The final room of the house, the playroom, is quite a sight to behold. Not only is there the naked body of a particularly lovely woman at the base of the open door who looks to have been killed in the same manner as the other victims of the "Pentacle Killer", there are multiple nude females crucified to the walls that are still alive. Some have the Pentacle of Solomon branded on their bodies, some not.
One woman in particular is in trouble; a gigantic 7-foot tall creature stands before her preparing to brand her with a ring on its massive index finger. The woman looks at the four people standing in the doorway. She is unable to scream, as her mouth has been magically sealed shut.
The creature notices that her attention lies elsewhere and turns in the direction of the door. As it peers at the four intruders they notice that it's skin looks to be made of rock, like the demon at Gil's, only this creature is glowing as if it's on fire. Actually, there is a river of molten lava flowing just underneath its stony skin. The heat coming off the creature seems to be burning the poor woman he's about to brand with the deathly symbol.
"Who are you to interrupt my ceremony?!" it says in a deep, gravelly voice.
"Oh my..." Cherice begins.
Jack turns to her. "What's wrong?"
She has turned even paler that usual, and actually begins to resemble a corpse. She looks at the brand below her naval and as her gaze returns to the creature she mumbles, "You!"
The creature seems to recognize Cherice and steps forward. "Ahh, come to complete the ceremony, have you?"
She draws her katana and takes a step inside the room. "Yes, I have." She lunges for the creature and her sword barely chips the stone skin of her target.
Jack opens fire in the doorway as Saorshe takes a step behind him to begin casting a spell. Liam runs into the room in an attempt to flank the creature. The creature swings it's massive arm at Cherice, who dodges the attack. Unfortunately Liam catches the hit and goes down in a heap.
Saorshe casts Bolt of Light and the spell hits the creature in the chest. It slides along the smoldering carpet barely fazed by the impact.
The creature brings it's arm down onto Cherice and grabs her by the hair. It picks her up and holds her aloft, dangling in front of it. "You'll have to do better than that, my dear."
In a flash she brings her katana up and into the creature's eye. It howls in pain as it lets her go, backing away as magma seeps from the wound. The liquid rock hits the floor and almost immediately the room catches on fire.
Liam, dazed from the impact of the earlier attack, stands and swings his blessed sword in a wide arc. The blade catches the creature in the exposed neck and digs deep into the stone. Once he pulls the blade free a torrent of magma spills out, nearly onto Liam. He tucks and rolls away from the fiery blood.
Jack takes aim at the open wound, inhales sharply, and fires off a number of individual shots. Each one hits dead on target, further opening the gash on the creature's neck.
Cherice stands; hair disheveled, bruised and looking mightily pissed off. She slowly walks to the creature as it attempts to stem the flow of it's blood. "Revenge is a bitch, ain't it?" she asks as she raises her katana high in the air. She brings it down on the creature's hand, cutting it clean off. Its severed appendage hits the ground at her feet, the pentacle ring on it's finger.
Saorshe takes the sacrificial dagger out of her bag and holds it in her palm. She levitates it and after a short incantation it flies across the room and into the creature's open neck wound down to the hilt. With one final spurt of lava blood the creature falls dead, setting the remains of the room on fire.
Liam begins to set the living women in the room free, as does Jack. Cherice walks to the severed hand of the creature and takes the ring from it's finger, shoving the item into her pocket without anyone noticing. Saorshe removes the knife, which is still intact, from the creatures neck as the rescued women run past her. The others follow and exit the house.
When they all make it to the street the entire house is aflame. Saorshe made a slight detour to pick up the books she left behind, but made it out unharmed. The spell keeping the captive women from speaking has dissipated now that the creature is dead, and they begin weeping, screaming in pain and thank the group for saving their lives. Soon the other residents of Ludovico Street begin to venture outside to see what is causing all the noise, and are met with a street full of wailing naked ladies and a house being burnt to the ground. A few of the neighborhood people bring blankets to cover up the women while others call the police. However, no one seems to pay the heroes any mind.
Jack and Saorshe notice that Mikey is watching all the commotion from behind the same tree as before, only this time looking calm and serene. They head over to talk to him.
"You did it! You killed the bad men! Thank you!" he exclaims.
"You won't have to be afraid of them ever again." Saorshe consoles.
Mikey then walks to Cherice, who is looking at the women being cared for with a certain expression of jealousy. He takes her hand and places a thin book with a foldover lock across it in her palm. "This will explain everything. I have to go now." the child says in a strange, distant manner. He walks down the street away from the crowd and slowly disappears the further he walks. After a moment he is completely gone.
"You think that was the spirit of the dead kid we found in the house?" Jack asks.
"I believe so. We freed him." Saorshe says smiling.
Liam walks over in a panic. "I'm all for the warm fuzzies in this situation, but the cops are on their way and Rambo here" he points at Jack, "is packing a not-so-legal firearm. We need to get out of here!"
The others agree and head for Liam's car. Inside they agree to head to SubTerranean to talk to Intel. "Hopefully he's actually there this time." Cherice bitches.
Liam's car pulls up to SubT and everyone heads for the front doors. Jack grabs Liam's arm and stops him from entering.
"Here, take these for tomorrow night" Jack says as he puts a small bag in Liam's hand. "It's a syringe and a vial of sedative I lifted from my ambulance. I hope it helps when you... wolf out or whatever. Cherice and I were talking about where to keep you from causing any trouble, and I came up with something" he says as he hands over a business card. "Go to this address and ask for Sgt. Maplethorpe. Drop my name, he'll help you out."
Cherice sees the two talking and stops. "You two not coming in?"
