08/30/2021 07:51 PM  meanwhile TODAY ELSEWHERE ------------------ In a house in Las Vegas (or near enough, anyway), Jeremiah Washington laid, half-asleep, on the living room couch. Years ago there had been a lot going on here - back when he, Darcy, and Danny were living here together or at least using it as a home base for whatever trips and adventures they got up. Since then, though, Darcy'd moved on to Government Work at a nearby military facility - the kind of work he wasn't supposed to know about but did anyway. And Danny had ended up with that magic ring, something to do with a wizard, and ended up with an entirely different kind of Government Work - for a few months, anyway, before forming various groups of super friends. Bouncing from Vegas to New York, to San Fransisco, then back to Vegas before ending up back in New York - he thought, anyway. Danny seemed to move whenever the move struck him. Everyone had gone on their separate paths. Still, Jerry did his best to keep track of his friends, just in case they needed something. His phone rang - muffled under a pile of old comic books and sci-fi paperbacks that he'd picked up from a yard sale - but the ring was important enough to wake him, anyway. Sitting up, he brushed the books and magazines to the floor to retrieve his phone and check his messages. His notifications started with six missed calls from a contact labeled 'cindy???sarah???', followed by a text message from the same reading 'thanks for nothing, a**hole.' Followed that was a series of text messages from an unknown number, demanding 'their money' along with various threats of bodily harm. He barely registered all of them until he got to the most recent message, the one that woke him up, from a contact labeled "Danny's Super Secret Burner', the message read 'I don't know what i'm supposed to say help', though Jerry didn't actually have to read it to know what it was about - he still noted that it clearly wasn't Danny, and probably wasn't the girl who worked for him, either. "Sh*t. Sh*tsh*tsh*t."  Jerry nearly fell over himself trying to get up off the couch - half awake and with no time to fix that. At the same time - as if the universe was piling it on - there came a bang at the front door. Jerry ignored it, until he heard a man shout from the other side "Where's the f***ing money, Washington!" "Don't know what you're talking about, man!" Lying, Jeremiah shoved the phone in his pocket, then checked his right hand. "Dammit." Where'd he leave that ring? He stumbled towards the kitchen, a pile of unopened mail and flyers tossed to the floor, then rattling through washed-but-never-put-away dishes as he searched the counters. From beyond the door, he heard the man shout again - "You know, the boss is real pissed about this." "Sounds like a bad time, maybe you should quit and get a real job!" The banging and shouting stopped, allowing Jerry a moment to think about where that ring had ended up. Looking into the sink, he spotted it - silver glinting in the light - right in the garbage disposal blades. Letting out a groan, he slowly went for it - staring at the switch on the wall that controlled the disposal, as if expecting it to flip on its own and go to work on his hand. And as if he could do anything about it quickly enough if it did. The banging at the door resumed, louder as the goon on the outside slammed his shoulder into the door. Jerry wasn't worried about that, though - that door wasn't coming down, he knew it. Not by some random mob goon, anyway. Didn't that guy know how's house this was? Well, he probably wouldn't, on second thought. He retrieved the ring with minimal effort, but maximum (if unnecessary) stress, and gave it a quick rinse under the faucet before putting it back on. "Alright, this better be worth it." Jeremiah spoke out loud - as if any of this has been particularly difficult for him - then took a moment to brush his hands through his hair - he could see his reflection in the kitchen window - then turned away, ignoring the resumed banging and shouted threats coming from outside. Jerry stepped into the hall, stopping at the door to the closet, and took a breath - this was always weird to him - then grabbed the door handle with his right hand. He felt the expected shock - not any worse than static - then pulled. The door opened to somewhere else, and his phone rang again. "Alright, okay, I'm coming." Then he stepped through, yanking the door closed behind him. 0 Comments

08/26/2021 07:55 PM  four color demons TODAY ------------------- Glass shatters. Shards fling out from the television's screen, blocked by an invisible shield - its source, the head of the golf club held Daniel had held out in front of him. He was prepared. "I hope this isn't like what happened at the Hardy house." Even as he made the comment, he kicked the tin lunchbox over towards Kevin. "Get the phone out of the box, there's only one number saved, send it a text." Kevin scrambled to do what Daniel said, opening the box and accidentally dumping the contents - in addition to the phone, a box of matches, several packets of salt, and other apparently random items scattered. Ignoring the rest, Kevin grabbed the phone. "What do I say?" Daniel shrugged, not turning away from the broken television - something was trying to squeeze through. He saw yellow arms - purple tendrils - blue...he wasn't sure what those were, but they brought to mind the legs of an insect. "It doesn't matter, just send anything." THEN ------------------- The Rocketwoman ran, darting out the library with the man giving chase - though it wasn't really the man who was chasing her. It was the swirling black mass, staining the floors, walls, and ceiling. The man was only suspended in it. The Eagle fired her zap gun blindly behind her as she ran down the hall, unsure if she was hitting anything or if it would do any good if she was. She passed several rooms, though after the third (or was it the fourth? She wasn't really keeping track) the door crashed open, torn off its hinges while magazines, books, and loose sheets of paper scattered the hall. She glanced back long enough to see something blue - well, not *quite* blue - exit the room and turn to chase her. She wasn't sure what it was - she saw an eye, and maybe spider legs? But now she had *two* things after her, it didn't really matter what they were. She saw the window at the end of the hall - but nothing was out there, and there wasn't time to figure out what that meant. So she turned to take the stairs down to the first floor. As she descended, she heard the sounds of gunshots. On the first floor, near the front door, John Chance fired his revolvers at the Yellow Thing coming towards them. Bullets whizzed through it, splattering and staining the walls with yellow - whatever it was - and causing it to stumble, but not stopping it. Aside from its footsteps, it made no noise. Behind Chance, near the door (or where the door was supposed to be), Rachel Derleth mumbled repeatedly, discouraging words about their likelihood for escape. The Yellow Thing didn't appear to be in a hurry as it shambled towards them, though it's approached was abruptly stopped when a door swung open, out into the hallway and striking it. The Yellow Thing hit the ground and scrambled, struggling to regain its footing - which may have been because it didn't actually have any feet. The Hint stepped through the doorway, the formerly-white bandages that wrapped his head now largely stained a reddish-purple color. "Not purple." The Ghost Detective spoke, responding to a comment whose relevancy had long since expired. "Boy am I glad to see you. But where's the clown?" Doc Marvel questioned while the Hint yanked the door shut behind him. "Outside. Safe." The Hint turned towards the Yellow Thing, finally rising to stand on two of its too-many arms, and dispassionately stabbed it with the dagger he'd drawn in the kitchen. The Yellow Thing shrieked, a similar sound that had come from the kitchen. As the thing spasmed, dissolving into a yellow puddle, the Golden Eagle came barreling down the hall, the skittering sound of insect legs behind her. The Hint threw the dagger towards her - passed her - and it struck the Not-Quite-Blue Thing in the center of its oversized eye. The Thing collapsed, and was overtaken by the black mass of the Man from the Library. The Rocketwoman stopped on her run towards her partner, grabbing the Ghost Detective by the shoulder. "What the *hell* is going on?!" The Hint brushed her hand away. "Not enough time. Leave." Doc Wonder interjected. "We're trying to, but--" Then he was interrupted - Rachel Derleth screaming. "THE DOOR!" It was right back where it should have been, though she was struggling to open it. The Golden Eagle ran to the door and, uninterested in waiting, shot it multiple times with her zap gun - the energy blasting and burning holes into it until Doc Wonder slammed into to destroy what was left. Mrs. Derleth followed, and as the Eagle reached the doorway, she stopped for a moment turn back to the Hint, who hadn't moved since throwing the knife, calling for him to escape with them. "Come on!" The Hint responded without turning, as the Man from the Library approached him. "Not yet. Not today. Not over." The Golden Eagle was about to object, but he cut her off. "See you around." He lied. The Eagle paused, unsure of what to do, but finally turned to left the building.  She ran out to meet Doc Wonder, already reuniting with the police that had sent them in and had been waiting for their return. Rachel Derleth had already been shuffled off to be questioned and, eventually, taken to a hospital for examination. The Eagle caught up to Doc Wonder. "John, what do we do?!" Before he responded, one of the officers present yelled "Look! The house!" They all turned to look at the now-crumbling house - John Chance thought it looked as if it was collapsing into a hole that didn't exist. In the first-floor hallway of the collapsing house, the black mass of the Man from the Library gained on the Hint, seemingly absorbing the remains of the Yellow Thing and the Not-Quite-Blue Thing as it approached. The Ghost Detective stood unmoving. He scoffed as he came early face-to-face with whatever was left of William Derleth, the Man from the Library. Looking past the man, and into the staining black mass, he spoke one last time. "Hello. I knew it was you." 0 Comments

11/14/2020 05:23 PM  hotel california TODAY ------------------- "What do you mean you 'can't find the door'?" I mean, It's not like it walked off and left, right? Daniel turned to the general direction of the door, away from the television. What had started as the conclusion to an adventure serial quickly devolved into garbled nonsense - random words and images mixed in with audio and visual static. Ms. Koontz hadn't budged - standing still as a statue - and Kevin shouted back. "I mean where the door's supposed to be - just more wall!"  "Windows!" Daniel shouted back - Kevin *really* needed to get out of this house. The reply was quick. "Tried that, I can't get the boards off!". Behind Daniel, the television went black - still on, displaying nothing. "Well, get back here then!" Kevin complied, but as he rejoined Daniel and the Living Statue of Ms. Koontz, a sound came from behind the wizard. clank clank clank Knocking against glass. Daniel mumbled "damn it", and turned back towards the TV. Ms. Koontz finally spoke again. "It wants in." THEN ------------------- "What did you do?" And who's 'them', the Golden Eagle thought to herself - though it didn't seem as pressing an issue right now. The Rocketwoman tensed as she turned to face the man behind her - who she thought - no, she *knew* - hadn't been there before. The man spoke again, ignoring her question - or reading her mind? "The voices - the nightmares. They wouldn't stop. I thought if I just..." He kept speaking, but she didn't hear him - her attention drawn to the swirling black mass behind him, reaching to the ceiling, staining it. She raised her zap gun, quickly coming to the realization that they might have been in over their head. A thought confirmed when she heard gunshots down the hall. In the kitchen, the Hint moved his hand down, across the Jester's chest, preventing him from stepping forward. "Worse than I thought. Too late. Leave, Clown." As the Ghost Detective spoke, something slowly crawled out from under the table. Worms? Snakes? He wasn't sure what the mass was, but he'd eventually realize it wasn't either of those. Though, for some reason, the thing that confused him most was "Why is it purple?" No time for answers, the Hint muttered "Apologies". With a strength and quickness the Jester hadn't been prepared for, the Hint grabbed the front of his clown suit, turning around entirely and fling him back with one arm. The Clown flew backward. He thought he heard something pop when his shoulder hit the doorframe, though after the impact he continued to tumble out into the backyard. Ignoring the pain in his arm, he scrambled back to his feet and rushed towards the door. The door slammed shut in front of him, and try as he might, he couldn't get it to open. Through the glass, he saw the Hint - Purple tendrils snaking around him from behind. The Ghost Detective calmly drew a dagger from his coat. The dining room lights when out. The Clown heard a shriek. "Mrs. Derleth, We need to leave." Chance spoke to the woman, a decision cemented by the sound of a shriek from down the hall, and gunshots from upstairs. He grabbed her by her arm, pulling her up from the chair - she didn't seem to find leaving as important as she did, but she didn't put up a fight, either. Rachel Derleth mumbled to herself, partially repeating what she'd already said, as John Chance dragged her out of the sitting room, back towards the foyer. Doc Wonder thought it would be a quick rescue, and then he'd return for the rest - and to deal with whatever else was going on here - until he reached the front door and found out that it wasn't there. He took a moment to process that, and then pulled Mrs. Derleth to where the door should have been. "Stay here." Then, she spoke up again. "No one leaves. They won't let us." Chance nodded. "Yeah, well, we'll see about that." Then turned back to the hall - just in time to catch something following, shambling out of the sitting room. At first, he thought it was a man - but, too many arms. Not enough heads? And, possibly least concerning, but he still found it notable, far too yellow? John Chance let out a 'hmm', drawing both revolvers from his holsters. "Well, let's see about this." TODAY ------------------- "What is it?" Kevin asked in response to Koontz's statement, and she replied. "It's him. It's *them." Daniel let out a frustrated sound, though before he could reply with anything snarky, he found that Kevin had it handled. "Thanks, very helpful." Another series of knocks - clank clank clank - but Daniel couldn't see anything. Just the black glow of the television screen. Daniel cleared his throat, stepping towards the screen, golf club at the ready. "Whatever you're selling, we don't want any." No response, though Daniel didn't expect any. The three of them stood in silence for several seconds, long enough for both Daniel and Kevin to briefly consider the idea that Daniel's statement had actually, somehow, worked. Before the got too comfortable, though CLANK CLANK CLANK The glass cracked. Daniel dropped the tin lunchbox, so he could grip the golf club with both hands. "Well, alright then." CLANK CLANK CRASH 0 Comments

