as written by Peachy00Keen and Script
There came a knock on the door. Two paladins waited patiently outside. Word had presumably gotten around that Lorainne DuMont was not mute after all, as the number of joint missions she had been sent out on had increased over the past few months. Beside her, standing almost at eye level wit her, was Jareau Évèloix. They had been pleasantly social with each other inside the walls of the Monastery, but this was their first assignment out together. Lorainne turned to Jareau.
"This news of tentacled demons is quite unsettling. Do you have any idea what they could be?" she asked him, her voice calm.
Jareau shook his head. "I haven't the faintest." He rolled his shoulders and stretched his neck side to side. "As if the existing vampires and witches we have running around weren't already enough to deal with. This is just one more layer on the cake. It's insane."
"I think what has me the most unnerved is that fact that it lures its victims into a trance first. On the one hand, it's almost merciful, but on the other hand, it's terrifying. Deadly dreams." Lorainne suppressed a shudder brought on by a chill that ran down her spine.
Jareau seemed to sense her anxiety. He put a hand on her shoulder, "Fear not, Sister. We will be alright. Selene will be with us to see this menace through. Perhaps it will be willing to negotiate and we will be able to avoid a fight altogether. Consider the positives." He gave her shoulder a light squeeze before returning his hand to his side. As pleasant as those sentiments were, and as much as he hoped they would bring Lorainne some solace, he found his own words to be empty and cold. He, too, was uncertain of this case.
____
At the knock on the door, Mrs. Page hurried from the kitchen, but the police officer took it upon himself to answer in her stead. The smell of cooking chilli would hit the two paladins as the door swung open to reveal Niels stood there. The officer was a pudgy man with more hair in his moustache than on the top of his head, and he gave the two paladins an expressionless once-over. Many cops, especially in this part of town, weren't exactly fond of working with the church. It usually meant things were going to get complicated.
"Evenin'." After a moment, he offered them a greeting, lazily tipping his cap to them. "Kid's through here."
He stepped back into the flat to let the pair enter. The front entrance opened straight into the living room, where a worn old couch and a pair of mismatched armchairs were arranged around an old box television. A few cabinets dotted the walls, with books and ancient-looking ornaments arrayed upon them, and two doors led out of the room: one into the kitchen, and one through to a small hallway that led to the rest of the flat.
They were promptly greeted again by a blonde woman who looked to be in her forties. Hannah Page was an attractive woman, wearing her lengthy blonde tresses up in a loose ponytail. "Here already! Oh, my, ah... w-would either of you like a cup of tea?" There was a slightly nervous edge to the way that she greeted them. She kept her eyes lowered, avoiding direct eye contact.
By contrast, the teenage boy over her shoulder had fixed them both with a hard stare. Though he was slightly baby-faced, Elliot's glare was no less aggressive for it. He lingered in the door through to the kitchen, his arms crossed. It was clear he wasn't happy to see them.
The last occupant of the room was the smaller teenage boy who was perched on the couch itself - the one that they were here to speak to. René flashed a nervous smile to Lorainne and Jareau as they entered, and it was to him that Officer Niels gestured.
"Ah... hello," he offered, eyes darting across to Elliot and his standoffish posture. He suppressed a grimace.
____
Lorainne often worried she was a little too emotional for the Order. She always felt empathy for the frightened, the abandoned, and the lonely. She knew how they felt. When Hannah offered them tea, Lorainne opened her mouth to answer but Jareau answered before she could.
"No thank you, ma'am, we should--"
Lorainne elbowed him in the ribs and shot him a knowing glare. "Tea would be wonderful. Thank you for your hospitality."
As Hannah turned her back, Jareau turned to look at Lorainne, giving her a shrug and a look of mock-surprise.
They continued into the house, they passed by a young boy with blond hair. He looked displeased to see the paladins. Lorainne made note of it and Jareau responded with a disapproving look of his own. The younger boy was less standoffish. The paladins directed their attention at him.
René seemed skittish. The two paladins made their way to one of the armchairs. Jareau sat down, bringing himself more to eye level with the boy, Lorainne stood behind him, leaning on the back of the chair.
"So, you say you saw a tentacled, demon?" Jareau began, his voice low and gentle. He extended a hand in a welcoming gesture. "Please, tell us what you saw and anyone else who could have seen it that we should talk to."