"I can't. I'm working a double shift tomorrow and the next." Jack explains. "Gotta head home and get some sleep. I hope I can actually get some Zzzs after all the crazy shit we saw tonight."
"Thanks, Jack" Liam says shaking his hand.
"Good luck!" he replies as he turns and heads for a nearby taxi on the corner.
Inside Intel is on the decks spinning some classics from The Sugarhill Gang and Rose Royce. Cherice enters and looks Intel dead in the eye and screams "Car Wash?! Seriously?!" over the blaring music.
Unfortunately for her, Intel heard her. He reaches for his microphone and replies, "Disco's making a comeback! Best believe." over the sound system.
Everyone heads downstairs to the Green Room to find that Intel has been hard at work looking up the information about the "Four Horsemen" Gil mentioned before he died. His iPad on the table displays some interesting info on the quartet. A moment later he joins the others with a smile on his face.
"It took a while, but I managed to pull up some great stuff on your four friends." he says as he picks up his iPad. Before he says any more, however, he notices how banged up everyone is. And he especially takes notice of the way Cherice is clutching the small book to her chest as if her life depended on it. "What's that?"
"All the answers I've been looking for... or so I'm told" she says as she places the book on the table for Intel to look over.
He picks up the book and takes a good, hard look at it. "It's old. Really old. Like really, really old. Possibly from before recorded time." He runs his fingers over the lock and asks, "Where's the key?"
"The boy didn't give it to me" she answers quietly.
"What boy?"
Saorshe lays the whole scenario out for Intel... the abandoned house, Mikey, the magma creature and the pentacle branded women over the next thirty minutes. She even manages to geek out over the first edition Dickens she found.
"Wow. So now you've taken out two of the four DeathDromes." Intel says.
"DeathWho?" Liam asks confusedly.
"DeathDromes" Intel explains. "They are powerful creatures for hire from a hell dimension known as Ix. Each of them is molded after the four natural elements, which are a constant in all the dimensions: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. You've defeated the Earth DeathDrome, known as Zasha'Oth, and the Fire DeathDrome, Xal'Vak. There's still Water, Ax'Kan Varma, and Air, Angarta. What strikes me as odd is that these assassins have been around for unknown millennia and have never been defeated, and yet you've killed two of them. Wassup wit dat?"
"We're just that good." Liam jokes.
"I think you just got lucky." Intel says matter-of-factly.
"Anything on the 'Never Was' issue?" Saorshe asks.
"Nah, nothing. But if I had to make a guess I'd say that it's possible that its what hired the DeathDromes. I can imagine it's quite pissed at you all right about now." Saorshe points out the spell books and demonic tomes she brought from the house. Intel just shakes his head saying, "I don't know anything about these. I'd try to find out what they are via 'other means', if you catch my drift."
"I'll think of something" she says disappointed.
Intel walks up to Liam and adds, "What are you all planning on doing for Wolfman Jack over here when he turns tomorrow?"
Liam holds up the card. "I guess I'm going here... a military base in the Ukranian Village. Jack said they can help me somehow."
"Whatever. Just don't come here." Intel says as he takes out his iPhone and snaps a picture of Saorshe's tomes and Cherice's book. "Just so I have a visual reference in case something turns up."
Everyone calls it a night and goes home.
Saorshe sits in her office at the library placing an order over the phone for a display case for the Nicholas Nickelby first edition, while at the same time trying to decipher the tomes she took from the haunted house. She estimates that at this rate it'll take her a week to translate them.
Her cell phone rings once she completes the order. "Hello?"
"Hey doll, it's Sunshine."
"Hey! Didn't think I'd hear from you so soon."
"Well, my schedule cleared up and I can come by the library today around, say, noon to take a look at your problem." Sister Sunshine says cheerfully.
"That would be fantastic. I look forward to seeing you again." Saorshe adds before hanging up.
Liam is hard at work at the shop working on some custom parts for a customer when Big Mike approaches him. "Your presence is requested in the front office."
Liam wipes off his hands with a nearby rag and follows his boss to the office, where he sees the man who paid him under the table to create the mysterious parts standing on the other side of the front desk.
"I assume you've finished the parts I asked for?" he asks coldly.
Unsure how to respond in front of his boss he asks Mike, "Could you excuse us please?" Mike looks a little annoyed, but does as he's asked without making a fuss.
"Yes, yes I did finish the parts." Liam says as he heads to the back room and takes them out of his locker. He places them on the table to be inspected. "Everything seem to be in order?"
The man looks them over very closely before replying, "Fine work." He drops some money on the table and picks up the parts, heading for the door.
"Before you go, I wanted to ask you something." Liam interjects before the man leaves.
"Yes?" the man says after stopping.
"What are these parts you had me make used for? I'm curious."
The man looks back at Liam, glaring at him. "I don't have any answers for you." And with that, he leaves.
Big Mike enters again. Seeing the puzzled look on Liam's face he asks, "What was all that about?"
"I don't know, and I don't think I want to."
The plane screeches to a halt on the runway at O'Hare International Airport just outside Chicago. It docks at the terminal and the passengers begins to disembark. As they exit the plane to be met by their loved ones, friends, etc., one person walks past the group and straight for the exit: Justin Chamberlain.
As he attempts to hail a cab from the sidewalk outside the arrival area he breathes a sigh of relief. "I'm home" he says quietly to himself.
His trip has left him jet lagged, filled with questions that have no answers and worst of all... nearly broke. There's barely enough cash in his pocket to pay for a ride home. He instead decides to hop the Blue Line into the city, getting off at the Damon stop.
He walks for a few blocks and ends up on the doorstep of the library where Saorshe works. He heads for the front desk and asks to speak to his friend. A phone call later Saorshe comes down from her office to greet him.