08/26/2020 07:54 PM  them December 24th, 1943 ------------------- John Chance approached the front door of the Derleth House, his four associates having split up to cover other entrances. He'd chosen the most direct route, having opted to start with an attempt to reason with the man inside. Chance climbed the steps to the porch carefully, keeping an eye out for anything strange, then approached the front door. Three knocks and he announced himself. "My name is John Chance, and I just want to talk." After a pause, and no response, he added. "You may know me better as Doc Wonder." Another short pause and he heard the click of a lock being undone and the doorknob turning. The door opened just slightly and, after waiting a moment, John pushed the door open the rest of the way. Behind the house, a vigilante clown, a ghost detective, and a masked secret agent scaled the fence surrounding the back yard. The three masked men moved quickly across the yard, the agent checking windows as they did, and found that nothing seemed out of place - if not for a hostage situation taking place inside and the disappearances of four police officers sent in to investigate. Coming to a stop at the back door, the clown checked the door. Turning the knob, he found it unlocked but didn't press on just yet. Operator Zero spoke, looking up to a nearby balcony. "This is where we split." The agent drew his grapple gun and launched the hook at the balcony's railing. "Good luck." With no further word, he zipped up to the higher floor. The clown looked to the detective. "I guess we just go in then, huh?" The Hint, face wrapped in bandages, replied. "Yes." And opened the door. Back at the front, the Golden Eagle landed on a top-floor balcony. Her wings folded into her jetpack, and she took a moment to lean over the railing, catching sight of Doc Wonder entering the house through the front door. Well, it seemed entry wasn't going to be too much of a hassle. She stood and turned to the balcony's door and found it standing wide-open. Strange - she thought it was closed when she landed. Wendy drew her zap gun - just in case - and stepped through the open door. TODAY ------------------- "I'm just so tired of the things that look back." Deborah Koontz stood in the doorway to her living room, addressing the two men that had come to check on her. Daniel gestured to Kevin to stop whatever he was doing, and responded to the woman. "Uh, Ms. Koontz? What was that?" Kevin, for his part, let go of the sheet covering the mirror in the corner, and turned to the door- he didn't like the sound of that. He didn't know what it meant but it couldn't be anything good. "I shouldn't have watched that god damned tape." The woman replied, though it wasn't actually an answer to Daniel's question. It just added another question. "What tape? And what was that about things looking back?" In response to Daniel's question, the woman just gestured vaguely around the room - apparently indicating the covered frames, mirror, and ending at the television, unplugged and turned around with its screen facing the wall. "Look." Both men, the wizard and his apparent assistant, turned to the unused television - finding that now, the screen was facing them. Behind them, Deborah Koontz crossed through the door. THEN ------------------- The lack of response made Chance tense. No one telling him to come in, no one telling him to leave. No threats and no cries for help. He progressed through the house - darker than he liked - until he found himself in the sitting room. Through the dark, he could make out a shape - a woman sitting in a chair in the corner, near a bookshelf. "Miss Derleth?" John Chance spoke - the woman reached to pull the cord on the lamp on the table next to her, and didn't react when the light failed to come on. "It's not him." She spoke. "It's them. And it's *him*." The back door opened into a dining room - the Clown noted that the dining room table alone, with its tablecloth hanging to the floor, seemed bigger than his apartment. His second thought was how bright it seemed "They have every lamp in the house in here or--" Jester was shut up by his partner's hand clamping over his mouth. "Shhhh." The Hit lifted his other hand, finger to his lips - assuming there were lips behind the bandages. He followed with a whisper. "Not alone.". The tablecloth shifted, and a chair screeched across the floor as it was pushed back. Upstairs, the Agent - Operator Zero - found himself in a bedroom. At least he was pretty sure there was a bed, somewhere, underneath the piles of comic books, pulp science fiction novels, and loose papers. Sifting through some of the papers, he found then indecipherable. What appeared to be English at first glance turned out to be nonsense - a code, maybe, but nothing like anything he'd seen before. Shrugging, he turned away, heading for the door. As he reached for the doorknob, it clicked - locking - and while he checked for a way to unlock it, he heard the sounds of paper crinkling and shifting behind him. Books and magazines fell to the floor as something rose out from under them. Just through the open door, the Rocketwoman entered the library. Browsing the books as she made her way through, zap gun at the ready, she found nothing she recognized - though, near as she could tell, most were related to so-called anomalous phenomena - spirits, magic, and demons. The Hint's specialty, she thought.  A thud around a corner nearly made her jump out of her skin, though she recovered quickly, and after a moment to breathe, turned the corner quickly, prepared for whatever might be lurking - but it was only more shelves. More books. Spotting one on the floor, she crouched down to pick it up. "I didn't mean to do it." The man's voice came from behind her - where she'd just been. "I just wanted them to stop." TODAY ------------------- "Well that's - something." Kevin didn't know what it was, but he was getting progressively less comfortable here. And this was from someone who's spent roughly twenty years trapped in a fictional diner. The television clicked, screen coming to life, and the VCR whirred to life, tape spinning. Despite, as Daniel noted, neither being plugged into the wall. Daniel gestured for Kevin to give him golf club and tin lunchbox he'd been carrying. "Go wait in the car." Kevin didn't have to be told twice, and backed away to leave the room. Daniel looked to the woman, Ms. Koontz. "You should probably get out of here, too." She didn't move, though - didn't even seem like she'd heard him. Turning back to the TV, he was just in time to see the title card, and the announcer blared about the serial's exciting conclusion - Action Boy, Chapter 14. Down the hall, Kevin called back. "This isn't going to make any sense, but --- I can't find the door." 0 Comments

