Mysteries in the Neighbourhood (M) 1x1 GodlyD&D x Maya

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Saori dangled in the grip of the monster as it exchanged words with Jim. She was glad he was here - he must have come back for her - but her terror was undiminished. She felt so helpless.

A faint light came from the doors to the theatre that Jim had left open, and her eyes adjusted. She could see Jim moving even as he quizzed the beast, and it inspired defiance in her, too. She prepared herself.

Jim leapt, using a seat as a vault to gain height, and managed to surprise the creature. He struck its leg with the outstretched improvised polearm.

Saori stole her moment, twisting with all her might in its grip and making her own kick to where she thought its belly would be. Her foot connected with something iron-hard and she cringed. But the combined assault between herself and the private detective achieved its objective. The claw momentarily released from her arm, and she fell.

Saori landed hard between rows of seats. But she was soon up and ready to act again. Fight or flight? She looked to Jim for leadership...

[GodlyD&D]

Jim called to Saori when she had landed from the drop from that winged minion, "Get out from here Saori, go around that nearby corner and find that guy from here with Tom Pierce, send that guy back this way and move Tom Pierce away! I will back up after you!" Jim positioned himself to have Saori behind him as she moved, with the winged minion on the wall before him, as he held out the sharp end of the pole toward it still.

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Saori looked to the exit then back to Jim. As scared as she was of the monster, she was not about to abandon the man who had come to help her.

"No way!" she shouted. "We leave together!"

She raised her hands and made fists. She had no idea what she could do in a fight, but it seemed like the right thing to do...

[GodlyD&D]

Jim still said quickly as he backed away from that winged minion, "Then stay right behind me and back away with me to the door to exit!"

Jim moved away from the winged minion still there with its hold on the wall, as it watched them. They were not far from that door and were quickly there, just ready to go out. Just then the creature flew quickly at them. Now as it came nearer to that door, the bit of light through it from the street outside revealed on it startling flaming colors on its skin. As it came with a terrible expression, with a face slightly more like Kazba than resemblance to any other faces they had seen, but not the same, alarming them both, Jim still swung the sharp ended wooden pole in its direction. He struck and they heard another shriek from it. Jim moved Saori rapidly out through that door ahead of him.

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Saori obeyed, rushing to get behind Jim while he brandished his weapon at the beast. She looked around for something... anything... that might help. There was an old metal trashcan by the doors - for patrons long ago to drop off their empty popcorn cartons. It was not large but still bulky for her. At least it was light. Saori lifted it up and held it in front of her, like some comical attempt to use it as a shield.

Together they backed closer towards the door. Then the monster shrieked, cutting the air with its supernatural wail, and dived at them.

Jim attacked with his pole and Saori tried throwing the can with all her might. It was not much, but it was the best she could do in a panic.

Then they both charged outside...

[GodlyD&D]

They were both outside what had been the theater room, where they were now in what had been the lobby room. Jim looked around, and he told Saori then, "Hold this door, firmly, to keep shut. I think we knocked that winged minion clear away from us, and as it is shorter than us, that should be effective for enough time for me to do something." Jim ran to where he saw a chair in the lobby, with a weighted bottom, and he put effort into bringing it to where the door would swing out. Then he went to where there was another small trash and waste disposal bin, and he brought that to put with the chair to hold it back.

Jim said, "I think I need to be here to be sure that winged minion does not escape out here and then be loose in this city. Please go and get that man with Tom Pierce, who should not be left unattended. Then send that man here and take Tom Pierce to your vehicle if you still can."

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Saori looked dubiously to the chair wedged under the door handle and back to Jim. Would that really hold it? She was not sure. But she understood the need to keep Tom safe and so nodded.

Saori rushed out into the street and saw Tom with the other man. She approached them quickly. She said to the man, "Please help; Jim - my friend - has one of the doors closed but wants help to keep it that way."

Then she turned to Tom. "Are you alright? Unhurt? Your family is worried about you. Will you come with me?"

[GodlyD&D]

Saori found those two right around the corner from the former theater. Tom Pierce was sitting up with lower legs over the edge of the table he had been on, the man who had gone to him to move him with that table leaned against the side of a buiding while facing Tom, they had been talking, at least for a little time, they stopped when Saori was spotted coming toward them. The man looked at Saori's bare feet.

Tom then answered Saori, "I am alright, as I told you. I don't know what you want more with me, though."

The man, one of the many wearing dark clothes where they had gathered, said, "Well you took a long while. That man (Jim?) that disrupted our procedure that we were necessarily careful doing wants my help there? He took the stake, which I had picked up where he dropped it, back from me. I had left Sheila, who I was on my way to walk her back safely, where she was, waiting for me, across the street. Was he using it? Was something coming out from that realm that he has to keep that door closed against?"

Saori nodded, and that man said, "Very well," and started off then, to go around that corner.

[Deleted]

Saori tried giving all her appeal to Tom, first putting her hard-earned shoes back on!

"Tom, I know you don't fully believe it, but you were in great danger. Your family are very worried about you, that is why I came to find you. They really want to talk to you - to know that you are safe. Will you trust me that much, when I say they really love you and want you back home?"

To the man Saori nodded warily. She wondered if he was to be trusted. He was one of the cultists after all. She was caught in a dilemma: Take Tom home now or check to make sure Jim was alright?

[GodlyD&D]

Jim saw that man, who had been on the stage with Tom there on the moveable table and who had brought that wooden pole with the sharp end to him, enter into that one-time theater lobby. That man called to him, "There is a creature from Kazba's realm in there? It would not be Kazba already! What is it?"

Jim answered, "It is a winged minion under Kazba. It is smaller than Kazba, and though I saw others like Kazba there through that portal, he sent this creature, either to find me or to catch Saori that woman who came and challenged you. You left that portal open! It has to be closed again. We cannot let more creatures of that realm come here!"

"That would only be managed with more of us coming back, to initiate the ritual of closing it. And we need the candles lit for that. But it is dark in there now, isn't it?"

Jim went on, making sure to maintain his hold on that door, expecting some force to start working to open it, "And what about Tom Pierce? Yes, we know it's him. Why is he now saying he wants to drink blood? He wasn't one of you!"

"He wasn't when he agreed to come. But Kazba had the first bite for blood from him. He did not drain him, Tom is now under control of Kazba because of that. He will remain under his control."

Saori was outside around the corner from that former theater at this time, along the street that night. Tom Pierce still sitting up on the edge of that table said to her, "I know my family cares but I am alright and am capable of managing by myself. Thanks for coming, but I can get up fine. I had volunteered blood here but none of them got any, when it was all interrupted. So I am fine to move around as it is. So you could just tell them I am fine and can manage myself."

Saori saw with concern that here Tom's face looked a bit whiter.