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Series of murders...?

The meeting had been shorter than expected, but Felicia had gained a surprising amount of information. There had more murders, apparently similar to Lucy Taylor's, and for one reason or another sulfur of all things had been found at each body site. This implied that Lucy Taylor's murder really had been ritual in nature, which had only been a guess of Felicia's until now. But...what did this mean? Since the other murders had occurred outside of Silver Falls, then did it mean that the town itself wasn't specifically linked after all? Or maybe it actually was, and some crazed killer or even a cult was operating from within the town. But then why kill people outside of the town?

Despite gaining important information, Felicia realized at that moment that it only brought up more questions than answers. She was at a loss of what she could do at this point, as there weren't really any leads she could follow at the moment. Perhaps the FBI Agent could potentially disclose more information, maybe offer a bit of direction? But he'd already said he couldn't say much, which made sense since this was an official murder investigation, and when it came down to it she was just a civilian. She knew she shouldn't really be involving herself with something this serious, but the whole situation had been eating away at her ever since she'd first learned that Lucy Taylor was found dead. There had to be something she could do...

"I guess we should head back then," her Mom suddenly spoke up as she got out of her seat, "A little disappointing to come all the way out here for that, but it'll give me some peace of mind at least."

"Mm, yeah," her Dad grunted, having apparently been disinterested in the meeting since the start anyway. He got up as well, but saw that his daughter was still sitting, a look of concentration on her face. "Felicia? You goin' to keep sittin' there?"

"Um...I'm gonna stay for a bit," she answered him after a pause, "You guys can head back, I'll be fine. I just want to check on something, I'll head home after." He gave her a quizzical look, but nonetheless nodded and moved to leave. Her Mom left with him, her brother trailing behind as he gave his sister a more scrutinizing look. Felicia sighed quietly at that, not doubting that her brother would likely question her later about what she was doing.

Once her family had left the Community Center, she finally got up from her seat and decided to see if the Agent was free to talk. However, as she began to make her way backstage she could see that two other people had the same idea as her and made it there first. Of course Scarlett was there, why wouldn't she be, but an older man was there as well, someone who hadn't spoken up during the meeting. Hold on, had she seen him somewhere before? He looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place her finger on it.

Either way, it was pointless for her to go backstage now, those two would likely keep up the Agent's attention for some time. She figured that maybe she could catch him as he left the Community Center, so she decided she would wait outside in front of the parking lot for now. As she passed through the lobby to outside, she was surprised to see police and several people in handcuffs. She stopped for a moment, watching and listening attentively as she heard some of the more emotional of the handcuffees raving about monsters at the lumbermill. So now people were seeing monsters too? The police didn't seem too worried about the prospect of it being possibly true, if their expressions and body language were anything to go by.

Knowing that the cops would probably end up yelling at her to leave if she stuck around too long, she exited the lobby once she heard enough of what the detainees were saying. Upon stepping outside, fresh air hit her lungs once again, managing to calm her just a bit. That was probably the one good thing she could admit to liking about the town, but "nice air" could hardly be considered a compliment.

"There's no way there's monsters..." Felicia muttered to herself, attempting to gather her thoughts as she absentmindedly dug into her pocket for her pack of cigarettes. She'd just smoked less than an hour ago but she could already feel that she needed another break. "Can't be...it's gotta be wild animals, only thing that makes sense...but what kind of animals could mutilate people like that...?"

Just as she was about to light the freshly pulled-out cigarette, she realized she probably couldn't smoke in front of the Community Center. There tended to be "No Smoking" signs around city buildings like these, so even though she didn't see one immediately near her she decided she wasn't going to push her luck, especially not with there being cops nearby. With a sigh, she temporarily pocketed the single cigarette as she looked around to see if there really was a sign nearby. Though in doing so, she realized she'd ended up pacing nearby another young woman who looked to be just as deep in her own thoughts as she was. If Felicia had to guess, the girl couldn't be any older than 16 or 17, and upon looking at her she recognized that she went to the local high school, though she couldn't put a name to the appearance. It wasn't as if she knew too many of the students anyway, but that didn't matter right now as she could sense worry emanating from her.

