Friday, February 7

(Typed on my phone, as I am not in the vicinity of my journal. It will be added to the journal in due time. Also, I will try to make this slightly less...moody than originally intended.)

A whirlwind past few days...

We met on Tuesday, the group that I affectionately call the Island of Misfit Toys, to discuss any recent happenings. Greyson seemed very excited as a punk rock band of which he had long been a fan was coming to Chicago. However, Nadya mentioned that news reports had mentioned that this band's concerts tend to be punctuated by mob mentality violence - riots and sometimes death.

Not to be deterred, Greyson insisted he was going to their first (of three) concerts, to be held in two days' time. We all agreed to go with him in case something went wrong.

We should have known.

So Thursday evening comes around and we all attended the concert. The rest of the group was dressed in appropriate attire while I was in my hunting clothes. I figured that having the corpse-like thing going on already, it's not terribly out of place to dress as I normally do. I glanced towards the back (having moved towards the center of the floor to accompany Greyson) and saw Oliver. We exchanged brief nods and I turned my attention to the band coming onstage.

Punk rock has never been one of my favorite styles of music. Add on to that the band's name (The Last Satyr's Concubine) and it was altogether people with too much makeup making fools of themselves. However, for some reason, I threw myself into the fervor that night, so much so that after only three or so songs, I blacked out.

I came to the next morning, this morning, as a matter of fact, woken by the fact that I had others in my bed and that the bed as well as the individuals on it were covered in blood. Something that was almost invisible moved around my bedroom, leaving little foot impressions in the carpet. It was Agnes. I slowly turned my head to see who else was in the bed with me and almost missed the ability to throw up. It was Chunk.

Thank God we ere all still wearing our clothes.

Agnes had gone invisible for one major reason. She wasn't sure how I would take to be woken with the sight of all the blood in the room. Thankfully, I was able to keep control, and lead her out of the bedroom and into my austere living room. Still nervous (which is highly ironic, given events to come) she kept the couch between her and me, trying to figure out what happened.

Given how bad our injuries were, I had to end up contemplating what is perhaps the most awkward feeding I've yet to consider: Chunk. I needed to heal myself, and if I did that without being able to feed immediately, there was a chance I could lose it. Now, all caution thrown to the wind, Agnes bares her neck for me to feed, claiming I'll need a bit less than usual.

To explain my hesitation, I must impart a lesson learned before my Embrace. Either Cyril or Agnes mentioned that the blood of mages is like a drug, almost akin to heroin, for Kindred. Highly addictive, hallucinogenic, and generally just a bad idea. Now, I had a mage baring her neck for me to just drink.

As gracefully as I could (which is to say, not much at all, given recent circumstances) I made my way off to Chunk who was, thankfully, still asleep. I fed on him, briefly. He seemed to like it a trifle too much, so I made it a point to harshly mutter "sleep." When I did so, I felt a small rush of power through me and lo and behold, he did. (NOTE: Must explore this later.)

I was wiping my mouth on the way out of the bedroom when the others showed up (minus Oliver, who couldn't be reached). Apparently, Nadya had woken up with Greyson and Cyril. Not only that, she couldn't feel Nasilah (the ghost attached to her) and seemed to be falling apart - literally. Agnes was able to bandage her leg to keep it from falling off, while Cyril nulled her ability to feel pain. Pretty useful talent, there.

After the mages and Greyson did their thing, it was decided we would try to go to the venue and hopefully find Nasilah. On top of that, it was hoped that we would find out the reasons for what happened with the concert. We all got up to leave.

And then I realized it was noon.

I am extremely surprised that I made it through the next few hours, given how uncomfortable I felt. I was forced to wear a hooded sweatshirt and cover as much of my body as possible. However, pressing on in the face of a friend's need, we made it to the venue. The venue now surrounded by media and police.

Greyson stayed with Nadya, who had begun to deteriorate further, while Cyril, Agnes, and I somehow made our way inside. Within the venue, I saw Nasilah, which is something I couldn't do since Agnes cast her magic eyes on me. Now I have my own magic eyes, so I suppose I can only see her when she's not attached to Nadya.

Agnes poured quite a bit of power into Nasilah to heal the ghost. When Agnes was finished, I heard a voice in my head say "Move" and was immediately knocked on my ass as all of the doors were flung open.

Did I mention that the floor, walls, and ceiling were covered in blood?

Already uncomfortable, but thankfully not hungry, I was eager to leave, and to rest. We came to find out, however, that Greyson's windshield had shattered when Nasilah rejoined with Nadya. Nadya stepped out of nowhere and Greyson eventually made his way back to us. By that time, we had been joined by two members of Task Force Valkyrie: Bishop and Donovan. (NOTE: Finally figured out who that scent I've smelled on Agnes belongs to. That makes her actions and, dare I say, performance around this group slightly admirable. Unless there's something weird there, in which case, I would rather not think about it.)

My respite was not to be. Nadya mentioned, almost immediately after she entered, that she couldn't get in contact with Oliver and was worried. Cyril tried to trace him, but was stopped by some sort of metaphysical wall. Turns out that Oliver was trapped in some other dimension.

Apparently some mage named Vashard could likely find him, but no one knew how to get in touch with said mage. Nadya then called Marcus to ask for his assistance in finding Vashard, and Marcus told her to meet him at his mansion.

Tiredly, I followed everyone else in, only to get poked by a statue and to find out that we were, in fact, going to be facing some creatures (from a place called Pandemonium) in a "pocket dimension." I was already tired, so I simply followed other people towards whatever we were doing. Which was to go through a rip that this Vashard person had made.

On the other side of this rip, we found a handful of ugly creatures and pretty much all of the missing persons from the concert - including Oliver. I immediately fired on one of the creatures, trying to draw their attention to us, rather than their captives. It worked to an extent.

A few bullets, some spells, and a portal or two later, there were two left. One was next to Oliver, and the other was next to this scared looking fellow. Vashard had managed to get the creature next to Oliver to move away, so I made a point to take the shot, killing the creature and keeping Oliver safe. Agnes was then able to use some magic to drive the last creature into the ceiling with a spike, saving the other fellow.

The other three missing persons were dead. Thinking back, we should have grabbed their bodies. It would have been fewer questions asked if the bodies had actually been found. Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose.

While the others rushed to the sides of the two captives, I found a wall and leaned against it. Tired, and now with long raking claw marks on my torso, my only thought was how I was going to heal this and feed. I watched Nadya make Oliver's bruises disappear, then Cyril wake him up. I watched the other fellow be fireman carried by Bishop. Then came the point where we could all go home.

Vashard brought us to some ominous looking tree in a park (somewhere in Chicago, I suppose). He and Nadya got into a bit of an argument (as a quick rundown as I understand it: Vashard was...mystically enamored with Teresa, when the effect was broken, Vashard skipped town to get as far away as possible. Ultimately, this annoyed Nadya because 1) he didn't say goodbye and 2) he hadn't contacted her sense).

Finally, my temper got the better of me and I said something. I told them that it was fantastic that they were talking, but some of us are injured, and tired, and are very uncomfortable standing out in the sunlight (shade from the ominous tree notwithstanding). Vashard then asked if we were all going to go back to Nadya's, to which Nadya emphatically replied "No."

I shrugged, and asked the portal-loving mage to send me back to Marcus's mansion, as my truck was still there. When I arrived, I turned off my phone and started walking to my truck.

But Marcus was waiting for me.