We moved forward slowly, not in any rush.

Patience when danger was nearby, but hidden, was hard on the mind and spirit. I had experience with it, but I could still feel my heart beating harder, my blood pumping faster, and my breathing slowly speeding up. And nothing had even happened yet!

I despised having to hunt some unknown danger in the shadows!

Down the hallway we went, until we came to a wall where the hallway split to a hard right and hard left in a T-section. And lying on the floor facing us, partially slumped against the wall, was the answer to one of our many questions. A corpse of a poorly dressed man, blood pooling around him and still coating the wall above his head where he’d been standing when someone had shot him at point blank range.

Point blank range with a shotgun of all things from the looks of the mess.

“Well, that’s eye catching.” Wyatt muttered as we slowly, carefully gathered around the corpse.

“That is Billy Big-Ears.” Maggie stated firmly, though she still sounded confused. “A midlevel gangster from my neck of the woods.”

“He’s from Five Points?” I asked, my eyes roaming over everything they could as fast as possible. The silence and stillness in the hallway certainly helped motivate me to be quick and vigilant, if nothing else.

“Yes.” Maggie confirmed, eyeing his corpse with contempt. “One of the Blood Rabbits, as they’re called. A real little sneak and snitch. He also was a spy for Boss Tweed. No idea what the hell he’s doing here though. This is far from his territory.”

“Doesn’t look like there was much of a struggle.” Lilly pointed out, squatting down to look him over. “Looks more like surprise than anything else. But how do you surprise someone with a shotgun to the chest?”

“Why leave the body here, in a hallway where people would literally trip over it?” I muttered, looking over everything again and again, feeling like some obvious things were going right over my head.

“This feels like a set up.” Wyatt muttered, looking around us. “There’s still no one here, other than us, and we’re here by accident. A gun shot, a corpse left to be found, lots of blood…this feels staged.”

“A trap?” Ella asked warily, looking behind us with my sword at the ready.

“Too many little things that don’t work for a trap.” I shook my head, examining him carefully, before I noticed a strange repeating pattern near his blood. A circular ring of blood, about the width of my finger, leaving the pool of blood to the right hallway.

Then another.

And another.

And then more, as I slowly saw a faint trail of circles made of blood.

“Looks like we have a trail.” I said, pointing to the rings of blood leading off down the hallway.

“Trail, or trap?” Wyatt asked, eyeing the little trail of blood with a frown.

“Probably a trail.” Lilly answered quietly, looking at the scene before us. “We got here because we got lost. We’re unexpected. Whoever did this left in a hurry. That blood is very fresh, and the gunshot we heard happened only a minute ago.”

“If this is staged, who is the audience supposed to be?” Ella wondered with a small frown of her own.

“We have too many questions, and not enough answers.” I stated darkly. “I say we follow the trail as far as we can. We’ll be able to find out more if we do.”

The others nodded, and so we started moving forward slowly and carefully as we followed the little rings of blood in the ground.

We were heading for the backstage areas where the orchestra’s would normally be holed up, preparing for going out onto the stage. As we turned the corner down the hallway towards the two smaller stage orchestra recital rooms, a side door suddenly opened, and several people in strange, flowing robes came walking out. When they saw us they stopped dead in their tracks, and we stopped in ours.

Only some had their hoods up, which let us see the faces of some. A few looked like normal humans, but a few decidedly did not. It was clear at a glance that some were human, but others were twisted mutants.

Some combination of human and either lizard or amphibian.

Oh great. I found myself thinking as we all took one another in. This never ends well.

We eyed one another for a second that felt like an eternity, and I saw their eyes go from shock to a look I’d seen so often in my short life. The look of a predator getting ready to kill, and I knew what was coming.

To bad for them, we were predators too.

“Hit ‘em!” I yelled, and just like that, the fight was on!

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Wyatt and I opened fire, dropping two each with loud, ringing gunshots before they charged us, heedless of their safety. They pulled various blades out, with a smart one pulling a pistol out. I focused on him and hammered the rest of my shots into him, dropping him in a hurry. After that, I quickly pulled out my Bowie knife and started swiping and dodging as best I could without bumping into everyone else in the crowded hallway.

Wyatt dodged a thrust, pulled the robed wearing weirdo forward and shot him point blank in the head. This exposed his back to another knife wielding lunatic, but Princess Ella stepped in with my sword and with a few quick swipes, sliced up the mans arm and throat. She looked a bit shocked and shaky as the man fell to the ground, gurgling as he spewed blood everywhere. I slipped in and stabbed another man who was trying to take advantage of that moment of shocked hesitation, and dropped him on top of the man Ella had just cut down.

A hiss was followed by a scream on the other side of the hallway, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Maggie ripping out throats with a terrifying practiced ease with her claws as she effortlessly dodged knife thrusts at her. It was like she was dancing among the robed wearing crowds, her dress swirling as she used her claws to slice and rip up arms and throats. She hadn’t even drawn her own pistol or knife on her belt.

Not that she needed to, from the looks of it.

Her sharp toothed grin just made her look even more terrifying, even though a part of me actually found it exciting. Just a bit though. A very tiny part.

