Demon Rock (4 page)

“
Well by these new laws, I have every right to arrest you, but seeing as you’re such a traditionalist I’ll arrest you based on the old laws. The law for humans.”

“
What are you talking about?!” I yelled, almost at the top of my voice.

“
For the murder of your wife.”

“
No!” but before I could make a move the man had pressed the blade against Holly’s throat, cutting deep across Holly’s throat. Holly’s eyes met mine and a tear rolled down her cheek. It only lasted a second before her head fell back and opening her wound further. She was dead.

As I leapt at the man, he disappeared. My fist finding nothing but the air. I was overcome with emotion and began to cry myself. A burst of pain shot through me as I felt a blow to the back of my head. The room started to go dark as I slipped into unconsciousness. That was the last memory I had before waking up that boat on my way to that God forsaken island!

After breakfast, we were herded outside to the exercise yard. The yard was quite big but not big enough to accommodate every inmate comfortably. The yard was covered by a dome like structure that I assume was designed to keep out natural ultra violet light. There were three bench presses and a couple of free weights from what I could see. Many of the inmates stuck to the outside perimeter of the dome, around the edge where the benches were. Noticeably gangs and groups formed, the vamps taking centre of the yard and occupying all three bench presses. How could they lift that much weight in a weakened state? It frightened me to think what they could do if uninhibited. Maybe they belonged here after all. I on the other hand, most definitely did not.
 
"Tell me more about the warden's right hand man." I said to Warlock.
"We don't know his name, around here people call him Shadow. He has no love lost for our kind, that’s for sure."
"Strange, seeing as he is one of us."
This took Warlock by surprise, surprise which was quickly replaced by laughter. When he caught his breath he looked at me, noticing my unchanged expression.
"You serious man? Shadow? The guy treats us worse than any of the other guards here. Why would he do that if he was one of us? Unless by us you mean he has an ability? And that ability is being a royal pain in the ass!"
"Shadow can turn invisible; I've seen him do it. He was the one who came for me and took me to this place. He is also the man who killed my wife in the process."

Even just saying the words fuelled me with rage, I looked around and spied Shadow now standing in the corner of the yard surveying the inmates. Some of the other guards were speaking to each other occasionally laughing, but not Shadow. Shadow seemed to not want to socialise with them.

“
I will have my revenge on him.”

“
Wow man, calm down. If you go attacking guards you’ll get processed.” Warlock warned.

“
Processed?” I asked.

“
We don’t work on the three strike rule here, one strike and you’re out. They take you to the chamber and you’re never seen again.”

“
The Chamber?”

“
Don’t know much about what’s inside because no one who has ever entered has ever left.”

It took every ounce of control I had for me not to run over and beat him but I knew it would achieve nothing except maybe a bullet in my head from one of the other guards or a trip to the chamber.

“
You say no one has ever escaped from Demon Rock before?”

“
Not a single soul. This place was mirrored on Alcatraz, the rock. That’s how it got the name Demon Rock. It was designed to be inescapable and even if you could escape, we are in the middle of nowhere. We don’t know where the nearest piece of main land is, we could be swimming out deeper into the ocean for all we know. It would be suicide.”

Warlock took a breath, “Why are you asking anyway?”

“
Because I’m breaking out, but not before Shadow’s life is extinguished.”

“
You say that with such conviction I almost believed you, but it’s impossible. You’ll never manage it.”

All I could do was smile, I had a plan. The first stage of which I would initiate at dinner tonight, but it wouldn’t be easy and it was going to hurt.

The rest of the day I went over the plan in my head. It could work, no, it would work. After the exercise yard, we were hoarded back to our cells for another two hours, before then being on labour duty. Some of the inmates painted, the more behaved inmates got roles in the kitchen. I got the new guys job of cleaning the toilets. You haven’t seen anything until you have seen the size of a werewolf’s excrement. My plunger and I were in that stall a good half hour. There were no clocks in the prison but if I had to guess it was about seven o’clock when we finally got to eat dinner. The prospect of eating the second rate food seemed a lot more attractive after the day since we had not eaten since six thirty that morning. After the labour, we were taken back to our cells for ten minutes for a quick role check to make sure no one was missing and then we preceded to the mess hall much like we had that morning.

This evening’s meal was something that resembled mash potatoes and looked almost identical to this morning’s porridge. To complement the potato we had some peas and a not so generous portion of chicken. I scoffed the meal into me within a matter of minutes but was still hungry. I felt like asking for some more but I had read Oliver Twist and have a fair idea of how it would go down. I was almost trembling with what I knew was to come next but it had to be done. With this final thought I stood up and strode towards the gang of vampires. I walked up to the one on the far left and tapped him on the shoulder. As he turned around I leant back and with all the strength I had in my body swung my fist towards his face, making contact with his jaw as his head spun to face me. The force of the blow made him stumble forward but as he did I felt a blow myself. The blow had came from the vamp to my right and had connected to my temple. These vamps really were strong; I felt my eye socket fracture. Normally my ability would heal the fracture in a matter of seconds but due to the cuff on my left wrist I could not heal and it hurt. The blow sent me to the floor of the feet of the vamp I had hit. He had turned round and began to stomp on me. All of a sudden the pain stopped, I looked up and watched as the vamp fell holding his neck. Shadow had shot him with a tranquiliser from the balcony and the other vamps had stood back, all the time never taking their eyes of me. A guard came and dragged me out of the mess hall.

