The apartment building was on the smaller side compared to the much larger ones around it. With just four units, the upkeep was easier, it didn’t take up much space at all. Small alleyways on either side of the building kept it separated from the buildings on both sides and connected to a larger alley in the back where the tenants parked their cars instead of out front on the street.
Corinth approached the front door that was in between the two bottom apartments. Pulling on the door, he wasn’t surprised it opened as the people inside often left it unlocked due mostly to complacency. Stepping in, there was a door to the left and right of him and postal boxes about midway down. On the right side leading up, was a stairway that did a 180 degree turn about halfway up. There was no reason to stay on the first floor so he headed up the stairs.
At the top, the door to Jack’s flat was cracked open. Corinth gave two knocks and then pushed the door open to find Templar Jones standing in the kitchen going over some paperwork. He was thorough like that.
Jones was tall man, but also a young one. He was probably mid twenties with dark brown hair that he kept short and was clean shaven. Brown eyes and a baby face. He gave Corinth a nod when he walked in and went back to looking at the papers he was holding.
“San Francisco didn’t need you anymore,” said the young Templar, still focused on the papers.
“Pointless more like it. Seems we were a couple days behind others that were looking into things. Like following breadcrumbs, but never getting the bread.”
“We,” Jones asked, looking up.
“Yeah, Lumina and I. SO I take it you and whoever already looked everything over?”
“Lumina? That’s a weird person for you to team up with.” Jones leaned on the counter, his mind rolling with all kinds of useless theories and reasons why the two of them went on an assignment together.
Corinth turned to Jones, getting a little annoyed with the questions that had nothing to do with the setting. “Yeah, thought I might need a partner and that’s who I was assigned with. Body in the bedroom?”
“Right. We had a Magus come in and do a preservation spell on the body so it wouldn’t rot away until you got here. Same for the other two across the hall.”
Corinth nodded. “I’ll take a look around here first and then go over there.” Jones shrugged and grabbed his papers again.
Entering the bedroom, the body of Jack Stone laid on the bed, shirtless with his arms spread out to both sides. His eyes were wide open and if it wasn’t for the large gaping hole in his chest and the large amount of blood soaking into the bed, it would look like he was simply lying down staring up at the ceiling. Corinth moved closer and looked at the wound and indeed, Jack’s heart was completely removed. On a closer inspection, it was torn from his chest. The edge of the wound told him that whoever or whatever did this, pushed their hand into his chest and then yanked the organ out.
“Damn Jack, what did you do to piss her off this bad?” Checking his nails and looking over the body, it was clear that he didn’t fight back. She got the jump on him.
Yelling back out to the kitchen, “did you ever find his girlfriend, Ivy?”
“No,” Jones answered back, his voice closer as he appeared in the doorway. “We think she skipped town after finishing off the neighbors.”
“Probably, but where’s his heart?”
“Shit,” Jones said looking shocked. “They didn’t tell you? She ate it. She ate his and the neighbor’s daughters, but only took a bite out of the daughter’s moms.”
Corinth looked confused as he processed the new information. “That doesn’t make any sense. Ivy didn’t have a violent bone in her body and to eat a heart, that’s escalation at an incredible pace. We need to find her.”
“Already ahead of you. I got some of our best trackers on her and even got the local police involved.”
“That’s good for the time being. I need to look at the other bodies. You said they were across the hall?”
Leaving Jack’s flat, Corinth moved across the hall and entered the flat of Abigail and Charlotte Morrison. Abigail was the mother and Charlotte was staying with her while she went to university. Now, the body of Abigail layed sprawled out on the bedroom floor and Charlotte was face down in the hallway, both had pools of blood underneath them.
Looking over Abigail, her chest wound was similar to Jacks. Someone had pushed into her chest and pulled her heart out. Next to her, was said heart. Corinth picked it up and turned it over. There was a bite mark in it. Looking at it more closely, he noticed that some of the teeth marks were sharp and some were flat. That was interesting.
Making his way over to the body of Charlotte, instead of having a chest wound, she had a back one. Ivy had pulled her heart out through her back. A feat that was both terrifying and impressive, especially if she killed all three and pulled their hearts out with her bare hands. Unlike her mother, there was no heart to find around her. The timeline of events were falling into place for him. Standing back up, he went back to Jack’s flat to meet back up with Jones.
