Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Thank you. *Phantomness bows*
Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks
Chapter 7
Brock rushed down to the fifth cellar, the lowest level of the Opera House, a trip that took him a good two hours to make, distance-wise. Hadn’t Ashline mentioned something about a lake?
Yes, of course…
Ashline struggled slightly as Lance dragged her down the labyrinthine hallways until she was back in her room in the house. He threw a wedding-dress at her and snapped out an order to change.
Ashline hastily complied, too frightened to protest… outside, she heard the organ start up again, violent music flinging itself against the walls of the house in agony and despair… she began to feel faint…
When she came to, she was dressed in the wedding-gown and laid on a divan. Lance was not looking at her, his eyes fixed upon the mantelpiece…
“Lance…”
“You were the one who took me to bed first, dear child…” Lance’s voice sounded wrong, as if he had swallowed broken glass.
“I didn’t want you to know that I was…” He smiled, “A monster, but you were the one who touched me…”
“I…” Ashline swallowed with difficulty. “What are you going to do to me?”
“I am giving you a choice.” Lance said.
“What?”
“The wedding mass or the requiem mass?”
Ashline blinked. Lance sighed and showed her to the mantelpiece. “Look in those two black caskets on the mantelpiece, there’s nothing else up there. Here is the key to open them. There you will find a scorpion and a grasshopper, both cleverly done in Japanese bronze. They will say yes or no for you. The Scorpion for yes, the grasshopper for no… and the decision shall be made by eleven o clock tonight. A word of warning though… the grasshopper not only turns, it hops, and it hops jolly high!”
Without another word, Lance left…
Meanwhile, Brock had fallen into the torture chamber…
“I won’t let you win…bastard! Let her go!” He banged on the thick-mirrored glass with his fists, but to no avail…
The mechanism beneath began to stir…
Flames began to lick at the glass, and the temperature began to rise…
Brock began to sweat…
Ashline studied the two little creatures. They were very detailed, but how would that help the situation she was in now?
She hesitated…
Scorpion for yes, grasshopper for no… was it really so simple?
Love is a scorpion’s paralyzing poison…
So a scorpion to represent love is most apt!
He laughed.
The little viscount wouldn’t get out of his torture chamber that easily… oh he would suffer… but love makes one suffer, does it not?
Of course it does!
Why else would… no matter…!
Ashline began to tremble as the horrible music began again – so Lance had returned. What was wrong? They were just… she had no idea what they did, her hand reached for the grasshopper to say no, and then a scream…that sounded like… Brock!
She froze. “Lance! What have you done?”
Mocking laughter drifted out from around her. “Why nothing… it’s his own fault for trespassing into the barriers of hell…”
“Lance! What did you do?”
“As if you really deserve to know, my little Pandora…”
“Please tell me….”
“Oh, I don’t think I will, Ashline…”
“But… why?”
“Because love is cruel.” He closed the score as he smiled. “It’s finished.”
“Please, Lance, I’ll…”
“You’ll what? Kiss me? Make me believe that everything’s all right? I don’t think so. You’ve fooled me once already, Delilah, but I won’t let you fool me again…”
“Lance… I’ll… I’ll marry you if that’s what you want…”
“Well, perhaps I’ve decided I don’t want that!” Lance shouted. “Perhaps I don’t want a cringing mouse, a pretty little virgin sacrifice! Don’t you understand? I don’t want your love if you don’t love me! Get that through your thick skull!”
The wails of pain increased in volume…
Lance’s eyes began to glint madly. “Tis enough. It’s nearing eleven, Ashline, and if by that time, you have not turned the scorpion, I shall turn the grasshopper, and then everyone will be dead and buried!”
He left her in the room and she heard what sounded a pistol shot. Running towards it, she found Lance standing impassive against a strange, six-sided chamber, the entire walls which were mirrors, radiating heat… she swooned slightly…
“Oh my, my, the little viscount is seeing lions now.” Lance mocked. “Perhaps he needs some rain to help him before he dehydrates. Yes, perhaps…”
And then from another device came a clattering, a dripping feeling, it resembled the sound of rain… and in the chamber, Brock howled as he tried to find the rain that didn’t exist…
The torture chamber was a simple device. There was only one adornment – the iron tree that stood in the middle of the chamber. Death was the only escape, whether by shooting or hanging oneself from said iron tree. Heated to the temperature of a furnace, within a few hours, even the hardiest man or woman would find death attractive…
Brock didn’t seem like he’d hold out much longer.
“Lance… please…”
“You are irritating me.”
“I’ll marry you! I’ll…”
“And if I let him out you’ll be free? I don’t think so, Ashline… not at all… are you planning to stab me in the back once I do that? After all, he’s the one you love, isn’t me? Oh my, are you surprised? But my dear! You know you can’t hide anything from me, not after you lost this…”
Ashline paled as Lance held out the ring… the gold ring she had lost…
“How-how did you find it?”
“That would be telling.”
“Isn’t there anything I can do?”
“No.”
Ashline began to cry. “What’s happened to you, Lance? I’m sorry I unmasked you, but even so-!”
“Since I look like a monster I might as well act like one! Didn’t you say so yourself?” Lance spat. “Your time is running short, mademoiselle… why don’t I tell you something interesting then, since we’re about to find out the truth anyways?”
“What…”
End Chapter
Completed 7/30/05
Insane! Lance = yay
^^ Phantomness is happy