The Flavor of Souls

[Tarmagon]

The world is just as strange as we imagine it to be. Well, worlds actually. Worlds that exist side by side, populated by being who mostly want nothing more than to go about their business, living their lives peacefully. Sometimes though, the worlds...bump. On both sides there are those who deal with those bumps, and the ones who want to take advantage of those bumps for their own gain. What can two people, members of both worlds, do when an ancient tale comes to life? A tale that the boogeymen use on their children to get them to behave?

 

[Tarmagon]

Jasper groaned as he slipped out of the drivers seat of his decrepit Crown Vic, twisting to try and soothe his rebelling muscles.


"Been on the road a while there? " a gravelly voice asked from behind him.


"You could say that, " Jasper replied, turning to see a tall man in mechanics coveralls coming out of the small garage attached to the no name gas station. "I've been on the road for just under eight hours, and I don't know how much further I have to go. "


That last comment was a lie, since he knew that the wide spot in the road called Twilight, West Virginia was just a few miles up the road, but looking like a lost tourist always made a good cover. He made a show of opening a small notebook while the man, whose name tag read Lou, started up the old fashioned gas pump and began to fill the Vic's tank.


"I'm looking for a town called, Twilight? "


"Pshaw," Lou said, "That be right up the road 'bout fifteen miles or so. Course there ain't much to see there lessen you're looking for the coal museum. "


"Um... Actually, I'm looking for the Silvers, " Jasper said, trying to infuse just the right amount of enthusiasm in his voice. He could see Lou's bemused expression as he immediately lumped Jasper into the category of 'kooky ghost hunter. '


"Take the first left when you pass the township line, then look for the green trimmed house, " Lou said as he finished filling the tank. "Caretaker lives there. She'll tell you the rules and get you the keys. That'll be forty three even."


The big car had a big tank, but Jasper didn't even raise an eyebrow as he passed over two twenties and a five, waving off Lou's attempt to make change and climbing back into the Vic with a tired sigh. He had left his last case in Charleston already exhausted. The poltergeist that had taken up residence in the little cafe hadn't wanted to leave, but Jasper had been, insistent. He hadn't even made it out of town before his phone had rung.


"Jasper, class four flare detected in Twilight West Virginia. " was all his mother's voice had said before the line went dead. He hadn't tried to call back, but instead pointed his car north and west and hit the gas. That had been eight hours ago. Now, as he guided the car along the twisting road, he wondered what could have caused such a burst of magical energy in such an out of the way place.

 

[Red Sinfonia]

kate white




The door to an old rustbucket of a Chevy truck flung open with a laborious squeal and its reluctant driver climbed in onto the split leather seats. Kate gazed through the road-dusted windshield, dark tawny eyes crinkling with a smile to the woman waving at her from the porch of the cabin-esque house across the road. Keys slipped into the ignition, the old gal sputtered to life with a roiling belch, and Kate did everything to suppress her utter surprise. Bewilderment aside, she rumbled back along the dirt driveway, an overly excited and exuberantly vocal bloodhound bounding at her heels. The pup followed her to the edge of its yard, watching her spill out onto the cracked cement of the main road. Kate lifted her left hand, which had been resting on the precipice of her window, waving goodbye. Both arm and corners of her lips went down once she was out of sight of the miserable little place.


It had hardly been a few moments of driving along the road, watching the trees swing by, before Kate began to absently shove a nail between her teeth and nibble. The calm before the storm. "If I actually got paid for every parent who thought their pubescent child was possessed, I'd have a nice car," she huffed quietly. The truck seemed to buck over a bump in the road more aggressively than usual and she gently sighed. "Don't be like that."


'We can communicate. The truck cannot.' Voices within chided her, the familiar sounds of the many that were her permanent tenants. Kate rolled her eyes against their lack of humor.


After passing the largest population she'd seen of buildings, Kate pulled into an empty parking lot of some faded diner, and cut the ignition. In the silence, her nibbling grew more frequent, and then her leg began to move. Softly at first, but more contentiously over time. 'Kate.'


"This is ridiculous! Why in the hell did they have me come all the way out here to... to-!"


'Twilight.'





"God damn Twilight, West Virginia, to just sit here! This isn't the kind of shit that I am paid well-enough for. I don't know what the hell Neeja thought was important enough for me to look for, because I'm not finding anything."


'It has hardly been a few hours.' They weren't wrong, the smug, sorta'-dead bastards. 'No, we are not wrong.'


Kate curled her fingers with frustration. It was not fun having supernatural creatures in your head at all times, experiencing your inner-most thoughts and feelings in real-time. So she said nothing, attempted to think nothing. Instead, she tossed her legs up onto the dashboard, pilfered a cherry lollipop from her things and popped it in her mouth, and threw her leather jacket over her chest. There. Perfect stakeout setup.

 

[Tarmagon]

Jasper glanced at the sign announcing Twilight, WV. pop. 90 and grimaced. The one thing he really didn't like about investigations in tiny towns like this was the way the locals seemed to see everyone visiting or passing through as the enemy. These little communities seemed welcoming enough, but ask questions, and the curious looks turned hostile, the friendly faces, cold. At least here though, he did have one source of information that if not actively friendly, should at least be neutral. Taking the first left he began to search for the green trimmed house he had known about far before Lou had volunteered the information. The caretaker of the Silvers was always well versed in the supernatural, and would know anything that happened in his or her sphere of influence. Jasper quickly located the expected house, but when he pulled into its driveway, he could see a note plastered to the front door. Leaving the Vic running, he strode up the steps and read.


"At the diner. Back in, whenever I get back. Millie."


"Well, I could use a bite." he muttered to himself as he returned to the Vic. "Now I just need to find the diner."


It only took a couple of minutes to locate a rather worn down looking diner a block over, just off the main road. There were a couple of cars up near the door, and a rather beat up looking Chevy truck sitting near the edge of the lot. Jasper parked the Vic between the Chevy and the cars, making sure the way was clear for a fast exit if need be, then got out and began to walk towards the diner. Just before he pulled open the door, something tickled the back of his neck. Glancing back, he saw a figure slouched in the truck. There was...something. Jasper felt his right hand begin to drift towards the pocket holding his detector, but stopped himself with a snort.


"You're on a hair trigger, " he told himself. "It's probably a local waiting for a friend before going in."


Pulling open the door, he started to step into the diner and froze. There were five, well calling them bodies would be a stretch, strewn about the diner. Half a torso wearing an apron lay in front of the cash register, its upper half no where to be seen. Two booths were occupied, if that was the right word, one by two distinct halves of two different people, and the other by the head of a middle aged woman. The upper torso of a man wearing a tiny white cap lay under the heat lamps that separated the kitchen area from the dining room, and before Jasper could finish fully processing what he was seeing, it quivered and vanished. Wet slurping and smacking sounds, accompanied by distinct cracks came from the kitchen area, followed by a growl. Another growl, deeper and filled with menace, sounded in the kitchen, followed by a sharp snap, like teeth clacking together, and a sharp yelp.


