The cloudless blackened sky loomed ominously over the abandoned looking warehouse at the end of the dockside. The waters lapped the concrete bearings with reckless abandon, as though to warn us that we were entering a place that we shouldn’t dare. The ardent splashing the only sound echoing in the area. Even the hazy yellow street lamps had given way to muted tones over years of disservice and lack of repair.

  It was a place that was forgotten with time. Just as Hugo Perrault would desire.

  Isaac and I moved slowly around the building, examining its structure and the long depreciating facade.

  I spotted a main door off to the side of large sealed vehicle depot with a pull down gate and pointed it out to Isaac.

  Isaac shook his head, but I traipsed forth out of his reaching hands anyway.

  Approaching the door, I heard him growl slightly as I did my own thing. I reached for the handle and jiggled it ever so slightly. Locked.

  Isaac raised his brow in the most ‘I told you...and why would you try the front entrance anyway’ type of look I’d ever seen.

  I shrugged with a grin and followed him around in pursuit of a back entrance, but we couldn’t find anything else.

  Isaac touched my shoulder, which shocked me with a little tingle of delight, before turning my attention to rusted scaffolding that led up to some narrow windows atop the side of the building.

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  “Ugh,” I said audibly, gathering the brunt of his ire in a wide eyed glare. “Sorry,” I mouthed, as I followed him to the scaffolding.

  There was no way to easily climb up it, but Isaac knelt down and flagged me to step on his cupped hands for a boost.

  I leaned forward and put my hands on his shoulders, feeling his hot breath cutting through and tickling my thighs just briefly, before he hoisted me up and I grasped the metal frame, pulling myself up and rolling onto the grating.

  I breathed loudly and felt flushed. It must have been the exertion...and nothing else...right?

  Isaac instantly leaped and pulled himself up, swinging with ease and momentum landing right beside me, in a crouched position.

  With that, we delicately ascended, while he aided me in each portion of the climb until we reached the cracked and dusty windows at the top.

  Peering in, we weren’t able to see much, but a faded orange glow that emanated from beyond.

  I tried a few of the windows and found them sealed tightly. Glancing back at Isaac momentarily, I found a lip and exerted a little bit of my extra strength, wrenching open the window, with a slight screech.

  I breathed a sigh of relief as I looked back at Isaac for admonishment, but found his gaze turned inward to the warehouse.

  Following his eyes, I spotted dozens of figures wearing black hooded robes, which obscured their faces, standing at points around a large red painted circle overlaid with a pentagram. A circle of blood. They held daggers in their hands and chanted in a low Gregorian hum.

  Inside the circle, were ten victims, in all forms of dress, bound and gagged, writhing and struggling to break free, their muffled cries diminished by the chants around them.

  Suddenly, I felt a brief flash in my mind. As though I had been there. Experienced it first person. And then...the rage.

  “I’m not letting this happen to anyone else,” I growled to Isaac. “Death will be a luxury for these monsters.”

  “Wait,” Isaac said, beckoning me back to rationality for a moment...but it was too late.

  The blackened blood coursed through my veins as I lunged forward with one thing on my mind. Vengeance.