~~META: title = 2nd Ghost Story: Ch.1 ~~ ====== The Second Ghost Story: Making Their Mark - Chapter 1 ====== //Game session: 7/5/2011. [[players:tex]] absent due to illness.// ===== Saturday August 29th, 2009 ===== [[wod:geist:pcs:erika|Erika Cook]] drives [[wod:geist:pcs:anita|Anita Perez-Montoya]] home at 6:00 o’clock in the morning, after their descent into the Underworld. Anita walks into her home to find [[wod:characters:abuela|Abuela]] already waiting, her rage at mid-boil because Anita was out all night. Anita deftly redirects her grandmother’s fury by asking her about the “bloody-eyed ghosts” her friends saw a few months back. Caught off-guard, Abuela admits it started with her friend [[wod:characters:consuela|Consuela]] who saw the ghost at St. Michael’s Cathedral on State Street, during Mass. Consuela was startled and screamed, and several other parishioners turned and saw the specter as well, which caused a panic. Anita says that [[wod:characters:jordan|Jordan]] saw something similar before he died, which is significant because Jordan never believed in anything spiritual. She claims she was out with “a friend who knows more about things like this” to try and glean more information, but Abuela picks up on the partial lie and realizes she was out again with [[wod:geist:pcs:peter|Peter Sweets]], the cop Anita’s little sister [[wod:characters:adela|Del]] hit last week. She demands to know of Anita is sleeping with Peter, and Anita firmly denies it. Abuela relents a bit and admits she’s been talking with the family lawyer over Del’s impending trial; with Del’s record and the fact she hit a cop the D.A. is pushing to have her tried as an adult. Abuela asks Anita to formally drop the auto theft charges against her sister, to make things a little less complicated. Anita agrees immediately, and then asks her grandmother to tell her if Consuela or any of her other friends sees anything similar in the future. Anita heads to bed to get a few hours of sleep before opening the Montoya Botanica at ten. Peter, [[wod:geist:pcs:isobel|Isobel Vanora]], and [[wod:geist:pcs:david|David Klein]] drive themselves home independently. David and Peter collapse in their respective beds, while Isobel – who is far more used to all-nighters – has breakfast and putters around her apartment for a bit before going to bed. Their geists seem oddly content after their first sojourn into the Great Below, and all three Sin-Eaters spend the day resting. Erika returns home after dropping Anita off and spends the day doing a little research on the ghosts with bleeding eye sockets but quickly realizes she has little material to work with. She switches gears and spends the rest of the day working on lesson plans, as Central High School starts the Tuesday after Labor Day. She teaches world history and social studies, and manages to get three weeks’ worth of lesson plans done. She decides to head to the Waterfront Tavern in Holyoke tonight to speak with [[wod:characters:lisa|Lisa]], the de facto leader of the [[wod:characters:groups:waterfront|Waterfront Krewe]] to see if she knows anything about the mysterious ghosts. Anita opens the Botanica on time but the day is relatively quiet; she knows from years of experience that as soon as school starts her business will dry up between noon and four, when her regular clientele of old ladies is home watching their soap operas. She takes advantage of the quiet and idly rummages through some old totes of junk her grandmother has stored at the store, looking for old books and the like. She finds three handwritten tomes bound carefully in cracking leather, all by the same author. Two are in German and one is in Latin. The books are very old, and Anita assumes her abuela picked them up as part of someone’s collection and promptly forgot about them. She pages through them carefully and is surprised to find a crude map of the Autochthonous Depths in one of the German manuscripts! She picks out the cavern, the grotto, the garden, the hallway, and something that looks like a temple leading to a river, but careful examination of the map seems to indicate the cenote leading into the Upper Reaches has moved: the Avernian Gate is in what will become Forest Park, but is not where the Barney mausoleum is. Anita carefully places the books back and noodles around on the Internet for a bit; she’s amused to find the graffiti Erika spray-painted on the Rock 102 billboard is still present. Erika reaches the Waterfront Tavern at 7:30 in the evening and finds Lisa tending the bar already. Lisa stands 5’4” and has short black hair with the sides of her head shaved. She also has multiple body piercings, and several tattoos that cover her arms and back. She is younger than Erika, and swears like it’s going out of style. Lisa doesn’t notice Erika at first as the bar is packed, but