“Alright,” he said moving to the kitchen sink and washing his hands, “I think I know what happened for the most part, but motive is still illusive. I think she killed Jack, ate his heart, and then moved across the hall. She then attacked Abigail, but got interrupted when she took a bite of her heart. She then went after Charlotte, killed her and ate hers. Is that what you got?”
“More or less, yeah.”
“Ok. And you did a thorough search of both flats?”
“We did.”
“Then where is she? Where’s Ivy?”
Jones looked both confused and insulted. “What do you mean?”
“Killing three people by ripping out their hearts creates a lot of blood. I’m sure you’ve noticed that. I’m sure you’ve also noticed the blood that’s out here when she left the bedroom. You did notice the trace blood, didn’t you? There’s a clear trail of it leaving this apartment and going across the hall.”
“Yes, Corinth. My team isn’t stupid. We know how to check a crime scene.” Jones crossed his arms in annoyance.
“I’m sure you do. So I’m sure you also noticed the trails of blood all through the flat across the hall. It goes from the bedroom to the hall, off towards the kitchen, and then back out the door.”
“What are you getting at?”
“You want to take a guess on what I didn’t find downstairs or even on the stairs coming up? That’s right. Blood. Meaning she never left.” Corinth dried his hands off on a towel and then tossed it back onto the counter. “Hundred bucks says I find her.”
“You’re on, but you might as well pay me now.”
Moving out of the kitchen and into the living space, he looked all around for any kind of hiding space large enough to house a small woman. He then looked in the bathroom, in cabinets, everywhere. Nothing. Once again he was in the bedroom with the body of Jack. He looked under the bed, but found nothing and even looked in the closet.
And that was when he saw it. In the ceiling was a small square that had a border around it. It was an entrance to an attic space. Most apartments didn’t have an attic, but this one was an exception and probably had insulation and maybe even the water heater up there. Whatever it housed, it was large enough for a person to crawl up into and reset the cover. To top it all off, there were traces of blood along the edges. They were faint, but they were there.
“Did anyone check the attic space,” he asked to jones.
“What do you mean? There isn’t an attic space?” Jones moved Corinth aside and looked in the closet. “That wasn’t there when we did our search. I promise you that.”
“Well it’s there now. Stand aside and let me check it out.”
Corinth moved into the closet and jumped up, knocking the covering away from the entrance. Maneuvering himself, he was able to stand on some shelving and hoist himself up. It wasn’t something he was happy to be doing. Sticking one’s head up into a dark space had him at a hefty disadvantage. Plus, he didn’t know what he was pulling himself up into.
Jones gave him a flashlight when he requested one. Corinth was now sitting on the edge of the opening, his feet dangling through the hole and into the apartment. He clicked on the flashlight and slowly began scanning the room with his left hand, while his right rested on the hilt of his gun. Movement to his right sent the flashlight beam over into that direction and it focused on a young woman, cowering with her knees pulled into her chest.
It was Ivy or it looked like Ivy, Corinth could confirm that. Her dark hair was disheveled and her clothes were covered in dried blood. Her hands rested on her knees, her knees hiding the lower half of her face.
“Ivy? You ok?” Corinth kept the light on her. “Hey. I’m going to need you to come to me so we can get you out of here and some place safe. I can get you some help.”
“Is…is…,” he voice was cracking and it looked and sounded like she had been crying for a long time. “Is Jack going to be ok?”
Corinth wasn’t a negotiator or someone capable of dealing with this type of situation. If you were about to jump off a ledge, Corinth would not have been the person you wanted to talk you out of it. It wasn’t a skill in his wheelhouse. “Um…no, Ivy. No he’s not. He didn’t make it and neither did the Morrisons.”
“I did that. I hurt…hurt them.”
“Yeah, you did. You hurt them very badly, but…,” Corinth began to move closer to her, very slowly. If he could grab her, he might be able to subdue her though he wasn’t sure how just yet.
“I didn’t mean too…it was an accident.”
“That was a helluva’an accident, Ivy.” He moved closer and closer, until he was just within arms reach of her.
“I know…but…but…”
“But what, Ivy?” He could almost reach out and grab her arm.
“But their hearts were so delicious.” There was a malevolence to her voice and when she looked at him, her eyes were a start orange and red. She lifted her head and smiled at him reveling a mismatched set of sharp teeth and normal human teeth.
