A Long Gruesome Night [Open]

[Thomas E. Stark]

There wasn't anyone could do. You'd have to pay him way more than what was in Fort Knox to get him to do it. After tonight, Thomas E. Stark would never be able to eat Sloppy Joes again. He stood outside the warehouse, hands on his hips and breathing deep. He wasn't CSI or a coroner. But he was the sheriff and he had a job to do.

He straightened up and walked into the warehouse, flashlight drawn and defining his path. The headlights of his police car illuminating him from behind. The place was dark and the power wasn't working. There were rows after rows of high shelves packed with boxes and crates. Lord knows what was in here. Probably extra food for the market.

Thomas stopped when he reached the fourth row in and turned to his right. There was nothing but blackness before him, but he could hear the wet drip of something organic.

This wasn't the first time he had seen a body. During his stint in the Marines, Thomas had seen many of his friends die before his eyes in gruesome explosions or to enemy fire. But this was the first time he had seen a body which had been dismembered with what could only be called glee.

Raising his flashlight, the sheriff laid his eyes on the body. It had been stretch across the ten feet in between the rows. The feet were nailed to the bottom shelf of one side while the hands the other. Most of the shins and forearms were intact, but the face, jaw, chest, stomach, and thighs had been ripped to shreds. Wet strips of intestines lay lifeless on the ground. A dark puddle of blood had spread.

What was even more disturbing was the footprints. There were footprints everywhere. Small ones too; both bare and wearing shoes. That meant numbers, or something even more gruesome. It was hard to think about.

Thomas drew his pistol, flipping the switch to activate the attached flashlight on the barrel. Slowly, he started making his way back to the car. He needed to cordon the area off and seal the doors. There was nothing he could do until morning, save keeping the animals away.

[Pater Dominguez]

It was like lightning piercing through the night... Like thunder which makes the windows shatter... It was the thing that made Cross wake up 3 am in the morning. The demon... He had sensed its presence. And it was powerful enough to get to him even across such distance... Something terrible has happened...

So here he was, in front of the warehouse where his demon sense managed to bring him. He could smell the evil, it was in the air... That... and blood. A lot of blood. He was late... Probably too late. But who knows, maybe demon was laying in ambush? He wouldn't fall for that. As the priest got closer, the chainrope in his hands, he noticed something else...

A police car. So the sheriff was already here. Or was it? Cross know one thing. Sheriff may be a brave man, but he was, again, just a man with a gun, and he went into a place where a demon powerful enough to be sensed was. The priest shook his head - the smell of blood in the air might have been his blood... There was little time to lose...

It was dark inside, very dark, nobody bothered to turn on the lights. Rushing after a demon at night in a dark place was suicide, Cross knew that alright, and petty flashlight was not nearly enough to compensate. He had to make some light over here, in order to see anything. But how? On an instinct, his arm reached for the wall, where the light switch was, and pushed it...

And soon the dim yellowish light of old lanterns lit up the place, revealing the horrible picture in all of its horrendous "glory". Bodies. Bodies torn apart, their guts all over the walls and floor, mutilated beyond any kind of recognition. If Cross were a lesser man, he would have winced, vomited. But the shades-wearing priest did not move a muscle. He saw this all before, it was ... mundane. The only thing he felt was ... disappointment. And there was sheriff of course, who was slowly backing away from the bodies. Standing with his back turned to him, the policeman must have never saw him coming.

- Alas, I'm too late...