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Bart hurries ahead a little, as you approach the side entrance, and he peers through the window, while taking a hold of the door handle. He tugs, but it doesn't open. He tries it again with both hands, and grunts, which causes looks of alarm and worry to flit across several of the kids' faces. "It's locked," he declares, looking pissed. "I knew we shouldn't have trusted that little bitch!"

"Cool it," warns Shaun as he gathers the tools to hide them. "It could have been an orderly or something may have happened."

"Jeanine's reliable," states Lyrica. "If she wasn't she wouldn't have gotten away with half the shit she's managed."

"She's cute," declares Bethany, as if that settles things, much to Shauna's amusement.

[] Close your eyes and feel Jeanine through the mark you gave her, see what she's feeling and where she is exactly.
[] Pop the door open - it might call attention to you all, but you'll be inside at least.
[] There's an open window; climb in and open it from the inside.
[] Write in:

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>>2097872
>[] Close your eyes and feel Jeanine through the mark you gave her, see what she's feeling and where she is exactly.
>[] There's an open window; climb in and open it from the inside
I forget, is our communion with our cats strictly line of sight?

>>2097914
Hekah has no idea how it works. You are welcome to try whatever you like with the understanding that Hekah's ability with cat's isn't reliable.

They ARE cats after all.

>>2097914
>>2097924
I missed the line about Bart looking through the window already and was thinking of asking them to either alert us if someone was waiting just inside, or to cause a moderate disturbance elsewhere to divert attention. But I don't think that's necessary right now.

>>2097871
>You have an idea of where the body is buried - in a very general sense unfortunately
I guess the tunnels beneath the orphanage probably? Though I don't remember there being soil there, and I'm not sure if it's okay for the coffin to just be like... laying there on the floor. I mean I GUESS it's not too different from being in a mausoleum except for all the ways it is.

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[X] Close your eyes and feel Jeanine through the mark you gave her, see what she's feeling and where she is exactly.
[X] There's an open window; climb in and open it from the inside.

Letting go of Bethany's hand you gently give her over to Shauna, who wraps her arms about the younger girl's shoulders and smiles at you trustingly. "Move," you tell Bart, and he steps out of your way, hands raised, though still pissed. Leaning against the door you close your eyes, concentrating on the kiss you gave Jeanine, the warmth of her. She's worried, but not because she's done anything wrong. Well, not wrong to you; she is hoping that you and your friends are all right, and wondering why Bart doesn't like her. She doesn't feel guilty or that she's done anything wrong to you, though she's aware she's broken rules to help you.

"It wasn't her," you declare, backing away from the door. Bart snorts in disbelief, but you ignore it as you look up the wall, locating an open window. Sure, it's a bathroom window, but it's open. If you were as well endowed as Shauna, it might be a tight squeeze, but you're less hippy than she is. A little less padded....well, okay, a lot less padded than she is. You move to the side of the door, and dig your nails into the mortar, which crumbles easily under your cruel strength. You tendons and ligaments creak softly, rather than pop and snap, and you start climbing.

It doesn't take you long to get up to the window, though you can't help but smile as Bethany asks Shauna softly if that's why you never wear skirts. You take a deep breath and turn your head, and start worming your way into the bathroom window, slipping through it with a little difficulty. Even you have to exhale when you get to your chest, and it takes you a moment to gain some purchase along the wall to support yourself.

Half tumbling, half falling you manage to land on the floor as opposed to on top of the toilet, and you pick yourself up and brush yourself off. Slipping into the second floor hallway, you see Thomas and Allison at the desk; Thomas is putting together medicine cups, while Allison inputs some data of some sort. You can also head voices coming from Sister Christina's office, both female. You close your eyes and concentrate....the two orderlies both look at Millicent as she meows at them plaintively, and you slip over to the stairs and hurl yourself over the side rail to land on the....well, the landing, so nevermind!

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As you suspected, Judith is asleep at the desk, her coffee steaming merrily. It doesn't take you any time at all to get to the door and unlock it, of course and you let the boys and girls inside.

The boys have it easy of course; they're all on the first floor, and Judith is out of it. You pick up Bethany and shush her quietly, while Lyrica takes off her shoes, and Shauna's flats make no sound. Getting them to their rooms will be easy. yours, on the other hand....

[] Go distract the orderlies for the others sake.
[] Bunk down with Shauna tonight.
[] Bunk down with Bethany tonight.
[] Stay in Lyrica's room tonight.
[] You have things that need doing - ghosts to hunt.
[] You want to know what Sissy Chrissy is up to....
[] Write in:

>>2098009
>[] Go distract the orderlies for the others sake.
>[] You want to know what Sissy Chrissy is up to....

>>2098009
>[] You want to know what Sissy Chrissy is up to....
I'm reasonably confident in Hekah's ability to eavesdrop without being noticed as long as she doesn't try and enter the room.

I'm also nosy as fuck.

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[XX] You want to know what Sissy Chrissy is up to....
[X] Go distract the orderlies for the others sake.

Quietly making your way up the stairs - and ignoring the huge grin on Bethany's face as she snuggles up as close as she can possibly get against you - the four of you stop at the edge of the stairwell, hiding behind the solid railing. You give Beth an Eskimo kiss, and then hand her off to Lyrica, who is much more fit than Shauna. Shauna gets a kiss of course, and she wraps her hand over yours, squeezing gently. You break the kiss reluctantly, and then whisper to Lyrical. "Put Beth in Shauna's room. I don't want her alone at all."

