Atalanta

The Sunday Group - Seeds and Harvests

Blythe’s hand closed around Adri’s wrist, her eyes on the little cup beneath it. “You have no idea what that could do with your blood! It could mean your life! Maybe all our lives, if it can possess you. This is why we need a more thorough training course for the goddess-damned Sunday Group! Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

The crow cawed from above them, it's claws tearing out a few hairs as it swooped past and readied itself to dive again. Blythe’s pulse throbbed in her ears, Kolratheth waking back up in her chest as a response to her fear and anger. Heat and pain flooded her eyes, her gums, her fingertips. Black spooled across her eyes and her teeth elongated. Her nails grew into claws. She had to let go of Adri to keep from hurting her.

“No, hurt her. Claw them all!”

Adri just didn’t get it. The least horrible thing the pair was likely intending was to ward their nest against police. They could be planning that blood for rituals, for possession, for curse—

Blythe growled. Of fucking course. The cop was curseproof. No wonder she wasn’t worried.

In a movement more born out of spite than need, Blythe reached up and snatched the idiot creature out of the air as it dove at Adri’s head. It battered her with its wings, screaming and desperate until she managed to pin it in place beneath black tipped fingers. The homeless man whimpered, falling back against the wall, unable to move his eyes from his bird.

Blythe sighed. Now she just felt like a brute. What is this thing?

“A parasite,” Kolratheth sighed. “To lowly a thing to be considered a demon. It feeds off its host slowly in exchange for a little safety, and then hybernates for a time before taking a new shape and finding a new human host. Eat it. It would sustain me for days.”

What would happen to the host?

“He would go mad, most likely. What does it matter? He is of no use to your species. And the parasite will consume all the parts that make him human eventually.”

Can you make it give back whatever it’s taken from him?

“No. It hasn’t taken much. Only memory. The human might even be able to relearn how to use his voice, if he isn’t too far gone. It’s just that I’ve never seen anyone manage it."

Blythe ran her tongue over her teeth, and finding them only slightly pointed, grinned. There was no point in trying to play with any emotions now. The homeless man was already frightened enough. “Adri, if you would be so good as to let me borrow your clipboard….”

The homeless man—homeless boy, really— took it when Blythe thrust the clipboard at him, though he nearly dropped it. He couldn’t seem to remember what to do with his hands, so Blythe amended her earlier assessment and turned down the fear pinging through his head. Just a touch. She was calming down too, the black fading from her fingers though the ache lingered in the space behind her eyes. They were usually the last to turn.

The bird squirmed in her grip, but stilled when she tightened her fist around it. “Draw everything you saw last night. Include details like sizes and times and sounds.”

When he gave it back, Blythe only got a vague impression of scratchy figures with wide, blank eyes before she thrust the clipboard back at Adri and got an elbow up to block the homeless boy’s grab for the crow. He fell back against the wall immediately.

“Uh uh. This thing is incredibly bad for you. Here—“ she fished out a couple more bills and shoved them at him. “Catch a taxi. There’s a shelter on 5th and Cesar Chavez with a half-decent therapist. Let her help you get yourself back and don’t go accepting deals from strange creatures any more.”

“You’re one to talk.”

Yeah, well. She turned on her heel and purposely kicked over the little cup of Adri’s blood. “Come on. Let’s get back to the others.”

The Sunday Group - Seeds and Harvests

Honestly, if she were going to pick between hunting down a homeless man or scoping out an closed auction house, Blythe would have picked the auction house. She understood. If anyone were going to convince some random, likely half-scared-shitless guy to talk, it would be Kolratheth. Still, she would always be first and foremost a librarian, and there was no telling what treasures of scholarship might lie hidden within those storage shelves, far away from the more deserving eyes of academia.

If you want to so badly, come back at night. I could get you in.” In the aftermath of their run-in with the pharmacy manager, the demon sounded petulant. Like a lover who had wanted three great orgasms and gotten one mediocre one instead. “Maybe there will even be a guard to deal with.”

Somehow, Blythe couldn’t see herself turning cat burglar. Even if it was for the sake of knowledge.

”You’d do it to find Leone Cordova’s murderers.”

And like that, the grief was back. A downpour. A yoke of stone. She could feel it in the muscles of her forearms and between her shoulder blades like deep-tissue ache. She will never be back. She died alone, and in pain. An endless atrophying wound. And beneath it? An even greater rage.

Perhaps she was not a librarian first and foremost after all.

