Colin's posts

"Hm." Al muttered.

"Indeed." he agreed.

"But we'll need to do it quickly." he said.

"It sounds like we have precious little time." he went on.

"..........hm." he mumbled further, thinking hard.

"Any ideas?" he asked her.

"That area of town's just a quiet little suburban area." Al replied.

"Nothing suspicious about it, really." he said.

"Not too seedy, not too ritzy, just... middle class." he shrugged.

"Which makes it a little MORE ominous, really." he went on.

"We don't know WHAT to expect."

"......." Al was silent as he read all he did, and then shook his head.

"Right." he said.

"We cannot afford to ignore any sort of lead." he commented.

"That could prove to be... disastrous, to say the least." he muttered further.

"Well, right then." he said, getting into a sitting position.

"Guess my nap's over, and it's time to get to work."

There was silence for another moment, before he stirred again.

"....creative...?" he murmured.

"I'm intrigued, but at the same time, wary." he said.

"....oh, whatever." he then muttered, before rolling over a few times, and looking at her.

"Right, witches talk." he said.

"What's going on?" he asked her.

When the pillow hit him, he stirred briefly.

However, it didn't last.

Instead, he grabbed the pillow and held it close, before going right back to sleep.

However, he wasn't out like a light... not yet, anyway...

After a little bit of searching, and a few hours of some impressive hacking, later... she found the information she was looking for.

It zeroed in on the city.

The other side of the city, to be more precise.

It was some small house on the end of a road... looked like a modest family home, according to street photos.

While she searched, she didn't seem to find anything at first... however, she then stumbled upon an obscure underground website known for 'crackpot theories' and 'occult nonsense'.

Normally she would have just glossed over it, but she noticed an active thread where someone had made a post, and other posters were tearing into them for it.

The post read as follows:

The time is nigh. The apocalypse is upon you. The Great Lord will grace this world with his presence, and all those unloyal will be judged with fire. Repent and worship the true Lord. For he will rise come tomorrow.

And it was timestamped an hour ago.

"....mmm.... 'k." Al mumbled.

"Yeah..." he said.

"You... do that..." he told her further.

"I'm just... gonna... nap." he said further.

"For a little..." he then continued, before he went silent, his soft breathing being the only sounds emanating from him now.

"It's all we have, so we may as well go with it." Al responded.

"Just.... hm." he mumbled.

"I really shouldn't fall asleep." he said.

"Time is precious." he reasoned, as he rolled over onto his back.

"But this is so comfortable!" he half-whined.

"I have a vague idea." Al responded.

"The room where you found me is... actually relatively close to their main chamber." he told her.

"As in, I'm reasonably sure it connects directly." he said further.

"So if we follow that same path, we'll come across where they want to perform their ritual." he explained.

"Now, as for how far apart they are... THAT I do not know." he then admitted with a sigh.

"Yeah, I do." Al replied.

"From what I could gather, they're summoning Satan." he told her.

"And I'm not joking, or exaggerating." he said.

"They're trying to open up a portal to The Abyss, or whatever you want to call it, and they intend to bring forth the ruler of that dimension of torment to this plane of existence." he explained.

"Why? Chuffed if I know." he went on.

"They seem to be a fanatical cult of a coven, so... I don't think understanding them would be a wise move." he admitted.

"But I don't know how far along they are." he finished quietly, shaking his head a little.

"I had just discovered what they were trying to do, before they caught me." he finished.

"It doesn't seem like any permanent damage was done." Al responded.

"So yeah, I'm alive, and will be back to par in a bit." he told her, before collapsing onto the other bed.

"...man..." he said.

"So comfy..." he murmured.

"I missed sleeping in a bed." he told her.

"As opposed to... you know... a cramped stone box."

After about an hour and a half later, she'd received no more updates for news and weather, and then heard the water in the tub start to drain, meaning Al had finished.

After about 10 more minutes, the male emerged, and Aedan could see the difference it made.

All the dirt was gone, revealing his slightly darker skin, and his hair was a thick deep brown.

"Mmmm..." he mumbled.

"I feel civilized again." he commented.

"They really are!" she heard back.

"This feels so luxurious!" he said further.

"Now I'm going to go quiet and lose myself in bliss for a while!" he finished.

As Aedan was playing her game, she noticed a pop-up appear on screen. It was a weather report for the area she was in, as her GPS had changed to received updates from there.

And she read that the sky had been darker and greyer for the past week or so, and it had picked up noticeably about half a week ago, with no end in sight... but no storms.