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In Blackened Halls (Halloween Havoc no. 23)

by Sigma

 

Author’s note: This one features characters from my Superia stories. They are as follows:

 

·       Naomi Grant aka Superia: Super strength and durability

·       Asa Miyazawa aka The Iron Crane: Super Ninja

·       Thera: Sorceress

·       Madeline Smith aka Dr. Hope: Originally from the UK. Can create and manipulate light and use it to make solid constructs

·       Anisa Carter aka Delphi: Normal human, super genius billionaire and team leader

·       Fox: Senior field operative for Sentinel

I

 

“Oh!...AH!” Thera cried out, arching her back and clutching the sheets under her as yet another orgasm caused her body to spasm. She lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling fan and breathing heavily.

 

Naomi slid up next to her, a smile on her face as she lay next to Thera with her head propped up on one hand. Thera reached up and moved some of the matted hair out of Naomi’s eyes.

 

“You know,” Naomi said. “Your pussy…”

 

“Don’t say it…” Thera said, laughing.

 

“...Is magical,” Naomi grinned.

 

Thera groaned and lay back, but Naomi rolled over and straddled her waist. Naomi smiled and cupped Thera’s face in her hands and Thera looked up at her and smiled, touching the side of her face. Thera then heard a low, steady thumping, like the beating of a heart. A whisper filled her head and Naomi’s face suddenly changed. Her eyes were rolled back in her head, her skin was pale and hair white, black liquid from her nose and mouth, and the room all around them was dark.

 

Thera gasped and tried to sit up, but the image faded instantly.

 

“What’s wrong?” Naomi asked.

 

Thera stared at her, her heart racing in her naked chest before she shook her head. “It’s...no...it’s nothing.” She said.

 

The look of concern on Naomi’s face went away and she leaned down. “Well, then I guess we can start with round two.” She peppered Thera’s chest with kisses before licking the erect nipple on her left tit while looking her lover in the eye. Thera ran her hand through Naomi’s light brown hair, trying to enjoy the moment while the image raced through her head.

 

Just then, there was a frantic knock at the door. Naomi and Thera booth looked just as the door opened. Madeline walked in with a panicked look on her face and then froze when she saw her two teammates naked in bed.

 

“Oh! Bloody hell, I’m sorry, girls!” She looked away. “I thought Naomi was here alone and…”

 

“What’s the matter, Poppins?” Naomi asked, sitting up.

 

Thera paused when Madeline’s looked changed. The blonde Brit had gone pale, her eyes white, and her body looked as though it were completely drained of life. The image then faded as suddenly as it appeared and Thera heard the beating of a heart and more whispers.

 

Madeline looked at them, trying hard not to stare at the naked, curvy, bodies in front of her. “There’s something you two should see...right away…” She then rushed out.

 

“Looks like we’re on the clock,” Naomi said, getting up and grabbing her clothes from the floor. She then paused and looked back. “Thera.”

 

Thera blinked and looked at Naomi when she heard her name. “Yeah, sorry. What?”

 

“You all right?”

 

“I’m fine. Let’s go see what the issue is.”

 

***

 

Moments later, Naomi and Thera were cleaned up and in the living room of their HQ. Naomi threw on a shirt and some panties while Thera had grabbed her robe.

 

Asa was in the living room, wearing her black and white kimono and sliding a short sword into a sheath on her lower back.

 

“What’s going on?” Naomi asked.

 

“Trouble downtown,” Asa said, pointing to the TV.

 

Thera looked at Asa and saw her image change. Asa had taken on the appearance of a mummified corpse being pulled at by disembodied, shriveled hands. The image faded and Thera managed to hide her surprise this time even when the whispers and the heartbeat came. She then looked at the TV and saw a news camera focused on a strange structure in Downtown Delta City. It resembled a large, black, misshapen heart.

II

 

“What the fuck is it?” Superia asked as she, Iron Crane, Dr. Hope, and Thera stood up the street from the structure. News helicopters flew overhead and the street was blocked off after civilians had been evacuated.

 

Thera looked at it, and could hear a loud, pulsing beat that sent a wave of nausea to her core. She looked up when she realized everyone looked at her, thinking she might have some insight. “I don’t know,” she told them.

 

“We waiting for Fox and Sentinel or do we go in?” Superia asked.

 

“We should go,” Hope said. “There might be people trapped inside, or something hostile wanting to get out.”

 

“I agree,” Iron Crane said.

 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea…” Thera warned.

