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       The lead Slavis went straight for Samantha, lashing out with talon tipped fingers. She reacted, years of training and dedication taking over. She leaned backwards, avoiding the first set of claws but, as she came up, ready to counter attack the Slavis caught her off guard.

       More of the creatures skirted around the initial skirmish, crawling on the floor and clambering over the walls, intent only on reaching Megan and Kaci.

       "We shall wear your skin and feast on your giblets," the creatures spoke in unison, a harsh choir of ragged vocal chords. "We will strip you raw and fuck your weeping carcass."

       "You like the sound of your own voice, don't you?" Megan tried to hide the tremor of fear in her voice as she took a step forward. "Maybe you're making up for other inadequacies."

       "The first born is a brave one," sang half of the Slavis. "Or stupid," replied the others, a laugh sweeping through them all.

"Fuck this." Megan took another step forward and then threw herself at the nearest Slavis with all the force she could muster. A pre-emptive strike was the last thing the creature expected and it didn't move until the tip of Megan's knife sank into the top of its skull.

       Kaci looked from left to right, cornered by three of the Slavis and her back hard up against the cold stone of the wall. She held the knife out on front of her, swinging the blade back and forth in a slow but deliberate arc. The Slavis to her right snatched out, fingers reaching for Kaci.

       "Piss off," she snarled, swiping the blade in a vicious curve that sliced up the creature's arm, leaving a black wound in the putrid flesh that ran from elbow to wrist.

       "Why do you fight?" asked the Slavis backing off, probing a finger into the moist rottenness of the open gash. "In the end your flesh will be ours."

       Harrison could see the Slavis below and was disturbed by the sounds of more approaching from above. They were trapped in a bottle neck with no way out. He considered his options and then waded into the three surrounding Kaci, grabbing the nearest one by the patchy growths of hair on its scalp and yanking its head back. The creature tried to pull away, the skin on its head starting to tear away from the skull below. Before it could escape Harrison leaned around and drew the serrated edge of the knife across its neck, sawing it from left to right as he pulled the head further back, opening the windpipe with a spray of semicongealed lumps that spattered Kaci's face.

Samantha threw her attacker to the floor and sat across its chest, pinning its thrashing torso to the steps. The Slavis looked up at her and grinned, its upper lip pulling back like that of an attacking shark and revealing multiple rows of just as deadly teeth.

       "Your order may have won in the past," growled the Slavis. "But you have only postponed the inevitable."

       Samantha raised her knife above her head, the handle grasped in both hands. Viscous fluid dripped from the tip, sizzling like fat on a hot skillet as it hit the creature's chest.

       "We will plunder this world." The Slavis looked up at Samantha with empty eye sockets. "You will make a good vessel."

       "I don't think so." Samantha brought down the knife, piercing the Slavis' chest with a sickening crack of breast bone.

       Kaci turned her head to one side, spat out a chunk of warm gristle and then quickly wiped the gruel from her face with her arm. The other two Slavis had lost interest in her and were now facing Harrison, taking it in turns to lunge at him before pulling back. The third Slavis lay at Harrison's feet, its head almost severed from its shoulders.

       "Come on you bastards," he growled, swinging out with the knife but missing the target by inches.

       As the Slavis stepped back from Harrison's attack its mouth fell open as if in shock and a hissed scream of agonised pain escaped on its rancid breath. Its body twitched, a grande mal seizure that ripped through its torso as Kaci's knife tore through the front of its throat.

       Samantha stabbed down again and again, anger and fear fuelling her frenzied attack. The Slavis pinned under her weight no longer resembled demon or human, its face and chest a mass of lacerations and deep stab wounds, a modern work of art painted on dead flesh. Her breath came low and sharp, each exhalation timed to match the point of blade penetrating muscle and bone.

       Megan fought like a woman possessed, any thoughts of the others forgotten in the white hot madness of survival. She was caked from head to toe in the blackened blood of the Slavis, her face an oil slick of gore. The steps to her left and right held the corpses she left in her wake, a trail of body parts and entrails.

       Harrison took out the Slavis standing between him and Kaci with an

upward swipe of his blade, forcing the steel in just above the creature's pubis and ripping a ragged line up to the breast bone. The Slavis attempted to hold the wound closed, but intestine slithered out from the gash and started to coil up at its feet.

       "This way," Harrison said, grabbing Kaci's hand and dragging her down to join Megan and Samantha.

       "What about Chappell?" Kaci asked, glancing back.

       "Fuck him," Harrison growled, taking his place at Megan's side.

       "Fools," Chappell almost laughed, shaking his head before turning away from the slaughter and heading back up the steps.

He made his way carefully upwards, listening for the Slavis he knew was approaching from above. He stopped three landings up and sat down, his back to the wall and eyed up the knife in his hand.

       
It'll only take a minute.

       He ran his thumb along the blade, the honed edge slicing cleanly through the skin and raising a bead of bright red.

       
I can still control them.

       Chappell tilted his head back and forced his right eye open as far as he could with his free hand. He then raised the knife and sank the tip into the outer edge of the socket, working it carefully behind the eye. His breathing became a series of short, sharp hisses as he prised the eye from between the lids, the moist orb leaving its home with a wet pop and hanging limply against his cheek.

       "You will do my bidding," yelled Chappell as he took the eyeball between his thumb and forefinger, lifted it away from his face and used the blade to cut through the optic nerves.

       "We will never obey a human again," said the Slavis as it stepped down onto the landing.

       "But you must," stated Chappell. "I have read the writings. I know the rules." he raised the knife again, ready to remove the remaining eye.

       "Not so fast, Doctor." The Slavis dropped to its haunches, grabbing

Chappell's wrist.

"You!" Chappell gasped, recognising Colin Norgate despite the twisted façade that now hid his features.

       "Not any more." The Slavis took the knife from Chappell and tossed it away as more of the creatures arrived, crowding into the small space.

       "Let me join you," Chappell pleaded, his remaining eye darting about nervously.

       "Never," the creatures howled as one, descending upon Chappell like feeding piranha.

       Megan stumbled out of the stairway and into the inner sanctum, closely followed by Harrison and Kaci. Samantha stepped out last, holding the head of a Slavis by its scalp as it looked at her and licked its lips. There was a moment of silence as the chanting stopped and the robe clad members of the Ministry looked towards the intrusion.

       "Dispose of that abomination," Sister Ellen ordered, breaking rank from the circle her followers had formed around the pit in the centre of the chamber.

       "Sorry, Sister." Samantha bowed her head as she threw that of the Slavis back on the stairs where it unfurled a proboscis type tongue that dragged it into the shadows.

       "Father Jacob?" Samantha asked without raising her head. "Did you find him?"

       "We did," replied Ellen. "But sadly we arrived too late to save his mortal soul." She stepped to one side and revealed what was left of the man who'd led them for so many years, his skin stretched out across the floor like an animal pelt left to tan in the sun.