Kent By Night

Duncan Turner

With your permission.

“Well, this is disturbing.”

Duncan looked the officer in the eye and thought through the implications.

A blatant attack like this was troubling from the Sabbat, and threatened a serious masquerade breach if not stamped out quickly.

The officer had brought it to his attention immediately as per their agreement, being a civilian advisor had its benefits, like a skype call with the police commander for Kent.

The gunfire alone was bad enough, but the corpses of what ever horror his courtly companions had been battling. . .that could blow the lid of everything.

“Gods and monsters man, its not disturbing, its disastrous, if this gets out we'll be looking at an international panic.”

“I am aware of the implications Commander.” He snarled. “initiate our protocol 7. Send in the rapid response armed team from Gravesend and have them clear the building of hostile's, then burn it down.”

“burn it down!?” the commander blanched. “are you mad?”

“Its the best way to dispose of the evidence. Satanists are well known for using ritual fires in their rites, along with mutilating victims. Have everything on site black bagged and all civilians detained. I will be along as soon as possible to conduct damage control.”

“What about my men?”

“they won't need to remember a thing, if they do their job right. But more incidents like this may require the creation of a specialised task force. One I can train and prepare for similar situations.”

“I'm not handing you an armed response unit!”

“You will do as you are fucking told, you simpering prat, or I will destroy you, your family, your fellows and their families, I will tear your department apart from the top down and I will blight your families for three generations to come. Do as I command or your name will become a byword for incompetence and corruption. Do as I say, and you will be hailed as a hero. Isn't that what you joined up for, to protect the public good? This is necessary, and you will not baulk from it.”

The man leaned back from the screen.

“My god, you're serious. How much do you know?”

“Pretty much everything, my friend. Now get on it, time is short. Oh, one more thing. Make sure every civilian detained is kept in the isolation cells at Maidstone Prison.”

“Those are windowless, if I remember correctly.”

“That they are. That they are.”

He ended the call and turned to his butler.

“Prepare the flight case. I need to be back in Kent in less than 4 hours. I don't care what it costs.”

Christina Barr

After the Flesh

“Chris … babe ... try to calm down.”

The voice at the end of the line is familiar & soothing, but it does nothing to ease Christina's rage. She strides about the hotel room, kicking furniture out of her way as she attacks the clothes she had hung in the wardrobe, ripping them off the hangers with one hand & throwing them into her suitcase as if it had somehow wronged her. With the other hand, she holds the phone to her ear.

“Why would I calm down?” she spits at her ghoul. “What the fuck do I have to calm down for?”

“You don't want to have to buy another new phone, do you?”

“IT'S JUST A FUCKING PHONE!” she screams. “I don't give a shit about my fucking phone! Have you even been listening to a single word I've said?”

“Yes I have, you know I have,” Martyn replies. “But -”

“All those people, Martyn! I don't even know how many people were in that … thing … it was fucking, but they were PEOPLE! He'd melted them together like fucking candlewax & they were STILL ALIVE!”

“You know what the Sabbat can be like, Chris.”

“From stories. Seeing it first hand is completely different.” Having run out of clothes, she starts flinging her shoes into the suitcase. The heels, the knee-high boots ,the mary janes, the New Rocks … she takes the New Rocks out … puts them back in … takes them out again. “It was a fucking nightmare, Martyn. Alice completely freaked, Falsetto looked like he nearly died, the others were shooting fucking shotguns all over the place … God, those poor people … & then there's that thing with those poor kids, the things that were done to them … Jesus, Martyn, all this shit, this horrible, horrible shit, it's all on us! It's all on us!”

“It's not on you,” Martyn protests. “You didn't do this, Chris. You don't do this.”

A timid knock sounds on the door. “Is everything alright in there, miss?” someone calls.

Chris whirls on the door, snarling. “Can't you read?” she shouts. “It says DO NOT FUCKING DISTURB!”

“Chris ...” the voice on the phone says wearily. “Come back, Chris.”

“Sorry. I'm back.”

“When are you coming home?”

“Tonight.” She checks her watch. “Fuck. Tomorrow night, then.”

“Okay. When you get back, we'll chill out, watch some bad movies, eat some popcorn, drink some beer. Then I think maybe you should just concentrate on your own business for a while. No Sabbat, no garou, no weird necromancer shit ...”

“No vampires.” Chris closes her eyes & sighs. “You're amazing, Martyn. What would I do without you?”

“Fuck knows. Implode, probably. Just get some rest today, & come home. Deal?”

“Deal. See you soon.” She hangs up the phone & throws it on the bed, then with a heavy sigh zips up the rather bulging suitcase & puts it by the door, ignoring the splintered chair & snapped-off table leg she has to step over to get there.

She glances at the clothes she has put by for the next night, nods decisively, then double checks that the door is locked before picking up the New Rocks & putting them with the folded clothes.