"Not waiting to see," Jasper thought, backing out and letting the door slip closed silently. Unfortunately, the electronic unit he hadn't noticed attached to the top of the door picked that moment to let out a loud 'DING!'. Immediately two heads appeared in the kitchen access. Both were a strange mix of human, and something else. Jasper had thought he had seen all types of were-beasts, but these were something, different. Not wolves, bears, or cats. Weasels maybe? Jasper didn't care. He jumped back, pulling his pistols as the diner door finished closing. He saw two masses of fur and fangs flowing into the dining room before the closing door cut off his view of the interior of the diner, and he began to back quickly towards the Vic, hoping the local would decide to be elsewhere, fast.

 

[Red Sinfonia]

It had been a while that Kate had loomed in her truck, idly switching the lollipop between the two sides of her mouth until it was worn down to a stick - which she proceeded to chew on out of stark boredom. Seeing someone pull into the diner lot was shocking, almost as though she'd felt that the diner and the vehicles surrounding it were just a stationary part of the historic appeal, not an actual place. She watched the man - she approximated about her age - climb from his car, not far away from hers. "He's cute," she said, adjusting her arms beneath her jacket to further soak in the warmth.


'Attractive creatures are not what we should be looking for.'


Kate's head pressed against her cracked seat and she sighed audibly. "There's nothing. There is nothing for me to be looking at." Idly, she rolled her head to the right to watch down the road, and then back left to look at the diner. That was when the man backed out of the diner, rather quickly. "...maybe he saw his ex."


Two furred what-the-fucks spilled out of the door after him, all teeth and fang and fugly. Kate's lips parted and the lollipop stick lay slack in her mouth. 'That is something,' her inner lovelies quickly responded to which she replied, "Ah, hell!"


Throwing her jacket from her, Kate swung open the door and jumped from the seat. Wearing a jacked-up white tee, boot cut jeans, and Chucks, she wasn't exactly the image of intimidation. Maybe a heart breaker who was about to pull a sleek pair of sunglasses from her pocket and smirk just right, but not a real-life Constantine.


'They're possessed.' Kate confirmed the observation of the wraiths in several seconds, the spectral world like a vast spiderweb that climbed away from her body and the spirits that were in those two whatever-the-hells were some very angry spiders, tumbling ungracefully along the lines as they chased their quarry. "Shit."


Kate was a damn good exorcist. She could exorcise a pissy poltergeist from a child in less than two seconds, no floating or angry neck-twisting necessary, but she needed to touch, and those oversized fuzz balls of salivating jaws did not look like they wanted her to touch them. She needed backup; she needed her wraiths. 'Release us,' they beckoned, craving the power of their bond. But Kate glanced at the bystander, who was making his way to his car. The last time she'd let loose in public, she'd been chased away with a gun. The girl had been too stunned to shoot her, but she feared taking that risk.


The abominations were fast though, and they didn't care about her indecisiveness. 'Release us!' Kate began to move, dipping down to grab several large rocks on her way, booked it towards the diner, and pelted the beasts before sticking her fingers in her mouth and letting out a piercing whistle. She'd certainly caught their attention, she could tell, as they redirected their path of attack. Watching them barrel down towards her, she realized that they were very fast. She was a good sprinter, but not that good.


"Don't shoot me!" Kate shouted out towards the bystander, hoping that he climbed in his car and slammed on the gas pedal too quickly to think about looking back at her. There was a prickling sensation in her chest, blossoming out throughout her torso; the veins just above her breasts blackened, a dark labyrinth spreading outwards. In an act of beautiful drama, just before one of the foremost creatures began to pounce, something abyssal climbed from her body and tackled it away, hitting the other until they were a mess of limbs. The thing stood, filled with the sound of a willow creaking in the wind. It appeared as a silhouette of a tall, wispy man with clawed fingers, his only features two beady, red eyes on his face. The outline of his body wavered and dripped, like oily smoke filling a vague image. He blocked the way to his living link, arms outstretched and claws unfurled. Ralph was agile, just what she needed. He'd need brute strength to back him up, but she needed a moment to coalesce, the act of retrieving making her lightheaded. She stepped back as the three postured and parried.

 

[Tarmagon]

Jasper had backed maybe half way to the Vic when the door to the diner slammed open, and two masses of muscles, fur,claws, and far too many teeth came boiling out. His first instinct was to open fire with both pistols, but he knew damned good and well that he'd never hit a transformed were that had room to maneuver and saw him lining up his shot, so he continued to back towards his car, wondering if he'd have time to toss a trinket down before the weres hit him. He vaguely registered the sound of a car door, then a piercing whistle split the air, just as several rocks flew from behind him, smacking into the weres, who seemed just as surprised as he was. Immediately their focus shifted, as did their forward rush, angling past him in the direction the occupied truck had been sitting.


Jasper whipped his head around, and froze in shock. A rather striking young woman was about half way between the now empty truck and his car, most of her attention on the creatures barreling towards her. She spared a glance in his direction, shouting " Don't shoot me!" moment before a class 'A' THING seemed to come boiling up out of her chest, just in time to swat one of the were beasts into the other. A confused image of a man shaped mass of dark, oily smoke sporting two of the reddest eyes Jasper had ever seen spread clawed hands that flickered and flashed, keeping the weasels at bay as the woman stepped back.


"Enemy of my enemy and all that, " Jasper muttered as he knelt, bringing up both pistols. Lining up his sight picture, and carefully avoiding the spectral, whatever it was battling the weres, Jasper began to squeeze off rounds, alternating pistols. Some people claimed to be able to fire two guns at once, but Jasper personally called bull. He was ambidextrous, and the best he could do was a rapid alternating fire, one pistol barking as the other came back on target. A total of twenty-two specially modified rounds sped downrange, delivering enough silver to the weres to make them lay down and become rugs. The only problem was, they weren't cooperating. Both turned briefly to snarl at him, before turning their attention back to the smoke thing that was still slashing at them.


"That's new," Jasper said as he automatically reloaded both pistols. Instead of continuing to fire however, he dropped them back into their holsters and reached into one of the specially lined pockets inside his coat. A pair of carved wood disks, inlaid with silver, flashed through the air as he hurled them at the circling beasts.


"HOLD!" Jasper bellowed as the disks hit the ground, and the two weres froze in their tracks, muscles locked. Jasper went to his knees as the rush of power required to activate the runes left him in a mighty surge.


"Finish them," he gasped out, trying to stay conscious and hold the power of the runes steady. "Hurry!"

 

[Red Sinfonia]

The first sound of a bullet made Kate stand rigid, her concentration faltering and her fear mounting. Her hands flew to her body, as though a measly extra inch or so of flesh would stop a flying, deadly piece of metal, and she could feel herself shake beneath her fingers. But she didn't feel blood and she wasn't experiencing crippling agony. Or death, for that matter. Ralph paused in his onslaught, feeling her trepidation dance down the threads that entangled them, but quickly realized the new ally that they had gained.