08/25/2020 07:50 PM  analepsis & necrocomicon December 24th, 1943 ------------------- "You ever feel like you're getting too old for this?"  "You are, but I've got a while to go." "Oh. Thanks." John Chance zipped up his jacket, before grabbing the zap gun and pair of goggles off of a shelf and sliding them across the table to the woman at the other end. Wendy Parker grabbed the gun, holstering it, then put on the goggles. "I'm just saying, you've been doing this longer than I have, Doc. A lot longer." She flexed slightly, painted steel wings ejecting from either side of the pack strapped to her back. Another slight movement and they retracted. She was satisfied with the response time. "So what are we doing exactly?" "Got a call about a hostage situation - police are trying to handle it, but it turned weird." "How weird?" "Weird enough to call for people with colorful aliases." The man the papers called 'Doc Wonder' checked his pockets, and, satisfied, settled on fiddling with the ring on his right hand while his companion checked her gear. "Fair enough - but why do they need a rocketwoman for this?" "They don't, I just couldn't find the Strigoi and everyone else I'd usually contact is overseas." "Oh. So it's just the two of us, then?" "A few other locals might meet us there." "Anyone I know?" "I don't know - Operator Zero, The Hint, and Mester Jester." "Ugh. That clown gives me the creeps." "Oh, he's not that bad." The Golden Eagle shrugged her shoulders. "He's not that good, either."   December 24th, 1943 ------------------- "What sort of 'hostage situation' requires a vigilante clown, a masked secret agent, a rocketwoman, and a ghost detective?" Doc Wonder asked his contact, leaning against the car he'd driven to the meetup outside of the Derleth Mansion. On the roof sat the Golden Eagle, listening to the conversation, while The Hint, face wrapped in bandages, discussed something unrelated with the masked Operator Zero a few feet away, on the other side of the car. Doc wasn't sure where Mester Jester was, now that he thought about it. The Eagle piped in, adding to the question "Yeah, and who's the hostage?" The officer who met them took off his cap and scratched the top of his bald head. "Well, that's the thing. Mr. Derleth has his wife in there with him - she's pregnant, you know - but he's threatening the city." The policeman paused, allowing Doc Wonder to interject "What, the whole city?" before continuing. "Yeah - yes. That's what he says, anyway. We thought he was just a nut, but then--" A CLANG on the hood of a nearby police car signaled the appearance of the facepainted clown. From the roof of the Doc's car came a disgusted grunt, but it went largely unheard as the Jester interrupted. "Then what?" The detective and the agent looked up from their conversation long enough to acknowledge the clown's arrival, but quickly went back to it. After a brief moment to recover from the startling appearance, the officer continued."Then we sent some men in after him. And then some more men after those. And now we're four men short and we don't know why. So I called you, Doc, to see if you and your group could help. And, you know, some of the other boys have their own connections." The officer gestured vaguely at the assembled group of adventurers and mystery men. Doc Wonder looked to the clown, then the detective and the agent, before turning to the rocketwoman. "Well, it's good they do, most of my group are out of town and we wouldn't want to be short-handed." The doc turned back to the policeman. "So, what else can you tell us? Do we have any idea what kind of weapons he might have?" The officer shrugged "I don't know, nobody's seen anything. At least not anyone who's come back out. He just keeps ranting about funnybooks." Another interruption, this time almost whispered - but still somehow very clear and audible - from the other side of the car. "Wait." The Hint had broken off from his conversation with Operator Zero, and the two moved around the car to join the rest in their discussion of the situation. The Hint continued. "Comic Books. That Derleth?" Doc Wonder looked to the detective, then to the officer. "Oh."  "What is it?" The Eagle spoke from her perch on the car's roof, hoping someone could explain what 'funnybooks' had to do with anything. The Hint looked up at her, though seemed to be looking through her, before returning to the conversation. "Three years ago.  Double disappearance. Murder? Charles Binder, comic magazine writer. Editor? Robert Derleth. Investigated myself. Ties to the occult. Never solved." The Hint gestured to the house. "William, son of Robert." The Golden Eagle wondered, for a moment, how Operator Zero managed to have a conversation with this guy, and whether or not he was more unnerving than the clown. Still, she thought she remembered hearing something about the disappearance - she didn't know it was that weird, though. The clown, for his part, piped in - recognizing names if not the situation. "'Action Boy'! So that's what happened to it!" The ghost detective responded with a simple, direct "Yes." And the clown mumbled, sadly. "I loved that book."  Doc Wonder glanced between the four other assembled adventurers and the officer who'd met them here. "I guess that's all the information we're going to get, then." It wasn't very much, but he wasn't sure what else they could get standing out here. The information-gathering coming to an end, The Eagle finally stood up, though remained on the vehicle's roof. "The house is pretty big, we should probably split up. I can take the top floor - for obvious reasons." As she spoke, the wings of her jetpack extended. "Me too." Operator Zero added, drawing his grapple gun. "We can go in on opposite sides."  The Eagle nodded, followed by Doc. Then the Jester spoke up. "Me and the Hint can go in the back way." The clown paused for a moment, glancing to the Hint, before adding. "Uh, if that's good for you." The reply was another "Yes." "Well, that's settled, then." Doc Wonder turned to the officer who'd been informing them of the situation. "It looks like we'll take it from here." Back to the group, he finished. "I'll go in the front, and we'll all meet somewhere in the middle. Let's get started." The plan seemed to be good enough for everyone assembled, and the group split. 0 Comments

