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Chapter 24 by HistoricoPublius HistoricoPublius

What do they find? (Investigate a Mystery, +Sharp; Help Out, +Cool)

Some answers at last.

Ali: 4+2+2 Cool = 8 - your help grants them +1, but you also expose yourself to trouble or danger

Mike: 5+3+1 Sharp+1help = 10 - hold 2 to ask the Keeper questions.


"Man, she does walk like she's having trouble," Mike mutters as they watch her stagger down the alleyway on the screen. "Does she seem drunk to you, though?"

"Mmmaybe," Ali mutters. "But that wouldn't explain anything, would it?"

"Probably not," Mike mutters back. He squints at the video as the woman collapses against a wall. "Hey, you can't even see her!"

"Yeah, the dumpster's sorta blocking the view," Daryl says, arms folded from a few feet away. "Sucks that she landed there. Not that it would've changed anything."

(Spending 1 hold to ask: "What's being concealed here?") "No, wait," Ali says. "Look - you can still see a little bit of her. I think that's her foot."

Daryl and Mike peer at the screen. "Damn, I think you're right," Daryl says with a low whistle. "Didn't notice that before. Not sure the cops did either, though they've got a copy they're probably gonna look at again..."

"Not sure what we can see there..." Mike scrubs forward in the video for a few seconds, then pauses. "Wait, did she just move?!" Rewinding, he presses play and they all peer at it. "Yeah, look. Her foot's like - jerking."

"She's dying. Something's killing her," Ali says quietly. She shudders and shakes her head. "I'm gonna go check on Daisy. I don't wanna watch that..." Shaking her head still, she turns and heads toward the back of the bar.

Mike continues to stare at the screen, horrified but fascinated. "So something - I mean, someone - did kill her, maybe."

(Spending 1 hold to ask: "What can it do?") "Can't be," Daryl grunts. "No way into that alley except the way she came, and we scanned the rest of the tape - no one else came into it during the day. She was alone in there."

Which means... Mike realizes. Which means that whatever it was, it came in with her. He shudders. On the video, the woman's foot stops twitching. He's just about to click off the screen when he stares. "Wait, what the hell was that?!"

Daryl frowns. "Cat or something?"

Mike rewinds the video, leaning in to peer at it more closely. Shortly after the woman stops moving, something small and dark moves like a blur through a corner of the screen, heading away from her body and toward the wall under the camera. He stops and clicks through it frame by frame, but the camera's just not good enough - the shape remains a black, pixelated blob. "Damn," he mutters.

"That's way too small to be a person," Daryl says with a shrug. "Probably just a rat or something."

"Yeah. Or something," Mike mutters.


In the alleyway, Daisy stares at the slightly older woman who's staggering toward her. "Help," the woman says again.
"Uh, sure," Daisy says, her voice sounding high-pitched even to her own ears. "Let me just...how long have you been there?"

"Help," the woman says hoarsely. Daisy squints at her - the woman is still staggering toward her, and something about her seems off.

Does Daisy catch anything wrong? (Read a Bad Situation, +Sharp)

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