Modus Morte: Chapter 22
Takeo was surprised at how quick this human was. Faust was on his home ground, desperate, and obviously interested in Jasper - not a good combination. There were probably at least twenty ways in and out of this pile of rubble and Takeo was certain that Faust knew them all and could double-back and escape before any of the others were halfway inside. This was one of those times when being a shapeshifter was more than worthwhile. He shifted just enough to give himself a tracker's nose and pulled his katana out of the small leather pouch at his side. "Omae o korosa!" he growled and sped off into the ruins.
Jayna broke into a run as soon as she heard Takeo say the word Faust. Even with all of Takeo's famous skills as a thief he was probably in deep trouble facing a necromancer on his own. As it was, if she hadn't been wearing her glasses she never would have seen the flash of him disappearing into the ruins. Once she reached the spot where she had last seen him she cursed herself for not bringing more gear, night vision goggles or motion sensors would have come in handy. She was walking almost blindly into a maze of debris, but there was no time for hesitation. All she could do at this point was to follow what few footfalls she could hear leading away from her into the deepening gloom. Her communicator crackled to life and she switched it off. She hoped the others would fare better in here.
She jumped up onto a pile of rubble and looked off into the shards of what had once been a convent and saw a flash of deep crimson far inside. From the energy signature she knew it had to be Faust, and made a beeline for that position by jumping from pile to pile. By the time she reached it Takeo had already passed, and so, the chase was on.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
"Into the nunnery!" Takeo's voice came through their communicators at the same moment. Bad leg or not, Jasper wasn't going to let Takeo face this monster alone. There never really was any decision to make. Ending this nightmare once and for all was part and parcel of her job, and she was going to do it. She shouted at Azangel over her shoulder, "Find Torres and follow me." then sped off into the night.
Ciela's first reaction was to spring into action, but having worked with Torres many times before she knew that leaving the detective behind to fend for herself would be a very bad idea. Luckily Torres was not far away, and she could hear her running in her direction. "Where is everyone?" Torres asked, a bit breathlessly, when she reached her side. Azangel unfurled her wings, setting the playground aglow. She nodded her head toward the old nunnery.
"I hope you don't mind flying." she said as she grasped Torres under her arms and took to the sky.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Faust had hoped to lose Mori in the confusion of rubble, but he could hear that his pursuer was not far behind. All he really desired at that moment was to get his hands on that glowing woman from the playground. What a wonderful feast she would be, but instead he had to find a way to finish this pest off quickly. He smiled when the idea came to him. A rat is a rat, is a rat. He thought to himself. It only works once, but once is enough. He ran straight for the tunnel to his basement home, slipped inside, and waited.
Takeo shifted a bit further to gain a semblance of night vision. It helped for a while, but as they moved deeper into the building soon it became too dark for that to be of much use. He came to a narrow, stone staircase leading down. It was pitch-black down there, and deathly quiet. Eyes or ears would be of no use, but Faust's scent was stronger in that direction along with other smells, some quite unpleasant, and he wrinkled his nose in disgust. He crept downwards, slowly, silently, sword at the ready. Immediately at the bottom of the stairs was a rough wooden door, slightly ajar. The hair rose on the back of his neck. This felt suspiciously like a trap, but there was nothing for it. The scent of his prey was much stronger. He was close, so close, and behind him Jayna had reached the top of the stairs.
He leaped through the doorway. The scent was much stronger now, off to his right. He whirled, sword flashing toward it. He felt the slightest bit of a breeze and the sighing of metal in the air. He had been correct. It was a trap and he had walked right into it. He jumped back, away from the attack. His excellent reflexes had saved his life, but he still felt the bite of a blade into his arm and his sword went flying. Then the true pain began.