08/24/2020 07:53 PM  horror business "Anyone who says 'Man is the real monster'! Never met a Wendigo." "Aren't Wendigos cannibals?" "Evil spirits that usually possess cannibals. The point is, monsters are the real monsters. Sometimes it's a dude and sometimes it's a twelve-foot-tall sasquatch with horns. Sometimes it's invaders from Mars or whatever." Daniel popped the trunk of the '96 Saturn. "Probably not actually Mars." "Because aliens aren't real." Kevin added, while Daniel dug around in the car's trunk. The first thing he took from it was a golf club, which he handed to Kev. "No, they are, I just don't think there's anyone Mars. Hold this." Kevin took the club, ignoring Daniel's response about aliens. He assumed he was lying. "What's this for?" "Golf, usually." The response made Kevin consider, for a moment, swinging the club at him. Daniel handed him an old tin lunchbox, too, then closed the trunk. Daniel walked around the car, up the driveway, to the two-story house it led to, with Kevin following from behind. The lawn hadn't been cut in some time though, it wasn't until he was at the door that Kevin, still in the yard, pointed out something Daniel hadn't noticed "Why are the windows boarded up?"  "I don't know, stray baseball?" Daniel turned around, shrugging. Kevin gestured towards the window. "No, look." Daniel made a face best described as 'ugh fine' and then stepped off the porch to get a better look, confirming what Kevin was saying. "The windows are fine. And the boards are inside." "Huh. Well that's definitely something." It was weirder than he expected it to be, Daniel had to admit. Every window on both floors was treated the same way. "Alright, well, let's go see what's up." Daniel went back to the porch, then, stopping to look at the unmoving Kevin and then gesturing him to hurry up.  Daniel knocked on the door, the force of which just pushed the not-quite-shut door open. That was weird, too. He paused for a moment, considering his options, then stepped into the house, though didn't go much further than just inside. Kevin stayed on the other side, on the porch, as Daniel called out. "Uh, Ms. Koontz, it's Daniel." He paused, did she know his first name? "Baker." Another pause, did she know his name at all? "Doctor Marvel."  It didn't really matter what name she knew, there was no response. After waiting a few moments, he stepped further in, and against his better judgment, Kevin followed. There were frames on the wall, but the ones that weren't empty had their contents covered with paper and cardboard. The lights were on, at least, but was anyone even home? At this point, neither of them knew what answer was the one they'd prefer. They both ventured further into the house, more silence, more empty or covered frames. Nobody in the living room, either, though the television had been unplugged and turned to face the wall. Kevin approached a large object in the corner, covered with a sheet. He thought it looked like a mirror, and with both tin box and golf club in one hand, he went to move the sheet and take a look. "Please don't do that." The woman's voice coming from the doorway they'd just come through caused both the men to stop what they were doing, and turn towards her. At least they knew someone was here now. "I'm just so tired of what looks back." 0 Comments

07/09/2019 03:20 PM  Nighthawks "He went in the old diner again. What do you think he's doing?" "I don't know, but my grandma says he showed up a week ago. Tore the boards off the door and has been going in every day at different times." "Weird. We should check it out." "Better not, that place gives me the creeps." "Yeah...you're probably right. My mom wants me home before the street lights come on anyway." ----------------------------------------------------- Daniel Baker, known to in phone books and on business cards as Doctor Marvel, sat in the corner booth of only diner in town, telling stories to the only employee he ever saw there. He'd been doing this every day since arrived in town about a week before. Finally, it seemed, he had gotten to the point. "We need to talk about your brother, Kev." The Kev in question, Kevin Derleth, sat down across from the wizard. "I don't understand." "There's a lot of things you don't understand, Kevin." As he spoke, Daniel reached for the container of sugar packets, sliding it towards himself before dumping the packets onto the table. "What time is it?" Kevin looked to the clock before answering "Two a.m.". Daniel ripped open sugar packet and poured the sugar onto the table, then another, then another, forming a small pile. Kevin protested. "What are you doing? Stop that." only to be ignored. "It was two a.m. when I came in, and I was talking for what, fifteen, twenty minutes? Maybe more. And it's still two a.m." "I don't understand." Kevin wanted to get back up, he didn't know what this man was talking about or what this had to do with his brother. As he moved, Daniel spoke up. "We've established that, and sit back down. You said it yourself, the other day. It's always two in the morning." The sugar pile grew, and Daniel gestured towards the salt and pepper shakers. Kevin slid them towards him without a word, and Daniel started shaking salt onto his sugar pile. "What day is today?" Daniel glanced up from his pile of seasoning, towards the confused diner worker. Kevin looked to the calendar. "Saturday." Daniel rolled his eyes. "No, I mean the date." Kevin looked again. "April 30th." Back at his pile, Doctor Marvel was adding pepper to it. "Year?" "1997." Daniel set down the salt and pepper shakers, then, and leaned over the table to show Kevin his watch - May 25th, 2019. 6:37 p.m. It was still a Saturday, at least. "It's not exactly accurate, the clock stopped a half hourish ago. It'll catch up though."  As Daniel sat back, Kevin Derleth shot to his feet, knocking over ketchup and mustard bottles and jostling the pile of salt, sugar, and pepper. The wizard muttered "damn it" and Kevin stammered out "I don't--". He was cut off before he could finish. "Yeah, you don't understand. I got that. That's why I'm here. I need to talk to you about your brother. And more than that, I need you to tell me about 'Action Boy #14'" The confused Derleth brother slowly sat back down. "Oh. Oh no." ----------------------------------------------------- Valentine's Day, 1940 Comic book writer/artist and amateur occultist Charles Binder, in revenge for some perceived slight involving a girl, creates a magic spell in the form of a comic book. When the pages are handed over to his editor, Robert Derleth is pulled into the book. Neither he nor Binder are seen again. The comic book "Action Boy" is cancelled, with issue 14 never going to print. Christmas, 1943 William Derleth, son of Robert, attempts to hold the city of New York hostage with the only known copy of "Action Boy #14" from the inside of his home in Queens. The threat is initially not taken seriously until four police officers, having gone in to arrest him, never come back out. After a several hour stand-off, the police allow a group of five self-described 'adventurers' to head into the house. Twelve minutes later the house collapses in on itself. The only survivors of the incident are Wendy 'Golden Eagle' Parker, John "Doc Wonder" Chance, and Rachel Derleth, pregnant wife of William, who would speak nothing of the incident aside from references to 'The inkwell and the colors'. The only thing found from the house is a box of comic books, which is promptly handed over to Parker and Chance. March 12th, 1968 and August 3rd, 1972 Joseph and Kevin Derleth, grandchildren of Rachel and William, are born and San Francisco. April 25th, 1997 A safe is stolen from the Parker estate, it's only known contents being a box of comic books. April 30th, 1997 Joseph and Kevin Derleth disappear, last seen staying in a small town in Illinois. Around the same time, an old woman reports the sudden appearance of an abandoned diner in town. The woman is ignored. The diner was always there, and it was always abandoned. ----------------------------------------------------- "I've been in here for how long?!" Kevin shot back up, snatching the pepper shaker out of Daniel's hand and hurling it across the diner, where it shattered against the wall. Daniel made a face - he was still using that - but he didn't interrupt. "This isn't even --- this is that stupid story he wrote! That he ripped off a Tom Waits album! That Tom Waits ripped off that painting!" Daniel, turning in his seat so he could reach over and snatch the pepper shaker from a nearby table, nodded. "So we're on the same page now. Well I didn't know about the detour into spoken-word jazz, but otherwise."  