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THE HUNT FOR SHAITAN “Damn, that son of a bitch is really pissing me off” Adam thought, as he strolled across the room. Picking up the remote, pausing as if in after-thought, turns on the television. Why do I even bother with this mundane shit? I am really tired of looking at these people. He turns his head and looks out of his office over the pulsating dance floor below. “These fucking vampires, look at them down there, treating humans with disdain.” “Doing their damndest to look just like…. Us.” There is Brandy, or is it Candy, the pretty, raven-haired vampire gyrates on the dance floor. Adam closes his eyes and leans his head back and stretches out with his mind, probing at the minds on the dance floor. He chuckles to himself. “Some of the shit people think of while they are dancing.” He opens his eyes and turns on his computer, the machine kicks into life humming softly as the fans turn on. The monitor pops on. Adam moves the pointer on the screen to his WyldeStorm ISP icon, clicks on it. The modem sings the song that connects him to the Web. I think…. Feel that something is up in the city. The web page loads slowly, he exhales out his nose, impatiently waiting for it to load. “I gotta get DSL!” Moving the cursor over to the Check Mail icon and double clicks. His mailbox opens, no mail. “Hmmm” he says out loud, pauses, head cocked to the side, like a dog listening when it hears a funny sound. His face eerily glows in the light of the screen. He closes his eyes again. “I gotta get back to work and find that son of a bitch!” He reaches in his desk drawer. I know it is in here somewhere, and just like that he finds the book he is looking for, “Thanks Deac” he says and opens the book to the page he has marked. The cover of the book is dusty and worn, a black cloth covering the title reads, “Principles of Time and Space.” The authors name has long since worn off. Sheila heads up the stairs. She has never seen Adam so pensive and forlorn, his eyes are starting to look haunted. She raises her hand to press the door buzzer. “Enter” she hears Adam say. “Damn, I hate when he does that. He is like that freaking Radar O’Malley.” “O’Riley” he corrects her. Sheila, having been in Adams employ for almost 10 years, is almost used to his oddness, and says “Whatever”. “Here ya go chief.” She hands him his mail. “Thanks” Adam says, taking the mail and tossing it onto the corner of his desk. He doesn’t even bother to look up from his book. “Adam, is something wrong?” “You have been acting distracted for this last week.” “No Sheila, nothing is wrong.” He pauses, searching for the right words. “I am getting ready to exorcise a few personal demons.” “Okay, but if need anything…. You let me know.” “I sure will.” Adam responds with a big smile. Sheila looks around the office one more time and disappears through the door shutting it behind her. “You can’t help me, Sheila..”, he thinks as he looks around the office, “..No one can.” Adam arrives home after a short day at work. The twins are watching television. “Hi Daddy!” says Stormy, his daughter. Mark just looks up and glares at him. “Hi there girlie, how are you?” “Just fine daddy” she chimes. “Where is mom?” Adam asks. “How the hell should she know?” Mark bursts, his voice brimming with anger. “Mom said she had some things to take care of, and…. left” his eyes almost tearing up. “God damn her!” Adam angrily thought. The television suddenly switches channels. Mark stands up and storms out of the room. Adam starts to go after him, and then looks over at Stormy “She say where she was going?” Stormy just shakes here head. “Daddy, I know it is not your fault, so don’t let it worry you. She will be back.” He smiles a big smile for her. “Not this time,” he thinks, “She is not coming back.” “What you want for dinner punkin?” “Can we get pizza?” Adam smiles and throws fifty dollars on the table. “Call it in. I will be in my office. Holler when it is ready.” Adam starts to walk to his office as his little girl asks, “Can I have the change, daddy?” “Yes punkin, split it with your brother.” He walks to the top of the stairs, reaching for the doorknob, he pauses and says,”Enter freely and of your own will.” The door opens and immediately you smell old books, and incense. Adam starts about his routine of lighting his incense sensors, and candles. He then boots up his computer, and is interrupted by a knock at his office door. He goes over and opens the door and finds Stormy standing there smiling, holding his favorite mug filled with steaming hot coffee. Damn, he thinks to himself, you look so much like your mother it hurts to look at you sometimes. He smiles. “Thanks babe, I was just coming down to” she cuts him off in mid sentence “I felt you could use this.” Damn, he thinks, you act like me so much that it is kinda creepy. He takes the coffee and grabs her and hugs her tight, kisses her on the top of the head. While holding his daughter, he is thinking, ”I gotta make the world safer for you two.” Breaking the silence, Adam says, “Well sweetie, I got some research to do. Holler when the pizzas gets here and don’t let Mark eat it all.” “Okay daddy.” she says and then bounces down the stairs. He reaches in the drawer and pulls out his copy of Principles of Time and Space and starts reading. He can’t concentrate so he puts the book down. “Damn it, Andrea! Why the fuck can’t you stay put? I am sick and tired of you taking off and leaving it to me to explain to the kids that you weren’t ready to be a mother, especially when I am so close, so close I can fucking taste it.” He closes his eyes and stretches out his mind. He finds his son, Mark, in his room jumping around, listening to that angry music. He is so pissed off all the time, you would think him a Garou and not a mage. Well, the twins both have potential to become mages, powerful ones at that. “Daddy, pizza is here!” he hears Stormy yell from the bottom of the