Jayna paused at the top of the stairs. She was almost certain that Takeo had come this way. The sound of metal hitting the floor followed by screams told her that she had been correct. From the pitch of the screaming she was fairly sure that it was Takeo, so without hesitation she ran down the stairs, pulling a Liefeld gun from one of her pouches. In the darkness there was little to be seen other than the ruddy glow of Faust's magic that bathed both men. She raised her gun and pointed it at the two of them and moved as far away from the door as possible. She couldn't fire for fear of hitting the wrong man, and couldn't block the doorway in case the others arrived.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Thankfully once she hit the jumbled mess that was the former nunnery Jasper's speed was more of a nuisance than help, and she reverted to normal. Az and Torres caught up with her quickly and they went inside as a group. With her helmet giving her guidance Azangel was able to take a fairly straight path to Faust, the others following her lead. The fact that she provided light as well as directions was welcome as it made avoiding the worst pitfalls much easier. Then the screaming began. “Takeo!” Jasper yelped in reaction to the first scream.
Jasper looked like she was going to bolt off in one direction, but Az grabbed her by the arm and shook her head. "No, it's this way."
They rounded a large chunk of fallen wall and saw an opening leading down. The screams were coming from that opening. They headed down, Az still leading the way. Her wings were useless in the cramped area, but she fairly flew down the stairs and saw Jayna once inside, gun in hand. Jayna blinked at the sudden influx of light, but brought the gun to bear, and sighted in on Faust. Jasper and Torres entered the room right behind Az. They saw Jayna and followed where the gun was pointing in time to see Faust look over Takeo's shoulder at them and grin from ear to ear. In an almost childlike voice he said, "Come out, my friends!"
Through Jayna's glasses the walls of the basement began to glow brightly, and she was forced to remove them or be blinded by the intensity of Faust's magic. Of course that meant she had to lower her gun. The others looked wildly around the room as scraping sounds could be heard coming from just outside the walls, as if things were trying to get in, hungry things. Faust tossed Takeo away like a broken toy. When he did the screaming stopped and the room became deathly quiet.
A pool of blood expanded from under where he lay. "Takeo!" Jasper ran to her injured friend and dropped to her knees by his side. She turned him over and could see that he was bleeding profusely from a gash on his arm. He wanted desperately to tell her to stay away, but the words refused to leave his throat. He knew Faust's true intentions for her, but he could not find his voice, some form of dark energy was still tearing him apart from the inside. Jasper embraced him tightly, trying to will him to survive. "Takeo... Please don't die." Something fell onto his cheek, warm and wet. Blood forced itself out of his mouth and his vision began to fade. He closed his eyes, perhaps for the last time.
The stone walls of the basement begin to crack, and creatures of a horrific sort began emerging from the walls. They appeared to have once been human, before being tortured and mutilated. Their skin was ashen black, eyes sewn shut with thick black cords, and their too-large mouths were filled with needle-like teeth. Jayna decided it was well past time to put this to and end and raised the gun again, when a zombie-beast burst from the wall behind her and sunk its teeth into her shoulder. She jerked in surprise and pain, losing part of her favorite jacket and a chunk of her shoulder. She fired the gun, but the shot went wild, striking the chair that sat in the center of the room and tumbling both it, and its occupant, to the floor. Torres pulled out her radio and began calling for backup and an ambulance.
"Pris!" Faust scooped up her body and cradled her to his chest, smoothing her ruffled hair. He turned to look at Jayna, his face a mask of pure hatred. "She will pay for hurting you, my love." he growled before laying the corpse gently on the bed. Demonic bloodlust filled the room, and even his own summoned creatures trembled in fear, momentarily halting their attacks. To the others it was as if the room was suddenly filled with a stifling humidity, a pressure bearing down on them, a buzzing sound inside their heads. Azangel was the least affected and launched a barrage of brightly glowing spikes from her wings at the closest creature. It fell in pieces to the floor. Faust merely glanced at her, waving the fingers of one hand and murmuring an incantation as he passed. Jayna was his focus now, the others, merely distractions.
Black tendrils rose from the floor to wrap themselves around Azangel's wings, preventing her from using them to attack further. More of the hideous black things rose and began creeping up her legs, entwining about her arms, rising, covering her, in an all too familiar scene. Az screamed. There was a flash of light, and she was… gone. The room was once again plunged into darkness.
"Shit, shit, shit." Torres grumbled. "We need to get out of here, now." She was the closest to the door out of the room and knew that the others were trapped in the press of bodies in the dark. She could hear the sound of Faust's boots on the stone floor and the shuffling of the monsters. They were in way over their heads.