Wyatt moved to the side of us and pulled out his other pistol, dropping several more of the robed freaks, when suddenly a strange, glowing icicle arced over and landed in the middle of their group. There was a strange, muted explosion with some foggy looking gas, followed by a sudden sucking of the air, which started pulling everyone to the tiny little vortex!

Before anyone could do anything, we were then hammered with a sudden blast outward, knocking all of us to the ground.

Ouch. I thought as I quickly scrambled up with Wyatt, Maggie and Ella, ready for more of the desperate fight for our lives, only to see a truly bizarre sight. In front of us was a strange tableau of frozen men.

It seemed most were frozen in the midst of being hit by a blast, and were being held up from icicles that had formed around them. Several others had fallen and broken into pieces, or were half frozen, half thawed, but all clearly dead. By the looks of it, a freezing blast had exploded outward a good ten feet in every direction, which effectively wiped out the bulk of their little group.

Looking behind us, I saw Lilly standing there with her coppersmith pistol, breathing heavily and looking like she wanted to be sick.

“Nice shot.” I told her, my throat cracking a bit. The hallway was suddenly very cold, but the air was now so dry it was like I was back in the desert at high noon.

“Thanks.” She said, struggling to catch her breath. “You said you wanted something for a group.”

“I did, didn’t I?” I replied, chuckling.

“Well, that was fun.” Wyatt laughed. “I knew critics in the city were tough, but this is just ridiculous!”

It was a terrible joke, but we all started laughing at it all the same, just because of our hearts and nerves.

“Well done princess.” I nodded to Ella, who looked a strange combination of sick, flustered, shaky, and proud.

She opened and closed her mouth to speak several times, before she simply took a breath and nodded to me, regaining her composure by sheer will.

“Who are they?” She asked, once she had her voice back.

“No idea.” I shrugged as we all set about slowly examining them, each looking for clues.

“Other than Miss Lancaster and Miss Hell Cat, we’re all new here.” Wyatt pointed out, as he turned one of the bodies over with a look of disgust. “Boy these fellas look weird too. I’ve never seen frogmen before.”

“I’ve never seen half men, half whatever the hell.” I muttered, looking for pockets in the suit under the robes of a not-frozen corpse.

“Lovely weapon.” Ella nodded to Lilly. “Thank you for saving us.”

“Wonderful sword play.” Lilly nodded back, getting her own composure back as she began examining the bodies as well. “You moved like a natural.”

“There was lots of training with it,” Ella muttered, looking at the bodies with a surprising lack of fear or disgust. “Being a princess isn’t all about balls and tea parties.”

“These robes look kind of familiar.” I muttered, tuning out the conversation. My mind was going elsewhere.

“I was hoping I was seeing things.” Lilly muttered darkly before she came over to stand next to me. “The snatch-worm vault? From Baker’s Acres?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” I muttered darkly, not liking the connection, or even the similarity. “But their’s are all different from one another. It’s like they’re all from different groups.”

“I’d say more like three distinct groups.” Ella remarked, looking over the group with a critical eye. “There are three different design styles in this group. That either stands for difference in ranks or status in their group, or as three different groups.”

“Great.” I groaned.

“Hello!” Maggie laughed coldly, standing over one robed figure. “This one is still alive. Though not for long I’d wager.”

“Curse you, you half breed harlot!” He groaned from the floor at her feet.

“And spunky too!” Maggie chuckled as we all hurried over.

“Who are you?” Wyatt snapped, holding his pistol on the man. “Tell me and I’ll speed your passing along! Or get help, and maybe you’ll live a little longer. Dealers choice.”

“There is no death beyond the veil. The stars have given me their grand wisdom! I have seen glimpses of the world that is to come when the dead dreamer awakens and the tottering cities of man collapse!”

We all stared for a moment. What else was there for us to do? And a quick glance told me this man was not long for this world anyway, not with the blood loss from his injuries.

“You’re plan failed.” I prodded him, wondering if he would give us anything concrete to use. “So, say hi to your false gods for me as you die right here, right now, and stay dead.”

“Our plan is just beginning!” He spat back, glaring at me, his eyes feverish, intense, and obviously very insane. “We were just a part of the group! This whole building will be an offering to the Great Old Ones we serve! It’s already begun! There is no escape! Tonight we will transform the nature of this place, and all in it to better suit the pleasures of the Old Ones! We have already won!”

His ranting took the last of his strength, and he passed away as he babbled on about the victory of his little group. I did not like what I heard, and I could tell I wasn’t the only one.

“Well, shit.” Wyatt muttered darkly.

That about summed up all our thoughts precisely.

“Come on!” I cajoled, unwilling to bow down and give up. “This fight is not yet done. We’re still here! Besides, it’s not their petty little false gods that run the show. It’s God, and he alone has final say on how things play out. And I get the feeling he’s not calling it done yet. So come on, let’s pull back and report what the hell’s going on. Then decide what to do.”

“Sounds good brother.” Wyatt nodded, and we all quickly pulled back to report the bad news to Industrial Barons and the other legends.

I’m sure it was going to go over just great!