"Hey, you're from the high school, right?" Felicia asked nonchalantly, giving her one more quick look up and down in a failed attempt to remember what the girl's name was, "You doing alright there?"

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Officer Olson had just finished clasping the handcuffs around the hysterical lumbermill worker. Disturbing the peace and damage to public and private property. These guys were worked up about something in the lumbermill- severe distress. They'd be out of jail shortly or they could pay bail- no real major crimes here but enough to warrant getting them off the streets before they kicked over any more trashcans. A police report would have done the trick.

One of the louder ones begrudgingly ducked his head into the squad car as she applied pressure to his shoulders, before closing it behind him.

"Hey,", she said, getting the attention of a nearby officer. "You mind taking this guy down to the station? I'd like to check out that alleged disturbance down at the mill.".

The officer shrugged his agreement and slid into the car, driving the raucous worker away. Alice Olson breathed in the crisp air and looked over at her own car. It was the least she could do to investigate whatever was going on at the mill. Monsters? Maybe there was a hallucinogen in the air or something- or some meanhearted prank, or maybe these guys were just tired and overreacting to all of these terrible events. Either way, a complaint was filed.

A few moments later, Officer Olson was closing the car door behind her. She drove south, away from the community center, and then turned left, following the paved road to the front entrance of the lumber mill. The wheels of her car crunched gravel as she pulled neatly and effeciently into a parking spot. Stepping out, she eyed up the somewhat ominous building and hoisted her belt upwards on her torso, then brushed some loose strands of hair out of her face and began making her way towards the front entrance.

As Mariana drove her car towards the lumber mill she remained alert as to not make sure none of the other officers were looking at her. She started to drive along the road asit headed up towards the lumber mill. She parked her car a little bit away from the mill itself Mariana looked towards her shotgun laid next to her in the side seat, she thought about grabbing it but decided against it.

Instead she reached for her glove compartment and pulled out her handgun, hiding it under her shirt as she got out. Mariana walked along the trail leading to the mill when she noticed one of the officers nearby making her way towards the front entrance. Deciding to just move along the exteiror hopefully she wouldnt end up getting caught.

The officer casually approached the lumber mill door and rapped the steely door with her knuckles.

If no one answered, she'd knock again, announcing her presence as a police officer. If no one answered again, she'd try to make her way inside by pushing the door open. Considering the workers themselves wanted her to be there she figured a brief persual of the facility before leaving if nothing came up or no one was inside would be easy.

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Sighing as he moved backstage, Donald had a few words with the Sherrif over the incident that had occurred at the Lumbermill, and had been about to make his way there when he caught the sound of a rapping against the wall to his right. Turning around, he found himself facing the woman, no, the girl, who had spoken up and rather dramatically introduced herself as Lucy Taylor's best friend. He gave her a curious look, tucking his hands into his pockets briefly as he listened to her speak, thinking over what she said for a moment, and forcing himself not to make a snide remark as she yet again introduced herself as Lucy's 'bestie'. Donald watched her for a few moments, taking in what he could of her attitude, she definitely had that kind of popular, bitch-queen attitude he had seen in many girls his age. He found it strange in all honesty, it was something he had not expected to find in this small, country town.

'I guess it's not as different as I thought.' Donald's thoughts mused, his hand reaching into his jacket as he pulled from it a small, black notebook and a pen, the man clearing his throat as he watched her. "Yes, I suppose I do." Donald briefly cast a glance over Scarlett's shoulder towards the man who came into the hall as well, pausing and leaning against the wall. He noted that he'd seen the man in the meeting, but that he had not spoken up, and seemed relatively content to remain silent to the back. He figured perhaps the man was more the type to be asking questions in private, rather than the public setting that came with the meeting.

Turning his attention back towards Scarlett, he cleared his throat and glanced back down to his notebook, ready to jot down her responses to his questions. "Could I have your name, age, and how you knew the deceased, first off?" He paused for a moment, then quickly cut her off before she might have a chance to respond. "I mean, how you met Lucy, I understand you were... 'besties.'" He gave Scarlett a few moments to answer the question, jotting down the basic information before he got further into the heart of the matter. "Can you tell me when you last saw Lucy? How had she been acting recently, anything strange? Had she been meeting with, or seeing anyone new?"

