We reached the wooded area surrounding the base without any further conversation. I just knew that if I spoke with him for even two more minutes, I’d scream. It wasn’t like I could punch him in irritation, given his currently insubstantial state.

I knew we had arrived when he suddenly pulled up and began to descend towards a small copse with a small, slightly dilapidated wooden hut in the centre. I followed suit and soon we were stood at the entrance to the ramshackle structure. I gazed around me at the peaceful surroundings. I could hear the birds singing in the trees and caught the occasional glimpse of squirrels leaping from branch to branch. It was a beautiful place.

Odd choice for a supervillain lai … base, but then, so far, he had not been what I expected in pretty much every other way so, why not?

He pointed at the flimsy looking wooden door to the shack and raised his eyebrows.

What? Oh, right. He wanted me to open it. I strode forward and raised my hand to the handle.

“One second!” Tom shouted, startling me with its abrupt tone. “I nearly forgot, because the biometrics won’t work on me right now, you’ll need to disable the safety precautions to the door first or there will be a nasty surprise.”

I let my hand drop to my side and asked testily, “Where are they and what do I have to do?”

He hunted around the area surrounding the shed before looking at me and gesturing for me to come forward. “Right here. You see that rock on the floor? Good. I need you to turn it 90 degrees to the left, then 90 degrees to the right. Then cast a flame spell on it till it glows. That’ll disable the door lock and let us get in. This intermittent memory thing isn’t all that fun you know. I’ll be glad to get back to normal.”

I absently nodded as I performed the tasks as instructed and was surprised to feel a sudden vibration shake the ground slightly through my knees where I knelt on the grass. “Is that it?”

He shook his head in frustration, “I can’t remember. Guess we’ll find out.”

I sighed at the frustrating amount of time this was taking. The poor woman probably didn’t have long left and she must be terrified. I stood up and brushed at the soil clinging to my suit. It came off cleanly. Wonderful material this suit was made of, I would totally have my normal clothes made of it if I could.

I put my hand on the door handle and waited for him to admonish me for not doing something else that was necessary first but he merely waited. I mentally shrugged and opened it.

The interior was a large elevator, there was easily enough room for four people stood shoulder to shoulder. It was lit brightly with a concealed light in the ceiling. He gestured for me to enter and politely waited before following me in.

He silently pointed to the lowest button on the panel. There were three buttons, labelled B, SB, SSB. I dimly wondered just how deep into the earth the sub-sub-basement was, before deciding it didn’t really matter. I pushed the button. The doors closed and the elevator suddenly whined. There was a feeling of weightlessness in my stomach as we rapidly descended.

The elevator eventually slowed to a halt. We had gone a lot further than I was comfortable thinking about, considering the rate of descent it had seemed to be. The thought of the tons of earth and rock held up over my head by whatever supports were in use made me shudder. I’m not usually claustrophobic but I didn’t relish the idea of being buried alive. I looked over at Tom where he appeared to lean nonchalantly against the side of the elevator. He seemed utterly unconcerned so I resolved to not let it bother me. I was invulnerable after all. It might take some time but I supposed I could always dig myself out if I really had to. The doors slid open with a slight whooshing noise. On the other side was darkness, broken by occasional flashes of light from different areas, briefly illuminating strange shapes that seemed to defy identification.

I looked across at Tom again and raised my eyebrows questioningly. “So? What now?”

He took a deep breath and glided forward out of the elevator. “Just wait there a moment Sam. I need to get my bearings.”

I called out after him, “Get your bearings? Are you kidding me? You still can’t remember?”

He paused and turned towards me. He had a very serious expression on his face. “No, I really can’t.” His expression lightened slightly and a mischievous smile hovered around his lips as he continued. “It’s a pesky little side effect of nearly being murdered and hovering on the edge of existence. So, if you don’t mind, I’d quite like to check the area and hopefully remember anything particularly lethal to the woman, and maybe even you, before it activates.”

I was chastened at this reminder of what I had done. It didn’t matter that I may not have been in control of myself at the time. It should not have happened. “Sorry. You carry on. I’ll just wait here then.”

He gave a nod and spun around with a melodramatic twirl of his cloak before he was quickly lost to the darkness.

