Chapter 10

The girl who stood before her, for the first time, hesitated. How did she know? Was she there? Thoughts ran through the earl's head.

"Now dear, would you like to see your brother again?" Abaddon's hypnotical hiss pierced Victoria's ears. A force pushed her backwards and pain seared through her. She lay there on the ground unmoving until a hand lifted her off the ground and set her on her feet gently.

"Let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we?" the voice pierced her ears once more.

Upon opening her eyes, she saw that day. The day she lost everything.

The streets of London, the Moore family had just left the Fantom Confectionery shop. Lucius and Mariah Moore smiled down at the 10 year old Vincent and Victoria, holding a candy cane each.

14 year old Victoria stood next to Abaddon, a silent tear running down her cheek.

The Moore family had sat back in their carriage, heading home for the day. The landscape changes to when the carriage was halfway through London, when a lit cigar is thrown at the carriage, the flames quickly enveloping it. The wheels broke down from the flames and the carriage turned over. The horses broke free of the reins and the driver hurried off, screaming. The four were trapped inside.

Suddenly a man came running out onto the street and broke open the flaming door, pulling out the children, limp in his arms. "These two dead?" he called back into the alley.

"Nah," another man emerged from the alleyway. "Just fainted. But they'll make a pretty penny."

And without another word, the two left the site as locals emerged from their houses and the shops onto the street.

Abaddon and Victoria saw the locals try to douse the fire, but Lucius and Mariah were gone.

A mist formed over the picture, an image seen through the milky white. The two men gave the unconscious children to two other men, each having a pentagram-like tattoo on their neck. The men with the tattoos handed the kidnappers a couple of tens.

The image changed again. A rundown workhouse stood in front of them, the two men who bought the twins ran in, one child with each man. The men entered the building, opened a door behind a pile of boxes and rushed down the stairs.

"The boss will be happy."

"A pretty set for him, eh?"

They entered a room painted bone white, a massive dome painted as the night skies overhead.

Victoria stifled a gasp. Abaddon smirked at the child's discomfort.

The men ran into an adjoining room, filled with men, at least five of them dressed in long black hooded robes.

"What do you have?", one of the hooded figures asked.

"A pretty set of twins. A lad and a lass. Completely identical," the man holding Vincent replied, smiling.

"Let us see them, then," the hooded figure gestured to a table in the middle of the room.

The men placed the unconscious children down gently.

The hooded figures turned back to the men immediately after seeing the children. "Are you trying to fool us? These ones seem dead!"

The men stumbled backwards. The taller of the two of them said, "No, no boss! They're just unconscious."

Just then, Vincent started to cough and opened his eyes. It took him a moment to realise where he was. He shot straight upright. "Where's my mother and father?! Where are we?! Take us home!"

"Aah," one of the hooded figures said. "So you weren't lying."

Vincent seemed terrified. He started shaking his sister. "Vicky! Vicky, wake up!"

Victoria saw herself groaning and getting up, realising just like her brother, that they were not home.

"Vin? Vin, where are we? Who are you?" she demanded at the hooded figures and the men.

"My, we have a feisty one," a hooded figure moved closer to the table. "Perfect for our vessel." He reached out to touch Victoria, when her brother slapped his hand away and pulled his sister closer.

"Don't you dare touch her!"

They could almost feel the hooded figure smirking. "Ah, both are feisty. Yes, yes.", he suddenly turned around to face one of the men. "You, take them to the cage room! And torture them." he bent his head in the most devilish manner. "Torture them so they will be ready to be our demons!"

The present Victoria rounded on Abaddon. "Must you make me see this vile past?!"

Abaddon gave a smug look. "Ah, so it does trouble you. I was hoping it would."

Victoria's eyes widened, but she hid her shock behind her rage. "You. YOU BASTARD!" she yelled as she lunged towards the angel. A second before her fist landed on Abaddon, her body froze. She struggled to move, forcing herself to punch that smirk.

"Oh, dear Victoria. Did you really think I had not expected you to fight?" Abaddon asked in a teasing tone. "You cannot touch me. So now, watch what happens next, my dear. I am curious to see how this turns out."

An invisible force turned Victoria's head back to face the scenes. The room dissolved into another room. A very dark room. A child could be seen huddled in a cage, trying to push its hand out to a table on the other side of the room. The child was Vincent. On the table, Victoria lay unconscious, bloody marks all over her delicate skin. A group of men in masks stood around the table. A bloody whip lay in the corner of the room.