"Where have you been? We all thought you were dead." she says in a stern tone. "Let's go up to my office so we can talk." Once upstairs she pours him a glass of water and he begins to explain where he has been for the past few weeks.
"I received a call from a friend, of sorts, telling me that he had a lead on the death of my girlfriend. I flew to Detroit to meet him, but it ended up being a dead end. Actually it was all bullshit. It was a ruse to get me to settle my debts with him. I have nothing left. Dead broke." he explains.
"You need some money?" Saorshe asks.
"I'm not going to beg, but I won't turn down a handout."
"Here," she says as she hands him a couple of twenties, "it's all I have. Go to SubTerranean tonight and meet with the others. We can catch up."
"Thanks, Saorshe. I appreciate it." he says as he gets up to leave.
"Hey." she adds as Justin turns to her. "It's good to see you again."
"I'll call you later. Your cell still working?" she asks.
He nods in agreement, and as he walks out of the office Sissy comes barging in looking none-too-thrilled. "There's someone ELSE here to see you" she blurts out with a hint of raging bitch.
A familiar woman walks past Sissy into the room. 5'0" and 110 lbs of skinny little thing, Sister Sunshine stands on the other side of Saorshe's desk with a slight grin on her face. She doesn't look like a Wiccan, more like someone who just came back from shopping on Michigan Avenue. A few bags from upscale clothing stores dangle from her hand, but behind her eyes is a wisdom far greater than anyone would dare to dream.
"Is that," she points at Sissy who has left the room, "the one you want me to keep tabs on? I can tell you right now, she's evil. And she needs some seriously strong Proactiv."
"Yup. That's her." Saorshe says with a bit of exasperation.
"I think I can handle the little lady. I'll hang around the library for a while and try to make it look like I'm not spying on her. Or..." Sunshine beams, "we could use an old trick that always works."
"And that would be...?" Saorshe asks, a little lost.
"Have Sissy give me a tour of the library as if I'm a new employee."
"Umm... okay."
"Tell her my name is Erica. I've always liked that name."
"Whatever you say." Saorshe says as she dials the front desk to call Sissy back to the office.
Ninety minutes go by after "Erica" and Sissy left on the tour, and finally Sister Sunshine returns to the office with a beaming Sissy in tow.
"Oh my God! We can go to lunch at this nice little diner down the street. They have the BEST pancakes. I'd love to hear all about your travels!" Sissy says in a very excited tone.
"Sissy, you are a delight." Sunshine says back to her in the same manner.
"Well then, I'll leave you two to talk business" Sissy adds as she turns to leave. Before the door closes she turns back to Saorshe and mouths the words "She's a keeper!"
Sunshine looks Saorshe dead in the eyes as she says, "I gotta tell you, I'm officially stumped. I'm definitely getting some bad mojo from her, but she's not the only one. It's hard to explain."
"Really? Not the only one?" Saorshe asks, her interest piqued.
"It's a feeling I'm getting. There's a person here that wants to do some sort of harm, but I get that from everyone that works here. It feels like... like a virus. Almost like one person who was here to do some sort of damage passed it on to everyone they came into contact with. And from what I can tell it's been passed around more times than a blunt at a Snoop Dogg concert."
Saorshe chuckles at the joke. "That bad, huh?"
"I can't pinpoint it at the moment, but you definitely have a serious problem. I can suss it out for you if you let me stay on as 'Erica the Librarian' for a few days."
"Sure. I'd love to have you around just in case something bad happens."
"So then... what's the pay rate for a librarian?"
It's just before 5pm, and Justin sits at the bar at SubTerranean nursing a warm beer. He is lost in thought, thinking about the past few weeks and what a waste of time they were. No home, no job and no money, things aren't looking good for him. But at least he has beer.
Liam enters the bar and sees Justin sitting alone. "Holy crap, where have you been?" he asks excitedly.
"Long story, and I don't really want to talk about it right now if it's all the same to you." Justin says.
"Umm, sure. So you doing okay?"
"Not really, but I'll live."
"Well, at least you have your health... and alcohol." Liam jokes.
"There's always that." Justin grins.
"So... you coming along tonight?
"To see if your werewolf story is a load of shit or not? You betcha."
"I'm sure we could use all the help we can get if things go wrong. You might want to cut back on the booze just in case." Liam adds.
"Too late, m'boy. I'm already, as the British call it, arse-over-tit."
"Great. I'll order you a coffee."
Saorshe enters a few moments later to see the two at the bar, and Intel setting up his stacks of records on stage for tonight's show. She heads for Intel to tell him, "Before we head to the military base I wanted to ask if there was any progress on the tomes. Find anything?"
"Sorry to say, no. But I'll keep on it. Don't worry." Intel responds.
Saorshe nods and heads to the bar. Once she sees that Justin is drunk she begins to freak out a little bit. "Dammit Justin, didn't I tell you on the phone that tonight was important?" she screams.
"Hey, back off. I'm in a bad place right now." He slurs.
"And I understand that, but we need you on point tonight." she says getting more and more upset. "Drink some coffee."
"Way ahead of you." Liam adds. "We should leave soon if we're going to beat the moonrise."
"Get the coffee to go." Cherice says as she walks over. "It's time."
They pull up to the Ukranian Village military base in Liam's car. As they pull up to the front gate an officer approaches them. Liam hands over the card that Jack gave him earlier, and the officer calls it in to the main building. A few minutes later the officer waves them through, telling them to, "Pull up to the building on the left. Sgt. Maplethorpe will meet you there."
Like the officer said, a large man in full military uniform is standing in front of the building as they park the car. He introduces himself to them all and they head inside.
