easier leaving than entering, but as soon as the Ghoul had closed the door after Aemelia, the subtle thud of it closing had startled Nihil awake and he spluttered into reality, wondering what the source of such a small noise had been. Before he called out in complaint of his nap being interrupted, he squinted his eyes in suspicion, his nostrils flaring as he began to sniff intermittently. 

The most alluring and delicious aroma wafted up his nose and he smiled broadly, the unmistakable scent of freshly cooked pizza causing him to let out a giddy chuckle of excitement. He hopped up from his place on the couch with very little effort, dashing over towards the source of the smell instantly, like a vampire drawn to the scent of Copia's blood. At the sight of the wide deluxe pizza-box, he scrunched his face in confusion, looking around his room to see if there was some form of explanation for how it had come to be. After nothing immediately obvious stuck out to him, he shrugged and instead let out an enthusiastic "Oh-hoh!" as he rubbed his callous hands together, anticipating the joy of flipping the pizza-box's lid upwards. Although he was desperate to open the box, he swallowed and trailed his blank eyes around the place, ensuring he was alone.

"Sister?" he questioned loudly, hoping she would pop out of some hiding place to confirm his suspicions - but then he remembered it was Friday night. She conducted unholy scripture night-classes for Siblings on a Friday night, so there was no way that the mysterious existence of the take-out box was anything to do with her.

He knitted his eyebrows in deep thought and extended out his arms towards the food-box, his eyes wide like he was staring at a cursed object. Without much more stalling, he cautiously reached a hand towards it, his bones cracking slightly as he bent down carefully. He paused his movements for a second, flicking his eyes from left to right, ensuring that he was definitely on his own...

Then he rushed in at the last second and prodded the cardboard lid, jumping backwards with his arms in a stance ready to block something like he was prepared if something were to manifest itself before him. He frowned, realising that it really must have been just a fresh pizza and huffed at his bout of paranoia, waving a hand to dismiss his ridiculous behaviour as he shook his head.

He didn't appear to notice the bright pink note attached to the lid because he bypassed it to push the tabs of the cardboard away, unveiling the steaming pizza inside. He grinned gleefully and mischievously giggled in anticipation, the scents of tomato, cheese and herbs making his mouth water.

He couldn't wait to devour its gooey, cheese-formed existence, but that didn't stop the anti-pope from questioning how such a thing had gotten there. It didn't take long before his fried mind jumped to conclusions and he nodded to himself, deciding that there could only be one explanation...

It had to be a miraculous gift from Satan Himself, a reward to ensure that Nihil knew he was doing a tip-top job of heading the Ministry. 

But in truth, it was not. If only he hadn't been so oblivious and had spotted the post-it note stuck to the lid of the pizza-box...

10 : The Pit

Miss Vial was usually a heavy sleeper, but the eerie sounds that rang throughout the Ministry's halls that night were certainly too disturbing to ignore. She was laid in bed on her right side, one ear to the pillow, the left pricked up in interest. The noises were beyond horrifying and she hoped she was the only one hearing them. Sounds of tearing, incessant slathering, fleshy fat-feet pounding the floor, the odd animalistic exhale, scrapes of gnarled claws on stone... from the variety of noises she was hearing, she knew that nothing good could have been occurring during the early hours.

She huffed and decided that there was no way she would rest at all if she continued to ignore the concerning noises and threw her bed-covers away from her, revealing baggy black pyjama bottoms - which were covered in Looney Tunes characters - and a worn-out, over-sized Judas Priest shirt that was fraying at the seams. She sat up so that she could swing her legs across the side of her mattress, her fingers lightly pressing the tight skin beneath her eyes. The skin surrounding her eye-sockets felt taut and swollen causing her to sigh in disappointment, grumbling as she reluctantly rose to her feet. 

Her tiredness seemed to disappear swiftly, instead replaced with stubborn energy as she sprang up from her bed and quickly slipped on some footwear - fluffy grey slippers which were in the guise of clawed monster feet. She headed towards her bureau with purpose, using the light of the moon which was brilliantly shining through the stain-glass window to guide her to her destination.

