Gehenna
By Kaffy (me)

1. Discussion.
Kathrine sat with Max in the other room discussing the best way to help Devon
out of his torpor. The two mortals in the corner whimpered as they
realised they couldn't get away. "I know!", she said, "we could throw them in
there and tell them to pull out the stake." Max grinned. This was always
his kind of fun. Watching people suffer was what he did best. "Sounds
good to me." They lifted the two mortals and carried them to the other
room. They set them down and released the rope tying their hands
together. Kathie tilted her head and grinned at them. "Pull that stake
out silly person." "Nooo, please don't make me do this.." one of them
whimpered. Max aimed the shotgun at the one who dared answer. "DO IT!"
he commanded. The two mortals were so terror stricken that they dare not
defy Max's orders. Kathrine and Max watched as one of the mortals
gripped the stake with a shaky hand... and pulled...

2. Awakening.
Screams echoed around the small flat usually used for students. At this
rate it was going to be the messiest student house ever seen. Kathrine
whimpered as she heard Devon frenzy. Max grabbed a bag and ran from the
flat. Kathrine followed. Even from the corridor she could hear the sound
of bones snapping and her beloved Brujah shouting. not wanting to still
around she jumped down the stairs and ran to Max's car. They drove out
of the student flats and went to discuss what might possibly happen this
final evening.

3. Return.
They came back after a few hours.. when they knew Devon would be calmer.
Kathrine was worried about leaving him for too long.. who knows what
he'd do if she and Max was gone for too long. "Its time." she whispered.
Max looked at Devon. "Yeah. I know" he growled. "I wonder whether its
worth cleaning up in here," Kathrine thought to herself, "Naaah. I kinda
like it.. its like art deco or something." "Pretty colours, don'tcha
think?" she tilted her head at Devon, ran towards him and put her arms
round him to reassure him. "Come on, we'll all be okay. Either that or
die trying." Devon cleaned himself up just a bit.. and they wandered
down to the car on their way to the final encounter...

4. Meeting
They got as far as Aldenham Church before the car stopped. Nothing would
make it work. Max groaned, "My car.. doh.." "Come on we're running out
of time people," Kathrine said as she looked at her watch. "Well I guess
we're running out of time, its kinda hard to tell really." It had
stopped. "Strange," she thought and shrugged. They got out of the car
and waited under the trees for signs of unlife around the church area.
Kathrine pointed. "Look over there! Its Gillian!". She waved the last
surviving Toreador over. The four approached the church together....

.. and met with Johnathon Sloan, Jethro and Saville. "Saville, where's
Mellissa?" Kathrine asked. "I don't know," he shrugged. She sighed.
Silly Caitiff. Everyone looked at each other. "So this seems to be it
then?" John asked in his american drawl. "Yup 'cept for Mellissa I know
she there somewhere." Kathrine pouted. How come Mellissa was never
around when she wanted someone to talk too? 

5. Spirits
Kathrine looked around again. Something wasn't quite right. She thought she
heard a hissing noise. Where from though? Something touched her hair..
and pulled.. She screamed. What the freaking hell was that? "Guys?!, I
think we should move," she shouted, "and quickly". The thing touched her
face again. Ouch.. so icy cold it hurt.. She looked around for a way out
of the place. She hadn't noticed before but it seemed she wasn't the
only one affected by the floating things.. they were all around.
Johnathon and Jethro were busy crawling on the floor. Devon was firing
widly with the shotgun. "Devon, stop it! You'll get us all killed!" He
growled again.. which was becoming a habit by now. It worked though. He
stopped firing but held the gun up waiting for anything that shouldn't
be moving to move. Where was Max? Why couldn't she see him? "WHERE'S
MAX?!" Kathrine shouted. Saville gurgled and pointed into the church.
She ran in .. fingers were grabbing at her hair still.. yes tension was
definately mounting. She didn't want to have to be the person to stop
everyone panicking. Max was there lying on the floor. "MAX GET THE HELL
UP!" she shouted, "NOW!!" Max groaned as she tried to drag him up. She
helped him out of the church. "Let's get out of here." Everyone moved
away from the church....