"But my mittens!" Beth whispers a little loudly.

You look helplessly at Shauna who smiles. "I have some gloves she can use." Bethany relaxes, and grips her rabbit stuffy tight as Lyrica grunts and adjusts the girl on her hip.

"I'm going to distract them. You'll know when it's time." Bethany looks worried, but Lyrica nods, and shauna lets go of your hand reluctantly. "Just keep an eye on them. Don't mind me." You back down the stairs, going to the landing, out of sight of the others.

The missing time you have is clearly something important. You don't know how it happens, but you are aware of when it happens in a vague, uncertain way. It's not like teleportation or some magical stepping between places like in the stories. But it is something you can do. You've just never tried to do it on purpose.

Until now.

You need to be on the other side of the building, really. And while yes, you could go downstairs and cross the entire building, you can't risk having Thomas or Allison do a bed check, or even use the restroom, or any other kids using the restroom stumbling across them. So, you close your eyes, and think about the other side of the building. But not just think about it. you consider it, think about it, remember it. You focus on the room you now apparently share with Jeanine. You've marked it, it's yours. She's yours, until the night ends. You remember the scent of her shampoo, the hot peppermint taste of virginity on your tongue, the warmth of her skin under your lips. The familiarity of your room.

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You open your eyes in your room, your heart pounding, the darkness total. Jeanine dozes, still worried from the expression on her face, trying to stay awake. She doesn't see or notice you, of course; it is close to pitch black in here, the line of light under the door subdued. You lower yourself to the floor and creep quietly out of the corner, and silently open the door. The hinges make no noise and the latch seems to have been oiled as well, for not even a click happens as you close the door behind you. The noise of her stirring on the bed and asking "Hekah?" makes you smile and you turn your attention on Thomas and Allison.

And the lemure that is staring at you eyelessly, frozen in place as it reaches for the door to the next room over.

The scent of hot, rotting flesh and ripe, raw meat floods your mouth and nose and it stares at you, it's flesh twisting and writhing as it arches its back like a cat threatening you,the hole that serves as a mouth open wide and a long, slick tongue lashing out to wipe its face.

[] GRAB IT!
[] Just wait, see what it does - and if it tries to open that door, you're gonna kill it's ass dead.
[] Scare the bejeebus out of the rotting little thing, it's not worth your time right now.
[] Write in:

>>2098061
>[] Just wait, see what it does - and if it tries to open that door, you're gonna kill it's ass dead.

>>2098061
>[] Just wait, see what it does - and if it tries to open that door, you're gonna kill it's ass dead.
>[] GRAB IT!
I really wanna see how hard these things are to subdue, what eating them does for us, and how swift any response from the enemy is if we kill one, but I also wanna snoop and I'm not sure how quietly we can kill this thing ... what would be a reasonable amount of time to give it to make up its... Mind? Five seconds?

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[X] Just wait, see what it does - and if it tries to open that door, you're gonna kill it's ass dead.

You stand up slowly, rising to your full height and looking down at the fleshy, moist, ugly little ghost. It makes no noise, looking up at you with that eyeless face, and the tongue slides back into it's mouth. When you do nothing more, it seems to relax, it's body bonelessly collapsing back into a sullen crouch. The outstretched hand moves to the door, and grasps the knob, the tumblers on the lock disengaging as if it had never been locked.

You are on it light black lightning, your nails ripping through unbleeding, ghastly flesh and your teeth tearing into it, huge chunks of the noisome flesh coming off of it easily as it wails silently in your mind, echoing cries of fear and pain erupting in your head. The taste is awful yet satisfying in an indescribable way, going down as easily as the hunk of flesh you tore from Priscilla's thigh. You tear it apart, fleshy body falling to pieces under your horrendous strength, bones snapping like wet twigs. It fights you, oh how it tries to fight you, but your body is nothing like this cancerous little abomination's body. It's teeth snap and the wet tongue comes off as you bite down, swallowing it in huge gulps. The ragged fingernails split and tear away as it tries to penetrate your inhuman flesh, as you reduce it to gobbets of rotten, molten grue and splinter fragments of bone.

You sit on the floor, consuming the still moving pieces of the creature, your heart pounding and your head filled with thoughts of loss, pain, memories of warm summer days spent on the beach, square dancing with that handsome boy Bobby Dean, walking single file behind Sister Prudence as you and your fellow orphans made your way to the market. Judy Hapsberg's memories fade, and you feel invigorated, stronger for having felt her joys, the pain of her slow death by tuberculosis, the wonder of passing into the light. You remember that Circe told you ghosts weren't people, just memories imprinted on stray bits of magic.

"Hekah? Hekah, is that you?" Allison is standing up and Thomas is walking towards you. His flashlight is in hand but turned off, and you glance up at him as you turn splinters of bone into fragments and swallow them easily.

