The Witch's Hunt

More giggles. "If I wanted your blood, it would already be mine."

"I see," he replied. "So what happens now? Is there, I dunno, a tie breaker?"

Her eyes filled with more amusement. "Quite eager, aren't you?" She turned to face the others now, reminding Luke of their presence. He turned as well, finding their own eyes to be anxious and confused. He suddenly remembered his cock was still hanging free of his pants and hastened to put it away.

The vampire continued. "Lucky for you, I'm feeling quite generous this evening. Very few are up to the challenge of satisfying my hunger." Before Luke could reply, she waved for one of her servants to come forward. He scurried over willingly.

"Open wide," she commanded. The creature obeyed without hesitation. The shriek that followed filled the entire chamber, forcing Luke to shut his eyes. When they open once more, the creature had scurried off to mend his wounds, the long ivory fang held between her slender fingers in the flickering light. She cleaned the blood with the sleeve of her dress before handing it gently to Luke. It felt so fragile in his palm.

"I'm not sure what sort of game you've found yourself in," said the vampire, "but this should suffice for your little scavenger hunt."

Luke nodded once more, eyes filled with appreciation. "Thanks."

She waved him away. "Now, take your friends and go from this place, before I change my mind. And if I were you, I'd be a bit more careful venturing into places you're not familiar with. My world is full of danger. It's not the sort of place to wander about aimlessly."

"I'll keep that in mind," Luke said with a smile. He turned to leave, but remembered something. "I still don't know your name?"

She returned the smile. "I'm afraid a tie isn't good enough for that privilege. Now, go."

"Come on Luke, we got what we came for, let's get out of here," Kate urged, reminding him of their lack of time.

"It's going to take a while to get back through this maze, even with your help," said Edward, always mindful of the clock.

Movement caught Luke's eye, and he turned to find his blood-sucking lover waving her hand through the air. At first he took it as a final warning to leave, but the sound of grinding metal and thunder brought his attention back to the maze. The shelves were moving of their own accord, the wheels turning with unseen hands as the walls rearranged themselves before their eyes. In just a few seconds the maze was parted into neat and orderly rows once more, the path to the staircase straight ahead and unimpeded.

"Thanks," shouted Edward, already leading the pack with haste. They bounded up the stairs and made it out into the lobby.

"Not so fast," said Winston. "I've only got one eye! Makes it hard to run."

Edward ignored his friend, stepping up to the door and peering outside. "I don't see anything out there." He turned his attention to the clock tower, close enough to tell the time. "Looks like we're good on time, it's a quarter after eight. If we keep up this pace we should be fine."

"What about the next clue?" asked Kate. "Anyone see it?"

"You don't think it was back in the library do you?" asked Luke, already turning back to the door.

"Easy there lover-boy. The only thing waiting for you back there is certain death," said Savannah, catching his arm. Then, with a covert wink, she continued, "though I can't say I'd blame you for wanting to go back for seconds. Gambling with death aside, that looked fun from where I was standing." Savannah didn't mention how impressed she'd been with Luke's bravery, or with the size of his manhood. Details best kept private for now.

"Maybe it's here on the bridge, beneath all this mist," suggested Winston, poking at the swirling flog with his sword.

"Look! Up there!"

They all turned to follow Alice's shouts, searching the night sky as she pointed. There didn't seem to be anything there, apart from the starts and moon above.

"I don't see anything," said Edward.

"It's getting closer," answered Alice. "Maybe I just have better night vision than you guys?"

"No wait, I think I see it too," said Savannah, squinting her eyes. "Is that a bird?"

"It's a plane," replied Winston.

"No time for jokes, Winnie," said Luke.

"Fuck off. I mean it looks like a paper airplane. It's heading right for us."

Kate could see it now too, as could Edward. The paper plane grew larger as it approached, drifting left and right in the autumn breeze but still lined up with the bridge. They watched as it fell, dipping lower and lower until it skimmed the mist. Then it disappeared just a few feet ahead, the sound of paper scratching on concrete letting them know it had made its landing.

"I think it stopped over here," said Winston, once again using his sword to probe the mist. "Fuck! This shit is so thick, you could step right over a rattlesnake and never know it."

