Hell house(Ekaterina)
Date: 2025-10-20 14:07
(Hell house(Ekaterina):Ekaterina)
[Mon Oct 20 2025]
In a clearing before a delapidated mansion
As you step into the clearing, the chilling air thickens with an unnatural stillness. The abandoned mansion looms ahead, its once-grand facade now decayed and shrouded in shadows.
Its stained glass tower pierces the grey autumn sky, casting ghostly reflections across the overgrown grounds.
The windows are boarded up, and the buildings weathered wood and creeping vines suggest years of neglect.
Silence dominates the desolate landscape, with nothing but the rustling of fallen leaves and the distant, unseen whispers of the forest left as an eerie reminder of the Kuznetsov mansion’s maligned past.
It is night, about 56F(13C) degrees, and the sky is covered by dark grey stormclouds. The mist is heaviest At Panama and Sidney
There is a new moon.
Mercy opens the bag to peer inside, something about its contents making her cough-wheeze out something that’s kind of a laugh.
Mercy catches Eric’s alternating glance and the look accompanying it, as well as Tessa’s attempt to pspsps to him with no subtlety at all. Both are given a very cutting, icy look.
Tessa nods, just once, at Eric, biting her lower lip.
Tenzin does not look very at peace with what’s going on with his phone, but technology has never agreed with him. He hadn’t looked back at Mercy since the shady goods had been secreted over; however, he now finds himself narrowing eyes at Eric and Tessa’s whispering. “We are not a couple,” he assures, nose wrinkling up. “She was dying.”
Eric makes heart hands at Mercy, a bit unpracticed and obviously stolen from Tessa, before he grows more serious and hefts his carbine into the crook of his arm, eyeing the house ahead.
Mercy says “Ayeah, Ten here’s been helpin’ out with the make-a-wish thing an’ my dyin’ request was pancakes.“
“You two are a couple,” Tessa insists to Tenzin, a singular nod given to him as well, before she adds, “And you’re a cute couple.”
With no further preamble, Ekaterina steps for the mirrorgate once it is ready, leading Tenzin, Mercy, Eric and Tessa through with an enthusiasm that is rarely seen from the normally stoic Russian.
They step out in to a clearing in a forest at night, where the air is still– Too still– With no sights, sounds or scents of animals all around.
As the group come out of the tree line, they see the mansion ahead of them, and Ekaterina grunts. “I expected this to be bigger, da.” before explaining the objective to the group in full.
“In the eighties, this was a Trinity owned getaway for mages.” A pause, and Ekaterina explains, “Trinity are a group formed from three wizard councils and the world-wide coven of witches. It belonged to a family named Kuznetsov, who were known nature and elemental mancers. They left the place years ago, and they now wish to sell it. The catch? Is…” and here, Ekaterina holds up her fingers in air quotes, “Haunted. So we will go in, see what we find and stop the -haunting-.”
“Well, we’ll see if my … clairvoyance wants to play nice with me today,” Tessa murmurs, having gone quiet as Ekaterina explains why they’re here – besides bullying Mercy and Tenzin, obviously.
As an aside, she teases Mercy and Tenzin, piggybacking off of Tessa’s claim, “You are a couple.”
Eric prowls forward a few steps on silent, bare feet, flicking on the laser sight on his gun to sweep a dancing beam across the front of the house. “How does one stop a haunting,” he asks Ekaterina, still searching for targets. “Do we just, shoot it until it stops saying boo?”
“I am a monk,” Tenzin heavily sighs at Tessa, audible as the wind blows. He has been following Ekaterina with automatic steps, attention split and quartered but present, nonetheless. “The wizard?” he asks, turning to their guide. “Ah. Were you looking to buy this place, Director? I mean, Eck.”
Mercy focuses on just Tessa now after going quiet, some tension in the silence that’s decidedly unfriendly in nature. When she does speak up again her tone is measured, restrained. “Ain’ trivialize people’s connections by assignin’ mundane labels to it cause you ain’ able t-” and then Ekaterina joins in. She falters, at a loss, opting instead to quietly stew while listening to the briefing.
Ekaterina shakes her head. “Nyet. I was not. But interested Temple affiliated parties wished it, and I thought it might be fun to bring friends and ghost bust.”
Hands on hips, the Russian then adds, tone still light, “Platonic couple- Brother Tenzin is a monk.”
points at Ekaterina, saying, “Queer platonic is the term I’ve heard used, where you’re ike… mm… Holmes and Watson, you know?” Tessa says, eyes skimming Mercy before she says, “Don’t make me poke you in the wounds. It’ll just make me happier, and no one needs me more chipper than I already am.” With that, a hand drifts to the scabbard of her little knife, hidden under her hoodie, the other settling low on her stomach.
Mercy would echo Tenzin’s heavy sigh, but that would hurt too much so she expresses her frustration in short little huffs and busy hands that dig into the bag so she can get her snack on and stay preoccupied. Tessa is thusly ignored for the time being, her attention fixed on Ekaterina.
Tenzin can’t even process that Ekaterina would ride the bandwagon Eric and Tessa are driving. He’s struck with a dumb look on his face as her explanation of the house flies over his head. The man closes his eyes, shakes his head, and blinks hard. “Eck,” he starts, snorting. That follow-up makes it slightly tolerable for the monk, as he rolls tension out of his shoulders. “Perhaps not couple, but more ah.. partners. No, that sounds a bit wrong, as well,” he murmurs.
The nomad upnods Eric aside, saying, “The last time I did one with the former Director, he merely stabbed them with a neutralizing spear.”
“Man we obviously Turner an’ Hooch or what ever, MOVE ON NOW.” Mercy snaps after a bite of pancakes, her silence not lasting long at all.
Before the group, the mantion spreads out like the impending cloud of death’s cool embrace: The main building is a gothic affair, towering and once, grand. Its apex is a towered chamber, and though it is evidently not that, it looks almost like something one might find from an episode of Scooby Doo.
The wings stretch out to the east and west, one appearing overgrown and curiously alive with plant matter, having once been a vast greenhouse, the other, unknown.
Mercy turns to give the property a more thorough look over, biting the inside of her cheek thoughtfully and asking Ekaterina offhandedly, “How much they wantin’ fer this place anyhow?” It seemed a perfectly foreboding space for an introvert to occupy.
