10 – Kill and Tell

Erika couldn’t help her leg thumping against the floor as she looked around at the other Hunters. A flutter of butterflies in her stomach refused to let her sit still. Some little whisper in the back of her mind told her to get away, to crash at random hotels and motels again, knowing that The Monk was out and free.

“Honestly should have expected this,” Rick said, only half-paying attention as he fiddled with the command line terminal on his laptop. “When you said the archive had strange things like the mayor’s browsing history and city council records, I should have realized she wasn’t spying on just the mayor.”

Leslie shook his head, chuckling to himself behind his beard. “I warned you. All technology is good only if you like being spied upon. Know what they can’t spy on? Notebooks. Physical, paper, notebooks.”

“Yes, but you can’t search a notebook, now can you?”

“If you’re properly organized, you won’t need—”

Erika slammed her palms against the table, standing. “People.” She looked around, eyes wide and eyebrows up. “Please. The Monk.”

“Also a concern,” Rick said, not looking up from his computer.

“A concern,” Erika repeated. “He put half of us in the hospital.”

Anna flinched at the mention, but didn’t comment. Sofia shrank down, giving Erika the impression of someone trying to hide in their own clothes.

“He’s escaped from The Castle,” Erika continued, lips pursed as she stared around the room. “You all asked me to inform you of any potential dangers, and this is the biggest danger I can think of at the moment.”

“It is also a danger that we can’t really do anything about,” Rick said, speaking softly. He held Erika’s gaze for a long moment before nodding to himself. “My firewall, on the other hand…”

“There must be something we can do,” Sofia muttered, making Erika raise an eyebrow.

“Rest assured,” Leslie said, “we won’t be doing nothing. I’ve already booked a few hours at a range I like. Sofia, Erika, we’ll be making sure you both can hit a target. Anna, if you can teach these two some Krav Maga…”

“I’m not sure how good martial arts are going to be against some superhuman.”

“It is better than nothing, especially for Sofia.”

Sofia glared, not at Leslie, but at the implication behind his words. Being singled out meant being the weakest link—Erika wasn’t going to disagree, but she could empathize with Sofia’s irritation.

Leslie offered a small, wan smile, apologetic, but not for being right. “Erika doesn’t need technique to break the guy’s arms.”

“So,” Erika said after letting Leslie’s explanation hang for a moment. “Some shooting lessons? A little combat training? That’s it?”

“What else would you have us do?” Leslie asked, leaving Erika floundering for an answer. “We have a few bullets from The Warrior—those might surprise him—and will be getting more soon. Those will be a surprise for anyone attacking us,” he continued. “Beyond that, I don’t think there is much more to worry about than we’ve already god.”

Before Erika could object, Leslie held up a stalling hand.

“There are four of these people, plus the whole cult. Even without The Monk, the woman managed to kidnap The Puppet and drag you into a big mess. This guy being free probably doesn’t change as much about the situation as you feel it does.

“I understand,” Leslie continued, clapping a firm hand against Erika’s shoulder. “I think we all do. He was the one who hurt us, not the woman, so his shadow looms large… but they’re all dangerous. Thanks to you, however, we have more allies than we did before. The Eclipse, at the very least, is very interested in getting rid of these cultists. They’ll come if we call for help.”

Although Leslie didn’t press her down, the weight of his hand on her shoulder still felt like it guided her back to her seat. Erika slumped down, agitated despite his deep, calm voice assuring her that they weren’t as helpless as they had been last time. It just… rang hollow.

Last time, The Monk flipped their car, putting half of them in The Doctor’s care within ten seconds. Nothing stopped him from throwing a school bus through Varn’s back wall, taking them all out at once again.

But then, what were they supposed to do? Reinforce the wall? The Warrior could probably lend them something, but what then? She could spiral through countermeasures all night and never find a satisfying answer.

It was why Erika shouldn’t be here. She should run off to live in the wilderness for the rest of her life.

Except that wasn’t a solution either. The Puppet got kidnapped—and Michael got killed—without her being anywhere nearby, just so The Mummy would have bait. Even if she left, she would just get a phone call from The Monk saying that he had her friends and if she ever wanted to see them again, she would have to go break a chain.

Erika snapped both fingers in front of her face, breaking herself out of her spiral before she could devolve further. In the sudden moment of clarity that followed, a deceptively simple idea hit Erika. “We should go break this guy before he strikes at us. Fuck up the whole cult while we’re at it.”

Erika looked around, waiting, fully expecting to be shot down.

Rick just shook his head, still tapping away at his terminal. “I’m up for it. Like Leslie said, I bet The Eclipse will help. But we’ve got the same problem we’ve always had… unless you know where they are?”

“Well… no.”

“Does The Castle know?”

“Maybe… Tracking The Monk is how they found us the first time, but The Banker said they’re on total lockdown indefinitely.”

“The Eclipse and The Puppet don’t know.” Rick hummed, rubbing a finger under his nose while squinting at his screen. “The former would have done something and the latter would have told us. So does The Church know? If they do, would they tell us?”

Erika scowled, fingers drumming against the table. “If we can get one of those masks, The Stalker can track it back to its hub—”

“Great! Where do we get a mask?”