Despite the stranger's efforts, the beasts toppled for only a moment, their sheer anger renewed. Both Kate and Ralph suspected they would have sought to unleash their fury on the new target, had the wraith not reminded them of his presence by digging vicious claws into their haunches and dragging them back. Unknowing if the bullets had meant to be special, Kate glanced over at the man and had meant to shout, 'Are you insane!?', before he changed the game.


Kate had been biding her time, storing her energy to summon a bulkier wraith, one that would throttle the beasts of their energy while Ralph dogged and nipped their heels. She hadn't expected that to be rendered completely unnecessary by a bystander - or, in all fairness, a stranger that she had deemed to be an innocent, useless bystander. He'd certainly proved her wrong. Flashes of silver had glinted in the light, so quickly she almost missed them, and the fugly little monsters were immobile, snarls wheezing through crooked teeth.


They seemed frozen, and not without a great deal of effort, it appeared, from the stranger, who had buckled to his knees. "Right," she exhaled, cracking her knuckles and hoping that he had enough juice in him to keep doing... whatever it was he was doing to keep the bastards in their place.


She approached the creatures quickly, but cautiously, and Ralph displayed his wariness by keeping his clawed hands wrapped around throats. They wreaked of blood and gore and death and wrongness. "You shouldn't exist," she said to the roving whites of a beast's eyes as it attempted to center on her. Coming up behind them, she grimaced at the spotty pelts she was about to touch, and shoved her hands against both respective monsters. Her fingers curled in their fur, sunk into their flesh, and she attempted unsuccessfully to stifle a shudder against the spiny texture. She was getting a bonus for this shit. And if Neeja so much as suspected, via her predictions, that something like this was involved, Kate would choke the little brat herself.


There was a piercing feeling that shot through her hands, blackening her veins, and she gasped at the sudden invasion. It wasn't unlike an exorcism to hurt, but the force of it... Her body, her wraiths, feasted on the poltergeists trapped within the scraggly, fleshy prison. Kate could feel their agony, their wrath, their hatred, their fear. It felt like an eternity swimming in those emotions, but as she drained them of their existence, time around her began to normalize, and their resistance slackened.


Only seconds after Kate first touched them, they were gone. Devoured by the limbo inside her.


Ralph loosed his grip and the corpses dropped laboriously to the dirt; his gaze immediately turned to the stranger and a large hand hovered protectively over Kate. She was looking at the ground, examining the disks without touching. "Well, damn. Those are nifty." Her breath was still returning to her with stuttered puffs of breath before she turned her attention to the young man. A hand on Ralph's arm dropped his initial guard, but he followed her closely as she moved over to the stranger. "Hey, are you alright?" She asked, offering a hand up. She looked over her shoulder. "That was really useful, damn. Where'd you get something like that?" She turned back. "Sorry. I'm Kate." The black figure loomed at her shoulder and she gestured to him. "This is Ralph. He's friendly, mostly," she said with a nervous blip of a laugh, taking a surreptitious look at his holstered guns.

 

[Tarmagon]

Jasper struggled to hold the two, things, immobile as the young woman rushed up to them. He had expected the shadow creature to rip them apart, not for the woman to run up and place a hand on each of them. His vision twisted and swam as his personal power neared its end, but he could have sworn he saw tendrils of inky blackness, not unlike the substance that made up her companion? defender? whatever, flow from the weres and into her body. In moments it was over, whatever had been animating the were creatures was gone, and Jasper released the runes of binding with a gasp, steadying himself with one hand while he waited for his vision to steady.


"Hey, are you alright?"


A hand came into his field of view and he took it automatically, rising to stand a little shakily. The woman was a few inches shorted than he was, mid-twenties if he had to guess. Dark hair framed a face with a firm chin, and high cheekbones. Intelligent brown eyes were watching him with a combination of concern and, admiration? She glanced back at the bodies for a moment before returning her attention to Jasper.


"That was really useful, damn. Where'd you get something like that? Sorry. I'm Kate." The black figure loomed at her shoulder and she gestured to him. "This is Ralph. He's friendly, mostly," she said, barking a short laugh. Jasper didn't miss the nervous look she shot at his holstered pistols, so he slowly closed his coat over them, removing their obvious presence.


"A pleasure to meet you Kate, umm Ralph," Jasper said, glancing at the shadow form hovering protectively behind her. "You can call me Jasper. Thanks for the help there."


Moving slowly, so as not to spook the shadow guardian, Jasper walked over to retrieve his rune disks. They were completely spent, and he dropped them into his pocket with a sigh. Months worth of work expended in a few seconds.


"Any idea what those things are?" he asked, gesturing at the bodies. "I dumped enough silver into them to kill a dozen weres, and all it did was piss them off."

 

[Red Sinfonia]

Glad to see the man, Jasper, righted, Kate had offered him a half-smile and then followed him back over to look at the two corpses. Silver bullets and wooden disks that froze fuzzy, ugly nasties. She would suppose that he was a hunter, but shook the idea off in lieu of his decent manners. After all, he didn't run her off with a gun. Having noticed his earlier glance at Ralph, a look similar to glancing at his gun, she supposed that having a staring, wispy, clawed thing helped, but doubted that was his only reason for not threatening her life.


When she stood above the two 'weres', as he called them, the pungent aroma of their rotting flesh and the wrongness that she sensed earlier hit her square in the nose. She gagged, turned into her arm, breathed, and attempted to shake it off. Putrid. She'd seen werewolves before, even werecats, usually at a sidearm of the Unspoken, but normally she'd only pass them by. Were creatures weren't her specialty. They sent the big girls and boys after them.


Kate gently toed the leg of one before bending over and placing her hands on her thighs. "I was hoping you would know," she admitted. There was so much flesh and so much fur stuffed into one figure; the memories of touching it made her stomach roil. When they'd been running towards her or when Ralph had been fighting them, she hadn't really taken the time to determine what they really were. Just ugly. Now that she was staring at them. "Do they remind you of weasels? Because the more I look at them, they remind me of weasels."


This was too weird. This whole thing had been too weird. This whole assignment had been too weird. Even her wraiths were silent, possibly considering the situation at hand as deep as she did.


Kate straightened. "Whatever they are, I can tell you that they both had poltergeists puppeting them," she admitted, bringing her hands up to look at them. The memories of their emotions were fresh, the reminiscent pain, only vestiges of what it had once been, tingling across her palms. "And they were angry. Confused, even. Something unnatural had been done to them, I'd bet. They'd become little more than rabid..." She swiped her hand at the bodies. "Were things."


Ralph crept past them, heading for the diner. "I don't think there are any survivors, Ralph," she called after him, but he kept moving. She shrugged and followed, tossing back over her shoulder to Jasper, "So you don't know what's going on either, huh?"

