Condemned

[Vocenae]

OOC: I've no idea if this is the proper place for this topic, but I figured this would be better than just relaying what's happening in my news thread. For those of you who havn't been following along, on May 4th for college students went missing in the forest outside Celeste, the second largest city in Vocenae. On the 8th, search teams found the body of Mikal Xaloros, the oldest and only male of the group that went missing, gutted, skinned and hanging from a tree outside Indrini, the central most city. The curtain rises with the account of Brecca Tasservus, on the last night of her life...

 

IC.

 

The second one had struggled more than the first. It took three of them to suppress her while the others kept the other two students bound and gagged. They watched on in horror as the would-be escapee was knocked to the ground and kicked until she could barely move. She whimpered, unable to do anything in her pain. They were in an old building, most of the windows were boarded up, and the lights were few and far between. But yet, in this state of disrepair, there were objects that betrayed what the building had once been used for. A small fridge, a collapsable table, a ratty sofa, and of course, the omninous looking large box that sat in the middle of the building's office.

 

Then came the torture. They burned her, cut her, whispered foul vulgarities into her ears, and gestured menacingly towards the box. It all became too much for her exhausted body and mind, and she slipped into the ever encroaching blackness.

...

 

She returned to conciousness, feeling herself being lifted into the air, but unable to move. She cried out through the thick gag that had been placed around her mouth as she saw the lip of the box looming out of the darkness, and then there was the slightest feeling of freefall, and then freezing cold shock. She couldn't breathe, couldn't move, and perhaps worst of all, she couldn't see through the blackness...

 

The police stumbled upon the body of Brecca Tasservus late in the day. A officer had followed a hunch and checked out one of the abandoned warehouses in the industrial sector of Indrini. He proved to be correct, and had never before wanted to be so wrong. Brecca's body was suspended in the middle of a large square tank filled with water. The look on her face was of sheer terror, it looked as if she could have still been alive, but the dulled, blank eyes told the truth. The officer called for back-up, and kept searching, the eyes of the corpse staring at his back as he left the office-tomb. He found nothing, no one else was in the warehouse's upper levels, and he was not going to risk the sub-basements without someone to cover his back.

 

And so the back-up arrived, and the building was roped off. The pictures of the crime scene, the corpse, were taken, and the body was taken in for autopsy. Everyone involved at the crime scene had seen bodies before, but the past two murders, aside from being related, were among the most bizarre and brutal things they had ever seen. There were two students left now. Two students at the mercy of a killer. Or killers. The latter seemed more likely, and made the situation all the more dangerous. Authorities would have to double their efforts if they wanted to save those women from fates that had befallen their friends. The media had a field day with the story, and had forced the authorities to send a SWAT team into the sub-basements through sheer insistence and the propogation of incorrect information.

 

What they found down there in the dark was kept a secret from all but the highest authorities.

 

The walls were covered in strange scriptures, explanations written in blood of the coming arrival of a god of death to the mortal world, and all living things in his eyes were condemned to death, but would only receive it with his blessings. The scriptures were from no text, no holy book, nothing. Were they just the ramblings of insane lunatics? Or was there a underlying message hidden inside the madness?

 

It seemed a cult had formed in the dark places of the world, and those who knew could only question if this was contained to Vocenae, or if it was global. All they did know was that they had to find the two students, and let the government handle something of this magnitude.

 

OOC: Ever wondered if all murders, no matter how different, were connected in a hidden way? There are cults that believe in this in Vocenae, and the period of relative peace that had settled over the nation is about to be challenged, this is just the precursor event.

[Vocenae]

OOC: IBI stands for Imperial Bureau of Investigation.

 

Through the twisting sewer tunnels the cultists traveled, carrying the last two of their victims with them. The days stretched into weeks, and the city of Indrini lay far from them. They traveled northeast, through the wilderness, following an unseen path. The cultists now spoke constantly of this 'god', and the psalms they whispered in the long darkness of night ate at the sanity of the captive students, until they could no longer see the truth that lay beyond the fiction. The cultists grew ever closer to Elysia, and the path into the untamed beyond.

 

But on the eve of their arrival in Elysia, a shattered soul disappeared while her captors slept. Her mind broken, her body scarred and covered in grime she fled, scrambling over rocks, through creeks and streams and the the thick underbrush. She was no more than a wild animal in a human shell now, but like most animals in modern times, she was drawn to the bright lights of the city, and the smell of food...

 

Elysia City, Northwest Vocenae

 

"There hasn't been any sign of the students since the body was found in Indrini, sir. Most of the search teams are giving up hope of ever finding the last two, and it's most likely they've been killed and left to rot in the old sewers."

 

"Do you know this? Are you so certain they are dead that you would abandon them to their fate? Have the teams searched every inch of the sewers?"

 

"Sir, the areas we have not searched are in such bad repair no man could ever travel safely through there, and the killer probably died trying to escape back into the city."

 

"Only madmen and demons deal in absolutes, lieutenant. It won't be that simple, and the IBI will have it's work cut out for it. But for now we must rely on the help of the police search teams, even if you are correct..."

-------

Noises. So many. But food is close. What was that? Behind me! All around! Cannot go back!

