Hellraiser #3

This blog post continues my journey through the Hellraiser comics published by Epic that ran in the late 80s into the early 90s. As I stated in earlier installments of this series, these initial issues are all about the series finding its rhythm and discovering what kind of comic this is going to be. It's an anthology-style comic, collecting the work of diverse hands, but as the run progresses certain through-lines emerge that give the comic its own special character.

In issue three of Hellraiser, they're experimenting with the notion of running fewer stories, but allowing the stories present to run to greater length. All in all, I'd say the experiment is a success because there really isn't an even slightly below-par story in the lot. Here's what the third issue has on offer:

"The Crystal Precipice"

Jan Strnad, Steve Buccellato, Stan Drakes, Sherilyn Van Valkenburg, Michael Heisler 

As with all long-running horror franchises, it was only a matter of time until Hellraiser ended up in space. "The Crystal Precipice" even predates Hellraiser: Bloodlines by eight or so years! This story takes place on an alien planet being surveyed by four explorers. As they look through their binoculars at a mysterious crystal city on the horizon, they see a human-shaped figure waving to them.

Of course, that's not a man--that's a Cenobite. In fact, it's Face. Remember when I said he would be one of the break-out original characters of the comic? Face loves this strange alien world, calling it an "Eden of rock and dust and crystal." In fact, he has a great admiration for the floating crystalline entities that inhabit this world because they have left all the impurities of the flesh behind for lives of strict geometric order.

One member of the explorers is a great example of the unruly flesh of mankind: Ernest is a violent rapist who has been assaulting one of the women in the party. He's caught in the act and banished into the alien waste. Unfortunately, that simply drives him into the hands of Face, who uses him to lure the rest of the group to their dooms.

Ernest's revenge trip is thwarted when he accidentally hits an alien crystal while firing a gun at one of his former compatriots. Face allows for no accidents; unworthy of transformation into a crystalline entity, Ernest is instead taken to Hell and refashioned as one of the mongrel pets the Cenobites keep. 

As far as stories go, this is a strange one, but what I appreciate most about it is that the art style and characterization is heavily reminiscent of the horror comics put out by Warren back in the day. There's a wonderful throwback quality to "The Crystal Precipice" in its blending of weird science and horror that is particularly pleasing even if there isn't much depth to the story. Which is fine, as this one functions like an appetizer for the longer tales to come in this issue.

"The Blood of a Poet"

R. J. M. Lofficier, John Ridgway, Gaspar Saladino, Steve Oliff

In "The Blood of  Poet," a naive would-be poet from Kansas finds himself in 1920s Paris, hoping to find his way in the invigorated European art scene between the wars. Following a tip he gleans at an occult bookstore, which happens to have a cute employee who catches his eye, he seeks a room at the Pension Veneur--a rooming house where artists are allowed free residence. The only terms at the Pension Veneur is that any artist in residence is required to create and they must attend formal dinners within the house every night.

The formal dinners are a nightmare of rehashed arguments, recriminations, and general antisociality, punctuated by what appear to be epileptic fits. During his first night within the Pension Veneur, our poet has horrific dreams--rendered in a way that delightfully reminded me a bit of the work of Basil Wolverton--and discovers upon awakening that he has penned lines of truly decadent verse. His experience at the rooming house never improves; his fellow residents are secretive, combative, and their ways are shocking to a young man fresh from the Midwest. When he's invited to join in a sadomasochistic sex act, he demurs with great haste.

When he takes the cutie from the bookstore out on a date, he learns that her boss probably steered him to the Pension Veneur under a malign ulterior motive. That ulterior motive creeps into the picture when several small details converge: the protagonist learns that Lemarchand had a hand in the Pension Veneur and several former residents of the room house have disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

Things come to a head when the main character is accosted by the other residents and chained to a wall as they operate a phallic-looking clockwork contraption that summons the Cenobites. (And they're the original movie Cenobites!) It is revealed that the Cenobites allow the Pension Veneur to exist in hopes that the artists they patronize will create works that capture their hellish ideas and translate them into artistic mediums. Those who fail are sacrificed to make way for the next batch of prospects. As the Cenobites approach, the protagonist declaims his infernal-inspired verses, impressing the Order of the Gash. They take one of the other residents to Hell instead.

The main character attempts to flee the house and the horrible bargain he has struck within it, but when he finds out that his lady love from the bookstore was slain in a random mugging he returns to the Pension Veneur, dejected but ready to accept his damnation. The artwork, and especially the color choices, in this story give it a lurid, sullen atmosphere that perfectly fits the subject matter. It's a longer story, in terms of the usual page lengths for the comic, but it uses that space to be languid rather than packed with frenetic plotting.

