Marissa

Whatever Shaye had done to us completely messed me up. I don't think I've ever felt that exhausted I'm my life. And the visions were equally terrible. All of those people were probably killed by Danielle. Even worse, she had become a vampire. She must have been trapped there, unable to escape.

That's probably why she was crying. But she should have tortured somebody to make her leave. Someone would have given in, surely.

"It doesn't matter if they would've given in, nobody in there knows how to get out." said Shaye. Somehow, he completely invaded my thoughts and spoke as if I said it out loud.
"How do you know?"

"Each person is only allowed to have a little information. Most of them know the same, but none of them know enough to get her out of there. They were sent down into the section she was in, but they have no way of getting back up.
To make it worse, they didn't know that either. They probably thought they'd be right back up, going to eat, or going to their families, and now..." Shaye sliced his hand across the air, symbolizing how Danielle was taking them all out one by one.

I looked at Allen. He appeared just as tired as I was, but he seemed more in shock because of Danielle. His chest was rising and falling heavily, but besides that, he stayed still.

"Allen, are you okay?" I asked him.
He looked back, stared directly in my eyes, and said nothing. He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes.

"Shaye, the next time you do something like that, can you not make us so sleepy? I can barely stand up." said Donovan.

"I didn't do that deliberately," said Shaye. I'm nowhere near full power, so you guys ended up feeling almost exactly how I do."

Donovan leaned against a table, then slowly dropped to his knees. "You felt like this the whole time? How on earth did you make it this far?"

Shaye gave us a strained smile. "It's actually worse. I still feel like I'm going to vomit."

Allen, who was closest to Shaye, opened his eyes in surprise and scooted away from him.

"Look, I see what you guys mean. And it seems like that girl had already taken care of a bunch of vampires. But if they get her under control, if she starts fighting for them, I'm out. There were dozens of bodies in that vision, and we've already been massacred as it stands. With mages on their side, that might not take long."

"That's what I'm talking about!" Donovan slapped him on the back, hard. "We need your intelligence and strength. Jamie, explain it to him."

Jamie was so tired from the vision he was actually sleeping standing up.
"Wake up." Donovan intoned in our minds.
Jamie's head jerked up and he looked over at us. "What?"

"Tell him the situation." Donovan told him.
"Oh. Got it." Jamie stretched out and shook his head.
"We have discovered something. It seems like our power, our lycanthropy, is leaking out and affecting others."

Isaac's​ brow furrowed. He looked confused.
"What?"

I took a deep breath, and tried to explain it to him.
"Imagine this. It's full moon, but all the time, and everyone we come into contact with turns into a massive beast, like we scratched or bit them."

"And you didn't attack them?"
"No. Simply talking to them made it happen. Or it could have been a mesmer, because that's what Jamie used on the two he infected."

"Wow."
Isaac looked down at his feet, and looked around his lab space. "I know that I don't have this problem, but that could because I got rid of my lycanthropy-"

"No you didn't." Donovan interjected.

"-mostly."
He corrected himself, rubbing his temples. At this point, he probably disliked Donovan as much as Allen did.
"Maybe we should run some tests. There's no rush and this could be more serious than..."

He trailed off, and kept still. I was about to ask him what he was doing when two small hands appeared behind him and latched on to his throat.

I jumped forward and burst into action but Shaye stopped me. "Relax," he told me.
"It's the child."

I watched, and the little girl climbed ​all the way on top of his back and whispered into his ear.
His eyes widened. "In this building? Already?!"
He turned on one of his comments
Computers and a screen above him flickered on. It was a security surveillance system, and it showed the waiting room.

The girl with the weird growling stomach was gone. He flipped through several areas of the building, and she still didn't appear.
"Jocelyn, where did Kim go?" He asked her. She slid off of his back.

"She's spying." said Jocelyn.
"What do you mean?" asked Isaac.
"She's hiding, watching him from the shadows, just waiting to pounce!" The little girl squealed happily.

"Him?" said Jamie. "It must be-"
"Axel." finished Donovan. "That idiot has a death wish."

Isaac listened to them before continuing. "If it's just that guy, Kim should be able to handle herself just fine. I have nothing to worry about."

I couldn't help myself. I had to be nosy. It was in my blood.
"So who is this Kim?" I teased. When did you to meet? Why isn't she down here with you where you can protect her?" I smiled evilly and have him my legendary penance stare. He blushed and looked away.

"She doesn't need my protection." He said, ignoring the first two questions. "She's doesn't feel good, that's why she's upstairs sleeping."

Donovan looked back at the monitor, probably wanting to mention the weird, monstrous growling some we heard her make earlier.
Finally gaining common sense, he decided to keep it to himself.

Suddenly, the elevator door closed.
Everyone in the room went completely still, even Jocelyn. The bright white light activated, and Isaac's shoulders tensed up. After about ten seconds, it turned red.
"Excellent." murmured Isaac. He had a malevolent, sadistic smile on his face like he couldn't wait for someone to get hurt.

