Eve of the Witching Hour 2

Two hours later

When Blair opened the front door, her tired eyes widened a bit at what she saw. Ganzac, who had previously made his dislike and mistrust of John well known, now played some sort of card game with him. John was currently the one who sat opposite of Ganzac and the front door, and looked up from the set of cards in his hand.

“Hey Blair, welcome back. Wanna join us for the next game?” John casually asked as he placed another card on the table. Her eyes shifted between the two of them, filled with suspicion. Just before she had left, John wouldn’t have sat comfortably near Ganzac even when she sat in between them. But now, they played together as if they were old buddies.

“So… you two seem to be getting along well,” she said as she began to take off her shoes and coat. “I know I told you two to play nice, but I was still half expecting to find a John shaped hole in the wall when I came back.”

“Nope, like you said, you told us to play nice, so we did,” John replied as he glanced at his half empty health bar. “We got bored a bit after you left, and I noticed a deck of cards was just sitting on the kitchen table, so I asked Ganzac if he wanted to play a few games while we waited. Although we seemed to have ended up playing more than just a few. Aw dammit,” he said as he dropped his cards on the table in defeat.

However, John’s words did not tell the same tale as his thoughts. Although Gamer’s Body had already healed the damage, the memories would likely haunt him forever, or at least for the next few days. John glanced at the time on his phone, about one more hour until it would be 11:00 P.M. and he would have to leave for Ashcroft Academy.

“Uhuh, alright then…” Blair said as she sat down on the couch and grabbed the remote. Now that the round was over, Ganzac collected the cards and began to shuffle them elegantly between his gloved hands.

“How did the job go? A class C is usually a tougher case for you,” Ganzac asked. Blair let out a yawn as she began to flip through several channels without any real destination in mind.

“Yeah… but I had some people from the Order there with me to help out as well. It was a case directly from them after all. So that ended up being a lot less work for me than it would have been otherwise.” She let herself sink further into the couch. “But by Gaia, they were such assholes about it. Chewing me out for how long it took me to get there, and their usual stuck up, know it all attitudes. Like yeesh, there were a few times where I had to hold myself back from just… ugh.”

Upon that mention of the Order, John couldn’t help but flinch slightly as he recalled Wentworth’s words.

“The Order, huh? I thought you disliked them and their preference to just destroy demons instead of understanding them?” John asked as he tried to probe out her relationship with the Order. She put the remote to the side and just closed her eyes as she thought.

“Hmm, I do. But, I do work for them as a contractor, where they can pretty much call on me whenever they want to. They definitely do pay well though, and leave me alone for the most part. Hence why I can bring demons over without worrying about drawing their attention, since as long as I’m not stupid about it, what they don’t know won’t hurt them. I can thank having a few years of working with them and building up their trust for that. But… even if I didn’t work for them, it’s not like I would be able to just do whatever I wanted. They are still the Order after all.”

“Ah, ok. That’s cool,” John replied as Ganzac handed him his set of cards and they began the next round.

meanwhile, in an undisclosed location

Two individuals walked side by side through a dimly lit hallway. One showed no outward signs of emotion while the other nervously fidgetted, constantly adjusting and readjusting his clothing. They continued to move in silence for the next few minutes until they arrived at a series of doors. There were nine in total: four on the left, four more on the right, and lastly, one at the end of the hallway.

They picked one on the left, the blank faced man opened it and let the other through, before he closed it behind him. The room that they now stood in was one shrouded in darkness, save for its back where a single set of candles gave off light. Those candles were placed upon the armrest of a wood and velvet throne. That throne was at the top of several steps, as if to symbolize that the one who sat in it was at a higher level than those beneath it.

Currently, a single woman occupied the throne. She wore only a red velvet cloak with gold lining. Something that did little to hide her figure. However, one who looked at her would not think to call her a human. Her glossy, blood red skin, clawed fingers, and horned head would have said otherwise. At her feet was the naked form of what had once been a man, save for the collar around his neck.

His skin was completely pale, dried, and did not seem to contain a hint of muscle or anything other than bone. It was as if he was in the process of becoming a mummy. He was facedown on the floor and did not show even a hint of life. When the man reached the base of the steps, he kneeled and kept his head facing down.

As the fidgeting man took all of this in, he gulped as she gestured him forward with a single claw. He hesitantly moved closer to her, one step at a time, as his eyes couldn’t help but remain affixed to the husk of what had once been a man.

“So… I’ve read from the report that you came across something quite unique during your patrols,” she said, with every word dripping with a seductive and enchanting tone that could easily take the heart of any man, or woman.

“Y-yes. I wasn’t sure the first time, but after watching him more closely and encountering him a second time, I was able to know for sure.” Although he feared for his life, he couldn’t help but feel heat start to travel down due to her presence.

“Interesting… well, feel free to go on. I know the gist of it already, but I want to know every little detail. Who knows, if I like what I hear, I may even reward you,” she said as her viper-like tongue licked her lips.

“I... of course! His name is…”