The sounds still carried on as she crouched down by her desk, muttering something to herself as she blindly reached her arm towards the item that she recalled placing there. Much to her relief, she felt for the grip of the lantern and lifted it up with ease, her bones creaking slightly as she stood up straight. She held the black lantern - which contained a thick beige candle - close to her chest as she carefully made her way towards the door, using the moonlight to aid her once again. 

Once by the door, she unhooked her black blazer from its perch, wrestling something out of the pocket before hurriedly shrugging it on over her shoulders. Her red hair fell messily across the sides of her face and the shoulders of her jacket, crimson wisps tangled and gleaming from the blue of the dim moonlight. The moonlight seeped away slightly as she quickly struck a match, oranges and golds causing her pallid features to glow with hellish undertones. She balanced the lantern's handle across her right wrist and swung its small door open, using the matchstick to ignite the candle inside. 

Once the candle was lit, she shook out the match, carelessly tossing its blackened remnants over the floorboards behind her. The sounds were still eating through her ears, and even more so when she threw open her door, outstretching her arm so that the path before her was well lit.

As much as the sounds were louder now that she had left her attic room, she had the sense that the source of the noise was moving away from her and immediately, her feet began to move after the sounds. She thrust her lantern out before her eyes, warding off the clinging shadows which covered every inch of the Ministry's hallways. She was pulled into wandering down the stairs, soon passing by the door to Copia's office, heading into the unknown depths of the old complex. After a series of twists and turns, crumbling and cramped corridors, she had somehow emerged into the newer marble-themed complex, unaware of how she had gotten there so quickly. 

The scratching and bounding began to fade away as she entered a much wider hallway, the light from her lantern bouncing from the polished marble walls and floors. She didn't want to lose track of the source of the noise, so she began to jog down the vacant corridor, the smack of her slippers' soles clattering to fill the space behind her. Her black eyes squinted through the darkness ahead of her, the shadows retracting to unveil a part of the Ministry she had never seen before - and her ears were telling her that the trail of noise was coming from there.

Without much hesitation, she rushed towards the foreign area, a staircase with steps that had been curved and flattened due to erosion and time. She didn't question the fact that they seemed far too old to be inside the new complex, but her mind was too focused on the noises still, which were now almost non-existent. She quickly descended the steps as fast as she could, wondering just how far down she was actually going - the ceiling of the newer complex felt so far away now that she was heading further and further down below...

Once she had reached the bottom, there was a large obstructing doorway containing two heavy iron doors. Rust glazed over their metallic decorations, making any symbolism they had once featured indistinguishable. Considering how low they were situated, Aemelia could only guess that the area on the other side of the doors must have been some kind of undercroft - there was only one way to find out.

She didn't have much hope in getting through to the other side, but she pulled one of the stiff, cold door-handles nonetheless, heaving out a breath of surprise when the bottom of the metal door began to scrape against the stone of the floor. She pulled with all of her might and it wasn't long before the contents of the undercroft was revealed to her. Her curiosity spiked and she ignored any of the red flags in the back of her mind, too focused on investigating the source of audible horror she had heard.

She slipped into the doorway, gasping a little as the door slammed forcefully behind her, sealing in her choice to investigate. She really hoped she could get back out...

Upon entering the undercroft, the lack of light sources was immediately evident. The air was musty and had the prominent odour of rotting flesh and dried blood. Aemelia scoffed and threw up her left arm, masking her face with the sleeve of her blazer.

Walking into the impending gloom of the undercroft, she felt utterly defenceless. She hadn't brought a single item to defend herself with and was there in her pyjamas and monster slippers - no creature could possibly find her intimidating or serious at all. She just hoped there wasn't anything down there.

Despite her lack of confidence, she thrust the flickering lantern in front of her, truly thankful she at least had a light source to navigate the torrid space of the undercroft. She hadn't been so sure what to expect, given the rest of the Ministry was fairly artistic and well kept in terms of cleanliness and architecture. But the undercroft was neither of the latter, its surroundings were imposing and provocative.

Statues of various satanic deities lined the central aisle, looming over her like they were warning a non-believer to watch their step. Dusty chandeliers quietly squeaked as they swung overhead, white speckles settling in her messy burgundy hair. In the middle of the aisle was a central pathway, leading into two separate sections of the place. She took a few steps forwards, drawn to the sight of a warm glow in the distance.

