Melinda gives Reilly a wry smile her brown eyes looked tired and her shoulder length blonde hair slightly messy as if she had just gotten out of bed.
She then says, "The situation is a dead girl, victim of the Countdown Killer. We brought her boyfriend or whatever in earlier but he was little help. Right now we're just combing every inch of this place for some clues on who did this. We found some hairs, fingerprints, blood samples and whatnot and are having them tested. Hopefully he made a mistake this time..."
Tony sighed I'll let him go on his own for a moment- I need to speak to this man first.
Turning to Tao Tony goes Heh, got any fancy blessings to put on good ol' Wichita here? No need to go facing gangs and countdown killers without a couple of blessings, eh?
Tony gave a raspy laugh as he tapped Wichita to his head twice, awaiting the response from the store keeper.
Reilly runs his hand through his hair absentmindedly.
Mind if I have a look around. I promise not to touch anything without permission. Do we have a preliminary time of death?
He moves around the room, careful not to step on anything important. I saw something like this in Bangkok once. A marine who wasn't satisfied with the action downrange. Real crazy f~$*...Can you tell me anything about the other cases?
Tao looks at Tony with amusement. Then says, "I am afraid good sir that, that is not my profession. But I may have something that can help you." He goes in the back for a few minutes. Then returns with a flashlight and what looks to be a talisman. "If you are heading into the ruins you are going to need these." He hands you the flashlight. Then holds up the talisman. you see it has a Asian symbol on it. Tao then says, "This talisman will allow you to hurt things that you normally would not. I would usually ask a hefty sum for this but in these trying times I will loan it to you free of charge. Just bring me something of value back from the ruins. Deal?"
As Reilly searches the place Melinda walks with him and says,"The other cases are pretty similar, only real differences being locations."
Reilly then looks at the dried blood on the wall he sees something peculiar. small etched letters in the blood that spelled I'll be coming for you. Reilly Tanaka.
He lowers his voice and moves toward the splatter.
Melinda, do you see this? What the heck
He takes a close look at the wall.
Melinda, closes in on the spot Tanaka is staring at. "I see the blood, yes. There is a lot of that. Kinda hard to miss. But beyond that..."
Tanaka, can still see the ominous message.
Funny, I thought I saw something else. So you have no leads? I was thinking of taking a look at the other scenes, but anything you can offer? I am beginning to suspect the killer is specifically targeting my family members. It could even be that the other murders are covering for that specificity. It has happened before, of course. Someone pretends to be a serial killer when they are actually just targeting individuals.
Melinda raises an eyebrow. Then says, "Why would they target your family? And yes a member of your family was killed, out of four victims though."
Just a hunch. Once I was flying a mission, really low, mountains on both sides, up this little gully. Coming in as angel to pick up a downed pilot. Anyway, I thought I saw a goose in front of me and jinked to the right just as an RPG came across my flightpath. Without the halucination, I would have been hit. This feels a lot like that
"Huh." Melinda says as she then asks, "So, what will you do now?"
I suppose I will make myself a tour of the other crime scenes, try to get a feel for the crimes. I have to find something here. People are counting on me.
Melinda rolls her eyes and says sarcastically,"Oh yes Reilly, you are the only one who can stop this guy. Guess I'll just eat doughnuts get fat and wait for the good news." She then smirks teasingly.
Tony gave a hearty laugh
Free? For the Last Maenad? My good sir you will be well rewarded for helping me protect my drink and gambling! Now, er, I think I can track the lad that left, but just in case-
Where exactly are the ruins?
"You'll find them along the cliffs in a cave with stairs on Kenji beach." Says Tao.
Tony nods as he pats his belly, filled with alcohol and the location of the ruins.
Hunching onto Wichita he attempts to trail the kid he had just met first
Ah, f~@%, what was his name... Tommy? Tony! No. F&##. Drunk. Aaaaah
Xander climbed to his feet, after some time had passed and stretched slowly. He began to walk back in to the maze, going slowly, making sure the creature was gone, before he began to head the opposite direction from it.
You're right, of course. I'm just not used to working on a case that hits so close to home. Listen, you have my number. Give me a call if anything comes up you want to share. Or if you can get out of this thing in a bit, maybe we can get a coffee or something in a bit. I'm going to walk around a little.
Reilly heads out onto the streets, passing by his car and striding with long legs. The words on the wall have him a little spooked.
He wants to draw his side arm and check it, but he knows what condition it is in, and drawing it on the street isn't a good idea, so he keeps walking.
Tony even in his drunk state finds Lucas easy as the young man is opening his car door.
