Room 116 - Shadow Of The Past

[Narrator]

The rays of the sun are starting to filter into the room and starting to rouse Sam from her well-deserved sleep. Next to her, Tereza's sleeping like the proverbial log, her consciousness still wandering some dreaming path. As proper dawn strikes, a voice rings harshly in Sam's ears, "Morrigan. I summon the Morrigan." The voice is raspy and rough and full of pain. She can feel the pull of magic in the words. They're not a compulsion, but there's a desire to answer them all the same. She gets a mental image of a waterfront warehouse building she's seen on a walk in Maldon.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam tenses, getting up and out of bed before making her way to the window.

Gripping the window, she throws it open wide, heedless of the cold winter air.

She opens her mouth wider than should be possible, and from it emerges a single raven. It shakes its feathers out and takes flight towards the Maldon waterfront.

Sam remains at the window, hands pressed against the sill and eyes closed.

[Narrator]

There's a heavy sense around the warehouse. The raven has no problem honing in on the right one. Violence was committed here, but not the kind the Morrigan craves. Something dark has been done here. The windows are all opaque with dirt, though several are broken.

[Samantha McManus]

The raven bobs and weaves, trying to find the one that summoned it. It slips in through one of the larger broken windows.

[Narrator]

The smoke of incense hangs in the air. As the raven follows the tug, she finds the one who summoned her. Erica is spiked to floor, silver blades in her wrists and legs. Under her is some sort of ritual circle, the sort of dark magic used to inflict pain. Above Erica's head, just outside the ritual circle is a rough symbol of a blood red bird, probably painted in Erica's blood. Erica's unconscious now, but the raven, having a sense for these things, knows she's still alive and likely to stay that way. All her deals are in full effect and no one can claim her. Off to one side, something else catches the raven's eye. A shiny blade is driven into one of the wooden support posts, pinning a handwritten note to the post. The note reads:

The daughter is running out of time. She should get about her business before the son comes for someone else.

[Samantha McManus]

The raven hops around the borders of the circle, and Sam's mind tries to make contact with Erica.

"Who did this to you?"

[Erica Carlisle]

Making contact with Erica's mind is hard. She's in a lot of pain and it's hard to get through to her. All Sam gets is a mental image of a handsome man in a dark suit with a bright red tie along with the echoes of words, "Say hello to mother for me."

[Samantha McManus]

"I'll be back. You're going to get out of this."

Her attention still with the raven, it takes flight and starts scouting around, figuring out the easiest way into the warehouse if she had to go on foot, and if anyone or anything is standing guard.

[Narrator]

There's nothing immediately obvious, though something about the magic is making it hard to properly assess the building. There might be someone or something lingering in the building, but certainly nothing on the order of a being with that much power... well, except maybe Erica that is.

[Cailleach]

Meanwhile, back in the dorm room Sam's body suddenly jerks. Her mouth is still hanging open and from inside thin fingers reach out and grabs on to her lower jaw as if to pull itself out, soon followed by an arm, the appendage slick with some kind of black ichor. The arm bends at the elbow and grabs a hold of the chin before a second arm forces itself out, soon followed by a matted mess of hair. The rest of Sam seems to deflate as she's turned inside out until what's left of her forms into the legs of the woman now standing in her place. She resembles Sam the same way that all her various aspects do, only her hair isn't red or white or black but stringy and shiny like an oil-slick shimmers with unnatural colors. For a moment she simply stands there, swaying slightly, then she suddenly moves, limbs jerking too fast and too rigidly to not be called unsettling. Bending at impossible angles she leans down, hands on the floor as she stalks over to where Tereza is sleeping.

She leans down, stringy hair brushing across Tereza's skin as the woman places one hand against the wall and the other next to her head, barely shifting the mattress and avoiding to wake the sleeping werewolf. She opens her mouth and lets her tongue fall past rows of sharp teeth. The tongue lolls through the air, just barely avoiding making contact as she draws a sharp breath of air through her nose in a deep sniff that makes the faintest gurgling sound in the back of her throat. "Patience..." she whispers before her head jerks back, tongue snapping back into her mouth as her head turns 180 degrees with a couple of jerks and the woman crawls off the bed again like a macabre spider retreating into it's nest. "Lie and wait in the deep dark just a little longer..." she hushes to herself before beginning a strange collapse into a pile of limbs from which Samantha's body rises once again, the only sign that anything happened the slight smear of black ichor clinging to the corner of her mouth.

