Before he could lose faith, the door clicked and creaked open.
A copper toned beauty with amber eyes behind her bookish glasses peeked through the crack. “Come in,” Cynthia ordered in a whisper. Levi slid inside and locked the door behind him. Finally, he had a chance to ease up a bit and catch his breath. This room had essentially become Cynthia’s makeshift command center. She seemed right at home here. Her long and slender legs were propped atop the desk as she maneuvered her cursor through various screens and computer functions. Levi brought his attention to the sixteen monitors she operated. It was as if Cynthia had been spying on her siblings the whole time. She could not possibly have known what Levi, Troy, Kitty, and Helena were up to in the underground bunker passage. However, everything that transpired inside of their colossal home was common knowledge for her. Surely, she had witnessed Levi’s most recent encounter with Pearl as he was ducking and dodging shotgun pellets.
The first thing Levi did was confirm that his tech savvy sister was well.
“How has it been on your end?” he asked.
“Uneventful,” she stated. “I’m fine.”
“Are you hungry?”
“Starved.”
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m managing.”
Levi had been collecting a decent stash of supplies at this point. He still had his weapon of choice, the Napoleon Sabre—the long and curved sword with the green dragon hilt and matching sheath he claimed from Allister. He also had a couple of books he nabbed from the library that contained valuable information he needed to review. Food as well. And plenty of it.
“Here sis,” offered Levi, stacking two cans of dusty beans onto Cynthia’s desk. “You need to keep your energy up.”
Cynthia smiled and dragged one of her long turquoise nails around the brim of a can. “Selfless as always, huh?” she snickered. “Thanks, little bro.” She sighed and drew her gaze back to the monitors. Something was obviously on her mind. “Though, I don’t think it will matter whether or not I’m nourished,” she bemoaned.
“Nonsense!” replied Levi. He unsheathed his sword and used the blade as a can opener, gingerly applying his weight on the tip as he sliced through the lid.
“Levi…” Cynthia started. She crossed her arms and legs as she tapped her nails against the desk. “It’s not logical for us to help each other, given our situation.” As analytical as she was, she vented her frustrations in her calm monotone voice. She was objective and void of any emotion in a matter-of-fact cadence. “We’ve all tried to escape for over a day now. We can confirm without a doubt that we are locked in Lancaster Manor. That was our father’s first promise. Even with my computer expertise, I can’t hack our way out of this mess. I tried.” Levi followed along but did not like where she was going with this. “Father’s second promise was that if there were two or more of us left alive in…” Cynthia checked her watch. “…six hours, six minutes, and six seconds…then the gas will be released. So, we’ll all be dead if we don’t start actively competing in this trial. If you think about—”
“I don’t want to hear that kind of talk!” interjected Levi, shaking his head. He swallowed his spit. “That’s the kind of talk that led to Allister’s anger—to Pearl’s insanity! We can’t think like that! There has to be another option for all of us to get out!”
Cynthia paused and looked at him incredulously. “I may not necessarily agree with you. But I admire your spirit.” There were no spoons. So, Cynthia drank half a can of the thick and chunky beans. She wiped away the juices that had smeared across her full lips. “I won’t give you any false hope, little bro,” she assured him, staying realistic about their scenario. “But as long as you push for survival, I’ll push too.”
She explained that despite the sixteen monitors that displayed numerous areas around their house, Cynthia still had a limited field of vision. She could not access any other software or the internet. To top it off, by no means did she have a full view of their home either. A few of the cameras were placed outside, showing nothing but the trees blowing in the wind and the pouring rain that made the outside world appear as a gray hazy blur. Most of the indoor cameras displayed empty hallways and the grand dining hall. Hiroshi sat at the head of the table with his head down. He was obviously consumed with anguish, contemplating the chain of events that had led to their family’s horrendous situation. It was clear from his wide-eyed focus and mussed hair that he was at his breaking point, just like Pearl. Cynthia said she saw how Pearl tried to kill a handful of Lancasters on one of the center monitors.
