Evil Dead

Astarte looked away, unsatisfied.

Grimm looked from the hand to the unconscious man between them and back, then he slowly extended his hand.

*Tirea tries to get right back up, and out, if it's not too deep*

<You're never going to win! You hear me!?>
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Cameron:<We should probably meet up with everyone else. Or I guess we could go to the hospital.>
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Eve:<Oh. How did you figure out the shadow's weakness?>

*Her cold hands only get colder as she fumbles through mud & worms. She's now getting beaten down by shovels full of dirt & rocks to the face. The grave started out as the basic 6 feet, but now as she looks up, it looks much, much deeper, to the point that she can barely see the exit in the darkness.*
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E"I don't think we should leave anyone unguarded. Let's go to the hospital & tell the others what happened on--oh, that's right, they took our phones. Damn. Well, I'm sure we can find a phone at the hospital."
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*Grimm reflexively jerks back his hand when touching the Shadow causes it to blister. He can even see smoke rising from it. The Shadow grabs Mr. Cyprus by the collar & turns its blank face to Stefan. It tilts its head, which Stefan remembers is the same gesture it made while burning out his throat.*
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Lara<I've already told you about the historical references. Do try to keep up. Also, as it turns out, the Shadow is a veritable lightning rod, the electromagnetic energies are strongly attracted to it. This may be why it prefers to appear in enclosed spaces.>

T"But wait, if Ira obtained his abilities from the Shadow, then does that mean that he has the same weakness."

Lara<Very perceptive. Yes, radiation will interfere with Ira's ability to possess a person. The exception, of course, being the radiation produced by the Shadow itself.>
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R"Not likely."

*Azuma falls out of bed & experiences a coughing fit due to the pain in his throat. He is also unable to get up, due to the pain & coldness in his leg. But looking up, he sees that he's in the cabin's living room, with the Shadow looking down on him. Behind it, Mimiru is collapsed on the floor. Her legs twitch & her eyes roll back in her head as she gurgles through the bleeding gash in her throat.*

*Eve looks really fucking pissed*

<Please, there is no need to be insulting. I was curious about your jump from uranium to silver. The shadow produces radiation makes sense, as some of us cam back with mild radiation poisoning. I assume that x and all shorter wavelengths hurt the shadow, while longer ones do not. Is this about correct?>
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*She keeps fighting, trying to get to the surface*
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Cameron:<Right...hey, what happened to Eduj?>

He tries to crawl to her, likely in vain.

Grimm clutched his hand with the unburned one and edged back while Stefan whimpered at the memory and squeezed as far into the corner as he could with his hands protectively over his throat.

Lara<Close, but not quite. It dislikes the uranium, but it poses little to no threat to it. Even being struck by lightning barely seems to slow it down.>

S"So what you're basically telling us is that you have no idea how to kill it, you just mildly annoy it."

Lara<Obviously. If I knew how to kill it, I would have done it by now. It may be possible with a much larger dose of radiation. Would you like to ask the military to borrow an atom bomb?>
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*In a split second, the Shadow's notface opens in a large grin, literally from ear to ear. It dashes through Stefan, disappearing into the wall. Mr. Cyprus also vanished at some point that they couldn't quite discern. As for Stefan, he falls to the ground, coughing from the burning pain in his chest. When he looks at Grimm, he sees instead Tirea, bloody gash in her shoulder & eyes stitched shut. Her mouth opens to pour a squirming mass of maggots all over him, but after a second, the hallucination is gone.*
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*Euryale starts walking.*

"I don't know. It was all really unclear."
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*The dead parents that she keeps kicking while trying to climb up rise up to grab her, silently pulling her down with them as the hole fills with dirt.*
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*Just before he gets to her, Roatha pulls her away & pours a can of gasoline over her.*

R"You don't want to touch that. Garbage should be burned."

*He lights a match & tosses it on her, at which point she quickly goes up in flames. As bodies sometimes do when they're being burned, she seems to sit up & turn to look at him.*

R"Darn it, I got here late. It's more fun when there's still some life left in 'em."

Astarte, though entertaining thoughts of melting down a nuclear power station, kept quiet.

Stefan screamed until Grimm slapped him hard across the cheek, "Calm yourself, boy! It's gone, you're fine, you're fine."
Stefan got his breath back and was helped onto his feet, and together they checked the house for any other occupants.

