Hey soul sista, mind twister -FINISH

[Zodiac]

She stopped well shy of putting the man into the situation where he could be turned. Zodiac gave nothing of herself in the process. She debated the facts as she felt the life flow back into her as she feasted. Mercy reared its head again pleading for the man's life, yet even Mercy could not dismiss the argument Madness brought to the table. He had seen too much. He knew too much. A word from him in the right direction would cause a string of problems that could find its way back to the girl's front door in time. A brief notion of turning the man was considered again and dismissed just as quickly. Neither Lore or her would be around if he survived the changing sleep to teach him what he would need to know and he would either die, be captured or start a plague among the locals. 'Redneck vampires' sounded funny until you considered the actual potentials such a thing could have in the long run. And what would he do if captured? Why tell, of course how this had happened to him and the hunt would be on.

Her fingers found his pulse. Weak now from lack of blood, but still steady. The girl lifted herself from his still form and turned to see Lore tormenting the other two verbally. "Could you actually do that?" she asked the girl in curiosity. "Bring them back up as zombies once they would be killed?" She quickly dismissed the idea. Zombies would be just as bad as a vampire sheriff being discovered when the search began.

She returned to look down at the pair. Lorette was offering no assistance as far as what to do next. She saw the spirits Lore had summoned floating around like ghostly balloons. Absently she poked at one of them as she tried to decide what was next. Mercy and Madness were in harmony for once, but for different reasons. Mercy whispered the men needed a quick death, that perhaps they had suffered enough, while Madness scolded her for leaving the job half finished. 'When does a Syzgany do something half assed like this? Our ancestors would be ashamed of you if you stop now.' her thoughts raged in her mind.

She absorbed the essence of the spirits into herself and smirked at Lore. "Care to enjoy a Round Two?" She asked as she encouraged the woman to take a step or two away from the two. Zodiac took a spot within their line of limited sight and spread her arms again. The dark mist boiling around her as a second fadebeast was called into this plane of existence. The two men twitched and gurgled as their remaining eyes grew wide in terror. "My Nana always taught me- You make a mess, you clean it up. You remember her, don't you? One of you three called her a crazy ***** as she stood there cursing you all to hell for what you had done. Not so crazy now, was she?" She stepped out of her safety spot next to the beast, who was already raising total hell with everything it could see.

A quick bit of one on one telepathic conversation with Lore and the two women grab the first of the pair and force him up onto the remains of his feet. A gargled scream escaping his throat as the fadebeast loomed closer. "What? This is an act of kindness here! Go out on your feet rather than your knees. Big Mr. Man like you should appreciate this. Go show your escort to hell whose the boss!" her mindspeak teased as they shoved the man within reach of the beast. The walking nightmare grabbed the man as soon as it made contact and began to roar and rage. The man was helpless in the grip of the fadebeast and Zodiac watched without comment as the thing soon rendered the man to pieces.

"Next?" The process was repeated. "Oh stop! The three of you was a set. Can't break up a set now, can we?" The mystic was oblivious to the remaining blood splashing on her as the second man shared the fate of the first. Her telepathy focused on their thoughts and held on till the last gibber of awareness had fled from their minds. Zodiac turned her attentions back to the sheriff. She had seen it in his mind once her anger had calmed. Such a simple sin. Funds misappropriated by accident. A crime he was trying to find a way to resolve till one of the three who was working part time cleaning the office stole proof and hung it over the man's head and turned him into their ***** when things got out of control.

"So sad," What a system the man worked for that allowed him no room to admit a mistake and not be crucified for it. Zodiac laid a hand on the man's brow and felt he was still out of it. "I wish I could forgive you, but part of me does." She took the knife she had used on the others and sat it upright on his chest with the tip pressing into his flesh. "Be at peace and may your gods receive you," she whispered to his mind as she plunged the dagger in and through his heart. The body shuddered for a moment and then grew still. She pulled the knife free and wandered back to where Lore watched and waited. Suddenly, the fire had gone out of her. Madness and Mercy both were silent within her as she reflected on all she had done. A crimson tear leaked out of her eye as she 'spoke' to her friend.

"I just..... I just wanna go home now.. Please."


TBC

Modding of Lore's char discussed and agreed upon by both players.