Eric shrugs, sweeping his braids back over broad shoulders with one hand. “Don’t have a spear, but I spose we just, handle it as it comes.” He strides forward now, abandoning any hint of stealth for a mix between a predator’s lope and a confident swagger, closing to within a few feet of the front door. He covers the last yard and a half in a lunge, bare foot driving forward, trying to kick the door in as he roars, “ANYONE HOME? KNOCK KNOCK!”
“Fellows?” Ekaterina suggests to Tenzin. “Companions?” Then inspiration strikes. “A fellowship.”
“Shall we make our way in?” The russian asks Tenzin, Mercy, and Eric.
“There are private security on the grounds, but they will not go near the place– They claim things move and mysterious lights show inside.”
And so saying, she steps up to the doors, waiting to see if the others wish to say, do or act more before they make their way inside.
Thankfully, Eric has already decided for them, and in the silence the doors responce is a thunderous resounding clatter before unoiled hinges make their protestations known, the doors swinging inward as Ekaterina answers Mercy. “I did not ask.” she admits, striding up beside Eric.
Mercy shudders a little and moves after the others at a pace that’s even more sluggish than before; and then she notices the moon in the night sky. “Ah, fuck..” she grumbles to herself.
“Ominous.” Ekaterina quips, stepping inside.
Mercy says “Lemme in there ‘fore a gentle breeze knocks me on my ass.“
“Of course my boyfriend kicks the door in,” Tessa drawls, tone dry, following behind, glancing at the security, and upnodding one guard when he looks at her. Then, she brings up the rear, tottering in. “Non-romantic life mates,” she offers to Tenzin and Mercy, tone just as flat.
Eric smirks with satisfaction, stepping over the threshhold without hesitation and sweeping his laser sight across the entrance hall. “Figured I may as well knock,” he murmurs to the group. “Y’know, get them all to come to us.” A pause, and he seems to weigh his options before concluding, “And if we’re a fellowship, dibs on Gimli.”
It goes without saying; What kind of haunted house wouldn’t do so– The moment the party enters, the double doors immediately swing back, the locks engaging.
They’re apparently staying here for the time being.
“Typically, they are merely lost and wish assistance with what keeps them from moving on,” Tenzin idly tacks on for Eric, but he is once again disturbed by his phone. It is most unfortunate that he is still in the middle of that business he’s got there, when it was supposed to end by now. As a result, he is slow — but not as slow as Mercy.
“Lights? Like the spheres that like to cluster around old trees?” the monk supposes of Ekaterina’s info. The next thing he knows, Eric is letting them in and they’re not being let out. The man peers over his shoulder at the locked doors.
Eric glances back as the doors close and locks engage, pursing his lips. “Touche,” he tells the empty room.
Mercy reaches a hand out once inside to pick at some of the peeling wallpaper, eyes traveling through the entry hall to take note of exits, obstacles, and in her case even the slightest tripping hazard. Tessa earns herself another exasperated glance but she can’t help pondering on Eric’s comparison. “What that make me, then? .. Shit, am I Gollum?” Then the doors slam behind them and she whirls around- instinct, what can you do- and staggers while holding back what ever pained noise is trying hard to crawl up her throat. Along with the coffee and pancakes.
Tessa starts to meander toward the east, peeking at the doorway, saying, “So, if we’re not afraid of ghosties and ghoulies,” she starts, that hand settled low on her stomach drumming idly, “We should, like, check out the spooky… greenhouse? Maybe? I’ve killed a lot of plants lately.”
“That yer way of sayin’ you’ve been eatin’ yer vegetables?” Mercy jabs at Tessa once she’s confident she can say something without throwing up.
“That’s my way of saying I’ve been hunting every day and I’ve been taken exactly once while doing so,” Tessa murmurs back, raising a brow. “I’m the pregnant one, if you puke, I’m leaving you here,” she huffs.
Finally, Tenzin can put away his phone and pay better attention to his surroundings. He knits his brows and gazes thoughtfully upwards, like the colors of the cobwebs might tell him something. But they do not. There is no wind to paint with in here. Only the cold chill of the spooky season.
“There seemed to be much that has outgrown the greenhouse, so it is worth investigating,” he determines, opting to stay with the party.
Mercy rolls her eyes in a great, wide arc to the point her irises briefly disappear into the back of her skull. “Please do.” she murmurs in response to the prospect of being left here, alone, unbothered. She voices no protest to the party’s interest in the greenhouse though, keeping as close as she can to the rear of the train and content to follow in this case.
“Will’o’whisps.” Ekaterina agrees with Tenzin as the party make their way inside, only to spin, rifle raised when the doors slam shut behind them.
A sigh, and seeing nothing, the Russian snorts, the sound loud in the emptyness. “Well.” she supposes. “We should have expected this.” Then, quite naturally, “Dibs on Legolas.”
At Mercy’s picking, not ust a fragment falls– First a tumble of dust… Then the entire roll descends, clattering to the ground in a burst of dust, cobwebs and dislodged spiders thick enough to cause everyone close to cough.
Ekaterina scans the room, noting the stairs and both main exits, sees the landing is empty, and follows Tessa with her gaze.
“Do wolves eat their own spitup like dogs?” Ekaterina asks idly, pointedly not looking to Eric and Mercy. The Russian is seemingly fine with banter.
“The greenhouse.” Ekaterina nods in agreement, checking that everyone wishes to take that rout first.
Mercy watches that roll of wallpaper just fold in on itself and drop to the floor, defeated. She sniffs audibly, thoughtful. “Bet this place real cheap..”
gags, audibly, at the thought of a werewolf eating its own puke, visage going a little pale, and her hand going to her mouth, swallowing, then taking a sip of her cider. “There is a major likelyhood I am carrying a wolf, if they eat their own barf, I’m chaining them up outside,” Tessa says in a huff, probably, hopefully, joking.
Eric squints after Tessa, before beginning to move in that direction himself, gun muzzle leading the way. “Gotta start somewhere I guess,” he mutters. “Mercy, you’re a hobbit. Ten, you’re…” Brow furrowing, he worries at his bottom lip, then decides, “Tenzin is definitely Aragorn. Now, lets dehauntify this shit.”
Tessa glances, bored, over at Mercy, saying, “Wolves are born wolves all the time, I’m literally friends with multiple born wolves. It’s like… Av said one in ten chance, if the Dad is.”
Mercy glances right back at Tessa, emulating that boredom tenfold like the woman were the most tedious thing she’d ever had the misfortune of glimpsing. “Oh, literally? Beggin’ yer finest pardon then, miss. Ain’ realize you had literal friends.”
