Around the Corner (Adran & Jess)

[Shehrazad]

It was late enough for the neighbourhood to be asleep. The street lights were still on, however, meaning that whatever had happened to the power was just localised to the Caern. As Jess and Jona left the gate and reached the streets, they heard a loud crack, sounding to Jess like a gunshot.



You are the blue dot.
The gunshots sound like they came from the black dot.

[Jessika]

((Any sign of the car?))

Jess immediately goes for cover. In the second it takes her to react, she assumes that Adran has the sense to do the same on his own, assuming he wasn't the target. She can only pray that Jona wasn't, either.

[Adran]

Adran dived into cover opposite from Jess and hoped that the shot wasn't what he thought it would be. He looked over at Jess and whispered, "Should be a bit more careful from here on out. See if you can find Jona, and be ready to run for cover again if another rings out. I'll do the same, but from this side."

Adran hoped that Jona or the kin wasn't the target of the shot, but that it was just some senseless murder taking place among humans. He crept forwards and tried to find the kin's car.

[Shehrazad]

(The car would be around the corner, not within line of sight yet.)

Another shot rang out, but whoever was shooting was not aiming at them. They couldn't see the shooter at all. Jess could tell that the shot seemed to be coming from down the street, in the direction the woman had pointed.

[Jessika]

Damnit! Damnit! Damnit! Damnit! Damnit!

Jess starts running down the street, keeping as low as she can, and desperately resisting the urge to shift to Lupus. As she approaches the corner, she doesn't go around on the street, but cuts through the corner garden, slowing as she does so to avoid making too much noise while she takes advantage of the cover.

[Adran]

Crap, now there really is trouble. He shouldn't have gone alone.

Adran moved up to a small jog, keeping low to the ground. He didn't throw caution to the wind though, and kept some sense of stealth involved. Adran went through the brush and when he was able to see the car, he went down low and tried to stay out of sight while seeing what was going on.

[Shehrazad]

Both Adran and Jess did a decent job of staying quiet as they approached, although Jess reached the car a few moments before Adran did. The car was just around the corner, and she caught her first glimpse of it as she started to cut through the garden. The house itself was as quiet as one would expect it to be at this hour.

Jess wasn't sure this was the car in question, until she got closer and saw the bloody hand print on the glass. There was no sign of Jona or Jan.

As Adran got closer, his sense of forboding intensified.

[Jessika]

Jess stays in the undergrowth a moment and peers into the house, trying to spot any sign of the gunman or his targets.

((Sense Wyrm))

[Adran]

Adran went across to the other side of the street, looking across the street at the house. He still tried to keep himself silent and peered up and over at the house to see if there was any movement there.

[Shehrazad]

The house itself seemed pretty quiet. The residents were likely asleep at this hour. But one thing did catch Adran's attention. The garage door was left open. This itself might've meant nothing, and he couldn't hear or see any movement in the garage.

Jess tried out her new gift, and she found that a lot of the village seemed to hold some residual taint, although most of it was negligible. It seemed to get stronger the further away they got from the Caern. Here, it was pretty weak, but then something was off about the house. She was sure she could sense the Wyrm's presence lingering around it.

[Jessika]

Jess growled low and began to carefully circle the house, looking at the different possible ways in.

[Adran]

Adran decided to go across the road and stay close to Jess. He followed her lead for the moment since she knew Jona best and could probably track him better. He also looked for a hole big enough for his gift he had learned awhile back.

[Shehrazad]

Apart from the wide open garage door, the house had a front door and a few ground floor windows. It also had a backdoor which opened into a small yard. The house didn't have a fence, and getting to any of these entrances would not be a difficult task.

[Jessika]

Jess stops in the shadows of another bush. "It's a trap," she says bluntly. "Come on, let's see what's on the other side. They won't have such thick walls to hide behind there." And with that she attempts to push into the Umbra, only realising half-way through that Adran might not be as good at this as she is.

[Shehrazad]

The gauntlet in the village wasn't quite as thin as it was in the Library or the area surrounding it. But this close to the Caern, they hadn't expected it to be so thick. Jess pushed through with the difficulty of wading through thick molasses. Eventually she made it to the other side and surveyed the Umbra.

It looked just like it should in any regular village so close to the city. But Jess knew this wasn't a regular village. This village was affected by the Caern.
The houses and cars had no umbral representation. But there were spirits of trees and animals around. Usually, they would be alive and energetic. Today they seemed to have sunk into despair.

Jess could see no signs of hostility around, although the house here seemed to hold the familiar signs that something very violent had taken place on the other side.

And as soon as Jess got her bearings, Cat hopped into her arms.
"Something very bad has happened," Cat said, sounding scared and small, and so very sad.