[Zodiac]

(Lorette's perspective)

The blonde was actually a little shocked at Zodiac how she began to treat the sheriff; like his memory hadn’t tormented her for so many years. Was the act itself as bad as not being believed by the man later on when she cried out for help. Or was it she was softening up to him, taking pity on him for showing no mercy to her when she came begging, even worse humiliated her. If anything, Lore thought this man deserved worse for his actions. He might not have committed the crime himself but he did worse in the long run. He made it okay for his good buddies; he made it right by making her wrong. The victim being punished for her lineage, her familia for her being nothing more than the wrong blood flowing in her veins.

After Lore helped heave ho the last of the men to the fade beast she took a quick survey around them. It was the soft childlike words from the purple witch that drew her to look onto her face and see the remaining pain linger just below the surface. She had to do a quick clean up of the area. First, she disposed of the sheriff, casting rigor mortis on him to make him stiff and easier to drag to the fade beast demon. With one bullet, she took aim and shot the zombie straight between the eyes. Before he dissipated into nothing, she spied through the gaping hole left in his forehead, out the back of his head. Nothing but woods behind what use to be a man, it was all so very dramatic. He fell to his knees then face planted into the earth. The final process was he became the earth he rose up from turning into dust or dirt. Not a trace of the zombies were left, only the fade beast left to go. She turned to it, still hungry as long as there was food around. The creatures were something she had taken more pity on. With her beauty, she fired a few shots into the beast. Round after round from her bestie little gun, the beast went down hard causing a gust of a breeze to blow at them.
Finally, with the things tended to around here leaving only the blood soaked ground she looked at the witchy woman, it was time to answer those curious questions she had. “Yeah, I can do that if they were just a body left but since they are nothing that is even beyond my powers. They have to have a body.” Her words weren’t her typical, the night had worn on her and she didn’t bother to change around the speech to her normal fun loving babble ********. Even she got sick of it at times.

“We need to feed, burn these clothes, and get home.” She looked back at the car she had already wiped down then to the woods ahead of them. Maybe if they were lucky, they could find some campers to nibble on before getting home. And cleaned up, that was going to be pretty important. “Let’s take a walkie chicka. Get that juju away from us, eh?” She put her bloody covered arm around the blood soaked woman to lead her away from the site of her justice, her peace of the past finished and that book closed. The clean up hadn’t taken long, but she wasn’t about to hang around in case all the firearms going off attracted attention, if the screams hadn’t already. She smiled to Zodiac giving her shoulders a firm squeeze. “Ain’t you jus the cutesiest covered all head to toe in blood. Feelin’ better yet?”

used and posted with permission of the player of Lorette

[Zodiac]

Ironically, she did feel better. As if some large unyielding weight had suddenly slipped off of her shoulders that had been there for so long it took her a few moments to believe it was gone. She allowed herself to be led by Lorette into the woods. Her words ringing a dull bell in her memories. There were other camping areas nearby. She remembered the first few days they had been set up her and some of the others went exploring and found them. She said nothing, but turned slightly to the left to aim in the right direction.

***

It wasn't hard to find. The soft glow of a campfire in the darkness and the pungent aroma of weed could lead anyone to the spot with ease. Several people sat around the fire talking and laughing as the two vampires drew closer as they hid within the shadows.

"Story!" one shouted.

"Yes, a story!"

"No ghost stories," a woman whined, but was overruled by the others.

"Okay, lemme think," one man spoke up.

Zodiac crouched behind a tree and encouraged Lore to do the same. Madness was still tittering for a bit of fun. Carefully, her thoughts reached out to the man. His own befuddled mind not noticing her mental feelers reaching into his thoughts. Her whispers sounding more like inspired thinking now.

"There is a tale about this area," he began slowly. "There was a pair of girls. Sisters I think. One had golden hair while the others was black as midnight. They never bothered nobody, kept to themselves mainly. Witch women some said. They were kind to those who sought their help and avoided others."

"This isn't going to end well," one commented, causing a few others to snicker.

"One night," the storyteller ignored the comments and kept going. "Some of the local freaks caught them out and about their nightly business. They didn't know how to hurt people with their powers. The men caught them, raped them both horribly and left them for dead."

"How come women are always abused in your ghost stories?" one of the women sneered.