She was the biggest loss. Pearl was not just a caregiver—she was the caregiver. She was not just a sister to the children. She was a mother too. She helped them with homework, kept them on their schedules, even kissed their wounds when they were younger. And she did it all with a smile. If she of all people could fall and give in to despair, then it was just a matter of time before the others would follow suit.
“Who do we have here?” Cynthia thought aloud. She circled her cursor around a moving body. It was a young boy with a chocolate fauxhawk and poor posture.
It was Sion, the youngest male in the family. They had to zoom in to see him. It looked like he was setting up traps around one of the living rooms. Being the chemistry fanatic that he was, he was always constructing his little science projects. Most of them were just excuses to make explosives. Levi needed to be wary of him. He was a little hellraiser at school when his teachers were not looking. Unfortunately, there was no sign of Helena on any of the screens. It was like trying to find Waldo. Their house had so much junk and furniture, that the siblings would have to move around to draw attention to themselves.
“Have there been any other sightings of the Leviathan?” asked Levi. He filled her in on his last encounter with the masked Lancaster and how he injured it with his sword. He still suspected it to be Blake or Hiroshi in disguise.
“No,” admitted Cynthia.“I check all the screens quite often. It’s all I can do in here. When it comes to our home, I am not omniscient, but I know a lot. I haven’t seen that creature since his first sighting.” Levi began to wonder if perhaps it really could be the devil making them do his bidding. “What about this?” asked Cynthia, tapping on the monitor, second from the bottom left-hand corner. “That’s not good.”
The image was of a bird’s eye view of Kitty, who lay sprawled out on the floor. She had not moved since she was bludgeoned with the butt of Pearl’s shotgun. The good thing was that it looked as if she was almost ready to regain consciousness. She squirmed around on the floor still half-asleep. Dizzily, her head twitched, as if she were in the middle of a nightmare.
The bad news was that she was not alone.
Blake made his way onto the scene with his hands in his pockets, staring the girl down. His face was stoic as he sized up his discovery and deduced what sort of encounter had brought Kitty to her current predicament. At first, Levi feared for her life. But Blake was astute. He was not like Allister, who acted out of irrational anger. He would not harm her if there was nothing to gain. And truly, there was no benefit in killing her.
Sure, if Blake killed her, it may have weighed heavily on Levi’s conscience. It would perhaps cause him to handle himself poorly and impact his ability to make judgements, but it would impact Blake too. Truth be told, Kitty was more valuable alive than dead. She would make good leverage when the time would come. Blake hoisted Kitty from behind her back with his good arm and dragged her away. They disappeared from one monitor and reappeared on another as he carried her to some undisclosed part of the house.
“If the timer does go off and Lancaster Manor fills with poisonous gas, do the rules still apply if one of us is the last alive?” Levi asked. He hoped it would never come to that, but it was a very real possibility.
“I have absolutely no idea,” blurted Cynthia. She seemed offended that he was asking. “Are you asking me if everything will magically unlock and the doors will spring open once the system re
ads that there’s just one of us left choking on poison? I didn’t make the rules. How the hell should I know. By then, it seems like it would be too late to get out anyway.”
“It was just a thought,” admitted Levi, shaking it out of his head. “I just want to understand all of the variables.”
Soon enough, Blake dragged Kitty outside the range of the camera. Levi knew where they were, but the monitor that was supposed to display their whereabouts was not working.
It was pure black.
“What happened to the video feed for this hallway?” asked Levi, pointing.
Cynthia took a sip from her can of beans. “Blake’s been on the move lately,” she said, pushing up her glasses. She explained that he had either been destroying cameras by throwing blunt objects at them, or in some cases, posting stickit notes on the lenses. “He knows I’m watching. He’s limiting my field of vision.” She pressed her finger into her lip as she thought out loud. “He’s a smart one. He may just prove to be your biggest threat.”
