Devil In The Dark(IC)

[Vahnyu]

GM Post

 

All the fury, the rage, the sorrow, the weariness, and the desperation that Carmen had been building up, all of it got unleashed into this one powerful blow, a blow that carried with it the hopes of the humans she protected. Pushing through the pain of her leg, she let a mighty wallop that literally smashed through the Magician's head, sending shadowy substances splatering all around, until they faded away. The blow followed through, cutting through the Magician's torso as if it were a watermellon, until the cane hit the ground. The rest of the magician started fading away, but not before he gave some parting words.

 

"You have done well, Daughter of the Cane. You have cleared your first hurdle, but be careful; the road ahead will only get more dangerous, from here on out. You cannot afford to worry about the dead, for they will lead you to your doom. You are but the Fool, taking your first step on your perilous Journey. And I am the Magician, showing you the road that you must take. So fight, and survive, until you can see all that the World has to offer."

 

As soon as he finished, the last speck of his existance vanished, while the four relics that floated around him burned away. The only thing left behind was a scribbled stone tablet the size of a card, that fell into the ground. No sooner did the humans catch up to Pitch, that the first few demons flew into the dark cloud and the smoking ember zone that Pitch and the Magician had created during the battle. Confusion ensued, as the demonic creatures seemed unable to perceive their surroundings in the darkness.

 

"Oh god... is it over?" William asked, in between trying to catch his breath.

[Supercape]

"Its never over" replied Pitch, slumping against the stone walls. The Cantos cane felt heavy and horrible, and she was reminded that it was never hers. It was her fathers. 

 

She was mindful to keep up the smoke and heat, although it would no doubt be unbearable for the soldiers. It was better to keep the cover up than not, given a veritable army of horrors could be swirling over head or around them. 

 

"If you have any bright ideas about how to get out of this, I am all ears" she said. 

 

She rotated the stone in the palm of her hand, getting a feel for it, and casting her blazing eyes over its surface. 

[Vahnyu]

GM Post

 

The Captain struggled to catch her breath, until she finally answered Carmen "We should... haaah, haaaah, we should just make a run for it! Haaah, if we stay here, we, haaah, haaah, we will be overrun before you know it... haaah."

 

"What about the demons here?" William asked, while also struggling to keep his breath.

 

"They seem preoccupied at the moment... we might be able to take them, but that would attract the attention of the rest of the demons in the village." She calmly responded, having managed to keep her breathing under control, and stabilize her andrenaline levels. "Besides, we risk the lives of the wounded if we pick a fight..."

 

William went silent at that. Theirs was a dire situation, indeed. They could ill afford spreading their attention.

 

"Look, we can't fight on two fronts. Either we run in hopes of saving Pedro and Dennis here, or we abandon them to their fates and fight on."

 

"... No. Hell no! We're not leaving them to their deaths!" William Smithson burst out, almost alerting the darkness-trapped demons to their location.

[Supercape]

"Running ain't my style" grunted Pitch. The charge had wrenched her leg. The paralysed foot felt little or nothing, as normal, but as the sensation and power improved up to her knee, her thigh, her hip; these joints that took the strain were complaining. She kept her eyes blazing and the smoke belching. 

 

"Crawling, limping...I can do that. Won't be pretty" she said, getting to her legs and holding on to her cane. 

 

"Lets get out of here!"

 

She could feel the tablet stone in her other hand, pulling...

 

Its as good a direction as any...

[Vahnyu]

GM Post

 

"If it's any consolation, miss Canto..." The Captain quipped. "... we won't be any better at running, what with the injured and all."

 

"Let's go, then!" William urged, and the team followed Carmen's lead, exiting the fiery smoke completely. The demons eventually escaped their smoking cell, but having lost track of Carmen and co, they continued rampaging through the village, their cries echoing throughout the area.

 

Soon Carmen was overcome with fatigue, her raging fury having rescinded and her adrenaline dropping like a rock on the water. The Captain and William noticed her slowed pace, and grabbed her from each side, while also holding the wounded on their other shoulder. After about a minute had passed, Carmen had managed to compose herself, at least enough to be able to move all out on her own again.

 

---

 

S/W Forest, Forest Entrance Clearing

11:45

 

Thus the five of them made their way, pushing through the exhaustion and pain, until they managed to find a clearing that led to the deeper forest. A hut, just as abandoned as every other building in the island, was waiting for them, there, while the Tablet urged Carmen to press on towards the forest.

 

"Think we should be safe here?" William asked, as he surveyed their surroundings. "I doubt anything followed us."

[Supercape]

“We can hope. But keep your powder dry” she replied to William, indicating his firearm.

She paused a moment. The soldiers were too weary, exposed. She was in no good shape herself, but she had fire in her blood. Literally as well as metaphorically.

She forced Tazel to fire down, and marched to the hut with the soldiers.

“Lets catch our breath. Tend to the wounded. Eat. Drink. Some coffee would go down well…” she asked as she opened the hut door.