stairs. So he gets up and walks across the room, pausing and looking in the mirror at his image, shifts his senses and looks at his aura for a moment. A swirling mess of colors: reds, blues, a little white, greens and oranges, but mostly red. He was constantly pissed off here lately. “Fucking Shaitan!” he thinks and as he does the mirror breaks in a multitude of spider web cracks. “Oh great! Seven years of fucked up luck. Way to go, Adam!” he thinks as he heads downstairs to eat. Mark is conspicuously absent, as is one of the pizzas they ordered. He has nothing but disdain for me, yet he thinks nothing of eating my food. “Where is Mark?” Stormy shrugs her shoulders and says, “I don’t know.” as she wolfs down a slice of pizza. Adam pauses for a moment, as an image flashes in his minds eye. The television suddenly comes to life. The news lady on channel 5 is doing a piece on increasing gang violence right here in our city. “Yeah, then why does it only happen at night?” Adam comments. “What Daddy?” “Nothing baby, just thinking out loud.” Stormy grabs the remote and changes the channel. Adam looks at the pizza and suddenly he is not hungry anymore. He starts rummaging through some of the drawers looking around in them. “What are you looking for Daddy?” Stormy asks. “My cigarettes, I am looking for my cigarettes.” Stormy starts laughing at her Dad sometimes he was so silly. “Daddy, you don’t smoke anymore!” “Yeah well I should start again.” Adam knows that the gang violence is from the two major factions in the city: Carters’gang and Hailey’s cartel, jostling for a better position. This could get messy. “Well, fuck them both! They can destroy each other as far as I care. These fucking leaches!” Stormy gets up and carries the pizza into the living room and sits down to watch t.v and finish eating. He stops searching through the drawers and decides to make himself a cappuccino. He is now craving a cigarette. He finishes making his vanilla cappuccino and pours it into a travel mug. He grabs his car keys, and pokes his head into the living room. Stormy looks up from her dinner and t.v show. “Hey, I am gonna run to the store, want anything?” She smiles a big smile, just like her mother used to smile. “We are out of ice cream, Daddy.” Adam winks at his daughter. “Oh we are, are we?” He can’t help but smile at her. “Okay punkin, you got it.” Adam steps out into the heat of June in Missouri. Putting on his sunglasses, he presses the button to the alarm of his pristine 69 SS Chevelle convertible. The car is immaculate, looking as if it had just rolled off the line. He gets in and turns the key, the car roars to life with a throaty purr. He steps on the gas just a little and it roars a ferociously. He smiles behind his sunglasses. Now, this friend is fucking magick! He travels down highway 30 to Fenton, pulling into one of the gas stations. “Hey man, nice car!” he hears from someone driving by. Adam gives them a wave and says thanks. He walks inside. A pretty teenage girl is behind the counter. “Hi” she says smiling. “Can I help you?” “Marlboro Mediums in the box please.” He says. He places $3.60 on the counter, before she tells him the total, grabs the cigarettes and walks out the door. Adam climbs into his car and starts it up. He then starts packing his cigarettes, smacking them into his open palm repeatedly, when satisfied he opens the pack. A wisp of smoke plumes out of his nose as he exhales. He hears a cell phone ringing and realizes it is his. “This is Adam.” he says into the mouthpiece. “Hi chief.” Sheila says nervously. “Um Adam, this really big friend of yours wants to see you.” “He insists on it.” Adam closes his eyes, using correspondence he looks into the Raven. “Yeah, well, tell Modi, I will be right there.” He starts the car and turns into the midday traffic heading towards The Raven. Almost dreading the experience, but at the same time happy. He hasn’t seen Modi in a long time. The club is nearly empty save for a few people just hanging out drinking waiting for the night to come, and the band to get on stage and play. Modius is at the bar leaning over a beer, staring into the mug as if it were going to sprout legs and run away. He looks up as Adam walks toward him. “My god!” Adam thinks, “He looks so old.” “Thanks for seeing an old dog like me, Adam.” Modius says as he stands up, extending his hand in a gesture of friendship. Adam takes it and leans in giving him a buddy hug. He looks smaller than his six foot six inch frame. “Modi, it’s been a long time, my brother.” Adam says as he signals for Jacob the bartender to get them both a fresh beer. “Hey, my man, let me top off the beer of yours and we can go upstairs, and talk.” They grab their beers and head upstairs to the office. “What is on your mind, my friend?” Adam asks as he sits down behind his big mahogany desk. “First off, how is your search for Shaitan coming?” Modius asks as he takes a drink from his beer. Adam scoots his mug closer and leans back. He then runs his hand through his hair as he always does when he is trying to put together the jumble of thoughts running through his mind. “Well, I thought I had him in Trinity, Kansas, but it was one of his fucking brothers and that just added to the body count.” Adam says as he pauses to light a cigarette, the smoke pluming about his head as he exhales. “Now the thirteen are twelve, and one less leech on this fucking rock.” “What about you?” Adam asks pointing at Modius with his cigarette. “Well, the caern is getting weaker by the day, and most of the packs are running off, joining other stronger packs.” Modius pauses and drains the rest of his mug and wipes off the foam with the back of his massive forearm. He then looks towards his friend sitting across the big desk. “Most of the ones that are left are too warlike.” “Too warlike for the badass warrior Modius Wyrmscourge? That creeps me out.” Adam thinks. ~MORE TO COME |
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