rr (ON HOLD)

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Kaina sat in the kitchen, not entirely sure what to do. Was this all part of the Count's plan? What should she do? Was there anything she could do? Why did she even run in the first place? There was no going back now. And then Kaina remembered how the Australian, the bloody Australian, was alive. She was nuts, nuts and scary. And Kaina feared her, in some ways more than she feared the Count.
The girl got up from her seat and went to the phone. She dialled in a number.
"C'mon, pick up," she muttered impatiently.
"What," came the angry voice of the receiver, "do you want? Who are you?"
"You'll scare Customer Service off," Kaina replied.
"Kaina? Is that you?"
"No, it's you pretending to be Kaina but you're secretly in a dream right now."
"Shut up. You need to get off the phone. He'll track you. K-"
"No, Lorelei," Kaina interrupted. "Tell him - tell him I'm coming."
"Will you bring Spectrum?" Lorelei's voice was sharp.
"This is between me, him and Redfort. Of course not. Snitches get stitches, after all. And besides, Spectrum wouldn't believe me anyhow; LB quite clearly doesn't trust me."
"Mmm. Is there anything else you want me to tell him?"
Kaina laughed.
"Shucks, you know me so well. Yeah, why not - tell him, if you really knew, then you'd know better. Trigger pointing to the head, there's no goin' back."
"That's weird as hell but okay."
"I owe you."
"You owe me more times than you can count."
Lorelei hung up. Kaina sighed and put on her hoodie. She unlocked the door and left the house. She shivered; it was late in the evening now, and freezing. Winter sucked, man.

Finally, Kaina arrived outside of the small cottage. She broke the door open and cautiously went through, a shotgun gripped in her hand. She explored the house and finally came across a slab of stone which looked right enough. She cut herself and let a small drop of blood fall onto the stone. It worked.
She hurriedly went down the stairs. There was a long winding passage.
"How long is this gonna take?"
As she began walking through it, she frowned. She felt like someone else was here. But they shouldn't be. She was counting on the Count's plan, which was counting on her counting on him counting on her, and no-one should be here.
Unless she'd been double-crossed?
"Hey?" she called. "Anybody here? Because I'll have you know I've been playing MM2 for a good three years and I have excellent shooting skills."
Where did that come from? she wondered. I don't know what MM2 is.
There was a clank from behind her. Kaina turned around but nothing was there.
"The fuck you playin' at I really don't know," she muttered. She carried on walking. But the girl still couldn't shrug off the feeling that someone else was there with her.
Too much Bram Stoker.

It was another three hours till Kaina finally reached the end of the passage. At the end there was a door, closed but not locked. Engraved on it were the words, "S.K".
Kaina slowly opened it and walked through. Then she rolled her eyes. It was a cave, a large cave. There was another passage, and she followed it.
Fortunately, it was quite short, only taking forty-five minutes to reach the end. Then she came across a large oak door; Kaina opened it rather hastily, because she swore she heard some sort of growl coming from not too far behind her. And then she whistled.
"Oh, you clever bastard," she said; the door opened into a large, old house, rather like a mansion. In a way, it seemed to be styled like Dracula's castle. Ironic.
"So," she called, as she entered one room, "where are you?"
The girl suddenly turned around as a gramophone began to play.
"It used to be
You brought out the best in me
Now it seems
You bring out the beast in me

I know how you’re operating
Only come around when you know that I need it
Cut out my heart and you leave me bleeding
You are the only one that brings out the demon."

Kaina went very, very pale. She recognised that song. But she couldn't remember from where.
"You have quite interesting taste in music, I must say."
The voice had came from behind her; she didn't turn round, though. Instead, she stayed where she was, her eyes fixed on the gramophone.
"I didn't start playing this."
"Neither did I. Ah, a mystery, then."
"Do you believe in ghosts?"
"Do you?"
Kaina grinded her teeth.
"Face me," the voice said.
"Rather not."
"Are you... frightened, perhaps? Are you a coward?"
Kaina almost, almost turned around but managed to stopped herself. He could keep taunting her, but she wouldn't give in.
"Don't play the fool," she said, and she was surprised to find her voice was icy cold and as cutting as iron. "Of course I'm afraid; only idiots fear nothing. But I'm no coward. So stop trying to make me believe otherwise."
"That doesn't sound like you," the Count replied, and she noticed there was a note of perplexion in his tone. "What's that speaking from?"
"I don't know," Kaina's voice was quieter now. "I don't even know who I am anymore. I don't know where my words are coming from."
"Let me help you."
Now this made her instantly whip around.
"I can't tell if you're taking the piss or not."
"That almost sounds like you."
"Oh, go find someone else to taunt," she snapped.
"That doesn't."
Kaina looked up at the tall, thin man and furrowed her brow. He was acting rather peculiar.
"You-" the girl stopped; the gramophone began playing something else,