Town Trip

We drove into town yesterday. The Rake hissed at the car as we left, but didn’t make any move to stop us.

The place the map led us to is a house. While Eternity was deciding whether to break into the house or announce our presence, I decided to walk up to the front door and knock. I figured that if the owner of the house was hostile, I could just demand information at gunpoint. Or pretend to be a government official. I’m relatively certain I could get away with that…

Handgun hidden behind my back, I knocked. Guess who answered the door? A proxy. The proxy we held hostage in my basement. I smiled and said, “Hi! Do you mind if we come in and talk to you for a sec?”

And talk we did. I don’t feel like retelling the entire conversation right now….Eternity can if she feels like it…she did most of the talking anyway. But no blood was shed, so our chat was pleasant enough. I guess the reason for that is the proxy is grateful that we didn’t kill him while we were holding him hostage, even though he attacked us. Or something. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t paying attention to the whole conversation. Got distracted...

I did however pay attention when he mentioned that Hypnos had kept Hawk in his basement. I asked if he would let us look around his basement, and he was kind enough to oblige us. It was more of a bunker, really. Eternity snooped around while I made sure that the proxy wasn’t going to lock us in. He didn’t offer to, but I really don’t trust people.

He also told us about the next place they had taken Hawk. A shack in Indiana…the location of the shack was already marked on the map, but it’s nice to know exactly what we’re looking for. The place could’ve been a freaking cave for all I knew.

We left the proxy’s home, and I remembered that I needed to do some shopping.

I was about halfway done with my shopping. As we were walking to the next store....well….it went like this:

“Got the Super Soakers… Hey, let’s stop at this hardware store for a sec. I need some more PVC pipe and a few feet of hose. Oh, heheh, just had a idea. We need to get some balloons too. Or do I already have some? Better buy some just in case. Let’s go to Wal-Mart after this. That okay with you? …Eternity?”

All the blood had drained from her face. She was staring at something, openmouthed. I drew my handgun and looked around, but didn’t see anything. I cocked my head and stared at her, then waved my hand in front of her face. Nothing. Suddenly feeling cold despite my warm clothes, I gave her a shove, and she finally snapped out of it. She glared at Him (still didn’t see anything, but I figured it was Him), and chucked one of her knives at Him. Then we ran back to the car and went straight home.

So…...that was……..yeah.

I can’t see Him, I guess…

Is that a good thing?

Our little trip into the woods was nerve-racking, to say the least, but at least we found Hypnos’ former camp. The camp is well defended with tree stands, trenches, and wards...my wards. They copied my wards. As soon as I stepped into camp, it felt like my bones itched. I smiled when I realized what was causing the feeling... How ironic. Luckily, the sensation wasn’t strong. Eternity didn’t seem to notice it at all, actually.

I toyed with the notion of sabotaging the wards, but decided against it. It’s a nice camp. It’s a really nice camp. In fact, I hereby declare that camp as mine. I’ll re-ward it and put a semi-permanent deer blind there later.

After we found the area where they had been keeping Hawk, the Rake herded us back to the house.

Herded us.

And what the fuck is wrong with the Rake now? It’s lost Its mind. Ripping the woods apart, testing my wards constantly...and that fucking screeching. God, that screeching. Words cannot describe it. Oh yeah, and the staring. That’s fun too. As a general rule, I do not, under any circumstances, look the Rake in Its black, soulless eyes. Do you know how hard it is to avoid looking something in the eye when all it does for hours is stare directly at you? The Rake acts like It wants to kill Eternity too...but is it my imagination or does It look at me with slightly more loathing than It does her?

So what’s changed? I haven’t antagonized It any more than usual lately. Well, so long as the wards hold It off, there’s no cause for alarm. Creepy fucker. I never did figure out what It wanted.

Anyways, the second place the beetle stopped on the map was a nearby town, so we’re heading there sometime tomorrow.

Also, Eternity said something about a “destructive anti-Rake water gun apparatus.” Which reminds me. I need to buy a dozen Super Soakers while we’re in town tomorrow. And the materials to build a couple of those backpack water gun things.

Valete

We are preparing to go after Hawk.

Eternity was pretty adamant about going by herself. I weaseled my way into going with her by pointing out that I was the one who let the bitch-proxy in. Since, you know, this is mostly my fault, I feel like I should help get Hawk back.

I also consider Hawk a friend, and I want to help get him back.