It's nearly dawn.

Felix P

5 Minutes late

Seeing the flashing lights Felix slows his triumph boniville to a respectable speed.

"What the fuck!!!" He turns down a dark alley guns the bike once before cutting the engine.

Pulling a crumpled piece of paper out of a pocket he looks at the hastily written address and heads off down the back alleys, creeping as silently as his size 11s will let him in the dark litter strewn and piss puddled alley.

He slowed as he neared the end in the distance he could see the police cordon clearly, a shadow crosses over the entrance to he alley, instinctively Felix reaches for the colt tucked into the back of his combats.

A light flashes in his face,

"Oi you" commands a voice "What you doing?" The light lowers revealing a uniformed police officer.

Felix releases his grip on the gun and slowly pulls a flask of tequila from his pocket, taking a pretend swig so that some of the contents dribble down top

"Shit gonna have to wash this now n I've only worn it for 2 weeks" he murmers to himself as he mimics a drunken walk to the end of the alley.

"Evenin offisher" he slurs breathing the tequila fumes into the cops face, "wotsh all the exshitement?"

The cop turns his head away from the alcoholic stench.

"Never you mind" he replies eyeing Felix suspiciously.

His radio blares out a garbled message and he replies "ok sir" into it turning back to Felix "if you'd like to come with me sir" he reaches out and takes Felix's arm and starts to pull/drag him out of the alley.

Feigning a drunken stumble Felix pulls free from the officer and stumbles back into the alley.

"Oi come here" demands the cop and rushes into the alley and straight into a knee to the gut followed by an elbow to the base of the skull knocking him out cold.

Looking up Felix observes the flames licking at wood work of the building

"Hope none of the guys were in there," he says as he heads back towards his bike, "I wonder what happened, but looks like I missed all the fun."

Felix starts the triumph with a roar and checks his watch.

"Shit better move my fuckin arse or I'll be fucked" with the smell of rubber Felix races away, his mind pondering what may have happened and if any of the court were involved/survived. "Oh well will find out at court I'm sure!"

Mr Ahriman

Impertinence!

“Thrice damnable Lasombra bitch, ruining the plan,” he mutters to himself as he takes off the last of his ruined suit and along with his shoes drenched in viscera, tosses them into a bag on the bed “I should have known the Sabbat would be just as likely to turn on each other – if not more so than normal!”

The room is dark, a cheap hotel room with the curtains drawn. Moving via the bathroom to take a towel off the rack, he proceeds to lay the towel by the door to the room thus blocking out what wan light is coming in from the hallway. He flicks the light switch off and the room is plunged into almost complete darkness. Almost but not enough for his needs.

Sitting cross legged in the centre of the room he begins to meditate. As he enters the trance the shadows seem to thicken until the room is absolutely oozing with inky pitch blackness. The shadows bubble and coil around him, something he is less and less aware of as his mind rises up and out of his undead body. As quick as a thought he is suddenly above Herne Bay observing as if he were a bird, the jolt of projecting his mind taking only a moment to overcome. Once his senses return he focusses on the scene below.

Lights. Many lights, almost all artificial street lamps or car headlights. A few neon advertisements. There, a fire from a trash can in an alleyway, here the tell tale glow of joints exchanging hands outside a club. Herne Bay as usual it seems to him. Focus again. The establishment where the showdown with Bob occurred. Flashing lights, police vehicles it would seem. No, ambulances and fire trucks too. The tell-tale flicker of a fire from within the building now noticeable.

“Good” he thinks, “arson is always a good cover for masquerade breaches.”

It seems the few survivors have been ushered over to the ambulances where paramedics are checking them over before police are taken them to vehicles to be driven off. Perhaps he should follow them and....

No, inconsequential.

Where is that Lasombra, that Sabbat bitch.

Focus.

Plenty of dark alleyways, a thousand nooks and crannies she could have gone to ground in.

Her mind however was something he had reached out and touched, he had felt her presence as Bob was 'disheartened' and it is this signature he tries to lock on to.

He calmly begins to search for her.

“This will be a long night.” Ahriman thinks to himself.

Alice Fletcher & Falsetto

Clean Again..

Alice sang softly as the water streamed around her, steaming as it pounded her scalp and shoulders, the dial turned up all the way. For a long time she simply stood there, letting the drumming drops soothe away the panic, that feeling of being trapped and gagged melting away. When she was finally thinking of nothing but the sensation of the water on her skin, she shook her head and reached for the shampoo.

The outfit she had been wearing lay crumpled in the wastepaper bin of the hotel room, a bemusing surprise for whichever maid cleaned up the following day. Contrary to Chris' opinion of her lack of foresight, she hadn't been quite so foolish as to wear anything that wasn't wipe-clean or easily discarded...

She steadfastly kept her mind clear as she washed her face, stripping it of the tracks of her tears and the crusted blood at the corners of her mouth, and stepped out of the shower as she heard a knock at the door.