Suddenly the room was bathed in flickering light. She blinked and tried to focus on the chaos. One of the monsters, closest to Jayna, was in flames. The others were retreating back through the walls to whatever hell they had come from. Faust was advancing on his prey. Jayna gave the burning monster a shove toward the closest wall and raised her gun. Faust came closer. "Now you die." he spat at her.
"Not today, asshole." Jayna pulled the trigger and his head exploded, his body twitching before crumpling to the floor. She pocketed the gun and stepped over the body to check on Takeo and Jasper. There was so much blood…too much blood. "Jasper, where is he hurt? We have to stop the bleeding now." She knelt down beside them wondering how this girl could be a professional hero and not know anything about first-aid.
"It's his arm, I think." Jasper replied, shaken. Jayna was suddenly ashamed of her earlier thought. It was so obvious that the girl was too upset to think straight. Everything she had been through recently had taken it's toll, and tonight had been just too much for her. Someone needed to stop this bleeding and soon, or nothing would save the thief. She searched the immediate area for something to make a tourniquet, as none of them were wearing anything suitable. Luckily the corpse on the bed had on a voluminous skirt, part of which was hanging off onto the floor. She tore a strip off and tied it tightly around his arm above the wound.
"Don't touch anything! This is a crime scene." Torres said, a bit too late.
"Crime scene my ass. Do you want it to become a murder scene too?" Jayna simply wanted to get out of here, get some air, and where the hell was Az? She thought she could here the sound of sirens coming from above-ground. The police had arrived, and as usual, a bit too late. "Let's get out of here and find him some real help, shall we?" She looked at Jasper who was still clinging to Takeo. "Let me carry him out. It won't be a problem." Jasper nodded and Jayna took him from her and stood. "Angelina, we need to find Az."
"I'm coming…" Ciela's weak voice came drifting down the stairs followed by her distinctive glow. "Sorry about that." she said as she entered the room. She looked shaken and paler than usual, which Jayna didn’t think was possible.
"Az, can you help him?" Jayna asked.
"I can do more than that." she answered, moving forward. Once she was closer to his body she could see the extent of his condition. "Quetz! What happened to him?"
"I would say he was being turned into a zombie." Jayna answered. She had to admit that he indeed looked terrible. His skin was an ashen gray, and while he had been thin before, now he seemed almost shriveled.
"I don't think I can heal that." Ciela said, but did what she could to his arm. He moaned a bit and shifted in Jayna's arms, but remained unconscious.
"Let me try." Jasper sounded almost desperate. Torres placed a hand on her arm and shook her head.
"Az can stabilize him, and the EMTs are on their way." she said a bit more forcefully than she needed to. The stakeout had not ended well and there would probably be hell to pay, and more likely than not she would be the one doing the paying. "This isn't a job for amateurs." She regretted her words as soon as she spoke them, and added, "Sorry." The apology didn’t wipe the severe frown from the other woman’s face as she watched Az with Takeo.
Ciela bathed the prostrate man's body in light and he seemed to breathe a bit easier. "I've done what I can." She said, followed by, "Ugh, it smells horrible in here. What did I miss?"
Jayna shrugged. "It's over now. Let's get out of here."
Jayna walked out of the ruins of the nunnery first, with Takeo in her arms. She was greeted with the bright lights and loud noises of the ambulance and a few assorted police cruisers immediately. Along with several armed officers there stood one angry looking man in an overcoat. Jayna could hear Torres mumbling something behind her that she guessed had a few foul words mixed in. Torres immediately stepped in front of the group to meet the officers. “I’ll handle this.” she said to them before walking to the man in the overcoat. By her reactions Jayna guessed he held a higher position in the PD than Torres.
“That’s the Captain.” Jasper whispered behind them. Jayna had never seen Torres’s superior and took her word on that one. That was the first words she’d heard from the woman since before they left the basement room. Jayna couldn’t put her finger on it but the woman was definitely not a happy camper. The ghosts in the graveyard were even stronger looking then they had been before, and if Jasper’s emotions had any effect on her powers then the woman had to be seething underneath. She wasn’t the only one.