6. Void.
.. and headed towards anywhere they thought safer. The 'floating things'
followed them down the road teasing them all the way. Johnathon looked
uneasy.."Marty? That you?" "Ignore it, Johnathon.. its not real"
Kathrine shouted. A few seconds later everything went black. Kathrine
called out, "Gillian, you there? You were there a minute ago.. you can't
just be gone now." "Kathrine, where are you? Can you hear me?" No-one
could even feel the ground anymore.. or sense each other. Total aloneness.
Then just as quick as the blackness had descended it vanished leaving
them back where they were. The seven looked around and saw the road they
were travelling down before the darkness had interupted their journey.
They continued walking in silence. Kathrine screamed.. "Madeline! No!!
You died last week its not you! Your hair's all wrong!" "Aaaah Kathy,
but you can feel me pulling your hair! and touching your arm! You can't
feel things that aren't real!" Kathrine whimpered and her legs crumpled
under her. She lay in a ball on the floor, mumbling to herself. "Come
on! Get up Kathy!". She wasn't sure who helped her up.. she presumed it
was Devon or Max. She looked around. "Hi Kathy! Its me, Cartek! Remember
me?" She rolled her eyes.. "Cartek! Don't worry we'll save you all!"
Kathrine turned to see who was behind her. They all were.. apart from
Gillian who was level with her. They were all suffering the spirits each
in their own way. She thought quickly and decided there wasn't time for
this. She grabbed Gillian's arm and ran.. fast as she could... 

****

7. Headstone

...towards the Headstone that Max had told her about earlier the same
day. She just hoped she could find it without too much hassle from the
guardians by the amphitheatre. "Gillian, do you know where the headstone
is?" "No," came the reply. "Ok, I think I know where it is. We'll find
it." They ran towards the trees and along the path. "I can't find it!"
Kathrine whined. "Its ok.. calm down, just keep looking" She knew it had
to be here somewhere. "Its not this way.. come back this way a bit
Gillian" Kathrine ran back up the path and searched between the trees.
There she stumbled on a particularly dark clearing between the trees. A
single solitary tree attempted growing in the centre of the clearing.
"Gillian its in here," she called, "The headstone is here but I can't
see it right now.. its too dark." Gillian came in. Kathrine looked out
through the gap in the trees. A bright light bobbed up and down in the
distance and it looked like it was heading this way. She remembered Max
had a big flashlight. Yes, it was Max! She called out, "Max!! Hey! Over
here!" The flashlight and some other figures ran up. Johnathon shouted at
Kathrine, "Get back! I'm warning you!" "John its ok! Its me! Kaffy..I'm
real!" Johnathon grabbed Kathrine's arm to make sure. Gillian came out
of the trees. "Thank heaven for that!" Johnathon said, "You're real
alright." Realisation dawned.. "Where's Devon?" "I don't know" one of
the figures said. "WHERE IS DEVON? WHAT HAPPENED?" Kathrine panicked..
she could see them all .. except for Devon. "Gotta keep going Kathy,"
her head told her. "Worry 'bout that later." She went back into the
trees with Gillian and Jethro. "Stay in here.. gotta stay in here" Jethro
mumbled. They sat in silence waiting. "Gotta wait for Thorogood. He
knows the ritual." Gillian screamed. Kathrine looked over. Hands..
hands.. nasty hands.. pulling Gillian under. She grabbed Gillians arm
and pulled. Jethro helped. Kathrine screamed too. She pulled harder and
the hands vanished. Kathrine ran out of the clearing. "Kathy? You
there?" a familiar voice called. "Devon?!" Kathrine jumped and ran to
him.. "Come on! Max is hurt!" he said impatiently. "Where's Max?" she
whined. Devon pointed to the two figures on the floor. "Lucky I came
when I did. He could have killed you all!" he said gruffly. Kathrine
kneeled down next to Max as Devon pulled out the stake. Kathrine leaned
over, took a bottle from her pocket and fed Max the last of the human
blood she had saved. He coughed and slowly opened his eyes. "Did you get
him Dev?" The other body on the ground was that of a Witch Hunter. That
was obvious from the crosses and the bible now lying on the floor.
Saville picked it up and began reading the marked pages....

8. Stars

They decided to move from the headstone.. and that the amphitheatre was
a safer place to wait. As they trudged down the path towards the
amphitheatre Kathrine saw a single figure on the edge of the path.
"Mellissa?!" The figure smiled grimly and wandered down the path.
Kathrine followed. They wandered into the amphitheatre. Kathrine sat on
one of the many steps. Mellissa and Saville sat down too. Devon wandered
to the other side of the amphitheatre and surveyed the trees, shotgun
aimed into the darkness. Johnathon came and sat down too. The two
gangrel that had been missing for days came down the path. Kathrine
smiled. She liked the gangrel.. didn't want them dead. They'd apparently
been off helping Thorogood find the Scarab for the ritual.
She sat and thought to herself about how things had gone lately. She
knew they'd win through somehow. She looked up into the sky.. she loved
the stars. But she didn't love what was happening now. She screamed. The
stars were moving. They were forming a snake.. and exploding and all
sorts of things which weren't normal. A huge white glow came from
nowhere. It exploded from the ground into the sky... and disipated. She
hadn't believed that anything could stop the Vampire race from being.
Now she wasn't so sure. She was one of the last 9 vampires in
existance.. was that enough to stop the world ending? Enough to stop
Gehenna? She wasn't sure but she felt that she had to at least try.
She heard a mumbling. She got up and wandered over to the small crowd of
vampires that had formed round a heap on the floor. It was Thorogood.
Mellissa was calming him down and trying to get some sense out of him.
Kathrine wandered back into her thoughts... they were cut short a few
moments later as Sebastian, the Tremere Primogen from Vienna wandered
in. "How can you be here? Vienna was wiped out days ago!" "I managed to
get away," he said.. not looking in the least bit tired...

