Red Winter in New York - Chapter 2

Jose looked around suddenly.
'You are right to be worried about Father Davies, I was to return to find him as soon as Alex was safe, fool that I forgot!'
He nods to those present and leaves quickly, muttering. (idiot!)
As he leaves the house he is hit by the cill of the night in contrast to the warmth the fire had given him.
He set of regardless, retracing the earlier journey. However, the familiarity of the streets near the docks seems to cloud his judgement, and it takes him some time to find the ally that had provoked the excitment from earlier.
The night grows darker.

Father Davies tries his best not no shake at the deepening cold of the early winter night. Already the rats have begun to scurry for the warmer train stations. Any man he sees seems suspicious. Any pair of eyes seem locked on him. Even here, in the most sordid part of Manhattan, things seem much bleaker tonight. Quickening his stride, Father Davies reaches the long carpet of light that emanates from the open doors of the Hosts of the Saviour homeless shelter. Run by his acquaintance, Sister Mary Elizabeth, it seems an island of hope in an otherwise hopeless world.

Father Davies looks at the light, his breath fogging in front of his face. For a moment it seems, warm and inviting.... for a moment.
It's in that moment that he notice the eerie silence within the shelter. Always before, it had seemed alive, for few shelters of such strove through the streets of Manhattan's most destitute for so long. It had earned itself a reputation for its hospitality and care...
And now it lay silent... silent as a tomb.
He shivers against the cold, and closes his eyes, praying quietly. He steps forward, towards the door, and prays that he is going deaf.

Father Davies recognizes few faces, as the drifters change more often than not. A couple of old-timers are pouring hot soup to the newcomers, and for an instant, all seem frozen in time. All faces turn to the door, and quickly dismiss the priest.
One face, though, seems brighter than the others, as it approaches Davies.
"Jefferson! My, I am so glad to see you!", says Sister Mary Elizabeth, coming to shake Father Davies' hand.

The father smiles, shaking Elizabeth's hand. Must have been the winter playing tricks on me, he thinks.
"It is good to see you, Sister... Is there somewhere we can talk in private?" My face loses the smile growing somber. "I have some... unfortunate news... and am in need of some answers."

For a moment, José stands at the mouth of the alley that seemed so otherwordly a few hours ago. He feels certain that eyes are following him. That sudden realization makes him sweat in spite of the chilling wind from the bay. Starting to freak out, José stumbles towards a light. He breathes a sigh of relief when he sees a famliar figure framed by the illuminated doorway.
"Padre Davies! Madre de Dios, I'm glad to see you!"

Father Davies smiles as he steps through the doorway.
"Hello, Jose. I hope I didn't worry you too much. There was some business I had to attend to..."
He frowns for a few moments, remembering the confusion of the Sister at the mission. It just didn't add up.
He blinks it away and smile.
"Tell me, is Allistair and Alexandria home?"

'They are safe father. But, this... this killing. This has something, I don't know, it is beyond words and yet something about the dead man that was... I noticed.'
Jose sighs.
'Maybe it will come to me.'
He shakes his head.
'But the streets, before now they were strange, yes, but never was I afraid, not like this.'

Father Davies notices the look in Jose's eyes, and tries to smile reassuringly.
"Be at peace, Jose. Trust that in the Lord. There is a reason for everything. It is all a part of His great plan. Just trust in the Lord, and fear not, yea though you walk through the valley of death, my child."
His words, though, stir the dark waters of his own mind... just what did happen to that man... Those... marks... like some kind of beast...
What was it?

Allistair looked out of the window.
"I hope Davies will join us, I don't like much of the story you told me. I would like to see him safe and sound."
He tapped a number of papers on the table, drenched up from his office.
Small rectangular holes fill the pages, neatly cut out of the paper.
He loosely leafs through the remainders.
"I do not recall reading anything about an escaped zoo animal lately.
It's not in my files, I already looked.
This one is the evening paper, and nothing in it. One would have expected an outbreak to have been reported."

"If not an animal, then it had to have been caused by human hands, with some type of weapon we only mistook for claw marks," Alexandra reasoned.
"The police may have some idea as to what it might have been. But what about you, Allistair...Preston...have you heard of anything like this before?"

"Really, my girl. We are not living in the Middle ages! People don't walk a round with knives any more. They wear guns.
Hmm.
But perhaps there is yet something I can find in my files.
Some religious cultists have strange ways to deal with their enemies, though I never saved much of those articles, except for medical reasons. I did read once that the Paravana in southern Africa... hmmm... no, that is not it. I recall they decapitate their victims..."
He fell back in his chair and tossed the papers on his desk.
"Well, no references in my archive.
It must be that we have some killer on the loose.
I'm sure the officers of the law will take care of the culprit, whatever madman it must have been...
But until we hear some more news, no more nightly forays for you, young lady."