Once she strode further, the source of the glow was apparent. At the very end of the aisle was an extravagant oil-painted portrait of a young man, who adorned gold-embroided black robes and very simplistic skeletal-paint. A small collection of black candles had been lit beneath the picture of the man, and she paused in her tracks, realising someone else in the Ministry must have visited such a place to light them. From the dust and cobwebs and the unsettling atmosphere, she wondered who felt that they had to do such a thing on a regular basis - melted wicks and wilting rose-petals had clearly been left sometime ago - Aemelia couldn't understand why a shrine worshipping the man in the picture appeared to be so secretive and exclusive to the undercroft...

She glanced at the picture speculatively to study the man's eyes, and they were undoubtedly reminiscent of Copia's but far more threatening and overwhelming. Now feeling slightly unnerved by the painting, she decided to explore one of the off-shoot rooms, hoping it wouldn't be as creepy as the entrance hall had been... but she really couldn't have been more wrong.

The room she had entered was cold and decrepit. A vandalised alter laid cracked and crumbling in the centre of the room, stone-slabs formed the ground underfoot, ripped drapes attempted to conceal the dismal grey stone of the walls - it was more like a dungeon, than a room in an undercroft. Despite the fact that Aemelia was incredibly uncomfortable with her surroundings, she was driven by the urge to investigate, insisting that nobody else would so she felt compelled to do so.

As she reluctantly wandered further into the space, she began to notice that the place had countless darkened crevices, the shadows thick and opaque to the eye. If she had been anyone who was oblivious and inexperienced, she would have easily overlooked what was hunched there. Her heart began to pound in the backs of her eyes and her journey around the room became far more stealthy, each of her footsteps more important than the last.

It was unnerving what the shadows could conceal if someone just merely glanced them over.

The creatures that dwelled in the space of the undercroft slept soundly. She wouldn't have even noticed their presence, were it not for her trained-eye and the eventual echoing slap of the rubber of her slippers over a wide spill of blood that had bled out across the ground. Bodies were left as nothing but bones and shreds of chewed up tendons, torn robe-cloth lying dormant amongst the puddles of blood. The corpses seemed to have been carelessly discarded like they had been an irritating bit of wishbone that the creatures had found stuck in their teeth.

The presence of corpses told Miss Vial all she needed to know in order to understand the type of beings that inhabited the dreadful place. Her eyes darted about as she continued to slowly delve through the expanse of the room, settling on the very well hidden beasts that she was sure she was truly seeing. Once she had seen one, she seemed to spot more and more.

Great, lumbering creatures overlapped their slender arms across their bare chests, their skin pale grey to effortlessly blend with the shadows they incubated in. They hung from the tall ceiling, tucked themselves into fetus positions into alcoves and unsuspecting shadows, all the while lying dormant after having their nightly feast.

These vampires appeared extremely intimidating compared to any others she had previously encountered and from the look of their visceral leftovers, she could tell that they must have been positively feral. The atmosphere was unnervingly quiet as she halted her movements, peering at the undercroft around her, hoping that she hadn't missed the sight of one nearby, hoping that she hadn't suddenly become engulfed by shadows.

Aemelia rarely felt threatened by what some would call monstrosities or supernatural manifestations, but the vampires around her then, sparked fear within her that she did not know she could ever feel. She felt defenceless and pathetic, and only hoped they would keep their eyes firmly shut until she had turned around and made good progress in order to escape.

She kept her movements smooth and fluid, swivelling on the spot as she fought to keep her heart rate down. If she could keep calm, she had less chance of them detecting her presence - at least, that's what she hoped.

She began to retrace her steps, her eyes wandering about the sheet of darkness, spotting more and more beasts, curled up and fast asleep, grumbling in appreciation as they revelled in their slumber. The subtle slap of the blood beneath her feet made her grit her teeth as her black irises studied each one intently, their sharp claws digging in to pierce the stone of the ceiling so that they could drape themselves upside down, the length of their bodies spanning at least three of Aemelia. She was grateful for how tall the ceilings were, because she didn't really fancy trying to crawl beneath one of them...