 

[Tarmagon]

"Errr, Kate," Jasper said hesitantly as first her pet thing, then the young woman herself began to move towards the diner door. "I really wouldn't go in there unless you have a really strong stomach. It's, messy."


At that moment, something odd, or rather, another something odd registered on Jasper's consciousness. Looking around he could see several houses and a couple of small businesses that were close enough that their occupants should have been able to see everything that had just gone on in the diner parking lot. Hell, the sharp cracks of his pistol shots should have had people flooding out to see what the heck was going on. Instead, the place was a ghost town. There were no moving blinds from nosy neighbors trying not to be seen gawking, no good old boys running to see what all the shooting was about. No one investigating the snarls and growls the late were-weasels had made.


"Kate," he called again, and something in his voice caught her attention, as well as the attention of, Ralph. "There is something seriously wrong here. I just emptied two magazines in what amounts to downtown for this place. Where is everyone? Why hasn't someone come to see what all the shooting was about? Why isn't someone at least peeking out their windows while they call the police?"

 

[Red Sinfonia]

Well enough, as Jasper had warned her, Kate began to feel the dead like mites across her web long before she hit the door. She wanted to see, however. Maybe because of a sick sense of curiosity; maybe because she wanted to see what the furry little monsters could have done to her. The door dinged as Ralph made his entrance, and she was right behind him.


Yep. Damn sure was messy. Jasper wasn't fibbing. Not just with blood though. There was wrongness everywhere, like the things had smeared it with their paws. Everything felt wrong, resonated wrong. It was completely unnatural. Weres, as far as she knew, were not easily possessed. Did something stuff those poltergeists into those bodies? The thought didn't sit well with her and despite her precautions - a hand to stop the flow of breath, fingers pinching her nose - she gagged. Blood had such a thick, awful smell, and she'd had the blessing not to be around it much. Ectoplasm, hell yes, which had its own tang, but not blood.


Both satisfied and not, Kate backed out, swung around, and took a big breath of air. She stared at the ground. She would have to ask the investigators when she returned, why two poltergeists would possess such difficult creatures as opposed to one eating the other, thereby becoming more powerful. It wasn't impossible, but it was unnatural, and Neeja predicted that there was something she would learn here. Something important.


That was when Jasper brought up a good point. No. A bad point.


"Ah, hell!" She gasped, throwing her hands up into the air. "Ah, hell, of course!"


'We have more work to do.' The voices within returned to her, breaking the silence they'd fallen into.


"I know!" She barked out loud, breaking into a small pace, back and forth as she thought, calculated.


'How long do you think you'll sleep when this is over?' Kate stopped mid-walk. Were they being funny?


Kate chewed on her nail. "Two days, minimum," she exhaled. She gasped at a sudden revelation, hands spread as she glanced over at Jasper. "Maybe the... things killed everyone in town?" She didn't think she'd ever sound hopeful saying something like that, but the splintering wood of the door in a house nearby killed that desire on her breath. The door was buckling loudly, something nasty, wretched, and using a bit of force all behind it. "Alright, fine." Wondering if he knew 'Don't shoot me' carried over into their second bout, the dark labyrinth of blackened veins on her chest grew, this time plush against the base of her throat and brushing the fronts of her shoulders.


The thing that climbed from Kate this time was both like and unlike Ralph. Its skin was abyssal, its eyes red, but it had detail, had features; it was big and brutish, an open mouth full of teeth and plated muscle along its length, even all the way down its curled tail. There, now Kate had a big hunk of scary to watch over her. Elandra's appearance always made her feel better, even if she was draining with how much she drank down energy. Even worse than the way her truck guzzled gas.


Right on schedule, something bust the door down, snarling all the way, and Kate called back over her shoulder, "You've got enough juice in you for round two, right?"

 

[Tarmagon]

Well, whatever this Kate woman was, she was definitely stubborn. Jasper watched her follow her tame horror show into the diner, and barely managed to suppress a grin as she backed out almost immediately, looking a bit green around the gills. He did begin to get a little worried as she began to pace, and talk to seemingly empty air. Fortunately for both her and his peace of mind though, Jasper had been exposed to plenty of spiritualists who regularly talked to empty air. Maybe this Kate was some kind of shaman. He'd have to ask her later. While she consulted with whatever spirit guide she was speaking to, Jasper moved to the trunk of the Vic and popped it open. He rummaged around for a few seconds before he found what he was looking for. Pistol magazines with bright, white bullet tips sticking out. He grabbed all five of them, shoving them into the spacious pockets of his coat, then dove back into the trunk. His grandfather's wakizashi was there, and its sheath clipped snugly to the back of his belt. Getting it out of his coat would take a few extra seconds, but only the most thorough search would find it.


A smash and the sound of splintering wood cut his perusal of his trunk short, and he looked up just in time to see ANOTHER class A thing pull itself free of Kate's body. This one was made up of the same stuff as the first, but where the first was whipcord and claws, this one was armor and strength.


"Okay, I've just got to ask," Jasper said, almost conversationally, as he dropped the mag from one of his pistols and inserted one of the ones he had retrieved from his trunk. "How many of those, beings, do you happen to be carrying around with you?"


Before she could answer, a new thing decided to make its appearance. The door of a nearby house vanished into a hurricane of splinters, as something huge and hairy made its grand entrance. Jasper gave it a pair of rounds from his left pistol, but was unsurprised when the only reaction they elicited was an irritated snarl. The bullets from the right hand pistol though, those got the behemoths attention all too well. The pair of rounds struck the beast in one massive leg, immediately bursting into a searing white flame. The flames died out quickly, but they left behind a smoking ruin of a leg that refused to support the creature, probably a were-bear by its size, when it tried to lumber forward. A bellow that mingled fury and pain erupted from the massive maw, then it was trundling towards him on three legs, still inhumanly fast despite its still smoking leg.

 

[Red Sinfonia]

There were way too many things going on all at once for Kate's comfort. As the new were, enormous and no doubt a bear beast, lumbered towards Jasper and immediately lost its leg, Kate's attention was drawn to the shattering of glass from a neighboring home. A clamoring, feline monster, its jaw slackened and slavering, crawled desperately from a window, slicing open its chest and belly on the jagged shards it had created. Something purple and fetid fell from its form, its movements stifled, but it was frenzied and pissed. It hurled itself towards the street, making its way to the lot that the group had set themselves up in, but Ralph moved to intercept it, his fast form aggravating the beast and dragging its attention away from the squishy humans.


The bear had made its way all too quickly to them, despite becoming freshly gimpy, and Kate was about to warn her bulky wraith when it beat her to the punchline.