"So you are friends of Jack's, huh?" Sgt. Maplethorpe asks in a disapproving tone. "He was a good field medic back in the early days of Iraqi Freedom. The best I ever worked with. It was too bad about his discharge. Soldier just couldn't hack it."
The others haven't heard about this as of yet, as Jack has yet to really divulge anything about his past. They are suitably flabbergasted.
"He's a good man." Justin mumbles drunkenly.
"Yes he was. And I owe him a favor; one he's cashing in right now. You have this place for the night. All the weapons are locked up and inaccessible, so don't get any ideas. Cages are over there" he adds, pointing to the right side of the room.
"Weapons?" Cherice asks.
"This is a weapons depot. The ammo cages have been emptied for your use. I'm still not sure what you need them for, but this was a pretty big favor Jack's called in. If this place isn't like it looks now in the morning there will be hell to pay, cuz it's my ass on the line here. Understood?" the Sgt. asks.
"Yes, sir." Liam says.
"Good. Now if you'll excuse me... I was never here." And with that, the Sgt. leaves locking the door behind him.
"What have we gotten ourselves into here?" Liam asks Saorshe.
"I don't know, but it's better than nothing." Saorshe replies.
"'He was a good man'?" Liam asks the wobbling Justin. "You've never even met Jack."
"Doesn't mean I don't like him" Justin slurs.
"Okay, enough. Roll up your sleeve." Cherice says to Liam as she readies the syringe of sedative Jack gave them to use. She injects Liam and leads him to an empty cage. She closes the door and locks him in. "Good luck."
Within seconds Liam is sleeping soundly on the floor.
"How do we know this stuff will actually keep him unconscious once he's changed?" Cherice asks Saorshe.
"No clue." Saorshe replies.
An hour goes by and the moon begins to rise. Liam is still out cold and the others are falling asleep as well. Justin is in an alcoholic coma in the corner and drooling all over himself. Cherice stands guard near the cage watching Liam intently. Suddenly Liam lurches.
The transformation begins. Liam shakes uncontrollably, then hair begins to spontaneously grow from every pore. Within the space of a few seconds he is covered in thick brown fur from head to toe. His body convulses violently as his bone structure begins to change. The sounds of snapping tendons and sinew fills the air as he grows to nearly 8 feet long. His muscles have swollen to twice their size, long nails grow from his fingertips, his ears stretch into points and his mouth pushes out into a long dog-like maw filled with sharp fangs that are covered in fresh blood after pushing through his shredded gums.
"I think it's safe to say that Liam really IS a werewolf." Cherice jokes as Saorshe heads over to see the final stages of the transformation.
"Yeah, and that the sedative is still working." Saorshe adds.
Suddenly the door opens and a small grenade flies into the room. It hits the ground and explodes, filling the room with bright white light. It blinds everyone except for Cherice. She sees a large man holding a strange looking weapon enter the armory. He's 6 feet tall and 160 pounds of lean muscle and swagger. He points his weapon at the cage where Liam sleeps and says, "You and me... we got a score to settle." He then looks at Cherice and the blinded Saorshe and adds, "If I were you I'd get out of here before you get hurt."
Cherice takes her katana out of its sheath and holds it out for the man to see. "You sure about that?"
She runs in to attack as Saorshe fumbles about before her sight returns. Justin is now awake, and semi-lucid. He stands and takes out his blessed axe which materializes from nowhere.
The man either dodges Cherice's attacks or block with his weapon. He manages to counter by kicking her in the gut just as Justin swings his axe at the man. In one smooth movement the man spins, dodging the axe's blade, and comes around to smack Justin in the face with his weapon. He falls to the ground bleeding.
All the commotion, as well as the added adrenaline from his transformation, has awakened Liam. He stands, dazed from the sedative, and sees the fight going on just outside his cage. He immediately goes into a rage and attempts to break free of his prison by slamming into the door with all his weight. He howls madly as well.
The sound of the wolf attempting to escape his cage gets everyone's attention. Saorshe, now able to see, hastily casts a spell which levitates the man high into the air and turns him upside down. Using the blunt side of the axe, Justin swings his weapon into the man's face, smashing his nose. The man drops his weapon, which Cherice kicks away across the floor.
The man throws another flash grenade at Saorshe in a desperate attempt to stop her from keeping him afloat. She dodges the grenade, but loses her concentration when it explodes. The man falls to the floor painfully and heads for the exit just as Liam's cage explodes outward. The werewolf has escaped!
The man turns one last time to issue a final warning by saying, "This isn't over! Not by a long shot you son of a bitch!" When he turns back to the door he's met by a swinging fist that knocks him out cold.
"I'd say it is" the attacker says sarcastically. This new person enters the armory in a calmly confident way. He's 5'4" and 135 pounds. He has spiky reddish-brown hair and 2-day old stubble. As he walks toward the werewolf in the back of the room he says, "Hey, how's it goin'?" to the others. With no fear he approaches Liam, who is roaring and ready to pounce. Once they are face-to-face the person snarls right back at the beast in a tone not possible from any normal person.
Liam cocks his head to one side confusedly and takes a step back. The person growls again and produces a sharp barking sound while snapping his exposed teeth at the wolf. Without so much as a whimper, Liam lays down on the ground and stops moving. He's become completely submissive.
"Bad dog" the person jokes. He walks to the wolf, pulls an injection gun out of his long trenchcoat and puts it to Liam's neck. He pulls the trigger and a vial of green fluid is emptied into the animal's bloodstream. A moment later the werewolf is unconscious once more.
The person turns to the others who are totally taken aback by what they've just seen and says, "I don't think he'll be a problem for the rest of the night."