"Cause that's how it is in these backwoods places," the storyteller snapped. "The sisters survived. Tried to do the right thing, but the law wouldn't help them, neither would the locals. Even the ones they had been kind to, so they faded back into the woods and healed. They started calling on the darker spirits to learn new things in their quest for vengeance."

"Where did all this happen?" one of the males who was rolling a fresh joint asked.

"Right around here. There is a large camp area not far that way." the storyteller pointed.

"That's where we heard those gunshots coming from earlier." one of the girls began to look scared now. A woman next to her patted her shoulder calmingly.

"Just dumb rednecks out hunting is all."

"Is it?"

"So, did they get their justice?"

"Oh yes. The sisters embraced the darkness and learned powerful things. The blonde learned to call the dead itself to rise up from the earth to devour her foes, while the black haired one learned dark magicks and could summon demons to do her bidding. When they found the guilty, there was no mercy on them. There was barely enough left for the cops to make an ID on the bodies, but it was said those that died did so in pain. But it didn't end there."

Zodiac leaves the storyteller considering where the tale would go next as she whispered mentally to Lorette for a few moments.

"Well? How did it end?" one of the girls demanded.

"Wait." the man gestured for patience as he wondered what happened to his inspirations.

"This is one of your better 'on the fly' stories, bro." one of the guys said. The group softly laughed as fresh beers were opened.

"I don't know," the whining girl pouted. "Last time he told one I peed myself."

"Are you dry still?" her friend asked.

"It never ended. It never will end." the story teller started again. "Those sisters still walk these hills and woods. Searching. Ever searching for guilty souls to send to hell. And if one speaks the right word three times they will appear among you and judge you. The innocent will run free but the guilty have no hope."

"Man, we ain't innocent of nothing" several began to laugh.

"You would see them both. Shades of their former selves. Covered in the blood of the guilty ones they have destroyed. If one could stand in their way and look past it all, they would see a hint of what they once were hiding behind their rage. Eyes that once showed hope and caring now nothing but fire and promises of pain. Beauty wrapped in the shrouds of death and damnation. So whisper carefully, lest you call them to your side, for they may become your bridesmaids that escort you to your new spouse who rules in hell."

"Holy ****." one of the guys said in admiration. "Dude, you are outdoing yourself tonight."

"So what's the name we should avoid?" Whiney girl spoke up.

"You sure you want to know it?" Story teller said softly. "If I tell you, that's one of three that will have been spoken aloud."

"Tell us!" some of the others demanded.

"No!" the whiney one shouted.

"She's wet herself again I'll bet."

"The name one should never speak is...Zoanlore." he whispered the word.

"That's it?" one of the males laughed. "Dude, you need a better name to cap off a tale like that."

"Lame!"

"Well, let's see!" One of the guys stood up and encouraged others to do so. "Say it with me! Zoanlore! Zoanlore! ZOANLORE!" they all chanted loudly. Whiney girl covered her ears as the rest laughed. They were all to busy laughing at the jest to notice the small package arching through the darkness that landed in the campfire. The paper burned quickly away unnoticed in the flames as it ate away to what was inside.

A small explosion released fireworks and billowing black smoke into the area around the campfire. The campers did not see the blur of motions suddenly sweeping into their campsite and as the smoke cleared, two dead ringers for the individuals the story teller warned them all about stood looking at them with hungry eyes.

"Look sister!" Zodiac projected her thoughts so all could hear her. Her blood splattered face smiling revealing her fangs. The bloody knife clutched in one hand tightly. "As always, the guilty call us to them."


TBC

[Zodiac]

(Lorette's perspective)

The blood on her began to dry; she wasn't even caked as much as Zodiac was in the blood. As it dried, it cracked making a lovely design marbleizing on the skin. The simple walk through the woods became a silent degree of reflection upon what they’d done. It didn't bother Lorette in the slightest that they had killed four people tonight. For her, it was easily justified long before they began the night. She did, even in the minuet manner, worry how Zodiac was going to take this. It was just retribution for past deeds, if they hadn't of done this then someone else would have eventually. Maybe they would have done this for years on years longer and in their old age a victim in a nursing home would have held a pillow of one of their faces. That could have been one method, there were so many to pick from.