"Songs of Metal and Flesh"

Peter Akins, Dave Dorman, Lurene Haines, Phil Felix

"Songs of Metal and Flesh" is another story that has remained with me over the years; in my estimation, it ranks among the acknowledged classics of Epic's Hellraiser run. Like "The Blood of a Poet," this story concerns art--in this case, classical music. Since childhood, Jason Marlowe has been blind. True to the trope, Jason's "other senses" compensate for his lack of vision and he becomes a musical prodigy. He wins a scholarship to a musical academy where he not only excels, but meets a woman named Deborah who will change his life.

His sexual experiences with Deborah put all those heightened sense to good use. In their pleasure, he finds access to the "hidden melodies and mysterious harmonies" that had alluded him. However, Jason Marlowe also discovers a rival in fellow student Stephen Middleton. Unsatisfied with competing against Jason musically, Stephen also seduces Deborah. Stephen assumes that because Jason cannot see Deborah's infidelity he is incapable of detecting it, but he can feel it, smell it, and hear their "cruel excitement."

Deborah introduces sadomasochism into her relationship with Jason, tying him to the bed and slashing his chest with a knife. This not only brings a new flavor of sexual pleasure into Jason's life, but gives him another way to access "the hidden sonatas." Meanwhile, Stephen breaks into Jason's home and places razor blades between the keys of his piano so that the next time he plays he maims his hand. 

Stephen exits to a successful career as a touring musician. The story notes, with cold cruelty, that he cheats on Deborah in every city and that she eventually dies, unloved, of a cancer that eats away at her.

Jason is forced to pivot from performer to composer, but his experiences with Stephen and Deborah have fueled him to creative heights he would not have reached otherwise. Music becomes a puzzle to solve and--well, you see where this is going, right? At the cresendo of his composition, he drags his naked body along a wall studded with razor blades, then spins en pointe, sending droplets of his blood to complete the sheet music he has scattered before him on the ground.

At the debut of Jason's piece everything goes to Hell--literally. Stephen is the pianist entrusted to bring the music to life, of course, and when he does he finds himself snared on hooked chains, the Cenobites now part of the audience. What follows is pure Grand Guignol style theatrics: headless violinists saw at their instruments and the audience is flayed alive. In the end, Jason finds himself in Leviathan's realm. His vision has been restored, so that he might see the horrors around him, but he has now lost his senses of touch, smell, taste, and hearing. Once an instrument for producing Hell's music, he is now a physical instrument plucked and drummed upon for eternity.

As I said at the start, I consider "Songs of Metal and Flesh" to be a Hellraiser classic--and for good reason. It is an exceedingly cruel story, and the way it combines desire, beauty, and pain into a heady mix is entirely on theme. I also love the art style. There is a certain naivety to the coloring (colored pencils, I think) that mirrors Jason's lack of experience and unguarded descent. This one is hard to beat.

Hellraiser #2

This post is the second installment of my re-read of the Hellraiser comics published by Epic. The first issue was undeniably a cracking start, even if it played fast and loose with the idea of a unified "Hellraiser Mythos," but can the second issue rival that tough act to follow? Let's dig in and find out.

My thoughts on each of the stories contained in the issue are below. As always, the stories chosen for the issue offer a nice range of horror tales, albeit that they are united under the Hellraiser rubric. We've got the political and corporal terrors of the prison, the horrors of the hospital, virtual reality, and more!

"The Vault"

Marc McLaurin, Jorge Zaffino, Phil Felix, Julie Michel

"The Vault" concerns a violent prison in an unnamed South American country where a revolution is currently sputtering to its end. A prisoner within the facility sold out his comrades to get possession of a Lament Configuration, which he inexplicably still has in prison. Opening the box removes him from incarceration, but that poses a problem for the facility's commandant, who sees the unexplained escape as a blotch on his record of keeping law and order. And he is a big believer in law and order; he believes in structure and imposing structure from top to bottom, bottom to top, and from the middle outward.

To rectify what he sees as a lapse in order in the prison, the commandant tortures various prisoners into solving the left-behind puzzle box to figure out how the escapee fled his domain. The puzzle doesn't open until he beats a prisoner while holding it. The Cenobite who arrives is very disappointed in the commandant's lack of self-control. The story ends with the commandant being told that this fault can be corrected--from top to bottom, bottom to top, and from the middle outward.