Xander goes west this time listening closely for any strange noises.
After awhile he comes to a large pit at least 20 feet across with no way around. He can see thick vines that look sturdy enough for one to climb down. On the other side of the pit he can see the same type of vines going down the side as well. The pit is very dark, as no fireflies are descending into it.
Melinda, agrees as Reilly heads out. As he hits the streets walking he gets a weird feeling he is being watched. Could be simple paranoia or...
"I mean we slept together a few times it is not like we were engaged or anything..." He moved over to the edge, shining the light down in to the darkness, looking for the bottom, hopefully.
He sighed, knowing that wouldn't cut it, that he had to go on, before be began to climb down in to the pit, cursing his own stupidity.
Xander starts climbing down. At first he does okay then he slips and falls. And falls. And falls... Until he can no longer see the light above. He then lands on something very soft. Almost pillow like. As he looks around he sees he is laying on what looks to be a giant purple flower. pollen of some sort floats through the air that glows white lighting the path ahead. On the other end of the flower, is a wall of vines that head up.
Xander lies there for a second, laughing wildly, before climbing to his feet. He looks around for a minute, before shaking his head, and beginning to recite, quietly under his breath, the beginning of a poem he learned as a young boy.
"All in the golden afternoon
Full leisurely we glide;
For both our oars, with little skill,
By little arms are plied,
While little hands make vain pretense
Our wanderings to guide."
"Seems like I have fallen right down the Rabbit Hole now... Well well... Hop hop hop!" He crossed the flower to the other side, before beginning to climb up.
This time Xander climbs the vines without much difficulty. But as he climbs he feels something wrap around his left leg. As he looks to see what it is, he sees it's a thick blue vine. But not from the ones he is climbing, But from between the petals of the giant purple flower.
Melinda, agrees as Reilly heads out. As he hits the streets walking he gets a weird feeling he is being watched. Could be simple paranoia or...
Reilly tries not to show any sign of his disquiet. He circles the block a few times, trying to see if anyone is following or anyone turns up more than once. Then he jumps in the SUV and drives off to grab some donuts. Caramel praline are Melinda's favorites. Then he will head back to the crime scene and leave them in her car.
As Reilly heads to the doughnut shop He sees a man on top of a three story building roof, looking as though he is about to jump. There is a crowd below him
Lucas stood next to his car as the overweight man came out of Tao's shop. Part of him still wanted to punch him for his remark about his sister but his training said otherwise. Just looking at him, Lucas thought he should have been able to take him in a brawl. But he had learned the lesson that looks are in fact deceiving, the hard way back in his moms dojo.
But if he says anything about her again...
Lucas tossed his sword into the backseat of his car. He looked at the keys in his hand and was about to get in and drive off, but then scratched his chin and let out a quick sigh as he leaned against his car door. His mother had instilled the lesson that if one needed help, then ask for it.
"I'm heading out to the ruins now. If your interested in helping to stop the killer then you can ride with me... I may need some help after"
Reilly pulls the SUV as close as possible, pushing against the crowd if necessary, hoping to turn the he jumper and the crowd's attention to him. If he can gain the jumpers attention, perhaps he can distract him from whatever is causing his pain.
The crowd moves out of the way as the jumper does watch Reilly. But then continues yelling about the living hell he is in and that he just wants peace.
Reilly climbs out of the car and yells at the figure silhouetted against the sky.
What's your name? What are you doing up there?
Reilly can hear sirens in the distance. The man looks up at the sky and exclaims, My name doesn't matter! I just want it to end. I want to escape this hell and wake up. I just want to wake the f*## up!" With that he leaps off the building and then slams into the pavement below, some people scream some rush forward to see if they can help.
Reilly rushes to the jumper and does a quick evaluation, rendering whatever aid he can. The man probably hasn't survived, but stranger things have happened.
Reilly sees the man has broke his neck and bleeding profusely he is dead.
Reilly waits for uniforms to arrive and fill them in on what he saw and what the man said.
a police car and a fire truck arrive on the scene. Two men get out of the police car one with short black hair and a fine mustache while the other is blonde and lightly freckled. Reilly explains what happened. The one with the mustache sighs heavily. "That is the third one this month. What is going on with this city?"
The blonde then chips in, "Ever since the Countdown Killer arrived everything just went insane."
Have the other ones said anything about waking up? Any new drug activity? This man's behavior doesn't make sense. People who jump from buildings into the street are looking for attention, for an audience. They want to be seen. They feel invisible. I asked him his name, gave him a chance to be seen and heard, and he ignored it. He acted like he was being tormented by something.
