Braden ' Power of 3'
CHAPTER 5
THE BASEMENT
SATURDAY 13/3
JAMIE
"It's okay Jade, no one's up there, come on follow me." I said trying to reassure Jade as she looked up the attic stairs.
Grimly I ducked under the stairs and navigated my way through the cobwebs that hindered my every step down the mysterious corridor.
"Geez Jamie, look at that!" I heard Jamie exclaim as he rushed past me.
Ahead a door glistened in the lamplight. I couldn't believe my eyes it looked like it was made of steel.
Alarm bells rang in my head....Tuloosa!
"Jamie it looks like steel but it's soft and squishy and bounces back when you push it." Liam grunted as he tried with all his strength to force the door open.
"Stop Liam it's got some sort of time lock on it."
Gingerly I touched the strange symbols encircling it and reeled with shock as an electric current ran up my arm.
"What's wrong Jamie?" Katie asked anxiously.
"Here Jamie let me have a go!" Liam insisted, as I stood there still tingling from top to toe.
Suddenly the symbols encircling the time lock began to spin and the door slowly opened,
"Who did that?" Liam exclaimed.
Gingerly I stepped forward my legs felt like jelly but I had to see if there were stairs leading down to the basement. Choking on the pungent smell of decay I waved the lamp into the darkness.
"Come on guys there's stairs going down; maybe they lead outside!"
"We're not going down there Jamie! Someone must have opened that door. It could be a trap!" Jade croaked.
Ignoring Jade I clung to the damp stone wall beside me and began walking down the dark creaking stairs. I could hear the footsteps of my friends behind me and afraid we may have been heard signaled them to stop.
We stood there listening for any sign of movement below. My heart pounded as I thought of Tuloosa waiting ready to pounce and tear us apart.
The rustling of invisible creatures nestling in the crevices of the ancient wall beside me did nothing to alleviate my fears.
After what seemed like an eternity of silence we continued down those creaky stairs the flickering lamplight our only guide.
Sweat poured down my face as momentarily I hesitated on the last step trying to see into the shadowy darkness.
Suddenly light flooded all around us.
"There's someone down here" Katie gulped.
"Stay there I'll investigate." Liam said firmly and before I could stop him he rushed past me and disappeared through a huge doorway.
"Holy crap, you won't believe what's down here!" Liam exclaimed in horror.
Anxiously we ran to where Liam stood frozen, staring bug eyed at hanging headless disemboweled bodies dripping with blood. Grossly remnants of their guts clung to their skinned legs as they slowly spilled onto the maggot-riddled drains below.
Jade screamed and I quickly clasped my hands over her mouth begging her to be quiet.
"Oh my god I'm going to throw up!" Katie managed to utter as she began to heave.
Liam rushed to her side and glared at me angrily.
"Bloody hell Jamie you're a shithead. You knew those stairs would lead us here. What is this place?"
"Don't freak but I think its William Braden's old laboratory where he experimented on humans and bred humanoids and ... Tuloosa."
Jade looked up at me in terror and pulling my hands from her mouth ran for the stairs.
"Wait Jade, there's no way out upstairs remember?" I insisted as I grabbed her. "Look around you there's no one here. We must have stepped on something on the stairs that automated these lights.
Guys you have to keep your cool. There has to be a door somewhere in here that will take us outside. William Braden wouldn't have brought those villagers he kidnapped for his experiments through his mansion."
"I still say you're a shithead Jamie but I'm with you." Liam agreed grudgingly. "Come on let's move before whoever is butchering those bodies returns!"
Warily we walked on pass the rows of steaming phials filled with crimson liquid spinning silently atop curious metallic machines. Racks of skinned skeletal remains and decapitated heads riddled with maggots sat beside them and my stomach heaved from the stench.
Knives and strange metallic instruments hung above blood stained benches filled with books and instinctively I ran my hands over the dark imbedded stains. Nauseated I felt my fingers tingle and my hands began to reek of blood. Visions of terrifying experiments on children with featureless faces flooded my mind horrifying me as I saw their bodies contort with pain.
The merciless slaughter I saw permeated my rational being and I felt those faceless children's despair and suffering. Shaken I turned to the others, the horror of what I'd seen in my eyes and the acknowledgment of my powers written on my face.
'It's begun" I whispered.
"What's begun?" chorused Katie and Jade in a strangled whisper.
"Our powers, I've experienced them too Jamie" Liam's voice was almost inaudible as he stood there, a book in his hand "I've seen them...Aliens!"
Katie quietly took the book from Liam's hands and studied its ancient pages. "All I see Liam are drawings and instructions of the human anatomy" she said dubiously. "There aren't any drawings of aliens Liam." Katie insisted.
"They're not drawn there Katie, I saw them, like in a vision. The Aliens and a bearded man were experimenting on humans." Replied Liam shaken, unable to explain this extraordinary ability he now had.
