Twilight Ghosts
...Hmmm Hm HM-HM hmmm.... Hmmm Hm HM-HM hmmm...
A musical melody. It's an oddly familiar melody one that seems to nag at the subconscious minds of recent martial arts movie fans. The humming grows louder and more energetic yet the darkness continues to blind you forbidding your eyes the ability to see that with which creates the song to which your ears are being treated.
...Hmmm Hm HM-HM hmmm.... Hmmm Hm HM-HM hmmm...
Continuing to grow louder and louder the repetitive musical humming crescendos to its loudest peak.
...Hmmm Hm HM-HM hmmm.... Hmmm Hm HM-HM hmmm...
With the humming reaching its pinnacle finally the scene treats you to a feast which another of your senses can sink its sight into. Light spills into the scene immediately engulfing the dark as if the brightness had been starved for sustenance for weeks and now hungers for the darkness like a vulture sensing death. For a moment the light completely overwhelms the scene dominating it with it's brilliance until the camera refocuses and allows you a more detailed view of your surroundings. The humming however remains at the same pitch and continues the same monotonous notes.
...Hmmm Hm HM-HM hmmm.... Hmmm Hm HM-HM hmmm...
Much to the disappointment of the few Superman fans out there the camera focuses to reveal that a large vase had in fact been blocking the camera's angle. Now a man in a suit holds the vase with one hand while in his second hand he wields a handheld swifter. The swifter scrapes across the wooden mantle where the vase had once sat tearing a swath through a thick layer of dust which bears testament to the lack of use this particular building has seen. The vase is replaced and the light is now consumed by the darkness just as the light had eroded its own antonym mere seconds ago. The scene switches angles allowing your eyes a different view to feast upon while your ears are force fed more of the same.
...Hmmm Hm HM-HM hm?
Your eyes now see a view of a long hallway cluttered with moving boxes, chairs with cloths draped over them in order to protect the furniture, a few drapes representing some sort of foreign country's royal seal... and a very perplexed Butler. The servant is dressed in a suit much as you would expect... however he is now kneeling down on the floor with his eyes glued to something on the floor. His hand relaxes and the swifter drops from his grip impacting onto the building's dusty wooden floors. Reaching down to pick up the object which has caught his attention the camera zooms in to reveal it is a piece of chicken? The Butler sniffs the shard of animal meat in his hand confirming what his eyes were telling him; it's edible. His eyes shift from side to side assuring him there are no other predators in sight as he greedily consumes the tiny morsel of food.
CLICK!
CLICK!
Click!
Click!
click!
click.
A series of lights instantly flare to life filling the hallway and startling the butler as he chewed on dust covered animal flesh. His eyes go wide with glee as the Butler is treated with a treasure trove of a feast! Several more morsels of chicken are on the hallway's floor and the butler surreys off in the direction of the next piece of food pouncing on his prey with a ferocity reserved for tigers on the discovery channel as they corner a wounded antelope. Out of the corner of his eye he sees movement... the other Minions are in the next room. Tearing into several bags of dog food with their hands and teeth they turn on the bag's pet food contents like sharks. The Butler smiles and tries to laugh at his Minion brothers who are eating nothing but dry dog food.
Sure it cleans the teeth but HE had real food being chewed between his teeth. Hurrying by the door so as to remain unseen by the other Minions the butler continues down the now lit hallway moving further and further along while assailing as many stay pieces of chicken he finds in his path. A pair of hushed voices goes unheard over the butler's hungrily chopping jaws.
"Just as you predicted."
"It's just all too easy."
"It was nice of you to come back to feed it though..."
"I had to... I may have need of it soon..."
Unheeding the voices and unknowing of the subject of which they speak the butler continues to consume chicken that he finds stranded on the wooden floor of the hallway until he finds an open doorway. Peering into the doorway he sees a spiral staircase leading downward and yet another piece of chicken! Nearly jumping with uninhibited enthusiasm at the thought of continuing his meal the butler laughs to himself one last time as he looks back down the hallway where the other Minions are ingesting mouthfuls of dog food.
Minion Butler, "Idiots... heh heh heh..."
Traveling downward in the twisting staircase the Minion Slave continues his feast instantly eating any chicken he finds on the now stone stairs which he travels. Some of the food he has decided to wisely save for later and stores the extra food between his teeth and his cheek as if he were a squirrel. Silently a couple moves in behind the feasting creature as the butler reaches the end of his journey... an open solid stainless steel door with a sliding hatch roughly eye level. A single light is lit. The butler's eyes begin to tear as his teeth grind to a halt. An entire chicken rests upon a long wooden table... He rushes towards the table and leaps upon it claiming his prize before no one else can lay a stake just as...