The scene dissolved to the cage again. Vincent was looking at the still partially open wounds on his sister's back.

"Vin, it hurts," she whimpered to him.

"I know. It'll have to heal," he said in a soothing voice, pushing the shirt Victoria was wearing back down.

The two perked up at the sound of the door creaking open. "Time to whip the other one," a gruff voice said.

The twins were huddling against each other in the corner furthest from the cage door, Victoria pushing Vincent behind. The men opened the creaky door and grabbed Victoria again. They dragged Victoria back to the table and began whipping her, not even caring to check if she had already been through the torture. After two lashes, it was clear that Victoria had lost consciousness. Vincent was screaming from the cage, trying to get their attention. All one of the men did was kick the cage to shut him up. Victoria was given 5 whippings and then doused in water. They then chained her down to the table and began to walk away.

"How much torture do the dark ones want for these children?" one of the men asked.

"Well, if they are to host the demon, a broken body is required as a vessel," a raspy voice answered.

The picture dissolved to the giant chamber again. Victoria was visibly shaking at the sight of it. "Ah! I was here for this. Or perhaps it was right after?" Abaddon faced Victoria, a mischievous glint in her eyes. The young girl couldn't face the angel as her mind fixated on the scene in front of her.

The hooded figures stood around the outside of the inner ring of the room. One of them, presumably the head, stepped forward. He raised his arms above his head.

"Welcome, my friends. We shall finally have our demons after our long wait! Behold!", he said and pointed to the twin's cage at the side of the room. The two of them were clutching each other with fear. But when the men weren't looking, Vincent pressed something shiny into Victoria's palm.

"Now, we shall begin!" a man came to the cage and grabbed Vincent. While he struggled and kicked at them, he was far over powered. The men chained him to the ceremonial marble table at the center of the room. Vincent tried to force himself out of the chains. Meanwhile the hooded figures had begun chanting in an ancient dialect.

The room started dimming, the stars on the ceiling faded to be replaced with a blood red eye, with a black slit down the center for a pupil. Black and red vapours began forming around the marble table, growing thicker as the chanting grew louder.

Victoria remembered how it pierced her ears as a child. "Stop, stop, STOP!" Victoria's voice rose to a scream on the last word. But the chanting went on.

The vapors rose to the ceiling and, like lightning, came down crashing into Vincent. The room lit up, one could hear the boy gasp in pain, and then fall silent. From the corner of the room, in her cage, Victoria was screaming for Vincent. "No, no, no! Give me my brother back! Give me Vincent back!"

The hooded figures moved to the table and crouched over the boy. They rose back a moment later. One of them gestured for one of the men to take the boy away and another to come to him. The hooded figure said something to the man and moved to the cage. He unlocked and grabbed the thrashing Victoria. He pushed her onto the table while other men moved forward to tie her down.

"The first one's always a mistake," she heard one of the men whisper. Tears were streaming down the sides of her face into her ears.

The men moved back and the chanting began again. Victoria thrashed and screamed the whole time. Screaming for her parents, shrieking for her brother. Once again, the vapors came down. Pain seared through her.

The older Victoria gasped and doubled over in pain, for she felt it again. A single tear rolled down her pale cheek.

The light faded. One could see the body on the table, the tendrils of vapor slowly rising in small wisps of red and black. She looked like a doll, her pale limbs limp and unmoving, her chest perfectly still. Her tears glistening on her cheeks.

The hooded men moved towards her. Just as they bent over to see their creation, her eyes shot open. One a gentle brown, the other, blood red with pentagram embolized on it in raven black.

In shock, they moved backwards, some tripping over their robes. Victoria howled as the energy that had transmitted to her released itself into the room, cutting through each person's heart. As the light faded from each person's eyes, the black tendrils of darkness once again settled in Victoria's being.

She slowly pulled herself upright and opened her fist where Vincent's last gift to her lay. The Moore family ring.

The image blurred and moved to the night Lucian lost the bet. A pub where Victoria had disguised herself as a boy for the first time. Lucian grabbed at his hair as he lost the game and followed Victoria out into the streets in defeat as the others jeered at him.

The image almost disappeared altogether, only to show a small glimpse of Lucian and Victoria reaching the manor and Camille and Robert rushing out to embrace their young master. In the background, one could see Lucian's mouth hanging open as he stared at the vastness of the manor.

The images disappeared. Ah, but for good measure, Abaddon thought as two final images formed. The circus and the night Abaddon gave Victoria her scar.