9. Ritual

Thorogood spread the dust over the lamps and muttered away to himself.
"Gee," Kathrine thought, "he's madder 'n me." "We need seven people for
this." he said aloud. She stepped forward willingly. So did Johnathon,
Saville, Gillian, Mellissa, Devon and Matt (one of the gangrel). Jason
(the other gangrel) Max and Sebastian stood outside the circle. "Quickly,
quickly, we're running out of time!" Thorogood started chanting. The
circle closed their eyes as Thorogood lay down the scarab. The guardians
were silent. They had been stopped by Jethro. That had probably saved
them all.. at the cost of his own life. Kathrine didn't see it happen
and she was glad of this. She owed him a lot. They all did. He may have
been mortal but he really cared. Thorogood continued the ritual. Sebastian 
helped him along with the words. Sebastian didn't know the words. How could
he know the words? The vampires closed their eyes and willed their blood
to flow for the ritual. Casper formed from Sebastian. Casper Daekum.. the
Setite.. he had helped this mess along. Max screamed, "STOP THE RITUAL! 
BREAK THE CIRCLE!" He leaned forward and plunged a dagger into the nearest
vampire. Max fell back, the circle unbroken.. the vampire uninjured,
screaming in pain as his arm burnt to a crisp. The ritual ended, Casper
laughed and the scarab lifted up, and flew straight towards the gate.
Things were actually going right. The gate would be open when they got
there. Maybe the Morpheus would save them now. Casper thought he was
winning.. but he wasn't! He really wasn't as clever as he thought. 

10. Gate

They ran towards the gate. The last 9 of them.. The time was close. They
could all feel it. They stopped outside the huge stone archway that was
the gate. They looked into the gate. It was black.. so black.. darker
than darkest ebony.. darker than it would seem possible. A man.. with no
head.. came out of the blackness. He looked at them all. Pidantius... he
was possessed by the Bacci! How would they survive a possessed second
generation Vampire now!? They were all low on blood. The man pointed at
Casper.. who began to whimper and cry in pain. Things began happening
far too quickly. Mellissa, and Saville vanished. Had they made it?
Johnathon Sloan headed for the gate. Pidantius raised a hand at
Johnathon and a bolt of crackling energy leapt from his fingers and
threw the younger vampire off his feet and backwards 10 feet. Johnathon
lay there still.. he was in torpor. Devon aimed for the gate. "YOU! Yes
you," a hand pointed at Devon. "COME HERE NOW. Give me your blood!"
Devon's will broke and he headed to Pidantius. The old vampire put a
hand on Devon's head. Devon crumbled to dust then and there. Kathrine
screamed and lay on the floor whimpering. HOW DARE HE DO THAT TO THE
BEST PERSON IN HER LIFE! She hid behind a tree. Gillian crumbled. Max
lay on the ground delirious.. with no will, and almost no blood. The
gangrel vanished from Kathrine's side after attempts to reassure her
weren't working. Pidantius disappeared towards the gate. 

11. Realm

"Max?"
"Yeah?"
"Devon's dead. Johnathon's in torpor. And we're the only ones left here."
"Oh.. thats nice... " Max answered deliriously..
"Not really..."
The sand shifted... red sand... Kathrine looked up.. the sky was black..
she sighed. She knew in her heart that the rest had made it somehow. The
last 4 of them.. Saville, Mellissa, Matt and Jason. They had reached the
gate. Kathrine, Max and Johnathon were stuck in the realm of the Bacci..
the others may have won but she and the two here hadn't. Why hadn't she
walked to the gate with the gangrel? Because she knew she owed a lot to
the two brujah she used to hang out with.. Devon and Max...and she knew
they would be her downfall.. even though Max was a real survivor.

A single shot rang out over the sands.. there was no-one but Max to hear
it. Kathrine didn't want to be conscious when the Bacci claimed them..


C.Ockenden©1995