To her relief, when she finally tore her eyes away from the nesting vampires, she walked into the threshold of the entrance hall again and she swallowed, her throat dry from apprehension. She swerved to the right and her nervousness finally peaked, and she bolted down the hallway, finding the ominous statues of satanic symbols a lot more comforting compared to the pit of vampires she had just discovered. Her grey monster slippers clapped the hard slabs, the sound bouncing loudly from both of the high walls. She was certain that it would alert them, but she really didn't care - she needed to get out of there as fast as she could. 

Not wishing to delay her escape any further, she clutched the lantern to her chest and turned towards the place she was fleeing, glancing back in horror as the crackling snarl of something was subtly present. She mumbled a curse to herself and brashly threw her back against the heavy double-doors to the much cosier space of the Ministry, clenching her teeth as the snarling grew into choked roars...

The dense doors soon clattered shut dramatically before her, separating her from the creatures she had alerted. She could hear their muffled breaths and the wince-worthy scratching of their claws against the other side of the doors but she instantly backed away, knowing she had to seize the chance of getting away while she could. She extended out the lantern again, marching purposefully up the staircase, wanting to be in the familiar marble-walled comfort of the Ministry. 

It wasn't long before she reached the top and she expelled a relieved sigh, not even pausing for a split-second before she hurried her way through the long stretch of corridor before her...

Due to the width of the main corridor, she suddenly had the sense that something was attempting to pass her - she halted in terror as she felt something fabric-like briefly drape by her shoulder and she inhaled sharply at the sight of what had just ignored her. Copia was rolling about the corridors on an adult-sized tricycle - even though it was past three in the morning - and Aemelia's jaw dropped open... she wondered whether she was slowly going mad. Her extreme feeling of fear, had now been replaced with the extreme feeling of confusion.

The black of his cassock flowed behind him as he began to pick up speed, the tricycle's pedalling mechanism creaking loudly. As much as the sight of his childish antics was a bit of a shock to her, she could only presume he was playing around the Ministry in the early hours to pursue an end to his insomnia. She supposed doing such an activity would make him physically fatigued at the very least... 

Her own assumptions did not stop her mind from boggling from the ever-growing series of strange occurrences and before she knew it, her mouth was moving and a loud echoing "The fuck?!" rang out, filling the silence of the corridor effortlessly. She froze completely still and clamped her lips shut, her black eyes wide as she clapped her left hand over her mouth. The tricycle let out an unholy screech as Copia squeezed the brakes, the frame shuddering as he peered over his left shoulder, his eyes shining towards her even though he was almost at the other end of the hall to her. He was so utterly stunned at the unusual sight of her in unexpected pyjamas and comfy slippers that he seemed oblivious to the fact that his tricycle still appeared to be moving slightly.

"A-Aemelia?!" he exclaimed out in a choke, the strain in his voice reverberating off of the walls with ease, sounding overly loud once it graced her ears.

Before she could open her mouth to at least explain or ward him off, he glared his eyes and immediately swung his head back around to face where he had been heading - but it was too late. The tricycle piled into the wall on the left and he mustered out an exhausted sigh, tumbling off the seat into a few ridiculous long strides to stop himself from falling over.

Before he could recover his tricycle ride completely, Aemelia took his crash as a useful opportunity, and turned on the slippery heels of her monster feet, hurriedly bolting from the strange and awkward scene before any conversation could arise between them.

---

Copia had managed to get a couple of hours of sleep in the early morning - his mind must have burnt out from his thoughts racing about the sight of Aemelia that night. His legs were also aching from how long he had pedalled that damn tricycle for - he had decided on doing a few more laps of the main corridors in case he bumped into her again, but he hadn't so much as seen a single soul. After some internal deliberation, he had parked his tricycle in his personal quarters and had crashed out on his lavish sofa before he had even managed to crawl in the direction of his bedroom.

His brain had been programmed to detect when the approach of nine-in-the morning was looming and he had jumped awake at eight-forty, an unpleasant feeling of anxiousness pulsing through him. He felt exhausted yet startled and he prised himself up from his slouched position on the couch, murmuring in irritation when his bare feet felt something foreign beneath them - it appeared that his discarded cassock had slipped from his person and onto the floor.

He had assumed that he'd still been wearing it, but in reality, he had been using it as a thin blanket. He hummed in thought and lifted it up, ensuring it was not inside out before quickly pulling the garment over his head, his hands smoothing down the material over the dishevelled black shirt, braces and slim trousers that he adorned underneath.

