The plan was simple: get in, create a distraction, or at least keep Annia occupied using Evangelina, while the rest of us located the prison and rescued the kidnapped women—those redheads who had been locked away for years. Phase two was extraction: get them and ourselves onto the plane. It was supposed to be a fast, stealthy operation, avoiding any direct confrontation. However, we hadn't even been on Vandereck soil for an hour before everything went sideways.
Now Evangelina stood in the doorway, trembling and covered in blood, while Killian stared into the room, clutching his head in shock. The scream we'd heard had been a woman's. I was the last one to enter that room, certain I'd find Annia wounded—convinced they had fought—but she wasn't just wounded.
Her body lay on the floor, slumped against a piece of furniture, one arm twisted back at an unnatural angle. Annia's corpse had a jagged shard of a broken crystal glass embedded in her throat. Nearby, a syringe filled with liquid lay half-submerged in a literal sea of blood.
Killian shielded me with his body so I wouldn't have to see. Bruce grabbed Evangelina by the arm, pulled her inside, and slammed the door shut. He slapped her—a sharp crack to snap her out of it, to stop the shaking and force her to focus on this new nightmare.
"Calm down!" he hissed. "Or none of us are getting out of here alive!"
I rushed to her side, asking what had happened.
Evangelina's breath came in ragged gasps as she explained, her voice distant and hollow. "I don't know… she either knew our plan or had decided to take me right then and there. She opened a bottle, poured a glass, and offered it to me. But she wasn't calling me Evangelina or 'darling' anymore. She kept calling me 'Number Six.' She was laughing, telling me, 'Close your eyes, my Number Six. When you open them, I promise I'll give you the most special gift in the world.'"
She shuddered, the memory vivid. "I cheated. I peeked and saw her in the mirror. She pulled out that syringe and lunged at me, grabbing my arm. I fought back with the glass in my hand, and I screamed… She hit the floor, and the blood just started spraying like a fountain. Then… she stopped moving."
Bruce moved with cold efficiency. He grabbed Annia's phone and used the dead psychopath's face to unlock it; her eyes were still open, dull and staring at the floor. After scrolling through the device, he looked up at us.
"The last message is to someone named Big George. She wrote: 'Come to my room through the back. You'll find my Number Six asleep.' Big George replied: 'Understood. The others are finishing dinner now.'"
"Who the hell is Big George?" Lucius demanded.
I started to explain about the bodyguard, but I never got the chance. The back wall of Annia's room swung open, and that thing appeared.
We all recoiled. The man let out a roar like a wounded polar bear when he saw Annia's body on the floor. I had never seen anyone so massive; he had to be twice Lucius's weight and well over seven feet tall. He wore a black jumpsuit, his head completely bald, and his skin as white as a ghost. He looked to be about fifty-five.
Bruce leveled a threat. "It's three against one. We're here for the prisoners. You don't have to die too."
The giant pointed at Annia's body. His voice was deep, slow, and fractured with pure rage. "Which one of you did this to me? Which one of you broke Big George's heart?"
Killian realized in a heartbeat that there was no negotiating with this man. He would never surrender until he had avenged her. Killian lunged, delivering a rib-shattering blow that echoed like a whip crack. Just one. George didn't even flinch. He snatched Killian by the throat with a grip so powerful it looked like he could snap his neck with one hand.
Lucius rushed in to help, raining blows down on the giant. George dropped Killian to defend himself. I screamed as he grabbed Lucius and slammed him against the wall, raising a massive combat boot to crush his skull. But Killian tackled him just as Bruce delivered a brutal front kick to the giant's right leg. Something snapped. The bone fractured, and the beast went down.
It took several minutes of desperate, grueling struggle on the floor to finally pin him. Killian eventually choked him out using a hold similar to the one he had used on Bruce earlier.
While they tied him up and gagged him with whatever they could find in the room, Lucius investigated the secret passage. He returned moments later. "There's a staircase going up at the very end. Let's go. Leave George here."
Lucius led the way. We reached a heavy iron door that he had to heave open with every ounce of his strength. Beyond it was another small staircase, dimly lit by two flickering, ancient lights. Just a few steps… a few macabre steps, and we were inside.
The room was nearly pitch-black, flooded with the suffocating stench of bleach and industrial chemicals that burned my nose. I found a switch and flipped it. When the light flooded the room, they screamed.
Five women were there, reaching their pale arms out toward us through the bars of small iron cages. They were all dressed in red jumpsuits. Their arms were outstretched in desperate hope. Some sobbed, "Thank God!" while others pleaded, "Please, please don't leave us!"
