Bucktown; land of Mexican restaurants, hipsters, comic book shops, gaudy nightclubs and lots of traffic. Not the first place you’d expect supernatural evil to be brewing. Well it has in fact, for centuries. Actually, the whole of Chicagoland, but the Bucktown area is usually where you’ll find the highest concentration of vampires, demons and the like. Few are aware of what happens here behind the curtain that has been pulled over the eyes of the general populous. Those that are in the know do what they can to either avoid it altogether, or take up arms to keep it at bay and stop it from spilling out onto the streets.
But lately things have changed. The common person wouldn’t notice, but for those attuned to all things that go bump in the night it’s fairly obvious. Something is out there, and it’s not playing fair. The death rate is up. The kind of deaths that no one sees coming. Strong, healthy people- just dead. No explanations. Not by the police, and not by those who keep watch over the night...
Our story begins in a quiet little house on the border of Humboldt Park. A nice two story home that looks like it has been squeezed in between the larger houses on either side. Inside the place is like a museum; Expensive and fragile antiques adorn the walls and many display cases strewn about. Some are antique weaponry; spears, swords, shields and a even a crossbow.
Justin Chamberlin (player Zach) is standing in the center of the living room and is being attacked by the home's owner. A quick fist fight ensues and Justin is victorious. With no obstacles to stop him from completing his objective, which happens to be robbing this joint blind, he realizes that he can only carry so much and only has time to make one trip to his car with the loot. He chooses to liberate a bejeweled sword and a crossbow from their display cases and makes a quiet getaway.
It is quiet at the Bucktown-Wicker Park Library on Milwaukee Ave. The large building is nearly void of patrons, as the last have either left or are in the process of having their book/DVD/CD/video game selections checked out by Saorshe Riley (player Tara). As she finishes up with the stragglers, the night shift staff begin to tidy up, turn off the lights, etc. Being the Supervisor on duty, it’s part of Saorshe's job to stay behind and re-shelve the books that were returned before closing.
One of her co-workers, a fella named David, tells her on his way out “If you finish up early enough you’re more than welcome to join us at The Mutiny”.
She nervously says, "OK".
Her other co-worker, Sissy Klemper, adds “And don’t forget to turn the security cameras off this time, dipshit.”
Once they all leave she begins to do the rounds throughout the now darkened and rather spooky library. There aren’t many books on her cart but they belong to all different sections that reside on both floors, so it will take a little time to finish the task. Once she places a rather worn copy of “Breaking Dawn” on the shelf in the small, but popular Stephanie Meyer young adult section, a book on the cart catches her attention… “Mystical Creatures of the Americas”. This belongs in a section of the library she usually has to make excuses in order to visit… the Occult Section.Soarshe makes her way down the long corridor, passing the History and Horror sections, and find herself in the small, yet rather well stocked Occult Section. However, she does notice something is out of the ordinary…a number of books from this section have been torn up and scattered around the floor like someone went on a mad rampage. And this happened just recently.
She takes a look behind a bookcase to see a ghostly Spirit shredding a large book. It notices her and lunges to attack. Little does the Spirit know that Saorshe is a fledgling witch who knows a few spells that can help her in just this type of situation. She successfully casts a "Spirit Binding" spell that allows her to see the trauma causing it's appearance, as well as making it solid... and very killable. The only information she can glean from the ghost is that it wants to kill her. Not a problem, she casts "Bolt of Light", which slams into the solidified Spirit, throwing it across the room and painfully into a bookcase. However, another casting of the spell backfires and causes more harm than good, causing a great deal of damage to herself. This doesn't stop her from casting the spell once more, this time without a hitch, and vanquishes the Spirit back to the underworld. It’s body dissolves into nothing.
Magically tapped out as well as moderately injured, Saorshe makes the decision to eschew her duties in order to return home to rest.
