---- Blood trails marked her path, and claw marks scarred the stone walls.

Her growls reverberated through the halls, an unending reminder of the monster they had created.

They couldn't kill it, bring her out or restrain her.

So they sealed the entire basement and turned it into a crypt.

The entry was sealed with steel doors five inches thick, welded shut from the outside.

Entry was banned into the lowest floor and the plan was to keep it locked till the beast perished without food and water.

For months, she roared and thrashed, her monstrous strength threatening to break free.

The walls of the castle shook under her fury, but the crypt held.

Years passed and the crypt or rather the entire basement became a forbidden place.

No one dared venture near it, let alone talk about it, Gerald had long since convinced himself that she had.

perished, starved and forgotten in the darkness Yet late at night, when the castle was still, her ---- growls would echo faintly through the stone halls.

Some claimed it was the wind; others whispered it was her ghost.

But those few who had been there that night, those who had seen her, believed she could still be there.

She who had become something beyond comprehensionneither human nor beast, neither dead nor truly alive.

And in her isolation, they believed she may be waiting.

Waiting for the day her prison would fail.

Waiting for the chance to finish what had begun twenty two years ago.

Present...

Gerald shook himself out of the memory, his breaths were suddenly laboured.

He turned back to the man, his expression colder than ever.

That...

will not happen again, he said firmly, though his own voice betrayed.

---- growls would echo faintly through the stone halls.

Some claimed it was the wind; others whispered it was her ghost.

But those few who had been there that night, those who had seen her, believed she could still be there.

She who had become something beyond comprehensionneither human nor beast, neither dead nor truly alive.

And in her isolation, they believed she may be waiting.

Waiting for the day her prison would fail.

Waiting for the chance to finish what had begun twenty two years ago.

Present...

Gerald shook himself out of the memory, his breaths were suddenly laboured.

He turned back to the man, his expression colder than ever.

That...

will not happen again, he said firmly, though his own voice betrayed.

---- But, sir Enough! Gerald barked.

This serum is flawless These subjects are werewolves and crets, controllable.

Siren 999 was a mistake, one I will not repeat.

Do you understand me? The man nodded quickly, but Gerald could see the fear in his eyes.noveldrama

The same fear that now gnawed at the edges of his own mind.

As Gerald lefi the lab, the faint sound of a growl reached his ears and he froze for a split second, his hand tightening on the doorframe and his steps seize.

It's an imagination, he muttered to himself.

When even he didnt believe it