As they came along the campers, Zodiac motioned for Lorette to follow her and crouch down. She knelt down beside Zodiac listening to the story. It was amusing, firstly the name she gave them. That alone was hysterical. At one point, she had to cover her mouth with her hand to keep from laughing out loud. This was priceless! As any good story teller, he held them in suspense while telling the tale but also at the end when he called upon the women to show them, make their presence known to the group in one huge display. It wasn't like the girls to disappoint their awaiting crowd.

“Mm yes sister, the guilty always call us.” She said in roll of this character looking out at the campers. One, the whining girl immediately peed her pants, having warned them she was not into the horror story. Seeing as she was about thirty pounds overweight comparing to the thin and lithe women who appeared in the flames. A round of, “****!”, rang through the camp as Lorette stepped away from the blazing flames. She surveyed the crowd, picking her targets. She cast a glance to Zodiac letting her know in one look she wasn't going to touch Ms. Pee-herself. The petite pink tongue ran over her fangs, reaching out to the members of the group, even as they tried to scatter away into the safety of the woods. Each one of them dropped in place from rigor mortise that set into their muscles and bones keeping them stiff as a board and paralyzed to the spot. She didn't need anyone running off to tell someone else about the ghostly women who were attacking them, just yet.

“Now what naughty deeds have they done, sister?” She asked loudly, clearly to Zodiac so the woman could read their minds; call them out on their evil deeds. The blue eyed woman rose a brow to the violet orbed vixen, “Tell me who has done the worst deed of them all here tonight, we shall feast upon them first.” She said this knowing her words would induce the brain to automatically think of the worst thing they have ever done, the most terrible deep dark secret they held. Even if they didn't want to think about it, their minds would even tell themselves followed by a quick, “No don’t think about that.” There should be at least one amusing one in the crowd. Maybe the girl who peed her pants stole undergarments from a friend’s house, and she was secretly a lesbian. Now that would just have Lore rolling with laughter.

used and posted with permission of the player of Lorette

[Zodiac]

She bit her lip to keep from laughing as Lorette embraced her part full tilt. She could imagine what the sight of them suddenly in the midst of the group was doing to their minds.

"I was just making this crap up," the story teller muttered as he froze into place thanks to Lorette's powers.

At Lore's suggestion, she began to glance into the minds around her now. There was nothing all that juicy to play with. Certainly no murderers or anything like that but there were little sins to play with galore. She began to point to them as she 'spoke' aloud for all to hear.

"That one is wanting to get down the pants of that one, despite being hitched up with that one." she pointed away. "Two closet gays, three submissives. one with an animal fetish. Two lie to their bosses, two cheat in class, and this one," she pointed to the whiney one who had peed herself. "Actually enjoys what she just did!"

"Drunken degenerates all! Party animals! Fornicators the lot of them! Why don't you guys just have one big orgy and get it over with?" She grinned wider, displaying her fangs as she drew closer to one of the frozen campers. "We don't mind watching."

This was the 'last stop' before home, so to speak, so the pair began to summon spirits to rebuilt their inner strength. The looks on the people amused her to no end. Rarely did she get to be so open about what she truly was and she found the feeling refreshing. "The ghosts of our vengeance come to judge you," she cackled as the pair absorbed them into themselves. Zodiac turned to the whiney one and approached. The girl was laying on the ground, helpless, and babbling in terror as the gypsy approached.

"The others are viler than you, but you just plain nasty, girl. Get some professional help if you survive." Her fingers tangled in the girl's hair and pulled her upright. What she had done earlier was finally settling into its proper place in her mind and she knew she had added a different sort of a mountain to her own burdens of karma, but that was an issue for later. The deal was done. It was time to leave this place.

She struck like a cobra. Fangs biting into the woman's soft throat as she began to swallow. "Not again. Nasty!" she snorted into the girl's thoughts as she fed. Lorette had already chosen one of her own to begin to feed from. None of these were to be killed. She begged Lorette this point before they started this game. The guilty earlier was one thing, but these had done nothing to merit death. The pair began to circle around the group, taking turns refilling themselves with what they needed to survive. By the time they had finished, everyone of them had 'enjoyed' the kisses of the 'sisters' (save for the whiney one, who Lore refused to touch).

"I can taste your sins, and they taste sooooooooo good!" the mystic shouted to them all as she turned to Lorette. "What say you, sister? The usual fun for this lot?"

