Tentative truces practically made up every relationship in his life anymore, but some of them were more or less tentative. Some were stable enough that when he needed someone to watch his back on a mission even he found especially creepy, they could be relied upon not to stab his back while it was turned. And if they were the spawn of evil, well. He and Daimon had built a museum together, so that didn’t always predicate a whole hell of a lot in his warped little world.
Which was why he had called on Ky to help him with a quite substantial case of verified spiritual activity – ranging from possessions to fox fire to wight sightings all from actual sources and not just terrible Reddit threads – out in Kansas, in the middle of nowhere, deep into winter when the sparing trees were bare, the ground was split and dry before the frost, and it reminded him way too much of every terrible ghost story he’d heard as a kid in the next state over. It was also, he’d confirmed, a large enough anomaly that it was something he needed not to be handling alone, or even try to.
Wong actually threatened to find his ghost and put a curse on it if he got himself killed and made the other Master deal with the issue, he was that creeped out by it himself.
So far, all they’d found was a lot of empty earth and a few flares where phenomena was gathering; a fairy ring of black mushrooms in an aspen glen that was attracting bats and other creepy crawlies they had to brush off their clothes and keep out of their hair, and a scarecrow stand with only the bottom half of the scarecrow left and a green-eyed great horned owl perched on the top beam, watching them uncaringly even when they were examining the remains of the scarecrow.
They were on their third phenomena of the night, meaning Stephen was down on his knees wondering how the hell the cold earth below could have burned so profusely when there was nothing to burn, and no evidence that anything had been used as kindling, when something at the far end of a seemingly endless sea of empty field caught his eye. And it sure as hell didn’t give him the warm-fuzzies.
“Uh, not to. Alarm you. But can you see that?” he asked, not bothering to even try to put his measly flashlight on it, given the distance. And he also didn’t really want to alert whatever it was that they might know it was there. “Because it sure as hell looks like a dog, but if my middle age eyesight isn’t total shit, it looks about the size of a horse. And that. That could suck for us.”
If Ky was being honest, coming out here wasn’t on his to do list. He would have enjoyed spending the night alone and pretending the rest of reality was tens of thousands of miles away.
Unfortunately for the both of them, Ky had agreed to come along, but only due to the fact he was promised it would be worth his while. Of course, he’d been trying to stay out of trouble. Burning buildings and breaking into places could only last so long and Ky never was one to change his methods of what what one could call amusement.
So for a time, he kept his distance; several steps behind Stephen and made sure he was out of the other’s way. Their first event of the night wasn’t too interesting, but as the night had gone on he started to think there was something more at work. Something… that maybe shouldn’t have even been there in the first place.
Ky had checked his phone again; glancing down to see if he’d gotten anything new and to look at the time. It was then he heard Stephen ask the question. He clicked his phone off, glanced up, and took a step forward.
It looked like something, but as to what? He couldn’t quite put his finger on. The size of a horse was an understatement. Ky thought it was just a bit taller – maybe more feral than one and that spelling trouble was one way of putting it…just not exactly the best.
“If we stay still; totally still, we might be able to avoid it coming closer.” Or not. In truth, Ky wanted to investigate, but with limited information on what they were dealing with? Well, he wasn’t going to take any unnecessary chances… especially when he had someone else to worry about. “And hope it doesn’t spot us.” Or try to rush them as Ky believed the creature would if things decided to take a turn for the worst.
Hellfirebound 