Elandra tackled the beast, muscle against muscle. The ghoulish were snapped at her arms, her chest, to which she released a perturbing roar, the unholy scream of bull and human, and when she shut her mouth, she did so while enveloping the creature's head and neck. With a maw that would make a crocodile jealous, all of those nasty teeth pressed and pressed until there was an awful crruuuunnch. Congealed blood splattered from the reanimated abomination and, being that it was still alive, it made the worst gurgling, snarling sound that Kate had ever heard. Her arm flung up over her face, as though it would protect her from the stench of putrefying flesh. "Jesus, Elandra!" She gasped, then turned to spit.


The wraith continued her onslaught, grappling with swinging claws. "Exorcise it!" She hissed, her voice resonating from between bloody teeth.


"Right," Kate said, shaking off the shudders of such a gruesome act. When she started to make her way over, she stopped mid-walk, eyes wide. She swore... what? "Jasper..." she breathed, her brows furrowing. "Jasper!" She shouted, pointing back towards her truck.


A lumbering beast emerged from near her old coot of a vehicle, its movements paused at their notice. It was an ugly mix of white fur and pink skin, its limbs a mangle of human and beast. Werewolf, maybe once upon a time, but now... There was a sanguine hole replacing its right eye, as though some poor sunovabitch had gotten in a last shot, and Kate would have congratulated them personally if she wasn't sure what was left of them was dripping from its muzzle.

 

[Tarmagon]

Jasper felt as though his head was on a swivel, and not in a good way. First the bear thing, then a crashing of glass and some kind of feline shape dragging itself out of a window. The thing Kate had called Ralph moved to intercept that one in flurry of viscous claw strikes that managed to gain the things complete attention. Meanwhile, as the bear had barreled down on him, it had run afoul of Kate's latest beastie. It had simply opened its mouth and snapped its jaws shut on the bears entire head and neck, its own claws moving surprisingly quickly for a beast of its size, intercepting the bears frantic slashes.


"Exorcise it!"


When the thing spoke, Jasper revised his opinion of the, wraiths, yes, he supposed wraith was as good a name to call these things by as any, intelligence and free will upwards sharply.


A shout from Kate broke into his thoughts though, and he looked up to see a twisted ruin of a werewolf caught partway through its transformation lumbering from behind Kate's truck. It was obviously dead, thanks to a grisly wound through its right eye socket, but death didn't seem to be slowing it down in the least. The empty eye socket made a handy target, and Jasper took advantage of the things surprise at being spotted to put a pair of round from his right hand pistol into its skull. An inhuman howl, partly sound, and partly psychic, reverberated around the parking lot as the things head exploded into white fire. While it thrashed about blindly, Jasper drew his grandfathers blade from behind his back and rushed forward, slashing at the juncture of head and neck. The move would never have worked on a living were, but this thing, blinded by the holy fire from the consecrated rounds, wasn't in the same league. The Blessed metal of the wakizashi slid through the neck with no resistance, not even the spine slowing the blow. The things head dropped straight down as the body staggered back, then fell in a stinking heap. Before whatever was animating it could recover, Jasper had thrust the blade into the things heart, and the spirit fled with a furious screeching before the power of the holy relic.


"Definitely possessed," Jasper said as he stood, taking aim at the cat thing going round and round with Ralph. "Any bright ideas?"

 

[Red Sinfonia]

Whatever Kate had thought of Jasper before, he quickly proved that he was just as capable of wrecking the fugly little monsters that tormented the town of Twilight, starting by putting a bullet into the were-ghoul's skull, mutilating it further and setting its skull alight with a ghostly flame. Worked for her. As he worked his wiles, she moved to intercept the werebear and free Elandra from her tousle with it. By the time that she got to it, another limb was missing, and her hunky wraith was wresting its swinging claws against its barrel chest. And holy shit, she did not want to look at that face, which she knew from a glance was just barely attached.


Turning her head and shoving her hand against the plush flesh, Kate held back a gag - made easier by the numerous other horrors she'd seen in the past ten minutes - and did what was natural to her. As the soul pierced through her skin and entered the limbo that lay within her body, she felt the flood reminiscent of the one that she had felt before. Rage, perturbation, hatred that would make a devil blush.


After the spell of exorcism was broken, within mere seconds, Kate ripped her hand away from the new... old... whatever corpse. It made a heavy sound as it slumped to the ground, a feeble, grotesque image of what it had been moments ago when filled with wretched animation. Laying there, it looked like it had been dead for days, as opposed to just feasting on the living.


There was something going on, something unnatural, but done with purpose. Kate was sure now.


Peering up, she noticed that Jasper had completely disposed of the lumbering atrocity and felt grateful that he'd happened to have been here at the same time. If she had been on her own, she wasn't entirely sure if she'd made it back to Neeja and the Unspoken with the information that they'd hoped she would receive. This bullshit, she was figured.


Two down, one more to go. It was a devilish little fiend, waiting for Ralph's concentration to break or to find a break in his flow. If Jasper fired that gun, he risked hitting Ralph and setting her lovely wraith ablaze. That couldn't happen. She knew what she had to do. Shit.


"Bright?" Kate asked with a laugh, straightening herself and looking over at Jasper. She shook her fingers out, danced on toe to toe. She paused to pull back her sleeve, noticing the black lines reaching over her shoulders towards her back and ready to trail down her arms. She peeked down her shirt unabashedly, seeing the lines over her breasts and reaching towards her belly. "Um... nope."


She was going to feel like shit in the morning.


Shutting her eyes, Kate breathed in, breathed out. Breathe in, breathe out. She felt the flow of her breath, the connection of her body to the world beneath her, grounded herself. Once she oriented herself, she could feel the threads that networked her to her wraiths, those that dwelled within, and the two that thrived without. She caught the one connection with mental fingers, recognized who held the other end, and melded with it. It felt like tripping face first, but instead of making contact with the pavement, she steadied herself in a separate body. The vision was nebulous, strange, and she didn't feel herself. Never felt herself here; she supposed because she wasn't really herself. She looked down, saw the werebeast before her. The association between two souls stuttered Ralph's flow, but the undead feline could hardly bound two steps before he... her? They brought claws down, digging into flesh, and through that, the soul was ripped gracelessly from its form. As it was hardly weakened, the resistance was huge, and a surge of burning afflicted them both.


The spike knocked her back, flinging Kate back into her human flesh. The line broke and she fell, lightheaded, against a prepared Elandra's proffered body. Stars danced across her eyes for a few seconds and she paused a moment, hand over her face. "It's dead, right? Please tell me it's dead. Please tell me there's no more." Ralph tossed down the corpse of the creature and creaked, eyes trained on the dreadful town.

 

[Tarmagon]

Jasper watched Kate rush the thing embattled with her latest, passenger. A moments physical contact and it collapsed into a heap of rotting flesh just like the first one had. The cat thing was really giving Ralph a run for his money, making it impossible for him to get a clear shot. He wasn't sure what would happen if Kate's, creatures, took a consecrated round, and he was in no hurry to find out. Before he could draw a rune disk, Kate stiffened, then Ralph's attack pattern faltered for just a second. The cat thing tried to capitalize on the break, but when Ralph slashed a fresh attack, something was different, the thing shuddering and going limp in Ralph's claws. Kate convulsed as though she just taken a hard body blow, then looked around wildly as Ralph dropped the now quiescent body to the pavement.