“You killed him.” Ciela was obviously unhappy with the events that happened below the nunnery. Jayna carefully laid Takeo at Jasper’s feet and turned to her friend.
“He tried to kill Takeo, and would have killed all of us if given a chance.” She told her bluntly, “I think it was more than a fair trade.” Ciela frowned at her in return, but offered no further argument. “You can’t be angry at me over this. There was no alternative, especially not after you bugged out on us.” She snapped at Ciela. This was a bad time, and even worse place. As much as Jayna wanted to continue this conversation, she was happy when the other woman turned away. She would probably be ignored for a while, but that was inevitable.
Torres approached the trio and coughed to get their attention. “The ambulance crew seems unable to reach us. They’re afraid of the ghosts.” She frowned harshly at them. “Can you do something about this?” She asked them. Both Jayna and Ciela looked around. There was a large number of spirits crowding around the ambulance crew, and even more waiting in what seemed to be a line near them.
“Jasper?” Jayna asked when the other woman didn’t respond. She wondered if the woman was even paying attention to anything around her. She had been sitting there scratching Reaper’s head.
“We’re taking care of that now.” Reaper answered. He was right. Jayna had been too busy trying to stare down Ciela to notice. Now that she brought her attention to the pair, she could see clearly with her glasses that Reaper was actually absorbing some of the extra energy off of Jasper.
“Good.” Torres said before looking at the other two. “They’re going to want to speak with all of you.” She told them.
“Great.” Jayna smiled bitterly. “Now we get an interrogation.”
“I’ve tried to talk some sense into the Captain. It’s all I can do.”
“Don’t worry. You’ve done your job.” Jayna said before looking at the approaching officers. They were now leading the ambulance crew to them. The spirits were gone, but the terrified medics didn’t look like they were going to take a chance, and stayed near the officers. Jayna wondered what the hell the medics thought guns would do against ghosts, but didn’t say it aloud.
Jasper sat there in a daze as they loaded Takeo onto the gurney and took him away. Reaper was gone. To where Jayna couldn’t have guessed, but she was surprised that he would have left Jasper in such a condition. The woman had to be lifted up as an officer led her to another part of the cemetery. This was when Jayna noticed they were also leading Ciela and Torres away. They were separating them.
“Ma’am.” One of the officers said. “The captain wants a word with you, and you're bleeding.”
"I'm fine." Jayna looked at the officer speaking to him. He was a young looking thing, probably a rookie, fresh faced out of the academy. According to her glasses, he also had some Meta genes in him somewhere, and probably didn’t even know it.
"You probably should have that looked at, you might need a tetanus shot."
"I said I was fine." she said more forcefully than before. He nodded and started to put a hand on her arm to lead her to the man in the overcoat, but she stopped that with one glare. “Lead the way.” She told the rookie. He nodded and stuttered a bit. She made him nervous. Good.
“Hello there.” She greeted the Captain when they approached him. He was an older man with a hard worn battle look. He may have actually been through a few battles for all she knew.
Modus Morte: Chapter 23
“Well, hello there." The Captain didn't look too amenable to pleasantries, but at this point Jayna was hoping that being cordial would help to soothe the man's obviously sour mood. As she got within a few feet of him she understood why he had chosen to be the one to confront her. Even in her boots he was at least an inch taller than she was, and looked to be close to 300 pounds of pure muscle. The flat-top haircut and dark power suit completed his look and definitely gave him a no-nonsense aspect. He held up one finger to shush her while he barked orders to a uniform, then he turned toward her.
"And you are?" he asked, gesturing toward a plainclothesman who opened a steno book and came to stand beside him.
"Jayna Alexander. I was told you wanted to see me." So they were going to take down every word that was said to cross reference later for deviations in the telling. This guy was good.
"Of Alexander's Antique Emporium?" She nodded in reply. "What brings an antique dealer here at this time of night?" And a sneaky bastard as well. She wasn't going to fall for his dumb routine. If he was Torres' superior officer he knew damn well who she was, and why she was here. He also knew that this hadn't been the first time she'd done this sort of thing. When she didn't immediately answer he gave her a good looking over. "Not exactly standard shopkeeper attire either. You aren't becoming a vigilante in your spare time, are you?"