[Vahnyu]

GM Post

 

After agreeing to make a much needed stop, Carmen and co entered the hut, and immediately seeing two beds inside, they hurriedly left Pedro and Dennis on them. "Ah, thank god! I thought I was gonna fall from the weight..." the Captain complained.

 

William was similarly thankful that they managed to get a breath. After a while, he checked up on the wounded. The gnash on Dennis' shoulder seemed pretty deep, but other than the blood loss and bone fracture, none worse for the wear. Pedro, on the other hand... "Eww, that's nasty." he remarked on the gaping wound on Pedro's chest that had turned a blackish colour. "Captain? Think it's infected?"

 

The Captain put her hand on Pedro's forehead. "Seems to be burning up. Let's get some first aid from their bags." She instructed, and William obliged. Styptic, antiseptic, sutures, and bandages were procured from the bag Dennis had, as well as some antibiotics. William himself had some xylocaine and syringes on him. He wasted no time getting to work, while the Captain procured a canister fueled stove, which she used to boil some water. She then addressed their saviour. "Miss Canto? Can you keep this cloth on Dennis' wound? Try and keep the blood from flowing anymore. This might take some time, and while Dennis isn't exactly in a life threatening position, we wouldn't want to take any chances." She explained.

 

William first disinfected the wound with antiseptic, and then applied styptic to slow the blood flow. Then, he checked the body for nearby arteries. Last thing he wanted was for his patient to start thrashing about from the pain while he operated at him. As soon as he found one, he injected it with xylocaine. He repeated that process four times, checking to see how the body responded to the impending numbness. Once he became sure that xylocaine was taking effect, he washed his hands using some of the boiled water the Captain had prepared, and sterilized the sutures as best he could.

 

As he was about to stitch the wound, William prayed, for good luck and in order to steel his nerves. "Just like at the Academy..."

[Supercape]

Wearily, Carmen helped patch up the wounded, and she did so with care. She had tended to a few cuts and scrapes after the odd bar room brawl, and even nursed the odd lover from a beating or two. She was hardly a stranger to the sight of blood, but she was no friend to it either. She did her best. Which basically meant being there. 

 

She risked letting the smoke and heat dissipate. It was no environment for resting, and besides, she had her attention elsewhere. Hopefully bricks and mortar would cover them; for now. She kept an eye open for something wicked, in case this way it came. 

[Vahnyu]

GM Post

 

The surgery proceeded relatively smoothly, with William carefully stitching Pedro's chest up, and then bandaging it up. It really was a miracle; an inch or two deeper, and the demonic blade would have ruptured his heart, increasing the bloodloss by tenfold and leading to a swift death. But even so, even with a stitched wound across his chest, Pedro wasn't out of the woodworks yet. William sighed in relief as he managed to not horribly maim his patient, as he went about cleaning his hand from the blood. While he did so, the Captain administered to the still unconscious Pedro some antibiotics, making sure he swallowed them without choking. "Well, he's out of any immediate threat, at least, but he's lost a lot of blood." She informed Carmen, as she and William were ready to attend to Dennis. "We also tried dealing with his fever as best we could, but if his temperature spikes again, it could spell trouble."

 

"What he needs, the Captain is trying to say, is professional help." William explained.

 

"Regardless, let's see what we can do about this one." The captain pressed on, and they all got to working on Dennis's shoulder.

 

They followed a similar procedure, but they had less to worry about. After half an hour had passed, Dennis started regaining consciousness. He wobbled and shook, and his eyes looked lythargic, but he was at least responsive. "Wha-... What happened?" He asked, as he looked around. If the threat of demons weren't looming in his subconscious, he might have even made inquiries about licence plates and their cars thereof.

[Supercape]

Pitch wandered the motley crew. Every rifle she picked up she handled with smoke and fumes, seeping from her hands into the machines. Infernal oil. 

 

"Juice for your guns" she explained. "Start firing and it will ignite. Don't worry, won't eat your soul or anything, just give the gun a bigger kick". 

 

She was worried about Pedro, but what could she do? Did the mysterious island even have a hospital? The best she could think of was the mansion of the deceased rock star. Perhaps some antibiotics, maybe even an IV line. But unlikely to have a trauma surgeon. 

 

"Best we bring Pedro back to the house of Archeron" she ventured. "At least he would be comfortable there. Maybe even somebody around who can help him, at least, better than we can". 

 

"But then, we need to find a way off this island. And I bet that's not going to be easy..."

[Vahnyu]

GM Post

 

The Captain explained the situation to Dennis, as Carmen was handing out her specialty enchanted soup'd up riffles. One could feel the increased kick in power they held, as if it was raring to be unleashed. They looked wary at first, but they thanked her nonetheless. "What you're doing for us, miss Canto... I doubt a lifetime would be enough to repay you." She said, words full of gratitude.