Personally, I think the only reason she’s letting me come with is because the first few points on the map are in areas I’ve been to before.

Should’ve just left it there.

Let me start off by saying that this is all my fault. It really is. From what I figure, Curtis’ body was like a request to come across wards. And I, in my infinite wisdom, brought the body onto the property, thereby inviting the ‘sadistic little bitch’ onto our side of the wards. …or something to that affect. I’m not explaining it well, but I guess it doesn’t matter. The bitch got across, and it’s my fault.

Okay….. He was here, apparently. Eternity saw Him. But it’s all good. Things are…still fine…yeah……

My sneaking suspicion was right. Every spell I tried on my own failed, which is rather odd. Sometimes the spells just wouldn’t work, other times something would break or catch on fire.

So, after re-tracing Eternity’s dream and checking her head, I freaked out a little. Just a little. During my minor freak-out (which I quickly recovered from), I decided to spontaneously phone a friend for ideas on how to track Hawk, since everything I had tried so far…had not worked.

She had some good ideas that I wanted to try out. Then the weird things started happening. The floodlights turned on unexpectedly and blinded me when I tried to cast at night, it would start downpouring when I tried to cast outside during the day, a landmine would randomly go off and break my concentration...stuff like that. My favorite was the dead bird dropping from the sky into my lap mid-cast.

I was running out of ideas, but then Mystery told me a spell with Eternity as its focus. The spell identifies Hawk and Eternity with Isis and Horus, and Isis’s hunt for Osiris.

We sat under the nearest sycamore tree to try out the spell. I grabbed a map of the country, drew the hieroglyph for Horus, Isis, and Osiris on the back of it, and had Eternity write Hawk’s name and birthdate on the back of it as well.

Then Eternity brought me a tiny piece of what looked like Hawk’s clothing. I found a beetle (which represented a scarab), and attached the tiny bit of fabric to it. That was…really hard, but I got it attached to the beetle using a tiny piece of tape.

I had Eternity read parts of the story of Isis’s hunt for Osiris. Once she was done, she dropped the beetle onto the map. The beetle was supposed to wander around the map, and any place it paused or stopped was a place Hawk may have been. The was what the beetle was supposed to do. But, as soon as the beetle hit the map, it curled up and died.

We sat staring at the beetle for a moment.

“Hm. It’s not supposed to do that.”

“…”

I looked up and saw the look on Eternity’s face.

“Ah-hold on, I’ll find another one. That beetle must have been really old or something. Just give me…a second here…” I got up and hunted down another beetle.

We did the spell over, and thankfully it worked. And now we have a map. And since the map is in danger of spontaneously combusting if left in my presence for too long, I gave it to Eternity for safe keeping.

I need to look into the magic issue….

Valete

Absens

…

sigh

What a mess.

Just…everything.

I had to drug Eternity. I'm sure she'll be pissed, but, she wanted to go after Hawk. I would have let her…I would have gone with her, even…but the Rake was right there. Laughing. Apparently Eternity was too frantic to hear It. We would have been ripped apart.

I can’t believe we didn’t wake up…Alex didn’t even twitch….I felt no warning whatsoever… And now, I feel…unnaturally calm…sick…tired. Guilty? Rational...

That’s not right.

I need to think out my.…our..next move. I have several things in mind. But I need Eternity to be sane for that. And awake. She’ll be out for several more hours. While she’s out, I’m going to try some things to locate him. Divination…if you can even call it that, and a sort of tracking spell. If they don’t work, and I have a sneaking suspicion they won’t…I don’t know how I know that…I’ll try them again tonight, in the wetlands at the back of the property. It will be a good night for it, since…heh. Never mind.

Hm. I’ll post again later.

Well…I couldn’t just leave it there.

We left Curtis’ body nailed to the tree because it was outside the wards. As horrible as that is, Hawk and Eternity figured it was just too dangerous to step outside the wards because of the Rake. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what they thought. They didn’t say anything, but they made no move to fetch his body. Since the Rake is now killing anything that it can get its claws into, it would’ve been logical to just ignore the body.

But, ya know, I’m not logical. According to Eternity, I am insane. And she’d be right.

While Eternity finally got Hawk to sit down at the table and eat, I casually slipped outside and grabbed a hammer from the garage. I set everything that would slow me down besides the hammer (shotgun, two M-80s, machete, shoes, jacket, large red pipe wrench) in a pile, and slinked over to the property line. Curtis’ body was a ways outside the wards…don’t know how far exactly. I can’t judge distances.

