Not long ago but far away A rainy winter's day All her pain she kept inside Could no longer hide No cry for help She killed herself Both life and love could not be saved She took them both to the grave A pair of souls become undone Where were two now one Devided by this wall of death I soon will join you yet With my blood I'll find your love You found the strength to end your life As you did so shall I Oh no, please don't go It's like a death in the family A crimson pool so warm & deep Lulls me to an endless sleep Your hand in mine - I will be brave Take me from this earth An endless night - this, the end of my life From the dark I feel your lips And I taste your bloody kiss Oh no, please don't go It's like a death in the family Don't die on me Don't die on me Don't die on me Dont' die
The coterie reaches the end of the tunnel� a brick wall. After some investigation, they find they can break through it, which they do, and find themselves in a rather deserted looking downtown area of a small town. No sooner do they set foot on the sidewalk than they hear a tremendous explosion. Shell-shocked as they all are, they duck and cover and grab for weapons� only to realize that it is the fourth of July, and fireworks are blazing.
Red Lonewolf wishes to feed, but Gold Dust insists that he wait until she can instruct him on how to do so without succumbing to the Beast. He waits. Everyone decides to get some new duds since they are fairly filthy and sludge covered. Through various means, they get their new clothing. Hercule is nearly arrested, but Exclamation Point saves him.
They now realize they should try to find the Elysium to introduce themselves to the Prince. Blurry talks of finding a Tremere there who would know a ritual that would allow more than one person to share the benefits of Diablerie, but she will not go inside herself, as she fears they would spot her as a Diablerist. The group finds a young vampire feeding and he helps them find the Elysium.
Blurry waits outside while the rest enter the building. Upon entering, they all relinquish their weapons. They soon meet the Prince, Vincent, and his Sheriff. Vincent seems a pleasant enough man, though the Sheriff does not. Vincent tells them they are all hunted in Chicago, and that if he gave any more heed to the words of the Chicago princes, he would have to kill them, but he does not care for the princes of Chicago, or it�s state of disorganization, and so he ignores them. However, he warns them that they have only tonight to live in his city, and must be gone by the next evening, as they are very much overpopulated with vampires. The Sheriff seems to think it would be a good idea to kill them all, but Vincent overrules him. Sebastian is mentioned. The Prince knows him, and says that he is a crazy Malkavian who often comes in to rant and rave. Vincent doesn�t care much about him for good or ill since he does not actually live in the city. After this, Vincent leaves them to their business.
Hercule and Exclamation Point set themselves to finding a Tremere who will help them. After some questioning and conversing, they find a man named Richmond, who seems rather free-wheeling when it comes to Tremere, as he admits to teaching certain people outside the clan of Tremere Thaumaturgy. The Brujah take him outside to meet Blurry.
Red Lonewolf has been getting hungrier and hungrier and hungrier. Finally, Gold Dust takes him to go and feed. They wander about town. It is getting later, after midnight, and fewer people are walking around, but they find an only slightly inebriated young woman downtown. Red convinces her to let he and Gold Dust into her apartment. He and Gold Dust then speak of how they are to feed. Gold Dust tells him that he must not make a wound in her. He decides that she can make a wound in herself if Gold Dust entrances her properly. It is done. The woman cuts herself. Red puts his lips to her wound, Gold Dust sets her hand upon the woman�s cheek, and it begins.
The world begins to fall away as the blood fills him. He realizes that Gold Dust is feeding, though she never put her mouth to a wound. But it is of little importance as reality begins to spin about and everything fades to darkness except for he and Gold Dust, even the other woman becoming nothing but a vessel between them. A vessel not only for blood, but somehow keeping a connection between Red and Gold Dust like he has never felt before. He reaches out and takes her hand, and it becomes something utterly unique. This is intimacy that he has never known existed, beyond love making and beyond words. He realizes that this is everything he wants in unlife. It is everything he wants at all. And thus, when he hears his wife calling to him from the darkness, he is able to silence her, he is able to let her go. Everything is perfect.
When it is over, the woman is unconscious but hardly seems worse for wear. In fact, she has a blush of health she didn�t have before. Gold Dust stares at him, and after a long moment, says she is ready to leave.