Corinth jerked his hand back towards his gun, but she was faster. She dashed forward knocking him over and then making a rush towards the opening. By the time Corinth could regain his balance, he saw the last bits of her legs sink out of the opening and down into the apartment room below, followed by a startled scream from Jones.
Dropping down from the opening, Corinth gave chase, jumping over Jones who had been pushed over in the doorway to the bedroom. By the time he made it out of the apartment, Ivy, or whatever she was, was running down the stairs heading for the front door. Corinth followed as quickly as he could.
Outside the building, he turned and followed the sound of bare feet slapping on cement. Ivy was running towards the alleyway behind the building and if she escaped from there into the city, it could be days before he finds her again. She took a hard right and disappeared behind the building next door. When Corinth followed, he was grabbed around the neck and slammed to the ground in a surprise move. Ivy had never been strong, but she was more than that now. Her other hand grabbed his right wrist as his left hand grabbed the wrist of the hand that was secured around his throat.
Corinth looked up into the wicked smiling face of the woman that was once Ivy, girlfriend to Jack Stone. The smile slowly faded and the real Ivy pushed through. “Help me,” she pleaded.
“I can,” Corinth tried to reassure her. “How did this happen?”
“I don’t know…” Her grip was still tight on his wrist and it was beginning to hurt. “I just smelled the perfume…” And then she wasn’t Ivy anymore. The smile was back. “A Templar’s heart will do wonders for my complexion.”
“Not this one.” He moved his left hand away and three magical purple darts appeared. With a flick of his wrist, the darts shot upwards before turning over and coming back down. Ivy’s gaze followed then and quicky rolled to the right as Corinth rolled to the left once he was free. The three darts slammed into the ground creating a set of mini explosions. Both Powel and Loy were in his hands and they were both pointed at Ivy.
“Help me,” came the voice of Ivy one last time, but before Corinth could respond, Ivy turned around and dashed off into the bushes that lined the alley way. Corinth gave chase but once she was out of sight, she was gone. He cursed and cursed and cursed again, before holstering his guns in anger. The though of a heart eating monster loose in the city of London did not sit well with him. Not at all.
“Did you get her,” came the voice of Jones as he ran up behind him. “I got back up coming, they should be here in ten minutes.”
Corinth sighed angrily and turned back towards the apartment building. “You owe me a hundred bucks…or quid…or whatever.”
Posted by : Dblitz13
Sung leaned forward and then moved in a graceful motion forward drawing his sword at the same time. The blade ignited in a translucent flame. giving Dozuk little time to defend himself. the sword cut deep into his chest sending Dozuk back into the wall behind him. blood spilled from the slash Dozuk started to be consumed by the translucent flame. Dozuk starts to scream trying to put out the flames.
Sartre took aim at the cultists firing.
Choi tried the office door, holding the sword in the opposite hand. It was locked, so Choi stepped back and gave the door a power kick, which broke the lock. The door went inward and Yeong pounced inward, his sword prepared to fight.
Agent Powers threw a few pews at the enemy firing weapons at the team.
Sung ducked as a pew bearly missed him and slammed into Dozuk crushing him as blood gushed out of the Dozuk slash and mouth.
Two more rushed out one from the door from the right and one left of the podium. both with handguns shooting short bursts they looked better trained than most. both had 9mm glocks with high compacity magazines.
The right cultists fired at Sung. He saw the morning light cultists but could not do much because of moving to doge the pew. Sung was hit at close range fell to his right rolled and growled.
The cultists to the left fired at Agent Powers with big eyes. Everyone could tell he was frightened a little.
Agent Powers grunted as the small caliber bullets hit him. As the bullets hit his muscular body, they made ripples before bouncing off him. This was a bizarre thing for anyone to see. Though Agent Powers was not in dire pain he could still feel the impact which was annoying. Agent Powers then continued to throw pews as the bad guys. He then said, “I can do this all day. You Kandy ass roody poo!!!”
Sartre took aim at the cultists that were shooting at Max. Success.
—–
In the office one of The Morning Light cultists. hand a teenage girl pinned down on a couch in the office. The cultist looked back at Choi and had a 9mm in his hand shot at Choi that missed and hit the wall beside him.
Choi ran up the wall next to the cultist in an arc fashion while slashing with the sword at the neck of the cultist, striking the man precisely between the vertebrae. The head rolled to the floor, blood splattering upon Yeong, as he flipped off the wall, and the girl, whom Choi now faced.