Jayna laughed, "Vigilante? How quaint. I haven't heard that term in a very long time." Another uniformed officer who had been standing next to a squad car walked up to the Captain, who leaned over so the other could speak quietly into his ear. Whatever was said didn't seem to make the Captain any too happy.
"Cordon off the area and let them do their jobs. Everyone else goes back to the precinct. We'll continue the interviews there." he told the officer. The he turned back to her. "There are two bodies in the basement. Any ideas how they got there?"
"The one in the bed was dead when we got there. The other one, Faust, I shot him." She answered, showing no emotion whatsoever. He seemed to take it in stride, as just another fact to digest.
"You can go with that officer over there." he said, pointing to a car parked on the street. "I'll have more questions for you later, back at the station." She turned to leave. "By the way, do you have any more weapons on your person?" he said to her back. Jayna turned and smiled broadly at the Captain.
"I guess that would depend on whether or not you are a vampire, or werewolf, or that sort of thing. I've got a few vials of holy water and powdered silver on me, nothing pointy or that goes bang, if that's what you're asking." she answered and walked away.
Modus Morte: Chapter 24
“Call me crazy, but I just want to go over this one more time.” Said the detective as he shuffled his papers around. “I want to make sure we have everything correct.” Jasper doubted that it was incorrect, since this was the sixth time he wanted to ‘just go over’ her story.
Detective Chapman didn’t like her, and it was painfully obvious. She had met him for the first time years ago when the Minutemen were working with the police to help rebuild J Street after one of the Pantheon’s major battles. Chapman didn’t like her then, and he certainly didn’t like her now.
There were always two truisms for Jasper when she came to the JSPD station. One was the coffee always smelled like sludge. The other is that she would more than likely get assigned to Chapman to go over the case, no matter what it was. The coffee had an excuse - it was cheap. He however didn’t have any other excuse than that he just didn’t like Metas. That’s always what Jasper figured, because he seemed to treat her like a suspect every time.
“You went to Miss Alexander after your alleged accident for help in the zombie situation.” He stated. He said it the same way every other time so she knew what inane question came next. “Why didn’t you come to the police?”
“I did.” She replied. “You interviewed me, or did you forget, Detective? It was only a two hour session.” She really wanted to point out that he had that statement in front of him, as well as photos of her injuries somewhere in the case file, but she restrained herself.
“Of course not.” He was biting his tongue, as his supervisor had just walked into the room. Jasper was almost sad it wasn’t Torres here to put an end to this charade. “As I said, I’m just making sure we’re both on the same page.”
“Of course.” She just wanted to get out of here, and find out where they had taken Takeo. She didn’t bother to ask Chapman because, even if he knew, he wouldn’t have told her anything.
“As I said, you went to Miss Alexander and you continued to work with her. How did you determine that you didn’t raise the zombies?”
“Miss Alexander found that most of the zombies carried a different energy signature than the ones I raised from Saint Heathenry’s Flowering Child. Lt. Torres herself confirmed that zombies were coming from all over J Street, and my original spell was not that strong.” Jasper restated the same thing she did every time he asked that question. He was going to dissect her statements for any deviation from the original story, and she was going to make it hard for him, even if it meant repeating the same thing over and over.
“Ah.” He seemed almost disappointed. Maybe it was because she was repeating herself. “You went tonight with the group even though your doctor specifically told you to stay on light duty. Why?”
“Because I wanted to see this through to the end.” She wanted to say because she also didn’t want Takeo to leave her home but that would be too much information.
“When we took you off the crime scene you were barely able to stand. I have to ask, what did you take? Because honestly, Jasper, you look about ten times better now.” Wow, a new question. Jasper would have been insulted that he just suggested she had been high if it wasn’t such a change of pace.
“Nothing.” She said in the same polite tone she had been answering him in all night long. “I had Reaper siphon some of the excess energy off of me so the medics could get through the graveyard. If he hadn’t, the ghosts would have never disappeared, and I am feeling better now because I’ve had time to recover.” She didn’t add that his sparkling personality may have helped.
“You raised all of those ghosts? So how is that different from raising zombies?” He was still trying to find something, anything to charge her with.
