Synopsis: Differel Hellraiser

Copyright (C) 2011 by Kevin L. O'Brien

One day Henry is helping Team Girl to inventory the contents of one of the catacomb vaults. He finds an antique black lacquered puzzle box of unparalleled workmanship. Intrigued, he hides it and doesn't mention he found it. He smuggles it back to his room, and that night he begins to work on it. After a couple of hours, he manages to remove one piece and is rewarded by a short tune of banal but sublime music. Satisfied, he secrets the box away and goes to sleep.

Vlad is patrolling the grounds when he thinks he hears music playing. It is too faint and too short for him to identify or pinpoint, but it disturbs him despite its banal tune. He has a feeling like someone walking over his grave.

Over the next few days Henry progressively removes more and more pieces, each time being rewarded with another part of the music. The inside surfaces of the pieces are highly polished and he imagines he sees faces reflected in them, but they are too fleeting to be sure. Finally he comes down to only three pieces still attached. As he removes one, he hears instead of music a large bell tolling mournfully. That puzzles him, but before he can work on separating the last two pieces, Aelfraed arrives with his lunch, and he barely has time to hide the box.

Differel is working out with Team Girl in her gymnasium when they hear a bell. That puzzles them, since the manor has no bell and they are too far away from Denver and Downham Market to hear bells from there. Then Vlad rises out of the floor. He tells her he recognizes the bell: it announces the impending arrival of the Cenobites. Someone in the manor is opening a Lemarchand box, most likely the dreaded Lament Configuration. Differel calls Holt and has him place the house on alert for a possible Cenobite incursion. She also has him initiate a search for a partially disassembled Lemarchand box; no room is to be ignored, not even her own suite. She also sends Vlad off to make a search as well. The box must be found before the final disassembly, but he must also stand by if the Cenobites come through; he will be the first to confront them.

Eile and Sunny ask what's going on, and she explains that the Lemarchand boxes are a series of puzzle boxes created by Philip Lemarchand, a maker of mechanical toys and singing birds back in 18th century France. Solving them opens temporary Schisms to other planes of existence and creates bridges between them and Earth. The most infamous and dreadful is known as the Lament Configuration, because it opens onto a plane of endless pain and suffering. This plane is ruled by the Cenobites, former victims of the box who have such dark souls that they become part of the plane itself. Fortunately, they cross over only long enough to claim the person who solved the puzzle box and return before the Schism closes, but she has sworn to protect her people, even from their own folly. She asks that they stay with her until this situation is resolved, and they agree.

With Holt busy conducting his search, Henry has no training for that afternoon, so he goes back to his room to study, but the lure of the box is too strong. He takes it out and begins working on the last two pieces, but to his surprise they come apart very easily. He gets an apprehensive feeling, and then the room grows dark, and out of thin air appears five beings, each dressed in the black leather and vinyl, the foremost having dead-white skin and a bald head. They are each deformed or mutilated in some way, and the bald being's face and scalp are covered with pins embedded in his skull. As soon as he sees Henry he stops, and when the others try to step past him, he restrains them, saying that the boy did not summon them. Vlad then appears and orders Henry to run. He flees the room in terror and the door slams shut behind him.

Vlad states that he defends the Van Helsing family. Pinhead appears unimpressed, and chains with hooks fly out of the walls, snare Vlad, and rip him apart. He changes to shadow and disappears to reform. Pinhead scans the room as if searching for something, then tells the others they must search for the one who called them.

Differel is in her office when Holt calls her, saying the Cenobites are in the Grand Hall just outside her suite. She orders Holt to fall back and not engage them, but follow them. She opens her safe and gives the Girls weapons, but before they can leave Henry emerges from the secret stairwell. She takes him into her office where they are confronted by the Cenobites. She summons Caliburn as Vlad reappears behind them, and she demands to know what they want. Pinhead replies they have come for their due: they collect those who open the Lament Configuration. When she asks who did so, Pinhead points to Henry and states he did. She asks if they want her son, and this time Pinhead replies no. Confused, she demands he explain himself. Pinhead states that it is not hands that call them, but desire, and while Henry desired to disassemble the box, it was for the joy of solving a puzzle, not to experience the exquisite pleasure and pain of their tortures. But there was one whose desire was for torture, pain, and death; that is the person they seek. Differel asks Henry if he disassembled the box, and he reluctantly admits he did. When she asks where he found it, he tells her in the vault he helped inventory. Differel finally understands what Pinhead is getting at. Someone planted the box in the vault, hoping Henry or the Girls would find it, open it, and be taken by the Cenobites, except they got their facts wrong.