Kevin flopped back down into the booth's bench. "I've been in a diner that doesn't exist for twenty-two years." Daniel, shaking pepper out, nods. "Look on the bright side, you're looking pretty good for forty-seven." Kevin leaned forward, elbows on the table and face in his hands, and mumbled into his palms. "I'm never getting out." In response, Daniel rolled his eyes, and finally stopped adding to pile. He gently sat the pepper shaker where the previous one had been originally. "Don't be so dramatic. What do you think I've been doing this whole time? I know it's only been a day - or something - to you, but I've been spending a week working on breaking you out." "Is that what that's about?" Looking through his fingers, Kevin gestured to the salt-pepper-sugar pile with one hand. "And what do you have to do with any of this, anyway?" Daniel gave him a look of confusion. "What? No. I can't break this spell with seasonings." The wizard then used his arm to swipe the whole pile off the table, into the floor. "That was just for something to do." Kevin would have complained, but none of this was real, anyway, he figured. "And I have a...loose connection to someone who was involved in the Inkwell Incident." Kevin dropped both hands, then, arms resting on the table. "What? Wh---oh. Doctor Marvel. I get it." Daniel nodded, then leaned back, stretching his arms over his head. "Okay, so I've spent days telling you my stories. Tell me yours." ----------------------------------------------------- "So, my brother, he was obsessed with our grandpa. And our great-grandpa and the stories of what Binder did. It never got out, the thing with the comic, but we knew. Stories like that get out and get passed down. Binder figured out how to turn stories into spells, and that's what he did. His wife left him for his editor, my great-grandpa, and as far as anyone can tell, the two of them - grandpa and Binder, I mean, ended up in the comic book." "Right, I know that part." "And you know what my grandpa William did too. I never met him, obviously, and the whole thing drove my grandma crazy for a while. Well, forever, I think, but she was pretty okay by the time I got to know her. She hated comic books though, and had an aversion to fiction in general. One day me and Joey were staying with her, we were teenagers I think, and Joey had heard about the family history. I think he found newspapers in the library. Well, I guess grandma was feeling chatty that day because she told us everything, about Charles Binder and the comic, and about what happened with Grandpa William." "Go on." "She tried to explain what she saw, but I didn't understand it. She might as well have been speaking in tongues. It hurt to listen to. Joey, though, he got it. He said he understood what she saw, he became obsessed with seeing it himself. He said he wanted to see 'Mr. Inkwell and the Four Color Demons'. I don't know what that is any more than anyone else. But years later he comes to me and says he figured out Binder's magic, at least a little bit. He said he knew where William's comics where and that he'd written a story we could hide in after we steal them." "The diner here." "Yes, Doctor Obvious. He convinced me to help him steal the comics. It wasn't that hard, we just had to get to New York. I don't think they knew what was in the safe and we just took the whole thing. We came here - where are we? Well we came here and he read the story to me, about a lonely diner in the middle of the night. It wasn't even very good, to be honest, but it worked. And I freaked out! I mean, this wasn't just theft anymore, this was something else!" "Something way spookier." "Let me finish. So we got in a fight over it, and he took the comics and I guess - I guess he left me here. He said he had to go find the rest but he never came back. And I don't know when or how, but I forgot about it until you mentioned the comic. And I guess I've just been here ever since." ----------------------------------------------------- "Seems that way." Daniel nodded, then stood up, stretching his arms over his head. "But let's get out of here and you can help me look for your brother. I'm guessing he hasn't found what he was looking for yet." Kevin shrugged, though slowly stood up. "How am I going to get out? And how come you can just come and go." The reply started with meaningless gesture, twirling his hand in the air. "I'm a wizard, I can do a lot of things. You were harder, though, since you were actually trapped here." He moved to the door, Kevin following, and he pushed the door open. Despite it being two a.m. on the inside, the sun was just setting outside. He motioned for Kevin to leave first. "After you." Kevin complied, slowly stepping out into the sun. There wasn't much of it, sure, but it was more than he's seen in longer than he realized. "How did you do it, though?" Daniel stepped out behind him, letting the door fall closed. "What, you think I came here every day for a week and told stories just because I like the sound of my own voice?" They both turned to look at the diner, run down and mostly boarded up, and then Daniel moved towards the sole car in the parking lot as two kids across the street turned to leave on their bikes. "Let's get the hell out of here, this place gives me the creeps." 0 Comments

07/07/2019 04:20 PM  7 hits from hell (reposts of things about other things) Get Your Ass To Mars "I ever tell you about that time I stole Mars?" "What?" "Well first I had to steal a spaceship. I was living in Vegas at the time so me and a friend infiltrated Area 51 with a 1996 Saturn, some Burger King, and a roll of duct tape." "Hold on--" "Yeah it's actually how I got the coat. I've never even met Dr. Manil Praneer. So anyways, me, my friend, and like a Martian or whatever steal this spaceship and fly off to space to steal Mars." "So there was Martian now, too?" "Yeah. I think he was like an elf, from space though. So we go to steal Mars, well actually it was already stolen by space gangsters - I bet you never even noticed. So we go to steal Mars back, using this spaceship that my friend knew how to fly for reasons I'm not going to get into." "Uh huh. And how did that go?" "Well Mars is back so you figure it out." "Look man did you want me to refill your coffee or what?" This Gigantic Robot Kills "I told you about the Mars thing right?" "Aw, come on man, not tonight." "No this isn't about that, it's about something else. Awhile