“They’re completely opposite. To raise a zombie you must shed blood, make a sacrifice. To raise ghosts you must give up power. And for your information, I didn’t raise those ghosts. They were already there. I just gave them enough power to be visible and speak.”
“Uh-huh.” He didn’t sound convinced, but then she knew he was no expert on raising the dead. “Where is Reaper?” The million-dollar question he was bound to ask.
“I sent him to the hospital with Takeo.”
“Why? What if he’s withholding evidence? What if we needed to question him?” Chapman was almost happy. He thought she had finally slipped up.
“Because the last time he came you said you couldn’t use his statements because he’s dead.” She pointed out. “Also you tried to arrest him for disturbing the peace because of his loud mouth. Though, if you can’t use his statements because he’s dead, how do you expect to be able to arrest him?”
This made Chapman look like he was chewing tacks; he hated it when Jasper threw his words back at him, hated it even worse when she caught him in a lie. She hated to embarrass the asshole in front of his boss, but then again she was also tired of being interrogated by him. She turned to the silent sergeant who had been watching whole scene unfold. “Is there anything else? This is the sixth time we’ve gone over the same story.”
“No, I was just about to dismiss you.” The sergeant said giving Chapman a disgruntled look. “The girl with the wings and Torres are both waiting in the hall for you.”
“Thank you, sir.” She said bowing her head slightly to both of them. Jasper didn’t say anything when she realized she was now copying some of Takeo’s habits. She just walked away from the surprised men as she mentally berated herself.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Jayna quickly learned that police cruisers were not made for comfort, nor were interrogation rooms. What she had been assured would be a few minutes wait had turned into half an hour, then an hour, and was now creeping toward two. She decided that the definition of a long time depending on which side of the bathroom door one was on could also be applied to interrogation room doors. A full two hours and fifteen minutes after she was seated the Captain walked through the door, bearing two large cups. "Coffee?" he offered.
"No thanks. I've had PD coffee before." She was tired, and grumpy from the wait. She didn't need to add gastric distress to the list.
"This is from the roach coach." The look on Jayna's face told him she had no idea what he was talking about. "A private vendor sets up out front, caters to the third shift." She understood the meaning of catered and accepted the cup. "All right, I want you to tell me everything that happened tonight." He sat at the table across from her and took a notebook out of his pocket. He followed his notes and stopped her to ask her frequent, probing questions. He wasn't friendly or chatty, but at least he wasn't as belligerent as she had feared he would be. He seemed fairly satisfied with her answers and it seemed as though the interview would soon be over. "I have a few more things to clear up and you can go." Things were looking up. "What made Jasper think that you could help her in the first place?"
"That's what I wanted to know at first too." Jayna was going to tread this subject very softly. "It seems that she knew that magic items sometimes pass through my shop, and I have a few contacts in that community." She could tell by the look on his face that he wasn't going to settle for that answer. "She wanted me to do some research on the subject for her. I did, and decided to stay involved." He wasn't much happier with that, but she wasn't saying any more on the subject.
"The gun we found at the scene. You brought it with you and used it to shoot Faust. Is it registered?"
Jayna burst into laughter. "Captain, how can I be expected to register something that doesn't officially exist?"
"Point taken." The Captain rose. "You can go now, but we may have more questions later." He escorted Jayna to the main lobby of the station. Jasper, Ciela, and Torres were already there, and Ciela said her goodbyes when she saw them coming down the hall. The Captain stopped a few yards short of the others. "Torres, I want to speak with you, now."
Torres and Jayna passed each other and Jayna whispered, "Good luck." Jayna walked the few feet to Jasper, while Torres and the Captain entered a room with a large window facing the lobby. "Have you been waiting long?" Jayna asked, "Are you ok?"
"Not too long, and I'll be fine." Jasper had looked better. She was obviously still quite upset. "Have they said anything to you about Takeo?"
"Not a word. I'm not even sure what hospital they took him to." Both women were drawn to the sound of shouting coming from the adjacent room. It was Torres' voice and she was not at all happy. From her look and body language happy wasn't even close to what she was feeling, and the Captain wasn't far behind. He had picked up a file somewhere and was poking it at her to punctuate his words.
