"Alpha Lar…" Medina whispered when Skylar's stance suddenly shifted while staring at her torture chair, smirking sinisterly.
"You still could tell when to call me in that code." Skylar chuckled darkly, making them flinch and stand firmly like a soldier they're always be.
"I've been at your side since we worked together." She responded with firmness yet held respect toward her superior.
"Indeed, we do." She smirked darkly and gave one final look around the cell before facing Joey, leaving a firm command, "Omega, secure the perimeter of this cell. I smell some nasty blood lurking in the shadows and coming here."
"Should I play with them?" Joey asked with his serious expression, yet his eyes flickered with excitement.
"Only if needed and if you do, make it count as you notify us." She replied with a dark amusement.
"Affirmative." He saluted and walked out of the cell, reacting with excitement, "Damn, it's been a while since I joined the fun."
"Beta, be the watchful guard and don't let anyone enter this cell. It's going to get nasty inside here." Skylar turned and commanded Medina firmly, not looking at her.
"Blood or mud?" Medina asked carefully.
"Both." She replied nonchalantly as she walked toward the chair, touching and reminiscing about the moment she was held back there.
"Be sure to be back in one piece or else, he'll be doing something reckless without you around." She reminded her, making Skylar scoff.
"Really? I want to see that." She said teasingly, making Medina frown.
"Don't even think about it. We're the ones who're going to clean up his mess, and he's messier than you play your game." She reasoned, and Skylar laughed darkly before controlling it.
"Fine, I won't, but maybe a little." She responded before adding her reason, "I just want to see how far he could fall if something bad happened to me."
"Why do such length?" Medina wondered since that was a risky move, testing Vincencio's control.
"I'm not sure, but perhaps, a gut feeling that dealing with Rudolf Strange will be facing not only blood but also death." Skylar replied sternly before adding what she had been sensing for a while, "And giving death is nothing new to me, but me facing it again, it will be a different call."
"If you put it that way, then I'll respect you, but don't get overboard." With a defeated sigh, Medina let her boss have her fun later.
"I'll try not to." Without promises, she replied and chuckled darkly before dismissing her firmly, "Dismiss and move out."
Being alone in her old, dark, and isolated torturing cell, Skylar pulled out her knife and cut her fingertip before touching the chair again. Just by doing that, the chair began to vibrate, and the things they brought with them suddenly burst into flames, igniting the chair in the process. Skylar almost jumped from the sudden flame but smirked, realizing how powerful her blood could be.
"Damn, no wonder they sealed my vampire side." Skylar reacted amusingly to what she had discovered on her own before questioning herself, "Wait a minute, why did it suddenly burst into flame when I'm not thinking it would?"
Skylar observed how the flame burned the objects near the chair, which eventually ignited a little blue flame that wrapped around the chair. Her eyes narrowed at the sight since the chair burned in blue flame while the rest burned in the typical orange and yellow colors of a flame. Skylar got curious about how magical the sight was turning into.
"Mom, you've outdid yourself here." She muttered amusingly when she realized that she had just activated the seal that her mother had put around the cell.
However, it was not done yet. When the flame subsided and only a faint blue flame remained, it began spreading up to the ceiling, then to the ground; the entire cell glowed in blue. It was an astonishing sight, making the dark space glow in blue, almost like crystal in an icy castle. Then later, a beat spreads like a flowing wave that only stops and begins from one direction, behind the torturing chair. Skylar didn't hesitate and just walked behind the chair to check it closely. As she placed her palm against the wall, she felt a strange beat, strong like it was hammered by a sledgehammer, making her gasp in the process.
"What the…the walls…ceiling…floor…they were all beating…like it is alive…like it has a heart." She muttered under her curious gaze, fixated on the wall against her palm. Then she took a deep breath, closing her eyes in the process, activating her pure vampire side before saying, "Let's see where my mother hides you."
Using her vampire side, her eyes weren't just bloodshot, her fingernails sharpened, her skin turned pale-white, her build became more lean and attractive, her hair turned dark and bloody red, and her lips became more kissable, seducing even. But more importantly, her aura shifted into something lethally menacing and bloody magical, but dark.
"Hm, layers…she wrapped this place in layers of protection and warning to anyone who tried to get inside…" She muttered darkly, but amused, to the magical layers that her mother wrapped around the cell.
The layers that Skylar noticed were not merely protective; they served to warn anyone who dared approach the mausoleum hidden within the cell. The first layer was cast an ominous atmosphere throughout the cell, dropping the temperature more, and making the space darker than any isolated confinement. Then the second one was a layer of toxic substance that gradually absorbing air and energy, making anything weak and numb. The third layer was focused on blood absorption, literally absorbing the blood spill on within the cell. The fourth layer was another ominous vibe penetrating anyone's mind, robbing knowledge and wisdom before the body went limp and insane. The fifth and the last layer that Skylar sensed against the wall was the death and life, making her gasp, pulling her palm away from the wall.
"You've got to be kidding me, Mom. This is a taboo." Skylar muttered in disbelief, wondering what her mother was really thinking about creating such a mausoleum for a friend. "Is she planning on reviving you?"
