The legacy of the dark blood

Chapter 62

The runaway girl

After the dismissal of Mr. Holzmann's wife and daughter, Dr. Günther was left alone in his office with David Rowland and his family. All three looked at him with faces of consternation at the uncertainty of the fate that awaited them; Günther kept his composure, holding his smoking cigar in one of his hands, which he smoked a few more times until he addressed Rowland.

"Well, Mr. Rowland, it seems I finally have the honor of meeting you in person," David could smell the strong odor of nicotine emanating from Günther's mouth, largely covered by his moustache, he was in no mental condition to answer, "We thank you heartily for your cooperation in delivering the statue of Anneliese. Had you not brought other mercenaries into Reich der Finsternis, perhaps we could have been spared your visit to the courthouse" Günther momentarily turned his back on David by lighting a human skin lamp; he knew this, but chose to ignore the repulsive ornament "We are convinced that you have information about the location of the queen's goblet, the last of the four relics to complete the ritual".

"NO DADDY!" shouted Kimberly in desperation, "Don't say anything to this son of a bitch!" the soldiers struggled once again with the women".

"Ah, but what rudeness!" complained Günther, frowning and drawing his Luger pistol, "I'm not willing to tolerate that kind of vocabulary in my quarters, Miss Rowland".

"Come on Kimberly, calm down," pleaded her mother in an attempt to reassure her daughter.

"That's better," said Günther returning to David, "we have conducted a rigorous investigation into Anneliese Holzmann and her relics. We have realized that the information concerning their locations has been cut from the books and we are certain that Mr. Warren and his association has been responsible for this," he paused to review some of his paintings, his back to the prisoners, "As I mentioned to you in my letter, Mr. Mark Warren is being held here in the concentration camp. By order of Beatrix Grünewald and Friedrich Holzmann, his execution has been left to the end. This was a happy twist of fate, because thanks to them I was able to talk to him and learn that you had this information in your possession".

"A German police officer forced me to give him that information," Günther did not react, he continued smoking calmly and extended his arm to give an order to the white-masked soldiers, who began to strangle the women, "But I know!" he shouted so that his family would not have to suffer the consequences and continued more calmly.

"Fucking bastards!" Kimberly complained, catching her breath and sobbing. Günther's displeased reaction was not long in coming.

"Mr. Rowland," Doctor Günther raised the hand in which he was holding the smoking cigar, "I recommend that you control your daughter, otherwise I will find myself in the painful necessity of taking you to decipher one of the greatest mysteries that have ever troubled us in the study of metaphysics," he walked towards the human skin lamp and turned it off, "If you understand well what I mean, and this considering that particularly today I'm in a good mood".

"Honey, please," his mother pleaded almost in tears, "let your father sort this out".

David took the floor again once the soldiers stopped torturing his family.

"According to the writings" David found it difficult to organize his ideas "at the top of the tower of the temple that Anneliese Holzmann built, every night a white figure shines in the moonlight. We believe it is the queen's goblet, or rather the gem that has been embedded in it, we had not located the temple" Günther pursed his lips and raised one of his eyebrows with a cold and calm expression.

"All the relics have gems, three of them are," Dr. Günther mused, "I suppose the information is accurate, for the information about a white glow has raised numerous beliefs among the villagers for generations," he turned to David again with a serious expression as cigar smoke emanated from his mouth, "Well, Mr. Rowland, I presume your stay with us is at an end".

"Will you let us go," asked David, smiling. Dr. Günther made no gesture.

"Yes, indeed, you no longer have any commitment in this place," David's family was also happy to hear the news, "We were thinking of putting you through the transfer ritual, but after analyzing the situation in detail, I have concluded that characters with a history like yours are not welcome in Reich der Finsternis and therefore, you must leave this country immediately," David felt like crying with joy, "and as you know, whoever enters these lands has only one way out".

As he finished his speech, Günther snapped his fingers. The soldiers holding Kimberly and Denise took their combat knives and slit the throats of both of them, pushing their bodies to the ground.

"NO!" cried David as he contemplated the horrific scene of his family being slaughtered. Dr. Günther raised his Luger pistol and fired two shots at the man making him fall dead on the spot.

"Take them to the morgue, we'll find some use for their bodies there," he ordered his soldiers, "bring someone to do the cleanup. If you need me, I'll be in the rest room".

Anika could not hold back her tears as she watched the bodies of the Rowland family being transported to the morgue while Dr. Günther left his office through one of the three doors leading to it. The girl knew there was nothing she could do now; she could feel the aura of the soldiers moving down the corridor, where the duchess had previously been. Behind the other door, she could sense a larger evil aura stationed in one place; she had to make a decision.

She remembered that the soldiers could somehow see it, something she had not experienced in the rest of the creatures roaming Reich der Finsternis. She ran into the other room, fleeing from Dr. Günther and praying that the horrible being dwelling there would not be able to determine her presence. Behind the door she found an autopsy center illuminated by white lights; stretchers were strewn about the area with human bodies whose limbs and organs were being removed to be replaced by beast grafts, their bellies open and exposed to the air.

The creature from which the dark aura emanated was just under a meter away from her, an anthropomorphic figure with severe physical malformations, a stocky, bulky build similar to a forest giant and acid burns over most of its body. The monster carried a butcher's axe and roared with a shuddering echo as it heard the door closing, it looked towards where Anika was, the repulsive being had only its right eye and the lower part of its face was covered by a mask.

The being ignored Anika in its entirety and stuck its axe into the stretcher as if slicing the flesh of some bovine; it then lifted a bleeding human arm from the bed and placed it on a green plastic bucket with other human remains. The girl felt shivers, but a part of her was used to witnessing such nefarious events. The monster grabbed the bucket and dumped the human remains down a metal chute at the side of the room, then shook its hands and retreated.

Anika let out a sigh of relief, the monster couldn't see her. She hoped that she could use her ability to flee the concentration camp; before she could continue her quest for freedom, a hand surprised her from behind and grabbed her roughly; it was Dr. Günther. Anika could not restrain a jump of astonishment, she was sure she had seen the man walking towards the break room on the other side of the office, no one had entered the room after her.

"You naive girl, did you really think I didn't notice that you've been spying on us all this time" Mr. Günther looked annoyed, he grabbed Anika's arm tightly as she struggled to get away.

"Let go of me!" the child pleaded, trying to break free.

"I have the power to trick your feeble mind, everyone sees reality the way I perceive it," the man pulled her by the arm to transport her to another area. Anika looked around in search of some object that could be useful to her, she found a razor on one of the trolleys next to the dissection center beds, with difficulty she managed to extend her arm and reach it to bury it in Dr. Günther's wrist. The man barely winced from the pain, grabbing his arm with his other hand to extract the embedded knife, his recovery had been swift. She took advantage of her captor's distraction to run towards the only escape route she could identify, the duct through which the deformed being had thrown the human remains.

Anika slid down the dark chute taking advantage of its size to end up in a new chamber from which emanated a sickening stench of fresh corpses. Hundreds of arms, legs or other human remains lay under a hellish shadow.