Liam (player Nick) wakes up and feels intense cold. His chest is moist, but the harsh wind whips at his back. He quickly realizes that he is outside and face down in the dirt. He then realizes that he is so cold because he is naked. He looks around at his surroundings and see that he are in the bushes in a corner of a large park. He has no memory of how he got here, why he isn’t wearing any clothes and definitely what the hell is going on. He does know that he isn’t hurt, and that he seems to have a strange feeling of fullness in his belly. Once he gets to his feet he sees that he’s in a secluded corner of Humboldt Park. No one is around, but dawn is breaking in the distance. Soon the joggers, dog walkers and meter maids will arrive, and seeing a naked man in the middle of the park will not help him at all.
He notices a homeless person sleeping off an all night bender of cheap whiskey underneath the slide in the playground area. A bag of nasty, smelly clothes rests next to him on the gravel. Liam quietly makes his way over to the playground, takes a pair of disgustingly soiled pants and a dirty button up shirt from the bag, gets dressed and starts his 20 block trip home to Wicker Park. With no money and no ID, he's going to have to hoof it.
About an hour later, the sun has completely risen and Liam has reached his apartment. He's bothered by the fact, however, that the front door to his unit is unlocked and open a crack. A happy coincidence, but upon further contemplation realizes that something would have had to have happened in a hurry for him to not lock the door, especially with his brand new 52” HD LCD on display in the corner and perfectly visible through the living room window from the street. He also finds the clothes he was wearing the night before…shredded on the floor. Long strands of hair, or fur hang from the tattered shreds as he picks them up to look them over. This isn’t kosher...
Justin decides that the best way to offload his stolen goods is to take them to his fence, Stan Devries. While driving to Stan's in his vintage Dogde Charger he hears a news broadcast on Q101 which talks about a mauled body found in Humboldt Park early this morning by a jogger.
Justin arrives, and Stan habitually exclaims “Hey you fuck, you!” once he sees him. Justin shows Stan the goods. Stan offers $500 for the sword, but something about the crossbow is really giving Justin pause when it comes to selling it. Stan offers $250 for it, but in the end Justin refuses and decides to hold on to it for reasons he can't figure out.
Saorshe wakes up around 9am in her small apartment. She is due in at work at 10:30am, so she has some time to kill before you having to return to her daily grind. She goes to the living room and turn on her television set. There’s an emergency news broadcast playing, and talk of a mauling last night in Humboldt Park. No witnesses, happened around 2am, victim’s name is being withheld by the police, more details to come, etc. Even though Humboldt Park is a 20 minute walk from her place, her thoughts return to the Spirit at the library last night. Why was it looking for her? Why was it destroying the books? Regardless, gets ready for work and heads out.
It’s a beautiful April morning; not warm, but not exactly cold either. Along her normally 30 minute walk to the library she ends up having to deal with a massive crowd forming around Humboldt Park. News crews, reporters, police, CSI types… the works. Also a massive crowd has formed on the outlying sidewalk where she stands. Everyone talks of a “wild animal on the loose that ripped some poor soul to shreds last night”. She admits to herself that all this sounds a little out of the ordinary for these parts. It also has her strangely intrigued after the shenanigans that took place at work last night…
Liam wakes up from a rather unpleasant nightmare covered in a thick layer of stale sweat and in the grip of nausea. He heads to the bathroom asap and proceeds to dry heave into the toilet. Once the retching subsides he heads to the sink and turns on the faucet to splash cold water onto his face. When he stands and can see himself in the mirror, and the small scar on his shoulder. The bite. It’s been almost a month since he was attacked in Humboldt Park by that wild animal, and it dawns on him that the assault might have something to do with what happened last night. But that’s ridiculous. He was drinking heavily last night…, perhaps he blacked out and went a little bat shit crazy. Who knows? What he does know is that it’s nearly 9am, and are already an hour late for work. He quickly throws some clean clothes on and heads out the door.
The drive to work is hellish. North Avenue is backed up like nobody’s business. When he gets close enough to the cause of the backup he clams up and begins to sweat nervously. Cops are surrounding Humboldt Park. Lots of cops. Reporters, news crews and a shit ton of spectators look on in morbid curiosity.
