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

20 - Stand to Attention

"Don't panic/ No not yet/ I know I'm the one you want to forget/ Cue all the love to leave my heart/ It's time for me to fall apart// Now you're gone/ But I'll be okay/ Your hot whisky eyes have fanned the flame/ Maybe I'll burn a little brighter tonight/ Let the fire breathe me back to life//

-Miss Missing You

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"Would it be bad if I swore now?" Lottie murmured, turning around to face the thing behind her. It was massive, at least ten metres high, with black skin, long, curling horns and blood-dripping talons. Its eyes were empty sockets of shadows, and a salivating tongue hung out of its fanged mouth. In its hand was a curved blade.

"Fight or flight, Lotts?" Louis shouted from behind her. Lottie spun around to look at him, but for some odd reason he had disappeared from sight. She guessed he had scaled the wall to get a better vantage point, but there was a horrible feeling in her stomach that he had darted.

"Fight... It's what he would have done", she murmured, and could hear something swiping through the air above her. Swiftly she crouched down, turning to look above her and putting both her hands up in defence. A glassy, red shield of telepathic energy forged above her, just in time before the massive blade came pounding down on her. Clenching her fist, she tried to hold the crushing amount of power, then dodged to the side. The shield dropped, and the blade Abaddon was carrying buried itself in the dusty stone ground. Cracks appeared, like great canyons where lost souls lay buried. Flinging its great arm across, it hit her across the corridor so she landed against the wall. A bead of blood ran from her lip, and she could feel the air turn cold as its shadow fell upon her.

"Oi! Numbskull, over here", she heard Louis shout, and a long stone spear buried itself in the demon's shoulder. It growled, sending vibrations through every stone, and turned towards him. On Louis was a bow, a quiver of arrow and two daggers stuffed in his belt. The creature pounded both its arms into the ground, scraping his heels like a bull, then ran. However he never got there.

Lottie put her hand out, grasping the creature by the neck with her powers. It lifted ever so slightly off the ground, and, with the vantage, she threw it headfirst into a wall. Abbadon snarled deeply, its bloodshot eyes rolling back into its skull.

"Where the Hell did you go?" Lottie asked, quite frustrated by the fact that she had been left to sustain for herself. She knew it was a selfish thought, that her father probably had good reason, but still. This just reminded her greatly that this wasn't the first time this had happened.

"Was trying to find monocane. I have a supply, just no way to find it", he chuckled, but stopped abruptly when he saw her bemused face. "You're thinking that this is familiar. Me... abandoning you".

"It does feel a bit like déjà vu, yeah", she sighed, and rubbed her eyes. She had so many questions, and so little answers. Quietly, she was trying to push down all the enquiries, and the outburst she knew would come with it.

"I thought you'd be able to fend for yourself. You seem powerful enough".

"I was six", Lottie started, her tone cutting him off.

"Hold on, this is about back then?" Louis answered, his voice raising in slight anger. "I thought you understood why I went".

"You left us! You shut us out of your life and didn't even say goodbye", Lottie snapped. "I lived half my life not knowing who you were, being told that you were this monster and..."

"Were they right? Do you still think that?" Louis asked, tone so calm it was intimidating. Lottie didn't answer. "Maybe you're right, but..." A familiar blue appeared in his eyes. Hyde. "I'm not the only one that abused monocane".

"Don't you dare bring her into this".

"You poisoned your Hyde to the point MIO had to get involved. You sold yourself to Tenebrae, doing the one thing I didn't want you to do".

"How the Hell was I supposed to know. I'm not telepathi-", she started, realising her mistake. "Did you not want me to find my family, hm? Wanted to keep your 'heroic' loss of your family a secret?"

"Olalla was taken by Tenebrae, you chose to be there", Louis retorted, an almost paternal ferociousness to his voice. "Why?"

"What is this, an interrogation?"

"I'm your father, I deserve to know what happens to my children".

"What, like I deserved to know what happened to you?" Lottie riposted. The Abbadon huffed, regaining its consciousness. "I joined Tenebrae because they said they would give me Fedora back".

"Who the Hell's she?"

"She's my Hyde. A succubus. A powerful one at that", Lottie explained. "MIO took her away, Tenebrae gave her back. And meanwhile I used them to find information on Robert to find him. They said you were dead".

"And you believed them?"

"Who else was I to believe? I had Dance's complete trust and, when the time came, I betrayed him and he took Fedora away".

"You gave up your Hyde for your family...?" Louis asked, drifting off. "Then you are... a stronger person than I will ever be". He chuckled slightly to himself. "Will they forgive me? Olalla and Robert. Will you?"
Before Lottie had the chance to answer, Abbadon rose up with almighty force, a star-shaped pentagram scrawled across its chest, burning like lit oil. It roared, hitting out with clawed fingers. A slight blue light glowed from behind Lottie.

"Go!" Louis shouted. "The gateway's there".

"But what about you?"

"I can hold him off. Now go. They need you more than me". Abbadon struck again, swiping across with its great sword, slicing gashes into the walls. "Go, Lottie".

"I'm not leaving without you". Louis rolled his eyes. Stubbornness of her mother.

"Forgive me, for everything I have done", he murmured to Lottie, and pushed her into the glowing light of the portal. It was the only way she would go. And Louis knew that only one person could escape the Puzzlebox at a time. This time, he thought, he wouldn't let his selfishness get in the way of his children. The light was dying, swirling and swelling like the ocean waves, then blackened completely, locking him in the Puzzlebox yet again.

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Lottie opened her eyes to daylight, London daylight, and immediately knew what had happened.

"Surprised you got out, sugar", a Scottish sounding voice said from behind her. She turned around to see Semira, lounging back in a teal coloured chair, with the Jezequel Amulet around her neck. It made Lottie feel guilty just looking at it. "Let me guess, daddy dearest decided to redeem himself".

"Where am I?" Lottie asked, looking around the room she was in. It was bare of furniture, walls painted a regal shade of red, and floors made from dark wood. On the wall behind her was a mural of three golden lines crossing over eachother. A massive window was behind Semira, looking over the London skyline. "Tenebrae", she murmured, answering her own question.

"Dance isn't here, if you're wondering", Semira lulled, getting up from her chair. Her long, violet dress swept behind her, and she spun around in front of the door, so that Lottie didn't have a way out. "Off with some piranha-looking chick. I would be jealous, but to be jealous you actually have to have competition".

"Give me the Amulet", Lottie requested. Semira just looked at her blank for a moment, then a smile crept to her face.

"Why the Hell would I do that?"

"Because it belongs to my family, and I don't want any other poor soul to locked inside it".

"Oh, well, since you said that", Semira replied in a heavily sarcastic tone. "I'm just going to hand it over, right here, right no-". There was a horrible crunch and she stopped, stuttering, then looked down to her abdomen. Pointing out, surrounded by black-red blood, was the sharp end of a blade. Whoever had impaled her then retracted it, sending her falling to the ground. She wasn't dead, but she was weak. Behind her, bloody-faced and snarling, was Adelie. Lottie recognised her from the Empire. She ripped the Amulet off Semira's neck and, before Lottie could catch her, dashed away through the door. Lottie gave chase, leading her onto the London street, but she was gone. And so was the Amulet...

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