Levi nodded in agreement. Luckily, he was not alone. He had more allies in this crisis than any one of his siblings—Cynthia included. Just as Levi mentored Helena on what it meant to be a Lancaster, Cynthia had done the same for him some time ago. They shared a special bond. Levi had no memories of Kenya. Sometimes, he doubted he ever lived anywhere other than in this mansion. One of his first memories ever was of Cynthia, guiding him by the hand, giving him his first tour of Lancaster Manor. He was five and she was seven. He was terrified of the fact that he would have to someday walk these halls alone. Through his young eyes, his home felt like an indoor city—a paradise where you could get lost with just a single wrong turn. By that time, Cynthia had already been living there since she was a baby. She knew the mansion inside and out. They were close and Cynthia always insisted on helping Levi with his studies and personal growth.
It was not until just last year that she started becoming more and more distant from him. She was constantly on her computer, typing away, working on some project that she never bothered explaining to him.
“I’m busy,” she stated one day, without her eyes ever leaving the screen. She minimized her window and turned her swivel chair to face him. “What do you want?”
“Allister and I are going to a baseball game. Do you want to come?” He already knew the answer she would give him.
“I can’t,” she insisted.
Levi always assumed she was working on some sort of new groundbreaking software that would grant her acceptance to any college or tech company of her choosing. Or perhaps she was paving her own way, becoming an entrepreneur with a prototype of an app that would start her own legacy.
Levi sighed, as he imagined his confrontation with Blake. Not only did he have to save Helena, but he could not live with himself if something happened to Kitty as well. “Before you go to them, it may help if you have a couple others on your side.” Cynthia grabbed his attention and tapped on another screen. It was just an empty hallway. However, she insisted that their sister Eden was there. Apparently, she caught a curious glimpse of Troy running down that hall. Cynthia swore she saw the wall open and that Troy was let inside by Eden. Her key unlocked a secret room that none of the other Lancasters knew about. The door appeared nonexistent. However, Cynthia assured him there was a room there. “If anyone could be trusted, it would be Eden,” Cynthia insisted. Levi shrugged it off but knew it to be true.
Eden was the one who would bring in baby birds that had fallen from their mother’s nests in the garden and raise them as her own babies. She was unyielding in her charitable ways to the point that it was almost intoxicating. None of the Lancasters admitted it, but they were often jealous of her. Eden could do no wrong. Despite all the scandals and slander that the rest of them have suffered by the media, at least at some point in their lives, Eden was as clean as a whistle. For whatever reason, all tabloids, blogs, and social media rants were off limits on this Lancaster.
She earned it.
She contributed too much good into the world for anything else. She was the golden child. After carefully explaining her whereabouts, Levi agreed. He did not want to spread himself too thin with all the people he wanted to save, but even he could never say ‘no’ to Eden. She would do the same for any of them. She was pure to a fault.
On his way out, Levi left more rations behind for Cynthia. He needed her to keep energized. It was his last peach. He tossed it to her. “Stay strong,” he said, bidding her farewell. “We’re not giving up yet.” After making sure the coast was clear, Levi left the security room and made his way down the hall to find Eden—the golden girl.
PART IV
DEPRESSION
CHAPTER 13
DUCK, DUCK, GOOSE
All of the clues led Levi to the east wing of Lancaster Manor. It looked as though very few, if any, of his siblings had been on this side yet. Could there truly be a hidden sanctuary? The area had yet been turned into a warzone like the kitchen and library. Everything here was still in pristine condition. Paintings of grassy meadow landscapes were still neatly hung on the wall. There were no blood stains or markings in the carpet. When Levi made it to the specific hallway that Cynthia had shown him in the security room, he searched for a door handle.
Nothing.