The Rat waits in the Elysium, determined to talk to Sebastian. But before the Malkavian arrives, the Sheriff returns, looking urgent, and begins selecting young vampires to accompany him. Along with a couple of young Brujah, he selects her. He gives her a weapon, warning her it can fire only a shot or two before melting, and they head off into the streets. As they walk, he tells her of their mission. He explains the existence of Sabbat, vampires who kill for pleasure and care not for the Masquerade. Two have come into town, and they are sent to take them out. He warns her that they must only kill one and capture the other, to take him back to the Elysium and deal with him how they would deal with a vampire killer, or a Masquerade breaker� or a Diablerist.
After some investigation and guesswork in the slums, they find the house where the Sabbat dwell. By now, only the Rat and the Sheriff are left. The Brujah are gone. Sneaking around back, they are ambushed by one of them. the Rat takes it out with her rifle, which she realizes fires white phosphorous rounds, known to the vampires here as Dragon�s Breath. The vampire is neatly incinerated. The Sheriff has gone inside, and the Rat follows, knowing she cannot kill him. Inside, everything is booby-trapped. Tripwires are everywhere. The Sabbat attacks and in the fray, the Rat is shot through the head, but the Sheriff incapacitates the assailant. He then grabs up the Sabbat and hauls him out, even as police sirens are heard coming closer and closer. The Sheriff tells the Rat to take care of the house and flees.
The Rat is left to panic, not knowing how to take care of the house where her blood and brains stain the floor, bullet holes riddle the walls, and stacks of bodies lie about. Finally, as the police are kicking in the door, she sets off all of the booby-traps and runs, letting the house burn to cinders. She navigates back to the Elysium just in time to see the show.
Vincent is finishing a speech, and then they begin. The Sabbat is strapped to an upright table, and two men approach. The first man is dressed in robes, and begins slowly taking apart the Sabbat. He takes off each finger, each foot and hand, each limb in more than one piece. All of them he does in such a way that not a drop of blood is shed. When he is finished, he puts everything back in place. Then, the second man approaches, carrying a duffel bag. He opens it and inside is a hacksaw. He does the same work as the first vampire, but using the hacksaw. Blood sprays and gushes over the plastic on the ground until the Sabbat is left with only a torso and head. The Prince walks up with a kukri knife and separates them, and then, there is only ash.
The Rat waits anxiously in the Elysium. She wanders about, realizing that some of the faces here have changed. New people have come, and old people have gone. She examines the newcomers, but most seem fairly uninteresting, except for one man� a disheveled looking man sitting at a table. He takes a piece of crumpled notebook paper and writes all over it, even as he continues ranting almost incoherently. It's difficult to understand what he says, but his tone implies something imperative to his speech.
Red Lonewolf and Gold Dust awake. They had not been asleep, but the feeling that comes over them is much like waking. Lonewolf realizes a great deal of time has passed since his feeding. Their victim is unconscious, and he and Gold Dust decide to leave. They make their way back to the Elysium.
The Malkavian and the Toreador enter to find the Rat watching someone who seems even crazier than Red. A group stands about watching, amused. They mock the man, as they inform Red, Gold Dust, and the Rat that this is, in fact, Sebastian. The Rat approaches, trying to speak to him, but he seems� hesitant. Sebastian stands and begins to leave. He is pushed about by some of the younger vampires, and his paper is torn. The Rat picks up the half that fell, even as she chases out after Sebastian.
After a short jaunt, she catches him. She talks to him shortly, but once she tells him that she is in fact the Third Child Of Time, he becomes fearful and flees. She catches him again and finally he agrees to talk to her, but he needs time to think first. He leads her to a park on the border of a forest, and gives her a precise direction to walk in when she wishes to find his house. With that, he leaves her and sends her away.
Hercule, Exclamation Point, Richmond, and Blurry wait outside the Elysium. They wait a while for the Sheriff to emerge, but it does not happen. Exclamation Point goes to draw him out, but with no success. When she comes back empty handed, Blurry becomes frustrated and rushes in. Through a large glass window, they watch her walk in, push past the doorman, and stand in the middle of the main room. There she stands, as eyes begin to fall on her, and stay on her, and they know what some of those eyes are seeing. A black veined aura. A Diablerist. As the Sheriff comes forth, Blurry runs, crashing through the window and taking off into the street. The Sheriff chases her with a large rifle, and the Brujah chase him.
Once the Sheriff closes in on Blurry and begins to unleash white phosphorous, the battle begins. The Sheriff is taken by surprise by the Brujah, and is somewhat wounded before he is able to counteract. But once he is capable of action, he is a dangerous one. A pistol in his hand bites again and again into them at point blank range as he strikes out with his feet, even as they grapple with him. Eventually, he escapes them and runs back for the Elysium.