A WGN reporter is live on the air not 10 feet from his car window, and he clearly hears her say “the identity of the mauled person is being withheld by the police for the time being…” Traffic is at a standstill, so he quickly pulls down a side street and illegally parks in front of a hydrant. He heads down to the Park in a daze. “Dead body?! I didn’t see any dead body when I woke up last night? And I still feel full…” he thinks to himself.
The crowd is thick and it’s hard to get any closer to see anything of note. He starts to feel woozy once he makes out the cops checking out the crowd. He is standing next to a nervous looking young woman and the first thing that crosses his mind is “She must be a librarian”.
Justin is stuck in traffic on the return trip from his marginally profitable sale of illegally obtained antiques. North Avenue is looking like I-90 at 5pm on a Friday… and it’s only 9:30 in the morning! When he sees what’s causing the back up he remembers the radio broadcast from earlier. There are cops everywhere and a few news crews. He is fascinated by this for some reason. Actually, it’s kind of like of like he has a Spider Sense and it’s tingling.
He pulls over and gets out of the car to hopefully catch a glimpse of the mauling victim. He realizes that it’s a wasted effort; everyone is there for the same reason. People are sick! In order to get a better view he circles the crowd, and trips over the curb in the process. He bumps into a mousy woman who loses her balance and in turn bumps into the gruff guy next to her who looks like he’s about to pass out.
After a few minutes of bickering amongst each other, Justin finally apologizes to Saorshe and Liam for being a clumsy idiot. He then asks if either of them has seen anything of note through the crowd. Liam mentions that he caught a glimpse of the gurney being used to haul the victim to the ambulance, while Saorshe says she could tell that what was being put into the ambulance “didn’t look like a whole person, only parts of one.”
“I wonder what could have done that to a person…” Justin muses.
“I’m sure my friend at the club would know.” she says to herself.
Liam hears this and asks “What friend?”
“Oh, I know a guy who DJs at SubTerranean on Milwaukee who’s into weird stuff like this. I’m sure he’d have some answers.” she replies.
“Really?” Justin asks. “He into brutal murders and stuff like that?”
“No, nothing like that. He kind of has his ear to the ground when it comes to strange happenings like this.”
“Well, I might have some questions for your DJ friend. What’s his name?” Justin asks.
“Intel.”
“Intel? Oddly appropriate. I might have some questions for him myself.” Liam says.
Running late for work, Saorshe mentions that she’ll be at the club tonight around 9ish, and if they decide to come she’ll introduce them to Intel. The two agree and they all go their separate ways.
Saorshe resumes her trip to work, and once she arrives she’s greeted by the familiar voice of Sissy Klemper, who says “Lookie here. I’m surprised you actually decided to show up today. I feel that it’s my duty as your trusted co-worker to let you know that Marcy wants to talk to you about the catastrophe that was once known as the Occult Section. I’d get your ass up there to see her, pronto.”
Saorshe heads up to see Marcy, her boss. She also hears Sissy call her a “psycho bitch” as she walks away. Marcy’s office is on the top floor. She’s a handsome woman of 60 that Sissy likes to refer to as “butterfaced”. Regardless, she’s a sweet older lady that Saorshe looks up to like a surrogate Grandmother. Today, however, she does not look pleased to see her employee.
“I am very disappointed in you Saorshe. What in your right mind possessed you to ransack the Occult Books Section last night?” she asks.
“Would you believe that a squirrel attacked me while on my rounds last night?”
“I’m serious.”
“Sorry.”
“This behavior is so unlike you. What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing.”
“A lot of those books are irreplaceable.”
“Most of them were donated by my family. I’m upset too.”
“That doesn’t change anything. I’m afraid that I’m going to have to put you on probationary supervision until I can trust you again.”
“Under whose supervision?”
“Sissy’s. Report to her after you clean up your mess.”
Not thrilled, Saorshe heads downstairs to the Occult Section to pick up the remains of the shredded books. When she touches each one her psychometry ability allows her to see an image of what was behind the attack. She sees a videotape. Odd. Once she finishes she moves on to see Sissy, who tells her “There’s a party going on right now in the Children’s Section. 5 years olds, cake, a clown making balloon animals… have fun.”