Dr. Mabuse enters the room with Holt; she carries one of her portable scanning devices and she begins to circle the Cenobites. Differel asks Pinhead if he knows who he's after; he replies he does not, but it is someone in the house. She offers to find that person, but only if they return to their realm. Pinhead declines, saying that person is their due; they will not return without him or her, or a substitute. She asks how long they can remain before the Schism closes, and he informs her it has already closed. She thinks the Cenobites are now loose upon Earth, but he adds that all they want is their due, and while they cannot arrive unless the Lament Configuration is opened, they can depart whenever they wish. She asks what they mean by a substitute. He explains the one who is their due may offer a suitable substitute for them to take back to their realm, but such a person must be worthy, a soul darker than his or her own.

However, while it is desire that summons them, they are permitted to claim whoever opens the Lament Configuration, even if that one had no desire beyond solving the puzzle. As such, if they are unable to find the one who is their due, they will take Henry. Differel offers herself as a substitute and Pinhead agrees, saying that despite her self-restrictions, her soul is worthy; she might even make a Cenobite herself. Differel asks how long they will wait; Pinhead gives her an hour. Despite the fact that they may not cause any unprovoked harm, she doesn't want the Cenobites running loose. Pinhead agree to wait in a location she designates, and she turns them over to Mabuse, who directs them to her lab in the basemant.

Differel has Vlad take Henry and the Girls to Denver (US), then calls a meeting of her senior staff. Aelfraed, Maggie King, Mrs. Widget, Madam Trumbo, Holt, Sharona Turing, and Dr. Carmichael come to the meeting room off her office. She tells them what has happened and states they have an hour to find out who planted the Lemarchand box in the vault. Carmichael points out it could have been done at any time, even during a previous generation, but Differel replies that Pinhead seemed to indicate that the person was alive and in the house at the present time, which suggests it is a recent attempt. Maggie states that they don't have the time for the usual measures, such as giving everyone a polygraph, but Aelfraed points out that a disciplined person can defeat a polygraph. Vlad returns and states he could scare the truth out of the one responsible, but Differel refuses to traumatize her people, and besides the perpetrator might not be intimidated. Holt states that leaves just going through all the personal records for anything unusual; Widget objects that will take too much time, but Trumbo points out they don't have much choice. Sharona has been quiet throughout, offering no comments, as she doodles on a pad of paper. Irritated, Differel asks if they are keeping her from anything important. She shows her the pad is covered with mathematical formulas and logical symbols and states that she was performing an analysis. She then says she has an idea that she believes will work.

Meanwhile, Mabuse examines the Lament Configuration. The other Cenobites stand in a group in the center of the lab, but Pinhead watches her with extreme interest. He asks her what she hopes to learn; she replies that she is very close to understanding how the Lemarchand box is able to open Schisms and create bridges. Contemptuously amused, he asks her how. She hypothesis that it is a combination of spacial dynamics and quantum harmonics, terms Pinhead has no trouble understanding. The orientation of the puzzle pieces act analogous to a lock and bolt on a door, while the music acts as the key. As each piece is removed, the local interdimensional barrier is weakened and distorted, creating the Schism, as the music harmonizes with the quantum signature of the Cenobites' realm, thereby both directing the bridge to that realm and also stabilizing the Schism. Once the box is completely disassembled, the Schism opens completely and the bridge connects, allowing crossover. The only thing she hasn't figured out is how the puzzle box manipulates the spacial dynamics of local space-time, but she suspects it acts as a sort of Schrödinger wave function generator, manipulating the values of the spacial function in a specific sequence identical to the sequence of the puzzle pieces.

Pinhead is impressed despite himself and praises her on her ingenuity. She dismisses his praise by saying it is an elementary problem, but asks him if she solved the puzzle, knowing that he and the Cenobites would crossover, would they take her despite her lack of desire for pleasure or pain. Pinhead states no; though her soul is dark, her robot body would not allow her to experience the true ecstatical essence of pleasure and pain. She finds that amusing; she never believed in the soul, and has achieved immortality by copying her consciousness and recording it into artificial brains. Pinhead replies that no mortal can feel his or her soul, but it is the essence of life and experience; without it there can be neither.