“It’s likely not a were. Chances are small.” Ekaterina mentions before addressing the previous.
“Red is a hobbit. Tenzin is Gandalf.” she counters, heading for the greenhouse door, rifle to her shoulder, coming up beside Eric and Tessa.
The door is sturdy though ravaged by age, though unlike the main doors, it is not locked.
Ekaterina opens the door, stepping in, scanning, then stepping to one side, rifle up, already searching for threats.
Mercy barks out a quiet ‘Hah.’ to Ekaterina’s assigning of Tenzin’s character. “Ayeah, that fits actually.”
These names everyone throws around are lost on Tenzin. Alas, he has not had the privilege of being part of that Fellowship. He dismisses it as friendly banter up until Eric assigns him a name. “A Ra what?” he repeats, baffled.
The others bicker, and he goes silent, tuning into what they may pass on the way. Ekaterina wielding her rifle on what was supposed to be a leisure trip gets him on alert. He chooses to walk with his staff in hand, a faint jingle every other step of the way. “What is a Gandalf?”
Tessa rolls her eyes, a quiet huff, then she says, “Mercy, I am aware that wolf babies tend to stay wolves more than babies. I’ve discussed this heavily with the Ransoms who are sort of extended family to me and mine,” going quiet as Ekaterina pushes open the door. Pointedly, she is avoiding the discussion of the Lord of the Rings, almost as if she knows nothing about it.
Eric gives a weary sigh, though he doesn’t seem particularly eager to insert himself into the verbal skirmish between Mercy and Tessa. No, he’d rather brave the pulsing, obviously unnatural plantlife, which he starts prodding at experimentally. He leans in close to a particularly thick patch of foliage, inhaling deep, before sneezing explosively.
Mercy angles the corner of an eye towards Tessa for a final once-over, the dusty air filled with her judgment in a similarly dismissive “Mmhm.” before she’s back to focusing on their surroundings, opting to withdraw her knife for better close-quarter emergencies and to cut away any overgrowth in the party’s way. Meanwhile, she watches Tenzin with his staff and can’t help but find the comparison that much more fitting. “He like the wise leader of things that sets shit into motion, an’ a wizard which yer not but.. ain’ matter.”
Tessa slips her knife out of its sheath, leaning gently into Eric as she pokes at the plant he sneezed on.
Not immediately seeing anything, Ekaterina calls back to Tenzin, voice still low, “Gandalf is very wise wizard. He is defacto leader because he is so very wise.”
The greenhouse is vast. Once it was fine, but now, delapidated, overgrown and fraught with trips, pitfalls and various items that could trip, befuddle or confound.
Vines hang, roots spread out, and where furnature was is now beds for curiously glowing plant matter.
“Play nice.” Ekaterina grunts, a finger flicking over her shoulder at Tessa and Mercy.
Eric sniffs, loud in the silence of the () empty building.
Then Eric sneezes. The bush also does, flailing, roots raising from its bed to flee off in to the room.
Tessa huffs quietly at Ekaterina, saying, “That’s my line… before she’s startled by the plant just… weeble wobbling the fuck out. “If a plant starts to scream, I’m screaming back,” she warns the group.
Tenzin is quite content to let Mercy handle her own battles, and Tessa appears to be fending for herself well enough. The ascetic is not concerned about them, no. He is more wary of what dangers Eric unsuspectingly puts himself into, such as too much haunted pollen or burrs up the nose. “I once stayed in a village where one had to call out through a forested area, warning the spirits of plants that they were passing through–” he starts to say, but his jaw drops after Eric makes a bush flee.
“But I am not a wizard nor am I very wise,” sayeth Gandalf the Bald.
Of course, reason and reality are first in Tenzin’s mind here. “Someone was hiding inside of it,” he claims.
Eric blinks confoundedly, then calls after the bush, “Yeah you better run!” He rubs at his nose with the back of one hand, sneezes a final time, and finally tells the group, “One haunting down.”
There is rustling far off through the greenhouse, and something responds, a high, whistling reply from something not human.
“Does this count as a scream?” Ekaterina asks Tessa, a paniced twitch turning her rifle’s barrel to the fleeing plant. “It is alchemical so likely animated plant.”
Mercy holds her free palm up to Ekaterina in deference, ready to keep it civil for now. That hand then moves to idly scrape fingernails against the bare patch behind her left ear, gaze wandering, and then the tone of things shifts when a plant.. flees. On its own. She’s seen her fair share of living flora before, but only ever in the mist. “.. Uh.”
“You are sure it was haunted?” Tenzin wonders of Eric with healthy skepticism, pacing close to the group. “It may have been the gardener too shy to-” Once more, he is interrupted. This time, it is by that inhuman whistle from the far end of the area.
“It was haunted,” he changes his mind quickly.
Eric nods sharply to Tenzin. “Definitely haunted. I didn’t smell any gardeners in there.” His nose is still wrinkled, and he huffs a few breaths, trying not to sneeze again. “Do we, uh, do we chase it and shoot it? Do you think that whistle is calling friends?”
Between Tessa and Tenzin, they are able to identify that this plant is some kind of baby hedgecreeper, though mutated– or another breed.
OOC sorry about that wait. Computer trouble.
Tessa does not scream, or return the whistle, but she does pause to squint over at it, giving it the look of a disappointed mother, hands on her hips. “It’s a sassy little creeper,” she declares.
Mercy would have normally felt inclined to race straight towards the strange whistling and promptly get into a fight with what ever the source is, but here she only stays behind the cover of Tenzin and Eric, the largest possible ‘meatshields’, quiet and slowed like the life is still steadily leaking out of her.
“If there are gardeners, they are dead.” Ekaterina points out.
Mercy says “How.. adorable.“
Eric shoulders his carbine again, prowling forward. “So we shoot it,” he confirms, kicking aside vegetation to forge a path after the fleeing creature.
“I would not put it past it,” Tenzin gravely murmurs to Eric. He had gotten a fair enough look before the shrubbery zipped. Turning to Mercy and Ekaterina, he nods to confirm Tessa’s verdict and translates, “Some manner of hedgecreeper that might not be moving alone. It is peculiar.”
Were it something else, he might persuade against gunning it down but it is a monster. A mist monster. The hunted. “What if the gardener is haunting it?” comes a random thought aloud from him.
“It’s just a baby, as scared of us as we are of its bigger cousins,” Tessa murmurs in the general direction of Eric.