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As Mariana walked along the lumber yard some she noticed the red mustang and the white pickup truck, she quietly looked over towards the front door to the mill itself. The cop seemed to be pretty busy with the door and trying to get inside, she approached the white truck seeing some blood coming from the passenger side door leading up to the entrance. Something gruesome had happened here as she thought about approaching the officer to find out whats going on, but decided against it. Mariana decided to continue along with her search and started to head over towards the other end of the yard.

When she did Mariana froze as she saw the bodies all strewn across the ground, noticing them holding tools as makeshift weapons to kill one another. This was getting weirder and weirder the more she looked at it, Mariana decided to continue forward taking out her handgun just incase anyone tried to jump her. As she started to move and try to get a closer look at the bodies, careful not to contaminate any of the evidence. When she was close enough to the closest body Mariana kneeled down to try and get a better look and see if there were any traces of sulfur or the smell that comes with demons. "What the hell is going on here?" Mariana muttered to herself.

---

He could either wait for the detective, or sate the hunger growing in the pit of his stomach, having missed lunch with the slotted time for the meeting.

He stood casually, nonchalantly against the wall parallel to the rest of the hallway of the Community Center; his calm, cool exterior gave the impression of Richard's utmost confidence, whilst ideas were always being tossed and exchanged inside his head. As he waited his turn, he exchanged a multitude of questions and inquiries for the detective. He wasn't an anxious man by any measure - at least, in the physical sense - but, was somewhat neurotic and obsessive in his thought patterns to no exterior reveal.

He saw the no-smoking sign from down the hallway, as his idle gaze wandered down the hallway. He half-debated in his head fucking off with the legal restrictions and lighting one up; he wasn't in the mood for the law's shit. It must've been somewhere in the eighties those signs started popping up in every community center or civil institution, he would probably need to read some book only one person could ever be bothered to write and no one else would dare read for the sake of sacrificing their boredom.

He idly tuned into the conversation, as it presumably happened behind closed doors; a word or two would likely be distinguishable, and any further speculation would require some effort of piecing of the puzzle together.

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Whitney was a bit lost in her own thoughts, but she heard a voice behind her and turned around. She recognized the girl a bit. Felicia was her name? Or Felicity? Either way, Whitney smiled and shrugged. "Just going through the motions, I guess. You never expect this to happen in your town. Bigger cities like New York and Chicago? Crime is rampant there, but not in Silver Falls. I'm just worried this is going to evolve into something bigger."

Soon, the smell hit her nose. It was awful. She covered her mouth and nose with her hand and looked around for the cause of the smell. "Do you smell that? God, what is that?" Whitney started looking around for the cause.

As she looked, she noticed a lot of men surrounding a black Escalade. It was like the secret service was here. What were they here for? Surely it wasn't for the FBI agent. They didn't get rock star treatment usually. And as far as she knew, no celebrities were here. (Though Scarlett sure liked to act as one). Peculiar.

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The female officer stepped into a puddle of some water as she waited byt he door. Looking down, she realized the wet crimson of blood had stained her boots. Her eyes, now wide, followed a trail of blood, back into the open passenger door of a white pick up, where more of the horrible substance was to be found. From the angle of her arrival, it looked to be no more than muddied water- but it was clear what it was now.

The gruesome trail was leading into the door.
Her hand found the radio attatched to her waist and she pulled it close to her lips and began speaking into it.

"Dispatch, this is Officer Olson, I've got blood down at the lumber mill. Lots of it. 11-41, possible 187. Backup requested, over. She strapped the radio back onto her belt and rubbed her forehead. Unfortunately, she had contaiminated the crime scene by stepping into the blood.

Her boots left footprints of the red substance behind her as she walked, so she tried to get it off by wiping it on the ground. She'd obviously have to report that to the investigators. Making her way over to the truck, careful not to touch anything more, she leaned inside the open door and looked around. The odor of blood was strong. It was disgusting, though she'd seen more in car accidents. This, however, was probably worse because of the...intentional nature of it. If there wasn't anything interesting immediately visible in the car she'd do a quick once-over of the whole building in case she could see anyone who needed help.