[Zodiac]

(Lorette's perspective)

Lorette wanted to laugh at the sight of them, the urge to run strung across their faces. The fear of being trapped in their own bodies frozen still, unable to move caused the rush of fear pulsating through their veins. She drank, from one to the other, making sure not to kill them. Their heads filling with the rush of being drank from. Zodiac was really enjoying being this caster, letting all the juices flow out as the ghostly sister from the story. Lore was laughing, not so much to give them away but to the point she’d was having a hard time containing herself.

“And the condemned shall be judge. All verdicts are guilty! Nay we shall not bring death to you, but make you wallow in your miserable lies that consume your lives. But henceforth, if you do not change your ways we will come for you again.” She shouted out hollow words taking her place beside Zodiac. “What say you sister, life for this pitiable lot of vagrants so that they may feast on their lies, their deceit until the end of their time?”

She knew the answer, even as she said it. Lore reached out to them, as she had them frozen in place she pulled back the power so they could run lost in their confusion of what happened, what was going to happen and running into the woods for their lives. By morning the ‘sisters’ would be a memory, almost lost in their minds except what happened. By then the two would have picked through their bags finding a fresh set of clothes and be on their way home after consuming enough spirits. She had set a hoard of them draining pint after pint, leaving herself semi full. She’d get more blood once they were back in Harper Rock.

A place she dreaded to go back, to some extent. This place, the small town, was kind of making her miss home more. Sure it was a bumpkin town with backwards thinking. So was the place she grew up in, Howe Indiana. With a nod to Zodiac, she was letting her know she was ready to ‘disappear’ before what eyes seen them disappear.

She whispered to Zodiac, “Have we left an impression or should we do something more to make them remember us? Scroll some runic symbols in the ground or something witch like? Make a rock formation?” They had to leave something behind to complete the legend, something to make people scared and wonder. They just became the next urban legend of this town. The ghost in the window, shadowy figure under the bed that people warn their children about in fear of them coming and taking them if they have been bad. The witch sister from the woods who came swooping in smoke and fire, eating the guilty, it might change the people in the town to live better lives from here on out. This town would never be the same again.

used and posted with permission of the player of Lorette

***

She tried to keep her vengeance face in place as she fed, but Lore was pushing her to the point of cracking up with her antics. "You should have been an actor!" she sent to her thoughts. Somehow the idea of Lorette on stage doing Shakespeare would have been a show to see. 'It is the East, and Juliet is the skank, mother ******!'

Her capacity for calling spirits was at its peak now. She had more than enough to get them both home and to spare. She watched as Lore freed the 'guilty' from her powers and watched them all race away to all the points of the compass into the darkness.

The pair them moved with a purpose. Both carefully wiping away the evidence as they cleaned themselves. Nothing was gonna replace a long hot bath as far as the mystic was concerned but for now this helped. Changing clothes and disposing of their own in a bag easy to take with them. Lore was right. With all that had happened here this night, they would be legend now. She wondered in twenty or thirty years how the tale would be spun around other campfires in the night. With the wet rags soaked in the blood of their earlier victims, she began to paint some runes of negativity into place on the vehicles, As Lore suggested, a proper show just to add to the overall effect. She also set a few cairns about surrounded by a ward. Just enough touches that a serious eye for such things would see this was not children playing but someone who believed in such powers. While Zodiac did this, Lore checked for things of more monetary values among the camper's belongings.

She glanced up into the night sky and considered for a second. She never dreamed she would be seeing those stars from this patch of ground again. She often blamed her mother for the reasons that her grandmother set her on the road that eventually took her to Harper Rock and for what happened after that, but perhaps all of that began here under this sky instead. Innocence lost but what took it's place in the process? Perhaps this was ground zero for the event that eventually gave birth to Zodiac the mystic.

She was tired now. Emotionally as well as physically and her inner karma was totally wrecked despite feeling so much better in ways. There were trade offs for everything her Nana taught her. Nothing was totally good or evil. but everything had pros and cons to it. She would figure that all out later. Now all she wanted was to go home, bathe and sleep.

"Are you ready?" she asked Lorette softly. She focused herself and locked on to the vibe she knew would lead her back to home and teleported herself. Eventually she found herself standing outside of her apartment building where she lived. She quickly summoned Lore to join her and offered the girl the use of her shower if she wanted.

for the purists out there, this story originally took place where powers could be used repeatedly because anima usage was unlimited at that time.