The steel doors shut behind him, he's trapped. The Butler huddles over his chicken protectively while looking at the door with concern... soon the concern fades and he begins tearing his teeth into the dead cooked bird below him. The sliding steel hatch is opened allowing two pairs of eyes to peer into the underground room. Although there is very little of them visible their voices make their identities known...
Doc Placebo, "Exactly as I said. They always do exactly what I want."
Erica, "Minions... their worthless, reminds me of a former Minion of yours..."
Erica's eyes dart left and right as if she were looking for something.
Erica, "Where is he?"
Doc Placebo, "Hm? Probably at the Konclave for all I know... preparing for tomorrow's match."
Erica, "No... not him... HIM!"
Doc Placebo, "Oh... OH yes! HE should be along soon."
Although the conversation registers in the mind of the Butler the feast consumes his entire brain. His senses are filled with the lust for true food and his taste buds are a flame with flavor that the dry dog food afforded to Minions cannot match. Such is his ecstasy in the culinary masterpiece which he currently delights that he had not noticed a scurrying sound off in the shadows of what many long term UWA fans recall to be the Andorran Consulate Cellar. The sound is heard again... it comes from the dark reaches of the cellar where the light cannot reach. It comes from the walls which you cannot see but which you know to be lines with weapons of punishment; whips, mauls, spikes, manacles, hooks... a sadist's delight and more.
Doc Placebo, "Hear it?"
Erica, "Mmm....Hmm...."
The butler does not. He continues his feast eating as he knows he will not have the chance to feast upon such fine food again for a while. Erica's hand reaches out towards the Doctor's. It is not a reaction out of fear; she knows what is to come. They planned it after all. It's in anticipation... not of fear but of lust for the slaughter. Her nails bite into Placebo's flesh, drawing blood. A smile creeps onto the Doctor's face knowing his little demonic pixie to be one of the fiercest individuals he's ever met.
KnOcK, KNock!
The Butler ceases feasting...something has knocked the table where he is currently sitting atop.
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
Erica, "Here it comes..."
Jumping at each hammering blow to the table below him the Butler knows there is something underneath the table... something that knows he's there... he looks over the edge... darkness.
phhHEEEEeaaakkk... kaaAHh... boooOOO!
From out of the darkness a voice scratches the air and a set of teeth clamp down upon the flesh of the butler's neck as the terrified Minion jumps away. Flesh is torn and the Butler cries out in agony. Bits of chicken, blood, and saliva fly from his mouth slamming into the Cellar's old blood stained dirt floor joining the blood of countless other victims who have traveled into this locked room.
huunnngry!
Grasping at his wound the Butler tries to pull away from his attacker until he no longer moves, it is as if his arms and legs are made of stone. He cannot move them, they no longer respond to his commands. His eyes can only see what is before him... slowly moving into the light. Richard Renfield is now nothing more than a walking skeleton. His skin is as gray as a cinderblock... and barely clinging onto the bone. Yet he moves like a creature possessed. Wielding his sharpened fingernails on one hand like a weapon with the other acting as a third foot he quickly crawls out of the shadows and leaches onto his prey pinning the butler between his hunger and the table. Nails slash left and right.
SLICE!
SLICE!
Doc Placebo, "Now... what were you saying about a 'former' Minion of mine?"
A pair of feminine eyes remain locked on the punished Butler as Renfield sinks his teeth into the Minion's stomach tearing at flesh. Precious life giving hemoglobin rushes from the wound staining the table. The butler's screams come quickly now as he coughs up more and more blood while being disemboweled by a set of starved and decaying human teeth. Erica only whispers a reply...
Erica, "Spitfly."
Smiling... Placebo turns towards his little damned soul mate.
Doc Placebo, "And what makes you think he's free?"
She turns her eyes from the slaughter to meet the European's gaze...
Erica, "What?"
Doc Placebo, "Shhh... later. First... let's savor this."
Nodding silently amidst a symphony of anguish the two passionate lovers collide and embrace each other in a long and lustful kiss driven harder and stronger with each scream as Renfield rends the flesh away from his meal. The scene begins to blur leaving you with a mixture of color which too gives away to the darkness which had been with you as the scene began. As the scene comes to a complete close there are no more screams. The viewer's only solace is the company provided to them by the sounds of tearing, chewing, and the wet sounds of lips severely overwhelming each other with the passion of the kill driving them to frenzy.