Jasper didn't waste the moment of quiet, pulling a pendant from his coat pocket and calling it to life with a brief flare of power. It began to spin on the end of its chain, then it began to flash on one facet, the facet facing the diner. With a grimace of distaste, Jasper pushed open the door and moved inside, watching the flashing facet instead of the carnage within. He followed the indicator behind the counter, then turned, confused as it directed him back the way he had just come.


"What the nether hells is going on here? " he asked, then his eyes narrowed. Slamming his hand down on the register, he opened the drawer and pulled out an ancient gold coin that radiated like a sun to his eldritch senses. He could only hold it for a second before he to drop it, the vile essence smashing at him through his shields. Thinking furiously, Jasper ran out to the Vic's trunk, grabbing a square of silk, his salt bag, and an enchanted rowan wood box.


"Ralph! " he shouted, "There's a gold coin on the ground in there. Go get it fast, then drop it here! FAST!"


Without waiting to see if the thing was obeying, he opened the box and laid the silk in it. Ripping open the salt bag, he poured a generous measure onto the silk. Reaching into his lined pocket, he added three rune disks to the mix then looked up impatiently. Where was Ralph with the coin?

 

[Red Sinfonia]

It was a beautiful moment of silence laying against Elandra's abyssal hide, hand over her face, and the air devoid of the sound of slavering creatures with bloody foam on their lips. It continued longer than Kate had expected, pumping her full of unbelievable hope, so much so that her head was dizzy. No... no, that was just the energy expenditure. Her back ached and her veins burned, the labyrinth no doubt grown even more. She was making a soft groan when she heard the shuffling of a human, hard footsteps against cement that were far too noisy to be her spectral beasts. Jasper was doing something.


As she righted herself, ushering a soft thanks to Elandra as she steadied her hands on the creature, Kate could hear the door to the accursed diner shut, she knew where her knew companion had gone.


Just as she was about to call out to him, her legs already working to carry herself, if slowly, in that direction, Jasper came bolting out, rushing like hell was riding on his heels to his car. Her lips opened again, ready to question what the hell had scared him back outside and dear god, please do not be another monstrosity, but she didn't get much farther than that before he commanded Ralph.


To her surprise, if only because none had been so bold as to make a mandate to her beloved wraiths before, Ralph moved, without question. Even without voice or thought that Kate should interpret, she knew then and there that her Ralph trusted Jasper or, at least, respected him. Perhaps it was his competency, which even Kate could not deny.


The wispy figure sprinted into the diner with hardly a sound. Inside, Ralph hardly had to search for it. The gold thing resonated sickness, but also otherwordliness, and he was drawn to it like a moth. He dipped down, scraped it up with long claws, and returned outside. Faithfully, he returned, and placed the contemptible coin into the box, red eyes focused on the artifact as he creaked uneasily.


Now upright and no longer dizzy, Kate meandered over, her colossal beast following with steady strides on four legs behind her. She peered at the coin, gaze narrowed. "What is it, Jasper?" It didn't take much to connect dots. "Was that controlling or... raising the zombie weres?"

 

[Tarmagon]

Jasper looked up as the gold coin fell into the bed he had prepared for it. The wispy creature he was starting to think of as just Ralph hovered above him, glowing eyes fixed on the coin.


"Thanks Ralph," he said, grinning up at the creature as he would at another human before turning his attention back to the coin. He was in the process of pouring more salt over it when a looming presence announced Kate's arrival with her other, pet? guardian? in tow.


"What is it, Jasper? Was that controlling or... raising the zombie weres?"


"Raising," Jasper said, just a little shortly as he wrapped the silk tightly around the coin. A burst of his waning power activated all three shielding tokens he had dropped into the salt, then he closed the lid of the box, sealing the accursed thing inside, and hopefully totally away from the normal world.


"Sorry," he said, looking up and taking in all three of his companions with a glance. "I didn't mean to sound short, but I had to get that, thing, sealed away, and I'm pretty much running on empty right now. It's called a Ferryman's Token, and this is the first time one has been seen in over two hundred years. Legend has it that a Token is made from a coin stolen from Charon, the ferryman of the river Styx, and that it's a really nasty piece of work. First, it's supposed to completely drain the life force of everyone or everything in its sphere of influence, and use that energy to open a portal into the river Styx itself. Since Styx is known as the River of Lost Souls, you can imagine that anyone or anything trapped inside would leap at any chance to get out, even if it meant puppeting a corpse. The were's probably lived here, and were the first to be drained, due to their affinity for the supernatural. Once it had that energy, the Token would have drained the entire town before opening its portal. The were bodies would have been the first possessed, due to their nature, but if I hadn't sealed that thing away, the ordinary humans would have been next. Can you say zombie apocalypse?"


Jasper shook his head as he scooped up the box, then staggered slightly as he rose to his feet.


"Yeah," he muttered. Definitely running on empty here."


Ignoring the unsteadiness of his own legs, Jasper made his way the couple of steps to his trunk, and deposited the box into a much larger, metal box bolted to the inside of the Vic's trunk. Closing the trunk, he turned back to Kate and company.


"I'll call for a cleanup team. Pax Arcane will figure out an appropriate cover story, unless whomever you work for wants to handle it? Either way, we should make our exit while we still can. There's an empty camp site about ten miles down the road, and I intend to hole up there until I recover enough to try and figure out how the hell this thing wound up here. You're all welcome to join me."

 

[Red Sinfonia]

"Fuck that noise," Kate whispered quietly under her breath in response to a zombie apocalypse, observing the simple wooden box that the wicked coin had been stored away in, and soaking in everything that Jasper had told her. The scraps of what was left of her Greek mythology class scratched at the surface of her mind, but Styx was still a band to her and Charon was an abstract horror that was simplified in cartoons. It all seemed laughable, in that moment, as though he was about to say, 'Just kidding, you're on a supernatural TV show!', and she would nervously laugh and people would come out from bushes with cameras and good natured imps would pop out of the dead bodies. Seriously, who the hell gets a coin that raises the dead? At the very least, had they not caught it, exorcism would have been on the rise and she'd be making more than just enough to get by.


There it was. That was the silver lining her mind had been desperately mining for.


'We would never go hungry.' "There you go," Kate responded with a smirk, amused that the well of wraiths had chosen to take a jab at her temporary loss of sanity. To treat a possible zombie apocalypse as her long awaited payday. Noticing her mistake, she cleared her throat.


"I think a call to the Unspoken will be enough for them. They'll probably want to send some wargs from a local branch in to investigate, but I'm sure they'll be gone before Pax Arcane gets here to clean the place up," she said, touching her right pant pocket to make sure that the lump of her phone in her jeans was still present and hadn't fallen out in the bullshit they'd been wading through for the past whatever amount of time.