registers her presence when she turns to get a drink order. Erika says she needs to talk to Lisa when she gets a free minute, and orders a rum and coke. Lisa gives her one gratis and Erika orders an appetizer and claims a corner seat to wait and people-watch. She waits for about half an hour before Lisa breaks free of the bar and joins her. Erika explains the appearance of the bloody-eyed ghosts and asks if Lisa’s krewe has seen them before; Lisa nods and explains they popped up a lot in Northampton and occasionally in Holyoke close to the Northampton border, but she’s surprised to hear they’re moving south. Erika explains that the ghosts are apparently slavers and Lisa admits the ghosts never raised any red flags with her or her krewe, but, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and they didn’t squeak at all.” Lisa says her krewe has left Northampton and Springfield alone, but admits there are Avernian gates in Northampton. One is apparently on the Smith campus, possibly in a dorm or the woods, but she doesn’t know where the others are. She confides with Erika that she’s heard repeated rumors that Smith College is protected by guardians of its own – werewolves. Erika is incredulous, and Lisa admits she has no clue if that’s true or not. Erika reveals she has an informal krewe and Lisa nods, she saw the graffiti. Erika looks innocent at the vandalism, but Lisa laughs and gets her a second free rum and coke. Lisa returns to work, and Erika leaves shortly thereafter. ===== Monday August 31st, 2009 ===== After a quiet Sunday, the Sin-Eaters return to their normal lives – or as close to normal as they get. David and Erika have an all-staff meeting at Central High School in preparation for classes beginning next week. Faculty and staff are all stuffed into the aging auditorium, and the superintendent and principal make boring speeches about meeting MCAS goals and the like. Most of the assembled staff falls asleep, but both David and Erika remain awake and alert – and both fake enthusiasm fairly well. After the boring speeches tacos are served for lunch in the cafeteria. David and Erika sit together and eat – and both spot a female bloody-eyed ghost stride purposefully into the cafeteria! The ghost spots them and immediately turns and walks briskly through the wall. David and Erika immediately scramble to their feet and follow, loudly claiming they “have to use the bathroom.” They get a few covert thumbs’-up from other faculty of their respective genders, and realize they just set themselves up for the local rumor mill. They head into the hallway and spot the ghost heading deeper into the school. They follow briskly, and realize the ghost seems to be heading to the core of the building, possibly to the basement. Erika wonders if there is an unknown Avernian Gate here in the school, and decides that would be a mixed blessing. She also realizes there are no other ghosts present at all, and that worries her. The specter notices they’re following her and places her hand on a light switch. The Sin-Eaters see a blue-white spark erupt into the switch and dive for cover as the overhead florescent lights overload and explode! They are showered with hot plastic and burning filament but escape serious injury. The ghost makes a beeline for the basement and David and Erika reluctantly conclude that chasing it will likely lead to more damage to the school. In minutes the maintenance staff descends on the area and Erika claims she has no idea what caused the overload. David tries to spin something about “seeing this on the Internet once,” but the maintenance guys just send them away. They return for the afternoon part of the meeting and luckily there are no further incidents. Anita typically opens the shop at 10 o’clock and closes around 7:30, but starting at opening and going straight on until noon there is a constant flow of business non-stop. Come midday, Anita has $250 in the till and she’s out of Jesus candles and other protective ingredients. Concerned, Anita puts in some reorders and putters around the shop until 2 o’clock, when the door opens and she’s hit by the worst body odor she’s ever smelled. [[wod:characters:grubby|A grubby man]] with tattered clothing and rancid personal hygiene walks in; his beard and hair a wild rat’s nest and more salt than pepper, and missing some of his yellow teeth. The Grubby Man asks for old books that deal with protection, but Anita admits she doesn’t really carry old books. She offers to put together a kit of protective items for about twenty bucks, and is startled when the man pulls out a thick wad of bills and hands her a crisp $100 note. Anita turns to make change but Grubby Man insists he get his full $100 worth of items. Startled, Anita pulls together five kits of protective items, seriously denting her store’s supplies, and