The Crucivire

Chapter Nine: The Crucivire

Six years ago.

"Ever hear of the Cross Killer?"

Alice sat in a classroom, waiting for the professor to arrive as he wished the other students would stop talking so she could review the textbooks in front of her. She'd decided to become a police officer, specifically a police detective. If Alice got a two-year associate's degree in criminal justice, she could apply for the police academy and become an officer by the time she turned nineteen. Alice's time at Saint Vivia University was very straightforward for her. Go to class, study, and avoid pointless distractions like the conversation going on a few seats away. Their conversation had begun with alligators in the sewers of New York, gone over Bloody Mary, and had now settled on this Cross Killer.

"No," said one of the other students. "What is it?"

"The Cross Killer is this guy covered in cross tattoos. They say he's this religious fanatic who murders nonbelievers by impaling them with a sharpened wooden cross. The story goes that he was an altar boy at a church and the congregation he served died in a fire someone started. He was running late and found everyone dead. This drove him insane, and he found the arsonist, impaling him with a wooden cross he'd sharpened. Then he got cross tattoos all over his body and set out to kill nonbelievers with that same wooden cross."

"Are you sure? I thought he was supposed to use a sword."

"I've heard versions where he burns people with acid."

As they argued the various versions of the story, Alice decided to get up and walk to a seat on the other side of the classroom. For obvious reasons, the subject of psycho murderers was one that Alice didn't particularly care for. It dredged up bad memories from her. As she sat down again, Alice did her best to suppress those memories.

She didn't want to start crying in class, after all.

###

Present Day.

Alice sat in a wheelchair as a nurse pushed her through the white walls of the facility. She still had bandages on her cheek and her neck and wore a hospital gown. Agents Thompson and Walker walked in front of her as men in pitch black military style uniforms patrolled the hallways. This area seemed to be a medical wing, with doctors and nurses walking by as they passed more hospital rooms. Occasionally, Alice would catch a glimpse of medical equipment like a CAT scanner or an X-Ray machine as someone left a room. If Alice didn't know any better, she'd have thought this was just a regular hospital, apart from the black clad soldiers.

As they wheeled her through the facility, a few things occurred to Alice. One, none of the rooms, not even the hospital room she'd been in, had any windows, which she found strange. The second thing she realized, as she thought back to this agent Phoenix, was that she'd heard a story about a man covered in cross tattoos. It was an urban legend that came up every once in a while. Alice had never given it much thought, and the idea that this person was real and could be her brother absolutely floored her. She figured the stuff about him being a religious fanatic was probably just misinformation. Maybe it was just easier to believe that than believe vampires existed, but hopefully, she'd get some answers soon.

They were taking her to speak with this Agent Phoenix, after all.

Soon they reached an elevator and rode it to the floor just below the top floor. At least, it was the second to top button on the panel. Alice noticed something odd about the buttons, and at that moment, something occurred to her.

"This facility is underground, isn't it?"

"All except the first floor," admitted Agent Thompson. "How'd you guess?"