Eric frowns over his shoulder, halted midstep. “It’s a monster, babe. We’ve killed like, a million of ’em. No point waiting for it to grow up, we promised to clear the place out.” Then his gaze tracks to Tenzin, blinking. “Do ghosts haunt plants? If I was a ghost, I’d want to haunt like… Hmm… Not a plant, I guess.” He dismisses the thought with a jerk of his head, turning back to plowing through the plantlife ahead.
“But it’s cute,” Tessa says, a slow grin unfurling as she trots along to end up in step with Eric.
Mercy says “Kinda is but ain’ any real way fer us to like, catch an’ release it somewhere.“
“This is when Eric tells me,” Tessa starts, dropping her voice to the bottom of her register, “Babe, we’re not keeping a weirdo plant.”
Eric was opening his mouth, but with a clack of teeth, he snaps it shut, looking mildly affronted.
“That can sometimes work, so I hear,” Tenzin agreeably dips his head upon Mercy’s sentiments on vessels, quickening his steps after Eric, Ekaterina, and the others. He eyes Tessa with a forced smile, beholding the Orderite but merely sighing with sympathy for her boyfriend. Noticing the extreme sluggishness in the redhead’s steps, however, he plants himself at her flank where he can easily prod her on or tow her with the group.
Mercy says “An’ if it -does- have some person’s spirit in it somehow I ain’ sure any of us are equipped to exorcise a plant. Or maybe we are I dunno.“
As the group talk it over, the plant-thing resets itself, some way back. What is not stopping however is that unsettling whistle-screaming, which resolves itself in to different– More orange plants.
“Goard yourselves.” Ekaterina quips, two large pumpkins making their way towards the group.
“Ah, hell.” Mercy grumbles when she sees more movement inbound.
Mercy stays the fuck back, and exhales with relief when the living pumpkin lantern drops.
Mercy says “AH. “
Tenzin says “So many of them!“
Mercy says “FUCK ERRYBODY WHO ALL PUMPKIN SPICE THIS AN’ PUMPKIN SPICE THAT!“
Tessa says “I do sell a pumpkin spice cocoa. With pumpkin in.“
Mercy cuts a side-eyed glance over to Tessa. “Course you do.” she states, and then more quietly as an aside to herself, “So basic..”
“That’s my brand, yes,” Tessa says, shooing Mercy with a flip of her hand.
Eric grunts as he bends down, hoisting an entire pumpkin onto his back. “Got decorations for the season,” he tells Tessa, lugging the now inanimate jack-o-lantern along.
Having placed himself at the fore, Tenzin pushes back now, letting someone else be the main meatshield, should there by any more to the onslaught. The exertion has ruddied his face, but the exasperation is more so for something else. “Tch, at the start of October, I was seeing nothing but pumpkin after pumpkin after pumpkin in the mists,” he shares his pre-Halloween woes. “You are alright, Eck? They seemed angry at you,” the nomad asks Ekaterina.
Tessa sings, under her breath, “JACK! The pump-kin king…”
Helpfully the plants attack one after the other, the things defeated handily thanks to the combined efforts of Eric, Tenzin, Mercy, Tessa and Ekaterina.
A blade slipping into one, the Russian quips, “I like pumpkin spite, but this isstupid.” before stepping back to a guard, eyes scanning.
Thankfully, that seems to be all that’s here… at least for now.
Mercy shoos Tessa right back with a more exaggerated swish of her hand, wandering closer to the group again now that the coast was seemingly clear.
Eric flicks pumpkin guts and seeds off the blade of his axe, the resulting mess splatting against Mercy. Purely by accident, of course.
Ekaterina likely means pumpkin spice, but we ball.
Mercy has pumpkin spite, and she grunts with disdain when some gets flicked on her jacket.
Eric says “well, something’s going on, because they sure as shit didn’t carve themselves“
“Well…” Ekaterina supposes, watching Eric toss pumpkin bits everywhere. “I think maybe there is more than a haunting here.”
Mercy says “Someone tryin’ to create their own real-life haunted house, maybe.“
“It seems we must find the Pumpkin King,” Tenzin takes Tessa’s reference a little too seriously. “But is he not in an apartment in Bayview?”
“So… how many of these plants are monsters?” Tessa wonders aloud, poking at plants with her knife, suspiciously.
Mercy hazards a devilish grin after hearing Tenzin’s suggestion. “I’d be down fer huntin’ him.”
Eric considers the rest of the greenhouse, furrowing his brow at the morass of plants spread before them. “I assume burning them all isn’t an option,” he asks Ekaterina.
Mercy says “I say we go an’ get a look upstairs, see if there’re any magic people or objects hidin’ ’round. “
“Is likely a curse, magic gone wild or something more stupid.” Ekaterina responds to Mercy’s supposition. “Trinity, so sorcery is likely involved. I think we can assume plant-fleshforming at the least, da.”
Stepping back to the group fully, the Russian shakes her head at Tenzin and Tessa. “Likely no Jack Skelington.”
To Eric, Ekaterina shrugs. “We could explode it on the way out. Nothing says we have to leave -everything- intact.”
“There are other rooms down stairs, but up is likely the way to go.” she agrees with Mercy. “Wizards and their towers.”
Ekaterina says “Thoughts? “
Mercy snaps her fingers and points to Ekaterina. “Exactly, you get it. They always wanna be up high.”
Eric seems less than pleased at the idea of lugging his enormous pumpkin trophy upstairs, but he nods reluctantly. “Makes sense. We can push whoever off a tower and call it a day.” He pats the mangled side of the dead creature affectionately, telling it softly, “I’ll leave you in the foyer, but I’ll be back for you.”
“Upstairs,” Tessa echoes, slipping a hand into Eric’s, letting someone who isn’t her lead this time, kicking a little bit of pumpkin guts.
Tenzin mutters under his breath something about needing to watch more Honest Trailers later. He straightens his form when Ekaterina addresses the lot of them. “At least it is not pizza fleshforming,” he finds some silver lining in this. “But this is ah, still terrible. Let us proceed up.” The monk trusts in his superior.
Aside, he quips at Eric, “You sound more like a Templar. You should have joined us.”
Eric juggles axe, gun, and pumpkin into the crook of one arm, all so he can take Tessa’s hand in his and tug her close.
Mercy says “Gimme a meat-lover’s pizza with extra hopes an’ dreams sprinkled on top.“
“I think maybe the pizza woman was joking with you.” Ekaterina supposes. “There is no point in turning a person in to a pizza…”
Consensus has been reached however, and she nods to Eric, Tessa, Mercy and Tenzin. “Up then. We can poke our heads in down stairs if we need after.”
