Chapter 92: Plan in Action (2)

I didn’t believe anyone would come through that door at night. That trapdoor outside the mansion seemed like the perfect entrance, but apparently, I was wrong.

The door opened slowly with a faint creak, which wasn’t enough to wake Christina, who was in a deep sleep after the hangover from the other night.

A hooded figure stepped inside. Even with the black hood covering his head, I could still see his face. Except what I saw was a mask. Damn it. Even though I’d finally found a suspicious person, the mask still kept me from learning who it was.

I considered stepping out of the pocket dimension and confronting the person right there, but I held back. It was too risky.

Judging by the width of the person’s shoulders, it was probably a man. He walked over to Christina’s bed, pulled some powder out of his pocket, and blew it onto her face. It was probably something to keep her asleep, even if there was a louder noise.

After that, the man went to the false floor, removed one of the wooden boards, and pulled the lever, opening the passage I’d seen before.

He went in, and the door closed right behind him. I waited about 5 minutes before leaving my pocket dimension.

As soon as I got out, I did the same thing he had, opening the passage with the lever. I took a quick look at Christina as I did so, since opening the passage wasn’t exactly silent.

She seemed to be snoring just as she had before, completely unaware of anything that was happening. Determined, I moved forward through the passage, going down the stairs and following that dark, filthy tunnel full of cobwebs and insects crawling along the walls.

When I reached the area with several different paths, I decided to follow the most obvious one, heading straight for the open room where we’d found the bodies.

I could barely breathe as I walked slowly through the tunnel, wiping away some cobwebs with my hands. Just how strong was this man? I had no idea. But keeping my confidence in my abilities was definitely the right thing to do.

As I got closer to the room where the bodies were, I started hearing people talking. That’s right, people. There was more than one voice, which meant the man I’d followed wasn’t the only one there.

Curious, of course, I approached the room, trying to stay hidden. I found a spot where I could safely remain out of sight. Unlike me, they couldn’t see in the dark. At least, I hoped they couldn’t.

In the room where the bodies hung from hooks, I saw an altar and, in front of it, several wooden benches like the ones you’d find in a church. It was some kind of cult!

The man I’d followed wasn’t standing in front of the altar giving a speech. He was one of the people there just to listen.

The person delivering the speech was none other than the owner of the mansion himself, the man I hadn’t seen for several days. The only time I’d seen him was on my first day at the mansion.

Before I could do anything, I heard footsteps coming from behind me. I turned around and saw Christina. Everything happened so fast that she managed to inject something into my neck.

How had she gotten so close without me hearing her? Was I really that careless, or was she more skilled than she’d let on?

The moment the liquid entered my body, I knew what it was. It was the same liquid they’d used to block my ability when I was captured and forced to fight.

This time, of course, my ability wasn’t blocked, since I’d already developed a resistance to that stuff.

Christina then grabbed me with both hands and threw me away. With her strength, I landed right next to the wooden benches where those people were sitting.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" the owner of the mansion said. "The gardener I hired recently. Looks like your plan worked, didn’t it, Robert?"

Robert was one of the people sitting on those benches! He stood up, stared at me, and took off his mask, revealing his face.

He wasn’t the only one there, either. Plenty of the people I’d seen around the mansion were there too! In total, 12 members of the mansion’s staff were present. That was far fewer than the total number of staff, of course, but it was still a significant amount.

Robert, Christina, and, of course, Joyce were all there. I felt betrayed. My entire investigation had been orchestrated to make me find this place and end up in this situation.

Joyce stood up next to Robert.

"I thought you were smarter than this. We fooled you so easily," she said, laughing with her hand in front of her mouth.

She was right. I hadn’t suspected them. My general idea was that 1 person, 2 at most, was connected to the murders. But a whole fucking cult? That, I really wasn’t expecting.

I looked straight at Robert, staring at him for a moment. His expression was different. He didn’t look happy about fooling me, unlike Joyce. Could it be that he was there against his will?

The owner of the mansion took control.

"Well, everything went according to plan. We have the fresh bodies for the ritual, and now we have someone to sacrifice. With this, we’ll be able to open the portal to the underworld."

He spread his arms in front of his followers.

"We’re finally going to achieve what we’ve been working toward for over 1 year."

Everyone present cheered, screaming and even clapping. I’d become the pig that was about to be slaughtered.

I kept up the act, making it look like the syringe had really blocked my ability and left me weaker. Meanwhile, I studied every single person in that bizarre cult. They weren’t that strong.

I was confident I could kill all of them on my own. I might get hurt in the end, but nothing that would cost me my life, and that was what mattered at the end of the day.

Robert came over to me and tied my wrists and ankles with a thick rope. While he did, he whispered in my ear.

"Sorry."

They took me to the front of the altar and made me kneel.

"Now we’ll begin the ritual by speaking aloud what’s written on pages 38 and 39."

"Repeat after me."

The owner of the mansion, whose name was Kevin, although I was no longer sure that was his real name, started reciting words in another language, reading from a dark, ancient grimoire whose pages were covered in red ink that could even have been blood.

I stayed there on my knees, listening to that bullshit and staring at every member of the cult. It went on for about 5 minutes. After that, I wanted to make my first move. I was getting impatient.

I started laughing out of nowhere, interrupting Kevin, who got pissed right away.

"Shut up. Stop laughing. You’re interrupting."

He looked at one of the cult members and said, "Beat him until he shuts up. The important thing is to keep him alive."

I stayed still, waiting until a man came toward me. His face was familiar. I think he was one of the guards who patrolled near my cabin.

"Ever since the day you got here, I wanted to beat the shit out of you," he said. "You’re gonna keep quiet now."

He clenched his fist to throw a punch, and that was when I acted. Using a bit of my strength, I tore through the rope binding my hands and feet, freeing myself. Right after that, I jumped at him and, with my fangs full of venom, bit his neck.

My teeth sank into his skin with ease, injecting the venom straight into his bloodstream. Then I ripped off a chunk of skin and muscle from his neck and spat it away.

A lot of blood gushed out of the wound. The venom would be the least of his problems. I was sure that man would die from the bleeding.

I jumped away right after, moving to the other corner of the room and putting some distance between us.

Shock took over everyone. Nobody had expected me to be able to free myself like that.

I hid in the darkness of the room. Everyone was near the altar, which was lit by torches. From a distance, I was invisible. I felt really good watching fear take hold of them, like a predator stalking its prey.

"All of you are going to die here today," I said, my voice echoing through the room and reaching the ears of every one of them. "Your mistake was messing with me."

Then I heard footsteps coming from my left. I looked to the side and saw who was approaching through the darkness. It was Gary.

"I saw a bunch of people going in through the trapdoor and had to warn you. Looks like you’re already here playing with our prey. Can I join?"

Gary hadn’t run away. He’d even come to help me. That made me trust him even more. This vampire hadn’t let me down once since I set him free.

I smiled, revealing my teeth covered in blood. I looked as macabre as a vampire.

"You came at the right time," I said. "Let’s kill them all. Or rather, spare Robert and Kevin, the owner of the mansion. I want to have a talk with them."

"Leave it to me, master."

Gary and I stalked them from the darkness. Maybe I wasn’t so different from a vampire. Maybe I wasn’t as human as I thought I was anymore.