A Double murder. A major crime. Possible Occult links. That’s what draws Star to the scene to investigate. Under the cover of a student reporter Star gained entrance to the crime scene, led through it by Detective Barton. Inviting Pepper and Einstein to the scene to assist, Star followed Barton inside to find the smell and sight of blood along with a nerve-wracking message on the wall written in Higher Speech disguised as gibberish.
Inside Star found connections to corrupted versions of Prime and Spirit in the words, as well as a spiral of Death. Outside, Pepper and Einstein tried to piece their own things together. Pepper confirmed Molina’s role in the hierarchy as well as the location of the bodies in the van, while Einstein opened her eyes to the Twilight and the spirits. What Einstein saw outside the house was a nightmarish spider-like spirit with a false human head and angler fish-like teeth that patrolled the front of the house like a guard dog. Then, the spirit of violence and blood scratched at the door to the house, where the violence and blood had come from.
As he looked around, Star could see that the victims were an older couple, married for a long time, with no thoughts that their blood would one day be used to spell out a crazed message. He could tell that the man was murdered in the living room while the woman was murdered in her own bed. And Barton worried it would happen again.
Meanwhile Pepper witnessed the moment that the bodies were found, and the scream that followed it. Einstein, at the same time, lured the spider-like spirit towards her. The words “Blood. Hate. White. Rage.” escaped the spirit's mouth. Einstein asked why it wasn’t anchored, and all it said was “Opportunity,” “Mine”, and “Anchor”.
Back inside the house, Barton revealed that the hearts of the victims were taken, ripped from their chest, while outside the Spider Spirit continued to approach Einstein before finally shambling away.[1]
Later, in Einstein’s van, Star wrote out the words written in victim’s blood on the walls and Einstein set to deciphering them. What she uncovered was, first, that the words were part of a ritual, and second, that they contained fragments of different Arcana. Prime ad Unmaking, with a spiral of death and perverted Life were present. But the real Rune that stuck out, the calling card of the killer, was Compelling, Spirit, and Obrimos.[2]
Soon after, Star brought Arthur and July into the investigation where July connected the writing to the Demiurge.[3] After reaching out to their contacts, July and Arthur both received notifications of another murder.[4]
Around that same time, Einstein had brought Crowley in and the two of them went back to the first crime scene for another look. After many minutes of crashed entrances and neighbors nearly missing Crowley, the duo finally got inside the house. Crowley became overcome with the smells emanating from the room of death, so Einstein decided to look around and found a flyer that said:
- '“Recover Your Lives. Change it. Take Charge of It. Let us Show you The Way.
- Ever Forward“
Back in the murder room, Crowley recovered from his aversion to the smells and slowly looked back in time, finding the sight of a man in shadows over the body of the woman, her heart in his hand. Upon a further look, Crowley could make out a tall, broad, Caucasian man with a very particular nose. Hopefully he could remember the pieces he saw.[5]
In another part of the city, a down and forgotten area, July, Arthur, and Star arrived to find a new victim. Talking to Detective Barton, Star discovered that the new victim was a Jane Doe, found in an alleyway and most likely a prostitute, with no clear connection to the first victims. Protesters against the violence in their streets stood beyond the police line, disinterested in talking to former marshals about their fears. The same words were scrawled on the wall of the alley in the victim’s blood and this victim too had heart taken. [6]
Scenes
- ↑ [1], Religions of Idolatry
- ↑ [2], Planning Time
- ↑ [3], A Friend in Need
- ↑ [4], Intel Smintel
- ↑ [5], CSI Sacramento
- ↑ [6], Crusing for Leads