So saying, the party trudge back through the green house, up the dust-caked stairs and head to the first landing.
Ascending the stair, the gathering of Ekaterina, Eric, Tessa, Mercy and Tenzin find themselves with four choices– Three doors, one set of stairs.
From one door there is a soft drip-drip, and what sounds almost like whispered voices, but from the other two, nothing… for now.
Eric drops the pumpkin with a heavy, resonant thud, and nudging it with one bare foot, he sends it bump, bump, bumping down the stairs back to the foyer.
Mercy grips the railing for dear life while ascending with the others, gravity proving to be a more challenging foe than usual, but no complaints are inbound and her hearing makes her automatically drawn to the sound of what seems to be hushed voices behind one of the doors.
“But why say so in the name of the shop?” Tenzin simply cannot let go of that which is so blatant to him. He climbs one step first and waits for the others to move past him. Mercy gets constant checking from closeby in case she may lose her balance. He had been trying to cause as little sound as possible, despite having no training in subterfuge, but then there is Eric.
The monk sighs again.
“Shall we go say hi,” Tessa asks in that soft murmur of hers, drifting toward the sound.
Eric doesn’t seem to quicken his pace any, but he still manages to slip between Tessa and the door before she can touch it, placing his body between whatever is inside and her. “We could, open each and peek in,” he offers, “if there’s anything inside, we shoot it through the doorway. Good chokepoints.”
The pumpkin thump-thump-thud-explodes!
The thing is messy, noisy and if there were anyone laying in wait, they most certainly know that Tessa, Tenzin, Eric, Ekaterina and Mercy are here now.
Ekaterina listens, but lets the others decide where they go, the Russian keeping an eye on their surroundings. “A good plan. Shall we?” she asks.
Mercy freezes when the pumpkin’s noisy descent reaches the climactic *splat* at the bottom, listening for any increase in sound or movement in response.
Mercy says “.. Ayeah, sure. I’ll cover, uh- which ever door y’all open that has the most things in it.“
“Perhaps not shooting outright is wiser, since there might be people here that we can question,” Tenzin appeals to Eric’s better senses, a calming motion of his hand made. He surveys the rooms and finds himself called to one of the doors, hand reaching for the doorknob.
Tessa mumbles, “Or the bathroom…” her eyes drifting that way, toward the dripping.
Mercy hears Tenzin’s comment to Eric and quickly stows the crossbow away again.
Eric reaches into a pocket, coming out palming a grenade. He’s trying to appear casual, but from the way he’s holding it, it’s still a bit unfamiliar. “Right.” He blushes a little at Tenzin’s reminder, quickly hiding the grenade behind his back.
Tessa has not realized Eric has a grenade, which is probably good for him.
The door that Tenzin heads to is the northwest, which swings open at his touch– As does the bathroom door.
Ekaterina has noticed the grenade, but says nothing, sirking behind a had. “Bathroom or study?” she asks, looking between Eric, Tenzin, Tessa, Mercy and the opened doors.
Tessa nods northwards, toward the bathroom.
Mercy jerks her head northwest and creeps in behind Tenzin.
Tenzin pales when he spies that familiar round ball in Eric’s hand. Tight of lip, he nods quickly and subtly as he puts it back. Mercy gets an appreciative bow of his head, as well. As soon as Ekaterina asks, he answers pointing to the study, “There.”
Eric says “I feel like nobody ever hides their magic nonsense in a bathroom“
Both doors open smoothly, no squeeling from hinges, strangely enough.
Curiously, the drip-drip pauses, only the sounds of a settling house meeting the group’s ears– Nothing to be seen.
“Drip drip stopping doesn’t tickle you as curious, dear?” Tessa murmurs to Eric, side eyeing him. “Either or… I don’t mind which we check out first.”
Eric glances sidelong to Mercy, wrinkling his nose at her. “That’s disgusting. What have you been hiding in your toilets,” he half asks, half accuses.
Tessa says “Trout. “
Mercy clears her throat and says no more.
“The drip stopping is suspicious.” Ekaterina states. “Maybe we check there first, then the study?”
NOthing ever went wrong by heading into something so suspicious…
Tenzin eyes the open study with a new wave of apprehension, skin goosepimpling. “Should we go in to check now, and whoever is outside can call for help if something does happen?” he checks with Mercy, Ekaterina and the rest.
Tenzin glances a the study as though beguiled, but nods at Ekaterina and remains on her tail.
Mercy falls in behind Ekaterina as well, though she stops at the doorway to brace a shoulder against it while peering inside, paling a little more as time goes on. Maybe the house is just that spooky.
Tenzin whispers audibly to Mercy, “Would you like to peek inside the toilet tank?”
Tessa peeks in, sees the tub, then she puts her back to the wall by the door. “Nopenopnope,” she says, staring at it, as though expecting something. “I’ve seen too many scary movies… Grudge girl gonna hop out of it.”
Only Ekaterina, Tenzin and Mercy see it, but the water, though appearing still has a slight ripple to it. Something is under the surface– Something that leaps out as the group enter– A <corpse>
Eric keeps his gun pointed directly at the tub, unwavering. “I swear to god if anything comes out of that tub,” he growls, flicking on the laser sight to try and pierce through the water. Then it happens. “Ack!”
“It is the Grudge pumpkin!” Tenzin exclaims with fright.
Tessa definitely screams.
Mercy glances up at Tenzin and merely nods, stepping farther in to approach the toilet. Finally, her sordid delinquent past will come in handy, sort of. She moves to pull the lid off the tank and goes to set it down after checking the underside- when they’re attacked, she drops it instead with a cloud *CLANG*.
The SR is an idiot and summoned the wrong one. She will fix.
Eric definitely let out a manly bellow. Not a scream.
Tenzin rewinds himself.
Mercy says “Jesus fuckin’-“
“It is the Grudge Girl!” Tenzin exclaims, validating Tessa’s guess.
Eric continues hacking at the corpse even as it tumbles back, hewing off limbs and kicking the twitching remnants back into the tub.
Tessa whines, unhappily, looking at the corpse before saying, “I… fuck I hate that, I hate it so much.”
Mercy needs a second to recover from that jump scare, but when she does she’s back to digging around in a toilet tank in the hopes some magic fuckery has been stashed there like a junkie dead drop.
“Jesus Christ, da.” Ekaterina agrees, immediately rushing to fight the rotting corpse.