[] Walk away, Thomas. This isn't for your eyes. Just walk away.
[] You could say that. You wouldn't be wrong, but you're not quite right.
[] Wipe your mouth off and stand up. Sure, you're still Hekah. For the moment.
[] Write in:

>>2098101
As I thought, the lemures are the ghosts of orphans as well. I was kind of hoping that they were specifically the ghosts of people Hekah herself had to kill over the years, so it'd feel less bad to cannibalize them, but eh I guess it's all the same.
Also wow those things are even more of a pushover than I initially thought, which makes me wonder why it took Hekah so long to kill one, because I'm not sure it makes sense for them to have just had a decades long streak of good luck, unless she's been killing them for decades and they're so pathetic that they're not worth remembering.
>[] Wipe your mouth off and stand up. Sure, you're still Hekah. For the moment.
I forget, Hekah's able to lie to humans as long as it's not about a promise bargain or obligation, right?

>>2098101
>>2098120
Because I kind of want to give an excuse about one of the cats being agitated but it turns out it was just due to finding some vermin, if they feel comfortable challenging us.

>>2098101
>[] Wipe your mouth off and stand up. Sure, you're still Hekah. For the moment.

>>2098125
Hekah can lie about anything to anyone, with the exception of other creatures exactly like her and her children or cats. She can lie to the building but it won't particularly care. Generally speaking she doesn't lie because she has no reason to.

>>2098101
>[] Walk away, Thomas. This isn't for your eyes. Just walk away.

>>2098101
>[x] You could say that. You wouldn't be wrong, but you're not quite right.

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[+] Walk away, Thomas. This isn't for your eyes. Just walk away.
[+] You could say that. You wouldn't be wrong, but you're not quite right.
[X] Wipe your mouth off and stand up. Sure, you're still Hekah. For the moment.

You look up at the human walking towards you. It is one of the caretakers of your children; it's name shines off of it, a lone Twin. It's an adult, it's mind dull with experience and troubled by trivialities and complexities. It remembers you as being one of the children it watches over. You feel the urge to warn it off, to ensure it does not bother you at your meal, at your emergence from larva to imago, but you feel the sharp, bright thoughts of others, concern, love, fondness, worrying over the memories they hold of you in bright, hot washes. You rub your mouth on your sleeve, looking at the spatter of grue before you and retreating back into simpler thoughts, simpler words.

You rise slowly, looking at Thomas calmly. "Sorry. Got really sick." He turn son his flashlight and you recoil, the light flooring your vision and blinding you. "Hey!"

"Good lord, you're a mess! Are you sure you're all right?" His concern is genuine, and while he might work for Sister Chrissy, and may have been a bad person back then, right now he's doing okay by you. You glance at the remnants of the lemure you devoured, already starting to shrink at the edges. Soon it will be nothing but a cold spot in the hallway, you imagine. A ghost of a ghost. He looks at you with some concern, but doesn't seem to see anything spectacularly out of the ordinary.

You kind of wonder if a kid would see the same thing. "Yeah. I'll clean this up. Sorry, Thomas." You feel that power that heavy, shadowy realness at the center of your body, your mind a closed flower ready to bloom at any time now.

He nods. "Well, make sure you do, then get back to bed, all right?" At your nod he slowly walks off, glancing back at you once. You avert your eyes, expecting another flash from the powerful mag-light, but his concerned look is all you get. You crouch, stirring the rapidly vanishing grue with a fingertip and licking it clean. You shudder, the awful taste giving way to intense delight and a glimpse of Judy's first kiss in your mind.

Allison is still looking at you so you smile, and she shudders and turns away, immediately forgetting what she glimpsed of you. You look towards sister Christina's office....

[] Yep, spying time.
[] ....you want more....there's nine more of those things out here and two int he basement.
[] Time to collect Shaun and those fireworks. You're a-goin' huntin'!
[] Write in:

>>2098159
>[x] Yep, spying time.

>>2098159
>[] Yep, spying time.

>>2098159
>[] Yep, spying time.
So that lemure gave us the last bit of EXP needed, and right now Hekah is just pressing the b-button huh?

>>2098159
>[] Yep, spying time.

>>2098159
>You look up at the human walking towards you. It is one of the caretakers of your children; it's name shines off of it, a lone Twin. It's an adult, it's mind dull with experience and troubled by trivialities and complexities.
As I expected, Rune has a different definition of "only a little differently" than I would use.

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[X] Yep, spying time.

You come to awareness in the shadows at the top of the corner bookcase in Sister Christina's office, looking down towards her desk, facing the window. You're in a tight crouch, clinging to the top of the bookcase and being very still, very much aware of how keen the headmistress' senses are. Doctor Rikandra is here as well, sprawled out in the comfortable seat that usually sits in the corner as opposed to the two harder, less comfortable seats Sister Christina has the kids sit in when they're in the office. Doctor Rikandra is lighting up a cigarette, while Sister Christina glares at her huffily, arms crossed and legs crossed at the knee. Angry isn't quite the word for it; frustration combined with anger, that seems more like what she is now.

"I can't believe you let that creature do that to you, Simi!" she complains bitterly. "You were so close to it! We could have learned so much!"

"Don't talk like you know, foolish woman," Doctor Rikandra retorts blandly, clearly not intimidated by the woman's rancor. "Maybe she knew about somethign going on. Maybe realized I was studying her. Can't recall now, don't know what happened." She shrugs and inhales deeply of the cigarette, then lets the smoke drift from her mouth, inhaling it into her nose slowly. "Just know from records who she says she is. Hasn't come back to office. Too bad." She does not sound convincing at all.

