Chapter 28

It was not long before the hive of shops, bustling highstreets, office blocks and skyscrapers had turned into quiet sleepy suburbs. Quaint little houses and parks filled with children and humans walking their dogs soon turned into farms and woodland that crept up on us, signalling that the edge of our territory was not far away.

I turned around and watched my warriors fling the doors open to the van, exposing the prisoners inside. Moments later, James and Julianne were thrust into the burning sunlight, making them squint in pain as they desperately tried to cover their faces. Slowly, Julianne managed to draw enough strength to look at her surroundings. Her face filled with horror when she saw the entrance to the crypts. She finally realised what was about to happen as she suddenly burst into a flood of tears as she weakly gazed at me, while begging me to make it stop.

"Please, Libby, please!” Julianne babbled noisily. “Please don't let them take me in there. I will do anything to make it right. Please! You can stop this! You've proved how strong you are. You don't need to do this!”
“You don't have the right to talk to me!” I spat, glaring at Julianne in hatred. “After what you have done, and what you have subjected my parents to, you have no right! This is your punishment, and it is rightly deserved! You are nothing but a coward!”

I glanced across at James, who had also managed to lift his head and take in his surroundings. He sighed as he bowed his head. He had clearly resigned himself to his fate. He knew there was no point in fighting it. I stood back as they were roughly dragged into the crypts and into the eternal darkness that would eat away at them. Silently, hand in hand, me and Blake followed. He gazed at me proudly as his thumb skimmed my knuckles.

“Are you sure you want to carry on with this?” He murmured. “I won't try to stop you if do. But you can put an end to this!”
“No. I need this to be done. I need justice. My mum and dad need justice and they need to pay!”

Inhaling deeply, as if I were trying to muster all the strength I could, I silently followed the guards, Alistair James and Julianne into the crypt. Marii and the rest of our pack followed behind us in silence. They had come to bear witness to the punishment and make sure justice had been done. The other packs would want to know that we had dealt with the offenders properly.

The brilliant bright sunlight and warm air instantly turned into a murky coolness, dimly illuminated by the flame torch's flickering eerily in the dim. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could see that we were now standing in the middle of a large cavern, right in the middle of the mountain. Six tunnels carved into the rock led into further darkness - no doubt more crypts – just like this one. I stood in silence as my eyes swept across the tomb, taking in the eery carvings, flickering torches, and many chambers that I could see that lined the walls. Some, I noticed had lit torches outside their bars, while others did not. I did not realise that one of the guards had been watching me before he came over and pointed to a chamber with a lit torch. But it was the odd groan and helpless wail that came from some of the occupied cells that threw me.

“The lit torches mean that there is someone locked up inside. Many of our residents, shall we say, come from the correctional centre when they are deemed irredeemable.”
"Irredeemable? What do you mean by that?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"I mean criminals that commit the worst crimes and that can't be rehabilitated in prison." The guard responded gruffly. "I'm talking about murderers, rapists etc. The worst of the worst! Only from our world, mind!"
“Do you have many here?” I asked curiously looking around in wonder.
“Not many. Not as many as we did.“ The guard shrugged casually. “We had many from the great war, but they have all passed now and their bodies returned to the soil. It's good that we don't get many now, but the ones we do have, they have to go somewhere. And this is the safest place to put them. For themselves and us.”
“I see,” I murmured, feeling slightly creeped out as another eery wail echoed out. “Well, let's not waste any more time. I now hand these two mongrels over to your care!”
“And they will be very well looked after, don't worry,” the guard smirked before winking at his comrades who began walking towards James and Julianne.
“Please, don't do this! Please!” Julianne feebly murmured once more as a guard ripped her roughly away from Jenson and marched her towards an empty cell, as James was quickly dragged behind her.

I watched as the guard wrenched open the iron door, revealing a small cell, with a large, silver cage in the middle of the room. An intricate sprinkler system dangled above the cage, no doubt to provide a constant supply of wolfsbane to keep the prisoners subdued. As if the silver wasn't enough. I spied that the cage had a silver bottom, just like the cage that we found back at Julianne’s house. I glanced over at Julianne, no pity in my face whatsoever and saw that her eyes had widened in shock and horror at the fate that was becoming of her.

“Come, Luna. You do not need to see the rest,” Alistair murmured gently, placing his hand gently on my shoulder while looking at Blake knowingly.

As much as I wanted to watch Julianne suffer, I did not want the memory etched forever in my mind, so I allowed Blake to gently guide me back out of the cell and into the main crypt. As we neared the exit, a heart-wrenching scream echoed around the crypt, causing every little hair to stand up on my body. My blood ran cold, as I paused and turned to face the source - the direction of the very cell we had left.

Was I doing the right thing? Maybe I should stop this?

“Don't worry, they always start off like that,” Blake muttered. “It is just the silver and wolfsbane doing their job. She will be silent soon enough!”