This is an interesting story. I think the way it focus on chaos (symbolized here by the failed revolution) versus order (here played by the carceral state) is a nice thematic contrast. The art style, with is deep, shadowy blacks and muted orange and yellow palette, also really works well with the subject matter.

"Divers Hands"

James Robert Smith and Mike Hoffman

A patient named Vincent in the last leper colony in the continental United States has got his hands--or, rather, what's left of his hands--on a Lament Configuration. Vincent believes that successful manipulation of the puzzle box will grant him a cure for his ravaged body or perhaps give him a new body entirely.

Enter a new nurse named Mary at the treatment center. Vincent quickly seduces her; not romantically, of course, but he coaxes her into solving the puzzle for him since his hands are no longer up to the task. Although, it must be noted, that there is a sexual component to the attraction between them that rings true to Hellraiser's mixture of desperation and desire. While having sex with her boyfriend, Mary imagines the leper atop her in his place.

The Cenobites arrive when Mary solves the puzzle as Vincent's proxy. We now learn that this isn't the first time has had another solve the Lament Figuration on his behalf. Vincent's goal isn't to have the Cenobites cure his affliction per se; he believes that if he leads enough souls to Hell they will remake him as a Cenobite. 

Mary is taken by the Cenobites, but before she enters Hell she flings the Lament Configuration away. Believing that it must have reappeared somewhere else in the institute, Vincent begins scouring the hallways until he finds it. When he does, the Cenobites reappear, apparently re-summoned to their infernal work. The institute, it turns out, is also a puzzle created by LeMarchand, and traversing its corridors has "solved" it. With no proxy to offer them, Vincent is taken as their victim--but not before he sees Mary again, refashioned into a tangle of whole, healthy limbs.

The pastel colors and the unwaveringly bland expressions given to the characters in "Divers Hands" really sells the "clinical" horror of the piece. Everything, from the progress of Vincent's disease to the sterile Hell of the facility, underlines the cold, unfeeling betrayals that Vincent engages in and adds to the horror of the red-hot desires lurking under the surface. This is one of the all-time classics to emerge from the Epic run, in my opinion.

"Writer's Lament"

Dwayne McDuffie, Kevin O'Neil, and Jim Novak

I'd later come to know Kevin O'Neil for his work on The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, of my favorite comics of all time, so you'd think this one would appeal to me. And yet...I really don't.

"Writer's Lament" follows the travails of a freelance writer named Dave who is already in Hell. Used to writing scripts to fit a client's specifications, Dave is surprised one day to find that he's created something actually artistic for once, something that is undeniably his own. Because the use of metaphor in this story is blatantly obvious, the piece is symbolized by a baby because the project is "his baby."

Dave rushes his baby to his editor and is shocked to learn that other people have brought their babies in for consideration as well. The editor likes what he sees, but begins to make changes--you have to think of the audience, the sponsors, the pressure groups, you see. He pulls out one of the baby's eyes, yanks an arm off, and rips off its genitals. (Yes, really.) When Dave balks that the editor is destroying his concept of what the baby should look like, he reassembles it--but then rips the "heart" out of the project.

Dave is ushered out, the creative spark behind the baby now dead, but he's placated by the promise of work to come in the future. 

The underlying idea is interesting here, but the execution is so on-the-nose that it feels more like a creative's gripe session than a real examination of the commercialization of art. The casual gruesomeness of the baby's dismemberment has some shock and heft to it, but the artwork on this one just doesn't feel particularly inspired.

"The Threshold"

Scott Hampton, Mark Neece, and Phil Felix

Oh hey, a virtual reality story! Look, it was the late 80s; "The Threshold" even pre-empts that god-awful Lawnmower Man movie.

A scientist named Leo Marks perfects the virtual reality experience, and then promptly disappears after granting the patent to an amoral tech company. The virtual reality technology is mostly used by people who want to fuck celebrities, but a scientist at the company named Tom is up to some darker stuff. You see, Tom has been experimenting on a man's whose mind was "blown out" in the technology's trial phase; now Tom subjects him to ever-increasing experiences of pain to discover what lies beyond the threshold of maximum agony.

Since this is a Hellraiser story, you can guess what lies beyond pain, actually. A Cenobite arrives after Tom cranks the dial on his experiment--and the Cenobite is none other than Leo Marks! Marks then ushers Tom into the fold, where it seems he may be destined to become a Cenobite himself.

