Sunny said, "but we expect her at any moment."
"I would like to talk with her when she arrives."
"Yeah, sure. Meanwhile, let's have a celebration! Par-tay!"
"Settle down, ya spaz!" Eile carped.
She grinned for a moment, but then she remembered why she came. "Could I speak with Henry first? Alone?"
"Yeah, okay, we got 'im up here." Eile went into the stairwell, followed by Sunny, and Differel brought up the rear. She expected to come out on the upper floor, but instead they passed the third floor and emerged onto the roof of the rotunda. It had been built as an open terrace for entertaining guests, with a spectacular panoramic view of the surrounding mountains. She spotted Henry sitting at a table under an awning, playing with a laptop computer.
"Why did you keep him up here?"
"We did some research before we came out here," Sunny said, "and we discovered that the Cenobites can create chains with hooks that come outta walls. So we decided he'd be safer up here, and we could get him away with the ultralight if we had to."
Actually, that made sense, though whether it would have worked was another matter.
"Spend as much time with him as you want," Eile said, "then bring 'im downstairs. We'll have a quick snack and plan the party."
"Thank you; for everything."
"Heh, no sweat, Diff." Then she and Sunny went back downstairs.
She approached the table and he looked up at her. He grinned and waved, happy to see her again, but she noted a trace of hesitancy, as if he realized it wasn't going to be a completely joyous reunion.
She sat down on one side as he closed the laptop. "The Cenobites are gone, Henry. Dr. Mabuse found a way to send them back to their realm. You needn't worry about them coming back."
"Thank you."
"My pleasure. But I'm afraid there are still consequences that need to be dealt with."
"Yes, Mother."
"This is the second time you've found something in the manor and tried to keep it a secret from me. The first time I let it slide because I thought you had learned a valuable lesson, but this time could have been disastrous. I'm afraid I'll have to punish you."
"Yes, Mother, and I understand."
"Do you really mean that?"
"Yes, I had a long talk with Aunt Eile and Sunny after we arrived. I realize how much danger I put everyone in. I'm sorry for that, but I also know that's not enough. I will take whatever punishment you believe is appropriate, but I also give you my word that I will never do that again."
Despite her resolve, she felt pride swelling up inside her. If he was sincere, he had done a lot of growing up in such a short time, and she believed he was sincere. At least, if he wasn't, that would constitute a more serious deception than anything he had perpetrated before, and she wasn't prepared to assume that.
She smiled to reassure him. "Very well, I accept your promise, and for that, your punishment will be to spend just one weekend washing dishes in the scullery instead of for a whole week. But if you ever break your word, not only will I be very disappointed, but you'll do dishes for a fortnight. Understand?"
"Yes, Mother."
She nodded. "Good. We'll postpone your punishment until next weekend. Meanwhile, the Girls want to celebrate our victory. They said that when we were finished we were to come down to discuss plans."
"Okay." They stood up, but about half way to the stairwell Henry stopped.
He looked up at her with a distressed expression. "I'm really sorry I put you in danger. I love you, and I don't want to lose you, ever."
She felt surprised for a moment, but then a mixture of affection and sadness swept over her. She knelt in front of him and they embraced.
"I love you too, Henry, and you will never lose me. I won't allow it to happen."
She heard and felt him sobbing quietly into her shoulder, and she couldn't help shedding a few tears herself.
They decided that the celebration would be postponed until Sunday, and that it would be held at her manor in Norfolk, that way Henry wouldn't suffer from time-lag that could interfere when he returned to school on Monday. They planned to head back in a couple of hours, but after they ate, the Girls arranged for Henry to play some video games to give her a chance to talk with them. She felt grateful for that. They sat on the rotunda roof around a fire pit, to give her an opportunity to smoke. She knew they hated smoking, so she was doubly grateful they allowed her that special indulgence.
She related everything that had happened, including the report she took from Holt while they ate.
"So the jar-brain got away, huh?" Eile said.
"Yes, but Dr. Mabuse is confident she can trace her. She's already found a company that formulates a fluid that could bathe the brain. With any luck we'll be able to locate this new enemy in short order. Meanwhile, the only Celestine Mirbeau Dupree that Aelfraed could find lived in the eighteenth century, so either that is just another alias, or we're dealing with a singular individual."