before that I was hanging out with a bunch of superheroes in San Francisco, I had a cape and mask and the whole thing." "Bullsh*t." "It's real, google it. We had a fast guy, and armor girl, you know the whole thing. So we uncovered this conspiracy by some rogue government dude to make an army of evil cyborgs. It was a whole thing. We find this guy's secret base in like Utah, and he's got like a whole crew of mercenaries or something. So it's me, the fast guy, the armor girl, and my partner--" "The one from Area 51?" "No this was a different one. The three of us all worked together for a while though. So fastboy is running around tripping people, armor girl's giving them the ol' zippity zap, you know. My friend's shooting them with guns - I convinced her to go with something less lethal later on, but they were all armored so it turned out alright anyway. And I grabbed some dude's rifle and was just whacking people with it." "Uh huh." "Yeah, so everything's going fine for a while, we're making our way in - and then this giant robot shows up! Grabs the fast boy, swats armor girl out of the sky, and is like bulletproof right?" "Right. So then what happened?" "If flew through that robot's head, we caught the guy responsible, and we all grabbed some Dennys on the way home." "It's a good thing you tip well." Exit, Pursued By A Bear "So this happened after I got back from the Mars thing." "Don't do this to me man." "Not like you have anything else going on. So me and my partner, the one from the Mars thing, are in New York, like up towards Maine, investigating reports of this like bear monster in the woods harassing some town." "I think I heard of that." "Yeah, see? I'm basically famous. So we're staying there for a bit, camping for like a weekend, just checking things out. We're in town about to call it off as bullsh*t when all of the sudden this f***ing thing shows up!" "The bear." "Yeah! Except it wasn't a bear. Except it was." "That doesn't--" "Like it used to be a bear but something happened to it. I don't know what, but it had an extra arm growing out of it's back. And like, no face, just a big eye. And it didn't have any fur but it had like scales. And it breathed fire." "You just said it didn't have a face, how did it breathe fire?" "It had a mouth on it's extra hand - paw. Whatever. So my friend's not happy because like, what the f*** is this, right? The bear-thing grabs me, I drop my golf club, she's trying to like find a weapon or something because she wasn't prepared for whatever this was, I mean who would be right?" "Sure man." "Sounds like you don't believe me." "I don't even believe your name's Daniel at this point." "Well google it. So this bear-thing has me with like it's two normal arms, right? And it's like coming at me with it's weird arm to cook me or whatever right?" "Sure. So what happened?" "Well my friend had built me this rig to wear under the sleave of the lab coat, right? With the right arm movement it uses a spring to like throw a knife out my sleeve. So I decide to test it out and stab that thing right in it's hand-mouth. Then my friend grabs my golf club and whacks it in the eye-face." "Okay." "The eyeball explodes blue goo all over the place, the town is saved, and I'm still trying to get the stains out of some of my clothes to this very day." "I need to ask about switching shifts." Machine Gun Etiquette "Did I ever tell you about--" "Yes you told me about Mars, about the giant robot, and about the bear." "Cool but I'm talking about the time I fought the ghost of Bugsy Siegel." "Wha--" "At least I'm pretty sure that's who it was, I never got I.D. This was between the robot thing and the Mars thing so we were still in Vegas." "Wait hold o--nevermind. Okay, You and your friend." "Yeah, and a third person but it wasn't the one from the robot thing. Anyways we got a call from one of the casinos - you know, one of the old ones. Siegel actually built it. I mean not physically but you know, gangsters and Vegas casinos." "Sure I guess." "So we're called out there about people seeing this figure roaming the halls. Suit and fedora, Tommy gun, real 40's Mobster Stereotype. People see him and he walks through closed doors and disappears, you know the deal." "Yeah, everyone knows how ghost physics work." "Anyway, we're there to check it out, we take the elevator to the top and start working our way down using the stairs. 15th floor or so and there he is, gun and all, heading down the stairs, through the door into the hall. We follow him --" "Of course you do." "--and by the time we get into the hall, he's down at the other end. My friend yells something, 'hey dead sh*thead' or something, and he turns around to us, then rushes around the corner. We go to follow when he leans back out from cover and that's when we find out that the gun works." "What." "Right?! We dive around the corner at the other end and this ghost's gun's ghostbullets are punching holes in the walls. My friend shoots back, she's got like a laser gun but I guess the ghost was immune to lasers." "Why wouldn't it be." "So the person with us, she's like a pyrokinetic, and she tries to burn it or something and that doesn't work either. Because ghost." "So what did you do?" "I ended up having to Macgyver some spell out of a matchbook and some salt packets and whatever from the casino to like, banish the ghost. Weird thing though is that the gun didn't go with it. We took it with us when we left but never found out what the deal with it is. But hey, free spooky gun, right?" "That explains where our salt keeps going." Bark At The Moon "Isn't it weird that it always seems like every time I come in here, it's just the two of us?" "It's always two in the morning, what do you expect?" "Yeah, I guess it is. So anyways there I was minding my own business..." "That's the least believable thing you've said since you started coming in here." "..." "..." "So anyway I was minding my own business and it's like eleven at night, right. This was when I was still doing like paranormal investigator stuff in Vegas. These Russians had set up shop a few doors down - real tracksuit mafia types, you know?" "Sure." "No idea what they were doing, I assume it was nothing good. So anyway, eleven at night, these dudes in the neighborhood. I'm there by myself, in the office--" "You were there at eleven?" "You think no one needs a ghostbuster after ten?" "Ah, fair enough." "So I'm in the office and I heard this loud crash outside, followed by yelling in Russian. I don't know what they're saying but they're obviously not having a good time so I get up to go check, right? As soon as I open the door one of these dudes slams past me into the office, and he's bleeding everywhere. I look out the door and see this truck crashed into a streetlight, driver slumped over the wheel. Still don't know what the hell, but I turn back to this dude bleeding all over my carpet because it seems like a problem, right?" "Sounds like more than a problem." "Right. So this guy's like leaning over my desk, bleeding all over the place from his back, yelling 'volk! volk!' or something, and I don't know Russian so I don't know what he's saying until I hear the howl outside, then he yells 'wolf'! and I turned back to the door. It's mostly glass so I can see the truck, but the driver's gone." "Of