Sunset before the Full Moon: Another mysterious message and an ominous scene at the 'set'

"JESUS FUCK!" Jules Lopez shouted at the top of her lungs.

That might've been the expected reaction when she found out what a "risque" video shoot offering 12 thousand dollars for 90 minutes of work entailed. Or when she started taking part in it.

However, this was before any of that, on the drive over. Right when she'd accelerating when looking at the clock, an unkempt old woman in ragged clothing ran out into the street right in front of her car, waving her arms. Jules slammed on the brakes as quickly as she could.

Dexterity + drive roll to avoid a collision. Jules adds her dexterity of 3 to her drive skill of 1. https://orokos.com/roll/1012466 Luckily, due to an exploding 10, she gets 2 successes - like many RPG characters she has a habit of succeeding on rolls she should probably fail, and failing rolls she should probably succeed on.

The tires screamed as the young woman's foot slammed on the brake. The woman in front of the car was wearing clothes that looked like they'd already been out of fashion in the 1990s - and like they'd been worn continuously for those 25 years, as well. Fortunately, the beaten-to-hell car that Jules' grandparents had given her for a graduation present still had a decent working set of brakes.

Hot blood pounding in her ears, Jules let out an annoyed growl as she put it in park and leapt out of the driver's side door. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? STUPID DRUNK BITCH!"

From this close, Jules could smell the cloying, sweet-sour stink of stale wine wafting off the bag lady who'd nearly given her ANOTHER homicide charge to worry about. Her eyes were wide and unfocused. Most people would feel pity when seeing this clearly homeless alcoholic, her stringy white hair such a tangled mess spilling out from under her little felt church-lady hat that you might expect a family of sparrows to fly out of it at any moment.

But in this moment, Jules felt nothing but anger. "What are you waiting for, puta? Back off and get out of the road! You want me to make you?"

The old lady was mumbling something repeatedly, which got louder and louder until Jules could hear it clearly: "My dear cousin, my magnificent cousin, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you."

Jules groaned loudly. She briefly started wondering if calling in a police report for this pathetic creature might get her some kind of 'good citizen' points with the judge. "No, they'd have me waiting here for hours..." she muttered cynically.

"Jules." the old woman said, suddenly grabbing her attention. When Jules looked the bag lady in the eyes for the first time, she saw something that wasn't there before. It might have been a trick of the florescent street lights, but there seemed to be a pale silvery-white glow emerging from the old woman's wide, staring eyes, just barely visible in the dim light of the setting sun.

"Jules," the mysterious derelict repeated, "You are walking into horror and darkness, because you must. And when the cold dark of the void surrounds you, you must be."

"What... the fuck are you talking about?" Jules said in a hoarse whisper. "I must be what?"

Stumbling and trying to keep her feet, the raving old drunk pointed her nicotine-stained fingers towards the sky. "You must be. It is the lesson we all take from our mother. Yours is a harder path than mine, bound and burdened by human flesh you cannot fly free from."

She took a few steps closer to Jules, who stood transfixed, and continued: "I transgress the laws of our mother and come in this tatterdemalion of skin and bone to tell you that I love you. That she loves you. We all love you. And I am sorry. I am sorry I will not protect you. From the beasts that see you as prey. Men, and others."

The voice, harsh and reedy though it was, did not carry the tone of the deranged drunk she appeared to be. It sounded more like an over-dramatic speech from a pretentious Hollywood movie than real conversation. The otherworldly monologue continued: "The reason I will not protect you is because you must protect others. You must protect them not as a gentle and nurturing mother, no... that is not who you were made to be. You must destroy, my magnificent cousin. You must tear apart what which should not be. That is what it means for you to be."

"There will come those who will try to put you in a cage. The beautiful man with restless footsteps is only the first, and far from the worst. They will tell you that you must be skinned and scourged for your own good. You must not let them. Our mother wants you to be free, dear cousin. Remember that. If you are in a prison, do not ask what worse things might be outside. Do think about why you might belong in it. Do not think at all. Act. Break the bars. Fell the wicked. I will be-"

Suddenly, the old woman began shaking her head rapidly and let out a piercing shriek. "Auuggghh! Gyet out! Shaddup! Shaddup!" her voice suddenly lost the dramatic tenor it had before and became an irascible squawk. When she squinted at Jules again, the gleaming light in her eyes from before was gone. "You... you almost ran me down!" she said indignantly with a thick accent. "I'ma... I ought to call the cops on you! If'n you don't wanna point on your insurance, yew owe me twenny dollars!"

Jules was in such a state of bewilderment that, with little fanfare, she got out her handbag and pulled out a rumpled 20 dollar bill that had been stuffed into her cleavage five days ago. The old woman looked genuinely shocked that the young driver had complied, and lunged with surprising grace to snatch it out of her fingers and run back to her shopping cart. "God bless you, Miss!"

Settling back in the car seat, Jules rested her forehead against the steering wheel. "Why. Why does this weird shit keep happening? Was she even saying any of that crap I heard, or whas it just my mind making it all up?"

She glanced at the glowing orange sunset sinking under the horizon. "Some things... might be real or might not, but some are real. That detective investigating me is definitely real. The deep shit I'm in is real. Rent is still due. If there's a possibility that money is real, I need to at least see for myself. Maybe afterwards I'll take double the dose of my pills and see if that helps..."