hands the bags to the man. She asks what he’s seen and he replies, “All sorts of crazy shit.” The guy eyes her suddenly and blurts out, “You’re on fire!” Anita replies totally deadpan, “I know.” Grubby Man tells her, “The ones without eyes are watching you,” and he heads out the door. Anita lights every spare scented candle and turns on all the fans she has to banish the stink, and then carefully examines the $100 bill. To her surprise, it’s completely legit. She does more ordering and stock rearranging until 4 o’clock, when the aging Latinas descend on her store again. She is swiftly mobbed and spots a few of her grandmother’s cronies in the crowd; she asks why the sudden rush but gets mostly impassive looks in return. One Latina deigns to tell her, “Bad readings, bad juju.” By closing time at the Montoya Botanica, Anita has close to $1,000 in the till. Boggled at the sudden wellspring of good business – which usually presages bad times – Anita closes up. As she’s locking the door she is hit once again with the rancid body odor and turns to find Grubby Man standing inches from her. He rumbles that he needs more items, and fishes out two more $100 bills. Sighing, Anita unlocks the store and walks in. She eyes her ravaged stock and pulls together what she has left, which totals about $125. The man grabs everything, hands her the two bills, and walks out without waiting for his change. Anita heads home shortly thereafter and finds a horrifying sight in the kitchen – Abuela with three empty cans of beer. Anita is flabbergasted and demands to know what exactly is going on today; Abuela admits a rash of ominous Tarot readings and strange sightings has descended upon Springfield. One of her cronies – a woman named Maritza – saw two gringos at Central High School chase a ghost and nearly get electrocuted for their troubles; Anita makes a mental note to check on Erika and David tomorrow. The Witch suddenly comes out of her dormancy and blurts, “How the hell did he see us?” Anita winces but decides to deal with Grubby Man’s discovery later. She asks what reading came up in Abuela’s Tarot cards and Abuela replies, “Death, The Devil, and The Hierophant, all reversed.” ((**Past – Death (Reversed)**: Stagnation, the cycle stalls and sputters instead of starting anew. **Present – The Devil (Reversed)**: Slavery ends, chains break. Often a good sign, it can also herald chaos. **Future – The Hierophant (Reversed)**: Orthodoxy and dogma used for temporal or greedy ends, instead of furthering beliefs and morality.)) Anita winces and asks Abuela for help in warding the house tonight and the shop tomorrow, just in case. She also plans to gather the others and check out the cathedral as soon as she can. Isobel is up early – for her – and heads to the physical therapy center at Baystate Medical Center for her formal orientation. The appointment is at 8:30 AM and she arrives with a few minutes to spare. The interior of the building itself is done in soothing blues and greens, a far cry from the harsh ER with its antiseptic whites. She introduces herself to [[wod:characters:marge|Marge]], the receptionist, and is waved into an office. She meets her new boss, [[wod:characters:earnestine|Earnestine Spoto]], Earnestine is in her mid-fifties and has healthy skin, short gray hair, and a runner’s build. She is very genial and welcomes Isobel, although she warns her that physical therapy is a damn sight duller than working emergency medicine. Isobel retorts, “Exactly,” and Earnestine smiles with sympathy. The two women talk shop for a bit but Earnestine formally hires Isobel and wants her to start next Tuesday. Earnestine makes it clear that for the first few weeks she expects Isobel to be working alongside Marge and learning how the insurance aspect works, as she cheerfully admits she hates dealing with HMOs. This will also give Isobel a chance to change her sleeping schedule. Isobel heads out to sign papers with Marge, who she finds politely aloof. After finishing the paperwork – and relishing the idea of a nine-to-five job with only the occasional weekend – Isobel heads out to return home. She drives off, but soon spots a black Ford F-150 pickup truck with a dual cab and shell over the back following her. She makes a few turns to see if she is correct, and each time the Ford pickup stays with her, although sometimes it’s a car-length or two back. Growing concerned, she pulls into a supermarket to be near people, and watches as the pickup drives right past the parking lot. Still uncertain, Isobel grabs some groceries and heads home without spotting anything else out of the ordinary. //Recap originally published on [[https://nwod-verbena76.livejournal.com/5176.html|Livejournal]].// ---- [[{}wod:geist:recap:1_chapter_4|<= First Ghost Story, Chapter 4 ]] [[{}wod:geist:recap:2_chapter_2|Chapter 2 =>]]