Skylar pressed her palm one more time to clarify what her mother was really up to by creating such a place. When she felt the same wave again, she began feeling different layers beneath the first ones. Her eyes narrowed from the energy flowing against her palm. It was hazy at first, but the more Skylar desired to learn what was beneath her mother's layers around the cell, the more it became dangerous, making her bleed in the process.
"Damn, you're a sly overprotective friend." Amused, Skylar whispered under her breath, still feeling the layers wrapping around the cell. However, there was a question that suddenly passed through her mind, mumbling, "What made you protect her remains like this even though she's already gone?"
When Skylar whispered those words, her question was heard, and the wall began cracking like it was collapsing before it moved. She wanted to pull her hand away from the wall, but she couldn't; the wall didn't let her. She was surprised as the wall she was touching absorbed her fully and dragged her inside. She wanted to break it by force, wiggling out, but the wall began extracting cemented hands, grabbing her, pulling her closer, deeper inside the wall until she vanished, leaving no trace inside the cell.
"What the fuck!" Skylar gasped as soon as she was taken into another dimension field.
The dimension had the collided sun and moon in the colorful, vast sky, the air was breathable, and the ground seemed like standing on a galaxy filled with twinkling stars. It's different from where she met Vincencio's wolf, but the vibe felt the same until a giggling voice from a familiar woman echoed around her ears, making her look where it came from.
"You…you're alive?" Skylar muttered upon seeing the same ghost earlier, but it was more of a body than a soul.
'Barely. I'm waiting for him to come home. But you came here, and why is that?'
"I'm just trying to learn about my mother's creation around your mausoleum – my cell and one question made the wall react and brought me here." She answered honestly, yet her expression speaks wonder, making the woman chuckle.
'What question did you ask?'
"What made her protect your remains even though you're gone already?" She repeated, making the woman nod in understanding.
'Ah, it's your mother's guilt.'
"Her guilt? She's not the reason you died." She wondered.
'That might be true, but she's a part of it. And being a kind person, she is, she does this.'
"But that doesn't make any sense of keeping your remains in touch with the living." She reasoned, making the woman chuckle again.
'You're clever mind made you have tons of questions.'
"Guilty since it runs in the family." She muttered with a dismissive sigh.
'True. Okay, I'll tell you why she truly had to take me to this mausoleum, and it was not only to ease her guilt; it has something to do with my crimson mark on him. My crimson mark won't let my spirit go until the bearer dies and is reunited with me. But the farther it goes away from me, the more the bearer suffers, and its soul won't be freed. It will die in a loop.'
"And what will happen to it? To your soul?" She wondered, eager to know her mother's work
'Still here, bound with him, wandering around, and waiting for him to come home. Your mother learned that, she's of course mad at me, but still prepared this place so my soul won't wander everywhere. She even made sure that nobody would disturb my remains until the right time comes, and this prison tower kept me entertained. Not to mention, it made your mother's protection around my grave strengthened at every blood and life forces died around the property.'
"You're making it sound as if I came from a noble family." She sighed, rolling her eyes at how wealthy her mother's family is.
'Well, you were.'
"Don't remind me. It reminded me how my husband teases me about being his sugar wife." She sighed dismissively, rolling her eyes from the teasing comment before adding sternly, "But you're an idiot for putting a curse on him despite knowing how it will curse you too."
'Well, we're destined to be in this situation, and for a reason, you're here for that.Remember, young Skylar, once it bleeds too much, he's nearly dying, but if it's still faint, find the inner core; that's where he's painfully wounded. That's where my crimson mark rooted.'
"What will happen to your remains once you're reunited with him?" She asked curiously.
'Depends on the wheel of life and death. I or we both decay and never return, or be reborn in another life.'
"I see…where do I find your remains around here?" She questioned, since she still couldn't find where it was exactly located.
'Find where the heart ticks for the first time, there where you will find my remains. And another thing, don't listen to the wave, listen to the root. Now, go back, you have another thing to do before dealing with him.'
"Oh, right, I almost forgot that." She chuckled, but was grateful for being reminded.
'As if. You're a vampire now, and forgetting is not in any vampire's vocabulary.'
"But I do. Maybe I'm the first one in history." She winked teasingly, making the woman shake her head in disbelief, yet flickering hope in her deep, once eyes.
'Touche. Go back and Skylar, please, whisper my name to his ears and bring him back to me.'
"No promises, but I'll try." She responded, not giving false hope to the wandering soul before her.
'That's fair and best of luck.'
Skylar has been spit out of the wall, covered with a little dust and rust, making her brush them off before couching slightly.
"Damn, that's dusty." She coughed before looking around the wall, recalling what the woman told her and whispering her name, "Sophia Strange."
Like magic, Skylar heard a faint heartbeat along with the beating waves passing around the entire cell. She smirked, finding the right spot where the remains were hidden perfectly before she stood up straight, tucking her vampire side into its coffin, and turned her heels as the Skylar everyone knows.
"Now, I know how to use all of these against him." Skylar thought darkly as she walked out of the cell, cleared, and untouched like nothing had happened within fifteen to thirty minutes of their stay. Then she added amusingly, "I'd better notify him to launch the game as soon as possible."
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