Masque of the Inquisition

Chapter 1

As I pass down the streets its as if nothing has changed, the Inquisition wasn't going on and all of the passersby weren't in danger. My recruits and I knew that wasn't the case, it was war, we were on a mission and this path I'd walked many times before was no longer relaxing. Hundreds of prisoners, whether innocent or not were to be executed soon enough. So, assembling some troops, our mission was to take back the prison.

It wasn't even really a prison, not originally. It used to be a castle, belonging to the Prospero bloodline, unfortunately it had been abandoned long ago. Folklore had spun around the gloomy place for decades, blurring the lines between fact and fiction. It was said there was a massacre there by the Masque of the Red Death, but there was no evidence to support it. Just grandparents and parents passing along tales to the children to scare them enough to keep the children away from dangerous places.

When the Inquisition came along, they took it over and began using it to store their 'prisoners' who's only crimes were their religion. And while maybe that's something that's happened before, a human being should have a right to worship how they'd want. It was getting out of hand the 'crimes' they were accused of, sentenced for, executed for. Accusations of murders that hadn't even happened, theft that wasn't able to be proven, the list goes on and on of absolutely ridiculous crimes that had no basis.

Before we departed Paris for our takeover mission, we sent ahead Detective Dupin, a trusted official who did a little digging into some of the crimes that were committed. He found no evidence of over two-thirds of the cases brought against the arrested. There were a few names that came up with results, but still not enough evidence to convict anyone and sentence them to death. That wasn't going to stop the Inquisition. Reason didn't matter, not with how they worked, how they tortured people.

Torture, was that the right word? No one knew what went on there as no one who entered had left alive. They hadn't exactly left dead either. No one had left that had been seen.

As one of the troops questioned the safety of the mission, I waved him off, reassuring him in a hushed tone, "Nous allons bien, croyez-moi. Nous devons faire ce qui est juste." He didn't particularly seem to buy my confidence, and if I was honest I didn't buy it either. There was no guarantee that we would make it out of this alive, there was no guarantee that we would even be able to get into the old castle. We approached anyway, now being just far enough away to hide from any watchmen that might alert others.

Though we saw no one in view that didn't mean we were safe, we had to approach with caution from here on in. I motioned for the back of the troops to take the front and get us closer. They were slimmer and could pass off as animals rushing through the trees. We would follow suit, gradually growing closer until we could swoop in and attack. Now that we were close, all we could do was wait for nightfall.