  "It's open," she called, having left the en-suite door ajar, and if she had been expecting anyone other than Falsetto to walk in, she didn't show it.

  "I do beg your pardon," he said mildly, but didn't move to go.

  "Sit," she informed him shortly, reaching over to pluck a towel from the rail. "How's your neck? I hope you were playing possum back there..."

  Ignoring the question, he perched lightly on the edge of the bed, commenting,

"We shan't be returning tonight, I imagine."

  Alice shrugged, towelling her hair.

  "We can if you like, though the boot of the car is a little snug for two. Very comfortable, though."

  She pulls on a robe, sitting down with a small sigh.

  "I don't think I shall be going back to Rochester, though." Pulling her damp hair over her shoulder, she starts to plait it. "I think I need some time at the estate, to think things through." She bites her lip, pausing for a moment. "I wondered, would you like to come with me? I would very much enjoy your company, and we really do need to catch up. If you don't have any pressing business, of course..."

She leaves the sentence hanging in the air for a brief time, then stands abruptly, walking to her immaculately-packed valise and starting to pull out items for the following night, chattering brightly as she does so.

  "In a week or so I might invite up some of my most promising pupils for a few nights of intensive coaching. They're delightful girls, so eager to please. And of course I'll ask Chris... though I doubt..."

  ...she falters, turning back to face him with a cheerful smile, folding the dress in her arms.

  "Well? Do say you'll join me, it gets so dreadfully tedious with just the staff, but I can't bear to be in town for much longer."

Luther Trask

Nota Bene

Back in the van Luthers phone rings:

“Trask... FUCK, how did they find out?... Sly bitch... How bad’s the damage... How many of those things does she have? OK send Celeste to Liaise with the Authorities, I want to know where all remaining evidence is taken, ask Sheppey to get the Gargoyle back there and report to me. I’ll be there as soon as possible and I would prefer it if the Authorities had gone, let’s call it a dodgy science experiment.”

Shutting off the phone he turns to his travelling companions “Sorry, going to have to cut this one short, can you drop me at the closest taxi rank. There’s been an issue at the old Elysium sight.”

A couple of hours later Trask reaches the University grounds, pays the driver and confidently walks past security aiming at Celeste, not stopping till he reaches the persuasive ghouls side.

Luther, asking what the likely cause of the fire is, acts very surprised to hear from the Officer in Charge that it looks like a student experiment that got out of hand. Luther advises Celeste that while she assists the Officer finishing his report, that he’ll take a stroll of the grounds to see what he can see.

Meeting up with the Gargoyle, Luther traced the outline of the ward he drew nearly two months prior, he blanks his mind of all else bar finding a breach in the ward, enhancing his sight to help with the quest, thirty minutes later he spots something, where the other Gargoyle had fallen, earth, dryer, a different texture laying directly on the line of the ward. Hmm that’s odd, pulling a vial from his pocket he runs his hand over the air pulling some of the earth with his mind into the container “So, they have a Kuldonic Sorcerer, interesting. We may need to get better acquainted”.

He Calls the Prince “Have you heard about the University, Sabbat, Looks like a Lasombra, a Tzimisce and a Gangrel. Happened whilst we dealt with Bob... Yeah it’s gone, not sure what’s happening there now though. I left Boris and the others up there... I may be gone a while, research and tracking”

Borris

Inhale, Exhale

Borris sat there looking at his feet, head in hands.

It wasn't often that he got depressed or worried.

All he ever really felt was the constant rage and heat in his blood or the hunger always gnawing in the pit of his stomach.

"Fuck me..."

It was all he could really say on the matter. Just that, every few minutes as he just sat there, a joint off to one side rolled but unlit.

"Just... Fuck.."A Knock at his door roused him, taking the jointing he lit it before answering the door.

"You ordered company.." The woman, a red head like himself, but from a bottle, stood there.

Her coat half undone, showing him a glimpse of what he could expect to sample if he took her in.

"Yeah, come in..." Holding the door open for her, checking over her shoulder making sure she wasn't followed by a pimp or some other idiot who might try and ruin his fun.~Later~

Lifting his head up from her neck, dropping her on the floor he looked in the mirror, half naked, drenched in her blood.

All he could think about though was the sea of flesh.

He didnt feel bad about not taking her up on the offer of indulging how she thought he would, how could he after what he had witnessed earlier that night. No, he had other hungers to sate, other passions ruling his life.~Later~

Looking around the night club he felt like a stranger, all those people, some of them on drugs, some drunk.

He heard a woman scream, no laughing, paid it no heed.Stalking down on to the dance floor he stood there for a moment, then with a calm and very definate act punch the nearest man to him.

He had fed, but the rage was still in him, and here, down in this other sea of flesh, these dancing grinding bodies he felt he could let loose and enjoy the night some more...