I stayed put for what felt like an eternity but was probably more like about twenty minutes before my impatience took over. It was all very well telling me to wait but I wasn’t some damsel in distress, I was a strong, independent and capable woman and feared nothing and no one, damn it. I took a deep breath, hoping that he had somehow managed to disarm any of the other traps that may have been active. I composed myself, smoothing down my hair and stepped out of the elevator into the darkness.

Of course, I immediately bumped into what felt like a desk, causing it to shift forward with a screeching sound as the legs scraped across the hard floor. I cringed at the loud and unexpected noise, cursing silently to myself. So much for being discreet.

“Is that you?” Tom’s voice drifted over to me out of the darkness.

“Yeah, it’s me. Sorry, Tom. I couldn’t stand waiting. What’s happening? Where are you?”

“I’m over here.” His echoed out of the darkness, seeming to come towards me and slightly to the right. I tilted my head, trying to achieve a directional fix. His voice continued. “There’s something I’d like you to see. Can you come towards my voice?”

“Erm, yeah. Sure. Keep on talking, Tom and I’ll come to you.”

He kept up a steady stream of inane chatter as I navigated my way through the blackness, his voice steadily growing louder and more distinct until it seemed like he should be directly in front of me. I strained my eyes to try to make out his cloaked form but couldn’t see anything.

“You there? I can’t see you.”

“Just a little bit further. Nearly there.”

“Sam! NO!” Tom’s voice suddenly came from behind me. I stopped in surprise.

There was a sudden flare from one of the irregular flashes of light. It clearly illuminated the…being…stood in front of me. I couldn’t help myself. A primal terror took hold of me and I stumbled back a few paces away from the vile creature where it smiled evilly at me.

The demon stood tall on crooked, cloven footed legs, around seven-foot tall. It was covered in coarse, bristly hair, easily visible as it was naked. It was clearly a male as its member rose over its abdomen like a baseball bat, studded with sharp spines and oozing a viscous fluid from its tip. Nasty. Its eyes were red with slit pupils and its mouth was filled with teeth that would make a shark jealous “What’s wrong, Sam? Come a little closer and give me a hug.”

It was Tom’s voice coming from its foul mouth, it had obviously mimicked him to lure me closer. For what reason? Well, I would hazard a guess that it was nothing good by the looks of the beast.

Tom’s real voice was filled with fear as he spoke to me urgently from behind me. “Sam, come back towards me, please. Don’t look into its eyes. Just focus on my voice and step back to me. Five paces should do it.”

I did as he suggested. I looked down and retreated to where he said he was waiting. I felt his cool presence and gasped in relief as I turned and saw him staring over my shoulder at the creature.

“That was a little too close for comfort, Sam. If you’d gone even one step closer, you would have been inside the containment field and Razor would’ve had you. In every way you can think of. None of them pleasant, I’m afraid.”

“What the fuck is that thing?” My voice was shaky but I couldn’t seem to stop it. I looked at my hands to see them visibly trembling.

“Um. Well, you know how I’m a successful supervillain who uses magic? It’s, erm, well, a demon.” He continued, helpfully, “From Hell.”

I blinked. “A what? Are you seriously telling me you think you’ve got an alien chained up in your basement? You could start an intergalactic war pulling shit like this! Are you insane? Have you seen it? Did you even think what could happen if it got free and called home?”

“It’s not an alien. It’s a demon. Honestly, no-ones coming looking for their lost brother, I promise. You know, you keep on asking me if I’m insane … I’m really not. I told you, I just operate in a different moral continuum than you do. OK, yes, I do take chances that may seem stupid to achieve power but when they pay off, it’s awesome. I’ve taken every precaution with Razor. When I saw him, it came back to me. There’s no way he can escape without my blood breaking the field or gaining my agreement and neither will happen with me like this.” He pointed at his insubstantial form.

Alien, demon, whatever, I guessed it didn’t really matter. Well, except to the alien. I thought about what he had said for a moment before seeing the one glaring flaw in his logic. “What about my blood? Would that be enough to allow him freedom?”

He looked surprised for a moment before answering. “Ah. Well, yes. I didn’t know you existed remember, so didn’t account for familial bonds. Definitely stay away from him, please.”

I gave a brief snort of disbelieving laughter at that. My altruism only went so far. The fact the alien had already tried to trick me rather than asking for help didn’t inspire much trust in it. “Don’t worry! I’ve got no intention of going anywhere near that monstrosity!”