 

On 26/3/2016 at 1:09 AM, Supercape said:

"Best we bring Pedro back to the house of Archeron" she ventured. "At least he would be comfortable there. Maybe even somebody around who can help him, at least, better than we can". 

 

Dennis nodded in agreement "As a matter of fact, there is! Master Acheron might have been a reclusive artist, but he wasn't a bonehead. You don't live on your own island, far removed from civilization, if you can't ensure that you'll have access to proper medical health care." The Captain and William chirped up on this, as they attentively listened to Dennis. "There's a licenced doctor among the servants in the mansion. She may be a pathologist, but she can operate as well, if she has to. There's a clinic inside the mansion, for such occasions, and it could even handle something like a blood transfusion."

 

Well, hehehe. Good news to know that even if we get horribly maimed, at least we will have proper care on our hands, master. Tazel quipped

 

"Alright then. So what do we do?" William asked.

 

"Pedro needs help. But we can't be going back and forth at the drop of the heart either; we need to find a way out of this godforsaken island. The sooner the better." The Captain pondered for a moment, and then she came to a conclusion. "We need an hour's rest. Then, we'll have to split up. Dennis, can you fire a rifle?"

 

"Well... it was my left shoulder that got hurt, so I doubt it will be any problem." Dennis replied, keeping a brave face on him.

 

"Right... Pedro will need at least two people to transfer him back to the manor. What say you, miss Canto?"

Edited March 29, 2016 by Vahnyu

[Supercape]

"There is no road from here that is without risk or consequence" replied Canto, irritable at the predicament. 

 

Pedro would be safer with her. And yet the stone was calling. 

 

She wiped her brow. She felt dirty, and not in a good way. Perhaps then, with every path a potential torture, this was not a decision for the head, but the heart. Archeron had died because of her; because protecting her identity was more important than saving a mans life. 

 

She needed Pedro to live. To feel clean. Or at least, cleaner. 

 

"I'm not leaving Pedro, or any of you. Not with the skies and waters filled with fire" she explained. "Let us rest and go back to the mansion. From there, onwards again. Maybe Archeron has a stable and a horse". It was not so serious a suggestion, but you never knew with a crazy rock recluse. She half imagined he had stables, but half imagined it would have goats, camels, and kangeroos in it rather than anything that could be ridden. 

[Vahnyu]

GM Post

 

The group agreed with Carmen, honestly elated that they wouldn't be venturing out on their own. Even with the boosted rifles, they were too vulnerable, so it seemed to them that having Pitch covering their backs was indeed their safest bet. Dennis did inform Carmen, much to her displeasure, that there had been no domesticated beasts of burden in the island, since the catastrophe many years ago. But at any rate, their course of action had been drawn, and the group was resolved to see it through, come high water or, literally in this case, hell!

 

After the hour had passed, they gathered their things, created a makeshift stretcher that could hold Pedro. William Smithson, being the most physically fit of the bunch, shouldered the burden of carrying Pedro all by himself. Fastening the stretcher on his shoulders and waist, he carried Pedro, while the Captain and Dennis held their guns trained and at the ready. This was gonna be a long walk...

 

---

 

Lamant Manour, St Blaise Village, Riverrock Island.

1946

 

"GET BACK!" The man shouted furiously. "LEAVE FELIPE-LOUIS!" He said, while clutching a young boy in his arms for dear life.

 

The woman was holding a shovel, fire burning in her eyes as she spoke. "I won't let you keep my son away from me!"

 

"I'm doing this for our good!" The man pleaded. "Maria, please understand! This is for the sake of our FAMILY!!"

 

Maria would have none of that. She tried taking a swipe at the man,  "If you think that I'll let you have your way, you have another thing coming, Jean-Louis." She threatened, as she tried taking a few more hacks at the man. Meanwhile, the boy, Felipe-Louis, clutched his ears while tears were streaming out of his eyes, as his father dragged him against his will, away from his mother.

 

However, all it took was a small misstep. Jean-Louis, while trying to avoid Maria's attacks with the shovel, was unaware that he was near the staircase that lead to the cellar, slipped, and tumbled downwards, while trying to keep hold of his son and cushion him, as best he could.

 

"NOOOOO!" The woman shouted, at the sight of the two falling to their doom. She ran towards the cellar, finding the lifeless body of her husband, and the bruised and battered, but still very much alive body of her son, Felipe. She ran to him, broke him free of his father's hands, and hugged him with all her strength. "AAAAAHHH... Thank god... Thank god..." she cried words of gratitude.

 

"Mum?..." The boy asked, unsure, or perhaps unwilling to realise, what was happening.

 

"It's okay..." She tried to comfort her son.

 

"But dad, he-" He tried to say, before being sushed.

 

"It's okay, it's okay. Mommy's here... It will be alright." She cried, tears of joy, as she looked at the magic circle that had been drawn in place in the cellar, with the lifeless body of her other son, Georges. "It will be alright..." She comforted her son, with a smile on her face.

 

-To Be Continued-