Friday, 13 April 2001
Joshua Blackthorne is released from hospital at 4:00am and sneaks
back to his room in the motel. He (and the rest of the agents) are
awaked by a fire alarm that can be traced to a short circuit in
Drake's room. Benedict looks different this morning… older…
his hair is greying. Drake points this out and accidentally pokes
Benedict in the eye. Benedict now has to wear an eye-patch.
The agents retire to Josh's suite. They discuss what transpired
and show Josh the video of last night's Pagan Soc meeting. Josh
suggests that the agents agreed to have their minds wiped as a means
of protecting Josephine from Veronica. He then turns his psychological
skills to the recording. Veronica Suzanne and Jane West are enjoying
the fear and the situation they are in. Jane West and Colleen Milton
are not. When Veronica possesses Colleen, Josh detects a fair degree
of megalomania. This isn't just about revenge on the person who
killed her (as Dominic said) but she has other goals in mind. Maybe
a continuation of whatever plan she started in December.
Perhaps they should concentrate on finding Josephine McKenna. When
Josephine left the agents at the auditorium on 8 April she was evidently
possessed by Veronica Cunningham. For some reason electronic recording
devices (like the CCTV) show the face of the possessor. So where
did Veronica take Josephine? Jane points out that Josephine found
her way to the Wichita HQ at some point. Jane knows that she would
have advised hiding Josephine at the west coast HQ where Schult's
barrier may have been some protection. She phones Todd.
Jane has called Todd at a bad time. He is in the middle of a gunfight
with a bunch of polyp-controlled zombies. However, he can confirm
that Josephine is not at the west coast headquarters.
Meanwhile, Drake suggests that Ben use his powers to appear younger.
Benedict does this, but it doesn't last long and now he looks worse
than ever. Benedict's powers are ageing him every time he uses them.
Drake's accidental slips of the tongue force Ben in numerous strange
shapes. When Ben's hands are turned into toilet brushes, Jane's
laptop explodes and the mystical poster finds its way from the car
to Ben's room, the agents realise that Drake's terrible unluck has
returned. This could prove to be a problem.
After breakfast the agents split up. Jane and Josh go to autopsy
Newtridge Hardy's body. Meanwhile, Alex and Benedict go to see Colleen
Milton (against Josh's explicit instructions). However, the weather
is atrocious and with Drake in the car Benedict fears for his life.
He stops and the two shelter in a church.
In the church a funeral is in progress. Drake begins to muse on
how he returned from the dead. Suddenly he is engulfed in a white
light and rises several feet off the ground. Banging and yelling
is heard from the inside of the coffin. The lid is thrown open and
a young man sits up. Drake has someone raised the man from the dead!
Benedict quickly hurries him from the church.
Meanwhile, Jane and Josh have found nothing unusual in their autopsy
of Newt (except that his lungs are full of dead beetles). However,
Newt's fingertips are covered with the same paints as the ones used
on the poster. Then they are interrupted by the local TV news. It
concerns a funeral in a local church.
The newscaster says: "Barnabus McGrinty transformed into an
eighteen year old youth who climbed from his coffin." The report
goes onto mention a glowing white light, and describes Benedict
and Drake in perfect detail. And then Josh gets a telephone call
from Eisenstein.
They agents meet back at Josh's apartment, and Drake is taken to
task. But Drake's unluck is out of control. It begins to rain fried
breakfasts outside the window, the TV starts pumping out non-stop
hardcore German pornography, and Jane begins to manifest the same
Tarot-induced feelings for Josh she showed last December. She goes
for a cold shower. Drake imagines Ben as a monster (and he turns
into one) and then Jane is summoned back from the shower in a towel
(that won't stay up).
This is getting ridiculous. But maybe this is just a residual effect
tied with it being Friday 13th and it will pass in the morning.
But that doesn't solve the problem now. Benedict goes to get his
special bag from his room. However, the Celtic poster has once again
found its way into his bag. He goes to throw the bag out of the
window, but accidentally throws himself with it! Benedict catches
hold of a twelfth floor balcony, and is let in by a fifty-seven
year old woman in her underwear who makes a swift pass at him.
By 8:00pm, the agents get another call from Eisenstein. They have
spent so long placating Drake that they still haven't done anything
about the McGrinty problem. He desperately wants the team to solve
this.