Sister Christina glares at the doctor as she exhales a plume of smoke. "Well, if you've put the main project in jeopardy-" Rikandra snorts. "-you know who we'll have to answer to. Both of us." The matron turns in her chair and leans back placing her fingers agaisnt her forehead and massaging. "Things were going so well!"

"Bah. Weaponize something like this, shouldn't be done. Stupid idea. Breaks some kind of code, yeah?" Doctor Rikandra looks at Christina without pity or respect. "Should, even if it doesn't."

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"Nonsense. You can't write codes into the Geneva convention that apply to ghosts and specters. No one would believe it. No one believes it now except crazies and people like us!" Christina turns and leans across the desk, her eyes bright and hot with barely contained excitement. You can smell the sour-sweet hint of madness wafting across the room when she speaks. "Think of the lives saved if we could end a war with a disease vector that is untraceable, unstoppable, and could be directed with surgical precision! A general, a president, a terrorist leader, dead from seeming natural causes, with no evidence to prove anything!" She sits back and opens her hands, like she's trying to draw Rikandra's approval from her. "You know we could do great things with this if we can figure out how it targets its prey!"

Rikandra sits up and stubs her cigarette out on the blotter. "Smart woman. Foolish, but smart. Still, I am a smart and wise woman, not just smart." the doctor fixes Christina with a look that makes the middle aged woman pout angrily. "Smart person knows Frankenstein isn't the monster," she says as she stands up, preparing to leave. "Wise person knows Frankenstein is the monster."

Christine snarls at the doctor. "Frankenstein made the mistake of allowing his monster to get the better of him, just like another doctor I know. I only hope she doesn't pay the price he did." Rikandra shrugs expressively and picks up her lab coat. "Make sure that psychopath isn't anywhere near Timothy tonight."

"Yeah, yeah." Rikandra sighs and walks out, leaving you alone with the madwoman who is, beyond all reason and sanity, trying to weaponize a vampire.

>To be continued....

>>2098180
In hindsight, I really should have seen this coming, but that's what makes it a great reveal.

Thank you for reading and playing.

We continue tomorrow night.

>>2098185
Thanks for running

>>2098120
Actually there is a much simplere explanation as to why Hekah doesn't remember about the lemures and hasn't kileld any before now.

She simply didn't know about them.
they're sneaky, relatively harmless, and basically the vermin of ghosts and haunts. The worst they do is cause nightmares and leave someone feeling icky when they wake up. Hekah hadn't encountered them before because - as rune points out - she isn't particularly omniscient or aware of things that her people and cats aren't really aware of. She just happened to be awake/aware when Bethany received a visitation.

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>>2098183
>"Smart person knows Frankenstein isn't the monster," she says as she stands up, preparing to leave. "Wise person knows Frankenstein is the monster."
That's one of my favorite lines, as thanks for finding a contextually appropriate way to utilize it, have a silly comic.

>>2098196
So even someone with Hekah's mark would register just as someone having a nightmare, which I'm not sure she notices at all?
Also I thought they managed to kill Jake's friend, but then again, that was a swarm of them probably.

>>2098183
...Though with Sebastian at least, it at least seems as if there might have been additional factors preventing Hekah from seeing his fall and rise, unless they just got lucky.

Oh, also thanks for running!

>>2098183
Oh right, about how close to midnight is it currently?

>>2098231
it is 5:30 am here. It's PST.

>>2098258
I meant in quest since that's when the vampire shows up, my bad for a really unclear query.

>>2098185
Thanks for running.

>>2098265
Oh.

It's 10:45 pm.

I feel like we can probably get everything tied up tonight, probably not before midnight though.
Our primary goal: find Sebastian's coffin but failing that, transform and hope we can overwhelm him
I feel like Christina is too fucking crazy to torture or scare into revealing the coffin, Rikandra might not know, and that other guy... Might be a lead?
Also unsure if it'd be a good idea to kill them or not, or if we need to worry about their bosses destroying the orphanage as a combination of covering their tracks and retribution.

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There are many possibilities before you, and to be perfectly honest, you're not quite sure where to go with them. Eating one of the lemures has changed you in a fundamental manner, done what none of the suggestions or research has done. You could, if you wanted, finish what doctor Rikandra claimed had begin: your growing up, your change or transformation from what Rune called a larva into an imago.

You really should look that word up sometime.

Of course, of far more importance is the fact that you have discovered the reason for the deliberate sacrifice of the orphans to the undead disease that was once called Sebastian. For whatever reason, someone has decided that it would be some kind of good idea to try and weaponize or control an undead haunt, a murdering manifestation of death. In an orphanage. While Doctor Rikandra knew about it, she doesn't approve, and it's clear that Sister Christina has some kind of power or hold over her, or someone else does. Rikandra has forgotten almost everything about you, knowing only what is in the files and that the files are supernaturally changed.

Then there is the vampire itself. While Sebastian may have been an orphan and a creature of magic, now he is simply something deadly. You know that he manifests after midnight and your cats and you can hurt him. You don't know exactly what's changed since the first time....except now you know his name. Circe said names held power. Rune mentioned that the names of creatures like her and yourself were always magic or a variation of it. When you were eating the corrupt ghost of Judy Hapsburg (not her soul, ghosts aren't human souls, thank God and Goddess), you saw Thomas as a reflection of the meaning of his name. There's something important there, you know it. But the main thing is, now you can hurt the vampire....sort of. Circe warned you that unless you find the body buried somewhere on the orphanage grounds you can't kill it permanently. Luckily you're just as hard to kill permanently according to Rune. Which somehow is different than dying.