"We're just glad you escaped being tortured for all eternity!" Sunny squealed.
She didn't respond, but she realized an odd look must have crossed her face when Eile said, "What?!"
"I'm not sure how to say this, or if I should say anything at all, but if I can't confide in you two I have no one else. Do you remember Pinhead saying I had a dark soul, and could make a Cenobite?"
"Yeah, but you don't really believe that, do you?"
"At that time I would have said no, but now I'm not so sure."
"Buuuuut, why?!" Sunny asked.
"You know about my BDSM fantasies."
"Sure, but most people have 'em, even Sunny and me. That doesn't make you a Cenobite."
"I doubt more than a few have fantasies as dark as mine, but what made me reconsider was that, as I hung suspend in those chains, in the midst of the most horrific pain I had ever felt, I also felt pleasure more intense than anything I had previously experienced, even with Victor."
She paused, not sure whether to voice her final thought, but finally decided to forge ahead. "For a moment, the briefest of fleeting moments, I hoped it would never end."
The Girls glanced at each other with appalled expressions, but she couldn't blame them. Were she in their shoes, listening to their experience, she would have been disgusted as well. But then they did something unexpected, much as they always did: they got up, came around the pit, sat down on either side of her, and embraced her. After a moment she tossed the cigarillo into the pit and hugged them back.
Sunny had once told her, some years before, that friends didn't judge, they gave comfort. Never was she more grateful of that than at that moment, or thankful that she had friends as loving as them. Along with her love for Henry, it allowed her to believe that there was still some good in her worth cherishing.
One month later...
Differel paused outside the Palace of Westminster to light a cigarillo. She had just completed her semi-annual address to the House of Lords on paranormal matters in the United Kingdom. She never stayed for the complete session. Despite being the Dowager Viscountess of Dunwich, her right to sit in Parliament came from her Life Peerage, which she still barely acknowledged, and politics had never been her strong suit; that had always been Victor's talent. Even so, she had duties and responsibilities, like it or not, and she was nothing if not diligent.
"Lady Dunwich?"
She turned around. "Yes?" An elderly man confronted her, clean-shaven, patrician-featured with blue eyes, wearing an impeccably tailored slate-gray three-piece suit, with a bowler hat, a white carnation in a lapel button, and an umbrella clutched in his left hand.
The epitome of the stereotypical British politician.
"I'm sorry, do I know you?"
"No, My Lady."
"Sir Differel will suffice, Mister--?"
"I am the Engineer."
She raised an eyebrow, but in the same instant noted the faint phosphorescent blue tint to his corneas, and as the slight breeze shifted she caught the scent of vani
lla over a sickly garbage stench.
A Cenobite! "Bloody hell."
"No fear, I merely wish to present you with a gift." He held out his hand. The Lament Configuration sat on the upturned palm. "For when this existence no longer satisfies."
She took an involuntary step back. "I gave that to Mayv Hairrayn! How did you get hold of it?"
He only smiled in a fatherly fashion, and extended his hand. She hesitated, calculating the consequences, but finally decided it would be better if she had possession of it instead of someone else. She picked it up, and as she looked at it, she saw faces reflected in the smooth polished surface.
When she focused on the Engineer again, he had already walked away.
"Wait!"
He stopped and turned to look back at her.
"Why give this to me?"
He smiled again, but in a cold, harsh manner. "It has always been yours." He tipped his hat, and his skin glowed with a fiery white light, blinding her. When it faded, he had vanished, but the weight of the box in her hand remained, informing her he had been real.
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For more information on Eile and Sunny, Team Girl, see the official site [https://www.teamgirlforever.com/].
For more information on Sir Differel Van Helsing and the Caerleon Order, see the official site [https://www.sir-differel.com/].
Back to TOC
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Postface
For purists who may object to various aspects of the story, several points need to be kept in mind. The willingness of the Cenobites to spare Henry when they first arrive is based on their reluctance to claim Tiffany in the movie Hellbound: Hellraiser II.