The Clockwork Conundrum : A Beatrix Belladonna Tale

The presence of Dhullex Faustus, former master of Esmeralda and Camellia, who sired the two monster huntresses into vampires and made him his brides, stalked up from the basement, the unchained Necronomicon clear in his hand. His ruined state almost fully healed, after the artificial blood he siphoned from one of the sirens, Sonata's mummified corpse now left behind.

Wasting no time, the black grimoire's tome fluttered open, and he chanted the alien words as an elongated finger traced across the runes that glowed. Esmeralda fanned the hammer of her pistol to let loose a desperate hail of silver bullets...only for him to casually raise a hand, the shots frozen in mid-air. Spiky purple hair whipped behind him, his face twisted in a deathly smile.

Adagio was the first to find her voice. "What did you do? Where's Sonata...?"

"The poor child freed me," explained Dhullex. "So I suitably rewarded her. She will live on, as a part of me." He licked his bloodied teeth, smeared by artificial blue blood.

A hateful shriek rose from Aria, who raised her knife and hurtled across the foyer.

"Aria, wait-" But Adagio's words were ignored, Aria blinded by hatred while she shrieked and rushed head on at the master vampire, determined to avenge their sister.

"So foolhardy," mused Dhullex, as the blade slammed into his breast. Her aim was true, Aria splattered by wet, hot blood that gushed from the wound, her knife driven into his heart. He winced and seized her by the throat, while she kicked, squirmed, and twisted the blade.

"I'll kill you," swore Aria through her bitter tears.

"But I can't die so easily! I'm cursed with immortality!" Dhullex bared his fangs, Aria's neck bared to him, ready to siphon her dry too. All the while, the spell he read from the Necronomicon continued to complete itself without him as more runes lit up.

Esmeralda slapped more silver bullets into the chamber, while Camellia circled in the darkness, her hands afire with the dark arts she'd mastered. They shared a nod, the couple and Beatrix ready to launch an all-out attack on the master vampire and recover the Necronomicon.

Yet the manor itself sprang to life around them, shaking as a groan rose from the earth. Beatrix's heart skipped at a familiar sensation, at the realization the Necronomicon opened a breach to another dimension, one of the many eldritch abominations drawn here.

"Watch out," cried Beatrix, who narrowly evaded a maid marionette that slashed at her.

"Dhullex has taken full control," warned Camellia in a snarl. "The same bastard that scarred my beautiful face!" Her pallid flesh hardened behind her mask, skin lined in criss-crossed scars.

Penny Dreadful tittered behind them. "Who cares? You killed my creator! My father!"

Adagio backed up towards the door, unwilling to follow the madwoman on her quest anymore. She watched helpless while Dhullex's teeth sank into Aria's neck, her sister trapped between agony and ecstasy as the vampire alchemist drained her dry. Her kicks slowed to a stop.

She couldn't take revenge for her sisters on her own! But she swore to come back, and somehow, she'd make him pay! Only to discover the doors behind her had transformed into rows of razor-sharp teeth, ready to chomp her to bits. She screamed and shrank back.

Dhullex dropped the dry corpse of Aria at his feet. "You see? I've bound a beast from the depths of the Necronomicon here! It obeys my every whim! You have no hope of survival!"

The walls started to turn fleshy and meaty around them, the beast fused with the mansion, transmuted into one by the Necronomicon's almost limitless power. Tentacles rose from the walls, lined in a multitude of eyes and teeth, as it dripped with a rancid stench.

Dhullex strode forward. "Run! There's nowhere any of you can hide!" The mansion's insides started to twist around them, molded by his will, reshaped into a labyrinth. It watched them wherever they went, as the maid automatons pursued his scattered prey.

"We should be on the same side," yelled Beatrix, who barely sidestepped a swipe.

"Why? You're partly at fault!" Penny's spiked umbrella slashed at the witch, as the pair ascended the stairs, onto the second floor which was similarly warped by the beast.

"You crazy b-," Beatrix yelped, nicked by the blade's tip across her breast. Penny squealed, hit by a bullet in the chest which caused her to tumble back down the stairway.

"This way," called Camellia at Esmeralda's side, the pistol tip adrift in smoke. With a quick look back at Penny, crumpled at the bottom of the stairs, Beatrix followed them.

They took shelter in one of the largest rooms, Camellia's pale hands alight with her own black magic to hold the Necronomicon's power back. Aware she couldn't hold the abomination back long, nonetheless she strained to keep it at bay, the interior apparently normal thanks to her influence. Esmeralda barred the door, where the couple had already taken Adagio.

Adagio sat with her knees to her chest and sniffled. "Wh-what are we supposed to do now? My sisters..." She'd broken free of Penny's control...only to wake up in a nightmare.

"They're trapped between a state of life and death," explained Camellia, her ruby red lips drawn. "There's a chance I can breathe 'life' back into them...if we stop Dhullex."

Beatrix heard the automatons attempt to bash the door in. "Maybe I can? Open a portal around Dhullex and the Necronomicon, and maybe I can spirit them away in a blink!"

"You'll have to be close to him for that," reminded Camellia.

Esmeralda chipped in, "Leave that to me! We've beaten him before," she reminded her lover and kissed the cheek of her bloody teardrop mask's cheek. "His attention's split to wield all this power! That means he'll slip up at a crucial moment, and whoosh! That's our move!"

"It could work," admitted Camellia. "But the chances are slim, at best."

"You know I'm a crack shot love," cooed Esmeralda, who squeezed a handful of the sexy sorceress' wide white buttock, barely concealed by the black slip that adorned her. "We've hunted so many monsters to near extinction..." She traced her lips as she drew closer to her.

"Indeed we have," said Camellia, a rare, small smile adorned by the sorceress.

"PLease," said Adagio as she rose to her feet. "Allow me to help."

Camellia asked, "And what can you do? You are but a common harlot," she stated dismissively. "And besides, Dhullex seeks to drain you too, to stabilize himself back into a youthful form."

"I'll distract him while you all move in," explained Adagio, who traced a nail across cleavage bared by her dress. "My sisters and I have seduced more men that you can count!"

Beatrix nodded. "Let her try! We have a whole army of maids out there to deal with! Not to mention the mansion," she muttered, aware she now saw the conception of her haunted home.

Outmatched and surrounded, she knew the moment they escaped the room, they would be in for the fight of their lives! She tried to steel herself for the battle ahead, uncertain if wehter they failed here, it would cause a paradox that could unravel her future...