Shit's whack, yo, as kit would say.

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The lemures are already out and about too, eleven of them haunting the grounds. They're easily killed, at least individually. While they taste awful, they do something for you, strengthen and change you. Maybe not in a good way, but definitely in a powerful way. It would be a simple matter to eliminate all of them before the nights done - unless you meet the vampire, or get killed by Sister Christina.

That latter is a possibility because you're currently hiding atop one of her bookshelves, hidden in the shadows and carefully not moving. she's at her desk, her head lowered onto her hands, as she massages her temples. Stressed out, and upset that Doctor Rikandra allowed you to erase her memories. Which isn't quite what happened, but the effect was the same. She's kept your secrets and you won't trouble her. However, Timothy is in the infirmary, and Sister Christina and Doctor Rikandra both believe the vampire will appear there to take more of his life. Priscilla is there too you presume, unless they're talking about a different psychopath (you're pretty sure it's not Lyrica). It should appear in about an hour or so, if it holds true to previous appearances.

In short, things are happening quickly and they're not looking good for your kids. At all.

[] Confront Christina; you're different now, and you have a much better grasp of what you can do.
[] Hunt the lemures down. The vampire is using them somehow, and they need to be eliminated.
[] Go see the Doctor, even though she said don't come back. You are different now.
[] Wait for the vampire, and drive it off again.
[] Write in:

>>2102040
>[] Wait for the vampire, and drive it off again.

>>2102040
God I have no idea what to do here.
>[] Write in:
>Find orderly Thomas, apparently he was a monster hunter like Christina and Rikandra and it's pretty likely he's still working with them
As tempting as it is to fight Christina, she still feels a bit dangerous, and if Rikandra is already super-reluctant but still on-paper loyal, I'm not sure how to sway her
But first, maybe?
>Stop by Lyrica's room and ask for the gun
Thomas, Christina, and probably Rikandra are trained to fight monsters, probably often monsters weak to silver, but being human, they probably can't fight bullets. Then again the noisiness might make it really non-ideal, maybe if Hekah thinks it has merit, talk it over with Lyrica ba little?

>>2102060
Don't forget, any movement through the halls risks attention from the orderlies, and there are two on this level along with Christina and the Doctor. They do have radios.

>>2102040
>[] Wait for the vampire, and drive it off again.
And lending support in asking for Lyrica's gun here >>2102060

Project heads tend to try overseeing at least one "test". Christina could decide to do so tonight, as vague as the odds might be.

>apparently he was a monster hunter like Christina and Rikandra
Now this got me wondering if Larry is a foreign spy or just someone assigned to silently keeping tabs on Christina and her project.

>>2102055
That's probably a safe bet, I guess I just feel compelled we should be taking charge but I have no idea how we should do so.
Eating the lemures makes us stronger, but also lose touch with our "humanity" and I kind of want one more kiss from Shaun and Shauna just in case, before we transform.
Christina is definitely bad news, but even though we can probably beat her, I'm not sure how to properly estimate her ability to severely wound us which could severely impede our chances to beat the vampire.
>>2102084
Shit you're right, I forgot Hekah hasn't quite mastered her ability to "skip" through time/space, also I have no idea how fast that ability is. Also wait, is Thomas even here?

>>2102094
He's the one who actually found you eating a lemure, but he's at the orderlies' desk with Allison. Or was, as of ten minutes ago....

>>2102108
Shit you're right. Then maybe he actually wouldn't be a good idea to go after, because while Hekah was on the verge of growing up, she seemed to see things more clearly, and she at least seems to have seen him as someone who cares for the children under his watch and not just as test subjects. Then again that could just mean it doesn't have to be an aggressive confrontation.
>>2102086
I'm starting to have some second thoughts, like if we get caught with the gun, who, if anyone, we should use it on, how to deal with the aftermath. I don't know I think I just had two dumb ideas in a row.

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[X] Wait for the vampire, and drive it off again.
[X] Write in: See if you can get to Lyrica's room and borrow her gun.

As interesting, and useful as your new abilities are, they're strange and you haven't tried them much. One of the biggest worries is time. You know that when you've been 'away' time passes. You don't know if whatever this ability is - it just doesn't seem like 'teleportation' to you - takes any time, or how long it takes to manage it at all. Glancing at the clock, you see you have little more than an hour before the vampire tends to show up. That doesn't give you very long at all, and if you go 'away' during that time, there's no telling when you'll 'come back'.

You're going to have to take the risk though, if you want to get out without alerting Sister Christina.

Closing your eyes, you concentrate on Lyrical. She's Marked, as deeply and intimately as Shaun and Shauna, and you immediately feel the itching burn of healing flesh along your left arm when you marked her. She's drowsing, her room as secure as she can make it with the simple tools that she has handy. She's sitting up in bed, facing the door, back to the wall, the gun in her hands.

You open your eyes and look at her, dressed in a button-down long sleeved nightshirt and very loose boy-shorts, both of the same light blue satin. You walk over to her, and sit on the bed as she nods off again. A glance at the clock shows more than fifteen minutes have passed since you were in the office; it's 11:05 pm. It didn't feel like any time passed at all, but here you are, later. Worse you suspect that it's not a predictable amount of time that passes either.

