Penelope stared back at Damien who was looking at her casually but his casual gaze wasn’t exactly casual, “What else do you see in the potion in there?” asked Damien, slowly shifting his gaze back on the doctor, picking up another solution from the box which was transparent in color.
“The others hold the property of spit grass. It is the very element that is responsible for the trigger that takes place in all the vampires. Affecting mostly the pureblooded vampires due to the core that sits at the core of the heart,” said Murkh who moved back from the instrument where he had been observing the liquid that he had poured to look under the magnifying glass, “But this here is nothing less to a white witch’s blood. I am curious how this bottle came to your hand,” Damien didn’t respond to it. His eyes intently looking at the dead body that laid on the table motionless.
The vampire doctor continued to say, “The council found an interesting piece just this evening. Would you like to take a look?” asked the vampire who held eagerness in his eyes.
Damien raised his hand indicating the vampire to lead him but Murkh didn’t start to walk. Seeing the girl who was in the room here with them, the man found her to be nothing less than an intrusive creature which he wasn’t happy about.
Seeing Murkh’s gaze, Damien said, “She’s with me.”
The doctor-vampire led them out of the room. Locking the room first as he carried a lantern in his hand, he started to lead the way where Damien followed behind Murkh and Penny followed Damien.
When the light started to enter the cell rooms which had previously been dark, Penny finally saw the people who were in there, her eyes unable to move from them. Each cell had one person, the atmosphere feeling nothing less to the slave establishment but the condition they were in. Penny continued to follow to see people in there who were shackled and bound in chains but that wasn’t the highlight. It was the bruises and the dried blood which had been overpowering before and now. Not the rusted iron bars but it had been the smell of the blood.
Murkh took them to the underground which was another passage, reaching to greet a brown door made of metal, the vampire doctor fished his hand in his coat. Pulling out a bunch of keys, he fumbled around before opening the lock of the door. The building here was much quieter with no visitors as it was the time of night now. The people in the cell were too tired to speak and cause a riot with the number of beatings they had taken along with the torture the councilmen presented the lawbreakers. The most one could hear was the murmur and groan which reached Penny’s ears but for some odd reason, it was still quiet.
When Penny began to wonder as to what the room held for a door like this had to be built, the answers to her questions were answered after entering the room.
She had to hold back her breath, looking at the large cylindrical glasses that were filled with glasses but each transparent glass-like cylinder held bodies that floated in the water. Except for two cylinders, the rest of them were occupied. It was obvious that the people inside there were all dead. Every one of them.
Damien strolled through the cylinders, walking past them unaffected as he had been down here several times. Penny, on the other hand, walking to only stop and look up at the man who was inside one of the many cylinders. The eyes of the man were not closed but were instead open as if he was experiencing some kind of shock even after death. He was lean in nature, his body almost reduced to bones where his skin stuck to the only possible solid thing in his body.
Penny wasn’t sure why but there was something about this man that lured her to him. Was it his haunting eyes that was wide? Or was it the body that looked crumpled? She couldn’t decide which one was it but there was definitely something about this man.
Murkh and Damien went to look at something the vampire doctor wanted to show while Penny stayed behind. Continuing to look at the man who looked like he was looking at something ahead of him. She turned to see what it was out of curiosity but there was nothing but a wall in there.
Why were the bodies placed in here like this? thought Penny to herself. This place was nothing less to a graveyard. The only difference being, a graveyard was a place where people the dead were buried underground and here it was that the bodies floated in the water. She doubted it was water as Penny had the basic understanding that water could not preserve dead bodies without decaying. If one had to, they would use salt but salt would only shrivel the skin and right now the skin didn’t seem to look damaged.
Taking a step closer, she placed her hand on the cylindrical glass, observing the person when she suddenly felt the man’s eyes who had been looking forward to looking at her. Penny staggered back, withdrawing her hand quickly and away from the glass. Her breath hitching out of shock for Damien to notice who had tuned his ears around his surroundings.
Penny looked again at the man but it seemed like he hadn’t moved his eyes to look at her at all. Worried, she wondered if she had imagined it but she felt it had happened which made her only that much wary of her surroundings right now. Her eyes taking note of all the bodies that were here, floating in the liquid inside the cylinder.
When Damien came walking to where she stood, with the vampire doctor tailing behind closely, she asked, “Who is he?”