"Who are you?" Cherice asks.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't introduce myself. My name is Daniel Osbourne, but everyone calls me Oz."
One woman in particular is in trouble; a gigantic 7-foot tall creature stands before her preparing to brand her with a ring on its massive index finger. The woman looks at the four people standing in the doorway. She is unable to scream, as her mouth has been magically sealed shut.
The creature notices that her attention lies elsewhere and turns in the direction of the door. As it peers at the four intruders they notice that it's skin looks to be made of rock, like the demon at Gil's, only this creature is glowing as if it's on fire. Actually, there is a river of molten lava flowing just underneath its stony skin. The heat coming off the creature seems to be burning the poor woman he's about to brand with the deathly symbol.
"Who are you to interrupt my ceremony?!" it says in a deep, gravelly voice.
"Oh my..." Cherice begins.
Jack turns to her. "What's wrong?"
She has turned even paler that usual, and actually begins to resemble a corpse. She looks at the brand below her naval and as her gaze returns to the creature she mumbles, "You!"
The creature seems to recognize Cherice and steps forward. "Ahh, come to complete the ceremony, have you?"
She draws her katana and takes a step inside the room. "Yes, I have." She lunges for the creature and her sword barely chips the stone skin of her target.
Jack opens fire in the doorway as Saorshe takes a step behind him to begin casting a spell. Liam runs into the room in an attempt to flank the creature. The creature swings it's massive arm at Cherice, who dodges the attack. Unfortunately Liam catches the hit and goes down in a heap.
Saorshe casts Bolt of Light and the spell hits the creature in the chest. It slides along the smoldering carpet barely fazed by the impact.
The creature brings it's arm down onto Cherice and grabs her by the hair. It picks her up and holds her aloft, dangling in front of it. "You'll have to do better than that, my dear."
In a flash she brings her katana up and into the creature's eye. It howls in pain as it lets her go, backing away as magma seeps from the wound. The liquid rock hits the floor and almost immediately the room catches on fire.
Liam, dazed from the impact of the earlier attack, stands and swings his blessed sword in a wide arc. The blade catches the creature in the exposed neck and digs deep into the stone. Once he pulls the blade free a torrent of magma spills out, nearly onto Liam. He tucks and rolls away from the fiery blood.
Jack takes aim at the open wound, inhales sharply, and fires off a number of individual shots. Each one hits dead on target, further opening the gash on the creature's neck.
Cherice stands; hair disheveled, bruised and looking mightily pissed off. She slowly walks to the creature as it attempts to stem the flow of it's blood. "Revenge is a bitch, ain't it?" she asks as she raises her katana high in the air. She brings it down on the creature's hand, cutting it clean off. Its severed appendage hits the ground at her feet, the pentacle ring on it's finger.
Saorshe takes the sacrificial dagger out of her bag and holds it in her palm. She levitates it and after a short incantation it flies across the room and into the creature's open neck wound down to the hilt. With one final spurt of lava blood the creature falls dead, setting the remains of the room on fire.
Liam begins to set the living women in the room free, as does Jack. Cherice walks to the severed hand of the creature and takes the ring from it's finger, shoving the item into her pocket without anyone noticing. Saorshe removes the knife, which is still intact, from the creatures neck as the rescued women run past her. The others follow and exit the house.
When they all make it to the street the entire house is aflame. Saorshe made a slight detour to pick up the books she left behind, but made it out unharmed. The spell keeping the captive women from speaking has dissipated now that the creature is dead, and they begin weeping, screaming in pain and thank the group for saving their lives. Soon the other residents of Ludovico Street begin to venture outside to see what is causing all the noise, and are met with a street full of wailing naked ladies and a house being burnt to the ground. A few of the neighborhood people bring blankets to cover up the women while others call the police. However, no one seems to pay the heroes any mind.
Jack and Saorshe notice that Mikey is watching all the commotion from behind the same tree as before, only this time looking calm and serene. They head over to talk to him.
"You did it! You killed the bad men! Thank you!" he exclaims.
"You won't have to be afraid of them ever again." Saorshe consoles.
Mikey then walks to Cherice, who is looking at the women being cared for with a certain expression of jealousy. He takes her hand and places a thin book with a foldover lock across it in her palm. "This will explain everything. I have to go now." the child says in a strange, distant manner. He walks down the street away from the crowd and slowly disappears the further he walks. After a moment he is completely gone.
"You think that was the spirit of the dead kid we found in the house?" Jack asks.
"I believe so. We freed him." Saorshe says smiling.
Liam walks over in a panic. "I'm all for the warm fuzzies in this situation, but the cops are on their way and Rambo here" he points at Jack, "is packing a not-so-legal firearm. We need to get out of here!"
The others agree and head for Liam's car. Inside they agree to head to SubTerranean to talk to Intel. "Hopefully he's actually there this time." Cherice bitches.
Liam's car pulls up to SubT and everyone heads for the front doors. Jack grabs Liam's arm and stops him from entering.
"Here, take these for tomorrow night" Jack says as he puts a small bag in Liam's hand. "It's a syringe and a vial of sedative I lifted from my ambulance. I hope it helps when you... wolf out or whatever. Cherice and I were talking about where to keep you from causing any trouble, and I came up with something" he says as he hands over a business card. "Go to this address and ask for Sgt. Maplethorpe. Drop my name, he'll help you out."
Cherice sees the two talking and stops. "You two not coming in?"
"I can't. I'm working a double shift tomorrow and the next." Jack explains. "Gotta head home and get some sleep. I hope I can actually get some Zzzs after all the crazy shit we saw tonight."