[] Wake her up by asking her if she is awake.
[] You don't want the gun going off if you can help it, so cover her hands with yours first of all.
[] Let her sleep and forget the gun for now.
[] Write in:

>>2102040
>[] Wait for the vampire, and drive it off again.
I'm just a little hesitant about this one since it means spending an hour doing nothing, and there might be anti-us precautions in place.

I guess I'm just really scared about ways we could mess things/leave things unresolved before the end, and I'm not sure if it's gotten to the every minute counts part yet.

>>2102159
>[] Let her sleep and forget the gun for now.

>>2102159
>A glance at the clock shows more than fifteen minutes have passed since you were in the office; it's 11:05 pm.
Huh, now I have to wonder how long Hekah would imagine it taking to just walk from the office to Lyrica's room, assuming no interruptions. I'd guess faster?

>>2102159
>[] You don't want the gun going off if you can help it, so cover her hands with yours first of all.
Even if we don't need her gun, I don't think it's so bad a thing to just have a quick conversation with someone we considered important enough to us that we vaguely tied our life to theirs.

>>2102159
>[] You don't want the gun going off if you can help it, so cover her hands with yours first of all.

>>2102175
Less than a minute. It's literally just down the hall.

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[X] You don't want the gun going off if you can help it, so cover her hands with yours first of all.

She has the gun held loosely in both hands, her fingers off the trigger (just like she showed you), and it's pretty obvious she was expecting trouble of some kind. The lemures must have scared her more than she showed. Which is fine, they are spooky creatures when you first see them, but after killing and eating one it's a little harder to see them as anything but the vermin Circe accused them of being.

Placing both your hands over hers wakes her up instantly, but you're much stronger than she is, and she can't bring the gun up. There's a little light in her room from the street, though so she calms down very quickly when she sees it's you.

At first anyways.

She goes tense when she gets a good look at you and you look back quizzically. "Hekah?" she asks dubiously, making you frown.

"Who else would I be?" She relaxes when she hears your voice. "What the hell?"

"Your eyes are red," she counters.

"....oh. Uh, yeah, it's still me. I just had...." You stare at her, and suddenly realize that you're not going to be able to pretend to be human much longer at all if you try and explain things to people. "I'm changing, in a couple of ways. I killed one of the lemures. They're not very tough, just fast and sneaky. Well, they're not tough to me, anyways. I don't know what a human can do to them."

She looks at you seriously. "You do realize how that sounded just now, right?"

"....yeah."

Lyrica shrugs. "Well, whatever. Are you going to kill more of them?"

You hesitate. That wasn't the plan, and you're not sure how effective the gun will be on the vampire. On the other hand, gunshots will get lots and lots of attention, and that might not be a bad thing for Tim.

[] Explain that you need the gun, and will bring it back later....unless you actually kill someone with it.
[] Tell her you're going to stop the vampire tonight, at least for tonight, but the gun might be necessary for the people.
[] Maybe later, but right now you have more urgent matters, like saving Timothy.
[] Write in:

>>2102264
>[] Maybe later, but right now you have more urgent matters, like saving Timothy.

>>2102264
>[x] Tell her you're going to stop the vampire tonight, at least for tonight, but the gun might be necessary for the people.
That said, there's no doubt "System Enterprises" is a front for some shadowy organization, and if we waste the project lead there will be an investigation. And if *they* have no qualms about experiments on monsters and human sacrifices required for that, a "clean-up" is the least they can do.

>>2102264
>[] Maybe later, but right now you have more urgent matters, like saving Timothy.

Can't find the right words regarding Sister Christina being involved that'd resonate with Lyrica. Like, if she ends up personally meddling to ensure the vampire gets its victim, it'll require more than just what Hekah has.

But at the moment, yeah, Timothy's well being has priority on this.

>>2102264
>[] Tell her you're going to stop the vampire tonight, at least for tonight, but the gun might be necessary for the people.
>[] Maybe later, but right now you have more urgent matters, like saving Timothy.
>Explain the whole System Enterprises/Christina thing as best you can, ask for her honest opinion on what can be done tonight, if anything, because, living-ghost-story-turned-guardian-deity or not, you're still person enough to be a bit overwhelmed.

>>2102299
Well that is the problem. Like if we kill them, I'm not sure we're physically able to take the fight to the rest, and I'm pretty sure we'd lose.

But if we find Sebastian's coffin, we can't very well take it to a crossroads, and if we flip it, presumably Christina can flip it right back after focusing on "killing" us.

I guess the best way to keep the orphanage safe is to somehow convince them to stop trying to make Traditionally-Accurate-Hellsing a reality and either just keep operating the orphanage or sell it to people who don't suck but I'm not sure if we can do that before quest end

>>2102313
I'm kind of a bit worried that we might potentially incite Lyrica to do something regrettable, but I feel like we have to an extent placed a good amount of trust in her already, and there's no good way of saying "promise not to freak out because I'm thinking of telling you some serious shit"

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[X] Tell her you're going to stop the vampire tonight, at least for tonight, but the gun might be necessary for the people.
[X] Maybe later, but right now you have more urgent matters, like saving Timothy.
[X] Write in: Try and explain a little.