"Any details you can give us will be extremely helpful," Lorainne added, her own voice sweet and matronly.
____
Hannah nodded, hastily slipping away into the kitchen to fetch the tea. She shot Elliot a warning look as she went, noting his glare that remained fixed on the paladins. The older teen continued to watch from the doorway as René spoke to the paladins, as though wary of what they were going to say.
René hesitated before taking the proffered hand to shake. "Yeah," he nodded, shifting uncomfortably. "But ... I don't think it's quite what you're expecting. So bear with me, I guess."
He took a breath before launching into the story. "It was about an hour and a half ago. I was walking home from the diner where I work, Mary's down on the main road. I kept getting the feeling I was being followed, so I called Elliot," he nodded towards the blonde teen in the kitchen doorway. "I was on the phone to him when I walked around a corner and there was this ... guy, standing there. Long hair, really thin, really pale."
The teen grimaced. "Before I knew what was happening he'd grabbed me, and he was
really fucking strong. It was about then I got a look at his mouth, and saw he had fangs. Like, vampire fangs."
____
"Did he chase you before he grabbed you?" Lorainne asked, taking down notes on a small pad of paper. "Were you taking a different route home than usual?"
"Could you see anyone else around who might have been working with him?" Jareau added, also taking notes. "Did you look behind you at any point to see if you were being followed, and if so, did you notice anyone or anything?"
The paladins had numerous questions to ask. Hearing accounts from other people would also be useful, but in the event that no others could or would step forth, they needed to make sure they got all the information they could out of the young boy.
"Did you happen to be near any places that might have had video surveillance cameras -- stores, restaurants, potentially some residences? I know you said you were walking back from work, which was at a restaurant. Had you felt this presence before, or did you sometimes ever walk home with friends?" Jareau rattled off more questions as Lorainne thoughtfully nibbled the top of her pen. "Could someone have learned your route home? What might have set today apart from other days -- walking slower, appearing nervous or tired or generally down--"
Lorainne cut him off. "Let us know if you need any of the questions repeated," she offered with an apologetic smile.
The poor child must be overwhelmed.
____
"Uhhhh-" René blinked, trying to take in all of the questions. "No, he straight up grabbed me before I had a chance to run. And it was the same route as normal, just a bit later. I did look, and it didn't look like there was anyone, but I'm getting to that... and I don't think anything was really different?"
He rubbed at the back of his head. "I don't know that it was planned or anything... I mean, he was a vampire. He looked... like, feral. More animal than person. Are all vampires like that?" René shook his head. "Anyway, uh, you probably already know what happened to him. He's dead. I mean, re-dead, I guess? After he grabbed me, I thought I was dead meat, but then there was this ... music, and everything slowed to a crawl. Like my brain was being wrapped in cotton wool or something. The vampire let go, and then this ... black
thing hit it out of nowhere."
At this point, Elliot interjected from across the room. "In case it's relevant, I didn't hear the music. I was still on the other end of the phone at this point. I could hear the struggle."
René nodded, then went on. "I came to on the ground, and this thing was all over the vampire. Like, tentacles wrapped around it, squeezing it... it was struggling, and then it just ... stopped. And shrivelled up. It was fucked up." He shuddered. "But then ... the demon
talked to me. It wasn't aggressive, or anything. It saved my
life."
____
"The vampire shriveled up? Shriveled like a raisin? Was the tentacled creature's mouth attached to the vampire somehow?" Lorainne began firing off questions in rapid succession. "You heard music," she turned to briefly look at Elliott, "but you didn't," she focused back on René, "which seems to imply some sort of psychic bombardment that only affects those in the immediate vicinity as opposed to any potential witnesses. I'm not sure if that's any indication of its power or its intelligence or both..."
Jareau cut in, "You said this creature
spoke to you? What did it say to you? Did it make eye contact with you or touch you?" He turned to address Elliott, "You stated that you heard the struggle over the phone. Could you also hear the creature's voice when it spoke to René, or could you only hear the sounds that the vampire made?"