 

“No, I agree with these two,” Superia said. “If shit’s about to go bad, we should head it off.” She then took off toward the structure and the others followed. With no obvious door present, Superia punched the exterior. Her blow reverberated, but nothing happened. She stepped back, preparing to strike again when a hole in the exterior opened up big enough to let them in.

 

Whispers in Thera’s head came back, but before she could warn the others, they carefully made their way inside.

 

“Everyone, wait!” Thera told them. She ran inside after them and the exterior closed behind her. The inside of the structure was all high ceilings and open space. The heroines looked around in awe.

 

“Is it me, or is it bigger inside?” Hope asked.

 

“You’re right,” Iron Crane said. “How is that possible?”

 

“I think this structure transcends dimensions,” Thera said. “The thing we saw might just be part of it, not the whole.”

 

“Yeah, that’s great,” Superia said. “But where the fuck is the door?”

 

They all turned to her and saw nothing but open space where there should have been a wall at their backs.

 

“This is not good…” Iron Crane said, grabbing the handle of her blade.

 

Thera touched the side of her head when another headache took hold, but pushed it aside before anyone noticed. She looked around, trying to get her bearings.

 

“Shit,” Superia said. “Well, y’all, we already stepped in it. Might as well find out what this thing is and fight our way out if we have to.”

 

“Let’s at least agree we aren’t going to split up,” Hope said.

 

“Yes. That would be best,” Iron Crane said. “We should be extremely careful.”

 

“Asa, I’m always careful,” Superia boasted. She turned to face everyone else. “We’re four of the baddest bitches in Delta City. There’s nothing we can’t handle,” she said, her voice echoing off the impossibly high walls. “Let’s just find the fucker who dropped this thing in our city and get to punching his, her, or its face in, all right?”

 

No one saw the movement in the shadows behind Superia. No one knew something was lurking there until it lashed out, grabbed her, and pulled her screaming into the darkness.

 

“NAOMI!” Thera cried out, running to where she had just been standing.

 

Hope generated a ball of light, but it did little to dispel the dark. The three heroines looked around frantically for their friend, but all they saw was more dark space.

 

“Get the fuck off of me!” Superia screamed from somewhere in the structure. Her voice was all around them, making it impossible to determine where she was.

 

“No...fuck!” Superia screamed.

 

There were grunts and pounding sounds, like Superia was punching something.

 

“Fuck! FUCK! NO! Don’t put the fucking thing on me!”

 

The other heroines froze, helpless to do anything but listen.

 

“No...NO!” Superia’s panicked screams echoed. “Thera! Crane! Maddie! HELP!

 

And then Superia’s screams stopped as everything went silent.

 

Iron Crane, Hope, and Thera stood there silently, staring at the darkness for several moments. They then looked at each other, each one hoping the other two had an answer.

 

“What just happened?” Hope asked in a shaky voice. “Asa! Thera! What the fuck just happened to Naomi?!”

 

Iron Crane took a deep breath. “She’s gone, Madeline.”

 

“What does that mean?!”

 

“You know exactly what it means. We need to keep moving.”

 

“No!” Hope snapped. “We have to find her! She’s out there somewhere. She can’t just be dead, Asa!”

 

“Madeline, get a hold of yourself.”

 

“How are you so calm?! Naomi just…”

 

“I know what I just saw and heard, Madeline. We’ll find whatever took her and we will deal with it. But you need to keep it together,” Iron Crane said.

 

“Don’t you care?! For fuck’s sake, Asa, Naomi’s…”

 

“Madeline!” Iron Crane suddenly raised her voice. “Calm down…”

 

While they went back and forth, Thera stared at the ground in front of her. Panic rose in her chest and she forced herself to steel her nerves so her hands would stop shaking. More images flashed through her head, more whispers and mental intrusions.

 

And then she saw a path stretching out in front of her and leading deeper into the murky confines of the alien structure. She looked ahead and began walking forward as Thera and Iron Crane continued arguing behind her.

 

The two of them only stopped when they saw Thera walking away.

“Thera,” Iron Crane called after her. “Where are you going?”

 

“We have to go this way…” Thera said, walking on without looking back.

 

Iron Crane looked back at Hope and then followed Thera. With no other choice, Hope followed them deeper into the structure.

 

The trio walked, saying nothing to each other. They had no way of knowing how much time had passed, but they eventually entered another chamber. The walls were lined with glass display cases, and the three heroines paused and looked on in horror.

 

“What the hell is this place…?” Hope asked.