"I'm Carmilla Morris," I told them, my heart breaking. "We're here for you. Tell me your names."
They started shouting all at once. "I'm Number Four!" "I'm Number Three!" "I'm One—"
"No, no," I interrupted. "What are your names?"
Almost in unison, they cried out their real identities.
"Justina." "I'm Martha." "Jenny." "Patrice." "My name is Marian Pierce."
Bruce approached the last girl. "I finally found you, Marian. Your parents sent me. Susan and Robert asked me to tell you how much they love you—that they never stopped looking, and they're waiting for you at home."
She wept, and honestly, we all did.
I found a set of keys in a drawer. We only had to unlock four of the cages; Killian ripped the bars off the fifth with his bare hands, his body shaking with fury at the injustice of it all. Evangelina and I hugged them, telling them there was a plane waiting and that they had to follow us right now.
But one of them asked, her voice trembling with terror, "Did you kill the three of them yet? Where are the others?"
"Who are 'the three'?" I asked desperately. "And what 'others' are you talking about?"
Marian Pierce's answer sent a chill down my spine. "The three monsters! Annia, Big George, and Mr. Vandereck. Please, tell me you killed them all!"
"Don't worry about them," Killian replied. "None of them will ever hurt you again. But what others? What do you mean?"
Marian looked at us in shock. "The other women. Mr. Vandereck's private collection. The ones kept under the Coliseum Hall. The ones Annia called the 'stepmothers.'"
We all exchanged a look of pure devastation. One of the women stepped toward Evangelina. "You must be the one in the dress. You're his wife. You're Number Six. That's what Annia called you. You were the special one. She always talked about you…"
When Evangelina didn't understand, the woman pointed to a larger cell at the back. Inside sat a grotesque mannequin wearing a wedding dress of the purest white.
Lucius muttered something about Mr. Vandereck that I couldn't quite catch. He pulled out his phone and looked at Killian, who gave him a sharp nod. With a gaze like cold steel, the eldest Longfield didn't hesitate for a second. He dialed a number.
"Is Vandereck still in the meeting with you?" he asked. "Good. Code Samael."
He hung up immediately after those two words and gave me a calm, silent look.
Bruce realized exactly what was happening. "That Samael code… I hope it's what I think it is. But for God's sake, make it look like the man took his own life over the tragedy of his twisted daughter. I don't want them finding a body riddled with bullets from a cold-blooded hit. A Longfield might never go to prison, but it'll be a different story for a Morris or a Bance."
Lucius leaned in and whispered something into Bruce's ear. Bruce gave him a firm handshake and patted his back, satisfied with the answer.
Killian found a cabinet with two handguns. He checked them, handed one to the detective, and kept the other. We began the trek back down the stairs.
We told the girls to keep their eyes closed as we passed through Annia's room so they wouldn't see the body. George was grunting through his gag, straining against his restraints, and the women shrieked just from hearing him. We calmed them down and ushered them into the adjoining room—the one that had been assigned to his "girlfriend."
Killian, Lucius, and I took the stairs to the top-floor hall. Evangelina stayed behind with Bruce, who stood guard over Marian Pierce and the others with his weapon drawn. When we reached the hall, we were met by four staff members and two guards. They immediately asked if we needed anything; some even tried to offer us drinks. Killian reached behind his back, gripping his gun, ready to start shooting as he positioned himself near the guards.
But Lucius took charge. "Everyone, clear out that way," he ordered with absolute authority. "We are waiting for Annia on urgent business. Move!"
To my amazement, no one questioned his command. They left immediately.
Standing in the Coliseum Hall, the three of us began scouring the arena for a secret entrance. At first, there seemed to be nothing. I searched everywhere until I touched one of the marble statues. I caught an unmistakable scent… a mix of bleach and chemicals, identical to the smell in Annia's macabre prison. Someone with hands stained by those chemicals had touched this artwork recently.
Killian tried to move it, but it wouldn't budge. Lucius realized it might rotate. He wrapped his arms around it and twisted it to the right. We heard a heavy click as a mechanism engaged. On the other side of the room, a heavy stone bar—bottles and all—slid to the left, revealing a staircase descending into God-knows-where.
We ran toward it together. Just before we started the descent, both men turned to me at the exact same time.
"Carmilla, I love you!" they blurted out.
They glared at each other for a split second, then both turned back to me, waiting for an answer.
I stepped into the deep darkness and looked back. "This isn't the time for nonsense. We have people to rescue."
I tried to sound like one of those badass action-movie heroines. But inside, girl… inside, I was absolutely melting for those two.