The fight is quick, but the group are able to handle it, disbatching it, the thing falling back in to the tub in slow motion.
“They never mentioned necromancy.” Ekaterina comments, wiping her knife off on the cleanest part of the corpse– its robes. This thing was a mage of some kind, long ago.
Mercy says “Ain’ like it much, but ‘least if their physical dead things, we can kill ’em again.“
Eric pants out several hard breaths, hoisting his axe back onto his shoulder. “That was nothing,” he musters at last, going for nonchalant and missing by a hair.
Tenzin gives the rotted, watery zombie a big whack with his staff and staggers away. He is happy to let Eric handle the rest of that disposal. “Are we all good? Nobody was bitten?” he checks out the unusual squad. “What does it mean when there is a combination of plants and undead?” he ponders aloud, before a curious look moves for Mercy and her toilet tank foraging.
Mercy coaxes the spider onto a finger and rescues it from a potential watery death in the tank, nudging it along onto the wall instead so it can climb away to freedom and live out the rest of its spidery life. “Was worth a shot.” she reasons, backing away.
Grimacing, Ekaterina shakes her head to Tenzin. “Not bitten, just scratched. All blocked by jacket, da.”
She backs up as Eric continues to slash, suggesting to the group, “I think maybe we found the haunting here.” The Russian hides it well, but that terrified her.
“Shall we try the study, or is there more here we should look at?” With this addressed to Tessa and Tenzin.
Mercy says “Better check, be thorough.“
“There is something in the study,” Tenzin quietly confirms, turning for the door but waiting until all have filed out first. “Perhaps best to leave and shut this door before that thing ah, sews itself back together.”
“Let us hope that Eric’s axe will have this not happen.” Ekaterina deadpans, looking pale.
“Should… Should be fine,” Tessa murmurs, eyes on that tub, a knife tightly gripped in her hand, knuckles white.
Eric turns back for the door, satisfied with his butchery of the corpse into easily handled pieces. “Nothing in the toilet, Merc? Don’t see anything in the sink offhand…”
Mercy says “Nah, ain’ find nothin’.“
Eyes glancing to either side, Ekaterina nods– It’s far faster than it has any right being. She’s holding herself together, but she does begin backing towards the door.
“Everyone out and we shut the door.” she reitterates.
The door closes itself as the group leave, the hinges protesting loudly, and Ekaterina leads Tessa, Tenzin, Eric and Mercy to the study, gaze flicking everywhere.
Eric yelps as soon as he sees the pentagram, stopping in his tracks.
Mercy tilts a pointed glance down to the very obviously suspicious pentagram drawn in blood on the floor. “.. Aigh’ well, this room seems clear.” she quips nervously.
The pentagram immediately stands out to everyone. The same for the candles, the scent of blood, and the footprints in the dust.
Tessa is unbothered by the blood pentagram – a normal Monday for the Conclave, truly, but she does peek at the footprints, intending to follow them.
Tenzin reaches for the door but it slams shut in his face. He jumps back, stunned. “I cannot help but think we are being toyed with, made to play a game that was planned,” he shares with the others, stepping into the study and freezing just as well.
“I am feeling more like it is better to gun down everything now,” he mutters under his breath.
Eric takes Tenzin’s words to heart, and palms that grenade again. “Evil pentagram is evil,” he confirms, prodding a candle stub with the muzzle of his gun.
“I’m painting a pentagram on you next full moon,” Tessa tells Eric with a roll of her eyes.
Mercy remarks to Tenzin while somewhat short of breath, “Thas’ what they do in that first Resident Evil game with the mansion, which this is kinda startin’ to remind me of.”
Eric flashes Tessa an unimpressed stare.
Tenzin doesn’t appear to take this genre of joking threat from Tessa well. There is a hardness to his own stare, but it’s not exactly surprised. When Mercy speaks, he looks away from the couple. “Is there something of this in the Honest Trailers also?” he wonders of her, but soon he is taking careful steps to approach the pentagram. “Usually, to disrupt these things is done by ruining their pattern,” the man says, hushed, looking tempted to erase a line with his sandal.
Mercy says “.. This blood smell like duck or somethin’. It’s definitely a bird’s.“
Mercy says “Couple days old, give or take, an’ the candles seem new so someone been here real recently.“
Eric glowers sullenly at the pentagram. “Who does their necromantic hooliganery with duck blood,” he grumps, idly kicking one of the candle remnants over.
Tenzin nods quietly at Mercy and stares at the pentagram, remarking, “You can tell like this? Ah.. so we will be bringing someone into custody after all. Provided Eric does not fill them with bullets first.”
Mercy just stares at Tenzin.
Eric bursts into open laughter, tilting his head back, braids splayed akimbo down his back. Only after several moments does he regain his composure with a snort, slapping Tenzin on the shoulder.
Tessa facepalms, hiding a gigglesnort at Tenzin.
Mercy then goes back to sniffing at the air, the blood’s scent stronger after Tenzin had scuffed some off the floor and dispersed it more. “Wait. No, not a duck.. A goose. Maybe. Or a swan, if they got any relevance to anythin’ with rituals.”
Tenzin sways away and back from the weight of Eric’s joyous slapping, with a nervous grin on his face. Hide his expression though he tries, it is clear he is proud of this little thing.
However, there is a buster behind these ghosts. “Some manner of water bird? After we had seen this corpse come out of the water also, no?” he connects the dots.
“Then we have this newer ritual…” Ekaterina pieces together, one eye on Tessa, the other on the pentagram as she listens to Mercy with a thoughtful look crossing her features.
The blod– the candle are moved thanks to Eric and Tenzin however, and there’s a cool breeze that gusts through the room, almost as if something were changed– Energy released.
Mercy looks back to Tenzin, narrowing her eyes at that connection, and utters very seriously, “Somethin’ has gone.. afowl.”
Tessa groans, face in her hand still, and when it slides down, she looks up, eyes tracking something toward the ceiling. “Should… be settled,” she shares, before brushing hair out of her face.
It is Tenzin’s turn to stare at Mercy colorlessly. But something distracts him. Up go his dark eyes. The monk must ask those with them then, in the same spirit as Mercy, “Water… we going to do about it?”
Oh no, it’s the gentle breeze that could be her undoing. As the energy is released and manifests in a rush of cool air, even if not strong, Mercy in all her unsteadiness is easily nudged by it and slumps back against a nearby wall. She’s doing great.
The house bodily shudders!
A shiver runs through every timber, every stone, every door, window and fixture rattling.