This is a fairly slight story, but it sticks to the themes and the virtual reality gag still has some novelty to it. Loved the scene of the guinea pig having to surf a lava flow in Hawaii.

"The Pleasures of Deception"

Philip Nutman, Bill Koeb, Gaspar Saladino

Now this art style is so of the era it gives me an ache in my chest! Dark, murky paints; inexplicable squares drawn around focal points; scratchy textures hinting at human blight--this is the stuff I'm craving.

"The Pleasures of Deception" is pure strain Hellraiser. When an artist named Davis tries to sell his latest macabre piece to a gallery, his work is rejected. His art has grown stale. What he needs is new inspiration, a new window into the complexities of desire and the flesh, so he gets his hand on a Lament Configuration. 

Solving the puzzle summons Pinhead and the High Priestess. (I believe this is the first time the movie Cenobites show up in the comic as characters.) They guide him through a series of disturbing, blood soaked lessons in how the flesh can be reshaped, taming the chaos of life and turning it into static art. Of course, like many Faustian bargains, this one comes with an unforeseen price: the artist is now cursed with seeing more of the world that he can really handle.

This is a perfect piece to close the issue. Overall, this is another strong entry in the run. You get a sense that they're still figuring out what a Hellraiser comic entails, but it does feel more unified than the first issue.

Hellraiser #1

I've been obsessed with Clive Barker's Hellraiser since I saw the first film back in the 80s, after getting my grandmother to rent it from the local grocery store. Truth be told, the first time I watched it I had to take it in two parts; it freaked me out so much that I had to stop the tape and continue the next day! After finishing it, though, I couldn't get it out of my head and I was soon on the trail of tracking down a copy of The Hellbound Heart...and all of Barker's other fiction.

To my amazement, one day (circa 1989) at the comic shop I saw a copy of Clive Barker's Hellraiser #1 on the new release wall. This was an anthology comic published by Epic, Marvel's "serious" imprint. The comic was deluxe for the era: perfect bound, thick paper, and chock full of painted art. I was in love.

I've managed to get a full collection of the Epic Hellraiser comics over the years, and now it's time to re-read them and give a full reevaluation. Are they a worthy addition to the "Hellraiser Mythos"? Or were they a cash-in that will ring hollow now that my days of youthful enthusiasm are at an end? Here's what the first issue summoned forth:

Erik Saltzgaber, John Bolton, Bill Oakley

"The Canons of Pain"

Things kick off with an extremely strong start with "The Canons of Pain." I am a sucker for Hellraiser stories with a historical gloss, and "The Canons of Pain" takes place during the Crusades. Our virtuous knight brings a Lament Configuration back from the Holy Land, but that's not the only burden he carries--it's clear that in this story the puzzle box is a metaphor for his war-induced post-traumatic stress. I also love the gimmick in play--once the puzzle is solved and the Cenobite is summoned, the medieval characters try their damnedest to fit its existence into their Catholic framework of demons, hell, and the justice of God. Overall, it's a banger of an opening story and I adore that you can still see the canvas grain in the art, just beautiful texture.

Sholly Fisch, Dan Spiegle, Carrie Spiegle, Sherilyn van Valkenburgh

"Dead Man's Hand"

"The Canons of Pain" isn't the only historical drag the first issue of Hellraiser has to offer: "Dead Man's Hand" gives us a slice of the Wild West. It's a classic premise--a stranger comes to town, looking to play some high-stakes poker, with a man's soul on the line. The stranger antes up a Lament Configuration, which everyone thinks is the big prize. It's not, of course. When his intended victim emerges as the winner of the card game, he gets the real prize--the stranger takes the box with him and rides out of town. It's a slight story, especially after the vicious tangle of the first tale, but it's a fun diversion nonetheless. 

Jan Strnad, Bernie Wrightson, Bill Wray, Michael Heisler

"The Warm Red"

"The Warm Red" is a story that has really stuck with me over the years; it's easily my favorite of the tales in the first issue. A manipulative real estate mogul gets a tip that some ailing farmland is going to be virtually priceless once Disney moves in and makes a new theme park nearby, so she swoops in ahead of the other vultures to buy the place off the dimwitted yokel who owns it. She not above using sex to blind him to the swindle, and one of the things I love about this story is that they resisted the temptation to make her a typical "sexy comic woman" of pneumatic proportions and instead portray her as older, oddly angular, but still seductive and real.

