Midnight Circus

Chapter 4 - Lucius

Lucius: 

His crusty eyelids peeled open, disclosing the hollow of his sockets; long spider fingers twitched and clawed at the mold infested ground. He jerked at the vexatious restraints. The sudden movement caused some portion of his brittle decayed flesh to stretch distastefully, to tear, and ultimately slip off his bones. 

For the first time in centuries, Lucius felt something from beyond the squalid cellar, a slender pull from a source unknown, tugging tenderly onto his essence, awakening him from dormancy.

In the beginning, Lucius ignored it for he believed it to be a dream, a figment of his broken imagination, a maddening hallucination that seduced him to awakening--only to have him face the wretched reality. 

But the feeling continued to intensify--the subtle tugging at his soul became a disorienting yank--until it become quite impossible to neglect. 

Curious, Lucius channeled in on the mysterious force field with his mind, laboriously pinpointing the origin. He glided through the empty darkness and stopped at the stoned wall--the border of the enchantment. The magnetic pull was coming from somewhere beyond that wall. Lucius placed all of his focus on it.  

Suddenly, he saw a vivid path, made by the aberrant force field, paving out of the torture chamber. 

When Lucius realized that the weakening enchantment can no longer contain him, he frantically held onto whatever it was, desperately clinging  onto its' tail. But as he did, he felt himself being ripped from his body and sucked into a void.

It was too late for him to turn back. 

The next minute everything went black. 

*****

Lucius popped opened his eyes and vigilantly surveyed his surroundings. No longer was it the suffocating vault, but a large storage room, dimly-lit, the four walls were lined with large stone bricks, some old crates occupied the room. There were no windows, only an open door way. Light shone from somewhere outside. 

It bloody worked! 

At last, he had manage to escaped the prison that had him sealed away from the world for over a century. Now, Lucius had to figure out what was going on, whom did he possessed at the very moment. He felt different for sure. He felt smaller. He felt strange. 

It seemed that someone was carrying him. He peered up to see a woman, thin face, hair wild with knots and split ends, brown eyes wide and unruly. The women mumbled incoherent words while scrambling about the room. 

Lucius shut his eyes and tried to transfer his soul again, to possess the deranged human who was swinging him roughly back and forth, but something locked him in, preventing him from moving into a new vessel. Lucius remained static in the woman's arms, trying to comprehend what was happening. 

She proceeded to run around wildly. 

He was really to hit the person out of annoyance, when two brawny men came rushing through the door way. 

A third man came walking in behind them. His hair was dark, his eyes piercing green, his skin pale as snow. 

Adrian. 

Lucius recognized the man. He wanted to punch the bastard's face but had refrained from doing so. As of now, Adrian did not seem to have recognized him.

"Marie, hand me the doll," said Adrian when he was standing in front of her. 

Doll?

The crazed women huddled in the corner, trashing her head from side to side. She gripped firmly onto Lucius.