Clowns and kids. Awesome. At least there’s cake.
When Liam returns to his illegally parked car, which didn’t receive a ticket, he receives a call on his cell phone. The display tells him that it’s his boss, Big Mike.
“You planning on coming in sometime today?”
“I’m on my way right now. There’s a massive backup on North Ave. and I’m not feeling well.”
“Just get in here!” Big Mike hangs up on him.
Liam makes it into the machine shop nearly 2 hours late. His station-mate Jason sees him and the state he’s in and asks “You feeling ok? You definitely don’t look ship shape.”
“Bad night”
“You been drinking again?”
“A little, but I don’t think that’s why I feel sick.”
Big Mike enters and sees Liam standing there looking like death warmed over. “I can’t take this anymore, Liam.” he says. “You’ve pulled this hangover BS with me one too many times and I’m at the end of my rope.”
“I’m not hungover. I feel like crap.”
“Whatever. Punch in and get to work.”
Liam complies, but after 30 minutes he’s extremely dizzy and can barely stand. Being on his feet like this isn’t helping him deal with the fact that he woke up in a field the same night where a dismembered human being was found. He almost falls over and Jason catches him before he hits the ground.
“Go home. I’ll handle Big Mike.” Jason says. Liam agrees and heads home.
The television is on, but Justin hasn’t watched it for the past 15 minutes. He’s been staring at the crossbow that he couldn’t bring himself to sell for whatever reason. And on top of that the whole Humboldt Park thing still has him wigging. There was something spooky going on there and he can’t figure out why. The answers must be out there somewhere…
Since it’s now close to 9pm, and he wants to talk to that DJ that Saorshe mentioned, he decides to head over to SubTerranean. And he brings that crossbow along for the ride.
Home and restless, Liam, now feeling better since he’s had a chance to rest and get some sleep, is still upset about the idea of a dead man being found in a park where he woke up nude and with no memory as to how he got there. So he decides to check the park out now that the cops are gone.
He gets to Humboldt Park and notices that there aren’t many people around which isn’t surprising due to recent events. He cautiously makes his way through the park looking for anything that might explain why he was there. A section of the Park is still sectioned off by “Crime Scene” tape, but nearby he finds the bushes where he woke up earlier this morning. A nasty smell overcomes him… the smell of rotting meat. Upon further investigation he discovers the carcass of a dog in the bushes right behind where he woke up. The dog has been shredded. There’s barely anything left except the head and a few random parts.
“Hey! What are you doing over there?”
Liam looks up to see a plain clothes policeman flashing his badge to him from the passenger side window of a car parked alongside the park near the bushes.
“Nothing, officer. Was taking a walk and, umm, I found this dead dog over here.” He replies.
“I’ll call animal services and have them take care of it. Now piss off. This is a crime scene.”
Liam nods and walks away. Talking to that DJ person sounds like a good idea right about now.
It’s 9:30 in the pm and the sounds of heavy bass echo through the night air. It’s coming from the hip-hop club SubTerranean on Milwaukee Ave. across the street from the notorious Flash Taco/Underdog combo eating establishment, also known as “The Ass Blaster Duo”. Inside it’s a rather small club with a decent sized bar that is stocked relatively well. Enough to make a few complex mixed drinks, but nothing super pricey. Next to it is a medium sized dance floor that leads up to a raised DJ booth. Across from it along the wall are long couches where couples usually sit and chat, drink heavily and rag on the awkwardly dancing drunks.
Saorshe is sitting on one of the elongated “make-out couches” alone and cradling a cranberry vodka. She is enjoying the show the drunks are putting on tonight, as it looks like an epileptic convention. One of the popular in-house DJs, Intel, is currently up at bat spinning a sort of jazzy hip hop fusion ditty with sprinklings of MIA’s “Paper Planes” thrown in during the lulls. He looks her way and throws her a friendly head nod. She returns the gesture and continues to enjoy the show.
