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 Content Rating Notice: May Contain Extreme Graphic Content
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| The Masonic Plague A dark and twisted tale from beneath the streets of Victorian London. | | by: | |
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| Item Size: 39 Entries
Created: 5:24pm on 06-11-2007
Modified: 6:18pm on 08-02-2009 | |
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Entry #617590, added on 11-09-08 @ 3:20 am EST.
[Entry Access Restriction] None.
Title:
Chapter Thirty Four
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Stubbs approached the building he had seen Henry enter. However he found the only side door was fastened tight. He wasn’t surprised but he was determined not to let Henry get away. He examined the door and pulled it several more times but his entry was well and truly barred. He wandered for a short time up and down the alley looking for alternative access routes but found nothing. He kicked a half broken bottle that lay on the ground amongst many other scattered pieces of discarded rubbish. The bottle spun around and smashed against the wall. Stubbs felt his frustration boil and he let out a short infuriated yell. He walked back to the door and slumped down upon the step. Dejected, he sighed and rubbed his eyes as if to relieve some of the built up tension. What with the unexpected events of the day his high emotion was quickly turning into fatigue. He stared blankly into nothingness. His eyes drifting over the wall that stood opposite him. Then he noticed something. His eyes focused upon a small black panel in the wall. It was the coal chute for the building. Although barely two feet wide; his mind began to wonder at the possibilities. Stubbs got up and went over to the chute. He grabbed the iron handle and pulled it open.
‘Yes!’ Stubbs thought to himself. Although filthy it was big enough for someone to climb down. The chute would lead straight to the cellar of the building. Stubbs turned and began to scan the building Henry had entered for it own chute. In the distance he made out the similar form of another iron panel. He ran to it and yanked it open. This time however the stench that erupted from it nearly knocked Stubbs off his feet. He covered his mouth and nose and began to gag at the putrid odour. He had no idea what this chute had been used for but he suspected it wasn’t coal. The interior of the chute was heavily soiled in what looked like blood and dirt. As he ran his finger across the inside wall he gagged again at the prospect of what he was touching, and more worryingly why it was there. He peered into the vast depths of the chute, but found all he could see was the impending darkness. He stepped back from the building and removed his coat. He placed it upon the ground beneath the chute. He then also removed his badge and placed it on top of his coat. If anything happened to him, he at least wanted to leave some clue as to his whereabouts. The thought of being stuck in the chute didn’t appeal to him, nor did the prospect of what lay at the bottom. Stubbs pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and held it up to his face. He took one last look up and down the alley before stepping up to the coal chute. Although he couldn’t shake the feeling of climbing into the mouth of some grotesque beast, he clambered into the chute and lowered himself slowly down into the darkness.
Henry stood in the main chamber of Mason’s laboratory. He looked around him; at the collection of bizarre machinery and scientific instruments. Once every inch of this cellar buzzed with life and energy, and although Henry had never felt comfortable in Mason’s presence, his laboratory seemed even more unnerving in its abandoned state. The only movement or noise coming from the last remaining survivors of Mason’s previous experiments writhing in their cages wishing for their inevitable death. Henry eventually snapped back to reality and remembering his task at hand he walked over to one of the rear storage chambers. The words of Silas ran through his mind as he recalled the instructions he had been left.
‘When the time comes Henry, I need you to destroy the laboratory; everything needs to go. There can be nothing left to connect myself with anything that has gone on here. I will leave London and I shall not be coming back. Everything you need to complete this task will be left for you along with a substantial final payment to you. Something to compensate for all the hardships you have endured for me. You will get what you deserve Henry.’
Henry removed a large key from a chain around his neck. He used it to unlock a chamber door. Opening it he found himself stood before numerous barrels of oil. One at a time Henry rolled the barrels into the main chamber of the laboratory. As he moved the last barrel out it revealed a small safe built into the wall. A handwritten note was attached to the safe. On the front of the note it read ‘For Henry’.
Stubbs clambered down the steep incline of the coal chute. He continually struggled to keep his grip upon the confined passage. He could feel himself slipping and it was only by keeping rigid and straining his arms and legs was he able to slow his descent. Stubbs could feel the gelatinous ooze beneath his hands and feet. The putrid gunk seeped through his clothing and began sticking to his flesh. It seemed only seconds into his descent before he was in complete darkness. Only the single shaft of light above him to remind him there was a world outside his confines at all. Down, down, down he continued for what seemed ages until his foot struck upon something solid. Despite its firmness Stubbs could tell he had not yet reached the bottom of the chute. Whatever was beneath him was stuck and thus blocking his descent. He lowered his weight upon it, but the blockage held fast. Cautiously he reached down with a hand to feel what it was. He already had a dread feeling he knew, but his curiosity pushed him to know for sure.
