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"Elizabeth!" Trevor shouted, making Elizabeth jump. "We need to move!"

A few feet from the Speaker's doorway, she'd managed to fall asleep, still clutching her sword. She kept opening and shutting her eyes, desperate for them to focus properly. Through the sleepy haze, all she could make out were the fiery lines of light that danced across the wasteland in front of her. Trevor quickly pulled her to her feet as she yanked her sword out of the ground. But before she could speak, Trevor was already shoving her through a hole in the back wall of the hovel.

"Trevor, stop!" she screamed, struggling against him and hitting him with her one empty fist. Trevor ignored her. He continued stuffing her through the gap.

"I can't fight them, protect the Speakers and you," he grumbled unhappily as her body and sword slid through the hole with a quiet thud. He didn't want her to leave, but he knew it was for the best. When she looked around, she was panicked to see that the speakers disappeared.

She stretched her arm out towards Trevor again, trying to touch him through the gap, but he snarled and shooed her away, saying "Meet me in the square, stay hidden".

Just as she was about to open her mouth to protest, she was silenced by the growing shadows that entered the doorway. "Give us the Speakers..."

Elizabeth cautiously made her way around the corner of the hovel, quickly strapping the sword to her back. She pulled her mask over her mouth to conceal her face. She took a few deep breaths to try and steady herself, before rushing out into the twilight landscape. The mob was so preoccupied with her brother that they didn't notice when she quickly scurried away like a rat.

The lines of light she had seen earlier were the fires of their torches, and as she looked closer, she could see the light dancing over the hatred in their eyes. Elizabeth knew that look; she had seen it as a child.

The sun had already set. The sky was so dark it looked like a blanket of pitch had been thrown over the city. Without a torch of her own, it was hard to know which road to take - and there was no way she could steal one without risking being spotted. She hissed through her teeth and forced herself to take deep breaths. Just a little further, she lied to herself. Left, right, down the steps, across the alley, right, right.

The young woman panted feverishly as she slammed into the side of a building, hiding from the stragglers of the mob. She leaned her head back against the cold brick, the icy sensation spreading across her skin, causing the hairs on her body to stand on end.

A low and harsh voice came from the east of her.

"I said, are the speakers dead?" the voice barked impatiently. Elizabeth tiptoed closer to the doorway, sneaking inside using the shadows cast by the large doors as cover. A single, isolated priest was clutching his bible at the altar. Priests had always frightened her, even as a child. He was an older man, with heavy lines burrowed deep into his face, which were made more menacing by the ominous glow from the stained glass windows behind him.

"No." Something responded. It was a deep, beastial growl that echoed through the room with each step it took, its claws clattering against the stone tiles. The priest was too calm, too arrogant to notice what Elizabeth had. The glowing blue eyes that hungrily watched him.

The priest grew more agitated, "Well, get back out there then! The Speakers need to die before the sun goes down." His golden robe flurried as he gestured to the heavens.

"The sun...is already down", it laughed, the talons scraping the stairs to the altar. As it drew closer to the priest, the faint light gradually showed its long spines that protruded from its back, as well as the large set of canines that were dripping with saliva. Elizabeth let out a slow, quiet breath to ease herself before she reached for her weapon. It wasn't to defend the priest, she'd already condemned him.

"You cannot enter the house of God," said the priest with eyes wide in terror. Two more beasts had coiled themselves around the pillars, rasping as though they were laughing at him. The beast now stood on its hind legs, towering over him by a few feet and looking down at him with a menacing glare.

"God is not here," it snarled, peeling back its lips to reveal more rows of glistening white teeth. "...This is an empty box." More night creatures crawled down from above, moving down the windows. She dared not look up.

"God is in all his churches," the man's fear creeped into his voice, his confidence leaving him as he clutched his rosary tighter in his sweaty hands. Even the saints seemed to turn away from him, their stained faces blocked out by the claws and talons of the beasts.

"Your God's love is not unconditional. He does not love us...and he does not love you." The beasts began laughing in a cankerous tune as it echoed through the hall, their voices dripping with venom and mockery.

"I have done his bidding." Elizabeth could not force herself to go to him, nothing but apathy and contempt for the priest filling her heart. The man was still pleading, but she wasn't sure if it was with the beast or himself, "My life's work is in his name".

The beast cooed, "Your life's work makes him puke", the demon enunciated the 'p' to emphasise God's disgust of the man. It seemed as though this was the final straw that broke the priest.

"I am the bishop of Gresit!" he bellowed, summoning the last of his courage.

"Your God knows we wouldn't be here without you. This is all your fault, isn't it?" Elizabeth froze, her face scrunching into a snarl. What had he done?

"She was a witch!" he cried out. That was why they came to Gresit, for him. He was the one who accused Dracula's wife, who tore a woman from her home and mercilessly burned her alive. She hoped whatever awaited him in the next life was far, far worse.

"Lies? In your house of God? No wonder he has abandoned you...but we love you," the church grew colder, and a terrifying grin spread across the demon's face. Its teeth stretched from ear to ear. "We love you," the creature came closer to the priest as he tried to scoff in disbelief, but it came out as more of a squeak.

"We couldn't be here without you."

Elizabeth rose to her full height and glanced back to watch the creature's talons caress the bishop's face. The monster stood 8-foot-tall over him, licking its lips. Its external ribs almost engulfed him as it stood there. "Let me...kiss you," it snarled. The man's head disappeared between its teeth. Elizabeth watched as his blood rained down on the pulpit and his rosary clattered to the ground. The beasts roared and cheered as they tucked into the last scraps of his flesh. Elizabeth took that moment to dart back onto cobbled streets and followed the shouting to the square.

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