Rise of the Fallen Princess (Ahmanet - The Mummy)

Chapter 16 - A Possible Future

After the incident in the containment center, Doctor Jekyll remained to restore some order in his office. Finishing gathering a pile of files which he put back in order in a drawer, he remained haunted by his confrontation between his evil side Mr. Hyde and Princess Ahmanet. While he was at her mercy, she decided to spare him at the request of the young man Mathias. Yet, with all her power, all this evil inside her, nothing could hold her back. However, Mathias, a simple human, had succeeded this just by talking to her. Jekyll couldn't understand this. Was it because Mathias had become her setepai, her chosen one? Did he have any influence on her? Could he really make her change?

Jekyll still doubted this theory, having witnessed and fought evil in many forms all his life, he knew that relying on a simple theory in such an area was not the solution. He needed more proof than that.

Injecting his serum again into his hand, the doctor breathed for a few moments, still feeling the somewhat painful and harmful effects of his last "attack" but knew that it would fade with time. Agent Carson then came up to him.

_"Any news?" Jekyll asked.

_"Our agents continue to scour the sewer system and search throughout the city." Carson replied. "No matter where they are, it won't be long before we find them."

_"Good." added Jekyll. "However, I want them alive, is that clear?"

**********

Meanwhile, in the secret crypt of the Paris catacombs, a certain calm, still imbued with a slight palpable tension, had settled. Mathias, who had settled in and sat in a corner of the room near a fire to warm himself, knew that he was the source of this still present distrust. Not wanting to cause trouble, he kept silent and didn't make something. He nevertheless observed the comings and goings of the other monsters, these outcasts forced to live here to escape this other, much more terrible monster which was called human ignorance.

The fish-man was no longer visible, having returned to take refuge in the depths of the small murky waterhole at the bottom of the crypt. The Gothic vampire sometimes cast hostile glances towards Mathias but remained at a distance, content to wait, sitting high up on an old stone pedestal on which there used to be the statue of a gargoyle. The man covered in wrappings seemed to be busy preparing a meal on another fire, in a steaming pot, and the girl with the stitched limbs stayed with him, watching him and seemed to be amused when the man tried to teach her how to cook. If the man with the bandages spoke like an ordinary human, the young girl seemed incapable of uttering anything other than simple words, expressing herself most of the time through moans or grunts. Mathias then saw Lawrence, the werewolf, coming to him.

_"Thank you." Mathias then said to him. "Thank you for wanting to stop them from hurting me."

_"Oh, with princess Ahmanet at your side, I didn't worry." Lawrence replied with a smirk. "And then, you know, my friends are not evil. They have just seen and suffered human cruelty too often."

_"And who could blame them..." then breathed Mathias, understanding this point of view, he who in a sense, although being a human, had always felt apart and had often been rejected.

Lawrence looked at Mathias briefly, detecting sincerity in his voice. Then, he first pointed to the female vampire to tell her story.

_"Marya Zaleska. Born in the middle of the 19th century in Transylvania. She is the only daughter of a vampire count, Dracula, who himself reigned over a large line of vampires posing as a prestigious and noble aristocratic family. But a day, a young cleric named Jonathan Harker discovered the true nature of this family and revealed it to the church. Despite all his power, Count Dracula was defeated by this same Jonathan Harker and all the vampires were thus massacred without any mercy Only Marya managed to escape and survive the extermination of her lineage and since then she has lived in exile, with the constant fear of being unmasked. And little by little, her fear of humans mutated into a deep hatred for them."