-------

 

The woman pulled herself over the guard rail and ran onto the freeway. Vehicles swerved left and right to avoid her naked form as she sped across the pavement. Finally she reached the far guard rail and vanished into the suburb beyond. Over fences and through well kept yards she scrambled, across the sidewalks and finally onto a small street, where a teen driver, arriving home from a night out with friends, ran into her as he pulling up to his driveway. She hit the pavement with a loud 'thump', and her panicked, broken mind was released to blackness.

-------

 

"So, will she live?"

 

"Maybe, she's got a major concussion and several broken bones from the car, not to mention the infections in most of those cuts and from exposure. Even if she does pull through, who knows what her state of mind will be."

 

"..."

 

"Sir?"

 

"Keep this room under 24 hour watch. No one goes in without clearance from me, and for the love of god don't let this get out to the press, not until we have the information we need"

 

"Yes sir"

 

The man turned, and exited out into the intensive care ward of the hospital.

Edited May 16, 2006 by Vocenae (see edit history)

[Vocenae]

OOC: This post is a bit violently graphic in some parts, mainly towards the end of it. If you have a weak stomach and/or a strong morale upbringing, I advise you to stop where the narrative becomes italicized again. Also, I am not trying to be grossly violent for no reason, as everything that happens is relevant to the plot of this rp.

 

Thank you,

-Voc

 

Demons made of blood swirled before her eyes. Infants aged from young to old and crumbled to dust in mere seconds. A great black pit stood before the people, and a inhuman eye stared down from above. Ruined dead things crawled in the shadowed corridors of castles, and moaned in the silence of the underground passageways. The wind howled and screeched, tearing at her very skin, leaving bright red gashes in which black blood flowed. Then suddenly she was falling into the darkness, above her the great eye stared into her soul as the people tore at themselves with hooked objects. Then there was a peace, and slowly a blinding white light flooded her vision, lifting her out of the nightmarish hell in which there was no escape.

 

The woman, while disoriented and very much driven past the point of insanity, became aware of the fact she was in a hospital room, and the white light was not the holy reprieve that she had prayed for. Even though she still lived, she knew one thing. She may have been saved from one nightmare, but now she would endure them for the rest of her life.

 

She was crying when the doctors came rushing in.

-------

The man was furious. Not only had the northern message-bearer escaped, now they would have to acquire another one, which would most likely prove as unclean and faithless as the boy had been. But this time they would not be able to purify the new message-bearer, nor would they be able to free the spirit from the imprisoning flesh. They had not the time, they were due back at the ChapelCity, and they had been running late as it was.

 

The final message-bearer, the beaten, broken woman sobbing silently against one of the sewer pipes, could not be spared either. It was to be used to summon his Lord into this world, who would grant him freedom from a doomed existance, along with all other living things in this world. A then the demon who slept in bleeding clouds would will awake and sow a new breed of life across the land, and those that had existed before would rise up in new bodies truly made in the image of god.

 

But in order for his Lord's plan to come to fruition, he must first find another message-bearer to lead the way to the ChapelCity, so that once his Lord awakened, the demon would only have to follow the 'signposts'...

 

Elysia City, North West Vocenae

 

"So I hear she's awake and stable"

 

"Yes sir. The IBI's medical personnel assure me that she'll be ready for us in a matter of three days maximum"

 

"That's far too long a time. The killers are making their way north every minute that we delay, before long they will be outside of the IBI's jurisdiction, and we'll have no support, unless the Iperial Council makes a bold move to expand our borders, which I highly doubt"

 

"Sir, perhaps they are looking for the girl? From what the intel from the Indrini site shows is that only 'message-bearers' are to be used on the 'path'"

 

"Perhaps, but still we must hurry, there's one girl left, and her chance of survival drops constantly. See if the medical staff will let us speak with her now, regardless of her condition"

 

"Yes sir"

-------

 

Eriska Ireso had a great time with her boyfriend tonight. He had taken her out to eat after the game, to a movie which turned out to actually live up to and surpass the all the hype that surrounded it. Then they had driven out to the river to watch one of the free concerts, and were lucky enough to hear one of the bands from Rekamgil playing. Yep, tonight had been pretty much her definition of perfect from all the angles, and she still had plenty enough time to get home before the curfew her parents had placed. She was passing the old veterans home when she felt someone grab her and force a foul smelling cloth into her face. She struggled for a few moments, and then the smell overpowered her and forced into unconciousness. She only felt the slightprick of something dirty entering her arm before everything faded.

 

She was still unconcious when they began take her apart, and mercifully died without feeling the pain.

-------

They started with the eyes first. Plucking them out carefully as to not destroy the glittering blue orbs. They hacked off the left arm with a small fireaxe they had found in the veterans home, and carefully laid it off to the side. They quickly, but neatly did the same to her remaining limbs, and finally beheaded the corpse with a quick and accurate downward swing of the axe. Lastly, as the others began to make the neccessary preparations, the cultist took the bloodsmeared head and opened the mouth. They had been lucky to find it, wandering the street alone past their location. It had once been a pretty thing, worthy of praise and devotion from men. But now it was nothing more than parts, pieces that would help the ignorant fools around them find their way to hs Lord's city.

 

He cut Eriska's, or what was left of her, tongue out with his knife, and went the set the head in the appropriate spot.