Debutante
Ghalia al Ghul, a debutante of a different sort.
16 Years Later: Survival of The Fittest
Dr. Robert Williamson went into the Mackenson Institute library and pressed the key code to open the vault. The door opened and the doctor began to descend the stairs. Behind him were Hannah Wilson, Brooke Benson, McKenna Madison, and Ghalia Williamson. Of the latter four, three were doctors and two were Institute security operatives. The last one in, Ghalia, pulled the door shut and followed the others into the gloom.
The gloom suddenly changed into clinical, laboratory-type light. The party continued to descend past three distinct crypts that featured urns, kraters, casks, and coffins of divers types. The artifacts offered a memento mori to the passing scholars, especially the full-size sarcophagi on the third floor.
At the fourth floor entrance there was another keypad entry doorway. Dr. Williamson entered the code and the door opened. In this area there could be found books, hundreds of books. Most were rare and esoteric titles, such as expanded first editions of The Emerald Tablet and Bint-Utek by Talor ben Arnon. None of them would ever depart the climate controlled room in which they were housed.
Ghalia closed the final door. They had made it to the laboratory, where Dr. Finley and Dr. Emma Easton stood at the head of a table. In front of them lay, covered, a body.
“Let's see it,” said Dr. Williamson. Dr. Finley pulled the sheet back to reveal a ghastly sight. The body had been a man, and then it had been a vampire. Now it was simply a ripped, disgusting corpse.
“We can clearly see the elongated canines,” said Dr. Williamson. “What about the wounds around the neck? Were they caused by another vampire?”
“It wasn’t caused by feeding,” said Dr. Finley. “In all other ways, however, it looks like a vampire attack.”
“Dr. Easton? What is your opinion?”
“I agree with Dr. Finley,” she replied. “It was caused by another vampire. However, the second vampire wasn’t trying to feed.”
“If not feeding, then what? A territorial dispute?”
“That would be my guess,” said Dr. Easton. “They were trying to destroy each other.” Several heads nodded in agreement.
“Okay then,” said Dr. Williamson. “I want this thing burned and put into an urn down here somewhere. And I want everyone to keep one ear open at all times. We have the one who lost the fight, but the winner is still out there somewhere.”
“Understood,” they all replied.
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