I stared into the woods. The Rake hadn’t been sited for three hours, and I reeked of SC and rue, but that all meant nothing. I thought about asking the Fae to see if there was anything threatening nearby, but decided against it. Either the Fae are completely ignoring me now, or I just can’t sense them anymore. Either way, they are completely unhelpful.

Not seeing anything, and not hearing anything other than birds, I cautiously made my way to Curtis’ body. I got the body off the tree and slung it over my shoulder, surprised at how light it was. I started to stagger back to the house, no longer able to move quietly. I was halfway there when I heard something rustling behind me.

I froze, twitching slightly. When had the birds gone quiet?

I got the feeling that I was about to die horribly and I heard the Rake snarl. I quickly made my way back to the property line with the Rake in hot pursuit. I almost made it too, but the Rake swiped at me and caught me on the back of my left leg just as I stepped over the wards. Thrown off by the body’s weight, I did a (no doubt impressive) flying summersault type maneuver and landed in a heap in the landmine crater on the front lawn.

The Rake actually followed me across the wards a little, before hissing and shuffling backwards. Guess they still repel it…

The cut on my leg is shallow, but it really fucking hurts. I’ll be walking with a slight limp for a few days until it stops hurting, but it was worth it. Why’d I do it? Because I felt like it.

…

I regret nothing.

Not sure what we’re going to do with the body now that we have it. Cremation is definitely out; the smell of burning human flesh makes me nauseous (don’t ask how I know that), and it might attract predators (Possum).

Now I’m going to go curl up on the couch with my cat. No more shenanigans for tonight, I promise.

Valete

Was going to post this earlier-

-but I was too busy I was going around painting large ‘Xs’ all over the outside of the house, the attic, the basement, and the crawlspace. Carved them into a few trees as well. Besides, most of what happened has already been told by Eternity and Hawk.

They got across the wards… I have no idea what Hypnos did to his minions, but it allowed them to cross the wards. Sure, the wards keep the hell-beast out (I hope...), but some mind-fuckery from Hypnos renders them useless. Shit. (Yes, I made them correctly, so shut up.)

And they only stepped on ONE mine. What a rip off. At least the landmine detonated like it was supposed to. (I made more landmines…a lot more landmines. And two gallons of rue oil. I also put some rue into pouches. Everyone is now required to have these pouches with them at all times. No exceptions. This includes the cat and Alex.) But anyways-

I flinched as I heard the window in the next room shatter. Son of a- Hawk darted into the other room, leaving me with the bastard who just broke my door. The proxy lunged at me with what looked like a pipe, and swung it at my head. Instead of shooting him point-blank in the chest, I remembered the kill-shot policy and ducked. He nailed me in the arm and made me drop my shotgun, then swung the pipe at my head again. I dodged it and pulled the machete I had hanging from my belt out of its sheath. We traded blows for a while, but our skirmish came to an abrupt end when I retrieved my shotgun and smashed the butt of it into the side of his head. He went down, got back up, and proceeded to stagger back outside. Then Hawk ran back into the room.

The warded rocks were a last ditch effort that worked wonderfully (thank you Mystery). If they hadn’t worked, I would have completely disregarded the no-kill policy. Yes, yes, I know. Killing is bad. I know this. I agree with this. Really, I do. Just let it be known that I will kill anything that comes after my adopted family…unless the adopted family says otherwise.

And now we have a screaming minion tied up in a spare room. Alex is really happy about that… he’s been growling at the door for two hours. (Hypnos…you offer is being carefully considered...we’ll let you know shortly…)

The yard is a complete disaster. I feel my eye twitch every time I look at the charred grass and large crater left from the explosives. But all in all, I think we fared pretty well. The bullet graze on Eternity’s arm and the cut on Hawk’s face are the worst of our injuries. Most of the damage to the house has been repaired, except for the window. I ended up duct taping a large piece of cardboard (lightly sprayed SC and with an ‘X’ drawn on it) over its remains. I’ll fix it eventually.

Hypnos has a lot of underlings. I wonder how many the Rake brought down? Maybe Possum got a few; he’s usually out at night. Though…he isn’t all that aggressive. At least I’ve never seen him be aggressive.

(I’ve also started a mini rue garden)

Valete