[center][i]Collab featuring [@DJAtomika][/i] [img]http://i.imgur.com/wUWTS6n.jpg[/img][/center] The motorcycle purred past the cemetery's entrance and around the bend before Valorie brought it to a stop and killed the engine, motioning for Hurk to assist her in walking it behind the cover of some shrubbery. They weren't going in through the front gate but rather a "secret entrance" she knew of that avoided the main path's motion lights and the groundskeeper's shed. She had been to the Somabra Central Cemetery when she had first come to Santa Somabra for some field research and, although she had only been once, she knew quite well that the police liked to patrol this area for teens who were trying to get in a good scare or black magicians seeking a way to commune with the underworld. Perhaps if she had been smart enough back in the day to ditch her car a few blocks down the road she never would have been forced to snitch on the Rats in the first place, but at the time it had made sense to her to keep it close—most likely because she had been a little intoxicated that night. The "secret entrance" was still there and hardly deserving of the title. It was just a twisted part in the metal fence around the graveyard that somebody had crashed their car into that the city had yet to repair. For a small person like Valorie, she could just easily step through as long as she made sure her clothes didn't get snagged on the sheared metal; Hurk would probably have a tighter, but manageable, squeeze. The two trudged through the darkness, their path lit only by the moon peaking through the dark clouds above. The mild, yet wholly understandable, feeling of unease that was overcoming Valorie as she walked through a graveyard late at night with a werewolf at her side faded as she made note that the moon was, thankfully, not full. She stopped in her tracks and turned to Hurk. Two other things were bothering her. "I don't know where we're actually going," she said, resting a hand on her hip as another teased her hair. "Oh, and, uh, you told your friends to bring shovels, right? Because the guy who maintains this graveyard doesn't really like it when people, er, [i]borrow[/i] his tools." [indent][I][color=pink]"Don't worry about it. I know where we're going."[/color][/i] I had my phone out. Handy thing, these smartphones. Had a torchlight and everything. Bright spotlight shone on the path ahead of us as we walked. I didn't know who'd paid for Hahn's plot. It wasn't expensive, but it wasn't particularly cheap either. Big ol' stone plaque over his grave. I'd visited once or twice, but I'd spent more time investigating than paying my respects. I was doing more justice to his name that way. As we approached the section of the graveyard his plot was in, I heard the sounds of shovels scraping at dirt. More accurately, two of them. And once we walked up a short few steps, I saw the source. Andy stood and stretched from the huge hole that once was Hahn's grave. He caught sight of me and grimaced. I saw his signature jacket and hat just nearby. [i]"Hurk! You fuckhead, why didja make us do the diggin', eh? Ya think just cause me 'n Benji are both dead already means we feel any better about diggin' someone up?!"[/I] [I][color=pink]"Lighten up, Andy. At least it isn't your grave, right? Oh wait."[/color][/i] He started and made to climb out of the hole, shovel in hand ready to whack me upside the head. [I]"Why I oughtta- "[/I] [I][color=lightgreen]"Jeez louise, Andy. Lighten up. He's right. 'Sides, not like we ain't got anythin' better ta do."[/color][/i] The other voice piped up, Benji obviously, and the shorter, rounder man, well, zombie stood and wiped imaginary sweat from his brow. He saw me and waved. [i][color=lightgreen]"Hurk! Nice ta see you again, kid! How's that job a' yours goin'?"[/color][/i] [I][color=pink]"We're on it, Benji. This [b]is[/b] the job."[/color][/i] As we approached, I let Valorie take my side. I glanced at her and swept a hand over Andy and Benji. [I][color=pink]"Valorie, meet Andy and Benjamin. They're my pals, also my bosses, in a way. I work in their company, part of my profit from my jobs goes to them. Kinda."[/color][/i] Andy tipped an imaginary hat to Valorie and Benji grinned. [i]"Nice ta meet'cha, Val."[/I] [I][color=lightgreen]"A pleasure! And what's a pretty face like you doing out here with a pooch and a bunch a' deadbeats, eh? Hehe."[/color][/i] Andy clapped the back of Benji's head with the handle of his shovel. [i][color=lightgreen]"Ow!"[/color][/i] [I]"The only thing deadbeat here is ya love life, ya dumbass. Now keep diggin'. We're almost there."[/I] Benji grumbled and kept digging. I chuckled and stood at the edge of the hole. Glanced at Valorie. [I][color=pink]"Not bad for a pair of zombies, huh?"