Lethal Beauty

XXIII - Mutually-Assured Destruction

An elk was sailing peacefully at the Gota River in mid-afternoon, captained by a man in a thick goatee and beard named Theo. As he slowly guided the boat up to a relaxing trip along the river to the beautiful scenery in Trollhättan, they noticed that the sky was getting dark, so they decided to head up to their docking station to warm their bellies and take a rest. However, as they neared the dock, Theo felt the engine slowing down.

THUD.

One of the crew yelped as they heard a loud thump coming from the rear of the boat. As a captain, Theo quickly determined that their boat must've hit something and that something was caught in the propeller. This wasn't something unusual on a river near a city, some areas have garbage bags and other shit floating. They waited until they were on the dock to check what was caught, not wanting to further harm the elk.

Theo called a slim guy with sideburns wearing a jumper. "Hej Björn! Kan du kolla motorn?" [Hey, Bjorn! Can you check the engine?]

"Huh?"

"Jag sa, kan du kolla motorn? Något måste ha fastnat i propellern!" [I said, can you check the engine? Something must've caught in the propeller!]

Both Captain Theo and the engineer named Bjorn went down to check the propeller as soon as they got to the dock. They knew that whatever was caught had to be untangled fast to not cause further damage to the boat's engine. They were expecting to see a seaweed or perhaps a reef, but both stopped dead in their tracks at the unusual thing that the propeller had caught.

At first, they couldn't tell what it was, but they were both grossed out. They couldn't even pinpoint where the material was made. It was almost like leather but not as hard, not to mention that it was grossly pale. As Captain Theo stared at it long and hard, he noticed an odd, lumpy part sticking out of it, with a small hoop of metal attached to it. Suddenly, a horrifying realization came over him and the engineer Bjorn when they saw that it was an earring, attached to an ear. Soon, they discovered that they were staring at a lump of human skin...

⛧☾༺♰༻☽⛧

"Your brother is late again," Raviel folded his arms as he stood in front of Dike Laiho, who went to drop Iris at the Gracebourne Manor.

Dike was calm, he was used to the character of this Elder and he also didn't want to fight. "This is why I'm here and trying to explain that it is my fault why my brother was late."

Gavril appeared and waved his hand in a flourish. "It's all right, no big deal! I didn't even think your brother would be joining us today." Turning to Iris with his wide, kindhearted smile, he explained, "They are already inside. It was supposed to be by pair, but you may go solo---"

"Where is Abel?" Iris wasn't the least bit interested in pairing up with anyone and only came to see Abel. No one else.

The chairman looked bemused but already expected this response from the young Elder. "He's already inside. I think he was paired up with Sven."

Sven, huh? Iris recalled the solitary vampire who was also acquainted with Lixue. He had seen him beside Abel a couple of times and he was pretty harmless. "I'll go in," he declared and walked briskly, nodding to his brother.

Dike watched his younger brother with a weary expression before leaving in a black Cadillac with Ulrik. But before Iris could push the door of the manor open, a hysterical Sven came out, blood gushed from a deep abrasion on his neck. Iris stepped back, evidently shocked.

"Help! Abel...he...something attacked us!"

The professors gasped. Not only was their human might be in grave danger, but the other students were still inside the manor.