Blythe swallowed, adjusted her blouse, and beckoned to Adri. “Come on. Time for more good cop, bad demon.”

It wasn’t difficult to find the homeless man’s camp behind the dumpsters in the ally where Alcander and Teajay had found the strange, ancient dagger. It smelled vile—little more than a pile of discarded clothes and an overturned shopping cart. It was abandoned for the moment, but had obviously been recently inhabited.

She turned away, heading in the opposite direction of North Wells Street towards the near-empty parking lot shared by the pharmacy and a few other small businesses. The far side opened into yet another alley, this one behind an Olive Garden, and was home to two particularly ripe dumpsters. The homeless man hadn’t yet made a new camp there, but there was someone leaning at the far end of the alley, holding a cardboard sign and smiling awkwardly at people walking past on the sidewalk.

Blythe had a feeling that this might just be who they were looking for. She reached into her purse and palmed a couple tens as they approached. The man turned—she hadn’t been trying to be quiet and the click of her heels rang loud against the brick walls ringing the alley—and smiled uncertainly. He had all his teeth, though they were crooked, and his skin was an uncomfortable pink beneath a crop of unkempt red hair receding from his forehead—more likely from malnutrition than age. She put him somewhere between 19 and 22. He was skinny and nervous, and Blythe had the sinking feeling that he would tell them whatever he thought was most likely to make them happy.

She dropped the first ten in his hands. “Something weird happened by the auction house last night. Wanna tell us about it for the paper?”

The Sunday Group - Seeds and Harvests

With @nightmare medx

“I’ll be the bad cop and you’ll be the good cop,” Blythe said. Sweet-talking wasn’t exactly her thing, but people were. Their every desire or fear or irritation would be as open to her as a library catalog, and nowhere near as fixed.

“Open to us, you mean,” Kolratheth purred into Blythe’s thoughts. ”I hope you find someone especially corruptible. That could be enough to satisfy me… for a short time.”

Blythe mentally rolled her eyes, even as something deep in her belly relaxed. She had an out. For now.

“Let’s try the corner store first. They're probably open late.” She pointed out a pharmacy with rows of sunglasses and cheap tchotchkes in the window. It was a block away on the corner with a bright red and white sign that read Darcy’s Pharmaceuticals in curling script.

“Drug stores usually have good cameras, too… with the drugs and all,” Adri said, pulling the strangely modern strap to Al’s camera over her head so the camera rested on her hip, throwing her sweatshirt over top. It saved her from taking a trip back to her car, or trying to juggle everything in her arms.

She patted herself down before they left as if something might have gone missing while she was standing there. “With any luck, they’re the owners of the closest camera to the body so we can narrow down who’s best to talk to next.” Of course, she was already looking ahead, mapping out the rest of the investigation. They needed information to figure out this scene, of course, but supposedly there were previous victims, which raised the question of whether this was a spree killing or a set of serial murders…

“So all we know is that this isn’t the first victim, not when the previous ones happened?” she asked, pulling herself out of her head.

“Unfortunately—or possibly fortunately— mysterious, divine voices aren't always the most forthcoming,” Blythe said dryly. “Until we have something more tangible to go on, you'll just have to bug Teajay for any details she can get. Not that heaven will answer. They don't exactly have a direct line.”

“One the many added benefits of going the route of demonic possession.”

“Oh yeah? Are there others?”

Without waiting for an answer, Blythe swung open the door to the pharmacy, taking in the chaotic array of toys, medicines, useless decorative nonsense, and small useful items like umbrellas and reading glasses. The counter was at the back, the uninterested slouch of a person just visible behind the counter. She held open the door for Adri and then followed her in, gesturing towards the cashier with a nod.

“After you.”

“Thank you. Yeah, they aren’t forthcoming until they want to mess with your head at which point… you hear many things. I don’t know how many of the things I’ve learned are real things, but they are, nevertheless…”

Adri walked in with an air of authority as always, a friendly but not overly happy smile on her face. Her eyes darted around, assessing the room as she marched directly to the counter. Leah, assuming the name tag was correct, straightened up and tapped her glossy blue nails on the counter as the duo entered.

“Hi there. How can I help you?” Leah was pleasant, although it was clear from the tone of her voice and the slump of her shoulders that she did not want to be here.

“Hi. I’m Detective Blake. We’re investigating an incident that occurred in the alley next to the store and need to see if the cameras here caught anything. Can you get your manager or whoever would be able to help me with that?”