 

“It’s some sort of gallery…” Iron Crane answered, walking up to one case and touching the exterior. Inside the display, just like the seemingly countless others around them, was scenery from a world that definitely wasn’t Earth. The heroines peered into the twisted displays and saw all sorts of strange alien creatures, seemingly frozen in time. They were large and small, with limbs, claws, and tentacles. Some had bulky, muscular bodies, while others were thin.

 

As they passed through the twisted menagerie, they looked around in awe.

 

“This is like some sort of museum…” Iron Crane commented, keeping a hand on her blade. “Thera, do you sense anything?”

 

“No,” she answered. “Not even life from these creatures…”

 

“Then they’re dead…”

 

“So it’s more like a hunter’s trophy room,” Hope said. “Someone, or something, put these things on display. So where are they?”

 

“I don’t know…” Iron Crane said. “But we need to be careful. Whoever brought this twisted place here may be watching us right now.” She kept her eyes moving while the three heroines stayed together and tried to find their way out. Thera led them, guided by some invisible compulsion, and Iron Crane stayed in the rear to watch their backs. Just as they did, Hope looked paused and looked up.

 

“Does anyone else hear that?”

 

Thera and Iron Crane stopped.

 

“What is it?” Thera asked.

 

Hope held up her finger to her lips. “Listen…” she whispered. “It’s like someone is crying…”

 

They stopped and listened for a few silent seconds before it became apparent. A distant wailing, hard to hear at first, suddenly became louder. Within moments it became more agitated, more troubled, and the heroines all looked at each other, wondering what to do.

 

Hope then glanced down and jumped back. “Oh, my god!” she screamed.

 

Right under their feet, the floor shifted with twisted and agonized faces crying out. Their wails filled the space of the hall. As the heroines began to run, grasping hands reached out for them.

 

Thera fled while Iron Crane grabbed a stunned Hope by her arm and shoved her, yelling at her to move.  Crane’s voice spurred the blonde heroine into action and she ran behind Thera. They continued on and Thera looked back.

 

“Madeline, give me a disk!”

 

Hope understood what she meant and clapped her hands together. Light glowed and shifted when she parted her hands until it expanded into a flat disc large enough for all three of them to stand on. With a quick spell, Thera made it hover in the air and she and Hope climbed on top of it.

 

Iron Crane was a few feet behind them, running for the disk. She took Hope’s hand when she held it out, but grunted when something grabbed her by the ankle. Twisted, misshapen beings rose from the floor, their bodies pale, their eye sockets empty, and their jaws slack as their agonized wails escaped their mouths.

 

Thera sent a bolt of energy that knocked two of them back, but more rose in their place, their cold, withered hands, tentacles, and other appendages grabbing the Asian heroine before she climbed onto the disk.

 

Iron Crane kicked and hacked at them with her blade, trying to fight her way free. She held on to Hope’s hand desperately as the disk rose into the air.  Thera grabbed Crane’s arm too and both women tried to keep their friend from being taken by the horrors, but they had strength in numbers on their side.

 

Iron Crane’s fighting was getting more desperate, and panic was starting to set in. They grabbed at her legs to keep her from kicking. The pulled at her hair to try and make her let go. They began pulling at her costume, ripping it off to expose her naked body.  

 

One creature, tall, with long, exaggerated limbs and a ovular head, extended a seemingly endless tongue from its mouth and snaked it towards Iron Crane’s exposed pussy. It slid it in deep and the heroine gasped, nearly letting go of her friends. As the other horrors grabbed her legs, keeping her muscular thighs from moving, the creature pulled itself up her body, gripping her hips while it continued eating her out.

 

“Ah! AH!” the busty Asian screamed, her grip relaxing on her blade until it fell into the mass of creatures before.  Tentacles slipped out from the ground, slithering up her torso and caressing her breasts, toying with the hardened nipples while the monster with the tongue thrust in and out of her.

 

Thera readied another spell, having to be careful not to hit Crane, when something told her to turn around. She saw a clawed hand reaching up as another creature pulled itself up onto the disk of light. It was missing its lower body and had two heads, but it began moving toward her and Hope.

 

Thera fired a blast of energy that hit the creature, knocking it back. She then stood up, firing another, stronger blast that sent it flying off the disk and back below.

 

“Thera!” Hope screamed at her.

