New Players on the Board

The petite girl gestured towards the other door. The man uderstood the order and brought her, what she required, a prisoner for the ritual. She looked tired and beaten up. The girl grabbed her by the chin and looked into her eyes.

" Oh Jane, who could have thought, that a brainless bimbo like you would have some use after all," said the girl with a mocking voice. She grabbed Jane by force. Her nails made scratches on Jane's face and the blood started falling from them on the floor. The girl got, what she needed and threw her on the floor.

" John, clean up the mess," she ordered the slave. He just grunted, grabbed Jane and walked with her in his arms into the other room. Jane caught a glimpse of his face and mustered up her energy to say these two words: " John, please." Perhaps she tought, that those words would be enough to get through John's brainwashing. She saw John's face move. However that was just her imagination playing tricks on her, because John still had the same emotionless expression on his face.

The other girl was amused by this display of feelings. Could this be that strange thing, other people call love, she tought for a moment in her mind.  Her attention quickly switched to the drops of the blood on the floor tiles. She made a picture out of them with the fingers on her left hand. After that she opened her book, listed the page, she was looking for and started chanting words in a mysterious language. 

A dark red smoke started evaporating from the bloody picture and shaped itself into a form of a a uknown creature. The bigger the creature got, the darker became it's fur, until it became unnaturally dark. The creature looked like a giant ball of a shadowy fur with four legs. It didn't have any noticeable parts, no tail, eyes, nose, ears or anything else a normal animal would have.

It turned to it's summoner. Excited by the results of her work, she gave it two orders:

" You have a simple goal. Find Leonard Evans and if you can't, then bring me any young human beings, you can find. I could always use some fresh material."

The monster didn't make any noise. It just showed a grin on where it's face would be, revealing a set of perfect sharp white teeth, as a sign of agreement.  

                                                        ***

It was getting dark in the city. Two young girls were trying to get home through one of the less used streets. The younger one turned at the other. 

" You and your stupid shortcuts!" she screamed in anger. The older one turned to her.

" Move your legs, Corny. We are only two turns away from our house," she said as an answer to her younger sister's screams.

" That's not my name, Gwen! You know very well, that my name is Cornelia. I wil tell mom,"

" Corny, now is not a really good time for your childish rumblings,"

Cornelia prepared to say something, but she couldn't, because a monster appeared in front of her and her older sister. Gwen instinctively grabbed Corny and hid her behind her back. 

" Don't make a noise," she whispered to her sister. The creature prepared to attack, but it suddently catched a roar of a mysterious origin and stopped it's movements. No, not a roar. A human scream. The source of the scream, a man dressed as a biker holding a softball bat, dropped from the rooftop between the girls and the monster. The man shouted again, challenging the monster to a fight.

                                                              ***  

Outside of the city a woman was reading a magazine in her apartment. Her mobile phone started ringing and she picked it up. 

" Good day, Veronica. We need you to go to the Salt Mine City. A certain group of young people peaked our interest. The local agent will contribute all the infromation you need. The OCP leadership trusts, that you can handle this assignment."