A short while later Jules was parking in front of a darkened grocery store. The dilapidated signboard out front said 'FOOD LION', with a silhouette of a lion next to it. This chain had closed years ago. You would think that a Wal-Mart or something would have taken it over by now, but it hadn't.

There were a couple of other cars in the parking lot, and two people near the entrance. The glowing ember of a cigarette attracted the eye. When she got out of her car and approached, wearing her cute private school uniform, Jules saw that she recognized one of them: it was Reina, the porn actress with the big fake tits that she'd encountered at the motel yesterday, wearing a zebra-pattern microskirt and midriff baring tubetop that would leave little doubt about her profession if she were to go walking the streets at night wearing it.

The other one, staring down at a cell phone, Jules initially thought was a lanky, short-haired blonde girl in skimpy clothing. But when she looked closer, she saw the broad shoulders and narrow hips indicating that, despite the bare midriff sporting a provocative navel piercing and the tight t-shirt and hip-hugging denim shorts, it was actually a clean-shaven, gentle-featured young man.

"Well, I guess I came to the right place." Jules said with a sigh. "Hey. Reina, right?" she waved. "I saw you at the thing yesterday?"

"Oh, hey. You're Brianna's friend, right?" Reina said, lowering her cigarette. "You comin' to this? I thought you were totally new to the biz."

"I am." Jules said with a shrug.

"You ARE?" Reina raised an eyebrow and gave Jules a condescending, oddball look. "You sure you want to do this kind of shoot? Not stick to vanilla for a little while longer?"

Jules felt her stomach lurch. "What do you mean, 'this kind'?"

Reina's cherry red lips turned into a smirk. "You know it's gonna be piss and shit stuff, right?"

A deep frown appeared on Jules' face as she heard her earlier suspicions seemingly confirmed. "It is?! You're sure?"

The jaded pornstar's response was a simple shrug. "Nah, not sure, I just got a email telling me to come down here. But for 10 Gs, ain't nothing else it could be. Nothing else legal. Maybe in L.A., but not in a place like this." she pointed to the ominous abandoned grocery store. "I've heard about this kind of shoot. They don't tell you exactly what's gonna happen because they don't want to scare people off. Me, I'm about to retire from the biz anyway, so it don't matter to me. But you might have a hard time getting normal stuff if you get known for the weird shit..."

"Did, uh, what's his name with the curly hair, the guy who runs the website, set this up?" Jules asked.

"Nah. I haven't heard from him or his studio since yesterday." Reina said. "He's pretty new to making video. Only started like a year ago. Just a referral, probably."

"Ten?! What the fuck?" the effeminite blonde guy suddenly looked up from his phone. "That is some bull-shit. It only offered me three." He huffed in a way that Jules couldn't help but find a little cute. "I'm going to ask for more." he said in a melodramatic tone. He gave Jules a half-hearted wave. "Um, hi, by the way. I'm Logan. I'd tell you more, but we're probably going to want to forget tonight anyway."

Just as Jules was about to introduce herself, the lights in the dark abandoned supermart suddenly flickered on.

"Damn. Finally. I was starting to think this was a prank or something." Reina said. "Think it over, alright?" she said to Jules before walking in through the automatic door.

Jules took a deep breath and followed. The place was dusty, and looked like it hadn't been used for anything in months or years. There was something ominous about the empty shelves. And it was... cold. Way too cold. Clearly the air conditioners still worked, and had been running full blast since long before the lights turned on.

"Oh. My. GAWD." Logan said in an attention-grabbing tone again. "WHY is it so cold in here? I'm going to get a jacket out of my car. I think I might have one spare, so, first of you ladies who asks me nicely can-" he stopped suddenly as he stepped back towards the automatic sliding glass door, only for it to obstinately remain shut. "Hey! The door is broken now! Are you KIDDING me?"

Suddenly a voice came over the store intercom - a heavily accented small-town drawl. "Welcome! Y'all are in the right place! Sorry about the cold, but you know how hot these studio lights can get an' all.ike I said, cash is on the table. Just come on back to the rear and I'll explain the kind of fun we're gonna be having, ahee hee hee!" Something about that giggle sent chills down Jules' spine more than the cold air. "It might be a lil' different than what you're used to, but I'm sure you'll handle it just fine."

Jules glanced at Logan. Although Reina seemed to shrug off the strangeness of this situation, the blonde youth looked quite concerned as well. He had his cell phone in his hand, and made no motion to put it back into his pocket.

"Hey." Jules said in a low voice, getting his attention. "I'm getting kind of a weird vibe from this. You think maybe you should... be ready to dial 9/11? Just in case?"

He nodded. "Mmmmmyeah. Good call, new girl. I think I will."

Jules picked up her pace and decided to stay close behind Reina. If nothing else, there was safety in numbers, right?

Note from the author

Werewolf: the Forsaken is a part of the World of Darkness/Chronicles of Darkness series of gamelines, which was always conceived of as a horror setting. You can't fully separate it from its dark, edgy roots. There will not be any sexy or kinky fun in the following chapter. If you want to avoid frightful subject matter, well, this probably isn't the setting to be reading a story branch set in to begin with, but most especially not the following chapter. You have been warned.