 

Thera ran back to help her, but was too late. Just as Thera returned, Iron Crane was pulled in by the monsters and nearly pulled Hope with her. Thera managed to grab Hope and keep her from falling over, but the monsters had Crane. As they pulled her down, she threw defiant punches, trying to fight her way out of the growing tide. Hands and tentacles toyed with body, tiny creatures crawled over her exposed flesh, and the creatures climbed over each other to get at her.

 

One creature held her legs up, holding her apart while the creature with the long tongue continued plunging deep inside of her. Crane cried out, a mix of terror and frustration at being caught like this, and Hope and Thera could only look on hopelessly as they watched their friend get ravaged by the seemingly endless horde. A pair of hands came from below and wrapped around Crane’s neck and more grabbed her waist and breasts. They were pulling her under, and their flesh was starting to meld with hers. She reached up with her free arm toward her two companions, but one monster grabbed her arm and pulled it back down.

 

Hope covered her mouth while Thera looked away as Iron Crane eventually sank beneath the writhing sea of pale, white flesh. The cries only grew louder as Thera had the disk fly away and into the upper reaches of the strange structure.

 

***

 

Some time later, Thera brought the disk down on solid ground and stood there, stunned at what she just saw. Hope was behind her, on her knees, sobbing. Thera went over and knelt down, putting her hand on Hope’s shoulder.

 

“Get off of me!” Hope screamed, jumping up and pushing her away.

 

Thera stumbled back, stunned, and nearly fell over. Hope got to her feet, her eyes red and her face tear-streaked.

 

“You left Asa to die!” Hope screamed, pointing at her. “We should have never come in here!”

 

“Madeline, I…”

 

“No! Naomi and Asa are dead! We could’ve helped them!” She screamed. “You’ve got their fucking blood on your hands!”

 

Thera felt a sickening feeling in her stomach, the pain of Hope’s words hitting her hard. Still, she composed herself and took a deep breath. “Madeline, listen. You can hate me all you want, but we need to find a way out.”

 

“Why would I listen to you?!” Hope protested. “You saw those things! We don’t stand a chance, and this fucking...place...whatever it is, doesn’t make any sense!”

 

“Madeline!” Thera shouted at her, her pain turning to anger. “Get a fucking hold of yourself and let’s figure this out. If we keep this up, we’ll share the same fate as Naomi and Asa.” She approached Hope. “We can still get out…”

 

“No!” Hope said, pushing her away.

 

Thera growled and let her own anger get the best of her and she shoved Hope back. Hope staggered backward, looked at Thera and screamed. She then ran at her and tackled her to the ground. 

 

The two women were a tangle of limbs as they wrestled and rolled across the ground. Thera shoved her hands in Hope’s face, trying to force her off and Hope pulled Thera’s dark, braided hair. Hope rolled them both over and managed to pin Thera under her. She straddled the sorceress’ waist and held her down with a fistful of hair in one hand and her other on Thera’s shoulder.

 

Thera paused and held up her hands, her chest heaving with heavy breath. “All right Madeline, you got me. So now what?”

 

Hope stared down at her and the angered looked in her eyes began to slowly fade. Her shoulders slumped and she let go. “What the hell am I doing…?” She got off of Thera and stared at her own hands in disbelief before looking at the sorceress. “Thera, love, I’m so sorry!” she said, rushing over and hugging her. “I don’t know what came over me.”

 

“It’s all right,” Thera told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. The two of them stood up. “As long as you got that out of your system. Now we can focus on getting out of here.”

 

Hope nodded and summoned a ball of light on her open palm. Just as she did, Thera looked behind her and screamed.

 

The light revealed the thick tentacle hanging from the ceiling and, just as Thera scream, it lifted up to reveal a funnel-like mouth on its end and lashed out, latching to the back of Hope’s head. The busty blonde Brit scream in surprise and pain as it lifted her off her feet. It lifted her quickly, out of Thera’s reach, before more tentacles lowered from the darkness and tore at Hope’s white costume, ripping it off her body and casting it to the floor.

 

The new tentacles latched onto the heroine’s tits while others bound her arms behind her. Two more grabbed onto her ankles, pulling them apart, while a third, thicker than the rest, penetrated her, making her cry out. It stretched her and began pumping in and out. It’s girth was big enough that Thera could see Hope’s abdomen protruding with the appendage's movements.

 

“Thera! Help!” Hope pleaded before another tentacle wrapped around her neck and squeezed. She gagged, trying to force words out, but the unseen monster controlling the tentacles continued to fuck and strangle her at the same time. Thera looked up at the vaulted ceilings, trying to find the source for the tentacles, but all she saw was the lengthy arms reaching out of the darkness. She resolved to fire blindly and hope to hit something, anything.

