THE CHAMBER OF HORRORS
The battle raged on with a terrible ferocity; at first it had only been Gunn, Lorne, Giles and Fred against a handful of the strange masked demons. Pure rage had fuelled the human men as they hurtled into the fray, hacking , slashing, swinging and pounding away with axe and cudgel.
Lorne looked fierce with his green skin and red eyes blazing, and battle cries interspersed with the high shrill notes filled the air as they fell from his lips were deafening. He swung mightily with the cudgel aiming for heads and bodies, smashing his way through to victory over more than his fair share of demons.
Gunn and Giles didn’t slack either and the bodies were starting to pile up as they made the most of the surprise attack. Soon enough though an alarm was raised as a clanging noise rose over them in panicked notes. Fred, busy firing single shots from the handgun was perched on high ground out of the way while she picked her targets with care and precision as Wesley had taught her.
That ability became invaluable when more of the demons came streaming in all four entrances in response to the alarm. Suddenly the four stalwart fighters were facing four to one instead of two to one and more kept on coming.
Fred picked up her pace and the handgun shot upwards slightly with each bullet blasted out, but she hit her target every time. Smoke choked the air, from the torches and gunfire. Blood was spattered everywhere as screams rent the air, followed by snarls and growls, the whine of bullets and the bang of the guns recoil, joined not the least of which by more high pitched wailing from Lorne as he fought.
If that wasn’t enough confusion more demons arrived, lead by Wesley and the battle became epic as they went at each other, some bare handed, ripping and tearing, gouging at the demons that had dared kidnapped them. Pink, yellow, spiked, horned, lipless, red eyes, black eyes, clawed and not, all types were figured here and all without exception- where pissed off.
Chaos reigned and Gunn, Giles and Wesley met at the centre and looked around them trying to assess how they were doing. So far, from the looks of the bodies strewn on the floor and over the already gored stone slabs, it looked about even. Then Cordelia burst into their midst, closely followed by Angel and they all stared in shock at the pair.
They were filthy, covered in black dirt and dried blood. “What the hell happened to you”? Asked Wesley as they he looked them over in astonishment, and then frowned when he got a good look at the utter disrepair of his shirt.
“This place happened- what did you think Wesley, this ain’t no spa” snapped Cordelia who then snatched up a sword of the ground, and with a look of pure fury on her dirty face, jumped in feet first, determined to get rid of the frustration that suffused her, brought on by the terror of the last few days.
Wesley watched her hack and slash away with mad abandon and then gave Angel a look with raised brows and got a “Don’t ask” back which he settled for and between them all they formed a formidable ring.
Gunn had gone to fetch Fred and now they all stood back to back with Fred crouched down and still squeezing the trigger. Cordelia had somehow managed to keep hold of the shotgun, as damned uncomfortable as that had been strapped to her back and now handed it over to a delighted Wesley. The smile that lit his face was almost boyish and she laughed instead of rolling her eyes, in this situation it was almost endearing.
They stayed together and when one ventured too far in the heat of battle, they soon found themselves brought back into the fold as the protective circle held.
Then as sometimes happened there was a moment of peace while each side retreated to lick wounds and stare at their opponents assessingly. The kidnapped demons congregated by the far wall, opposite the humans, in an uneasy alliance given their respective breeds were more often than not at war with one another anyway.
The demons of this place huddled next to the entrance through which most of them had arrived, likely leading to living quarters. They were leaderless and still reeling from the events of the last day, from what had started out as normal to this utter destruction of their home and way of life.
Both sets of demons finished eyeballing each other and settled their gaze on the humans in their midst. Humans, demon and vampire that is. Some of them knew about the vampire with a soul and some didn’t but all were wary of this peculiar bunch of … comrades, friends, and warriors?
The humans took measured breaths and their eyes were watchful for any move to resume the battle, Giles and Wesley side by side, one with a bloodied axe and one with a shotgun levelled and primed. Nobody spoke or moved, just watched and waited. Cordelia stood over Fred who held the handgun loosely but ready with another full clip of bullets.
Angel stood a little in front of the two women and his body was taut in expectation of more fighting as dark eyes flickered from one demon to the next. Lorne moved a little from side to side on the balls of his feet, red eyes still blazing as he struggled to come down from the unusual high that was bloodlust, a new experience for him.
The stand-off remained in place and was broken only by the slow careful advance of one of the demons who reached up to remove its mask to speak to them.
The black eyes and pale spine ridged face looked fearful and very unhappy at being voted as spokesperson, it swallowed hard and maintained a good distance from the humans and an even further distance from the other group of mixed demons.
“What will it take for you to leave us in peace”? It asked in an uncertain voice.
As ever Cordelia was the first to find her voice, “Leave you in peace? Hello!” she looked at Angel and Wesley and then jerked her head at them, “You kidnapped them, we just came to get them back. So get you facts straight, we didn’t attack you first”.
The demon shrugged uncomfortably, “That matters not- we just want you to leave”.
Cordelia had heard enough “Doesn’t matter? Are you for real? I think those guys over there might have something to say about that”. She wasn’t wrong, there were very definite renewed rumblings from the mixed breeds.
“I’ll tell you what it will take,” said Angel stepping forward, not wanting another unnecessary battle when it could be avoided, even if Cordelia was still feeling the need to pummel. “We all leave here, everyone of us, and you never return to our world again, EVER”.
The grumblings from the mixed breeds increased so he swung on them and stalked forward with his face thunderous. They held their ground but stopped speaking.
“I don’t give a shit what your problem is, or if you stay here to slug it out, but I’m getting my people out of here” he growled, the rumble was quiet but full of menace nevertheless.
He turned his head slowly to face the nervous spokesman again and his eyes were dark glittering slits of black ringed with topaz lights. “You’ve had your fun, and while I’d love nothing more than to rip your hearts out and feed them to you” he looked at both groups of demons when he said that, “I won’t, this time, but get this…”
He walked with precisely measured steps until he was looking directly into the demon spokesman’s face, “Humans are off the menu, is that clear”? The fact that he’d vamped out was clear enough evidence that this display of calm was exactly that, a display. Underneath it was a maelstrom of fury that he could and would tap into at a moments notice.
The demon nodded at that gritted demand and backed away. Angel looked at Cordelia, who out of all of them was still looking angry enough to chew nails. “We’re done here” he told her, his voice hard and charged with meaningful warnings about letting it go.
After a moment where hazel clashed with topaz, she sighed gustily and shrugging with studied indifference, nodded her head even while her eyes still simmered with hot emotion.
The need for revenge for what she’d been put through was still strong and it went against the grain to let them get away with it. Her blood was up and a large part of her wanted to finish this. Kill them all and tear down this place but she knew that wasn’t possible and she even understood Angel’s reasoning, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.