"Thanks, Jack" Liam says shaking his hand.
"Good luck!" he replies as he turns and heads for a nearby taxi on the corner.
Inside Intel is on the decks spinning some classics from The Sugarhill Gang and Rose Royce. Cherice enters and looks Intel dead in the eye and screams "Car Wash?! Seriously?!" over the blaring music.
Unfortunately for her, Intel heard her. He reaches for his microphone and replies, "Disco's making a comeback! Best believe." over the sound system.
Everyone heads downstairs to the Green Room to find that Intel has been hard at work looking up the information about the "Four Horsemen" Gil mentioned before he died. His iPad on the table displays some interesting info on the quartet. A moment later he joins the others with a smile on his face.
"It took a while, but I managed to pull up some great stuff on your four friends." he says as he picks up his iPad. Before he says any more, however, he notices how banged up everyone is. And he especially takes notice of the way Cherice is clutching the small book to her chest as if her life depended on it. "What's that?"
"All the answers I've been looking for... or so I'm told" she says as she places the book on the table for Intel to look over.
He picks up the book and takes a good, hard look at it. "It's old. Really old. Like really, really old. Possibly from before recorded time." He runs his fingers over the lock and asks, "Where's the key?"
"The boy didn't give it to me" she answers quietly.
"What boy?"
Saorshe lays the whole scenario out for Intel... the abandoned house, Mikey, the magma creature and the pentacle branded women over the next thirty minutes. She even manages to geek out over the first edition Dickens she found.
"Wow. So now you've taken out two of the four DeathDromes." Intel says.
"DeathWho?" Liam asks confusedly.
"DeathDromes" Intel explains. "They are powerful creatures for hire from a hell dimension known as Ix. Each of them is molded after the four natural elements, which are a constant in all the dimensions: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. You've defeated the Earth DeathDrome, known as Zasha'Oth, and the Fire DeathDrome, Xal'Vak. There's still Water, Ax'Kan Varma, and Air, Angarta. What strikes me as odd is that these assassins have been around for unknown millennia and have never been defeated, and yet you've killed two of them. Wassup wit dat?"
"We're just that good." Liam jokes.
"I think you just got lucky." Intel says matter-of-factly.
"Anything on the 'Never Was' issue?" Saorshe asks.
"Nah, nothing. But if I had to make a guess I'd say that it's possible that its what hired the DeathDromes. I can imagine it's quite pissed at you all right about now." Saorshe points out the spell books and demonic tomes she brought from the house. Intel just shakes his head saying, "I don't know anything about these. I'd try to find out what they are via 'other means', if you catch my drift."
"I'll think of something" she says disappointed.
Intel walks up to Liam and adds, "What are you all planning on doing for Wolfman Jack over here when he turns tomorrow?"
Liam holds up the card. "I guess I'm going here... a military base in the Ukranian Village. Jack said they can help me somehow."
"Whatever. Just don't come here." Intel says as he takes out his iPhone and snaps a picture of Saorshe's tomes and Cherice's book. "Just so I have a visual reference in case something turns up."
Everyone calls it a night and goes home.
Saorshe sits in her office at the library placing an order over the phone for a display case for the Nicholas Nickelby first edition, while at the same time trying to decipher the tomes she took from the haunted house. She estimates that at this rate it'll take her a week to translate them.
Her cell phone rings once she completes the order. "Hello?"
"Hey doll, it's Sunshine."
"Hey! Didn't think I'd hear from you so soon."
"Well, my schedule cleared up and I can come by the library today around, say, noon to take a look at your problem." Sister Sunshine says cheerfully.
"That would be fantastic. I look forward to seeing you again." Saorshe adds before hanging up.
Liam is hard at work at the shop working on some custom parts for a customer when Big Mike approaches him. "Your presence is requested in the front office."
Liam wipes off his hands with a nearby rag and follows his boss to the office, where he sees the man who paid him under the table to create the mysterious parts standing on the other side of the front desk.
"I assume you've finished the parts I asked for?" he asks coldly.
Unsure how to respond in front of his boss he asks Mike, "Could you excuse us please?" Mike looks a little annoyed, but does as he's asked without making a fuss.
"Yes, yes I did finish the parts." Liam says as he heads to the back room and takes them out of his locker. He places them on the table to be inspected. "Everything seem to be in order?"
The man looks them over very closely before replying, "Fine work." He drops some money on the table and picks up the parts, heading for the door.
"Before you go, I wanted to ask you something." Liam interjects before the man leaves.
"Yes?" the man says after stopping.
"What are these parts you had me make used for? I'm curious."
The man looks back at Liam, glaring at him. "I don't have any answers for you." And with that, he leaves.
Big Mike enters again. Seeing the puzzled look on Liam's face he asks, "What was all that about?"
"I don't know, and I don't think I want to."
The plane screeches to a halt on the runway at O'Hare International Airport just outside Chicago. It docks at the terminal and the passengers begins to disembark. As they exit the plane to be met by their loved ones, friends, etc., one person walks past the group and straight for the exit: Justin Chamberlain.
As he attempts to hail a cab from the sidewalk outside the arrival area he breathes a sigh of relief. "I'm home" he says quietly to himself.
His trip has left him jet lagged, filled with questions that have no answers and worst of all... nearly broke. There's barely enough cash in his pocket to pay for a ride home. He instead decides to hop the Blue Line into the city, getting off at the Damon stop.
He walks for a few blocks and ends up on the doorstep of the library where Saorshe works. He heads for the front desk and asks to speak to his friend. A phone call later Saorshe comes down from her office to greet him.
"Where have you been? We all thought you were dead." she says in a stern tone. "Let's go up to my office so we can talk." Once upstairs she pours him a glass of water and he begins to explain where he has been for the past few weeks.