Wide eyed we examined the hand drawn images on each page. The notations beside them were written in English and the symbols above were reminiscent of the symbols on the frame of Isobelle de Witt and William Braden's wedding portrait.
"Those notations had to be written by William Braden...look at the old fashioned writing style." Katie said earnestly.
"I'm not sure Katie the man in my vision didn't look like the painting upstairs of William Braden. He was older and was dressed in weird silver clothes like that man in the time machine we saw. I think it was him!" Liam exclaimed frowning deeply as he took the book back from Katie.
"It's no good, nothing's happening. Maybe I'm not meant to see anything more." Liam said tetchily.
"It's okay Liam, the answer is on the inside cover of the book. It's concealed by the first page, which is stuck to it. The inscription written there says 'the property of Jonathan Braden MD of the County Cork England." Katie affirmed.
Eagerly Liam freed the page and stared in amazement at the inscription. "You're right Katie! How did you do that?"
"I don't know, it just came to me!" Katie replied shakily.
"Katie, you have the powers too!" Jade said in awe.
I could see Katie was overwhelmed by the realization and didn't know how to respond. I too felt the same. I knew now that what we'd experienced when that hall clock had struck the thirteenth hour hadn't been an illusion created by Swasie it had actually happened, but why? Why had our powers been given to us in this way? I agonized.
"Jamie, do you think this book belonged to William Braden's father?"
"Its possible, dad wrote in his diary that William Braden's father was a doctor and his name was Jonathan."
"Maybe he is the man you saw in your vision. Liam!" Katie exclaimed breathlessly.
"Could be Katie ...but what I saw happened centuries ago. So who is using this book now?" Liam said huskily.
"Let's get the hell out of here!" Katie screamed.
"Wait guys, look what I found!" Jade said ignoring her as she caressed the cover of small leather bound book. "This tiny book is filled with spells and potions. Wow! I can learn how to be a witch." she declared gleefully, promptly placing it in her jeans pocket.
"No, don't do that Jade.... leave everything as it was!" Katie insisted as she tried to take it from her.
I tried to intervene and in the struggle fell against the wall behind me.
"Gees Jamie look!" Liam exclaimed as the wall slid open revealing a sterile l
ooking room with walls and floor made of steel.
Nothing could prepare us for what we found there. Beneath bright lights rows upon rows of enormous glass cylinders hung suspended from long silver tubes. Within them weird embryonic creatures floated gently, breathing in what appeared to be a life giving fluid.
Wide eyed we walked among them gazing at their featureless faces and their humanlike bodies too stunned to speak.
Suddenly a low humming sound began emanating from a huge glass incubator and as we approached it began to revolve.
I gasped, inside were three red haired teenagers a girl and two boys encased in a translucent cocoon. Horrified I looked into their lifeless eyes and shuddered.
"Do you think they're dead Jamie?" Katie whispered compassionately.
"Come away Katie, don't look it's too horrible to even think!" Jade exclaimed as she turned away.
"Gees... look at their skin it's transparent and I can see every vein in their body!" Liam cried out excitedly as he peered into the incubator.
"And they look you three!" Jade said hoarsely.
Speechless I nodded.
I couldn't bring myself to voice the horrifying question...why did they look like us?
"What do you make of it Jamie?" Liam asked fearfully. "Do you think they are William Braden's experiments that survived?"
"Liam, I know of only one and that's Tuloosa who was imprisoned here. I reckon that's why that weird door is at the top of the stairs. It must have been put there to prevent him entering the mansion."
Suddenly a loud rumbling noise resounded throughout the basement. Terrified we hid behind the incubator. We waited our hearts pounding. Hours seemed to go by as we sat there choking on the odious vapour exuding from the glass phials on the metallic bench nearby, still no one appeared.
"We have to get out of here Jamie." Katie whispered huskily her voice contorting from the sinister vapour that was threatening to overwhelm us.
"Come on Jamie there's no basement door in here. I say we take our chances and head for the stairs!" Liam declared forcefully.
Silently we nodded in agreement and one by one ran for the stairs. Up we flew as if our pants were on fire only to find the huge door slammed shut. No matter how hard we pushed it wouldn't open.
Terrified we heard that rumbling noise again and the stairs began to shake.
"We're going to die!" Jade cried.
"Be quiet Jade, look, down there at the bottom of the stairs, the wall is opening!" Liam whispered hoarsely.
We huddled together on the stairs, waiting, watching, but nothing happened.
"Jamie." Liam whispered. "I'm going to take a look; it might be a way out."
Before I could stop him Liam crept down the stairs.
With bated breath we watched as he peered into the opening.
"It's okay guys it's a tunnel and I can see to the end, there's no one there. Maybe William Braden smuggled his captives into his laboratory through here. Let's get going before whoever made this wall open appears. Come on, let's go for it!"