A second guard grabbed me from the other side as they marched me down a hallway.

“
Be the chamber for you!” one of the guards said.

“
Be the last thing you ever see my friend!” the other joined in.

At the end of the hallway there stood a red door. Something inside me told me it was the chamber. As we approached the chamber I couldn’t help but think that my plan had failed. In some ways maybe it hadn’t, as I would be getting out of the island at least, although in a body bag which wasn’t my ideal way. As we were approached the chamber the Warden stepped out from a room just to the left.

“
Hold it men. Put him in here instead” the Warden commanded. The men agreed and threw me in the room. The room was empty bar a window, which looked like it could have been a two way mirror. It appeared to look into the chamber like an execution viewing room. The chamber was dark and I couldn’t see what was in it. The Warden stood in the doorway and looked at me.

“
The only reason that you are not in that chamber right now is because I need you alive for the moment. But let me warn you, if you ever pull anything like this again, I will not hesitate to punish you accordingly and you will see the inside of the chamber. Do I make myself clear?”

Maybe my plan would work after all, but what did he mean that he needed me alive?

“
Now, to deter you from trying a stunt like that again you get a front row seat to the fate of the vamp you assaulted.” Back up the hallway I could hear the vamp being dragged, he sounded terrified and was shouting that he had done nothing wrong. The tranquiliser obviously hadn’t had too long an affect on him. As the vamp passed the doorway he looked at me, or rather he looked through me. A mixture of fear of what was about to happen and a hatred for me causing it. I almost felt guilty but his ability required him to kill to survive unlike mine and I do not care for that. I moved towards the viewing window as the red door was opened and the vamp tossed in. He landed on the floor, sprung to his feet and turned back towards the door, slamming his fists against it pleading to have one more chance. When there was no reply, the vamp that looked a lot more human with his fear turned slowly around and stared at the back wall. I still could see nothing but darkness and the silhouette of the vamp. From the other end of the room came a light, it was flames. The flames formed a circle of about two metre in diameter. Five chains protruded from the edges of the circle of fire, all accumulating in the centre of the circle. In the centre was what appeared to be a head, it was not a face as it had no eyes. The head was smooth and white without a single hair on it. The last link of the chains each buried in the flesh of its neck. The head slowly rose and although it had no eyes, you could tell it was staring right at the vamp. The head had no discernable features but a mouth. The mouth slowly opened and the vamp dropped to its knees as if a wave of pain had shot through him. A weird hissing sound came from the head’s mouth as the mouth extended wider than any human mouth. The vamp continued to scream. The air between the creatures seemed to become wavy the way it does in a heat mirage. The vamp’s face looked almost thinner as if the life was being sucked from him. All of a sudden the vamp fell forward and remained motionless. The head slowly lowered back to its original position and the flames extinguished.

“
What the hell was that?” I asked, still shocked after what I had just witnessed.

“
The Japanese call it
Wanyūdō.
We call it the soul eater. It sucks the soul out of whoever sees it. We are protected by the mirror as it can not see us. But rest assured, the next time you see it, if there is a next time, you will not be at this side of the mirror.” The Warden explained.

The guards dragged me along a dark corridor. The corridor smelt like stale urine and faeces. My feet dragged through a puddle and I prayed that it was water. The corridor was long and had no windows, the air felt heavy as if we were in a mine or underground. I remember feeling a similar sensation when I was in Egypt and got to go into the tombs under the pyramids. The lack of air made my chest feel heavy then and I savoured each breath. The wall was painted dark green but much of it had faded or been chipped away revealing the brick coloured wall underneath. The guards stopped about half way down the corridor. In front of me was a heavy set door with huge iron bolts. One of the guards opened the door with some difficulty and a strong push in my back sent me falling face first into the room. The room had no windows or source of natural light. There was no bed or toilet. The guard closed the door with a smile that disappeared as the door passed across his face. 

"See you in three days." The guard said and with that the door closed.

I was drowned in darkness. My eyes unable to tell if they were open or closed. Three days? Three days of not knowing whether it was day or night. I moved to the back wall on my hands and knees, using my arm to insure I did not blindly crack my head of it. My hand found the wall and I lifted my knees and began to think. I had survived the chamber, I would survive this. 

Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours and hours to days. Since this dreadful ordeal began I had not even had time to properly grieve the death of my wife, but in this silence, alone with my thoughts she flooded my mind. In the far end of the room a puddle slowly grew in size as a single drop of water fell from the ceiling almost rhythmically every few seconds. My wife's face appeared time and time again in my head, not the happy adoring face I knew and loved but the face of fear she wore in the moment before Shadow took her from me. Another droplet of water hit the floor. I felt the urge to excrete but I resisted. My wife, why my wife? Why not just tranq me and take me. I was sure I was not the first inmate to have resisted capture. Why did they have to take her from me? One moment was all it took to take everything from me.

I could no longer hold it in; I moved to the far corner and relieved myself. The smell filled the room making the air even harder to breath and more stale. The smell I would smell for another two days. My muscles cramped, they ached and plead with me to do exercise or walk but I could not, there was no space nor did I have the energy. I had not eaten since the mess hall the previous night. Another droplet hit the puddle and seemed to echo throughout the entire cell. I covered my ears and squeezed my eyes as tight as I could. White dots appeared and scattered before my vision. Being in this place was the equivalent of the sensory deprivation torture methods implemented by the new government. Without sight, alone with your own thoughts, no food and a single dripping sound with no sense of time, a man could go crazy.