"I overheard Sissy Chrissy talking to the doc tonight. She's letting this....making this happen. She wants to try and control the vampire somehow. Apparently it's some big conspiracy of some kind, and they're killing my kids to do it. I don't think the doc approves, but Chrissy's bosses are pretty bad-ass apparently. So....I got to try and save Timmy. The problem is, while I can probably deal with the vampire, or at least chase it off...."

"The actual people are another problem," she finishes for you. At your nod, and checks the safety on the gun, shows you where it is. "It's not going to go through body armor, and it probably won't kill an adult outright unless you get really lucky. It'll fuck up a kid for sure, though, and shooting anyone in the face is going to make them think twice about what they're doing even if it doesn't kill them."

"How many people have you shot in the face?!"

"None! But my girl has. They lived. They got scars, but they'll live. Now, I've beaten a couple of people nearly to death, and I think I did kill one person, but you know I'm not a nice person." She looks at you and then gets an odd expression on her face. "Which....you know, it's weird. Are you like some kind of guardian angel? Why are you protecting us lowlifes and freaks instead of innocent people?"

"Funny, but I asked someone like me the same - yes, Lyrica there's more than one thing like me running around, don't you feel so much safer knowing that?"

"Fuck no!" she exclaims, and you both laugh.

"Well, apparently things like me don't protect innocent people at all. We're the ones who protect the fuck-ups, the lame-ass dorks, and the hopelessly fucked up people in the world." You look at the gun in your lap staring at it for a moment. "She told me the innocents and good people have plenty of spiritual shit to protect them. People like you, Bethany, Shaun and Shauna, Kit, Bart, Timothy....even Priscilla and Tiffany, you get things like me."

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She nods slowly, looking down at the floor. "Honestly, I think I'd rather have a freak like you protecting my ass rather than some stuck up angel who tries to convince me to be a good girl."

"You're totally welcome, you fuckin' psycho."

She looks at you, and then punches you in the shoulder. You barely feel it of course, and she grins even wider at your mild glare. "Go get 'em, babe!" You snort and walk over to the door, where she has a chair tilted against the handle. You don't have the heart to tell her that it won't stop a determined lemure....but then it occurs to you it's probably not to keep the lemures out. Lettign yourself out, she walk to the door and then stares at you. "How the fuck did you get in my room?!"

With a smile you glance back at her and then look down the hallway. Allison is doing bed checks, but she's on the B-wing rather than this one. Thomas is talking on the radio, and looking in Allison's direction, but you're not close enough to hear what he's saying.

[] On to the infirmary while he's distracted.
[] Risk trying your special trick to get into the infirmary while he's distracted.
[] ....you could kidnap Thomas and interrogate him. You have a little while.
[] Write in:

>>2102372
>[] On to the infirmary while he's distracted.

>>2102372
Hm. On the one hand, if we can convince him to just let a bit of info slip, and maybe even forget about it, we'll be that much closer to resolving this incident. On the other, if he raises a fuss/talks later/we have to disappear his ass, then that would make things a good deal harder than they are.

Also I'm glad we got closer to Lyrica, she's a good friend.

>>2102372
>[x] On to the infirmary while he's distracted.

I think the best course of action (after stopping the vampire, of course) would be somehow convincing the higher-ups that Christina is mentally unfit for the post. Maybe we should convince Rikandra and Thomas to speak up?

>>2102372
>[] On to the infirmary while he's distracted.

>>2102392
The problem is, as I said with >>2098364
If these guys are already okay with killing kids, it's hard to know what they won't do. Like even if they just transfer the orphans themselves elsewhere, they're definitely not -beyond- burning down the orphanage, and I don't know how or if we can influence their choices.

>>2102372
>[] Write in:
>Sneak past him the best we can (without 'skipping') but if he sees us, nab him.

>>2102372
>[] On to the infirmary while he's distracted.

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[X] On to the infirmary while he's distracted.
[X] Write in: If he sees you, all bets are off.

Seeing an opportunity, you take it, leaving Lyrica to her confusion and surprise. Thomas seems to be focused on making sure Allison doesn't see him on the radio, and you have to pass by the desk to get to the infirmary entrance. That lets you eavesdrop a little. "....yes ma'am. No ma'am. So far, nothing unusual. Well, there was one child who got sick, but it's cleaned up and she's back in bed. Yes ma'am, I'm sure." His patience is wearing pretty thin despite his polite words, you can smell the latent anger simmering from him, like bloody meat thrown on a hot cast iron skillet.

Gliding past him you reach the infirmary....and the locked door that stands between you and it. You close your eyes and then stop yourself. It's a door. In your orphanage. Why should it be locked to you. You're part of it, aren't you? If those stupid lemures can do it....

You jiggle the door handle slightly and the tumblers engage, allowing you to open the door easily. Thomas starts to turn just as you close the door, the lock mechanism clicking into place immediately. You're pretty sure you had to give up a little more of what makes you human-like to manage it,but it's worth it if you get to safe one of your kids. You glide through the darkness of the front office silently, and into the care rooms, where Doctor Rikandra is waiting, leaning against one of the counters and smoking a cigarette. The red glow that lights up her face increases as she takes a hard drag from it, the scent of cloves filling the air. She watches you with a somber expression.

"You must be Hekah, yeah? The little mystery girl. Pretty, except those eyes. Red yeah? Not much human left in you. Don't know what you are, but not human is enough." She lets the smoke drift from her mouth as she speaks, rather than exhaling it.

