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

What If? 1

EbonyDanger asked 'What if Captain Dance had captured Robert instead of Olalla?'

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"Find them!" Captain Dance demanded upon his Vetala, and sent them scurrying along the floorboards, scuffing at them with acute interest. "They must be here". Robert breathed, watching the shadows above them move, every step one to their capture. With wary eyes, Olalla put a finger to her lips and pushed one of the floorboards up slightly to see their attackers. It was as she had expected; she had seen these creatures around Tenebrae, their skeletal forms usually seen around the borders of Tenebrae's land. Captain Dance looked on, his face twisted into hate. They had been running for a long time, their father had made sure that it would take time. Time that Captain Dance didn't have. Beside him stood Taylor Steinhauer, more professionally known as the Cutter, one of Keres's human-animal experiments of late. He snarled, his speech mute from the various trials conducted by the senior officer. Olalla knew they would get caught eventually, it was just a matter of when. No one could run away from Captain Dance forever. Looking across to her brother, she looked at him with terrified eyes. She would have to give herself up; he was the one everyone wanted. The precious boy-child. Maybe if she let Tenebrae take her, they would spare Robert. Maybe she could finally make her father proud. Because that was all she really wanted to do; she had no aspects really, not as a Hyde. Perhaps Tenebrae would give her a better life than what she would have otherwise. After all, who could ever love a monster apart from a monster?

She had to take this chance. This one, last chance to please her father. Even if it meant not ever seeing him again, he would be proud, right? He may have been hard to make proud, but surely her own freedom meant something? The Cutter had started his attack, pummeling the floorboards with his mutated arm until they wavered and broke. Crawling past her brother, she followed the light that flooded through the newly created cracks in the boards. It burnt her eyes, almost to temporary blindness, but she carried on. Peering her head over the floorboards, she gulped slightly as her eyes scanned the room. These were the creatures she was allowing to take her in, a room of criminals, killers, the writhed and the lab rats. All searing with hate, and pain, and anger. She knew what she was letting herself into, and when, or even if, she saw her father again she wouldn't be the same person. They'd twist her until she broke and the woman walking away would not be the same as the frightened girl trying to make her father proud. There would be no going back. Looking back towards her brother, a small smile crossed her face, and she murmured into the cloud of dust, "Bye, bye, Robbie".
The heightened hearing of a Vetala picked her up immediately, tracing it to her, and scurrying towards it. With bony fingers, it took her by the arms and ripped her away from the cavity. Clicking in its own tongue, its head swathed from side to side trying to work her out. Dance smiled, coldly.
"Amazing what you catch fishing", he quipped and order the Vetala to drop the blonde. The officer approached her, hands behind his back, and bent down so they were at eye level. "Where's the other one?"

"Dunno", she replied with a sugary sweet voice. "Where's my daddy?" Dance smirked at the urchin's stubbornness. Just like her mother.

"He's gone, Olalla. Left you to the wolves yet again", he replied, returning to full height. "I'm surprised as to how you stayed so loyal, since it obviously seems he is not returning the favour". He turned away from her towards the now stopped Cutter. "Keep going. Don't stop until you find him. Tear the place apart if you must; we can't take any chances. Not this time". With a malignant smile on his face, the Cutter tore up every floorboard keeping Robert from Tenebrae.

"No!" Olalla cried. "Don't take Robbie, take me". Dance's head lifted, and a certain silence filled the room, then he turned.

"You think I want you, sweetheart?" he asked, lifting her chin like he wished to punish her for speaking against him. "Then you are wrong. What power do you have that I cannot find in a bottle?" She had no answer, what answer could there be when he was right?