I turned and looked at the alien where it was imprisoned inside the containment field. Its features were sporadically lit by the occasional lights. It seemed to be regarding me more thoughtfully than I would have thought possible from the vicious beast it appeared to be. Despite my best intentions, I looked deeply into its carmine eyes and was disturbed to see what seemed to be a spark of interest and enquiry.

I was compelled to ask Tom, “Is he intelligent? Does it understand what we’re saying?”

“Oh yes, Razor is one of the most intelligent denizens of the Pit I’ve been able to summon. It’s not just some little imp who’d curdle your milk or kill a herd of cows for a laugh. It’s one of the higher echelons. Frighteningly powerful and not something you’d allow a chance to get to you.”

“So, he knows that all he has to do is get hold of my blood and he’s free?” I suddenly felt dread take hold of me at the thought of this being getting out.

“Yep. This is the point that I’ll remind you that you’re invulnerable though, so no worries on that score, eh?” He even sounded cheerful about it.

“I’m mostly invulnerable. I think I’ve got some vulnerabilities though.”

He looked at me open mouthed for a second. “Did you really just say that in front of the one being who’s invested in spilling your blood? And you ask if I’m insane?”

Oh. I mentally face-palmed myself for my stupidity. That was a reckless thing to say and I didn’t know why I had. I hadn’t even wanted Tom to know that, let alone a vicious creature that wanted, no, needed to shed my blood to get out. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing though. He was, after all, being held against his will. I opened my mouth to tell Tom that but the words wouldn’t come. I could feel them on the tip of my tongue but somehow felt constrained from saying anything about it. Instead, I asked, “So, what would I have to do to stop him getting out?”

“What do you mean? He’s not going anywhere, don’t worry.”

“Yeah, but say he was to try and break out, how would I stop it from escaping?”

Tom took hold of my arm or at least tried to, and slowly guided me away from the imprisoned being while answering me softly, trying to ensure that Razor couldn’t hear him. “You mean, if somehow your blood was to fall onto the containment grid and it failed, what else would keep him there?”

“Yes?”

“Nothing, I’m afraid. The field is strong enough to keep him in but it’s really a pretty simple lock. It didn’t need to be complicated, just strong.”

I felt a peculiar surge of elation at his words. Which was odd and slightly worrying. I turned to face the being, somehow knowing where he was even in the darkness and slowly began to walk towards him again. Huh? What was going on? I wanted to be anywhere but near that thing. I fought my body but felt suddenly trapped and betrayed as it ignored my increasingly terrified mental commands. What the Hell was going on? I had a terrible feeling I knew and fought with every ounce of willpower I had to stop walking forward.

It didn’t work.

Tom must have realised what was happening too as he gave an incoherent shout of warning and helplessly tried to shove me back, his hands passing through me time and again. He seemed to give up as he must have seen this was useless and suddenly sped off, leaving me alone in the darkness with the creature.

Great. So much for not letting anything happen to me.

As I approached the mystical cage, Razor gave me an inhumanly wide smile and, still speaking with Tom’s voice, said, “That’s it, little one. Just a drop will do, please. It doesn’t have to be anything too…damaging to you. I wouldn’t want you to miss out on the fun later, would I?”

Despite my mental screams of absolute terror, I jerkily lifted my right hand to my mouth and bit into the nail on my index finger, causing it break and leave a jagged, sharp edge. I brought the nail to my left hand and used it to slash lightly at my palm. A small cut opened like a sly red smile. My greatest weakness was revealed. My body was vulnerable to itself.

A thin line of blood welled up into the shallow incision.

“Yessss, Now, simply turn your hand and allow it to fall, my dear.”

I fought the compulsion. I fought with everything I had.

It wasn’t nearly enough.

I watched in horror as my hand extended and slowly, oh so slowly, inverted. I watched a single ruby drop of blood roll off my palm and seem to fall in slow motion towards the floor where it landed with a gentle splash.

There was a bright flash of light as the containment field fell and the area was suddenly filled with the stink of what I assume was either the Pit or my Moms cooking and my Mom wasn’t here.

It smelled like brimstone and suffering.

I looked up from my hand where it was still hovering, extended in the air, to see Razor stepping lightly from a pedestal that had been concealed behind his bulk and walk the couple of steps towards me with a peculiar, slightly awkward gait due to his crooked legs.

He was smiling at me in what looked to my eyes to be a particularly malevolent way.

I was absolutely terrified.

Something happened then that had never happened to me before in my life.

I fainted.