Quickly, Choi announced, “You are safe! I am not of the cult. I have friends outside of this office that may need my help. You will be okay if you stay behind me.”
—–
In the melee, Sartre said in the chip, “Alyssa, where are you, can you hear me?” Nothing.
As chaos erupted inside Charles Duane’s church, Eun-Ji remained calm and focused amidst the flurry of activity. While she was hiding safely away in the narthex, the morning light cultists posed a serious threat to her Dragon colleagues; the Illuminati she wasn’t very concerned about.
Eun-Ji sprang into action, her mind calculating the best course of action. Utilizing her chaos abilities, she had prepared prior to the combat, she controlled two of the four strategically placed versions of herself around the interior of the church. While two illusions remained in place, appearing to pray and observe, the other two (at the stained glass windows and candle lighting) oriented themselves and charged towards the cultists, drawing their fire.
As the illusions closed in, the cultists’ bullets passed harmlessly through them, causing confusion and disorientation. The two illusion swiftly closed the distance. The two remaining cultists both were about to engage in close quarter physical combat, when suddenly the illusions shattered on impact with them. As if their synaptic signals in their neural pathways had been disrupted, both men’s brains went into a dis functional daze. Unless they had a form of protection from such chaos abilities, they would become incapacitated and collapse as if their minds had been turned off.
Sung sat up rubbing his side then looked at the hole in his suit jacket. “Damit Just purchase this jacket. That hurt I hate guns,” said Sung standing up slowly sheathing his sword. looking around “Anyone hurt?” asked Sarne sounding more annoyed than anything.
Choi walked out of the office with a young lady in tow. He had noticed that the clamor from outside had ceased. This relieved him, as he did not wish to create more trauma for the girl, as she had already witnessed the decapitation of the man atop her.
He saw three of Eun-Ji, Sartre, Powers, and Sung. “It looks like you are hurt,” Yeong said to Master Sung, “Is it bad? Where is the Little One?” he continued, looking to Powers. “What happened to Alyssa?”
Choi still held the sword in hand, not yet trusting the quietness of the situation. There was one of them missing, and therefore, it may be needed.
Agent Powers was in full smoldering pose as he looked around while on guard. Whoever or whatever took Alyssa was still a threat and out there somewhere. He said, “Someone or something took Alyssa and vanished.” He saw the female with Choi and asked, “Who is she?”
Sartre bounded quickly for the priest’s office “Max, where is Duane? Was that all of them?”
Agent Powers replied, “Dunno. There may be more hiding around here and they might have Alyssa.”
“Where should we go?” “Hey Green Emerald!” he shouted to Un Ji, lets work together!”
The old church that had been around since the days of Spanish colonization. It was a Protestant church but several hundred years old. Wooden pews, arranged into rows, a shelf on the back of each pew holding a bible and song book, an altar, pulpit, crucifixes, crosses, rosaries, decorative banners with key scenes depicted from the bible or symbols of a specific religion, flowers, clean, polished surfaces, high windows, stained glass windows, statues of important religious figures
Now the beautiful look was ruined. pew thrown around the wall with bullet holes and holes from the impact of the pews. Glass wood and books spread across the sanctuary. the smell of gunpowder burning candles that are now extinguished wood polish and wood hanging in the air. Two men lay alive but babbling on the left and right of the stage and podium. The cultist’s leader corps now smoking as it turns to ash. another with his head separated from his body lay in a pool of his blood.
The teams were spread around but still in the sanctuary. now looking at one another.
The two remaining Eun-Ji’s inside the disheveled church interior were but convincing illusions with nearly indiscernible painterly edges. They did not respond to Peter Sartyre when he addressed one of them, either the one in the pew praying that had risen and moved closer to the group or the one standing in the back still observing, for neither one was real to be capable of a reply. The real Moon was still comfortably situated in the narthex, looking in through a glass panel of one of several ornate entryway doors. It was a good thing too she didn’t pay his comments any heed, because she would have just ignored his misguided request anyways.
She couldn’t believe the mess that was made of the situation. It was a wonderful display of unnecessary mayhem and carnage. This group had the strategic planning of an impulsive infant and the tactics of one track minds. There haste, as well as their unquestionably impressive skills, led to overconfident reflexive reactions instead of intelligible responses in her opinion. She hated to admit it, but she missed her older brother’s aggressive and controlling leadership.
