667 Issue #10: "Old Wounds"
Subject #208: Claire Grant

Violet had come to rescue me, but now she was just another captive.

Rey was on her in an instant and had her plastered up against the wall, facing out towards his little makeshift altar.

“What do we have here? How did you get down the well?” He sniffed at her neck and Violet closed all of her eyes.

She then spat in his face, but he hardly flinched.

“Now, that’s not nice. I should have just taken you and Claire at the same time: more blood, more power.” He back handed her after he spoke, but Violet didn’t cry out.

“I won’t help you get the last relic, Rey. I won’t help you finish whatever it is you started.” I defied him as I tried to pull myself from my frozen position, but my feet wouldn’t budge.

Rey went over to the altar and withdrew a silver cup from inside a bag.

“I don’t need you to help me get the last relic, Claire. I thought you were smarter than this…we’re standing in the last relic.” Rey took the chalice over to a stone fountain attached to the side of the wall with the depiction of a stag adorned with giant antlers spewing water from its mouth. He filled the cup with liquid and then brought it over to the altar.

Then it dawned on me. I glanced over at Violet to see that she already understood.

The Holy Grail that he was looking for wasn’t a cup—it was Chalice Well itself.

“I have all the artifacts, I have the chalice, and now I have the blood of Christ.” Rey chuckled to himself as he arranged everything in a certain order, “Now, let the ceremony begin!”

A million things were whirling around in my head, the final thought being where the hell was the rest of Violet’s friends.

Violet had been silent up until this point, but when Rey snatched me by the wrist and dragged me over to the altar kicking and screaming, she finally spoke.

“How’s Hell been treating you, Rex?”

Rey’s head snapped in her direction as he flung me to the cold stone floor and glided up to her, wrapping his fingers around her jaw.

“Who are you?” He hissed in her face.

I had no idea why she was calling him Rex, but he responded to the name—another lie that I was just now discovering.

“What? Don’t you recognize me? Is it the third eye? Maybe the white hair or purple skin? I thought you said you’d recognize me in Hell after a thousand years of being apart.” An almost terrifying smile crept across Violet’s face.

She momentarily shifted into her ginger haired persona and back again. Rey gripped her by the arms and tore her from the wall before slamming her harshly up against it.

“You little cunt. You’re one of them? This is even better! It’s like fucking Christmas!” Rey hooted as he grabbed Violet by the throat and dragged her across the room to the altar. He slung her down with such force on top of it that she cried out, the wind being knocked clear out of her.

I wanted to rush to her aid, but I was stuck again, plastered to the floor.

Violet’s head must have been reeling as it lolled back on the edge of the stone. She tried to open her eye, but Rey picked up a piece of the Spear of Destiny and was just going to gouge out her eye permanently when I shrieked.

The scream was so loud that Rey dropped the spear and all the candles were blown out at once. Someone started banging on the other side of the door that led to the room and crying out for me and Violet

“Now, Claire. What in the actual fuck? Always making things so goddamn difficult.” I could hear Rey in the dark and Violet still groaning atop the altar.

I was finally able to move, whether Rey had released me or I had regained control of my body remained to be seen. I could see him scuffling around in the dark, his heat signature a blazing red as I backed towards where the door was.

“Don’t let him scare you, Claire! Fight him! You’re stronger than he thinks you are. He underestimates you, just like he underestimated me.” Violet called out, but I could see that she was still stuck to the stone.

Rey spun to return to her just as I found the door and wrenched it open.