*Tirea tries to kick them away from her*

<You're not my real parents!>
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Cameron:<Yeah. They didn't find a body so he could have gotten away...>
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Eve:<We could probably hurt it more with a more radioactive metal, if we could get our hands on it. I'm guessing you already tried that though.>

Mimiru: "If we're lucky."

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Azuma: "Bastard...."

*Tirea finds herself completely submerged. There is only darkness.*
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"Don't worry. I didn't intend to leave you out of it."

*Roatha kicks over Mimiru so that her still-flaming body pins down Azuma, & what gasoline is left is seeping into his clothes.*
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S"I don't we could come up with something with high enough energy. We should focus on the one we can do something about. If we cut Ira's ties to this world, he won't be able to exert any meaningful influence."

L"We can't just kill Roatha."
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*The hospital parking lot comes into view over the crest of the next hill.*

"Well, we're almost there. All we can do now is hope for the best."

"We can't?" Astarte's little fists clenched. "The Roatha you knew might not even exist in that body any more. Why shouldn't we risk it?"

Once done making sure the house was empty of people or monsters, Grimm had Stefan go into the kitchen and lay all out the large knives out on the counter while he searched Astarte's father's bedroom for a firearm.

Taiyo: "What if he does?"

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Azuma squirms and struggles to push the body off.

This isn't real.

"Then maybe it's just his life weighed against all of ours."

Eve:<There are likely other relatives of Ira, and we would have to get rid of them all.>

*She looks at the doctor*

<What if we destroyed the church he's connected to?>
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*Tirea closes her eyes, arms around herself*

Monu...Mom...Dad...

*She tries to push through some of the dirt*
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Cameron:<I just hope we can find out something. Since we're not family or anything...>

*As mentioned, it's packed too tightly for Tirea to move. The more she inhales, the more dirt she gets instead of oxygen, until she finally blacks out.*
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*Roatha kneels in front of Azuma, smiling as the latter bursts into flame.*

"I thought I told you--that doesn't matter anymore."
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"Good point. We might be able to get around that by telling them that we were on the scene. So we might have important information."
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Lara<That's just a building, so I doubt it would do anything to him. But if he's protecting it, then there must be a reason.>

*Thiera glares at Astarte.*

T"You sound like you'd be pretty quick to throw the rest of us under a bus if it would save you. Maybe we should just push you off of the roof, instead?"

L"Nobody is killing anyone! I can't believe we're even having this conversation!"

S"Forget that. You, Doctor, already knew about Ira. Surely you've tracked his lineage."

Lara<But who says I was able to track Ira's entire family tree?>

S"You're lying."

Lara<Heh. And how on Earth would you know? If you're just saying that in the hopes that I'll tell you something else, then you'll only be disappointed. All I can tell you is that Ira seems to be Roatha's paternal relative, most of whom died in the World Wars. But choose to believe that's another lie, if you wish."

*She shrugs.*

Cameron:<I sure hope so.>
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Eve:<That's what I was getting at! There must be a reason it's so important to him.>

Taiyo: "Maybe the others found something."

Lara<Yes, but that reason may simply be sentimental.>

T"I'd think they would have called us by now if they found something."

L"They should have checked in regardless."

*So Lilith dials up Euryale & stands in that awkward waiting-for-someone-to-pick-up stance for a second or 2.*

L"...It went straight to voice mail."
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*Once in the hospital, Euryale points down a random hall.*

E"I'm going to go look for a phone."

Fear overcomes Taiyo's face.

Taiyo: "They're....they're okay."

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Mimiru goes to the front desk.

Eve:<We should try everyone. I'll call Cameron.>

*That she does*
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*Cameron goes up to the front corner as well*

*So Euryale sets off, quickly disappearing around a corner. The receptionist, a lady with circle-rimmed glasses, short brown hair, a white coat, looks up at them.*

<Can I help you?>
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*It also goes directly to voice mail.*

L"Something must have happened. Maybe we should go to the church to find out what?"

Mimiru: "I'd like to see Azuma Huraka. Which room is he in?"

Astarte turned a shade paler as the worry rose, then shakily took her own cell out of her pocket and called Eduj.

Grimm returned to the kitchen with Astarte's unfortunate father's Walther P99, loaded with a single clip of ammunition, and set it down next to a bunch of chef's knives Stefan had carefully laid out, "Go lock it all up, except for the front door."
Stefan nodded and rushed around the house locking windows and the back door.

Cameron:<Um, I was wondering about the condition of Tirea Aakin-Neese's condition.>
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Eve:<We should rush into anything. Let's give them a bit more time.>