[/color][/i][/indent] "Not bad?" said Valorie, her voice breathy and pitching up as if the statement had somehow both exhausted and offended her. "Fuck me, they're incredible!" Valorie began to edge closer to Andy and Benji, her hand held up to her mouth to cover her huge, stupid smile. "Actual intelligent, self-reliant zombies are a pretty rare sight," she said, more to herself than to Hurk or the others. It was a sad truth; she had never really seen one on the street or even in a bar overrun with Rats. "Thanks to some assholes in Hollywood, most spend their eternal existence in hiding because the general public believe that all zombies are good for are eating brains and getting mowed down by chainsaw. It doesn't really help that the mindless shufflers don't go out of their way to avoid that stereotype, either. And then their were the ones she had made; those were even more pathetic. They were like broken, animatronic dolls with stilted movements and a drained battery. "But look at these guys," she said, turning to Hurk and gesturing wildly. She thought he should be more impressed by the company he kept. [i]Pearls before swine.[/i] "They're talking, walking, even joking with each other. Do you see how smooth and fluid their motions are? Completely lifelike, it's absolute incredible—especially if their clothes are any indictation to how long they've been undead. Any two-bit necromancer can raise a zombie, and even a lucky one can raise one with free will, but it takes true talent to 'embalm' them so well that they don't inevitably fall apart due to natural human decay. These guys will be around until some asshole decides to purify them or the Sun swallows the Earth. Either way, it's, it's, it's fucking amazing when you get in right like this. Holy shit, holy shit, man." As she spoke her actions grew more and more animated, her hands flailing up and out as she paced back and forth. If she was a normal girl, this would not have been dissimilar to the sort of reaction she would have had if she had met the lead singer to her favorite band and been unable to keep her cool. Valorie did not even realize how loud she was getting, which was a bad thing considering that two zombies, a werewolf, and a necromancer were illegally exhuming a body. She spun on her heels and pointed at Andy. "You have to let me study you guys! Fuck it, just tell me about dying. Or undying. Or anything. Please, please, please," she said, giving her best gut wrenching attempt at puppy dog eyes. [indent][I]"Y'know lady, you're talkin' about us like we're not here. I can hear you, y'know. And we ain't no lab rats either. You wanna study us, you do it on our terms."[/I] Andy stopped digging and leaned his chin on the end of his shovel. Under the moon light, the big hole where his left cheek used to be was evident. Teeth and bone just beneath the torn flesh. The left side of his neck was mostly gone too, torn to shreds from...something. He was right, though. Like it or not, they had souls. They were alive, almost. It was up to them if they wanted to comply. Andy smiled and shook his head. [I]"You wanna know how I died, huh? Well it's simple. See this?"[/I] He pointed at his face and neck. [i]"Vampire. Ninety years ago, I tangled with some vamps. I got eaten, then staked through the heart, then buried with the stake still in me. Guess I came back wrong, cause when I woke up I didn't need to breathe, I had a hole where my heart was and I was fucking pissed off about everything."[/I] He signed and kept on digging, alternating with Benji while he went on. [i]"Funny thing about being undead, you feel exactly the same except...different. Like, you don't bleed. You don't really need to breathe. You don't really feel that much pain. But you do still get hurt. And when ya do, ya don't heal. Ya stink like the dickens. Ya look like shit, depending on how long you've been under. Me? I was dead two years. Benji here? Ah he's always been ugly. Sometimes I can't even tell if he's alive or dead."[/I] Andy chuckled as Benji stood and grumbled. [i][color=lightgreen]"Asshole."[/color][/i] [I]"Hey at least I'm a good lookin' asshole. Hehe."[/I][/indent] Valorie nodded along vigorously as Andy spoke, ready to hold onto his words like the gospel. Her excitement floundered as the zombie gave her the quick and dirty take of his death and resurrection. She had been hoping for something that'd hint at her how to become a better necromancer, but the last thing on her list was to let some bloodsucker enthrall her for a couple centuries of indentured servitude just so she could raise a few wise-cracking zombies. The girl spent the last-half of his speech fidgeting, trying to fight the urge to pull out her phone and snap a shot of herself and the zombies. "Compared to some of the people I've met,you're not [i]that[/i] ugly looking," said Valorie to Benji, the compliment sounding more backhanded than she had intended it to be. "And don't worry, guys, I get it. I'm not gonna dissect you or anything, you know, unless you want me to. Oh, but just an FYI, I am real good at putting things back together. So, you know, if anything ever falls off and you, like, literally need a hand..." She laughed nervously as she trailed off and began to step away. "Uh, I'm gonna get prepped and stop talking, 'kay?" [indent][I]"Ah don't worry about it, kid. Truth be told if you wanted something about how we got raised, I couldn't tell ya squat. I'm a vamp gone wrong, and Kiddo here, well the skank who raised him is dead now."