Lorainne set her pen across the top of her notepad and took a step around to the side of the piece of furniture, bringing her to stand between the two boys. "Would either of you be opposed to us trying to obtain a recording of your phone call? I don't know if it would be possible, but if we could hear this creature -- or at the very least, the moments leading up to the attacks and the struggle during them -- that could prove to be very helpful." She held out her notepad to René. "If you don't mind, go ahead and write down your phone number in the margin somewhere
____
"I couldn't see a mouth... or really anything. It was hard to focus at that point, and it was all over in a few seconds." René frowned apologetically. "And yeah, it spoke. Like, I think it was in my head? It was weird, and echoey, like the music. Like it was coming from my own thoughts. Telepathy, I guess?" He shrugged. He wasn't the expert on supernatural things, but telepathy was a common enough concept.
"I didn't hear it talking, but I barely heard Ren, either. Phone can't have been very close." Elliot responded gruffly.
As he did, Hannah emerged from the kitchen with two mugs of tea and made her way across to the paladins, proffering them with an over-exaggerated smile. "Sorry to interrupt," she said hastily, "but here you are."
Once they'd taken the beverages, she slipped back to the edge of the room to stand beside Elliot, clasping her hands together nervously.
René took the proffered notebook and started to write his number, silently acquiescing to them trying to get hold of the call record. "As far as what it said goes... it was weird. At first I was terrified, like I guess you'd expect when faced with a weird black tentacle monster. But ..." He sighed, shaking his head. "This is going to sound weird, but I don't think it was evil?"
"It was probably just trying to make you let your guard down." Elliot scowled.
"I don't think so... It said that it killed the vampire because it was cold, and ... made of death, and hunger. Almost like it was putting it out of its misery. But it asked me if it had done the right thing, too. Like it wanted to be reassured." René rubbed at the back of his head. "It sounded like a kid. Do you get those? Kid demons?"
____
Lorainne reclaimed the notepad from René and shrugged, "I've never personally heard of one, but I suppose they have to start somewhere... I guess." She turned to Jareau, "How many other sightings have we had of this thing -- or things, for all we know?"
Jareau set his pen down and stared off into the distance, seeming to focus intently on the curtains framing the window. "Three, I think. Don't know much about the second one, but the first one involved a boy and a girl. The girl got tranced or whatever it is this thing does and the boy got eaten. I'm not sure what set the boy apart from the rest of the world, but maybe that's something we should look into." He turned his attention to the young boy and narrowed his eyes pensively. "René, can you give me as detailed an account of this...
thing as you can manage?" he asked, flipping to a fresh page in his notebook; "Tell it to me like you're trying to describe it to a deaf, mute, and blind person -- height, width, smell, texture, sound, color, features, anything you've got."
____
"Alright," René furrowed his brow with thought, trying to recall as much detail as possible. "Well, I've already said it was black. It was almost like it was ... tar, I guess." He wrinkled his nose at the memory. It might have saved him, but the creature sure as hell had looked terrifying. "It was sort of dripping this weird black stuff, but there wasn't any trail or anything left, so I guess it disappeared after it dripped. I couldn't tell you how many tentacles it had, it was just this... mass of them, they all kind of blurred together. But it had a halfway humanoid torso sticking out in the middle, with a head and a face and something like hair. Long, stringy and messy. And it had horns, or they might have been antennae? I'm not sure. They stuck up straight, like a good half meter over its head. The whole thing was maybe half my height, but the tentacles spread out a meter or so. I think they could stretch."
He looked up, biting his lip. "I couldn't make out much of its face. I don't even know if had proper facial features, like a person. But it had these really big, like
really big white eyes. No pupil or iris or anything, just white."
There was a lengthy pause, where it was clear René was considering adding something else. "It had a name, too. At first it called itself 'this one'. It talked in the third person, which was weird, but... I mean, it saved my life, and it kept reassuring me that it didn't want to hurt me, so I talked to it for a bit. I asked it if it had a name, and it said that someone had called it 'Zexal' before. I don't know if that's relevant, but..." he shifted uncomfortably. "I really
don't think it was evil."
____
As the boy described the creature, Jareau's pen moved in furious sketches, taking down every detail as it came to him. When the boy stopped, Jareau looked up, lines lingering on his face where they had formed during his intense concentration. He held up his notebook to show the boy what he had rendered on the page.
"I realize the proportions are likely a bit off, but is this at all what it looked like? What's different?" His questions were direct, focused.
Turning her attention to Hannah, Lorainne gestured to the cup of tea and nodded thankfully to the timid woman, letting Jareau do his part without interruption.