Setting
A slow creak as the door was pried open. The person... No, not a person. Thing. The Thing which owned said hand stood up. Crouched out of view from the bus's side windows, it rose. It's face was visible only for a moment, before it had exceeded view of the doorway. It stood nearly as tall as the bus itself, it's other hand able to rest comfortably on the roof. "I Have Come To Accept." It wasn't fear, nor panic, nor even shock which spread across the driver's face. Merely surprise, which eased into an understanding. "... We didn't think you ever would. We're happy to accommodate." The driver spoke in two separate voices simultaneously, his eyes lighting in fire orange and moonlight silver. He signaled to the seats behind him. The cloaked thing stepped inside, causing the vehicle to lurch and it's shocks to grunt against the strain. It had taken a seat at the back, the chair squealing in complaint.
He traveled by bus, then by tunnel, then by means not meant for mortal kind....
Gulls cried through the fog. Sunlight had begun it's ascension in the time his travels had spanned. It had been quite some time since he had smelled the salty brine of first light over the sea. Behind him, a non-solid passageway collapsed under rolling waves as if it never were. Before him, an impregnable gate of black-iron, slowly unlocked and unhinged in maddening complexity. Victor remembered his frustrations when first he had scoped out this quaint little rock at it's sight. It's well said that no Man could gain entrance to Salus, but he was no Man, now was he? He could already feel the eyes. Some, from technology, while others were not so... mundane. It did not matter, his goal here had not changed. This next Manuscript lay here, or someone who knew of it. The City was alive with tales of the Hunters. The first event of it's kind in half a century. It would be crowded, thriving. Privacy would be problematic, and that was bad. There were also plenty of large crowds he could actually hide in for once, and that was good... One way or another, he could not leave here without the location of that book.
Before the gates closed behind him, Victor took one last look out to sea. To the infinite fog that lay beyond them, mystically sealing the island away from human eyes. He remembered that Salus held many names. One being Civitate Caligo. The City of Mist.
But in his head, Artemis knew that Nicole and Jayde were right. Their best bet was to act the part, let the monsters think they were cooperative. He just couldn’t help it that, emotionally speaking, he couldn’t tolerate the thought. So he came up with a compromise. “I refuse,” the hunter said straight out, glowering at the ground. “It’s a good idea. You guys go ahead, but it’ll be suspicious if we’re all suddenly meek and open-minded. I’m just volunteering to be the bad guy.”
He wasn’t about to change his mind on this. It was a solid plan, if a little dangerous on his end, but it was what he felt most comfortable with. Besides, if he could make his teammates seem more cooperative in comparison, it would just give them a better chance to get out of this hellhole. Of course, these were just excuses to justify his careless actions – the thought of giving into these monsters was making him lose his cool – but if the others had anything to say on the matter, they didn’t get a chance, because the monsters started to filter in one by one.
Oh look. It was the one he couldn’t identify. The one that seemed so sickeningly human. He was disgusted to think of how many innocents it might have lured into false security with such an unassuming form. “I’ll take him, then,” it said with a nod towards him, and Artemis grew dark, narrowing his eyes. He had his gaze cast downwards – he knew better than to make eye contact with unidentified creatures. For all he knew, gorgons weren’t the only things that could turn people to stone with a stare. He stayed quiet and still, simply observing, waiting for any slips of information. Identifying this monster was top priority in order to stay alive.
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