A couple of minutes later, as Intel starts playing his “Dre Day Tribute” set, Justin walks into the club. He takes a quick look around and comes to the conclusion that this not really his scene, but after noticing a sign advertising the cheap drink specials for the evening he decides to stick around for a little while. He orders a rum and Coke.
Saorshe notices Justin sitting at the bar and waves at him to get his attention. He sees her, picks up his drink, and heads over to her. They share a little idle chit chat about where they work. Justin mentions that he works at a homeless shelter on the other side of town and Saorshe complains about her new supervisor at the library.
Liam enters and the extremely loud music, which normally wouldn’t be such a big deal under ordinary circumstances, is causing him considerable discomfort. Mainly because the speakers are pumping out crappy hip hop music, but he tries his best to tune it out. Even though he knows the owner of the club, he never comes here because the music drives him up the wall. He notices Justin and Saorshe sitting along the far wall, so he orders a beer and joins them.
Talk begins to focus on how Saorshe knows this DJ and what it is he knows about “strange things”. She tells them that he has friends in low places that feed him info about the weird happenings in the city. He’s also a walking encyclopedia about the supernatural. The two guys balk at this and ask if she really believes in all that crap, which she does… she is a witch after all.
It’s then she notices that Intel is giving Liam the stink eye. In fact, he looks furious. Intel steps down out of the booth and comes toward them, grabs Liam by the shoulder and says to him “Get up, now.” Liam shrugs him off, but Intel gets more forceful and pulls him up to look at him face to face. “Follow me.” He says. Intel leads Liam into the backroom behind the DJ booth and immediately turns to Liam and says “Your kind aren’t welcome here. Get out.”
“My kind?! What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play me for a fool. You know what you are, so get the hell out before there’s trouble.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Seriously.”
“Werewolf. What’s not to fucking understand?”
“Werewolf. What are you on?”
“Just get the hell out and stay away from Saorshe. She’s good people.”
“I’m not leaving and you’re fucking crazy. Werewolf?! Jesus.”
“Oh yeah? Tell me then sport, you remember what you did last night? Anything?”
“Umm… well… not really. I had a few drinks and…”
Intel lunges forward, grabs the collar of Liam’s shirt and pulls it back to reveal the bite scar on his shoulder. “I can smell it on you.”
“I… I can explain.”
“Don’t bother. You were bitten… how long ago?”
“Almost a month.”
“And last night was a full moon. We seeing some kind of a horror movie cliché forming here?”
“That’s not possible! Werewolves don’t exist!”
“Yet I’m standing here about to kick one out of my club. Get to steppin’.”
Intel leaves with Liam in tow. Intel stops at the table where Saorshe and Justin are sitting, while Liam passes them on his way out.
“What was that all about?” Saorshe asks Intel.
“Your pal there is a werewolf. You know the club’s policy. No vampires, no werewolves and definitely no Nickelback fans.”
“Werewolf? You sure?” she asks.
He throws her an annoyed look. She knows what that means.
“So, I take it you’re here for the same reason every other demon in the city’s been asking me about… the attack in Humboldt Park.” He says.
Saorshe nods in agreement.
“Was it a… werewolf?” Justin asks.
“Some of the supernatural folk around here seem to think so. I know better. It’s something else.”
“Something else?”
“I don’t know if you noticed, but some strange things have been going on in the area recently, just not overly newsworthy types of events. A respected and powerful warlock lost his mind and is now in an asylum. The derelict population has increased dramatically. And supernatural creatures not normally found in these parts have begun to move in. And someone bought that old ass Mel-E Mel LP I was putting off buying for so long at the record shop down the way. That proves it right there. I mean… Mel-E Mel?!”
“You work at a homeless shelter. You notice anything lately?” Saorshe asks Justin.
“Umm… not really. They all look alike to me.” He says.
“You don’t work at a homeless shelter. There’s not a selfless bone in your body. At least not since she….” Intel tells him.
“I think I need another drink.” Justin says nervously.