They are interrupted by Differel making an announcement over the house intercom. She explains what is going on and that the manor has been invaded by the Cenobites. She states that they have located another Lemarchand box, the Elysium Configuration, that can drive the Cenobites back to their realm, but she is ordering the manor evacuated to protect everyone. Rather than being disturbed by her claim, however, Pinhead praises her cleverness. He then tells his colleagues that they are close to securing their quarry.

Holt hides in the cloak room off the conference room, watching a gilt-edged white enamel Lemarchand box sitting on the table. He see a maid enter to take the box and comes out to confront. Differel appears with Vlad and she demands to know why she planted the Lament Configuration. At first the maid tries to denying being the culprit as Aelfraed and Maggie enter; she was just curious to see it. She knows she broke protocol and she's sorry. Aelfraed then reports that she was hired only a month before the inventory, and that while her background check at the time showed no red flags, a more detailed check performed by Maggie just before they came in revealed that her birth certificate was that of six month old baby. No doubt her fingerprints will reveal who she really is.

She then confesses that she had planted the Lament Configuration, but her intended target was not Henry or Team Girl. Before she can explain further, however, the Cenobites and Mabuse arrive. Pinhead says it is time, a Differel says he is welcome to take her, but Pinhead states that they do not want her. At first Differel suspects a double-cross, but Mabuse guesses the truth: the maid is a robot. The maid contradicts her, saying not quite; then her head detaches and rises up as a base of tentacles emerge from the body. The 'skin' dissolves away, leaving a crystalline skull with jewel-like eyes and a living brain floating inside the cranium. It states that it had not cared who opened the Lament Configuration, it knew that Differel would sacrifice herself to protect whoever did by offering herself to the Cenobites as a substitute. It also knew the Cenobites would not want it, since its brain would be unable to feel pain, so they would take Differel instead.

Pinhead tells Differel she must come with them now. She summons Caliburn as the others attack, but one by one they are all torn apart by chain hooks flying out of the wall, even Vlad, except for Mabuse. Differel is caught and hauled off her feet, screaming in agony; Pinhead states that is only the beginning.

A crack of lightning heralds the appearance of a huge Lemarchand box hovering in the air above the table. At its appearance the Cenobites are frozen and Differel is released. Mabuse walks up to Pinhead and tells him never to mess with a mad scientist. She then presses a button on a remote and the box opens as a weird but beautiful tune plays. The Cenobites scream as they are drawn into it, then the box closes. It vanishes in a flash of light.

Differel snaps back to reality and releases she is unharmed. As well, while she remembers what happened, the more horrific parts seem blurred and indistinct. Mabuse helps her to her feet and she sees that everyone else is hale and whole again, including Vlad. When she asks what happened, Mabuse explains that she had cracked the secret of how the Lemarchand boxes opened Schisms. Pinhead knew she had, but what she didn't tell him was that that allowed her to figure out other possible configurations that could open Schisms, including one that was the direct opposite of the Lament Configuration. She then used her ability to manipulate wave functions to create the configuration and solve it. She apologizes that it took longer than she expected to form, but Differel waves her off, saying she's just glad it worked. Mabuse, however, states that the reversal of the Cenobites' activities was probably just a serendipitous side effect; that there was no reason to believe this anti-Lament Configuration would do that. That sobers Differel immediately.

Holt is the first one to realize that the 'maid' is gone, head and body both. Differel orders the estate locked down. Mabuse tells her that probably won't do any good; the disembodied brain probably has at least one other body stashed away for escape. When Differel asks what it is, she states that the technology to keep a human brain alive and aware in a life support jar exists, but is very sophisticated, as is the advanced systems and antigravity it demonstrated. She might be able to track it down through that. Differel tells her to get started.

In Denver (US), Differel talks with Henry. She tells him this is the second time he has found something in her house and tried to it a secret. The first time she let it slide because she thought he had learned a valuable lesson, but this time could have been disastrous. She tells him she must punish him. He states he understands and he gives her his word that he will never do it again. That mollifies her enough that his punishment will be one weekend spent washing dishes in the scullery, instead of a whole week.

As he plays a video game, she sits with Eile and Sunny. She tells them what happened, including about the jar-brain, and they express relief that she escape being tortured forever. Her reply is that in the midst of the most agonizing pain she had ever felt, she also felt pleasure more intense than anything she had experienced before, even with Victor. For the briefest of moments, she had hoped that it would never end.