"Oh don't even joke about that!" cried Alice, her fear of snakes still alive and well, even as a cat.

Savannah stepped forward, holding the hem of her skirt firmly in her grip. She flapped the silk up and down, fanning the mist just enough to clear a small area. Finding nothing, she moved to the left and did the same, this time finding the paper airplane in the clearing. It caught the breeze and slid through the mist once more.

"Got it," said Edward as he snatched up the clue before the mist could fully reclaim it. He unfolded it quickly, holding his light so he could read it aloud.

The Mummy's Eye is watching you

He sees you from his tomb

You're nearly there, no time to spare

I hope you get well soon

"That seems straight forward," said Luke. "The eye of a mummy. Compared to what I just went through that shouldn't be too difficult."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," said Alice. "I mean, you did technically get a blowjob out of the deal."

"I was a fraction of a second away from having the soul sucked out of me, literally through my dick. A dusty old corpse covered in toilet paper doesn't sound all that scary in comparison."

Alice shrugged. "When you put it that way..."

"We can talk about this later," Edward interrupted. "We need to figure out where this mummy is. It mentions a tomb. Are there any of those on campus that you guys know of?"

Shrugs all around. While there was a graveyard not far from the library, none of them could remember seeing any sort of tomb on the grounds.

"What about that last part?" asked Savannah. "Get well soon. Is anyone here sick?"

"I'm still debating it," said Kate. "I'm surprised I haven't thrown up yet."

"Well it sounds important," Savannah continued. "Maybe it means the clinic?"

"Of course," said Edward. "That's got to be it, nothing else makes sense. It's not far from here either."

Before anyone could reply, the sounds of howling drew their attention to the west. It was close, and whatever monster made those sounds was surely bigger than any normal wolf. More alarming were the sound of footsteps, moving quickly in their direction. Edward waved frantically for his friends to take cover back inside the library, but none of them needed to be told. They hurried inside, closing the door behind them despite the broken glass. If something wanted to come inside, it wouldn't have to work hard.

They collectively held their hands over their lips to keep silent as a massive shadow appeared at the other end of the bridge, moving quickly toward them. There was no time to find anywhere else to hide. Edward pushed Kate down against the wall by the door, urging the others to do the same. They kept their heads low, just below the jagged edges of the sill, unable to see what monster approached.

Kate shivered, praying silently that whatever it was, it would keep moving. She knew there would be no such luck. Even as the thought crossed her mind, she could hear those heavy footsteps slowing down, the unmistakable sound of a large snout sniffing at the air, probably right where they'd just been standing. She pushed herself lower, a throaty snarl causing them all to flinch. The footsteps were drawing closer now while the sniffing continued, a bipedal stride in contrast to the gallop from before.

Looking to her right, Kate saw Edward silently draw his gun. After saving Winston from the sirens and watching Luke nearly lose his life to a vampire, this was how it all came to a bitter end. She shut her eyes and waited for the inevitable, but a new sound forced them open again.

A woman's scream.

At first, Kate thought it must be Alice, or Savannah, shrieking in terror as whatever beast waited outside moved to eat the tiny prey. But then she realized the sound was far too distant to be any of her friends. Kate opened her eyes, still clutching tight to the ax. The sniffing had stopped, replaced by a low snarl as the monster turned away from the window, moving quickly in the direction of the scream. It happened so fast, and suddenly they were awash in the chilling silence.

"Is...is it gone?" whispered Savannah, finally brave enough to use her voice.

Edward slowly peered over the edge. Nothing greeted his view besides the mist. He nodded. "I think it's gone. For now." Turning to the others, he motioned for them to stand. "But I don't think we should wait around for it to come back. Whatever it was, it nearly caught us."

"It's the same noises we heard outside the tavern," mused Alice. "That thing moves so fast."

"All the more reason to keep moving," said Edward. As if to punctuate the necessity in his voice, the scream returned, sharper than before. And then silence once more, followed by more howling.

"Pretty obvious what that is," said Alice, glancing up at the moon above. It was perfectly round.

"Come on," urged Luke. "We'll be safer once we reach the clinic. It's just down this path."

"You mean the clinic with the mummy inside?" said Savannah. "Yeah, sound perfectly safe."