[/I] [color=lightgreen][I]"Yeah, that. Look, we really wanna help you, kid, we really do. But being dead...that period a' time between gettin' put under and bein' brought back, it's a whole period a' black, Val. People say that when you die, you go to heaven or hell. But us zombies, we know that don't exist. It's just a big fuckin' black void. Silent. Like groping around in a big black room. No light, nothin'. Then when you get pulled back up it's like bein' born all over again. Not fun."[/I][/color] I sat on the edge of the hole as they dug. Truth be told, not since three years ago when these two became my bosses, I never did ask about where they came from. To me they were buddies. Pals. Roped me in on crazy adventures doing crazy things. Dangerous things too, but you live a life like this, danger is part of it. Wasn't a moment before I heard a loud thunk as Andy's shovel hit something solid. He rapped it several times, then grinned. [i]"Pay fuckin' dirt. I think we got it. Hurk, help us dig, poochy."[/I] [color=pink][I]"Fucker. Don't have to ask like that."[/I][/color] [i]"I love you too, asshole. Now get digging."[/I] With a weary sigh I stood, grabbed a trowel and got to it. Thankfully the dirt was loose, and the more I scraped off, the more wood I saw. Eventually all three of us were on our knees, dusting off this old, wood and metal box. Hahn. I stood and dusted dirt off my hands as Andy grabbed a crowbar. He took a long look at the coffin, then handed the metal bar to me. [i]"You got the honour. He's your buddy. We're just here ta help you, Hurk."[/I] I swallowed the lump in my throat and accepted the crowbar. I jammed the flat bit in the gap between lid and box, got my foot in there, and stopped. [color=pink][I]"Dag... Hate to have to do this, but wherever you are, we're gonna need you back."[/I][/color] I pushed down on the crowbar and heaved with all my might. The rotten wood lid popped off almost instantly and I stumbled backward from the momentum. Immediately I got hit with the smell of mold and decay, so I approached the open coffin cautiously. What I saw...less sickened me, more made me sad than anything else. There laid Dag, in the suit he'd gotten for a friend's wedding. Well, what was left of it anyway. He was mostly shrivelled and dried up. Suit kinda rotted away. I could see the holes in his chest where he'd been shot, just like in the SSPD file photos. [color=pink][i]"Fuck..."[/I][/color] I took a few steps back and sat on the ground. I felt weak. Dag... Andy looked up at Val. [i]"Alright kid, whenever you're ready."[/I] [/indent] "Two seconds," she said under her breath, her knife drawing up lines of loose dirt as she worked it through the soil. She lifted the makeshift spade out of the ground, muttering curses to herself between loud snaps of gum being popped as she began to retrace her work. After what was decidedly more than two seconds the young woman stabbed the knife into the ground and stood up, brushing the dirt from her knees. Fishing out her phone, she shone the bright LED light onto the ground and glared down at her handiwork as if she was an artist unsatisfied with her latest masterpiece. There were errors, an extra line here, the wrong angle there, and each and everyone of them waved at her like a red flag. Crouching back down on her haunches, Valorie began shifting dirt around with her fingers and packing them into the unneeded grooves and cuts. "There," she said with a huff as she grabbed her knife and jumped up, trying to hide the frustration from her face. Cain had said something about the drugs being part of the reason why she was struggling with her magic so much. She never realized part of it would have been just fucking with her ability to recognize the wrong runes. Valorie tried to push any thoughts of self-doubt out of her head. This would work. It wouldn't be like last time. Hurk would be able to get the information he needed. She would, somehow, raise a goddamn werewolf from the dead. Part of her really regretted giving away her last cigarette to Hurk earlier. She could really go for a smoke to take the edge off right about now. Her eyes fell on the somber man as he backed away from the coffin and sat on the ground. Now she really regretted giving away her last cigarette; Hurk needed it now more than before. "Hey," she said, staring down at the man with as sympathetic of a look she could muster. She was real bad at dealing with these sorts of things. Death to her, to any real necromancer, was something to be toyed with. It didn't have any real weight. It wasn't an end or a beginning. It was just a turning point, a new chapter. That black void of nothingness Benji had mentioned? It was like a womb, the deceased was the baby, and she was the young, hotshot doctor: it was her job to yell push, pull that sucker out, and smack that zom-baby on its ass. The only problem was that, unlike any real necromancer, her