 

She summoned a fireball onto her palm and raised her hand, but when jumped and screamed with a strong, clammy hand grabbed her wrist from behind and another clamped down over her mouth. Her focus broke and the fireball in her hand died.

 

“You shouldn’t play with fire…” a woman’s voice teased in Thera’s ear.

 

Her eyes went wide when she recognized the voice.

 

“Come on, let’s watch feeding time,” the woman said. Her grip was superhumanly strong and Thera couldn’t pull away. Her captor forced her to look up as something lowered itself out of the darkness. It was a massive monster, and its mouth was circular, lined with row upon row of razor sharp teeth. It pulled its tentacles up toward it while still pumping in and out of Hope’s body. She gagged and struggled weakly, crying and pleading as best as she could while being raised toward the ravenous maw.

 

Thera forced her eyes shut as she heard Madeline crying out. The cries then went silent, followed shortly by the sounds of feeding, before the thing slithered back into the dark.

 

Thera sobbed loudly as the hand holding her wrist let go and slid down her body, cupping a tit, brushing against the flat surface of her tummy, then down the smooth skin of her thigh before going under her robe. Slim, familiar fingers toyed with the lips of Thera’s pussy, brushing against the lips and the moist lining of the cavity before her captor pulled her fingers back and sucked off the dampness.

 

“That pussy’s still magical.”

 

Thera then felt the hold loosen and turned around, but froze in terror and backed away when she saw Naomi sucking her own fingers. The Naomi that stood in front of her had pale, white skin, with black veins all over her naked, curvy body. Strange, black fluid dripped from her mouth and her eyes and hair were completely white. She walked toward Thera and flashed a smile.

 

“Na...Naomi...what happened to you?!” Thera asked, backing away.

 

“Enlightenment, babe,” Naomi simply said with a maniacal grin. She then ran at Thera, moving faster than Thera’s eyes could keep up, and put her hand over Thera’s face. Everything then went dark.

 

***

 

Thera heard the sound of a beating heart and woke with a start some time later. She felt her limbs were heavy. She tried to move, only to realize she was trapped in some sort of cocoon, melded into a wall of the structure. She was completely naked, her chest, stomach, and thighs exposed while her limbs were immobilized by the substance binding her to the wall. She looked up to see a humanoid figure standing before her. He was tall, with gray skin and draped in black robes. The skin on his hairless head was covered in lacerations that formed an intricate pattern, and they wept with black fluid that ran down his cheeks and chin. Black eyes scanned the captive sorceress, but the strange figure didn’t move otherwise.

 

Thera then saw Naomi next to him, her arms on the figure’s shoulder as she leaned her head against his, grinned, and waved at Thera. Iron Crane and Hope were at his side too, their appearances now similar to Naomi’s. Their naked flesh was gray, their hair and eyes white, and the black fluid stained their lips.

 

“Such delights I have visited on your compatriots,” the figure finally spoke. His voice was deep and booming and had its own echo. He put his hand to Iron Crane’s chin and then turned back to Thera. “I have traveled the dimensions observing and collecting, and I have yet to encounter beings such as you…both equally strong and exquisite...I must know more.”

 

He walked toward Thera until he was face to face with her. He ran his hand down her naked tits, fixated on her body.

 

“What are you?!” Thera demanded.

 

“A Collector. Of this dimension’s treasures and the treasures of all others.” He then looked at Thera and touched the side of her face. “You are not like these three. There is a unique energy that only you exude. It called out to me, and I answered, feeling this strange world awash in it. What is this energy called?”

 

Thera looked at him defiantly and said nothing. She gagged when he grabbed her neck and squeezed.

 

“Your silence will not save you,” he said in a calm, but threatening manner.

 

“It is called magic,” Hope spoke simply.

 

The Collector looked back over his shoulder. “Magic…” he repeated. He then turned back to Thera. “Fascinating. I must know more if I am to explore this world. You will be my guide. The doorway through which I step.” He then ran his hand up the side of Thera’s face. She tried to pull away, but her grabbed her hair and forced her to look him in the eye. He then raised his other hand and pressed it to Thera’s forehead.

 

She could feel him beginning to snake into her mind, his dark influence drilling its way in. “No!” she screamed, looking past him and hoping her friends would break his hold and come to her aid. Instead, they just watched her as the Collector began pushing his finger into Thera’s head.

 

“What will I add to my galleries besides you, I wonder?”