“Uh. Yeah, of course, just, uh… wait here, I’ll go grab my manager.” Leah followed along her counter, heading through a door to a back room.

“So… 240229-1003,” she muttered to herself. It was usually the bigger businesses that wanted a case number, but you never knew.

“240229-1003,” Blythe repeated precisely, cataloging it in her memory with customary efficiency.

She was sure she didn't look like a cop. Maybe a Fed, given the business clothes, but a lifetime of peering over tomes and at computer screens didn't exactly give one a cop-like stance. Subtly, she eyed Adri, placing her feet a little farther apart and mimicking her expression. Blythe shook her head and gave it up just as Leah returned with her manager. Bart, by his name tag.

The stench of worry and lust hit her before he even reached the counter. The man was average looking—not particularly greasy or well-groomed. He was maybe in his thirties, with an unfortunately recessed hairline despite his young age, a slightly hooked nose, and the physique of someone who had a gym membership but didn't spend more than a cursory amount of time there. The idea of police in his store had sent a jolt of anxiety through his belly that Kolratheth was already greedily breathing in, and… other stirrings pointed towards a distinct interest in both his visitors.

So predictable…

“Officers,” Bart said, putting on a flimsy show of good manners, “How can I help you?”

Blythe pulled back, allowing the professional to go to work first. She would just assist a little. From behind Adri, she smiled at Bart and began to dampen his worry. Maybe it was true that everyone felt a little guilty in the presence of a cop. Maybe he had a bit of drugs stashed somewhere in his car or had lifted something that didn't belong to him. No matter. He wasn't feeling it now. In its place, she gave his lust a little nudge.

His breathing slowed a little, his pupils darkened. Bart's smile left off being something strained and started being something he couldn't quite get off his face. “Anything you need.”

Kolratheth purred.

“Hi, Bart?” Adri said, offering her hand to shake. Bart’s handshake was sweaty and firm. “I’m Detective Blake. We’re investigating an incident that happened in the alley and your security cameras might have caught footage that we need. So, we’re here to see your cameras.

“Ah. Mmmm. Well, we’re not really supposed to do this without a requisition order, but why don’t you two come back to the security office and you can… fiddle around, find what you need?”

He gestured for them to follow. “Thank you, Bart.”

Blythe and Kolratheth sighed in unison. It was a little disappointing that he had been so easy to convince. She hadn’t really had the chance to show off her skills in front of the Sunday group.

They followed Bart to the back, Blythe glancing around curiously at the employee-only section of the pharmacy. It felt a little strange. Like being somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be even though they had permission. Or else like looking into the guts of a computer or dissected frog. Maybe a combination of the two.

She smiled at Bart when she caught him glancing back, and he started chatting away, evidently no longer concerned about company policies. “Is this about all the noise last night? I got a frantic call from one of the employees last night talking about screams.”

“Oh yeah?” Blythe asked. “Did they wake you up?”

“No, it was only around eleven. I offered to drive in to investigate, but she said it didn’t last long.”

“I’m sure he did…”

Blythe let some of her laughter show in her smile. “That was brave of you. What did they hear?”

“A crash loud enough to shake the windows—a few of the lucky cats were broken this morning, having fallen off their display— and screams. She said it sounded like someone fleeing the scene of a crime but she didn’t see anyone.”

He stopped in front of a dingy door leading into an even dingier office, home to a tiny desk and a computer showing several camera angles in and outside the store. Papers covered most of the desk, and it had been a long time since the small trash can in the corner had been emptied if the odor was anything to go on. A few empty togo boxes half spilled out of it, and the desk sported a number of cold disposable coffee cups all bearing the name Bart in cheerful sharpie scrawl.

Bart seemed to have forgotten about the mess because now he blushed. “Sorry. I keep meaning to get the other manager to clean up her mess, but you know how it is.”

“It’s all good,” Adri said with a wave of her hand. “May I?”

“Absolutely, go right ahead, right ahead.”

She didn’t sit down- she wasn’t sure she wanted to. The software was one she had dealt with before; with practiced ease she was shuffling the feeds she needed onto the screen. “You said around eleven, are you certain of that?” she asked, not looking up from her work. She could feel his eyes on her backside and resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

“Yes, one hundred percent. I have cable and… a particular… show… that I watch had just come on.”