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"I know what you mean," Felicia nodded in agreement, offering back a smile of her own, albeit meeker, "Stuff like this just doesn't happen around here. Makes it hard to figure out how to deal with it when it does actually happen." Despite having the feeling that something was wrong with the town, in the end it wasn't enough to prepare her when something drastic did indeed end up happening. Death, rituals, omens, and rumors...it was all new to her, and having to learn how to deal with it was hard. But at the very least, she was ready to face what came next and try to adapt.

The smell hit their noses right around then, temporarily interrupting their conversation. Felicia crinkled her nose at the disgusting scent, with the younger girl having a similar reaction.

"You smell it too then," Felicia replied, phrasing it more like a statement than a question. She brought an arm up to her nose, electing to cover it with her sleeve. "I'm not sure what it is, but it's disgusting. It almost smells like rotting food, but..." She noticed that the blonde's attention was caught by something nearby, so she turned to look at what the high schooler was looking at. She immediately took note of the strange men surrounding the black Escalade, and a faint sense of distrust began to form. Were these the rumored strange men who had allegedly shown up one day from out of nowhere? Apparently, they were often only seen walking around at night, so what were they doing here? Felicia didn't recall seeing them at the meeting earlier, now that she thought about it.

"...You've paid attention in Science, right?" Felicia asked the young woman rhetorically while keeping her gaze on the mysterious men, keeping her voice low as she spoke, "It just hit me now, but that FBI Agent said they found sulfur at those crime scenes." She bit her lip. She'd wanted to wait out here for the Agent, but now she was beginning to feel wary of being out in the open with those men around. A part of her wanted to go up to them and ask what they were doing and why they were there, but the more sensible part of her brain told her that was a stupid idea and that she didn't have a backup plan if things went south. Not that they would, right? But if they did...well, she didn't want to confront them alone, at least. And it's not like she could just drag this high schooler with her, they didn't even know each other beyond the fact that they've probably seen each other around at school a few times. However, informing a trained and possibly armed FBI Agent sounded a lot smarter and more practical.

"Maybe I'm just connecting dots that aren't there, but I'm gonna head back inside and find that FBI Agent, I think his name was Baker," Felicia told the girl aside from her as she turned back to face her, "Are you gonna be able to get back home ok? I don't think you should stay out here alone."

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The agent didn't seem to be getting along with the program. Maybe it was because he was new to Silver Falls, but that wasn't the attitude people normally had when talking with the Scarlett Cromwell. A look of disgust flashed across her face momentarily, before Scarlett once again replaced it with the facade of the grieving friend. Truthfully, the reason she was here was to see who in town had the balls to kill Lucy and to personally congratulate them. Perhaps kill them for doing what she had wanted to do--but congratulate first. Kill second.

"Scarlett Annalise Cromwell--yes, I am related to that Cromwell," Scarlett said, smiling playfully at the detective. Her great-grandfather was famous. If the agent didn't know about him, then as far as Scarlett was concerned, he didn't have any business as a detective. "I'm eighteen years old, if you can believe it~! As for Lucy, my bestie, the Chanel to my Estée Lauder...I moved here when I was seven and some have said that was the day Lucy Taylor was made. We were practically sisters--inseparable since Girl Scouts." Scarlett sighed wistfully. Lucy was dead now, so Scarlett could say whatever she wanted about her. Lies and truth, it was all the same now.

"I saw her last getting off a bus from Tacoma," Scarlett said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. Tacoma had a less than desirable reputation. It was the druggie shitshow little sibling of Seattle. "As for boys...Well, Lucy didn't swing that way. I know, gross. But she was my sister, so I loved her anyways. It was the least I could do."

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Jennifer sat at her dinner table, her form filling one of the eight seats surrounding the oval, wooden, shiny table. The only sound filling the house was the gentle clinking of metal silverware against a ceramic plate and bowl, a slice of turkey, beans, and corn, all in healthy proportions were slowly being consumed by the solitary woman. She had made too much again, she'd have plenty of leftovers.