The elevator doors shook, then something suddenly dropped, a loud bang echoing across the room while the elevator kept plummeting down. From our point of view, I couldn't really see anything except that the doors were shaking. The sound grew fainter the farther out went down.
Finally, we heard one last loud crash from below, and Isaac clapped his hands together.

"Wait for it," he told us, smiling, one hand raised up near his ear.
The floor rumbled and started to steam.  The room grew warm, and I smelled gas. Everyone was looking at Isaac except Shaye, who was staring straight down with his eyes glowing.

Whatever was happening, it activated the sprinklers on the ceiling. To my surprise, Isaac's face dropped.
"Damn. He must've died during the fall."

Isaac walked over to the elevator and touched the wall. There wasn't anything there but as soon as he touched it a keypad showed up, lit up from inside the wall. The elevator door opened, so he must have lied earlier.

Even from where I was standing, I could see the orange red glow from the flames below.
"See? Fullproof." He told us.
At that moment, we all heard a scream that made us jump. Even Isaac​ jumped, and immediately looked down into the elevator pit. The voice screamed in agony again, and Isaac stared typing on the keypad.
"Nope, nope nope. Just die. Die."
The elevator began to close while we started hearing a pounding from below.

My first thought was that Axel was just hitting the wall in frustration but it seemed to get louder and closer to us, as if he was trying to get up.

"Isaac, um, what are the chances he can actually climb up?" I asked, looking over at the elevator, but refusing to get closer.
"I didn't think it was possible, obviously. I should've installed spikes!" He ran over to the leftmost corner of the lab and grabbed something that looks like a metal bat. "Whatever the case, he'll be seriously wounded anyways. This should be an easy kill."

Jamie and Donovan moved closer to the elevator, but Allen didn't move. I felt something brush against my leg, and when I turned I saw Jocelyn, the little girl. She looked scared, which made me wonder why the hell Isaac let her go play guard outside anyways.
"It's okay," I said trying to comfort her. "Isaac's going to take care of this." I didn't know her relationship with him, but I'm sure he was some time of father figure to her. I tried to pick her up, and she backed away. I guess she didn't want to be treated like a baby.

Axel, apparently, had reached the top. The pounding had stopped for a few seconds. And the guys, except Allen, had all tensed up, ready for action.

There was a sudden bang, and a fist shaped dent appeared  in the door. He struck again, making another dent. He did it a third time, a fourth time, and a fifth, but the pain must have been too much. His strength must have subsided, because the hits weren't making an impression.

He started screaming again, but this time, the line that separated the doors widened. He was trying to pry it open.
"As soon as we can see his face," said Donovan. "wack him with that bat. Between the eyes." He has a cruel, malicious look in his eyes, and Isaac was the same.

With a burst of strength, Axel wrenched the door open, and what I saw was... not Axel.
This was a different man, but he had been so badly burned I couldn't make out who it was.
He was skinnier than Axel, it looked like he hadn't eaten in days. His bones were clearly visible in his chest, his arm was badly broken, most likely from the fall. But that didn't stop him from climbing all the way back here. Smoke was still curling off of his body from the fires below, and he smelled so bad I could almost taste his burning flesh.

I started gagging, and Jocelyn moved even further from me, covering her mouth and nose as well. Meanwhile, Isaac was in mid swing when Allen yelled at the top of his lungs.
"WAIT! DON'T KILL HIM!"
Everyone looked at Allen, confused.
"Why not?" asked Jamie.
"That's not Axel!" He replied, running over to the elevator.

"Duh." said Donovan. "I saw that as soon as he opened the door. But he's a vampire, so he dies."
The vampire was struggling to hold himself up, his whole body was shaking from the effort. He was breathing quickly, and one of his eyes was half closed, or burned so badly it stayed that way.

"He's... He's kind of a good guy." Allen replied, only angering  Donovan further.
"What do you mean kind of?" He asked angrily.
He was about to grab the vampire by his throat, but Allen grabbed his hand and stopped him. "He didn't come to hurt any of us, I'm sure he just wants to tell me something."

"How do you know this, and how long have you know him? You've only been a werewolf for a week and a half, you know nothing about vampires and you don't know who you can trust." Donovan told him. He yanked his hand away.

"Don't count on us if you get kidnapped like Danielle, because I damn sure wouldn't want to save you."

Donovan backed away from the elevator, keeping his eyes locked on Allen's​.
Shaye moved up towards Donovan.
"Allen's right, this man came to speak to him. His name is Elijah."

Allen gave Shaye a wary look. I don't think he like how much Shaye knew about him.

A second passed and the man Shaye called Elijah started coughing. Allen reached down and helped him up, despite the fact that he was bloody and burned. He leaned him against the table, and Elijah tried to hold himself up.

"Why did you come here?" Allen asked him.
He seemed to struggle to respond, but he finally spoke. "I came to tell you," he said in a raspy voice. "That your friend Jacob is dead."