Saturday, 14 April 2001
In the morning, Drake's unluck seems to have passed. Everything
is back to normal - including McGrinty. The local news reports that
he has turned up 83 years old and dead. The agents talk to the family
and blame the matter on a student prank. Jane phones Todd and gets
him to talk to Newt's family (they live on the west coast). Drake
sends one of the beetles to Langley for analysis.
The agents now check the CCTV footage to see where Josephine/Veronica
went when she left them in Dallas on Sunday 8th. The cameras show
her walking through campus and taking a blue Chevy Nova. This was
Newt's car, it was never reported stolen. Although Josephine/Veronica
left in it, Newt came back in it. The car is still on campus. The
team trace this car and search it. They find more blond hair and
a lump of crude Celtic knot-work, similar to the design on the poster,
made of pewter or lead (with a tin impurity). Ben passes out at
the sight of the lump.
A little while later, Benedict gets a telephone call. It is Jane
West, she is hiding in a woodland and wants to speak to the agents.
The team follow her directions to a wood five miles east of the
town. Drake and Josh stay with the cars while Ben and Jane enter.
However, Ben cannot seem to enter the woods. Every time he goes
in, he gets lost and reappears with Drake and Josh. Eventually,
Drake goes in instead.
There is something odd inside the wood. A pressure from the air
around them. Drake concentrates and puts his hand into a space between
the layers of reality (his hand disappears as if he put it into
a pool of water). He withdraws his hand to find a translucent raven
sitting on it. This turns into a real raven, bites him and goes
and sits in a tree. Very strange… Then it occurs to the agents:
these woods are on ancient Indian burial grounds. Jane West must
have chosen to hide here because of their mystical power. Veronica
Cunningham cannot see her here. It is also the reason why Benedict
cannot enter.
Jane calls out and speaks to Jane West. She doesn't trust the agents
at first, she wants to speak to Ben. When Jane explains why Ben
can't come into the clearing she is even more scared. However, eventually
she calms down and tells the agents some of the things they need
to know.
She says that Veronica is mad. Veronica thinks that her car accident
was caused by the FBI. She wants to make FBI suffer. They are using
the ritual of three to hunt down Artemis Black, Eisenstein, GG Wilson,
Jane Munroe, Philip MacKraken, Bradley Ecks and Jack Burchill. They
cannot find Eisenstein or MacKraken. Wilson is somewhere in Nevada.
Jane cannot believe that her team had anything to do with Veronica's
death - she doesn't even know who GG Wilson is.
Jane West explains the power of numbers and that three is very
powerful number in witchcraft. The ritual of three uses that power.
The group is searching for Josephine McKenna but cannot find her.
The only reason Veronica was able to find her before was because
Josephine was weak after performing the ritual to unpetrify Josh.
Jane West also tells the agents that Newt's car was abandoned at
an interstate truck-stop (that's where Newt fetched it from). The
Celtic knot-work was an item of power, a tool that Josephine used.
Josephine was going to teach the group a new ritual that would banish
Veronica, but it doesn't look as though that will now be possible.
Josephine had the knowledge, but Jane West had the personal power.
They needed to get together with one other person.
The agents plan is now simple. Find Josephine McKenna, bring her
here with one other person and then banish Veronica. The agents
tell Jane West to stay put and promise to bring her a tent and some
supplies. However, there are more revelations.
Jane West says that Veronica was pregnant with Josh's child. She
didn't find this out until after Josh left her. To be powerful a
coven needs a mother, a maiden and a crone. Veronica was getting
too old to be a maiden and so she had to become a mother to retain
the power she had. However, being a mother was not enough. To truly
retain her power she also needed to married to the husband of her
child.
Therefore, back in December, Veronica was completely truthful when
she said that she wanted Josh back. But when he refused she used
the tarot deck, augmented by Josephine's Celtic knot. Veronica wanted
revenge, while Josephine just wanted to have some fun. After Josh
was petrified, Veronica had an abortion.
Josh says that their actions were completely inane, that they were
stupid. He says that he doesn't care about them. Very quickly he
has reduced Jane West to tears. Jane West tries to explain what
happened. She says that the entire coven were in the audience at
the award ceremony in December. But when Josephine left them, Veronica
completely took control. They became addicted to the rush of it
all, but they were scared of what Veronica would do to them if they
stopped. She is sorry. Josh does not forgive her.
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