She paused, glancing around at the empty seats, feeling a little sad. She used to have friends over all the time. Somehow that all slipped away. It wasn't abrupt. It just...happened. Over time. Jennifer didn't feel depressed or saddened, or hopeless, or even that lonely. There were still many years left in her life, all it would take was a couple of phonecalls and everything would be back to the way it used to be. Well, almost. Still, it's not like her friends were all out of reach! They'd meet together again. Someday. Just not today.

After cleaning her plate and washing the ditches, she set herself down on the couch, flicked on the TV, and took off her socks, enjoying being comfortable in her loungewear. Just a black t-shirt and grey sweat pants. The TV was some soap opera, it was just background noise for the reading of the book on her table. Her wooden bookmark with her name engraved in it had a thick string on the end that marked her page. She quickly became absorbed in her little world.

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The hall itself was quiet, aside from the bits and pieces of Donald and Scarlett's conversation, Richard could hear next to nothing in the eerily quiet community center, now as silent as the grave. The area off to the side where Donald and Scarlett stood was far different, considering the young ladies insistence on hearing her own voice. Donald nodded professionally as she spoke, jotting down occasional notes as she spoke, but clearly not taking down everything she said. His eyes were intently focused on her as she spoke, a fool could have mistaken it for staring, but each flick of his eyes was done with deep intention, reading the woman as she spoke.

Donald had learn to read people in the FBI, in a way it was exactly his job. Normally he figured anyone so eager to connect herself with the deceased was likely to have some hand in the murder, but he knew in his heart this wasn't the case with Scarlett, though he knew as well that she was not one to be trusted from how she spoke and held herself. He nodded as Scarlett finished her small testimony, making a few mental notes. Tacoma could have led this to being something drug-related, but Donald's previous experience her made him consider otherwise, there was far, far more to this investigation, but he didn't know what.

The fact of Scarlett's relations was curious to Donald, but he knew better than to make connections on such a vague and distant relation. Still, a serial killer's great-grandaughter was not something to be treated lightly. "Just one more question, miss Cromwell, and it's somewhat of an odd one..." He paused, as if to consider the question before he spoke it. "Was Lucy, or anyone she may have known for that matter, connected with... Supernatural dealings, lets say?" He queried, unaware of the irony in who he asked this question to. The question did carry down the hall to Richard's ears however, whether or not he would make anything of it...

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As her search over the bodies they turned up absolutely nothing at all, other then seeing that their eyes were bloodshot that didn't show signs of demonic possession in her years of hunting. The Lucy Taylor murder was certainly demonic related, but this wasn't at all, as she tried to figure out what exactly was that made these people want to go and kill each other. This was certainly a really weird case for her as she wasn't sure what to think of it all. There wasn't a scent of sulfur from any of the bodies either, no yellow dust just nothing Mariana slowly closed the eyes of one of the victims.

She stood up as she decided to look further around the lumber mill as she started to continue to walk along the side of the building itself, maybe inside the mill would provide any useful information. Mariana walked along the side of the building looking for a door, a hatch, any kind of opening that would let her enter the building. She wasn't sure where exactly the police officer was, Mariana really didn't intend on getting herself arrested for looking into a crime scene.

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Suddenly, there was a terrible crashing sound, the TV snapped off and the ambient lighting of the house went dark. Jennifer yelped, dropping her book, her bookmark falling out of it's place.

"What in the world was that!?" Jennifer shouted to the room. The noise sounded like it came from out front. A car accident had happened in the street! A car was totalled, and a young man and woman were...fighting each other? They looked like they needed help. She'd seen shock and concussions before, and though this behavior was unprecedented this might be the result of some kind of brain injury.

Her innate sense of urgency in emergency situations kicked in. The power was out, so her phone wouldn't work, and going in there to try and pull them apart would only get herself hurt. Barefoot, in sweat pants and a t-shirt that was a few sizes too big so that the bottom of it bounced up and down when she ran, she unlocked the front door and rushed outside. The soles of her feet impacted on the ground as she ran across the cement driveway, keeping a wide berth of the horrible fight scene. It was the weekend- somebody had to be home.