Leslie coughed lightly, drawing Rick’s gaze. “Perhaps Delilah—”

“I quizzed Delilah over the last few days—on The Fixer’s request—and don’t think she or The Daughter knows much about the activities of the rest of The Mummy,” Anna said, shaking her head. “She could lead us back to her cult, but The Daughter thinks they’ll have abandoned it following her escape.”

“The Fixer investigates these people, right?” Sofia asked, leaning forward to join the huddle a little better.

Erika stood and backed away, moving to the filing cabinets. “The Fixer’s search through Chicago didn’t turn up anything before The Monk flattened their previous guise against a wall,” she said over her shoulder as she started rummaging through the cabinets. “They started spooling up their search again, trying to get The Church to help out, but then everything happened.”

Sofia muttered some Spanish under her breath. “They must have some leads.”

“If they have, they haven’t told me. Which fits,” Erika added to herself before pulling out a paper-thin folder. “But you all are forgetting something.” She turned around and dramatically slammed the folder down on the table, scattering the papers within across its surface. “I already had a plan for this. The dates are out of date, but the rest of the plan still works.”

The group, Rick included, picked up the handouts she had printed up before Christmas, after the hotel incident and her first encounter with Jack. It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was better than nothing.

Anything was better than nothing.

“Break things. Ambush anyone who shows up,” Anna read off the main two bullet points, tone flat. “I suppose we know for a fact that they will show up,” she said, rubbing her wrist right at the thin seam.

“You break things all the time,” Sofia said, flicking the paper back across the table. “Does anyone actually check when you do?”

“No idea,” Erika said, shrugging. “I dump the ripples and run away before I can find out. Should we put it to the test? Go dump ripples right now, set up cameras to watch the spot, and see who shows up? If they have a mask, we can nab it for The Stalker. If not…”

“If one of the tattooed persons shows up?” Leslie asked.

“Then we know they’re checking every instance personally and it gets a whole lot easier to set up an ambush.”

Leslie nodded, accepting the answer, and turned a questioning look on Rick.

Sighing, running his fingers through his hair, Rick grasped his cardboard tube and slung it over his shoulder before meandering up to Erika. Shooing her off to the side, he started pulling out drawers and opening cupboards of the cabinets. One wireframe drawer had at least ten GoPros of varying size and type. “I think two of these still work,” he muttered, checking them one-by-one.

Erika picked one up and regretted it immediately. “It’s sticky,” she said, wiping her fingers on Rick’s back. “Why is it sticky?”

“Turns out,” Anna started, lightly laughing, “when you capture a ghost on camera, bad things happen. Sometimes their insides fill with ectoplasm, sometimes the electronics fry.”

“Otherwise, we would record every outing,” Rick said, taking the two he picked out back to his desk where he plugged them into his laptop. “Still have to charge these… Two hours until full.”

“Perfect. Plenty of time to break some things.”

Leslie took his turn at the cabinets, drawing out a large monochrome-and-red map of Chicago. Several circles and marks had been made in red pen, dotting various streets and pointing out areas of unusual activity. “We should figure out a location.”

“I’ll leave that to you guys,” Erika said, pulling out her phone. “I’ve got a few calls to make really quick. None of you mind if The Stalker joins us on this stakeout? If she can catch a glimpse of one of the masked people, we won’t even need to do this a second time.”

Anna leaned forward, frowning. “Is that—” She shook her head, shrugging to herself. “Well, I’m sure you’ll work things out.”

Erika raised an eyebrow, but nobody else had any objections.

The rest of the arcade was no place for a phone call—the music thumped and, as sparsely populated as it was, there were too many normal people around. Erika did stop by the counter. Daniel sat at the stool on the other side of the register while Delilah leaned up against the wall holding a little black cat plush to her chest.

“Any trouble?” Erika asked, rounding the counter to the front side.

“Not unless you count…” Daniel trailed off, ears reddening as he vaguely gestured further into the arcade.

Turning, Erika frowned as she spotted Kassandra. Again. With a new boyfriend. Again. At least, Erika hoped it was a new boyfriend. The two had their lips locked together and showed no sign of breaking their kiss for the several seconds Erika watched.

“It’s Valentine’s day, right?” Erika said slowly. “She really took someone here?”

“I asked when they stopped by the counter,” Daniel sighed. “Apparently, both their parents are home and the boyfriend is ‘broke as shit’—her words—so she figured this place would be empty tonight.”

“Not wrong,” Erika said, slowly smiling as she glanced around the otherwise empty arcade. Putting her fingers to her mouth, Erika let out a loud whistle.

That got them to break apart, but only long enough for Kassandra to spot who whistled. She threw a middle finger over her shoulder, grasped her partner’s collar, and dragged her new boyfriend further into the arcade.

“Rick will be pissed if they actually start…” Daniel stopped himself, ears turning even redder. “I don’t want to deal with it—I’m not even getting paid! She’s your friend, right?”

“Eh,” Erika shrugged. “I’m sure they won’t go too much further than kissing,” she said, not sure at all. “If they do, make Rick deal with it. It’s his arcade, and he doesn’t pay me either.”