born-agains did not stay alive for so long. Hell, for all she knew she might fuck something up so bad that they'd never be able to come back again. She felt she had to let Hurk know that. Both to cover her ass and to pull off that band-aid sooner rather than later. "Hey, man," she said again. "So, full disclosure here, but I can bring your friend back. I just, I, shit," she shifted uncomfortably, "I can't guarantee that he'll be back for long. I know, I should've said something earlier, but I was just caught all up in everything and, well, I dunno. For all I know, when he's back you'll have maybe a few minutes to get the answers you need, you know? So, not to be harsh, but it's kinda important that you don't waste time with any bullshit or whatever." She winced at the phrasing of that last sentence and folded her arms across her chest, the blade of her knife tapping against her shoulder. "What I'm trying to say is are you sure you want me to do this? We never can be sure what happens when somebody comes back. For all I know, it could be ugly." [indent][color=pink][i]"But it has to be done...whether I like it or not."[/i][/color] I stood and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. No sense crying here. I'd save the tears for when this job was done. I turned to look at Valorie. [color=pink][i]"Do it."[/i][/color][/indent] "Okay, cool, great," she said, too chipper for her own good. Valorie spun on her heels and jaunted back to her summoning circle, taking special care not to knock any dirt over a line as she knelt beside it. Valorie began speaking in Akkadian with a measured, rhythmic pace to make sure that she did not screw up the ritual. Her runes began to glow. A familiar chill charged through her and, once again, her spirit and body separated. Valorie listened as the dissonant, graveled voice droned out of her mouth as she pulled the puppet strings to control her arms. Her body grabbed the bag of blood, hung it over the symbols and runes, and slashed the bottom of the bag open. The blood splashed down all over the place, but quickly it began to flood itself into the shallow lines as the magic of the circle activated. She could hear herself hooting louder and louder as the circle glowed brighter and brighter, but she did not feel any connection with the corpse. It was missing something. [i]Oh, of course,[/i] she thought, trying to find a way to control the legs belonging to that bony pile of flesh. [i]For my dog I used some dog's blood, for humans I used some human's blood. For a werewolf I should use some werewolf's blood.[/i] The legs wouldn't move, so she had the arms do the work. The puppet girl crawled through the dirt like a wounded soldier, muck embedding itself in her expensive dress. Valorie wondered how good of a return policy that store had as the limp girl grabbed her jacket, soaked with a mix of that bitch's and Hurk's blood. If it hadn't completely dried yet, the ritual could draw upon the unnatural blood. Valorie's body flopped back to the summoning circle and wrung out the blazer. Her spirit was already back in her body as the blood dripped from the jacket and was absorbed into the rest, tinting the circle's glow to a darker hue of purple. She felt heavier than ever before and had a splitting headache; also, she was pretty certain that moisture on her lips was either from foam or vomit. She was absolutely exhausted, but still managed to bark a command at the corpse. What remained of Dag sat up. "All yours," she said between huffs of breath. [indent]I watched Valorie work her magic. The circle began to glow as she called upon whatever dark gods to bring Dag back. I couldn't help but notice Andy and Benji backing away from the circle in the dirt. Andy had his hand against his chest, where his heart was. He looked pale, well, as pale as a zombie could get, but for a brief moment, he and Benji looked... ...[i]alive?[/i] Then the moment passed and the palpable power faded away as she barked something at Dag's corpse. Then, suddenly, he sat up. I felt my heart leap straight into my throat. Watched his eyes roll forward as he blinked several times. Confused and dazed. I saw Andy staring straight at Dag. Heard him mutter. [i]"Fuck me...so that's how you raise someone..."[/i] I ventured a step forward and called his name. [i][color=pink]"D-Dagmar? Dagmar Hahn?"[/color][/i] He turned slowly towards me and squinted. I could tell his features were clouding with uncertainty, him trying to remember things he hadn't in years. [color=dodgerblue]"Chris...?"[/color] I nodded and swallowed my emotion. [i][color=pink]"Y-yeah Dag, it's Chris. Chris Hurk. Remember me?"[/color][/i] As he listened, more and more comprehension dawned on him. [color=dodgerblue]"Yeah...Christopher Francis Hurk. Soldier of fortune. Likes his coffee with milk and two sugars. My friend. Chris Hurk. Hurky. Hurky!"[/color] He grinned, or what passed for a grin, and lunged out of his coffin and latched onto me. I grimaced, held my breath and awkwardly nodded. [i][color=pink]"Y-yeah, Dag! It's Hurk! You're back, you're fuckin' back."