He glanced at the neat watch wrapped around his wrist and nodded in acceptance, slightly annoyed he didn't have time to shower, but he had much larger things to ponder - like why he had seen Miss Vial in her pyjamas around the halls of the Ministry at three in the morning...

He slipped on his plain black cuban-heels and immediately vacated his quarters, neglecting his usual routine of a calming shower and a refreshing morning coffee. But he was too preoccupied with Miss Vial, so much so, that he ended up leaving his biretta and gloves on the coffee table.

As he wandered from his private quarters, he soon joined the bustle of the Ministry's hallways, ignoring the accusing and concerned glances he was receiving due to his state of dress and incredibly unkempt nest of chestnut hair. Although more and more Siblings of Sin caught onto his unusual lack of smartness, he remained oblivious, continuing to mindlessly follow the same route he always took just before nine on a morning, his eyelids heavy with fatigue the closer to his office that he became.

He frowned lightly as he felt his hands growing cold and he clasped them together, quietly sighing in annoyance when skin met skin - he loathed not wearing his usual gloves, but he lacked effort to turn back around to grab them now. He shoulder-barged into his office, furrowing his brow deeper when he realised that he rarely ever shut his door. As he leaned against it to ensure it stayed open, he extended out a leg, sweeping his rat-themed doorstop towards him with the side of his shoe. When it was in place and held the weight of the door perfectly, he entered his disorganised office.

He wandered through the stacks of scriptures and paperwork, his feet sliding to grip onto something as papers now concealed the majority of the plush carpeting. Even with the mass of paperwork, immediately something stood out to him as he glanced over at his bureau. Pots of ink and various styles of quills had been arranged neatly and weren't in their usual place, so he rushed over to his desk instantly, knowing someone had clearly entered his office without his knowledge. 

As he slid the few pots of equipment out from the centre of the table, he narrowed his eyes in interest, catching sight of a bright pink post-it note which had been placed over a large stack of ancient scriptures nearby. He squinted at the scrawled writing but sighed in defeat, dropping down into his leather armchair as he reached into one of the bureau's drawers. After fishing out a small pair of reading glasses with silver frames, he opened them up and slid them on, peering down at the neon-coloured note that had been left for him.

Copia,
Avoid the undercroft at all costs. Need to devise a plan for pest control. Lots of them to be rid of, will require much effort. Until then please announce that the area is off-limits in a sermon or something.
- A.Vial

From the slanted, scribbled nature of Miss Vial's handwriting, it was clear that she had written it down in a state of panic and he paused for a moment, placing a bare hand over his forehead. If Miss Vial was the one speaking of vermin, he knew it could be no infestation of the rat-kind like the small furry rodents that he secretly treasured. It must have been an infestation of something far much more threatening. He swallowed in concern and glanced back down at her note, reading intently.

p.s. It's the blood-sucking kind of pests, so I'd advise you to stay clear especially. Steer clear of vampires. Don't be a fucking toss-pot, Copia. 

He raised his brows at the last line but he was too worried about the fact she had written of a pit of vampires operating beneath the very heart of the Ministry. He was stunned how casually she had informed him of such a thing in a scribbled post-it note, but he was thankful for the notice, considering he had been roaming the Ministry's corridors consistently for months, all alone. He could have been attacked by them at any time and no one would have known...

Sweat began to glisten over his palms and he inhaled sharply, reaching up his hands to readjust his reading spectacles. Once they were in a more comfortable position, his eyes flicked to another post-it beside the first that he had read, half-torn and vividly orange.

Also pretty sure Sister Imperator is poisoning Papa. Just a hunch but just to be safe I've changed the concoction I've been making for her. Think we'd better keep an eye on her. I'm trusting you with this so you better not tell anyone.

He backed away from the bureau and swiped his reading glasses away from his eyes, gripping one of the arms between his thumb and forefinger tightly. His eyes narrowed as he flicked them between the two notes that Miss Vial had left for him on his desk, a small smirk tugging at the corners of his lips. His expression seemed mischievous and calculated, but entirely strange and unreadable in such a situation.

"Why, Miss Vial... I wouldn't dream of telling anyone."

<<< Back to the Top | Next Story >>>

eyyy mayne