Of course, little does our swindler know that the dimwitted yokel has been cast from the Ed Gein mold--he's a sadist who was tortured at the hands of his pious mother, the perfect recipe for a beast to fall into the hands of a Cenobite. The Cenobite in this story is worth mentioning; his name is Face, due to the mask of skin stapled over the blood and muscle of his head, and this won't be his only appearance over the comic's run. 

Our yokel turns the tables on the businesswoman, drugging her into unconsciousness so her can cut her up and give her over to Hell's dominion.

When she awakes, mostly nude and tied spread-eagled to a gore-soaked mattress, the pain is about to begin. But remember, she's a wheeler and dealer--she makes Face an offer that feels like a true bargain. As she explains to the Cenobite, yon yokel only feeds a trickle of souls to Leviathan--and just think how the yield could be increased if someone savvy were at the helm! And so, our yokel and our manipulative femme fatale trade places; at the story's close, he's the one strapped down, fearfully awaiting the cruel application of the knife.

Ted McKeever, "Dance of the Fetus"

"Dance of the Fetus" is a mostly wordless story about a woman who has summoned a demon seemingly to give her the strength to commit suicide. Ted McKeever's idiosyncratic art style is a great fit for the themes of the piece; it's moody, glum, and frankly depressive. Once the demon slips inside the woman, he discovers a spanner in the works--the woman is pregnant. It is, apparently, against regulations for Hell to claim an innocent in the bargain, so the fetus is taken outside of the woman's body, where it floats up into the firmament to become a star. This is a great piece of comic work, but I have one caveat with it: it just doesn't feel like a Hellraiser story! And that's what makes it interesting within the context of the first issue--you can see how the team involved is feeling out the territory, finding the limits of what a comic called Clive Barker's Hellraiser can do without becoming alienated from itself.

Fascinations of the Flesh

I like to run a few horror one-shots in October when I'm able--baring illness like the one I had last year that derailed my plans! For the following one-shot, I offered the players their pick from a bunch of pregens; all they knew about the game in advance was that a) it was going to be a horror game b) the premise was that they would be playing the cast and crew of a horror film called Fascinations of the Flesh that was being filmed at a historic castle in the Swiss Alps and c) they would have a brief description of their characters' abilities and their dark secret.

They did not have character sheets for their characters. They did not know what game system we would be using. And most importantly, they did not know that the scenario was taking place in the world of Clive Barker's Hellraiser.

Characters

Aurelia Swann, fx artist

Maurice Ivanov, drug dealer

Vincento Lombardi, actor

Roland Schrader, camera operator

Quentin Markov, producer

Events

We opened with the group traveling in Quentin's car, winding their way up the mountain to Kargen Castle, where Yann Cramling's Fascinations of the Flesh was being filmed. Cramling was well known for his erotic Euro Gothic films, but an indiscretion of some sort--no one could agree as to what it was--had marred his reputation, so Fascinations of the Flesh was to be his comeback film. 

Oddly, when they arrived at the castle, they didn't see anyone milling about despite the fact that a number of other vehicles were parked at the side of the fortress. The castle's main doors were out of reach behind a lowered portcullis. Embedded into the stone of the wall beside the portcullis was a brass plate bearing a strange design. After examining the plate, it was determined that it had four quadrant pieces that could be moved and a dial that could be turned in the center. After fiddling with the plate, the portcullis raised--and they heard the tolling of a distant, ominous bell.

Again, they did not see or hear anyone within the castle, even though they kept calling out hoping for an answer. They did managed to locate the castle chapel; the room was initially awash in gem-like blue and red tones from the light filtering in through the chapel's stained glass windows. Strangely, there was no cross on or near the altar. The altar was made of stone and, upon further inspection, they saw that there was another brass plate embedded into its surface. This plate had a large central circle that could be turned. Once manipulated, the circle slid upward as a cylinder, rotated, and descended back into place with a loud click. The room was immediately plunged into darkness as if the sun outside had been extinguished. 

The group rushed to look out into the courtyard to see what was going on, but they found that the world outside had been plunged into the darkest night. Despite the darkness, they perceived a beam that was darker than the gloom around them that swept the grounds at regular intervals. The beam's origin proved to be a massive octahedron on the horizon that rotated in place. 

While they were looking at the shape, they also noticed that blue light was now filtering from the mortar between the bricks of the castle's walls. A section of the wall opened like a door, from which emerged a humanoid figure. Their skin was so white that it appeared to be tinged blue. The skin of its cheeks had been peeled downward and pinned in place with iron keys. Its black leather skirt was splayed to reveal the mutilation that sat where its genitals should have been. At its belt was a heavy ring of medieval-looking keys, a curved knife, and an instrument that resembled a hacksaw.  