“You lied to me?” Saorshe reaches out and grabs Justin’s hand as he gets up to leave. She uses her natural psychometry to read his emotional state through the point of physical contact. She can glean only an immense sense of loss and intense sorrow that is bordering on suicidal.
As she pulls her hand away she asks “Who was she?”
Justin is reluctant to answer at first. But when he does all he says is “Someone I loved.”
“What happened to her?”
“I don’t know. 6 months ago she just… died.”
“I’m sorry.”
Justin looks back at the entrance to the club and sees Liam watching them through the small window in the door. “Team Jacob looks lonely. Let’s join him.”
Saorshe nods and stands up, hugs Intel, and the two leave the club.
Liam meets up with them as they exit. “So, you’re a werewolf, huh?” Justin asks.
“Oh my God, is he telling everyone in there?! ‘Cuz that’s slander right there.” Liam responds.
”Don’t worry, Intel knows you didn’t attack that man in the Park.” Saorshe tells him. Liam looks visibly relieved at hearing this.
“And Justin, you mind telling me why you lied to me in there about where you work?”
“Let’s just say that I make ends meet through illegal channels.”
They reach Justin’s car, he opens the trunk and pulls out a small one-handed crossbow. Both Liam and Saorshe jump back when he aims the weapon in their direction.
“Whoa, whoa. Easy there. I wanted to show you this.” He hands it over to Saorshe. “You think you can do that touchy thing you did on me in there to this?”
She holds it and uses her psychometry ability on the crossbow. There isn’t much to tell except that it’s old. Very old. “It’s from the Crusades. That’s about all I can tell about it. Everything else is kind of muddled.”
“Ahh.” He sighs. He looks at Liam. “And you’re a werewolf, huh?”
“Fuck you.”
Suddenly a loud scream fills their ears. The three turn to see a tall antlered demon bounding toward them with no signs of stopping on the other side of the intersection. It is slamming into pedestrians waiting to cross the street, sending them flying into traffic. People begin to scatter at the sight of this creature, yet the traffic continues to move.
The three race to get into Justin’s car, but the demon is nearly to them. Saorshe attempts to slow the demon down by firing a Bolt of Light from her hands… but the spell fizzles out before it can be released. She looks at her hands and is surprised that the spell failed. Justin grabs her and throws her into the back seat of the car. Just as he’s about to start the engine the Bolt of Light fires from Saorshe’s hands, slamming into the roof of the car and blowing it off the chassis completely. The Charger is now a convertible.
Justin gets out of the car and starts to totally freak out about the damage done to his baby. It’s just then that he notices the demon is about 30 feet away. He raises the crossbow and prepares to fire, but when he pulls the trigger the sling cord snaps in half. “Old ass POS!”
Saorshe attempts to levitate the arrow that has fallen off the crossbow in order to throw it at the demon, but she can’t seem to find the power to do so.
Liam, fed up with everything that’s happened to him today, gets out of the car and proceeds to kick the living crap out of the demon. As he does, Justin asks Saorshe “What the hell is that thing?”
“A Chaos Demon…” she looks at what it’s wearing. “In a bright red Adidas track suit. What the…?”
The demon gets past Liam and punches Justin in the face. Justin in turn unloads a can of whoop ass on the demon in the form of a punch combo. Saorshe tries to levitate the arrow again, but it’s still no use. Liam unloads a powerful spin kick to the demon’s face and it goes down for the count.
The intersection is void of people, but Intel stands in the doorway of Subterranean cheering their victory. “That was awesome!!!”
“Not what happened to my car! Definitely not awesome!” Justin replies.
“Sorry about that.” Saorshe apologizes.
“I don’t know about you guys, but that was some f’d up shit right there. I need to sit down.” Liam says. The others agree and head back to the bar.
“So you’re a witch, huh?” Liam asks Saorshe. “Cool.”
Intel stands in the doorway of the club, still giving Liam the evil eye. “You’re still not welcome here, but I can overlook that rule for one night I suppose.” He steps aside to let them all in.
As they enter the bar a woman exits from the shadows near Justin’s once beautiful looking car. A pale woman with dead eyes watches the group as they walk away…
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