She rewound the tapes to 9pm, just to be safe, letting the video play at a rapid speed as she patted her pocket before pulling out a flash drive. “This’ll just be a minute,” she said with a glance over to Blythe. “You all good?”

“Unequivocally,” Blythe said and then stiffened as a slouching, ill-dressed form briefly crossed the screen. “Wait. Who was that?”

“Oh him?” Bart said it in a way that suggested that they couldn't possibly be interested in that person. “Just a homeless guy that hangs around the area. I haven't seen him today, but I'm sure he'll be back. He's like a roach that way. Impossible to get rid of.”

Blythe exchanged a glance with Adri. “And he was here yesterday? Before the late night call?”

“Like I said: he always is.”

Except not today.

“Excellent choice for a victim, don't you think?” Kolratheth asked. “No one to miss him.”

“Why? Are you taking notes?”

“As if you'd let me go after someone not assuredly guilty of much worse crimes than loitering….”

He sounded petulant, but Blythe was glad her demon hadn't pushed her this time. With a thought, she turned down the lust ramping up in Bart’s imagination. “I think that's about all we need, don't you, officer?”

“I have no further questions, so… once we get the footage…”

And there it was. “I think we have something here.” Once the file was copied to the flash drive, Adri pulled it out, jotted it down, and flashed a smile at Bart.

“Thank you for your assistance.”

Blythe squashed any emotion in the pharmacy manager but paranoia and he ushered them out without a second thought. Together, they turned away from the pharmacy and back towards the others.

The Sunday Group - Seeds and Harvests

Almost done!

The Sunday Group - Seeds and Harvests

Back home and writing!

The Sunday Group - Seeds and Harvests

I've been working on a collab with nightmare medx, but I'm heading into a sacred space—no tech— for the weekend. It’ll probably finish up at the beginning of next week :)

The Sunday Group - Seeds and Harvests

When we go to question people, what will we find?

The Sunday Group - Seeds and Harvests

He's a discerning devourer XD

The Sunday Group - Seeds and Harvests

Blythe’s ears itched somewhere between hellfire and a double dose of beta-alanine. There were fire ants inside the cuff, spiders biting her ear lobes. She half-wanted to let Kolratheth turn her hands into claws so she could scrape them off, but his attention was so wholly focused on the fur-the-wrong-way clamor that he didn’t even notice her mental yell.

She ground her teeth and forced herself to focus on the sound that had so enraptured her demon. Gradually, it became clear. Teajay was speaking to a disembodied voice—something ancient, sexless, and powerful. Something inimical to Kolratheth.

There was no soul attached to the corpse they’d found.

“I want her.” Kolratheth hissed. “They waste her potential, keeping her in the dark. Can you imagine? Oh, the things she could do if she stopped following their rules.”

Blythe resisted the urge to put her hands over her ears and straightened her blouse instead. “The Sunday Group is off limits.”

“You’re going to have to feed me soon,” he purred, “and between your rules, the soul-saving angel, and a case that leaves the bodies dry… You’re either going to have to bend or get creative.”

“You’ll eat. The Sunday Group is still off limits.”

She ignored his grumble and turned back to the group, nodding absently at Adri as she walked up. Teajay was a little difficult to look at after her otherworldly chat, so Blythe only glanced at her briefly and turned back to the crime scene before her eyes began to itch. “I heard it. The body’s soul is missing, and it isn’t the only one.” She smiled grimly. “There are plenty of things that eat souls, though. Demons, for one.”

“They aren’t necessarily my favorite meal…”

“Are all demons so discerning?”

“The more things you can eat, the easier it is to thrive. Just look at humanity. It’s a veritable garbage disposal.”

“I don’t know many humans that could live off a lecher’s eyeball or a night of chaos.”

The rumble that served for Kolratheth’s laugh felt like a belly ache. “That just goes to show demons are the higher form of existence.”

“Or better at eating trash.”

“Have you seen the kitchen of a McDonald’s? Or—Satan forbid—a KFC?”

Blythe had spent too long speaking to the demon. She straightened her clothes again, a little awkwardly. “We know we’re dealing with a soul-stealing killer that uses some sort of flammable black goop that could have come from a mythical creature. This is not the only victim, and there could even be more nearby. For whatever reason, the killer didn’t light their goop on fire and destroy the evidence. Do any of you know a spell for stealing surveillance footage? There are a few cameras around here. Along with the garbage cans to check.”

The Sunday Group - Seeds and Harvests

What, that doesn't happen to everyone? Lol