Exclamation Point chases after him firing a pistol, but it is unsuccessful, and the Sheriff twirls about, blasting with a Desert Eagle, taking her off of her feet. This is his one mistake, and as he is stopped for that moment, Hercule fires with his sub-machine gun. He unleashes the full clip, and, inevitably, some shots hit. Enough shots hit. The Sheriff is staggering for just a moment, preparing to run again, when Blurry emerges from the shadows, and with all her expertise in the ways of the stake, drives it through the Sheriff's back and drops him to the ground. The group decides to pick up the Sheriff and take him away. Smart move.
The Rat goes and finds Red Lonewolf and Gold Dust and takes them to the park. She decides that if they head off for Sebastian now, he'll likely have enough time by himself. They think that perhaps they should wait for Hercule and Exclamation Point, but Gold Dust says that she can take care of this. And they start off into the woods. Exclamation Point walks with her eyes closed, never opening them. She never makes a sound. She merely holds onto Lonewolf's hand and follows through the woods.
After a time, they know they are completely lost, and that they might never find Sebastian's place. The Rat finds a squirrel to talk to, and the little guy, after a good deal of convincing, agrees to lead them toward Sebastian's home. They follow� and follow� and follow� at times having a very difficult ordeal keeping up with him, especially as Red Lonewolf has to worry about Gold Dust, since her eyes are still closed, and her mind seems utterly elsewhere.
Finally, the squirrel stops. The vampires take a look around, and the forest looks the same everywhere. But, just beyond where the animal stopped, it feels different� The trees lilt. There are no animals. The squirrel says no animals dare to go past this point. Lonewolf, Gold Dust, and the Rat, however, do dare, and set off in search of Sebastian alone.
Richmond pulls out a large table, made for someone to be tied to it, as they do to the sheriff. As instructed, Exclamation Point removes all of his clothes, and Blurry begins working with candles, dripping wax on him in strange patterns. Next, Richmond says, the stake must be removed. Blurry does it, and the sheriff almost struggles out of his bonds, until Hercule breaks his arms. Before the ceremony goes any further, they join hands, and they chant. The room is darkening.
Richmond sets himself to the sheriff with a knife, cutting the skin on his torso from his neck straight down to his crotch. As he does so, they notice that he is cutting deep, but no blood is spilling. Richmond makes two more cuts, such that it looks like a red capital letter 'I' on the sheriff's front. All the while, they Brujah keep him from screaming. Richmond peels away the skin, leaving his insides exposed. Still, no blood spills. Now, Richmond tells them, they must remove his ribs. Hercule and Exclamation Point muster themselves up to do this, and one by one, they snap the ribs, breaking them with their hands, blood and grit all over them, sinew flying up. Finally, it is done, and the bones are discarded. Once again, the diablerists begin to chant. The only light seems to come from the candles now.
Now, the Brujah, and even the Nosferatu, find themselves truly disgusted, as Richmond tells them they must eat his lungs. He has a bucket for the inevitable vomit. Slowly but surely, they consume the lungs and vomit them back up. When they have finished, Richmond tells them they must each drink directly from the heart, just a little. Each of them puts their willpower to the test not to devour the sheriff, but each of them succeeds. Once more, they chant, and even the candle light is now fading to an absolute darkness, until they all dive onto the sheriff, drinking ravenously.
Suddenly, it is as if there is a flood of sensation but nothing is sensed. There is thunder without sound, lightning without light, and a deep, deathly coldness. For a moment, it seems crushing and omnipotent, as if the very hand of death is ready to destroy them all. Then, it is gone. The light returns, and the sheriff is turning to ash below them. They feel a swell of power inside, and it is done. Richmond politely suggests that they all "get the fuck out."
The Rat, Red Lonewolf, and the effectively unconscious Gold Dust wander into the deserted part of the forest in search of Sebastian's house, having very little information to go on. After a bit of searching, they come upon what only a very keen eye could discern as a path that has been walked. They can only assume that it is Sebastian's path, and follow it. They walk for a time through the deadness of the forest, hoping they are on the right track. After a time, they begin to realize they are being followed. They try and try, but cannot figure out what it is. It always seems just out of their vision, but something is there. A strange sound is coming from it, something like singing, but clearly inhuman. Eventually, Red Lonewolf takes Gold Dust off of the path to go and find it.