"The Chief can tell the Mayor that if there was money in the budget for overtime this could have been over weeks ago." Torres was on a roll. "Better yet, tell him this could have been avoided all together if the Council had listened to the residents of this area and torn those buildings down years ago." She turned her back on the Captain and opened the door. "My shift ended hours ago. I’m going home." She slammed the door behind her and stormed past Jasper and Jayna. "You ladies need a ride?"
Modus Morte: Chapter 25
Final page of packet delivered to Jayna
Jayna,
I'm sorry, but there isn't a lot more that I can tell you about this case. Once we started going through the evidence from the scene it was taken away from our unit and given to another unit that I'm not at liberty to talk about. After that everything became "need to know", so my information is limited. I was ordered not to speak of this case with anyone, but since it would probably not been solved without your help I am chancing mailing this information to you and trust that you will be discreet.
This much I will tell you. We have marked as solved a disturbingly large number of missing persons cases from the last three years. A spell book and Faust's grandfather's journal have been locked away where they will never see the light of day again. I've also learned, much to my disgust, that a large portion of what we have been dealing with weren't really zombies, but revenants. Either by accident or by design Faust was draining their life-force and desiccating their bodies, but not releasing their souls. If he had their bodies would have just crumbled to dust. The rest, the true zombies, were either practice runs or unintentioned side-effects of his experiments.
I have no idea what the official spin on this case will be, but I know that the PD wants this put to rest (pardon the pun) as soon as possible. I doubt if there will be any official thanks to you and the others for what you've done to end this, but I will thank you now. This could have gone on for months more without your help, and I'm personally very grateful for all of you did in helping to end this tragedy.
-Torres
Jayna picked up the pages and scowled at them - the handwriting was hideous, loose, scrawling, and large, but legible. Along the top of the first page, someone had noted ‘Faust Journal entries begin approximately 10 years ago’, in very neat print.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ach, mien Gott! What a day! I miraculously managed a few hours alone in the house. I was bored out of my skull & decided to raid the attic. So much boring garbage, but then I found it - a trunk full of things from the old country, papers & old clothes mostly - crap no one would ever want. On the very bottom I found them. Old books, partly burned as if someone pulled them at the last second from a fire. One was very old, oddest paper I've ever seen - no idea what language it's in. The other three I can manage, one a spell book (I think) the other two are my grandfather's journals. These I'm keeping!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Need to bone up on my German, so much of this I don't understand. Very interesting reading. Grandfather worked for the Govt. in some Occult studies department. They are searching all over for anything that will give them an advantage in the war. Interesting reading.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Damn! This shit is for real! He says they have found artifacts that are giving them a real boost. Each find leads to another, and his work is getting him noticed in the govt. Going to be getting out from behind the desk & into the field. Onto something major.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lots of boring crap for a while in his book. Then he finds what he's been looking for, the weird old book. Something about an ancient order of necromancers. Hopes what's in the book will be the key to victory.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Grandfather has gotten permission from the "top" to research the book. Has begun translations into second book. Very interesting, but heavy reading. Need to give this more thought.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They are turning on him. All afraid of the power he wields. He is only doing what they asked, and this is his reward? He has told the family to get out and is going into hiding until his work is finished.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everything has fallen apart, the govt. is in shambles, the war is almost over, & still they hound him. He has been on the run for months & is cornered. Decides to throw himself and his work into the fire rather than give it over to ‘weaklings’. How did the books survive?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A yellow post-it note was stuck to the next page, and Jayna recognized Torres’ writing yet again.
Jayna, there were very few pages after this entry, and up until the last page of the journal, is either nonsense, or Faust working out various spells and components. This is the last page of the first journal, approximately 2 years after the start of the journal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The shit hit it today. They decided that they had the ‘right' to search my room and found everything. Mom cried and screamed. Dad says that grandfather was insane, and I must be too for believing this ‘crap’. They took my things & threw me out. THIS DOESN"T END HERE!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jayna put aside the first section of papers and picked up what was obviously part of a police report.