"I received a call from a friend, of sorts, telling me that he had a lead on the death of my girlfriend. I flew to Detroit to meet him, but it ended up being a dead end. Actually it was all bullshit. It was a ruse to get me to settle my debts with him. I have nothing left. Dead broke." he explains.
"You need some money?" Saorshe asks.
"I'm not going to beg, but I won't turn down a handout."
"Here," she says as she hands him a couple of twenties, "it's all I have. Go to SubTerranean tonight and meet with the others. We can catch up."
"Thanks, Saorshe. I appreciate it." he says as he gets up to leave.
"Hey." she adds as Justin turns to her. "It's good to see you again."
"I'll call you later. Your cell still working?" she asks.
He nods in agreement, and as he walks out of the office Sissy comes barging in looking none-too-thrilled. "There's someone ELSE here to see you" she blurts out with a hint of raging bitch.
A familiar woman walks past Sissy into the room. 5'0" and 110 lbs of skinny little thing, Sister Sunshine stands on the other side of Saorshe's desk with a slight grin on her face. She doesn't look like a Wiccan, more like someone who just came back from shopping on Michigan Avenue. A few bags from upscale clothing stores dangle from her hand, but behind her eyes is a wisdom far greater than anyone would dare to dream.
"Is that," she points at Sissy who has left the room, "the one you want me to keep tabs on? I can tell you right now, she's evil. And she needs some seriously strong Proactiv."
"Yup. That's her." Saorshe says with a bit of exasperation.
"I think I can handle the little lady. I'll hang around the library for a while and try to make it look like I'm not spying on her. Or..." Sunshine beams, "we could use an old trick that always works."
"And that would be...?" Saorshe asks, a little lost.
"Have Sissy give me a tour of the library as if I'm a new employee."
"Umm... okay."
"Tell her my name is Erica. I've always liked that name."
"Whatever you say." Saorshe says as she dials the front desk to call Sissy back to the office.
Ninety minutes go by after "Erica" and Sissy left on the tour, and finally Sister Sunshine returns to the office with a beaming Sissy in tow.
"Oh my God! We can go to lunch at this nice little diner down the street. They have the BEST pancakes. I'd love to hear all about your travels!" Sissy says in a very excited tone.
"Sissy, you are a delight." Sunshine says back to her in the same manner.
"Well then, I'll leave you two to talk business" Sissy adds as she turns to leave. Before the door closes she turns back to Saorshe and mouths the words "She's a keeper!"
Sunshine looks Saorshe dead in the eyes as she says, "I gotta tell you, I'm officially stumped. I'm definitely getting some bad mojo from her, but she's not the only one. It's hard to explain."
"Really? Not the only one?" Saorshe asks, her interest piqued.
"It's a feeling I'm getting. There's a person here that wants to do some sort of harm, but I get that from everyone that works here. It feels like... like a virus. Almost like one person who was here to do some sort of damage passed it on to everyone they came into contact with. And from what I can tell it's been passed around more times than a blunt at a Snoop Dogg concert."
Saorshe chuckles at the joke. "That bad, huh?"
"I can't pinpoint it at the moment, but you definitely have a serious problem. I can suss it out for you if you let me stay on as 'Erica the Librarian' for a few days."
"Sure. I'd love to have you around just in case something bad happens."
"So then... what's the pay rate for a librarian?"
It's just before 5pm, and Justin sits at the bar at SubTerranean nursing a warm beer. He is lost in thought, thinking about the past few weeks and what a waste of time they were. No home, no job and no money, things aren't looking good for him. But at least he has beer.
Liam enters the bar and sees Justin sitting alone. "Holy crap, where have you been?" he asks excitedly.
"Long story, and I don't really want to talk about it right now if it's all the same to you." Justin says.
"Umm, sure. So you doing okay?"
"Not really, but I'll live."
"Well, at least you have your health... and alcohol." Liam jokes.
"There's always that." Justin grins.
"So... you coming along tonight?
"To see if your werewolf story is a load of shit or not? You betcha."
"I'm sure we could use all the help we can get if things go wrong. You might want to cut back on the booze just in case." Liam adds.
"Too late, m'boy. I'm already, as the British call it, arse-over-tit."
"Great. I'll order you a coffee."
Saorshe enters a few moments later to see the two at the bar, and Intel setting up his stacks of records on stage for tonight's show. She heads for Intel to tell him, "Before we head to the military base I wanted to ask if there was any progress on the tomes. Find anything?"
"Sorry to say, no. But I'll keep on it. Don't worry." Intel responds.
Saorshe nods and heads to the bar. Once she sees that Justin is drunk she begins to freak out a little bit. "Dammit Justin, didn't I tell you on the phone that tonight was important?" she screams.
"Hey, back off. I'm in a bad place right now." He slurs.
"And I understand that, but we need you on point tonight." she says getting more and more upset. "Drink some coffee."
"Way ahead of you." Liam adds. "We should leave soon if we're going to beat the moonrise."
"Get the coffee to go." Cherice says as she walks over. "It's time."
They pull up to the Ukranian Village military base in Liam's car. As they pull up to the front gate an officer approaches them. Liam hands over the card that Jack gave him earlier, and the officer calls it in to the main building. A few minutes later the officer waves them through, telling them to, "Pull up to the building on the left. Sgt. Maplethorpe will meet you there."
Like the officer said, a large man in full military uniform is standing in front of the building as they park the car. He introduces himself to them all and they head inside.
