The Ark

Well, there were some unexpected occurrences at The Ark last night

The plan has been, simply to meet up with Maalik, the local.... commander we could say, who had been in charge of Ridley when he was posted there. He had retained a few bits of information from the case, and I had thought we might be able to find some reason for Ridley’s returning here. We met up at the club later after I wrote that entry yesterday, and discussed the little bit of information we had available to us.

Now besides myself and Maalik, of course the girl was with me, as well as another Disciple, Phantasm, and her child, Salem. Salem is not exactly human and tends to give normal people a somewhat disturbing feeling. She insists on dragging the kid everywhere, I am sure, because she enjoys seeing how people react to it. She had not been around at the Time of the incident, but she was besides myself one of the only people that Ridley would actually bother to talk to. She was rather a bit unhappy at hearing what had happened to him, but she could not say that it was unexpected.

Now we did not manage to find out much. However we have seemed to confirm a theory I had entertained almost from the beginning, that this force that is acting against us is also related to the incident for which I was given to Slumber in the first place. What that is, well for now I feel that best remain quiet. There are certain... complications arising from the other beings. The Black-eyed Children do not like to be alone, they always travel in groups. They also generally cannot harm one until after they have been given invitation, and usually do not actually attack others themselves. The boy was by himself and was able to apparently kill Knuckles with his own power. These two things would be bad enough, but with other things that have been happening it assures us that something very much wrong is going on. Just what exactly, well, that is anyone's guess.

As we sat discussing recent events, a boy and girl came into the club who appeared to be on a date. I noticed them come in, but did not think anything much of them until Maalik pointed them out again. He said he recognized them. That boy Ridley killed had been stalking some girl, it somehow had something to do with why he had been trying to join us. The guy had had a brother also. You get one guess who this pair happened to be. Showing up at The Ark most definitely was not a coincidence. So I did a bit of reconnaissance on the situation, and while watching memories is much more difficult without physical contact, I managed to pick up enough information from the girl.

It seems Fisk overlooked one little detail when he was cleaning up here. The brother, Roman, was not too happy about the police just suddenly dropping the investigation. The girl, Fiona, wanted to help him out. There was an officer who apparently is not aware of how things roll here, and was aiding the kids in conducting their own little investigation of the situation. They managed to track some of his activity to the club, and well there they were. Maalik would have to punished for allowing such a breach twice. Still, they intrigued me. There was something about the girl, I noticed it in her memories, but it had not been clear enough for me to see during my brief scan. This place was just getting more and more interesting by the second….

Well then Salem became focused on her. The kid has some kind of sense, I cannot really describe it. Salem can… see things about people. And if the kid was so fixated on this girl then there must indeed be something special about her. Phantasm and I were discussing this development when Salem decided to go over and talk to her. The kid right freaked her out, it appeared, being right there behind her when she turned around. The boy was gone, left her alone on the dance floor. Salem started spouting the kind of cryptic nonsense that some of my colleagues seem to enjoy taunting you lot with so much. A little side effect of the kid’s condition is apparently prevents normal speech. I do not know, there are far stranger things I suppose.

Phantasm goes over and retrieves the child; she managed to act all nice and normal, but I knew she was getting a kick out of watching the girl squirm. But that was what I needed. For her to be afraid. Because afraid she was weak enough for me to see just a little bit more clearly into her memory. It was for only a brief moment, but I could see it. I knew what she could do, and it might very probably be of use to the Master. I grabbed the notebook we had collected of information on Ridley, stuffed it into my pocket and walked out of the club.

It was a nice night, clear and dark. I had a little smoke while I waited. I did not wait long, Fiona came out very soon and stopped to wait for the cop. I could see that she was rather upset and wanted to get away from there as quickly as possible. Putting out my cigarette I walked over and got her attention. She was quite frightened when she saw me there, but I could tell she was putting a fine effort into not looking like it.

“Ah, I’m sorry. You surprised me. How can I help you?”

Inspiring fear in you mortals, it never gets old. I took the notebook out of my pocket and flipped through it. There was one thing particularly I wanted to give to her. I found it and scribbled my calling sign onto the front before handing it to her.

“I was told to give this to you.”

She stared at the envelope in my hand but did not grab it. She gave a nervous little laugh, and started rambling, not really sure what to say. From her tone it was clear that she was very anxious.

“You see, my dear, this was given to an associate of mine a while ago by a young man. They had some… business together. He was a friend of yours, I believe….”

She cut me off

“Bruce?”

And grabbed the envelope, pressing it close to her. She whispered, “Thank you.”

I nodded and returned inside. The doorman had seen everything, he had a good laugh about it. Where exactly is this going? Well, I do not honestly know, but it should hopefully prove to be an interesting distraction from my other business. This girl is… interesting. I think it shall be most entertaining to bring her over. The Master wants to see her.

Back on Ridley’s case, well, we do not really have much to go on now. He was following us closely on the way here, but after the encounter with the Child I have not seen any sign of him. Madison’s blocked memory may be my only lead for the moment. Oh, and I just remembered I will have to have Maalik whipped for his incompetence in allowing The Ark to compromised in such a way twice. Even if it did lead to some rather amusing diversions. One must take responsibility for their failures, after all.

~Regards