[/color][/i] What remained of my friend nodded and let go of me. With growing clarity he appraised me and smiled. [color=dodgerblue]"Holy shit, Hurk, you have not changed. How'd you die?"[/color] Wait. [i][color=pink]"What?"[/color][/i] He frowned. [color=dodgerblue]"Didn't you...?"[/color] Dag looked down at himself, and he groaned. [color=dodgerblue]"Oh sweet Jesus."[/color] He looked back up at me and tried to smile sheepishly. [color=dodgerblue]"Guess you ain't dead after all. It's me. Sorry."[/color] I sat on the dirt as he stood and sat on the edge of his coffin. It was...very surreal, having my dead friend sit opposite me and talk to me as if it were normal. Then again, I was a werewolf, so what exactly [b]was[/b] normal? [i][color=pink]"Do you remember?"[/color][/i] Dag nodded. [color=dodgerblue]"Bits and pieces, but it's slowly coming back to me."[/color] Suddenly he stared straight at me. [color=dodgerblue]"Tell me you got the fuckwit that murdered me."[/color] I shook my head. [i][color=pink]"I didn't, Dag, but he's dead anyway. Killed by someone else. I was deployed in Afghanistan when you got shot."[/color][/i] He nodded in understanding. [color=dodgerblue]"Yeah...you did tell me."[/color] He planted his hands on his knees and leaned forward. [color=dodgerblue]"But I bet I'm not at the bottom of a six foot hole in the ground surrounded by people for a social call. So I'll keep it short. Not sure how long I have here, seeing as how miss necromancer over there was [i]probably[/i] the one who brought me back and she doesn't have a lot of experience."[/color] Dag cleared his throat. [color=dodgerblue]"Alright, so three years ago, I was looking up something. It was roughly around the time this chick called the Cannonness was in town, roughing up places and causing all sorts of trouble for Bloodbloom, Nyctari, Martovanni, everyone. I'd heard this rumour going round that something else was heading for the city. Something [b]worse.[/b] So I did a bit of digging. Called a few lookouts on the edges of the city, sniffed out a trail that led out. And it reeked of wolves. Werewolves, to be exact. Turns out, it [b]was[/b] connected to the city after all. The Hunters. Those mean bitches that tore up the streets every month. SSPD couldn't keep 'em in check. I found out they had a few places out in the Somabra Bay Forest areas, kept the city surrounded. Their leader was this white wolf, Amelikas, she was the ringleader for the whole damn thing. And she was up to something. I looked into hospital records, police reports, anything I could find, and it turned out that she was hunting. Not for food, but for victims. People to turn. She was making an army. Growing it right in city limits. She was gonna use the chaos made by the Cannonness to do her own thing. Take control of the city, force them to respect werewolves for who we were, not like the downtrodded filth we were. I got interested, of course, but I couldn't. I had, like, a million deals all over town and a million guns at my back if I had a hand in destroying what these rich boys and girls had built. So instead I built a dossier. This file has the information on every single Hunter she found and turned during that one year period. I was gonna use that information to get more cash from a party who could handle them, but then I got shot. If I had to guess, whoever'd shot me must've been a Hunter, or hired by one. They knew who I was, where I lived, and my routine. Of course, they also didn't have a retinue of Rats at their beck and call. I think that was my killer's thing. They wanted to shut me up, and that's what they got. Anyway, once you get that file, things'll get clearer. It's kept in my place, inside a safe locked by a key. To get the key, first get to my PO box at Santa Somabra Central Post, it's 3267. Say you're a relative, they'll know. Inside the box is a slip of paper that contains specific instructions. Take that paper and head to First Grand Bank, ask for my safety deposit box. Repeat the instructions to the letter. Follow that trail, and in my box you'll get the safe key."[/color] He grabbed my shoulders and gripped them tight. [color=dodgerblue]"Avenge me, Hurk. Go get the fucker that wanted me dead."[/color] I nodded, the lump still in my throat. [i][color=pink]"You got it, Dag. It's good to see you again."[/color][/i] His expression softened and he smiled. I felt knives through my heart. [color=dodgerblue]"It's good to see you too, Chris, but I can feel it tugging at my heart. I think I'm leaving."[/color] I got out of his way as he laid back down in his box. Felt my tears roll down my cheeks and drip onto his shirt. [color=dodgerblue]"Go kill the fucker that put me here, Chris. I'll see you on the other side."[/color] Then his eyes closed, and that was that. I felt something leave, and he was still. Benji shook his head, hands stuffed in his pockets. [i][color=lightgreen]"Fuck me. That was harsh."[/color][/i] But I couldn't hear whatever else he said. I felt weak. Dizzy. I sank to my knees, and I cried. [/indent]