There’s a whoosh! and as one, the group feel themselves tugged– Eric, Tessa, Tenzin, Mercy and Ekaterina ephemerally tugged, clothing rustling as -something- attempts to draw their attention from above…
Ekaterina blinks slowly. It’s cartoonish, and she asks the monk, “Did you just make a pun?” -She sounds proud.
Mercy says “Aw fuck what’s this now hell naw.“
Pointing upwards, Ekaterina suggests, “Upwards to the wizard’s tower?”
Tessa says “Upsie daisies.“
Eric sighs. “Lets go shoot a wizard,” he agrees, rubbing at his face with one hand. “Mercy, stop actively dy ing, please.”
“M’fine, s’jus’ caffeine comedown.” Mercy mutters to Eric unconvincingly, and rallies herself back towards the group to battle the next flight of stairs. And whatever is at its peak.
“Everybody stay out of the way of falling debris,” Tenzin calls out to the others over the structural rattling, attempting to backpedal for the nearest wall. Yet again, it is up that he looks, unable to help but agree with the suggestion.
In the middle of a breath, he shoots a look at Ekaterina, and then away to think. And back again. “Was it a good one?” he hopes, sidestepping his way to Mercy so he might hold her up by the scruff of her kevlar vest if she lets him.
Mercy cannot believe Tenzin is making good on his threat but here they are, but for all the insult it helps her stay more balanced and she is determined to not be dead weight, figuratively or otherwise, so she lets him hang on with a quick, sour glance her only complaint.
Mercy then tells Ekaterina, with that overly edgy cadence protagonists often like to use at the climax of every action horror film ever. “Let’s finish this.”
Moving to the door, Ekaterina holds it open, giving the group the chance to exit, allowing Tessa, Tenzin, Mercy and Eric out first.
For now, the only thing falling is dust, cobwebs and lint, though it feels as though at any moment the building could come down around them like a season finisher from Buffy– All melodrama.
The floor rocks, but the party manage to get out on to the landing, and when there, the doors begin to slam open and closed– open and closed.
Thankfully however, Eric, Mercy, Tessa, Tenzin and Ekaterina make it upwards into that pervasive, ominous darkness.
Everyone can at least rest assured that it is not the plot that is what’s falling apart. Tenzin follows the same formation as earlier, but he sort of carries Mercy like that up the rest of the way. The open-close doors make him gulp. As each person manages to make it through to the very top, he seeks a moment of respite, freeing himself from Mercy’s whole weight plus the pancakes she had earlier as fuel. The man shakes out his arm a little.
The only thing of note in this room outside of the windows is the grimoire at its center.
Around the dais it stands on, there is a circle painted in blood– avian blood, or so Eric and Mercy are able to tell.
The air is thick, clawing, almost as though it were seeking to attack, and looking to the book, you all see that pages flutter, words moving– shifting– changing from arcane symbology to word, to languages spoken by no one in many… many years.
The rafters complain noisily as the house continues to shudder, dust raining down on top of all of you.
Eric stares blankly at the grimoire for several long, silent seconds. “Of course there’s an evil magic book,” he groans, stepping closer but not yet breaking the circle. “Think the book’s doing it? Can’t be, right, books don’t leave footprints.” He sweeps his gun up and around, peering into every corner. “Which means, we’re about to be ambushed.”
Tessa steps right up to the edge of the circle, peering at the book with keen interest.
Mercy tries to find her sealegs on the shuddering floor once Tenzin lets go, face kind of scrunched from the scent of the avian blood and presence of magic that offends her werewolf senses by default. “The fuck they tryin’ to do here..”
“Magic book.” Ekaterina spits. “Of course it is.”
The Russian glances to Tenzin, Mercy, Eric and Tessa, allowing them to make the call. “Break the circle grab the book, or other ideas?” she asks- then the floor bucks, and she stumbles.
Unsurprising to literally anyone here, Tessa says, “I want the suspicious book.”
Mercy says “Book might be valuable long as one of you can make sure it ain’ gonna curse whoever touches it.“
“Eh, let it curse me, half the things I’m wearing are cursed,” Tessa offers, pointedly moving to the other side of the circle, out of Eric’s reach.
Mercy settles a flat stare on Tessa at that. Just when she thought her opinion of the woman could sink no lower.
“What are you going to use it for, Tessa?” Tenzin suspiciously asks Tessa, keeping an eye on her as he backs up to cover what side of the room Eric isn’t waving his barrel at. “Red,” he realizes. “Do you remember what you were saying earlier? Of spirits being released when their vessels are broken?”
“It’s information, and I quite like information,” Tessa says softly. “Learning things is always a positive.”
Mercy peels that look away to regard Tenzin now, curious, trying to recall through the haze of a dizzy mind. “Ayeah, you thinkin’ the book might be housin’ someone in it?”
Tessa crosses the line of the circle, not breaking it, approaching the book, reaching out toward where a shoulder would b on someone flipping pages.
Eric opens his mouth and starts, “We should probably just blow it where it is. Boom, we leav..” He halts mid sentence, eyes snapping over to Tessa. “She should probably take i…” Then his expression tilts towards a frown again, and he gives her a very flat stare.
“Less bicker, more choice.” Ekaterina snaps. “We can argue later. Do we break the circle or do we leave?”
Tessa apparently chose neither.
can only give Eric a pitying look after Tessa answers. “Perhaps it is being contained for a reason,” Tenzin mutters to Mercy.
“Sure, but containment ain’ seem to be workin’ too good so far does it?” Mercy asks of the monk, indicating everything they had just dealt with via a head jerk. “Maybe we oughta ask miss Conclave if she know any good ways to seal it back up good an’ proper.”
Tenzin was too distracted by Tessa’s life choices.
Mercy shrugs and offers her own reckless approach to things, “Otherwise, say we break the circle an’ book it. Pun not intended.”
Tessa certainly makes choices for herself.
Tessa’s expression softens, and she says, “Aw, bud…” aloud, half-mumbled. She’s still stepping closer, though, wondering aloud, “Want to be freed?”
The very foundations continue to shudder. Surely there cant be much more plaster dust to fall.
Eric steps over the circle now that Tessa broke it anyway, looming at her shoulder protectively. “Crunch time babe, we killing it or what.” He casts nervous glances up at the ceiling, then down at the floor, “Before this old pile falls on us, preferably.”
“Eric,” Tenzin wets his lips, tempted as he side-eyes Eric. “Was that a frag grenade that you had?” He jerks his head for the way out, telling the others, “I believe it is best we depart and destroy that book, before Eck is blamed for property damage.”