It was just as he thought. Levi had been down this hall countless times. If there were a secret room here, he would have known about it. He was beginning to question if Cynthia could be trusted. Maybe she just wanted to get him out in the open. That would make him an easy target for Pearl to kill, thus bringing her one step closer to being the last Lancaster left alive. Nevertheless, Levi examined the hallway desk that held nothing, aside from a vase of tulips. There was not anything in the drawers either. He threw his hands up in the air in frustration in front of the security camera, so that Cynthia could see him. Upon closer inspection, there was the ever so light indentation of a crease near the floor. He crouched and inspected it, drawing his finger across the line. He pulled the desk out of the way. There was in fact a small slot on the wall that could flip up and down. Behind it was a keyhole.
This was it!
Levi stood up and placed his fingers on the seemingly ordinary wall. He did not know what exactly he was searching for. He sighed and settled with a knock. The wall felt and sounded hollow. There certainly was something on the other end. “Eden,” he whispered loudly. “It’s me. Levi. Can I come in?”
“Don’t do it!” pled a muffled voice on the other side. “We can’t trust him.”
“Don’t be silly,” insisted another. “He’s our brother.”
At that, there were a few clicks from behind the wall as it begun to unlock. It slid open. The endless secrets in his home never ceased to amaze him.
Before Levi, stood a golden-haired angel with radiant porcelain skin. Not a single strand was out of place. She wore it in a tidy French braid with a black bow.
“Quickly, come inside!” Eden ordered. Levi did as she requested, and she moved the hallway desk back in front of the secret door before sliding it shut. Eden and Levi were not alone. There were others there. Accompanying the golden child was the black sheep of the family, Mauve.
It was not just Mauve either. Troy was there too. “Bro! You made it!” Troy bellowed in laughter and relief as he pulled his brother in for a bear hug, nearly drowning him in thick flesh and long silky hair. Regardless, Levi smiled and embraced his brother. He had not seen him since they all scattered like roaches when Pearl open fired near the entrance. He had been hiding out here ever since. “I thought you were a goner. Glad you’re still in one piece.”
It was a quaint little room. About ten by ten feet in size. There were pictures of saints and a few crosses on the wall. There were a few natural light sources too—candles were lit, and on the far brick wall was a stained-glass window. It depicted an angel with feathery wings. It stood proudly and tilted its head. Bright blue, crimson, white, and yellow. The rain pitter-pattered against it, sounding clearer now
than it ever had been throughout the other rooms of the house.
There was a cushioned kneeler in front of the biggest cross. And a few stemmed crystal glasses and wine for what Levi suspected would be for the Eucharist. There was also a clear bag containing hundreds of flat communion wafers. It would not be a substantial meal, but it was better than nothing.
He was in awe that there was a tiny church in his home all this time that he never knew about. But Levi quickly snapped back into the moment when he came across Mauve’s utter look of disdain as she locked her gaze onto him and his sword. Honestly, she was lucky. With Mauve’s reputation around the house, if she asked anyone else for help, she would have had the door slammed in her face. For Mauve and Eden, the trial had not been that eventful. They have yet to run into anyone else since things heated up. When Eden heard her sister crying down the hall, her selfless instincts kicked in and she granted Mauve entrance into her private sanctuary without question.
Eden explained that ever since the family had gone their separate ways, she immediately went to her favorite private place to pray. Apparently, she already knew about this secret chapel for years. It was only since the Leviathan Trial that it required a key.
Her key.
Eden had been camping out here ever since. She and Mauve each left only twice to sneak down the hall for a restroom break. They had not come into contact with any of the other Lancasters until now.
Levi explained everything that transpired on his end. Eden and Mauve were not surprised about Allister’s death, as they too heard his eulogy over the intercom. However, that did not make it any easier for them to digest the news, especially upon hearing that Levi was there to witness the whole bloody tragedy. “I’m so sorry. That must have been horribly traumatizing.” Eden soothed Levi, reaching out and touching his hand gently. To him, she was an empath, feeling his suppressed disgust and sorrow. He could swear it put a damper on her golden aura, making him feel guilty to have even shared such a negative experience with her.
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