"Help! Help!" She shouted into the air. She knocked on the neighbor to her left's door, still yelling for assitance. Then, she ran over to the neighbor on her right's house calling for someone to come outside of their home! These two people were killing each other in their injured stupor!

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Officer Alice Olson sharply inhaled as the felt the lethal axe-head's presence whip by her head. Immediately, she felt herself buzz with adrenaline. She backpedaled away from the maniac with the weapon, unholstering her steel companion that shined in the sun. Her finger was off the trigger, perhaps he would surrender after failing his surprise attack. While he was still yanking out the axe, she dashed out of melee range and pointed the pistol at the killer. Elbows lose, right eye lined up with the ironside, legs spread comfortable apart.

"Put the fucking axe down or I will shoot!" She shouted at the top her lungs, voice cracking with the strain but no less full of lethality. Jaw tight, eyebrows furrowed and eyes wide, she kept the barrel of the gun trained on the man's center of mass. If he took even a few steps towards her, she'd have no choice but to shoot to kill.

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Whitney shrugged. She was kind of weirded out that this random girl she only knew from association to school was so concerned about her, but at the same time, it was a nice feeling. Still, she watched the men cautiously. They stared back at her before they got into their car and drove off. Whitney wasn't dumb and noticed that when they were gone, the smell gradually went away.

However, what followed was an intense hunger. She hadn't eaten breakfast, but still, this was unlike anything she felt before. She wanted to talk to the FBI Agent, but she was starving. "I should be fine. I'm going to go get some food somewhere. All of a sudden I am really hungry? Wanna tag along?"

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"Lucy, had a newfound interest in Biblical Mythology."

From the two participants in Donald's room, a voice had cut through the air and interrupted the regular flow of conversation. For those inside the room, a man had appeared in front of the doorway, as he slowly made his way inside the room with his hands in his pockets of his slacks. He leant against the frame of the open door.

"Particularly so, in the Book of Revelations.", the man continued, "I'm sure you're familiar with the title, Detective."

He rolled his tongue around in his mouth out of idleness; he hadn't planned on making a rude introduction of himself, alas, he simply saw an opportunity. In his pause from speaking, he inhaled once before resuming his introduction; "Now, I suppose I should introduce myself.", he continued, idly smiling at the notion of his poor manners, "My name is Dr. Richard Lester, but please, call me Richard; I am a Professor of Business Administration at North-Pacific University.", said the professor, as he reached forward with the gesture to shake the detective's hand.

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Felicia's eyed widened when she saw the men suddenly begin to leave. She hesitantly stepped toward them, but she knew there wasn't anything she could do, and it wasn't like she could run to the FBI Agent back inside in time either. Before she could act, they were already driving off, and with them left the smell as well.

"Damn it..." Felicia muttered with a sigh, annoyed that they had gotten away before she could do anything. That smell was almost definitely sulfur, and even aside from that, the men came off as incredibly suspicious just on appearance and behavior alone. Well, she figured she could at least still go tell the authorities about the suited men, though she wondered if anything could be done anyway. As far as she knew, they weren't breaking any laws so far, so at best they might just be watched by the police. Better than nothing though, right?

It was then however when she noticed the growing hunger. It was subtle at first, but the feeling quickly began to grow into something much more severe, and furthermore, offputting. Normally she would've thought she was just really hungry, but something about this was just...off, especially as it had seemingly come out of nowhere. What was going on?

"I'm feeling pretty hungry too, but shouldn't we tell someone about those guys?" It was important after all, or rather, it should've felt important, but the hunger gnawing away at her stomach was already beginning to become too much for her. "...But, the FBI guy did say he would be working out of the police station, so I guess we can catch him later. So, sure, I'll go with you."

She didn't understand why she was making such an impulsive decision like this. She was just hungry! Her stomach of all things shouldn't be influencing her decisions like this! And yet, she almost had no problem abandoning talking to the cops in favor of getting something to eat. Even if it was with someone she really didn't know at all.

"P&W's sound good to you? I think it's the closest diner from here."

