A Monster Inside - Book of the Amulet - ITV's Jekyll and Hyde

17 - Stolen Promises

'I need your broken promises/ I want the guts and glory/This town is wasted and alone//But we are alive/Here in death valley//We're gonna die/It's just a matter of time/Hard times come/Good times go/ I'm either gone in an instant//Or here 'til the bitter end/I never know

- Death Valley

:/:

"We better be going", Keres had lilted to his mother just before they left. Evelina hadn't answered, just muttered something blasphemous under her breath. Hyde had just nodded his goodbye, before opening the portal back up and stepping through it back into the Land of the Living.

"I need a drink", Hyde murmured, sliding the sword back into his belt. "Know a place?"

"Yeah. There's one around the corner that shut down a few weeks ago. Called the Empire", Keres replied, and Hyde strode off in the direction she was looking. Keres didn't bother to follow. Through her eyes that wandering beast could go and drink himself to death if she got the Instruments. And anyway, she had been rather clever about her choice in location. The Tenebrae building was only a few blocks away; she could go and surprise Captain Dance. Stheno, the Gorgon, crept out of the shadows behind her. "Is it done?" Keres asked, not turning around.

"Yes, Ma'am. It took some effort, I have to admit, but it is done. The Greater Demon Abbadon has been procured, and is in the Puzzlebox", she hissed back.

"What is their progress?"

"They have completed the final puzzle, both of them. But, it's doubtful they will get out in one piece after Abbadon has had his go at them".

"Good. Now come on. Let's go and pay Dance a visit", she exclaimed, and walked away, with Stheno skulking behind her.

:/:

"This is the Empire?" Hyde asked himself, toying with the unlocked padlock on the front doors. Someone had been here, or someone was here. The jade coloured paint had started to peel around the handles and through the windows it looked like it hadn't been visited in ages. Pulling off the chain around the handles, he flung the doors open to see Olalla sitting behind the bar with a bottle of vintage whisky in her hand. She hadn't been home; she had come straight here, so blood was still dripping down her arms and face.

"Well I never", she chirped, spinning around on her chair to see him. "Crazy colander man was right. The Hell happened to you? You look like you haven't slept in weeks".

"And what is it to you?"

"Well since I'm your si-".

"Vampire", he murmured, cutting her off. He snuffed the air, then hurried over to sit at the bar. "I can smell a vampire in here". Olalla just smiled, leaning on the table.

"That'll be me". Hyde tilted his head to the side, then grinned back at her.

"Have to be totally honest with you, um..."

"Olalla".

"Well, I have to be honest, Olalla, I don't like your kind", Hyde exclaimed, rather bluntly. "Too judgemental. But I do have a friend whose one". Olalla's eyes lit up for a moment, hoping that perhaps somewhere in his memory she was still there.

"What was her name?"

"Keres", Hyde answered back, and Olalla just nodded, disappointed; then turned her back on him towards the towering display of various alcohols. Hyde had gone silent. Then:

"One, two, three, four, five. Once I caught a vamp alive. Six, seven, eight, night, ten. Tied her up using silver chains and pulled both fangs out slowly with a pair of pliers... something like that". His take on a nursery rhyme had turned a bit sour. Olalla could feel her fangs extending out of her jawline, but refused them, because if Hyde's little rhyme was anything to go on, they wouldn't last very long. "What about the same fate for you, hm? You'd look pretty with a bit of sunlight on your skin". Olalla just shrugged the question off, pouring herself a glass of whisky.