Lonewolf walks to where he thought he last saw the thing, but finds nothing. Before he can turn back, though, a very small tree becomes something different, a vaguely human shape, and walks toward him. With each passing moment, the thing looks different, fluctuating from a medieval court jester to a klingon to policeman to Alabaster to the Rat to Bilbo Baggins and so on and so forth. It speaks in a bizarre, androgynous voice, and tells them that it has been looking for Gold Dust. At the thing's request and promise not to harm her, Red Lonewolf props Gold Dust up against a tree. The Rat has come to see what will happen.
The still-fluctuating thing opens its mouth freakishly wide and holds it there. After a moment of silence, a sound begins to come forth. It clearly comes from the mouth, but it doesn't sound like voice. Nevertheless, the thing sings out something. Something of offbeat instruments, scraping sounds, mocking rings and drums. It goes on, and something is happening in Gold Dust. Her eyes never open, but the lids twitch. She twitches. Something is happening to her. The sounds continue, growing louder and stranger. Gold Dust continues to twitch until finally, the thing closes its mouth, thanks them, and walks away, disappearing before they can question it further. With no other option, Lonewolf and the Rat pick up Gold Dust and take her back to the path, once again moving toward Sebastian's.
Blurry, Exclamation Point, and Hercule step out of Richmond's apartment building, taking in the night air and feeling inexplicably different. An odd quiescence lays about, and Blurry says that she feels like she should be smoking. Finally, she smiles to the two Brujah, and again shrouds her ugliness in a mask of beauty. She thanks them both, and says that now they depart. Blurry turns on her heels and walks away, disappearing into the night. The Brujah now decide that they should try to find the others in their coterie, but unfortunately, this most likely means treading dangerously close to the Elysium. Hercule bravely offers to go while Exclamation Point waits for him across the street.
The Brujah make their way through the city to the Elysium. Exclamation Point waits while Hercule approaches. He is filled with the fear of being spotted by anyone with Auspex, but ventures closer. He passes a line of black cars, and out of one of them steps a Toreador woman. He exchanges brief words with her and watches her walk inside, relieved. He speaks with the doorman for a moment, asking if his friends are inside, and learns they are not. Suddenly, Gold Dust catches his attention. He goes to her, around the side of the house.
Gold Dust explains the situation, that what Hercule is seeing is only her specter, and her real self is with Red and the Rat. They find Exclamation Point. Gold Dust says she will lead them to the others, and takes them into the forest.
Red, the Rat, and Gold Dust are again not alone. This time, though, it is not a strange mystic figure following them. In fact, they can tell that it is not merely one thing. The leaves rustle in the distance. They move faster, but whatever it is is coming closer, or perhaps they are moving toward it. They cannot leave their path, however, as they must find Sebastian, and it seems it would be fruitless anyway, as the rustling, and now the sounds of howling, barking, and trampling, are everywhere, in all directions. They're getting louder, coming closer. The animals begin to come into sight, some in the woods, some on the path, more and more all the time. They appear deranged, attacking trees and jerking and spasming and fighting. They do not spare the vampires from their savagery either, and the vampires are forced to destroy deer and wild dogs as they move on.
Within minutes, though, it is impossible to fend them all off. The beasts are everywhere. Birds fly in flocks straight into the ground, killing themselves. A dog walks about calmly, even as every inch of it is covered with wild bees. A deer rams it's antlers into a large rock again and again so hard that the antlers break, and the deer continued until its brain paints the stone. Dogs are fucking raccoons� and then, the animals close in to the vampires. The path is utterly lost, and before long, they are concerned merely with survival, fending off the untamed, maniacal animals. They are separated, and continue trying to survive.
The Rat runs, bashing and shooting her way through the animals that are everywhere now. Suddenly, though, she is falling. All the sounds drop away, and she plunges into blackness. The next thing she knows, everything feels strangely right. She steps out of the dark into something else. A doorman opens the door to the house for her and she steps inside. It is massive, ornate, stunningly beautiful. Everywhere she looks, there are people she knows, friends. They smile at her and greet her. She is offered food, real human food, and it is wonderful to taste. Her friends speak to her, telling her not to worry, that her ordeal is over, that she'll never have to be afraid again. They understand her pain, and want it all to go away. She is lain on a comfortable bed, and a man comes to massage the aches out of her body. She feels utterly contented. She never wants to leave.
Red Lonewolf is screaming the Rat's name, but he cannot find her. He is struck by a ramming deer and loses Gold Dust. As he searches for her, he suddenly sees a door in a tree. He is compelled to go through it, and as he does, he steps out of the closet in his house in Chicago. For a long moment, he stands in the hallway, wondering why he is here. But soon, he forgets such concerns. This feels right. Everything else seems like a bad dream. This is real. His house is real. His wife is real. His children are real. And here he will stay, happy, with them. Playing, talking, making love, forever content.