"So you are friends of Jack's, huh?" Sgt. Maplethorpe asks in a disapproving tone. "He was a good field medic back in the early days of Iraqi Freedom. The best I ever worked with. It was too bad about his discharge. Soldier just couldn't hack it."
The others haven't heard about this as of yet, as Jack has yet to really divulge anything about his past. They are suitably flabbergasted.
"He's a good man." Justin mumbles drunkenly.
"Yes he was. And I owe him a favor; one he's cashing in right now. You have this place for the night. All the weapons are locked up and inaccessible, so don't get any ideas. Cages are over there" he adds, pointing to the right side of the room.
"Weapons?" Cherice asks.
"This is a weapons depot. The ammo cages have been emptied for your use. I'm still not sure what you need them for, but this was a pretty big favor Jack's called in. If this place isn't like it looks now in the morning there will be hell to pay, cuz it's my ass on the line here. Understood?" the Sgt. asks.
"Yes, sir." Liam says.
"Good. Now if you'll excuse me... I was never here." And with that, the Sgt. leaves locking the door behind him.
"What have we gotten ourselves into here?" Liam asks Saorshe.
"I don't know, but it's better than nothing." Saorshe replies.
"'He was a good man'?" Liam asks the wobbling Justin. "You've never even met Jack."
"Doesn't mean I don't like him" Justin slurs.
"Okay, enough. Roll up your sleeve." Cherice says to Liam as she readies the syringe of sedative Jack gave them to use. She injects Liam and leads him to an empty cage. She closes the door and locks him in. "Good luck."
Within seconds Liam is sleeping soundly on the floor.
"How do we know this stuff will actually keep him unconscious once he's changed?" Cherice asks Saorshe.
"No clue." Saorshe replies.
An hour goes by and the moon begins to rise. Liam is still out cold and the others are falling asleep as well. Justin is in an alcoholic coma in the corner and drooling all over himself. Cherice stands guard near the cage watching Liam intently. Suddenly Liam lurches.
The transformation begins. Liam shakes uncontrollably, then hair begins to spontaneously grow from every pore. Within the space of a few seconds he is covered in thick brown fur from head to toe. His body convulses violently as his bone structure begins to change. The sounds of snapping tendons and sinew fills the air as he grows to nearly 8 feet long. His muscles have swollen to twice their size, long nails grow from his fingertips, his ears stretch into points and his mouth pushes out into a long dog-like maw filled with sharp fangs that are covered in fresh blood after pushing through his shredded gums.
"I think it's safe to say that Liam really IS a werewolf." Cherice jokes as Saorshe heads over to see the final stages of the transformation.
"Yeah, and that the sedative is still working." Saorshe adds.
Suddenly the door opens and a small grenade flies into the room. It hits the ground and explodes, filling the room with bright white light. It blinds everyone except for Cherice. She sees a large man holding a strange looking weapon enter the armory. He's 6 feet tall and 160 pounds of lean muscle and swagger. He points his weapon at the cage where Liam sleeps and says, "You and me... we got a score to settle." He then looks at Cherice and the blinded Saorshe and adds, "If I were you I'd get out of here before you get hurt."
Cherice takes her katana out of its sheath and holds it out for the man to see. "You sure about that?"
She runs in to attack as Saorshe fumbles about before her sight returns. Justin is now awake, and semi-lucid. He stands and takes out his blessed axe which materializes from nowhere.
The man either dodges Cherice's attacks or block with his weapon. He manages to counter by kicking her in the gut just as Justin swings his axe at the man. In one smooth movement the man spins, dodging the axe's blade, and comes around to smack Justin in the face with his weapon. He falls to the ground bleeding.
All the commotion, as well as the added adrenaline from his transformation, has awakened Liam. He stands, dazed from the sedative, and sees the fight going on just outside his cage. He immediately goes into a rage and attempts to break free of his prison by slamming into the door with all his weight. He howls madly as well.
The sound of the wolf attempting to escape his cage gets everyone's attention. Saorshe, now able to see, hastily casts a spell which levitates the man high into the air and turns him upside down. Using the blunt side of the axe, Justin swings his weapon into the man's face, smashing his nose. The man drops his weapon, which Cherice kicks away across the floor.
The man throws another flash grenade at Saorshe in a desperate attempt to stop her from keeping him afloat. She dodges the grenade, but loses her concentration when it explodes. The man falls to the floor painfully and heads for the exit just as Liam's cage explodes outward. The werewolf has escaped!
The man turns one last time to issue a final warning by saying, "This isn't over! Not by a long shot you son of a bitch!" When he turns back to the door he's met by a swinging fist that knocks him out cold.
"I'd say it is" the attacker says sarcastically. This new person enters the armory in a calmly confident way. He's 5'4" and 135 pounds. He has spiky reddish-brown hair and 2-day old stubble. As he walks toward the werewolf in the back of the room he says, "Hey, how's it goin'?" to the others. With no fear he approaches Liam, who is roaring and ready to pounce. Once they are face-to-face the person snarls right back at the beast in a tone not possible from any normal person.
Liam cocks his head to one side confusedly and takes a step back. The person growls again and produces a sharp barking sound while snapping his exposed teeth at the wolf. Without so much as a whimper, Liam lays down on the ground and stops moving. He's become completely submissive.
"Bad dog" the person jokes. He walks to the wolf, pulls an injection gun out of his long trenchcoat and puts it to Liam's neck. He pulls the trigger and a vial of green fluid is emptied into the animal's bloodstream. A moment later the werewolf is unconscious once more.
The person turns to the others who are totally taken aback by what they've just seen and says, "I don't think he'll be a problem for the rest of the night."
"Who are you?" Cherice asks.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't introduce myself. My name is Daniel Osbourne, but everyone calls me Oz."
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