The universe wants to play with you (32)

Pointless action. Useless words. Voodoo death. Or something else.

Stood in the rain, waiting for Aaron and Merl. Pissed off by the briefing in the hotel; pissed off by having to talk to a supposed expert pathologist at tea who could only say, "Well, the head was definietely severed by something blunt; pissed off by the lack of organisation, a reason for being here and the need to have another meeting at 8am. Where's the Chinese woman?

G - What have you got?
A - Sorry Gillespie but no-one fits the bill. We've gone through the whole database, nothing recorded.
G - What about Hawthorn Villan?
A - Well, there was nothing in her house that we saw that pointed that way.
G - Ok. Any other ideas because I don't have a clue what to do next?
M - There's always the Dunedin Theosophical Society. They're full of weirdos.

A - Come on, what would we say? Do you know anyone who goes through time and space and chops people's heads off?
G - Thanks for trying. (I suppose...) {Drop me off at Hawthorn's house, I'd like to have a look at it.}

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Hi Ellis, what did you find?

Nothing of interest. A few clothes, a laptop I couldn't get into, a weird sounding book and a small hammer.

What was the book?

I took a photo of it.

Jesus, that is weird. What's it about?

Well, I didn't have time to read it...

Funny...

Glad you appreciate my sense of humour. So what's the plan for tomorrow?

We'll see what's been turned up and what those above us want us to do. So basically, I haven't a clue.
 Fancy a drink?

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Fernanda is still tired and shaky. She leaves the house for a walk with Zeuhl, her dog, even though it's late. She is still worrying about how the other girls are feeling, not that any of them will go to the police but how it will affect them for future Deathless Girl projects. It's clear to all of them that it was an accident but a death is a death.

Completely by chance she ends up walking towards the place where the head was found. A lone policewoman stands outside a crime scene tent. Curiosity and mischievousness overcomes her so she walks over the road.
"What's the tent for?".
"It's a crime scene. There was an incident."
"What happened?"
"I'm sorry but I can't tell you". 
"Oh, ok, so who can?" 
"Well, no-one."
"Oh. Why's that?"
"Because it's a crime scene."
"So even if I knew something about what might have happened, you wouldn't want me to tell you?"
"Of course I would. In fact if you didn't tell me, you'd be breaking the law."
"What if I didn't realise there'd been a crime committed but I'd noticed something that was significant that could help you find out what had happened. I couldn't do that unless you told me what it was."
The policewoman stood there, thinking and eventually said "That's true. A woman's head was found in a plastic bag on the bench."

"Oh my God!" shouted Fernanda and ran off screaming, leaving the policewoman looking very confused.

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Anya is in her kitchen, jug boiling, flicking though documents on the table, music playing, thinking about her great grandmother from Hungary. She heard a noise, no felt it, felt something anyway. Quickly turning jug and radio off, waiting for silence; she stood, listened, felt and sensed for 10 minutes. Nothing obvious but there was something out of kilter, just out of range, enough to feel nervous.

Trusting to instinct, she put her shoes on, found her car keys, mobile, purse, screwdriver and then paused; again she could feel something. This time, she also heard noise from the front section, BANG, BANG, SMASH, SMASH - sounds of splintering wood, someone was breaking the door down with an axe, probably not the cops as they would have covered the back door too.

Anya quickly unscrewed the back of the microwave and took out the USP Tactical and magazines.
The door sounded as if it was about to come off, so she climbed onto the sink, kneeled down and cocked the gun. This wasn't a normal home invasion, this was high strangeness; she jumped down, opened the back door and climbed back up.

There was a massive bang as the front door fell to the floor, a horse neighed and there was incomprehensible shouting. She aimed the gun towards the doorway as she could hear heavy footsteps and a horse coming along the hall as well as various things being knocked off the walls.
A huge man, in full armour and helmet, with an equally huge axe stomped past the doorway without looking, lifted the axe and started smashing the door to the built-in cupboard, followed by a horse and two other armoured men.

Anya wanted to shout, "Use the fucking handle" but it wasn't her cupboard door but 8 foot high and 6 foot wide. and made of oak. She got down from the bench and watched as all 3 hacked away until it fell apart; the leading man led the horse through, jumped onto its back, the others following, into a wasteland probably designed by Michael Moorcock.

"Another fucking portal. How am I going to explain this to the insurance company."

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Corrado and Sanders sat at the table eating chicken and rice.
-When do you think Hawthorn will be back?
-No idea. Thought she would have been here by now. I texted her before but she hasn't replied.
A rumbling sound began...
-what's that?
Quietly at first...
-Don't know. Earthquake?
And then louder and louder...
So loud, they both covered their ears...
As if in slow motion, the table and room began to split in two, an orange glow growing between the two of them and the room...

-They were both screaming as they began to disappear from each other's view, falling and falling and falling...

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Leaving Anya's, Hawthorn drove back to her house to pick up a few things. As she got out and walked up the long path she knew there was something wrong. As she cleared the last tree, a man was sitting on the deck, smoking a cigarette - it was the man she had seen with the stalkers in town - then she remembered where she had seen him before. In London. At Corrado's lecture. The spy.

Before either could speak, they heard a growing, hissing sound around them, enveloping them in red mist.

She ran past him...
-Quick, get inside, as she opened the door...
Gillespie jumped up and ran towards her...
Noise and mist grew...
He slammed the door behind him but the mist was seeping through as the sound got louder.
Then the hissing stopped.
Gillespie -What the fuck was that?
Hawthorn - God knows...
The room began to vibrate, gently, then faster and faster...
She grabbed him and pulled him towards
-Into the cupboard...
She pulled the door behind them as the whole house vibrated, faster, faster and faster...