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Yes, it was irritating that the agent clearly wasn't writing down her each and every word. Scarlett couldn't help but feel disappointed in the agent. She could've had some real fun with him, especially given that he wasn't too hard on the eyes. She masked her reaction to his next question. A connection to the supernatural? Well, Scarlett was a bonafide witch. And not a particularly nice one.

I guess I'll have to kill this loser Scarlett thought. She'd wait until later that day, in order to make it look like an accident, just another unfortunate happening in this town that was quickly going to hell. He'd have to say hi to Lucy for her. "Yeah, she did," Scarlett quipped. "She had a fairy godmother and she'd scream bippity-boppity-fuck you." Scarlett glanced around for a moment, resisting the urge to loosen the light fixtures, just to see if one of them could crash down and hit the agent.

"You're really bad at your job," Scarlett scoffed. "Maybe you'll be the one to die next, hmm?"

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Donald had been ready for Scarlett's response when he heard the voice over her shoulder. Glancing past her towards the doorway, his gaze fixed upon Richard as he took his steps into the room. For a moment Donald eyed him up and down, considering what he had said and briefly noting the information the man had provided. He had been about to question Richard when he chose to introduce himself, giving the man a nod as he shook his hand. "I appreciate the information, doctor." He was somewhat surprised that the question had prompted a legitimate answer from Richard, but he had already expected some aspect of the investigation had this aspect.

Turning his gaze back to Scarlett, he raised an eyebrow at her quip. He had not openly considered Scarlett as a major suspect, but even he couldn't ignore the clear threat she had made in his direction as he watched her. Still, he cleared his throat, maintaining a professional posture as he closed his notebook, tucking it away as he watched her. "Cult ritual murders tend to involve willing participants, there were no signs of resistance at the murder scene from your friend Lucy, so that's a lead I was crossing off." He narrowed his eyes briefly at the woman, watching her closely for any hint of a reaction to his words, or lack thereof.

"Is there anything else you needed, miss Cromwell?" He asked politely then, giving her a gentle dismissing.

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Officer Olson's body instinctivley twitched backwards as she backs away from the swing. With that, she quickly plants her feet in the ground and re-aimed the pistol into the man's center of mass. The maniac made his total lack of intention to surrender very clear, and he had threatened an officers life. Really, she should have shot him as soon as she could but she was in a position to offer surrender. Now, it was too late for him. She quickly fired off a burst of five, methodical pistol shots.

The terrific crack of gunpowder igniting the projectiles within the barrel of Alicia's gun temporarily dulled her hearing, her elbows and arms managing the recoil of the shots. Her heart beating a million miles a minute, eyes wide, eyebrows arched, teeth grinding, nostrils flared, her training was still in charge as she discharged the quintuple bullets.

One, two, three, four, five, pause.

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The civilian Jennifer had both her hands over her mouth as the scene infront of her unfolded. Her eyes were wide as saucers and her brows were furrowed in concern.

"Oh, my goodness! Are you okay!? Is he okay!? What happened? Did he try to hurt you? The power went out! You crashed into the power line! I don't have a working phone. Do you have a phone? Should we call the police? An ambulance? Oh, dear!" With that, she ran over to get closer to the surviving woman, blubbering the whole way.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I'm calm! We're calm. You're okay, now. Someone's bound to call the police. Okay? Okay." Jenny took a few deep breaths. She leaned cautiosly and caringly toward the woman, almost unconsciously checking her face for wounds.

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As Mariana walked along the three buildings, she first looked into the smaller office building she hadn't seen anyone in the building as she slowly looked through each of the rooms in the small building. She didn't see a living soul in the room before giving up, Mariana turned around and started to make her way towards the larger office building. She tried the door and it wouldn't budge at all, when she moved over towards the window Mariana noticed that it had been barricaded from within. There was a possible chance that someone maybe alive in the building, but she couldn't open it on her own.

She decided to check into the mill itself, as she made her way over there she stopped for a moment raising an eyebrow and drew out her handgun when she heard some whispering. Mariana decided to enter the mill and find out what and where the whisperings were coming from, then she stopped and heard five gunshots going off in unison. Mariana decided to find out where the gunshots were coming from and started to make her way over to where Alice was.