As Gold Dust's specter, Hercule, and Exclamation Point are finding the path in the deserted part of the forest, she suddenly stops. She says that there is trouble and she can't maintain her presence with them. She promptly vanishes. The Brujah ready themselves and proceed down the path. In the distance, they begin to hear the sounds of the insane animals. They proceed, wondering how much more horror they will have to endure tonight.
The Brujah arrive at the site of the animal attack and are immediately in combat. The sounds of their guns firing are hardly audible over the cacophony of the beasts. They proceed to look for their friends, but can find nothing, not with the thick layer of mad animals everywhere. After a few minutes, they wonder if they could even escape.
Red Lonewolf doesn't want to escape. His wife is making dinner as he and his children are sitting and watching TV. Suddenly, though, it is as if his entire reality fractures, and Gold Dust is before him, sternly staring him in the face, demanding that he come with her now. He refuses, insisting that he is too happy here. Here, he has love. Gold Dust then gives him a taste of something he had almost forgotten. Suddenly, he remembers being in the woman's apartment earlier this night. He remembers the orgasmic joy of drinking from her, connecting with Gold Dust. Because of Gold Dust, he can have happiness outside of this fantasy. Because of Gold Dust, he can leave.
Lonewolf springs to his feet amidst the animals, and picks up Gold Dust, now conscious. Soon, the Brujah join him, and together, they find the Rat. They rip her up, out of fantasy, into consciousness, and she cries at it. Together, though, the five vampires find themselves surrounded by wild beasts. They know not where to go until suddenly, Lonewolf smells smoke. He looks to the sky and sees a great line of black smoke rising into the air. They fight their way away from the animals, heading toward the source of the fume.
After a time of walking, the forest calms, the animals gone, at least far from the vampires. They are getting closer and closer to the smoke, and finally, they reach the source, a great bon-fire outside of a house in a very small clearing. Red Lonewolf's eyes widen in a horror he did not even feel with the animals. Books. Sebastian comes shuffling out of his house with a great heap of them. The Malkavian is burning his books.
The group moves over the field of strewn papers and scorched literature and lore. Lonewolf is almost crying. They approach Sebastian but he is difficult to get through to. He is busily burning his books, emptying his house of all his shelves and cases. Lonewolf is reduced to a heap on the floor, unable to do anything but ask why. Sebastian says because the knowledge contained therein is too dangerous to risk allowing anyone else to have. Sebastian enlists the help of Hercule and Exclamation Point, two strong young Brujah, to help him carry out books for the pyre.
The Rat finally slows down the Malkavian for a few moments, demanding answers, firstly about why he set the trap of the animals for them. He says, obviously, because he didn't want them here, as he found new information since he invited them. To satiate her for a few moments, Sebastian gives her the last half of the page of the prophecy. Putting it all together, regarding the Three Children Of Time, it says that the death of the first is a warning, the death of the second is a call, but has no information regarding the death of the third. Sebastian continues his methodical burning of his books, appearing greatly stressed, saying he is running out of time. The Rat asks about this, and he pauses for a moment and tells her that none of this was supposed to happen yet. He tells her that it is as if he walked into a bank to warn them that in ten years, they would be bombed, but before he could leave, a bomb detonates and kills them all. This is how he feels.
This madness goes on for a while, until Sebastian retreats into the back rooms of his house. Until now, they had all been in the front room, the main room of the house, an entire wall of which was window that were blacked out, facing east. The Rat pounds on the locked door, but Sebastian tells her to be silent, that he is praying. She goes back to the main room. Most of the books have been destroyed or rendered useless. Everyone is feeling the coming of the day, as they are all tired. They curl into corners or onto couches, ready to sleep. The Rat doesn't want sleep, though, she wants answers.
When Sebastian emerges from the back room, he is stark naked. The Rat continues questioning him, but he will say nothing now. He only strides to the door, whispering to her that he does not want to be here when it comes. With that, he throws the door open. The Rat springs away as sunlight blasts into the room. Sebastian rushes outside into it, and they can hear his screams of pain. For a moment, the Rat considers going out to bring him back, but she waits too long. The screams end. Currents of wind carry the ashes of the Malkavian back into his house, just before they whip about and slam the door shut. The Rat collapses on the ground, exhausted, and knowing that now, she has nothing.
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