[] I'm Hekah, yeah. What are you going to do about it?
[] I'm not here for you. Live and let live, you know?
[] You might want to leave - this won't be very pleasant for anyone.
[] write in:

>>2102458
>[] I'm not here for you. Live and let live, you know?

>>2102458
>[] I'm not here for you. Live and let live, you know?

>>2102458
>[x] I'm not here for you. Live and let live, you know?
You know exactly *why* I appeared here.

>>2102458
>[] I'm not here for you. Live and let live, you know?

>>2102458
>After what I've seen and heard, most recently with Christina earlier tonight, I'm not convinced being human has much inherent value. I am a person though, or at least doing my best.

>>2102458
>[] You might want to leave - this won't be very pleasant for anyone.

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[X] I'm not here for you. Live and let live, you know?
[X] Write in: Maybe not human, but i'm still a person.

Staring back, you shrug mildly. "I don't have any problems with you. I'm here to protect Timothy from something horrible. I can bet that Sister Christina told you my weaknesses, and if she didn't, that's fine too." Doctor Rikandra places her hands against the counter, still holding the cigarette between her left index and pointer finger. You notice the slender scalpel on the counter near her right hand though. "You helped me once. Now I'm going to help you, even if you're not supposed to let me. The rules aren't the same, but some of them were always there."

"Don't hurt Hekah's cats; don't make Hekah mad; tough as nails, thrice as strong. The rules, I know them. The little ones always tell them to me." Rikandra takes another drag from her clove cigarette, and inhales the smoke drifting from her mouth into her nose slowly. "You had something to do with the crazy girl, the one with the rider, yeah?"

It takes a few seconds for the words to make sense. You nod warily, realizing she meant Priscilla's demon.

She glances at her luminous watch, and then crosses her arms. "Some time left. Talk a bit, yeah?"

"Tim's in there?" You nod towards drawn curtains around one bed. She makes an affirmative sound. "Okay."

She takes another drag and holds it before letting the smoke drift from between her lips, not inhaling it back this time. "That woman is a fool. Thinks that she can tame a monster like a dog, teach it tricks. Monsters are predictable, she says. And maybe a little, yeah. But not that thing. It's an empty hole, never going to be filled. You, little monster, you going to try and kill it?"

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You bite your lip, and then take a leap of faith. "It can't be killed permanently until the body is bound somehow. I don't know where the body is. Do you?"

She frowns, considering carefully. "Nope. But the little spirits follow the big spirits, yeah? Congregate, nest. You find some ghosts, they show you where, sure." You try and contain your excitement; you know where his body has to be. "What are you, then, spirit, ghost, monster?"

"Darkling," you tell her, using the name from Jeanine's book. "Monster that's part spirit, part real. You can't kill me, even if you make me die. I might not be human but....I'm still a person, right now. Human enough." You unwrap the bandage and look at the pale spot on either side of your hand. "I can kill that thing though. I'm strong enough, I think. you probably don't want to stick around for it though." You can't help but think of the gunshot you heard after the last time someone saw what you could do when pressed.

Rikandra nods, not necessarily in agreement. "Foolish woman thought you might be something useful. Don't think she's right. You're here, must have been others like us that know you. Yet still here. So...." The doctor sighs. "....can't stop it on my side. But maybe you make a lot of noise, get attention? Maybe end this. Close shelter maybe, but...." she makes a palms-out gesture: 'There you have it.'

You lick your lips, and realize she's offering to make you a deal. One you might not be able to afford to not take....

>To Be Continued....

Thank you for reading and playing.

Hekah's "leap of faith" is based on how anons have portrayed her throughout the game: willing to take a risk if it's someone she thinks she can trust, and has proven trustworthy before.

>>2102554
Thanks for running XS

>>2102554
Thanks for running, and I think that leap of faith was definitely a good inclusion, especailly since I assumed Rikandra was reasonably familiar with how vampires work.

...With her deal though, I'm not sure we really do have any alternatives unfortunately. Like our cats may keep us from fading entirely, as well as the ones we marked, but... there's not really any good ways for Hekah's "life" to end anyway.

>>2102550
>But maybe you make a lot of noise, get attention
Though wait, is she saying we should go full Amityville, because even if we can, I'm not sure I wanna. Like re-traumatizing a bunch of fucked up kids doesn't seem like the best course of action, even if it's vaguely for the greater good.

...It'd be nice if they could instead fill this place with people like Sebastian and other spooky types, only with the goal of making them functional (and potentially useful to the organization) as living people and not undead monstrosities, but that -really- doesn't seem to be in line with the priorities of the people in charge.

Is this quest going to end after defeating or being defeated by the vampire?

>>2107109
That is correct. there are still a dozen ways this could go sideways of course, but yes.

Then I'll finish up stories and contemplate something else.

>>2107165
Could you do something maybe in the same world?

I mean it seems kinda interesting, these weird creatures that exist between the walls of a place or haunt people. I like this kind of dystopian occult-hidden-in-places-people-refuse-to-look kinda stuff. I figure if that stuff was real that is how it would be, hidden in plain site in places people just want to glance away from for various reasons and try to forget.

>>2107969
I'm not sure. My ideas come constantly and only when they become obsessively intense am I forced to create things like, well, this.