Chapter 6: ‘The tip of the iceberg’

Alex thought she had arrived in advance of the group’s second meeting; she had received a text from Alastair claiming it was ‘Imperative that they meet’. Alex had initially scoffed at it but it seemed like a good idea to touch base given the nature of the events that have unfolded.

Flicking on the light switch,a singular bare bulb lit up the room, the meeting space already had four fold away chairs set up in a circle. Alex turned off the light and on again, the chairs had disappeared, her brow furrowed, she glanced around the room, a chill ran down her spine and her lips started to freeze.

‘I see there is truth to the old wives tales’, Alastair appeared behind her, ‘you really are cold blooded’. Alex waited for him to walk past her till she bore her teeth, ‘what did you do?’

He turned on his heel, ‘All I did was put your plan on a faster track’, Alastair pulled a red cushioned baroque chair seemingly out of thin air, dropped himself into it and sat cross legged, the joins in his prosthetic legs showing through his silk trousers.

Alex strode towards him, ‘not so threatening without your fangs are you..’, Alastair started.

She stopped at the foot of the chair and smiled, ‘...says the demon had to ‘borrow’ Mummy’s blade to kill an innocent child’.

Alastair clicked his tongue, his eyes fluttering at being called out, ‘damn you Carl!’. Alex turned, went to the back wall and picked up two more folding chairs. Carl opened the door, leaning on the doorframe, ‘Weak Demon’, he growled and limped his way into the room, his loose foot slocking with each step. Alex set up the two chairs and helped Carl sit down. ‘Why here?’ Carl shouted, staring at Alastair, Carl’s foot fell off, but barely registered anything in him. Alex sat down, leaning back, waiting for a response from the demon. But no answer came, Carl grunted, Alex understood that he knew what Alastair had done.

Carl just didn't have any stakes in the game that the demon was trying to play. He smiled, his dead foot falling with a wet thud to one side, ‘Kitty’, he looked towards the door, it swung open violently and nearly came off its hinges and a dark fog poured through the doorway, with two green cat eyes at the centre of it. Joseph pulled the darkness into himself, forming his feline body and padded into the room. A bloodied Cassandra walked through behind him, crimson staining her cheeks and dried blood on the tips of jet black hair.

She locked eyes with Alastair, green magic trials taking shape in her palm creating a crystalline vial full of black viscous liquid, not taking her eyes off him she rolled up her sleeves, one by one, her tattooed arms scarred during her encounter with Isak. Cass uncorked the vial, downed it and her tattoos started to bleed, walking slowly towards Alastair, dark crimson running down her arms, she tilted her head back and smiled.

Talking to the ceiling she spoke softly, ‘Your ‘Mother’ brought a Ghoul back’. Cass jerked her head forwards, her face inches from Alastair’s, ‘and she gave him a body’.

Bringing up a bloodied finger to Alastair’s nose and pushing him back with all the force she had, her arms had nearly healed but Cass’s muscles ached, but at this point she really didn’t care. Alastiar’s chair disappeared from under him and he tumbled backwards.

Cass loomed over him, her figure blocking out the light, Joseph had made his way over to his side, Alex stood up pushing her chair back, Carl laughed, ‘Good witch’.