"You're free to stay here then," teased Luke, with a wink. Another howl filled the night sky, and Savannah rushed forward to catch up.

They moved quickly along the path, eager to put distance between themselves and whatever continued to howl in the darkness. Edward and Kate took the lead, with the rest following close behind in pairs.

"I don't know how you did it," whispered Winston, catching Luke's attention.

"Pardon?"

"Back there with the vampire."

Luke let out a quiet laugh. "Don't worry buddy, one day you'll know what it's like to go down on a girl."

"Fuck you," replied Winston. "No, what I mean is, I don't know how you even managed to stay hard that whole time."

"Good to know you were staring at my junk," Luke joked, but he knew what Winston meant. Savannah turned slightly, interested in their secret conversation. "Honestly, I don't know either," Luke finally admitted. "I even thought to myself, this shouldn't be too difficult. Hard to finish when you're terrified of having your dick bitten off." Luke paused, but decided to continue. "I don't know, maybe it's just hormones or something. Nevermind..."

"What do you mean, hormones?" asked Winston. Edward turned now, a look of frustration on his face. They were making too much noise, but Luke continued anyway.

"If I'm being honest, ever since we got here, I've been kind of..." He couldn't bring himself to finish the word, not in front of the ladies. But Alice finished for him.

"Horny?"

Luke blushed. "Yeah, I guess that's it. Maybe that's just how I deal with stressful situations."

Alice remained quiet, as did Winston and Savannah. But as they approached their destination, they were all thinking the same thing. Luke wasn't alone.

"If we're all finished chatting about our sex drives," said Edward. "We're here."

"You know," Luke interrupted. "I get that you're eager to get us all out of here, and I really appreciate that." He stepped up to Edward, holding his head level on his shoulders. "But you really don't have to be such a dick about it. This isn't like you."

Before Edward could reply, Luke moved past and stepped up to the door of the clinic. Like everything else on campus, the building was deserted, with broken glass and shuttered windows. A circular sign was barely visible to their right, but it confirmed they'd reached their destination.

"This is it," said Winston. "Redfern Clinic."

"Holy shit!" shouted Kate, drawing everyone's attention. "Is that blood?"

They followed her gaze to the door, a thick trail of dried crimson barely visible in the moonlight. Edward's flashlight made it painfully obvious. Something was dragged through the door, losing a considerable amount of vital fluid along the way.

"Suddenly feeling less confident about facing a mummy," Luke whispered, clutching his sharpened stake.

Edward stepped up to the door, pistol at the ready. He looked to Luke apologetically. "You're right about me being a dick. Sorry."

Luke shrugged. "It's cool. We all have something to lose."

Edward glanced to Kate, then back to the door. "You guys ready?"

"No," Savannah answered.

Edward pulled at the door regardless, revealing the main lobby as he swept back and forth with his light. The place was a mess, with papers and manila folders littering the floor in every direction. The blood smear continued to their left and down the hall toward the stairs, splitting into two trails as one went to the basement while the other continued down the hall.

"Should we follow the yellow brick road?" asked Winston.

"Two paths," Edward replied. "Anyone feel like splitting up?"

"You're kidding, right?" said Savannah. "Have you never seen a horror movie? Or, fuck, a single episode of Scooby Doo?"

"He's right," said Kate. "We'll be able to search both floors a lot quicker if we do."

"Need I remind you there's a mummy somewhere in this building?" said Alice. "And this blood didn't just drag itself across the floor."

"It's fine," said Winston. "You can come down with me and Luke. We'll watch after you." Before Alice could retort, he turned to the others. "The rest of you search up here. If you see anything, give a shout."

Edward considered the proposal, but quickly agrees. "Here, take these." He dug in his vest and pulled free a pair of long white tubes." Winston stepped forward to accept the gift.

"Glowsticks?"

"Better than nothing. I doubt there's much light to go around," Edward replied.

"Fair enough." Winston turned to the stairs again. Luke was genuinely caught off guard by his friend's sudden burst of leadership, but he followed nonetheless, with Alice close on his heels.

"No offense," Luke said, once they were downstairs. "But I've never seen you take charge like that. You feeling okay?"

Winston sighed. "I'm just ready to be done with this. The more time we spend bickering, the less likely we are to meet the deadline. And this whole thing just feels...weird."