Two Caucasian victims, 1 male, 1 female, found murdered in home. Extreme savageness of crime indicates personal motive, but no evidence of perpetrator found at scene. Traces of rotted clothing and tissue found at scene. 16 year old son missing, presumed deceased.
Case remains open.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There were more pages of Faust’s scrawling handwriting under the police report, and another note written along the top in small, neat print. Jayna wondered who it belonged to, but dismissed the thought and kept reading.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dies Solis
I have found it. I have the spell I need to complete Pris’s transformation. She will be with me again. I promise. The spell requires a lot of life energy. I have already begun collecting. Pris’s killer was the first contributor. Her father was the second. Oh what an irony that both of them hurt her so much in her life that they now serve her for eternity.
Dies Lunae
My precious grows stronger everyday. She danced with me for the first time in months. I was in complete euphoria when she stood for me. I have now gathered 12 contributors in all. This is slow. I can do this better than this. I’m going to expand my area of operation. I also need to move Pris to a safer location. The landlord came into the apartment today. He was contributor number 12 when I found him with my Pris. No one can touch her.
NO ONE!
Dies Jovis
Pris is settling well into her new home. It has a few problems, but she seems to like it well enough. I promise to find her a more fitting residence for her as soon as the process is complete. In the past week I’ve been moving faster then I thought I ever could. I have been using the nightclubs that Pris and I use to attend as a hunting ground. Plenty of people stumble home drunk afterwards. If this wasn’t for a worthy cause then I’d probably feel sad for doing such things to my old friends. But they were useless when I lost my Pris. None of them could save her or bring her back. I did and did it all on my own.
Dies Saturni
Rats!!!! VILE FILTY VERMIN! They’ve attacked Pris. I was away and the rat colony that resides here has found my safe haven. Rage makes it hard for me to write when I think of what they could have done to my love if I hadn’t gotten here. I have exhausted a lot of today’s energy on disposing of them and setting up the wards. They were necessary. I can regain it quickly though. The rats were not the only vermin to infiltrate my haven. I found a boy. Pest was tromping around destroying things. I can only imagine what nasty things he would have done to Pris. I protected my precious though. I had to. She’s too delicate to defend herself. One day though, she will be stronger then any that walk the streets now.
Dies Martis
The list of contributors is growing so high I’ve lost all ways of keeping count of them in my head. I’ve started a running tally on the front page of my journal. Nothing big just little black marks. But every time I look over those marks it makes me so happy. Each one means I’m closer to completing my goal.
Dies Mercurii
Poor Pris. I’ve been neglecting her. I’ve been so preoccupied with getting the energy I need for her. I would love to take her for a walk in the moonlight, but I’m so terrified she might get hurt I can’t risk it. I sit with her and talk to her. Tonight it will just be about her. I will fulfill every little wish she would want.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Underneath the last page of Faust’s ramblings was one final page from another police report, this one newer and appearing to be a synopsis of information gleaned from police interviews, interrogations, and general guesswork.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It appears as though Faust spent the next 4 years ‘hanging out’ and doing odd jobs for cash in an attempt to keep under the radar, while continuing his occult studies. We can attribute quite a few misdemeanors to this person during this time.
At the end of this time he met one Priscilla Hendstridge. It appears that they dated, she encouraged him to get a real job and clean up his life. His journals state that she even got him to abandon his fixation on the occult. They were engaged to be married when the accident that set him on his current path occurred.
As best can be gleaned from his journals Priscilla was shot during some kind of gang activity. A search of PD records indicates that a shooting did occur at said time and place, but no victims were found at the scene. As usual in such situations there were no witnesses.
According to Faust he took her home to the apartment that they shared at the time where she died. He hunted down her killer, brought his body home performing certain arcane rituals upon the deceased and then ate him. He then formed the idea to preserve Priscilla's body until such time as he could raise her from the dead.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jayna sighed and straightened the papers before putting them back into their folder, then envelope they had arrived in. Torres had gone out on quite a limb to get her this information, and there was no way she was going to betray the other woman’s trust, even if by accident. Too many of her clients, and friends, were quite nosy at times. She crossed the kitchen and went downstairs. Crossing behind the front desk, she opened the door to the basement, found an empty drawer, labeled it, and placed the papers inside.