Without a word, Elandra brushed against Kate's body, and promptly entered the plane within her soul, leaving the three of them behind. Knowing that there would be no living souls in the immediate vicinity for him to terrify, Ralph remained at her side and Kate didn't argue it. In times of loneliness, he was her traveling companion, as long as there was no one around to do double-takes at her passenger seat. Seeing as how Jasper had already grown comfortable, it seemed, there was no reason for him to retreat.


"As long as there's not another one of those," she gestured to the mangled lump of a werewolf, "then yeah, I think I'll join you, though I've hardly brought the appropriate equipment for camping. I'll follow you."


Waving a hand in goodbye, Kate toed around the giant corpse that had dropped near her Chevy, and climbed into her truck. The engine cackled and wheezed, as usual, and threatened to drop dead there and then, but displayed its utter stubbornness by not doing so. She took that grace period to call into her branch of the Unspoken, be redirected to the local, and told them the details. She'd talk to Neeja and Superintendent Levi later, after she'd had the nap she damn well deserved. The call finished, she shoved her phone away, smiled at the creaking wraith seated in her truck - who looked charmingly ridiculous with his seatbelt fastened - and dutifully prepared to follow Jasper's car.

 

[Tarmagon]

Jasper barely raised en eyebrow as the huge thing snuffled up against Kate and vanished. He supposed that he should be, something, but the fear of the unknown had been burned out of him quite a while ago, leaving a very business-like approach to his work.


"I've got enough supplies and food for a couple of people," he said, "Though I have no idea what to feed you Ralph."


He watched the two of them climb into the truck, trying and failing to suppress a chuckle as Ralph buckled himself in. The picture he presented. Shaking his head, he closed the Vic's trunk just as the aged truck behind him wheezed to life. Climbing into the drivers seat, he started up and pulled away from the carnage, heading back down the road towards the camp he had noted on the way in. Taking it slow, so as not to strain Kate's vehicle, Jasper took the time to make a phone call.


"Jasper Tiegs," he said when the call connected. "Hunter 3528. Report follows. Town of Twilight WV investigated due to class 4 magic flare. Attempted to make contact with current guardian of Silvers. Attempt lead to local diner, and the discovery of multiple bodies. Further investigation halted by the appearance of multiple, undead were beasts. Said beasts attacked, but were dispatched by unexpected allies, consisting of one female, name given as Kate, and one entity, class unknown, named Ralph. Images to be provided. Suspect strong possibility of native american shamanism, due to appearance and nature of entities summoned to her assistance. Initial attackers dispatched, Kate providing information suggesting the bodies were being puppeted by poltergeist class entities. Further investigation not possible due to repeated attacks by undead were creatures. All attacks repulsed, but increasing frequency of creature attacks mandated use of detection device. Immensely powerful magic artifact detected in diner. Preliminary identification is Ferryman's Token. Due to nature of artifact, immediate containment efforts enacted. Artifact is currently secured, but request immediate pickup by a class 6 mage or full containment unit. Suspect town is completely depopulated. Removing artifact from town, and request cleanup team be dispatched on crash priority. Will be basing out of abandoned camp approximately 10 miles from epicenter. Request information on organization known as the Unspoken. Any information on Unspoken operative named Kate. Information concerning nature of entities under her control/employ."


Hanging up his phone, Jasper noted that the call had lasted long enough for the track leading to the camp to be just ahead. Slowing, he turned off, noting the truck making the turn behind him. Carefully following the rutted road, he eventually found what had once been a rather charming camp ground. Now however, the neatly laid out spots were covered in leaves and debris. Picking the cleanest looking site, Jasper pulled the Vic to a stop and hopped out. Opening the rear door, he began to pile camping gear beside the car. A pair of small, two person tents that set themselves up when tossed into the air, a couple of army surplus sleeping bags, a case of mre's, water bottles. By the time Kate had pulled up behind him, the pile of gear was a respectable size.


"Help yourself," he called. "There should be enough to last us a few days, and the cleanup team will refresh our supplies on their way out."

 

[Red Sinfonia]

'Do you think we can trust him?'


The question overwhelmed even the angry, sputtering roar of Kate's truck, her wraiths only verbalizing what she'd been wondering since he'd been standing witness to Ralph's first appearance. It was a difficult question that she was never good at answering and spent many hours pondering for every new person she'd met, ever since she was nearly stabbed in the gut by a fanatic. Still, Jasper seemed to be just as entrenched in the supernatural world as she, if not more privy to its secrets. All she did was eat ghosts. He hadn't shot her yet, when he'd clearly had the chance, so she highly doubted that he was part of 'The Church', which found that it had a certain distaste for Kate. He probably didn't plant the coin; that just seemed silly. He did mention 'Pax Arcane', but she had no honest idea of what that was. She tended not to stick her nose into the politics of the different agencies, or even too intensely acknowledge their existences. She just wanted her paycheck.


Still thinking, she glanced over at Ralph, who made a soft creak at her and then turned the attention of his beady eyes out the window. That was all the response that she would get out of him, she knew. Beyond her window, she could see just faintly see the moving image of a bulky quadruped galloping towards the direction from which they'd come. Ralph didn't seem agitated, so she was assured that it was just an Unspoken warg. Hopefully.


"I hope so," Kate whispered on an exhale, turning off the wooded road and into the campsite that she had seen Jasper pull into.


The pile of stuff received an impressed lift of one brow, if only because how prepared could one guy be? Kate climbed from her truck and whistled lightly, Ralph following after at a languorous, liquid pace. With a soft gasp, she turned back to her truck, rifled through the things in the back seat, and returned to Jasper. Before him, she placed a plastic, rectangular, dubious container of lighter fluid. Before he could say anything, she said, "There, I have made a contribution! Don't make me feel bad and not use it." She paused, making the sort of eye contact that drifted between serious and not. "Use it," she repeated, before going back to her things. She wasn't going to mention that it was because it had been in her truck for a lifetime and she wanted to get rid of it.


"Don't come back here," Kate called out, slipping behind her truck with a bag of things she had packed however many days ago. She stripped out of her shoes, shirt, and pants, and began to spray herself down with a canister of bugspray - one of the few things she always carried around. It was terrifying how many calls she'd received out in the swampiest of boonies and doing an exorcism covered in bug bites was god damn miserable. That done, she redressed herself in a beater and black running pants, then pushed her shoes back on. The new attire was comfortable, but equally ready to sprint or nap.


The black lines stretched back over her shoulders and she poked them tenderly, the flesh stinging softly in response. The skin where they were present felt raw, and she felt it clearly down to her shoulder blades, but its trek had already stopped and it was beginning to recede. After some food and some sleep, they would be virtually gone.