Were the other three jumpers? What could make them feel like they were dreaming?
The last bit is mostly to himself.
Tony plops lazily in the car with a grin at how awkward it was to fit Wichita inside with him.
Ah, thank you. I've crossed nearly all of town today, you.
He gave a long sigh that lead to a drink. The drink led to a burp and another sigh as he quietly spoke
I'm... Sorry about your sister. When we found the body... I want you to know I did try to track down the bastard who did it, same as I tracked you to your car here. But there wasn't a single, faintest clue of him. I hope these ruins give more answers.
The Last Maenad is supposed to brighten people UP Tony, not depress them! Maybe...
Tony shook the last of his fifth at Lucas You want some liquid courage, boy? He put the widest and most sincere grin he could drunkenly conjure up.
The cops ponder a moment then the one with the mustache says, "Yeah now that I think about it they were all acting similar. We questioned folks around them and a lot of them said they were acting strange as if haunted by something."
Lucas shut the car door as he put the keys into the ignition and listened to Tony talk. When he was offered some of the pungent smelling liquid he shook his head. "No, I find alcohol to dull your senses and this is not the time for that." He started the car but didn't immediately go anywhere. After a moment of heavy silence he looked over to Tony. "Thank you for looking for the killer. Are you prepared to go to the ruins? It doesn't look like you have much to on you."
Heh heh, no?
Tony patted his belly with a hearty laugh as he looked at his belly and then back at Lucas, belly and then Lucas
That shop keep, uh, Tao, yeah! Tao- he gave me a flashlight and a few of his voodoo trinkets. Regardless...
Tony flexed his hand around Wichita just enough to show that he could effortlessly indent it with his fingers My hands and Wichita are all I need to protect us. Ha ha ha don't worry Lucas! This isn't all fat!
Lucas watched Tony with a bit of bemusement and for the for the first time since he woke up he cracked a smile. The strange man sitting across from him, even though Lucas had met him barely even 5 minutes before was funny. But more importantly, he was strong. Stronger than Lucas was anyway.
He'd been so focused on the fact that his sister had been killed that he hadn't even considered that there might be others who wanted to stop the countdown killer as much as his mother and himself.
"Well Tony, I'd like to say that it was probably just going to be a short jaunt into the ruins but I know that maintaining both strength and ... size require sustanence. We'd better make a quick stop to pick up some more supplies first then we can head out. I know I don't have enough for both of us. You're going to need food, batteries, actual water, and a bag to carry it all. Anything else you can think of might come in handy too."
Lucas then put the car into reverse and started driving away from Tao's shop and towards the shopping district.
Well, officers, if that is all, I will be going. I have an appointment with one of your detectives in a bit. If there is anything else you need from me, you have my credentials.
Reilly slides back into the SUV and takes a deep breath, shaken by the events of the day.
He checks to see if anyone has returned his calls and then calls Lucas.
Tony giggled to himself with a hiccup
I'd bring a girl along, but man, I'm pretty sure they'd just jump at the sight of something scary, not very useful. Of course women have this way of making a guy just blood curdling strong and raging- something more to protect, live for, you know? I might even be able to get a few of my boys to come with us as back up. Probably just promise them cash- I owe my friend Greg for the fifth anyways, and Tao did say he wanted me to bring back something valuable for him.
Reilly sees no returned calls. He then goes into his contacts and stops at Lucas. He Remembers that the last time he called him was on his 2nd cousins 18th birthday some time ago. He then presses send.
Lucas, your phone rings.
Tony then adds
Hey! We can swing by Rico's, heh heh, the boys might wanna come after all.
Lucas visibly winces at the prospect at bringing more people to the ruins. He had a feeling that Tony wouldn't do anything rash, but even if the others came along, the last thing he wanted was to find what he was looking for and have one of Tony's "boys" decide that was his for the taking.
"That's probably not a good idea Tony. This is a serious matter and I don't know if your friends have the same drive the two of us do. I'll take you to Rico's though. If they want to come along that's their choice, but I'm claiming what I find there and if any of them try to take it as their own, I won't let them."
After a moment of long silence, his phone started ringing in his jacket pocket and Lucas pulled it out, checking the name as he drove.
Reilly? What's he calling for now?
"Answer that for me will you. It's a family member of mine, just tell him I'm driving."
Tony nearly fumbled the phone as he flipped it open-
covering the receiving end of the phone he whispered
Ah, heh heh, forget this was serious business. Skip Rico's- they can be quite... loud
Chuckling as he answered Tony grumbled with glee
Lucas' Phone, this is Tony, what drink can I serve ya'?