The creature introduced itself as the Chatelaine. It explained that it was an explorer "in the further reaches of pain and pleasure" and that their interacts with the brass plates in the castle had summoned it. Once summoned, it regarded all within the castle to have requested that it take them to "the Labyrinth" so that they too could experiment with the extremity of sensation. It told them they had four hours until they could be claimed; until that time, they were free to spend their time however they wished.

It then stepped aside.

They opted to spend their time searching the rest of Kargen Castle in hopes of finding a means of escaping the Chatelaine. In one room, the discovered a film projector--which they would return to later. For now, they wanted to return to the courtyard and explore the doors they had passed there. Much to their distress, they saw that there was now a large smear of blood across the courtyard's grass leading from the stables to the castle's surrounding wall. They were reluctant to enter the stables, but when they did they found a pile of fur and skin in each stall--it was as if the horses inside had been skinned and their bones and meat had been taken away.

They then located the room that Yann Cramling had been occupying. Aside from his cot and a pile of Gothic novels, they saw that he had not yet finished the script for Fascinations of the Flesh; the final scene was missing from the manuscript. They also located a number of film reels, but the third reel was missing. Finding that reel, and watching it on the projector previously located, now became a priority. 

Ascending the castle's tallest tower, they found another brass plate embedded into the wall at the top. When its moving pieces were manipulated, a chain ending in a barbed hook shot out and injured Aurelia. Tucked within a crack in the wall was a page torn from Bram Stoker's Dracula. Attached to the page was a post-it note on which someone had written a speculation that the scene where the three brides of Dracula menace Jonathan Harker was based on an encounter with three "cenobites."

In another room, the group found a member of the crew who had chosen to hang herself from the rafters rather than be taken by the Chatelaine. At her feet was a dropped crucifix necklace and a suicide note. 

When they explored the upper floors of the castle, they reached a level that should not have existed given what they knew about Kargen Castle's layout. In one room of the mysterious level they uncovered the missing third reel of film. They also found another reel that revealed Roland's dark secret: he had been party to filming a real snuff scene.

While moving a collection of detritus out of a room so they could reach the door beyond, someone cut their hand--this would become important later. In the chamber beyond, they found the body of a woman, the skin of her face flayed back to reveal a hideous grin, who had been nailed to the surface of a table. They quickly found another body; this one had been opened from sternum to pubis. 

When they attempted to return to the lower level, they found a figure standing between them and the stairs. The figure was human, but their skin had been removed and although their body glistened with blood, they did not seem to have enough meat to be complete. They recognized the person's voice as that of Yann Cramling; he told them that the blood spilled clearing the room had allowed him to escape the Labyrinth--but he needed more blood to fully rebuild his body. Unwilling to give up their blood without a fight, they attacked him. He slashed a few of them with a razorblade, but ultimately they were able to destroy his body. 

Watching the third reel made them uncannily aware that it was footage that documented their every move and every encounter since arriving at Kargen Castle.

With their time running out, Roland had an idea he wanted to try: since the script they had found was incomplete, perhaps writing a final scene could warp the reality of their situation and allow for them to leave Kargen Castle? The Chatelaine now slowly made its way down the hall to the room they had huddled up in. Unfortunately, writing their own final scene had no effect. Roland attempted to bargain with the Chatelaine, offering himself as a candidate for cenobite-dom. The Chatelaine was not interested in what was offered; hooked chains shot from the darkness, stringing Roland up, suspending him in the air, before rending him apart. 

Quentin was the next to be caught by the cenobite's chains; his neck was wrenched backwards by a hook through his lip, killing him. 

Vincento slammed the door shut and the remaining three members of the group waited.

Time passed, and nothing happed. They peeked out into the corridor, but the Chatelaine was gone. All three ran to the courtyard and main gates. 

Unfortunately, they found the bloody bodies of the skinned horses guarding the gate. Screaming the Lord’s Prayer, Vincento sacrificed himself to the monstrous horses to give Aurelia and Maurice time to slip through the gate. The last thing they heard was the sound of a hoof caving in Vincento's handsome face.

Once past the gate, Aurelia and Maurice, both heavily injured and teetering on the verge of insanity, found that the world was once again sunny. They could see nothing unusual in the courtyard of Kargen Castle--even Vincento's corpse was gone. They commandeered Quentin's car and sped away into what remained of the day--forever changed, forever marked.