Stubbs’ hand touched cloth, a firm felt cloth much like a coat. His hand continued to search and his fears were realised when his fingers ran through a tangled mass of hair. It was straggled and greasy, and Stubbs came over nauseous as he could feel hundreds of tiny maggots wriggling over the rotten flesh. He pulled his hand back in repulsion. The stench was stinging Stubbs’s eyes and he again began to wretch. This poor victim had become stuck in the chute.
“I’m so sorry.” Stubbs muttered to the nameless corpse beneath him, before straining himself yet again against the chute walls and then stamping down hard on the body with all his weight. He could hear a distinctive crack of bone before the body dropped roughly a foot further down the chute. Suddenly the body gave way completely and both the corpse and Stubbs fell. Unable to slow their descent they crashed through the coal door in the cellar and out over a pile of loose coal bricks to the floor.
Stubbs shakily got to his feet and fighting against an avalanche of coal bricks he staggered to the firm ground of the cellar floor. He quickly scanned the room to ensure he hadn’t made enough noise to attract attention, but thankfully the cellar appeared quiet and largely undisturbed apart from the debris left by his entrance. The coal cellar was a dank and very dully lit catacomb. A pile of coal briquettes lay beneath the coal chute he had emerged from. The room stank; the stench of human decay and putrefying flesh. Blood spatters covered all walls and drenched the floor. The cellar drainage gulleys had obviously long since blocked leaving blood and various other stale fluids with nowhere to escape to. A few ravenous rats swam around the edges of the room carrying scraps of dead flesh and bone back to their lairs. The broken corpse of a man lay near the chute exit. It was the remains of the man that had once barred Stubbs route. It now lay a twisted and broken wreck. The thousands of hungry maggots clearly wriggling all over what remained of the body.
Stubbs waded through the ankle high swill towards the only visible door. He twisted its large metal handle and pushed the door open. A wave of blood and slime poured out of the room and into a small unlit chamber. What little light shone from the coal room only allowed Stubbs to make out the faint outline of stairs to the front of him. He continued to make his way through the room until he could clearly make out cold stone steps leading up towards another level.
Henry stared at the note in front of him. He had worked for Silas for the past five years and in all the time he had known him he had been a firm yet generous employer. He had also seen what happened to those whom crossed him. Some of the jobs Silas had sent Henry out to do had been far from pleasant but then he had the right aptitude for them. Henry was quite happy to throw his weight around and get his hands dirty. Silas kept the loan sharks off his back and helped to keep the police out of his personal affairs. Having an employer of such standing certainly had its advantages. Admittedly Henry had grown to hate Silas, and when he had been pushed to kill his own brother, Henry’s guilt had finally surfaced. Tommy had been a liability. He had known sooner or later his careless ways would be the end of him. He had jeopardised everything. His passion for whores and depravity had nearly cost them all their necks in a noose. Carelessness such as his was not acceptable, Henry could appreciate that. Tommy had always held him back and he was loathed to think that his stupid womanising brother had risked his livelihood and that of all the others working for Silas. Silas was the wrong man to cross and Henry was well aware of that. With contacts such as he had, Henry knew anyone in his employ could find themselves at the end of a rope before they knew it. You did not cross Silas; Tommy had. Despised as he was at Silas for asking him to make an example of Tommy, Henry knew he had little choice if he wished to save his own neck. Tommy for all his faults was his brother. But he was weak and Henry had far too much to lose. Now after all this time and through all the vile and depraved things Henry had been involved in, Silas was finally paying up. Henry could escape this life of filth and make a more meaningful life for himself. Without Silas’s protection, there was only so long he would be able to survive in London now. Henry reached for the iron bar handle that sealed the safe. He tried to turn it but the handle held fast. He shuffled closer to the safe and using his weight he pushed down upon the bar. With a further swift jerk he managed to loosen the lock and it began to slowly turn. Once he had heard the internal mechanism clunk into life, he swung the door open. Henry stared into the metal cupboard unsure of what he was actually looking at. Within the shallow confines of the safe were several small vials of liquid, all tied together with thread. Positioned securely above the vials was a hand pistol. The bulk of the gun was welded to the roofing of the safe with the barrel pointing downwards towards the glass tubes. Henry stepped back from the safe, wary of its contents. Whatever this contraption was, it certainly wasn’t anything Henry liked the look of. Suddenly another clunking noise came from the safe, and with it the firing mechanism of the pistol went off.
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© Copyright 2008 Anthony D. Redden (UN: reflectingeye at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
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