course he is." "I turn back to the guy in my office and he's got his gun out facing me. I'm like, 'woah buddy, let's calm down', then he starts shooting. He doesn't hit me, though, he's shooting through the door. Through the sound of the glass shattering I hear this whimpering. I turn around and sure enough there's this giant f***ing wolf full of bullet holes running off. Except it's not wolf, it's a wolfman, running off into the darkness on two legs and everything. I'd go after him later but first I decide I need to help this guy, right? At least stop the bleeding, dude's got giant gashes on his back. So that's what I do." "How'd that turn out?" "Oh, that's how I accidentally befriended a werewolf Russian gangster." Police On My Back "Don't you ever get out of here?" "Doesn't seem like it, does it." "I figured as much. So sometime after the giant robot thing, one of my partners got framed for a political assassination. You probably heard about it. But I guess maybe not." "I guess." "There was actually a whole thing going on. Conspiracy by shapeshifting aliens, you know the deal." "So why aren't you telling me about that?" "Because that's not the story. So they hire this Triggerman to kill the guy, frame my friend, then send the same assassin to try to kill her too. She escapes, calls me and our other friend, and runs out- where she's cornered by cops who, I guess, are in on the whole thing, because they try to gun her down in the street. Or they could have just been cops really." "Right." "So me and my friend show up in time to stop that, at least, and the three of us take off. And while this is going on, two of us were still part of that team I mentioned before, right? So they're dealing with their own problems related to all this. Anyway, it's not too hard to lose the cops - we're all superpeople, what are they gonna do, right? Well it turns out they have their own, like, Supercop. Or at least a guy in like riot gear power armor." "Makes sense." "I guess, but like, come on. So this guy, I don't remember his name, Canned Ham, he's catches up to us, tear gasses one of my friends and knocks the other two of us in the street. He technically gassed all of us but I've still got my mask and all that at this point so the gas doesn't get me as bad, and my friend's fine for other reasons." "What reasons?" "You know, reasons. So the normal cops catch up at this point too and we've got this armor boy and like half a dozen normal boys surrounding us in the street, right, and it looks pretty bad. I think they tried to arrest my Tear Gassed Friend who was the one they wanted anyway but she got away during all this." "What did you do?" "Well, my friend flashbanged everyone and I ripped the door off of a Crown Vic and beat Canned Ham with it until he gave up. I used to be able to do that kind of thing." "And you escaped." "Obviously. We ran back home, our friend met us there, and they chased us. I actually still have the place and don't think we ever patched up the bullet holes. They had us cornered for a minute, but then, talk about convenient, I found out I'd inherited a magic library in another dimension - you know, through the magic wizard ring and all that. But you already know about that, don't you?." "Yeah, I do." "Of course you do. So that's the story of how I became one of America's Most Wanted for like a month, developed an intense distrust for the government, and that whole superhero team fell apart. But hey, we stopped an alien invasion before we split up, and I got an extra-dimensional library, so it kind of worked out in the end." The Damned Thing "What time is it, Kevin?" "About two a.m., why?" "That's what I thought, don't worry about it. So this is something that happened just before the Mars thing." "When you stole it." "Yeah, stole it back. So this was just before that. We got a call about some house in the middle of the desert - abandoned but on some land someone bought. He said something weird was happening with it, and he wanted to tear it down but didn't want accidentally release anything." "Release anything?" "Yeah, you know. Demons trapped in a house, tear down the house and now the demons can come out. That sort of thing." "Yeah. Right. Sure." "So we drive out there. Me, my friend, and another girl who's been working in the office. Usually, you know, taking calls while we're out having spectral gunfights. We get out there and there's the house, but nobody else. The owner's supposed to meet us but is nowhere to be seen." "Sounds suspicious." "You'd think. So we're hanging out for a bit when we start hearing noises from inside the house - scratching, banging, and the screaming. So we leave the girl in the car and go check it out." "Never accused you of being smart, I guess." "Ha. So we go inside and the sounds stop. And we poke around, carefully, but it's pretty standard spooky abandoned house and if not for the noises we heard outside, there's nothing to it. Just old, dusty, and falling apart." "Let me guess, you split up." "What? No, we're not idiots. We just...decided to look in different rooms. Shut up, that's not when things went south anyway. We check out all of the above-ground part of the house and are left with the basement." "Of course it's the basement." "Right? Which is particularly weird because they don't usually do basements around Vegas. So we're standing at the door waiting discussing whether or not to go down when the noises start again. Scratching, banging, screaming, the whole thing. Eventually something slams against the door, and it explodes open - almost killed me, I'm pretty sure - but there's nothing there." "So you go down, obviously." "Obviously. The two of us go down, we need flashlights so we can see, now, because it's the middle of the day but we're going underground, right? So we're down there with our lights and - nothing. There's a fireplace, which seems weird because we didn't see one upstairs, or even a chimney, but nothing else. We shine the lights around, don't really see anything, and turn to head out." "And then?" "And then black poured out of the fireplace." "Black?" "Yeah - this black mass of...something. It was alive and it was a lot of things, maybe. It was too dark to make anything out, but it poured out as a single mass and grabbed my friend by her arm and tries to yank her into the fireplace." "But you got out, though." "Mostly." "Mostly?" "Well, I said it grabbed her arm, right? It never gave it back. There was a struggle over it but when she got loose we found out the thing had, uh, disarmed her. Then it came back out for more, I guess. We fought back and made our way back up the stairs, and in the process the house caught fire. No big loss. My friend's escape was actually a little more complicated but that's not my story. Having someone already in the car ended up being very helpful, though." "She made it out though?" "She did. And she got herself a robot arm so she called it a net gain. Anyway, we end up figuring out it was a trap - but not who set it, or why. There's not even any record of this house." "You never found out?" "Oh, I found out eventually. It took a long time but eventually the name 'Derleth' came up." "What? Oh." "Yeah. So we need to talk about your brother, Kev." 0 Comments

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