“Do people do that often?” Delilah asked before Erika could walk away. “Mash their lips together like that?” Her eyes flicked to the side, staring at an empty space on the counter, before she added, “Kissing?”

Erika shot Daniel a look, and got a look in return. “I suppose,” Erika said slowly. “If they like each other enough?”

Delilah didn’t know her exact age, but she wasn’t much younger than Erika. Despite that, knowing the kind of place she grew up in, Erika doubted she had ever been given sex education. As the daughter of a former porn star, and someone who used to go out to parties several times a week, Erika was more than qualified to give her a talk, but she wasn’t sure it would be the healthiest education.

Erika turned to Daniel, about to tease him into giving Delilah the talk, only for a realization to hit her.

Delilah grew up in a cult. Before The Mummy showed up in recent months, it sounded like it had been a fairly normal cult. If there was one thing Erika knew about non-magical cults, it was that they disproportionately revolved around sex, often with the leader having a whole harem of dependent women at his beck and call.

A dark feeling crept into Erika’s heart as she turned back to Delilah. She tried to keep her tone light as she asked, “Have you… ever kissed someone?”

“Just Johnny,” she said, absently staring at the spot on the counter where Nya likely sat. “I don’t think I liked him enough… though he did open the door for me, so that was nice. I did like that.”

Erika winced, then immediately smoothed out her expression. “Did he… Were you…”

“Okay,” Delilah said, sounding confused. Turning away from the counter, she looked to Erika. “Nya says to tell you no, but probably yes if I hadn’t gotten away when I did.”

Erika let out a small breath, relieved that Nya knew what was going on. Erika was not a therapist, and certainly wouldn’t even know where to begin handling something like that for someone like Delilah. It wasn’t like they could go to a hospital and get any tests done, not with the way Nya clawed her way out of Delilah’s injuries.

“Is Johnny still out there?” Erika asked as another thought occurred. “Was he one of the people after you before you and I met?”

“Unless he can come back from having his head half-chopped off, I don’t think so?”

Daniel coughed lightly. “Head half-chopped off?”

“With a meat cleaver,” Delilah answered, making a swishing motion with her arm. “And Nya is saying I shouldn’t be telling you about this.”

“No, no. It’s fine,” Erika said, sweeping her fingers back through her hair in exasperation.

“Is it?” Daniel asked, more than a little alarmed.

“It is,” Erika stressed, letting out a short breath. “Right. We’re going to get one of The Hunters to tell you about sex… or maybe Piper is a good choice… and then see if they know any discreet therapists.”

After a short pause, Delilah frowned. “Nya says she knows—”

“I’d prefer a normal human, not some ancient body-hopping monster that’s a sliver of a god that eats people’s consciousness.” Erika glared at the empty spot on the counter. “No offense.”

“Assimilates,” Delilah corrected after a pause.

“Whatever.” Erika let out a long breath, watching as Delilah went back to cuddling her little cat plush. “Do you want a hug?”

“What? Why?”

“No reason,” Erika said, shrugging. “Or any reason. How about you?” she asked, looking to Daniel.

“No, I’m good.”

Frowning—his ears didn’t even turn colors—Erika shook her head. “I’ve got to call The Stalker, then I’ll be right back here with you guys, sound good?”

Getting halfhearted nods from both of them, Erika headed out back. For a long few moments, she just stood outside, embracing the cold February evening air. She breathed in, then out, shaking off that unpleasant sensation that had been swimming around her stomach for the last few minutes.

A glimmer of white flickered in the corner of Erika’s eyes, but when she looked, the ghostly figure wasn’t there. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you,” she muttered as she pulled out her phone.

The Stalker answered on the first ring. “You called?” She sounded genuinely surprised.

“Shouldn’t I have? Right. It’s Valentine’s. You’re probably on a date with The Hanged Man.”

“Ugh. No.” She paused, leaving Erika trying to figure out what emotion had been in that ugh, then continued. “You’re at the arcade? I can be there in five minutes.”

“You haven’t even heard what I’m calling about yet.”

“I’m bored out of my mind. And I know you’re going to propose… something dangerous.”

“I mean… maybe.”

“I’d love to.”

“Great. Five minutes then?”

“Changed my mind. Fifteen. Maybe thirty. I need time to get ready…” She trailed off, the silence broken by thumps of doors opening and the rustling of loud fabric. “Hmm.” The Stalker sounded distant, like she set the phone down, but spoke loud enough that Erika could mostly hear her say, “Red dress or black dress?”

Erika hesitated. “Are… you asking me or talking to yourself?”

“The harness is a go. It shows off my figure. Black lipstick, of course…”

“Stalker?”

“Do you think I should bring whips and chains?”

“Stalker,” Erika said, warning in her tone.

“A joke. I know this isn’t that kind of night out. Maybe next time…” she muttered.

“Actually…” Erika said slowly, reconsidering. “Chains might come in handy.”

“It is that kind of night?”

Earlier, Erika had been worried that The Stalker might have thrown away some critical part of herself.

She was starting to get the impression that her worry was extremely valid.