Shadows gathered two by two
Lily had spent the next few days in a flurry of activity. The store seemed to always be busy and she had been hard at work making sure that everyone was happy. She kept having impressions of something terrible. Every time she let her mental shields down to take a peak around the town she felt herself almost knocked on her rump. That kept her nervous and on edge.

She just knew something was not right. Then one afternoon things did not seem quite as scary.She felt lighter. The strange pressure that had been making her feel almost ill had quieted down. So at lunch time she went to enjoy a favorite spot of hers near the bust depot where the wharf could easily be seen. She was munching away happily on an egg sandwich when she saw him.

The only homeless man she could think of in town. It was said he was insane. She watched him barely being able to see him due to how bright it was and how poor her eyesight is. She thought she could smell him from here. Someone had given him gin. He was singing loudly and off key.

Then he sat next to her and Lily was very tempted to break out a Febreeze spray bottle on him.

"You see it," he said after a moment. She can't help but snort.

"See what? The bus? It only comes once a day," she says feeling suddenly very annoyed. She was not amused when he laughed at her.

"Not that, Miss King. You see what has come back. I thought it had left us," he growled. Then grabbed her hand Lily tried to pull her hand back as he leaned in to hiss something in her ear. "Take another look. Then lock your doors. We are all in grave danger."

The shock of his demand had her drop her shields. Then she saw.... something. All she knew was that she had started screaming and fell as an image burned itself in her mind. She could not say what it was. Just that her nose had started to bleed a great deal and that she found the homeless man staring at her as she gathered her senses.

"You.... You're mad," she told him. Then left quickly.


That night she locked every door. She even went as far as to lull her brother to sleep. He would be safe if he couldn't hear what was going on. Though when he muttered about the stars being too bright tonight it had worried her. She sat up watching and waiting. That was when she thought she saw them.

Spawn of Cthulu. She remembered what her father used to say. In the old days they would let them breed with their daughters and sons. To make them strong. To gain power, money, and the ability to serve their God as he wanted them to. She suddenly felt ill. This could not happen, not again. She wouldn't let it.

But she could not do it alone. So she closes the curtains and puts up wards that will leave them screaming if they try to break into her home. Then she goes into the basement. That is where she keeps her lab. She opens a book bound in leather of a dubious origin and looks through it.

"This will do." So then she draws with white chalk different letters in a script she has always been afraid of and draws several circles. In one circle she places a stack of paper. In another a cup filled with some of her own blood while another gets a pile of rocks, and the last gets a balloon she had trouble filling with air.

Then she sits in the large center circle. The spell is more of a ritual. Calling to the forces of good. Begging for them to send a message to any who would be willing to help stop the madness that is beginning to gather. She feels something trying to stop her so she has to force it. The force ends up draining her and she almost faints. Not before she sees something out there listened to her plea and the paper is gone, with a smile she flops onto her side and wonders just who will get the letters.