*dedicated to ceremonials_ for making the stunning cover!*

Chapter 9

    The old, dated wallpaper was peeling off the walls and the wooden floor was warped and uneven. The smell of mould permeated the air and damp patches clung to the ceiling. The rusted chandeliers that hung above us were not used; the light instead came from candles on top of small pillars that jutted out of the walls. It made the corridor we walked down gloomy and there was a chill in the air.

    I stuck close to Warren’s side as we followed Bern deeper into the building. A silence hung over us that was only interrupted by the occasional creaking of the floorboards.

    Eventually, we emerged into a large stairwell with a spiral staircase that had an iron railing twisted into the shape of ivy. Bern took a candle and led the way up to the top floor where we arrived at an open hall with several wooden doors on all sides. Our guide knocked on the one straight ahead from the stairs and after a second pushed it open.  

    The first thing I noticed about the room we entered was the people. They were everywhere: some were standing and others were in chairs or lounging on sofas. What was most unusual about the gathering was the attire – they all wore the typical dress of the time with corsets and pluming skirts, and waistcoats with black jackets. Some even wore top hats. The clothing was, however, all worn with wear and the styles of the clothes varied in richness, some trimmed with white lace and others obviously less elaborate. 

    The room this peculiar party of people was gathered in was high-ceilinged, with chandeliers hanging from elegant ceiling roses that had long lost their whiteness. A variety of rugs littered the floor to cover the cracking marble slabs underneath. Thin curtains hung over the already bordered-up windows – perhaps to make it more homely, I thought to myself. The once brightly coloured wallpaper was peeling off the walls.

    As we walked through the middle of the room, down a long, thin rug that ran the length of it, I noticed something else about the people that I had not at first glance seen. Many of them had some oddity to their appearance, some more obvious than others. One man had a bald head with green spikes running down the middle of his head and down his neck. A woman walked past with a fox’s tail protruding from a hole cut out of her dress. There were various other characters with a multitude of different additions.

    Was it that these people were like Warren and I? Had the Master experimented on them also? I could never have imagined seeing so many people like this. He must have been experimenting a long time for there to be so many. What I couldn’t understand was why they were all here, so many of them. And they were all watching us.

    Their eyes lifted as we passed, some with curiosity, others with suspicion. I tried to ignore their penetrating gazes, instead looking straight ahead of me.

    A voluminous red curtain was draped across the end section of the room, making a separate part. Bern told us to wait a moment before lifting the middle of the curtain and stepping inside. I fidgeted nervously and looked up at Warren but he didn’t see my look. A moment later the curtain opened and Bern ushered us in. Warren stepped inside first and I followed after cautiously.

    “Warren, you haven’t been here for quite some time.” I didn’t know where the voice came from at first, but then I saw the man sat on a grand chair in the shadows, his face hidden.

   “Thought I would go off on my own for a while,” Warren replied.

    The section of the room we were in now was more lavishly decorated than the other, with Eastern-style lantern lamps hanging from gold stands with feet the shape of curled vines. There was no natural light, only the flickering of candles. Several rugs in a variety of styles and colours covered the floor with a thin red strip leading up to the feet of the man sat on the chair in the centre. He wore shiny, black shoes and trousers; nothing more could be seen of him.

    I glanced over my shoulder, my eyes falling upon a man by the entrance whom I had not seen before. There was no skin on his face, only green lizard scales which covered everything, apart from his mouth and hazel eyes, and disappeared under the collar of his shirt.

    “Who is this you have brought here?” the man asked. I could sense, rather than see, him leaning forward.

    “Her name is Charity, she is one of us,” Warren explained, remaining close to my side.

    Bern stepped forward and pulled the chain around my neck to reveal the pendant. “She wears one of the pendants.”

    There was a moment of silence then the chair creaked as the Faceless Man rose. He stepped forwards into the light and I tried desperately not to stare. This man was unlike so many of the others I had seen in the other room, I could only assume that something must have gone wrong. Doctor Eadour could not have meant for the effect he had created.

    I now understood why he was called the Faceless Man and felt a renewed spike of hatred towards Doctor Eadour. The man had no face – at least not what would be recognised as one. He did have a mouth, which was thin and pale, and small in proportion to the rest of his head. Where eyes should have been there was instead pale skin which dipped only slightly where eye sockets would have been. At first I thought he had no nose but then I noticed the two tiny, dark nostrils in the flat skin. Wisps of hair rose from his balding head.