"Weird how?"

Winston didn't answer, choosing instead to crack a glowstick and hand it to his headless friend. Luke eyed the green glow, but with one hand on his own head and the other holding his only weapon, he motioned for Alice to take the light source instead. Winston cracked the other one, filling the long hall with green light. It would be an eerie sight, even without the blood trail on the tile.

"Lead the way," Alice whispered, staying well hidden behind the two bulky men. Winston slowly moved forward, careful not to slip in the blood at his feet.

"It's so quiet," said Luke, suddenly aware of the echo of his footsteps as they made their way down. "No way we'll be sneaking up on anything."

They came to a pair of doors, one on either side of the hall. The trail of blood split here, disappearing under both while a larger trail continued forward. Alice held her glowstick to the window, eyes adjusting to the light as she peered inside.

"Looks like an examination room."

She tried the handle and the door slowly creaked open. Not wanting to be the first inside, Alice made way for Winston, watching as he pulled his sword from its sheath. Luke followed, and, not wanting to be left alone in the hall of blood, she stepped in as well. The room was small and looked fairly identical to any other examination room one might find at a doctors office, with one notable exception. Lying on the exam table was the unmistakable shape of a corpse, covered in a white cloth. Red splotches covered its surface in a haphazard fashion.

"I think I might be sick," Alice whispered, but she managed to control herself.

Winston moved closer to the body, sword at the ready. "Think this is the mummy?" he asked, but nobody replied. Knowing he'll have to look for himself, he slipped the point of his saber under the fabric and gently raised it high enough to see underneath. Alice averted her eyes, but Luke stretched his head out for a better look.

"I wasn't expecting that," Luke muttered. The body was nothing more than a test dummy, the kind used for practicing CPR.

Winston sighed with relief, moving for Alice to see. "See? Nothing to worry about."

"You honestly think that's any less creepy?" she asked. "CPR dummies don't leak blood, last I checked."

"You've got a point there," said Luke. "Either way, this isn't the mummy. We keep checking."

They moved back to the hall, traversing over to the room on the other side. They entered to find another covered body on the exam table, but this time it was Luke who lifted the sheet to reveal their bleeding surprise.

"A skeleton," he said, though it's obvious even in the dim glow. "The kind you see in a classroom for studying anatomy."

"Still a lot of blood," said Alice.

They continued down the hall. Ten rooms in total lined its walls, and they searched each one to find a similar scene within. Most contained CPR dummies or anatomical representations of the human body, though two were mysteriously empty.

"That's all the exam rooms," said Alice, turning to look back down the hallway. Their glowsticks weren't strong enough to illuminate to the far end, and all she could think about was how terrifying it would be if something came running in their direction through the darkness. She shook her head, determined to force the image out of her mind.

"What's through here?" asked Luke, pointing to the lone door at the end of the hall. "Looks like an office, maybe?"

"Let's cross it off the list. Maybe the others have already found it upstairs and need our help," said Winston. He turned the handle and pushed the door inward, the familiar creak no longer unnerving as he forced his way inside. If the room were supposed to be an office, it certainly wasn't anymore. Stainless tables lined one wall, while the other was covered by a series of rectangular doors.

"I don't remember there being a morgue in the clinic," said Alice, trying to hide the fear in her voice.

"After the library maze, nothing should surprise us," answered Luke. "Either way, looks like we found what we were hoping to avoid."

Dominating the center of the room was the unmistakable form of an Egyptian sarcophagus. Hieroglyphs adorned its sides while the lid was shaped into the eerie form of a man. They approached cautiously.

"Should we call for the others?" asked Alice.

Winston shook his head. "If there's a living mummy in here, I'm hoping it's at least asleep. I'd rather not risk waking it up by shouting."

"Won't prying his eye out do that anyway?" asked Luke.

Winston shrugged. "Let's get this lid off and see what we're dealing with."

With little time to waste, Luke handed Alice his weapon and placed his own severed head on a nearby table, freeing both hands to help Winston push the giant stone lid aside. It was heavy, but slowly the two boys managed to shift it to the side, the sound of grinding stone echoing throughout the room. Alice kept her distance, holding Luke's weapon at the ready in case something lunged through the gap. Nothing does, however.