 

Thera’s screams echoed throughout the blackened halls.

 

III

 

Thera groaned and her eyes fluttered open at the sound of thumping boots and shocked gasps. She stirred, her robes and skin soaked and her head pounding. She sat up, holding her head and looked up to see a clutch of shadowy figures in front of her. It took a few seconds for her blurred vision to clear, but she realized the people in front of her were armed Sentinel soldiers, and their rifles were all pointed at her.

 

Agent Fox stood in the center of the formation, her mouth agape and trembling, her blue eyes wide. She covered her mouth with gloved hands and her knees trembled.

 

“Agent Fox…” Thera said, swallowing to rid the dryness in her throat. “Thank goodness you’ve arrived…” She stood up and stumbled toward them.

 

“Don’t move!” Fox said. She drew her rifle in a steady, fluid motion, but her hands shook as she aimed it at Thera, who froze in place and raised her hands.

 

“Agent Fox...what…?” Thera gasped.

 

“Thera...wh...what the fuck have you done?!”

 

“I...what…?” Thera asked, confused. She noticed Fox’s eyes dart to her side. Thera then turned and went numb at what she saw. Superia, Hope, and Iron Crane all lay on the ground around her, their bodies broken and bloody, eyes void of life.

 

Thera’s heart raced in her chest. She broke into a cold sweat. Her legs trembled. “I...I didn’t. It was the Collector!” she said. Thera fell to her knees, looking at her friends. She crawled over to Superia and reached out, but when Thera extended her hand, she saw it caked in dried blood. She stared at her own hand and then let out a horrified scream.

 

Silence then fell over the chamber. The sorceress hyperventilated and turned back to Fox and her men. “I didn’t do this! The Collector...he must have…!”

 

Fox approached her, gun raised. “There’s no one else here. Just you,” her voice shook. “You’ve only been in here seven minutes.” 

 

“Please!” Thera said, lunging at Fox. “I…”

 

That was all Thera managed to say before Fox hit her with the stock of her weapon and knocked her out cold.

 

Fox stared down at the four women laying at her feet. She sniffed and wiped her eyes.

 

“Boss...you need a minute?” One soldier asked, putting a hand on Fox’s shoulder.

 

She turned away. “Sedate her and call for a prisoner transport. Get someone from Occult down here with our strongest magic seals. I have to go get some body bags…”

 

***

 

Delphi stood next to Fox, shaking her head and wiping her eyes with a tissue. “I...I just don’t understand…”

 

“I know…” Fox said, putting a hand on Delphi’s arm. “She must have just snapped. We have psychiatrists flying in from HQ in Washington who specialize in superhuman psychology. We’ll figure out why she did it. The only assurance I can give is it doesn’t look like any of them suffered...but they probably didn’t even see it coming.”

 

“She keeps saying something about a Collector…”

 

“There were no other signs of life in that thing. We swept it with every instrument and spell we could think of. It was just the four of them. We’ll have to deal with Thera later. We still have to figure out where that thing came from, but as far as we can tell, it’s not a danger to the city.”

 

“...So what now?” Delphi asked.

 

“We can’t let her out. Ever. Not with what she can do. She’ll stay behind the seals for the rest of her life,” Fox explained. “This site doesn’t officially exist and isn’t acknowledged by Sentinel. It’s why I had to blindfold you and tell you to leave your phone behind before I agreed to let you come see her. We keep the prisoners the world can’t know about here. You want to talk to her now?” 

 

Delphi shook her head. “I...I have to figure out how I’m going to tell the others.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes. “I need a moment.”

 

“Of course.”

 

Delphi turned and ran out.

 

Fox stood on the platform in the massive chamber and looked at the prison that held Thera. It was a glass cage, deep beneath the surface. In the walls around it, magical symbols flared and pulsed, suppressing her magic abilities.

 

Thera sat against one farthest wall, wearing a drab, gray prison uniform. Her magical tattoos faded as she hugged her knees to her chest. She had a blank look in her eyes and mumbled to herself.

 

Without a word, Fox turned and left the room.

 

“It wasn’t me…” Thera uttered once she was alone. She then looked up, hearing the rhythmic thumping of a heart, and saw the Collector standing across from her. The twisted forms of of Iron Crane, Hope, and Superia all stood behind him.

 

“No...nooo…” Thera began to cry, panic rising in her chest as she tried to get away.

 

The Collector flashed a rotted smile at her and then looked at Thera’s surroundings. 

 

“Ah, but this world seems to be a feast.”

 

The End