    A shiver crossed my skin at the sight of him, despite my best efforts to show no reaction to his appearance. There was something disturbing about how he seemed perfectly aware of his surroundings despite his obvious lack of sight. It was as if I could feel his eyes upon me, even though he had none. I wondered if perhaps he had some other way of seeing, though I could perceive none then.

    “Indeed she does,” the Faceless Man said after a long pause, in which I felt myself being slowly evaluated, as I had him. “May I enquire as to the reason for such a pleasurable visit?”

    “I’m looking for answers,” I replied quickly, before Warren could speak.

    The Faceless Man withdrew back into the shadows, returning to his seat. I felt instantly relieved and felt more confident without his eyeless face watching me.

    “I was informed that you would be able to help me.”

    There was the sound of tapping and I imagined the Faceless Man drumming his nails on the arm of his chair. “I will answer your questions if you answer mine.”

    “Fair enough.”

    “You begin.”

    I stood for a moment staring into the shadows, not sure what to ask or where to start. “Firstly, what is…this? Where did all these people come from?”

    “Ah yes. We are like you, created by Doctor Eadour, in the early days of his experimentation,” the Faceless Man began, his tapping had ceased. “He was not based in London initially. He had a laboratory in Birmingham. We managed to escape from the base there, most of us anyway. There were a few others who were already in the base in London, assumedly including you, and of course Warren. That was ten years ago. He decided to move his activities to London pretty much straight away. Obviously, it is difficult for many of us to integrate into society, so we made our own. A place that would be safe for us.” He began to tap again. “My question now. How did you escape?”

    I took a deep breath and explained how I managed to get out with Hettie’s help. He listened silently to me and once I had finished said nothing. “My turn.” I chose my words carefully. “Why are we like…this? Exactly what did Doctor Eadour do to us?”

    “He used an advanced form of biology and gene science to give us part of the genes from animals, and occasionally plants. I don’t know much more than that, or the technicalities, I’m not a scientist.” There was a pause before he spoke again. “Where did you get the pendant?”

    I swallowed, conscious of the necklaces’ cool touch against my skin. “I found it. In Doctor Eadour’s house when I escaped. It was in a wooden cabinet in an unused room.”

    There was silence and I did not break it. It seemed like the Faceless Man was thinking. I fidgeted nervously.

    “Ask your question,” he said slowly.

    “What is the pendant? What is its significance? Is there more than one?”

    “That is three questions.”

    I bite my lip nervously.

    “I will answer them, though.” He paused before continuing. “I had them made not long after we escaped. I wanted a way to distinguish my allies from my enemies. For some reason I cannot fathom, some of those we attempted to help escape were not in the least grateful. There are some of Doctor Eadour’s experiments which remain loyal to him. The one you found must have belonged to one of us. Several people have gone missing over the years. One must have been found by the doctor and that is how the pendant ended up in his home.”

    I nodded at the sound explanation.

    “What do you want from me?”  

    The question threw me completely off guard and it took me a minute to understand the question. “What…do you mean?”

    “Why have you come here?” he asked. “I sense you want more than answers. I have had enough with this game.”

    “I want to know more. I want to know who I am, where I came from. Have you no desire to know these things?”

    He leant forward into the light and rested his head on his hand. “I am content for the time being. I do not want to disrupt the peace we have here. I cannot help you more. The answers you want can only be found in Doctor Eadour’s house.”

    I stared at his eyeless face. That was it? We came all that way, to be told we had to go to the one place we couldn’t go. “I can’t go there.”

    “If you want answers, you will have to,” the Faceless Man replied.

    I looked down at the floor, deep in thought. There had to be another way. If I went back there I would be sure to be caught. But I had to know, I needed answers. I couldn’t live my life not knowing who, or what, I was.

    “Will you help us?” I asked. “Surely you are curious. Won’t you help us get in and find out what we want to know?”

    A grin spread across the Faceless Man’s lips but was quickly replaced with a scowl. “You would have me risk everything to find out some trivial information? I cannot help you.”

    “But-”

    “I cannot help you. Do not ask that of me again.”

    I could feel anger boiling up inside me. Why would he not help us? The selfish man. All my hopes had been dashed in that discussion. My fists clenched by my sides.

    “Just because you are afraid.” I spitted, then turned on my heel and stormed through the red curtains. I ignored the stares of the people in the room. I couldn’t stand to be in there any longer. I had to get out. I could hear Warren calling my name behind me, his footsteps running to catch up. So I ran faster. Down the spiral staircase, through the hallways.

    When I finally exploded through the side doors it was still night. Sol and Silas looked up at me in surprise and before they had time to say a word I ran past.

   “Charity!”

   I ignored their shouts. I just wanted to get away from them. To get away from them all is all I wanted.