[Samantha McManus]

The raven returns shortly and crawls back down Sam's throat. She wipes her mouth and shuts the window, going back towards the bed.

"Get up," she says to Tereza. "Something's very wrong."

She reaches for her phone and starts a text message.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza opens her eyes slowly, "What? What's wrong?"

[Samantha McManus]

"I know where Erica is,"she says as she sends the text message.

"She summoned me."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"She's done that before, hasn't she?" Tereza says, sitting up and starting look around for clothes. "What does she want now?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Saved."

"Someone's got her bound in a place near the docks. There was a message. I think it's about Viv."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"How do you..." She begins pulling her clothes on faster.

[Samantha McManus]

"I'm getting Will. We might need Sean, too."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Do you want me to get Viv?"

[Will Stanton]

A few moments later, a knock came on the door. On the other side, a (about half-scaled) bald, vaguely shiny, badly-mass-produced version of Will stood, arms behind his back.

"You needed something?" he asked, looking up at whoever answered.

He smelled vaguely of mint.

[Samantha McManus]

"You up for a mission?" Sam asks as she opens the door.

"Bad shite's afoot."

[Will Stanton]

"If a mission's going on, I can help," he said, sort of awkwardly looking down. "Is it cleared with ASHLIE?"

[Samantha McManus]

"It's cleared with me."

"I've been formally summoned. Bad form not to ring my champion."

[Will Stanton]

Will raised an eyebrow. "She's putting on her clothes over there," he said, gesturing at Tereza.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza shrugs, "You're still her champion, Will. My role is different."

[Samantha McManus]

"I mean, I don't recall getting your resignation letter."

She heads over to her dresser and starts pulling on jeans.

[Will Stanton]

"It's not a job at McDonald's. It's not an issue of giving a two-week notice.

I no longer qualify. As I told Tereza in Hollydale, her Champion is her Wolf now.


I can still help, if need be," he said, shifting weight from one foot to the other at the threshhold to the room. "Though you will have to explain to ASHLIE what happened if we're going off-campus."

[Samantha McManus]

"And how am I supposed to know that when you refuse to talk to me?"

[Will Stanton]

Will tensed up, clenching one fist. "I'm talking to you now. If you don't need my help..."

[Samantha McManus]

"A woman is bleeding on a warehouse floor by the Maldon docks."

Sam's hair darkens to black as she ties her shoes.

"We will talk. After."

[Will Stanton]

"...alright. We'll talk when everything more important has been taken care of.

What do you need?"

[Tereza Rozanov]

"We need some way to get down to the waterfront. Preferably something *without* the University logo on it, I'm guessing. Any ideas?"

[Samantha McManus]

"The motorcycle's out, for sure."

Sam's mind casts out to Viv.

"Viv, you up? Big things going down. Need to move."

[Vivienne Chinnoir]

"I am here and on my way. Shall I bring Gemma?"

[Samantha McManus]

"If you want. We found out what happened to Erica and it isn't pretty."

[Will Stanton]

"We need some way to get down to the waterfront. Preferably something *without* the University logo on it, I'm guessing. Any ideas?"

"Not a problem.

...How many people are we taking with us?"

[Vivienne Chinnoir]

Vivienne slipped into the room with Cal strapped to her back. She lightly places a hand on Sam's shoulder.

[Samantha McManus]

"You're looking at most of them. I don't know if Gemma is coming along, and we haven't reached Sean yet."

[Will Stanton]

"Shouldn't be a problem getting everyone there. I can do inconspicuous."

[Samantha McManus]

Sometime after returning from the impromptu mission, Sam trudges back into the impromptu command center her dorm room had become that morning.

"Well that's sorted," she says with a frustrated sigh.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza looks up from the jerky she's munching on, "Oh? Find out who we're looking for?"