With the sound of cop sirens drawing nearer off in the distance, someone must have called the cops due to the commotion, she pulled out her cellphone. She decided to take advantage of an opportunistic moment to deter the Illuminati and called the cops. Perhaps she could get them tied up with the law and out of the way?
“Where do we go from here?” Sartre said.
Agent Powers was looking around for any clue as to where Alyssa was taken to. He slow looked around for any threats or clues that could help him find the female hacker. As he scanned the area with seriousness he gave a strong smolder expression. He replied, "We need to find Alyssa.”
Sartre looked around the church for any sign of the hacker.
Almost as if she heard them, Alyssa reappeared, but then vanished. Almost like TV static where the picture goes in and out, until she fully remateralized. The hacker seemed to look at Peter, then Max, then proceeded to pass out, collapsing to the ground.
“Get Alyssa some help.” Sartre rushed towards her.
One of the men a fake Eun-Ji took out began to move as Choi approached him. Yeong simply placed the point of his sword at the man’s Adams Apple. The second man began to come conscious as well.
“Easy now, men!” Choi announced. “You were beat! Let’s have no trouble!”
He nodded to Powers. “Help the Little One, Alyssa. This girl was being molested by the man in the office. He’s of no concern now. I’ll watch these two.”
Evidently, Eun-Ji didn’t attack to kill. Or, more likely, her illusions couldn’t kill because they were not real.
Agent Powers did as Choi asked and helped secure the young female away from any know threat. However he didn’t drop his guard since he knew they was the posibility of more danger.
Looking Sung walked over to the cultist who had shot him. Sung gave a cold stair as the cultists were waking up. Sung kicks the gun away from him. He puts his foot on the man’s chest and pushes down slowly. Placing his sword tip to his throat a trickle of blood ran down the side of the cultist’s neck.
“Give me a reson so I can kill you slowly,” said Sung his tone cold and with little emotion. The cultist’s eyes got big and he started to breathe heavily fear was in the man’s eyes. Then change to anger. “When Madam Demonia finds you, you’re dead.” The cultist’s tone was defiant.
Eun-Ji finished up her phone call with the police, where she anonymously reported a homicide taking place at the church. She gave the police the physical descriptions of the Illuminati agents she had seen prior to entering the building. In addition, she reported a questionable vehicle, Alyssa’s van, parked near the scene of the crime; including the license plate. Then she hung up.
Eun-Ji, the real one, then entered the main part of the church and shouted to her fellow Dragons in Korean, “성 사부님과 최씨는 이제 가야 합니다. 경찰이 오고 있습니다.!”
Without waiting, she turned and exited the church while ensuring her face would not be recorded by any external camera, made her way across the street to the park, and continued onward from there. She trusted the two men would bring whatever they found of importance with them. Her illusions faded from everyone’s view as well.
Speaking in English “Who would do such a stupid thing. Call the police?” said Sung loudly. “You always call your organization first! it is hard to cover up if the police show up first,” Sung said, looking angered. "jen jang, byeong-shin. ( damn it, morons) Sung said in Korean looking around.
“Take the living with us, leave the dead. Call your organizations and let them know the site is compromised,” ordered Sung telling everyone.
Sartre Immediately bypassed Geary and Called Yukko at the Council of Venice. “This entire operation may have just been compromised by a new Dragon agent. She called the mundane law enforcement agents, this could expose the secret world. Tell Arturo to take it easy on her. If you could send some Council agents out, they might be able to do something like wipe the memory of the officers. I know Arturo wants no more compromises. But take it easy on her and where the hell did Duane go? Which way did he go?” Agent Wilson; come with me, we’re going back to the Halliwell Manor, did anybody see what happened to Duane?" Sartre attempted to fumble with his phone and drag the hacker back to the van.
Sartre called the Halliwell house, "Prue can you lift a body into a van for me. She’s alive and passed out. Be gentle. “Forget that. I’ll carry her back, Max, come with us.” He carried Alyssa to the van, watching for Max as Max entered, he began to speed back into the manor.
When Eun-Ji made the announcement, Choi looked at her with a face of disbelief that said: Please tell me you didn’t do this? The decapitated head coach in the office wouldn’t point to the Illuminati, as none of them have swords.
He looked at the man below his sword, “It looks as if you will be coming with us.” Then, as an afterthought, “If you value your life, get up and don’t make any sudden moves or you’ll end up like your buddy in the office.”
Posted by : Cindy