Mercy tries to brace herself against a wall again while watching Tessa commune with the dead through blurring vision, posture slackening as her own weight continues to become more of a burden, especially in a house that refuses to stop shaking.
“Break the circle,” Tessa suggests to the Templars, eyes not leaving the almost definitely cursed book.
Mercy says “What’d it say..?“
Eric dips his chin to Tenzin in a brief nod, “It is, yeah. Still not sure it’ll kill a book, wish we had gasoline.” He looks to Mercy, as if she’s the obvious carrier of such a thing. “You got gasoline, Merc?”
“It’s… drowned dude downstairs,” Tessa says, light on her feet as she shifts her weight. “And I’d like him to not drown me.”
Mercy probably was an arsonist at one or two points in time, but she is woefully without such supplies at this time and shakes her head to Eric. “Ain’. No turpentine or nothin’, neither.”
“No,” Tenzin strictly tells off the Conclave member, as he moves for the exit. When Eric and Mercy’s exchange of words yields no fuel for flame, he beckons them and Ekaterina, “Let us hurry away.” Should Tessa make a break for it with the book, he would not hesitate to bar her way.
Tessa trips, bodily, into Tenzin, oofing.
Eric eases forward, not quite hostile, but edged towards intensely attentive. “Gentle,” he snaps to Tenzin as Tessa falls into him, “Gentle. She’s pregnant.” He hefts his axe in both hands, surveying the book dubiously. “Could just chop it,” he muses after a moment. “It’s only paper…”
Mercy dreads the thought of hurrying but complies with Tenzin’s decision all the same, turning to follow him out and pausing only when Tessa collides with the poor monk.
“Da.” Ekaterina agrees as Tessa and Eric step closer.
Clearly the Russian doesn’t see what’s taking place– Only the book moving under its own power.
It’s crunch time, and one member of the group, Mercy looks like shit. Ekaterina has only one real choice, and she nods.
Tessa moves forward, snatches at the book, breaking the circle, but at the moment of the circle’s breaking-
The grimoire snaps shut, the house stops its rumbling, and all falls quiet.
Then, the book bursts into flame, causing Tessa to pull back suddenly.
“Well, Ekaterina quips, moving over to Mercy. “Property damage is happening if we like it or not, da. I suggest we run.”
Then Tessa trips into Tenzin as the flames– not a healthy yellow, but an insidious green begin to lick at the dais.
Mercy states this to Eric not with judgment, but more so confusion.
Eric is broken apparently, nevermind.
Mercy takes mental note of self-combusting books for future notice, such a thing could maybe be handy down the line, but for now it’s a hard no and she agrees with Ekaterina on letting what ever fate befall the house. “Ayeah nah, my hard limit is evil green fire. Let’s get the hell outta here.”
“Okay, okay, fine, no book, get the fuck out,” Tessa says, not acknowledging that she totally wanted to just try and steal the evil book.
Eric thrusts one open palm at the burning book and the dais, hurling them away with invisible force before he’s scooping up Tessa in his arms and leaping down the stairs as fast as he can.
Tessa accepts her role as damsel in distress, as a damsel, who is currently in distress.
Mercy tries to walk her distress off and ambles her way to the stairs.
“May you never find yourself in the center of a pentagram one day, Eric,” Tenzin grimly wishes for Eric’s sake, even as he looks ready as hell to begin a very physical altercation with Tessa, should she prove insistent about taking that cursed book with her. The rolling flames cast the area in maleficent green, and he moves with the others.
“Maybe we don’t say anything to anyone that we destroy–” Ekaterina begins as Tessa moves from the book– then, Eric’s telekinetic ability shoves it.
It’s not physically heavy, but magically, so though it likely should have been projected across the room and likely through a window…
It isn’t, the text flipped, skidding and then toppling over the edge of its dais to slap limply against the floor, where those flames begin to lick at the woodwork.
The group then run– down the stairs, through the building and to the ground floor.
Though the house is silent, there is a low ‘phwumph! from far over head.
Eric, Ekaterina, Mercy, Tessa and Tenzin make it too the door, but–
It’s locked…
Tenzin steps aside and looks expectantly at Eric.
Mercy gives the house interior one more fond look as they move, mourning what could have been, all the yelling she could have done from atop the balcony. Then they all stop and she hears the telling sound of a lock holding firm.
“If anyone asks,” Ekaterina pants, eyeing the locked door with malice, “It was on fire when we got here- We make it to the mirrorgate and back.”
Mercy says “Ain’ see nothin’, ain’ know nothin’.“
“None of us started a fire,” Tessa agrees, arms around Eric’s neck.
Ekaterina nods to Mercy in solidarity as she too waits for Eric to fix the issue. “Good girl.” she quips to Mercy. “I knew I liked you.”
Mercy scrunches her nose a little at the first portion of the praise, but given she might actually be slowly dying she doesn’t raise a fuss and accepts the recognition for what it is. “Ma’am.”
Eric is sorry he had computer issues.
Mercy soothes.
Eric hefts his axe in both hands, and with something approaching glee he sets to turning the front door into kindling, smashing and chopping with abandon until it crumbles away.
Tenzin looks a touch surpised when Eric uses a weapon, remarking, “I thought you would kick it open, now there is no problem. Let us make haste.”
With Eric’s strength, the door breaks– chopped as much as a wood chuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood in no time.
It’s good time, too. The first flicker of that unnatural fire begins to lick its way from above, the first embers hitting the second stair case and lighting the hall from far above.
Eric glances back to the burning, shaking, chopped and broken house. Then he turns to the group, flashing a grin so wide it nearly splits his face. “Mission accomplished,” he drawls, sweeping his braids away from his face as if it’s all just another day, another win.
Tessa lovingly sweeps dust, ash, soot, and pumpkin guts off Eric’s shoulder.
With a final look back, Ekaterina begins to make her way for the mirror to take them all back to Temple Security– No harm done, obviously. No one can claim otherwise.
That is, except for the private security, who are beginning to make their way towards the sudden grim light from above as the top of the tower incandescently bursts into roaring flame.
In a day or so, all will come to light. It was perfectly natural, of course. There were no supernatural elements, only poor wiring.
The Kuznetsov house burned down, though fortunately, no one was harmed, and Eric, Mercy, Tenzin, Ekaterina and Tessa were payed for their trouble, briefcases arriving from an undisclosed party.