The Grounds Keeper

Chapter 15 In The Jaws Of A Behemoth

Tatzurie combed her long hair In-front of the mirror gazing off almost in a daze. She felt like this every 24th of February. A day that was in theory supposed to be a time of happiness for most people. She was 20 today. This was the big day that you were meant to party and drink and live. A day filled with friends, family, laughter and embarrassment. To get tipsy and overeat, to be swung in the dance and have people sing awkwardly as you cut a cake. But instead, here she was all alone. And what was worse, was the heartbreaking knowledge that she had destroyed her family. This day every year since she was 14 had filled her with dread and sadness as she prepared for the ritual that would keep her only living relative sealed away for another year.

"Mrs Tendo, we are ready whenever you are prepared, take your time, we can all wait" said the vice dean as she entered the room, Tatzurie rose to her feet with a half-hearted smile and bowed "of course professor" as they left the room Tatzurie's heart sank at the sight of the place they were entering. Behemoth was the prison for supernatural creatures and criminals with any kind of magical prowess. It wasn't simply a building, it was a living creature, a structure of impossible proportions and design, towers and columns protruded at strange angles and even wrapped about one another in comical spiral shapes, the doors changed size every few seconds as you looked at them, the whole building simply evolved and shifted nonstop.

But the entrance never changed, the grim aspect of a serpentine creature with immensely sharp fangs and several eyes watched and moved to follow you as you walked forward to the gateway. One could physically feel the hot breath of the creature as the doors opened to allow entry. It was the prison in which they locked the worst criminals, how could you ever hope to escape a place that constantly changed and moved, any opening would lead to a dead end, a room would shrink to the size of a table and expand to the size of a football field on a whim, it was simply impossible to escape and even if you did your mind would be completely broken.

Time in this place was strange too, out of one open window you might find a view of a beautiful field of flowers in the sunset, one could almost smell their perfume, only to step out and fall into a deep well of water and just as you feel like you may drown, fall through the bottomless waters and return to your room where the stars and moon are shining above you, it was torture to your senses and left its prisoners incapable of functioning in regular time and space. Only under the will of the single jail master would the great creature of behemoth react in any predictable manner.

Professor Mavardo was the great navigator, and was the only one that could summon a room into any type of stable existence along with its prisoner. It should be said that only the worst of the worst are subjected to such harsh incarceration, other lesser transgressors were simply placed into the timeout space. A dimension of simple boredom which risked very little to no real harm to one's mental or physical state.

When they walked in Tatzurie began to wring her sweaty hands together at the sight of every professor in the entire academy in a single room. Behemoth had shifted and taken the shape of a ballroom with a tall crystal chandelier and a single comfortable barber's chair with a tall crystal mirror In front of it. A bright-eyed young girl with Rosy cheeks in her pretty pale face ran up to Tatzurie with her arms out wide as if for an embrace "My dear" she said as she ran the back of her clawed perfectly pedicured hand against Tatzurie's cheek brushing off a strand of long dark hair. "you've done so well this year, your hair is simply stunning"

Tatzuire fought her emotions down and her face remained calm and composed as she replied "thank you lady Vanetta" the young lady grasped her chin playfully and pouted putting on a condescending voice "oh you don't have to be so formal, just call me your highness" she let go, clapped her hands together and grinned revealing her sharp fanged teeth in all their grim brilliance. "Come along my dear and sit. I'll give you a stunning Chignon."