"So... um, Jasper. I don't really know anything about you, besides the fact that you have a lot of... stuff," Kate said, turning from behind her truck. 'You are awkward,' her lovelies cut in and she whispered, quietly, "Hush, I know." She looked up again, moving over to the mound of things with Jasper at its flank. "I guess I'm asking about you. Like where you- wait, do you need help?" She asked, her grandmother turning in her grave at the thought of her tardy manners.

 

[Tarmagon]

Jasper couldn't help himself. The reaction to the fight, the incongruity of Ralph, and now Kate's awkward offer. He bust out laughing, feeling the pent up tension leaving his body.


"Sorry, " he managed to gasp out. "I guess it's all catching up to me at once. "


A minute later he had better control, and Jasper shot an apologetic look at his companions.


"I'm afraid my after battle coping skills still need work, " he said, pulling a tent, sleeping bag, and inflatable pillow out of the pile to hand to Kate.


"If you want to set up over there, " he indicated a relatively clean gravel bed, "I'll put mine over here. " He indicated another gravel bed a polite distance from the first. He paused, looking at Ralph.


"I have no idea what to do for you, " he as admitted. "I'll gather some wood and drop a few alarms while I do. Maybe you can find us a good latrine area? I have a portable seat and bags, but I hate using them. Once we get a fire going and some food, I'll be happy to answer any questions you'd like to ask. "

 

[Red Sinfonia]

Of all the things that Kate expected to come out of Jasper's mouth, a mirthful, hearty laugh was certainly not one of them. In fact, it was so unexpected, that she could only watch in stunned silence until he stopped. And then she snorted, caught herself, and mashed her lips together so that she didn't do the same thing. The humor of the moment passed, she took the things he offered her with a thanks. She shouldered Ralph playfully. "I guess that means that you have to sleep with me," she said in a faux-scandalous tone and headed off to the bed of gravel that Jasper had pointed out for her. Faithfully, the wraith creaked and followed silently behind her.


"Will do, chief," Kate responded to the offer of giving her a chance to help. She wasn't going to go so far as to embarrass herself that she had no idea what a latrine area should look like or be like; probably away from the road and not in immediate view of the campsite. Seemed good enough. It was the biggest reason she also never went camping. Her home was already a rotting cabin in the woods, quite literally haunted, but its saving grace was at least the running water.


First, she set up her things. The tent, after some fumbling, was erected once she realized that it basically did everything on its own, and no, she did not have to unhook that strap thingy. The sleeping bag was unrolled with ease, because she at least knew how to do that, but while she was spreading it out and putting her things in the tent, she heard a soft pop. Eyes wide, Kate scrambled out backwards to see the inflatable pillow, which she'd started, exhausted herself, and given up for the moment, was resting in Ralph's clawed hands. Hand across her mouth, she stifled... a laugh? A shout? A no, bad wraith!? Rife with indecision, she quickly took it from his grasp and threw it into the tent before the mishap became obvious.


Ralph couldn't talk, but Kate damn well knew he did this shit on purpose.


Wraith in tow, Kate entered the woods, and trekked to what she hoped was an appropriate amount away into a thick copse of trees. It seemed private and isolated enough, though she knew the way would still be awful in the middle of the night. Not that it mattered to her; she'd sleep straight through until morning. Maybe even afternoon. Maybe she'd wake for supper? Ralph checked the immediate area for any issues and came back with a solemn silence, which translated to an 'everything's good to go'.


As they returned to the camp, Kate cleared the foliage debris with a kicking-shuffle motion, along with marking a few young trees with the box cutter she kept in her back pocket. Clear dirt trail and path of destruction blazed behind her, she was assured that she probably wouldn't get lost having to pee. The bathroom bled from her mind when she saw the campsite, and food replaced it. She rifled through the case of MREs that Jasper had brought and found the creamy, brown pack that said 'Smoky Franks'. She'd heard people praise it and people lament it, but of all the ones she'd ever had to eat, this was the most familiar to her stomach. She was sure she'd hate it later, but later was later and now was now. And now, she was starving. Nourishment inbound, Kate plopped her butt near an ex-fire pit, content that she'd done her duty to the best of her ability.

 

[Tarmagon]

Jasper slipped his earbud in as he walked around the camp, listening to the report he had requested as he collected firewood and dropped the occasional alarm token.


"The Unspoken. A long standing organization that works to minimize supernatural and mundane interactions. The leadership is unknown, but is suspected to be made up of class 6 or higher supernatural entities. To our knowledge, they employ single operators for the most part. The have been known to assist ordinary humans in coping with supernatural trauma. No evidence of malicious actions. Operatives from this group should be considered non hostile. There is a render aid directive in place in hopes of establishing mutually beneficial agreements. Agent designated Kate rumored to be an exceptional exorcist. No information on Ralph entity. Bound spirit perhaps. "


Jasper doubted that last. If Ralph were bound to Kate, it was by choice. Dumping his pile of wood into an old fire pit between the two camp sites, he looked dubiously at the ancient bottle of lighter fluid, then squirted some on the wood with a shrug. Tossing on a match he was rewarded with a whumpf and burst of flames. Kate appeared to be enjoying something called Smokey Franks on the other side of the pit, and Jasper barely suppressed a shudder. Not his favorite by a long shot.


"You're welcome to all of those, " he said. "I'll stick to chicken a la king. So, we have shelter, food, water, and some alarms. I promised you answers. What would you like to know?"

 

[Red Sinfonia]

At the sound of 'chicken a la king', Kate's nose scrunched up in a manner that undoubtedly denoted disgust. "Beautiful," she said, her mouth finishing chewing on a piece of questionable meat. When she'd swallowed, she noted with a short laugh, "I like how we're starting this relationship. You don't like my favorite thing and I hate your favorite thing. We both win."


'How is that a win?' The wraiths questioned. Kate was about to open her mouth to answer, but she caught herself in the middle of it and promptly shut her lips together. She couldn't keep openly talking out loud, so she simply thought of how that meant she got to eat as much as she wanted of her thing and he got to eat his; at their prompt silence, it was verified that that was enough. It was sound enough reasoning to her and that's what mattered.


Holding up a single finger, Kate downed the last of one of her sausages. Ralph, who had been stalking about the campsite, returned to her side and crouched down. She offered him the bag. "Want one?" She asked humorously. Whatever kept her sane. When he creaked in response, his eyes turning towards the fire, she placed the bag on one of her crossed legs, angled so that the opening was facing skyward.


"Look, I don't do this partner thing..." Kate admitted. A good start, she thought. "So... where to start?" She paused, her eyes flicking to the woods, smelling the combination of the fire - which she had enjoyed, with good humor, as he had used the fluid as requested - and the chemicals of bug spray on her skin. "I guess just... who are you? Where are you from? What the fuck were those..." She formed her fingers in a circle. "Wooden things that stopped the bloody fuzzballs? And what is Pax Arcane? Why were you even in this boondock town?"