A chilly wind howls through a crack on a glass pane. The eerie melody it creates enthralls Alexandra for a moment, and she is taken back to that dreadful alley. One thing she is certain of.
She won't be getting any sleep tonight.
All present remain silent for a moment, and their thoughts recede to the gentle priest they know.

Allistair shivers, then stands up, moving to the window to draw the curtains more tightly.
"Maybe this strange event prompts for investigation." he states calmly.
"After all, two of us here were almost witness to the crime. You cannot shake that off so easily.
I will speak to Dr. Fenn, one of the coroners, tomorrow. Maybe he will allow me to review the dead man's wounds. I have been helpful in the past."
With the chilling wind momentarily shut out of the room, he turns to regards his guests.
"Maybe it is well that you all stay here for the night. You will be my guests. Hopefully Jose and Father Davies will join us soon.I will not send you out this late with some mad killer on the loose."
With that, he proceeds to lead his guests to the spare bedrooms.

Alexandra bit back a retort, sighed, and said only, "As you wish, Allistair." She would wait...for now.
She left the room, walking down the darkened hallways to her bedroom, but paused there only long enough to retrieve a blanket and candle before going quietly back downstairs. She arranged herself comfortably in one of the deep chairs in front of the long windows, with only the candle for illumination.
She listened to the wind straining against the glass...and waited.

"Dont worry, Preston. I will be up early tomorrow morning to visit the coroner. Luckily I do not have appointments tomorrow morning."
He stares at Alexandra as she heads down the stairs and shakes his head.
Then he turns towards the window again and looks outside, sunk in thought.

Nodding to Allistair, Preston follows Alexandra downstair and finding a chair, draws it next to Alex's seat and sits down, ligthing his pipe*
Will you now tell me what has happened, Alex?

"Something's terribly wrong, Preston, I can feel it," Alexandra said. "The man's back had been raked by claws, I swear it, and more than that, I think he must have said something to Father Davies before he died, something that sent him off on his own. I'm worried for him.
I know he'll investigate this on his own if needs be...unless he has help," she added.

Pondering Alex's words for a few moments, looking toward the window, Preston turns his head back toward Alexandra.
Father Davies is a wise man, Alex, he would know better than to throw himself into this macabre story. If you do wish, we could all go to the coroner with Allistair.
Those are the people with the abilities to handle such hideous happenings.
Do not let it worry you Alexandra, Father Davis must know what he's doing and we'll go see him in the morning after my class, if you want.

Jose knew better than to argue with Father Davies when he was in this sort of mood.
After the pair had spent another half hour in the allyways the priest had insisted that Jose should come home with him.
It was not as though he was going to object, he would have seen Davies home regardless. Rather it was the older man's tone and mood that was troubled him.
Later, after he had insisted that a padded chair would surfice as a bed, he pulled a blanket around him, he could still not shake the feeling that there was something...
He drifted into fitfull sleep with a frown on his face.

The next morning...
A shimmer of sunlight is visible through the heavy curtains over the bedroom window, when a loud rapping sounded on the inner door to the hallway.
"Rise and shine, Preston! We have some work to do today. Can't start to early."
Footsteps passed along on the hallway, as Allistair repeated the same ritual on the other guestroom.

With the sliver of sunlight piercing through the curtains and the voice of Alistair piercing through the numbness of his sleepy mind, Preston wakes up. After spraying some cold water over his face to wash away the sleepyness, the man quickly gets dressed and walks downstairs.*
"Allistair, tell Alex that I'll be right back. I'll have to go to the university to check up something in a book and cancelled the class and I'll be back. No more than an hour it should take, then we can go to the coroner."
After grabbing an apple from a fruit basket, Preston put on his coat and quickly made his way toward the university, walking helped his thoughts getting into order this morning.

Allistair flics out a pocket watch and glances on it. "Very well. I will wait for you." He takes the kettle from the fire and pours teh hot water in a cup. Sipping carefully from the freshly made tea, he sits down to wait for the others to wake.

Alexandra smothered a yawn as she walked into the room, nodding to her brother and making a beeline to the kettle and the promise of hot tea to bring her fully awake.
"Did Preston leave already?" she asked, sitting down across from Allistair. "I didn't see him."

"My, you are up early."
Allistair smiled, looking up from his newspaper. Besides him on the table were clippings of paper.
"Preston is oof to teh universiuty, but he will be back soon. We will travel to the coroner as soon as he has returned.
Meanwhile, I suggest you read this."
He pushes a clipped out newspaper article towards her.

At this point, the campaign stagnated.
Difficulties with Wizards' switching bulletin board systems had caused some people to loose contact (or interest).
Hopefully we will continue the campaign at some point in the future.
For now, though, it seems that all we can do is guess at what will happen next...