[hr][center][h2]Wilmington Town Forest, Wilmington, MA[/h2][/center][hr]
[center][i]7[sup]th[/sup] August, 2018. After midnight.[/i][/center]

	Po began downshifting and decelerating gradually, her Yamaha Virago the only vehicle on this small rural road, swallowed by thick, dark woods. Gradually she came to a complete stop, her bike in neutral. She dismounted and with the bike still in neutral rolled it off the road and stashed it a few meters further into the tree line. She turned the engine off and lowered the stand once she made sure her baby wouldn't be seen from the road in case someone was crazy enough to take this back country road. If Po wasn't who she was, she'd be the first to acknowledge its mint creepy factor.

	But she was who she was and she was on this road, in these woods, with purpose. She was on the hunt.

	'[i]Yeeeeeeeeesssssssssssss![/i]' A voice hissed inside her head. '[i]Hungryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! Eat! Eat! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat!!![/i]' The Wraith urged impatiently.

	Po gritted her teeth. It had been a while from when last she'd truly gorged it on some properly deprived monsters. The run-of-the-mill criminals were fine to temper the hunger, but to really feel sated if even for a day or so, she needed to really gorge on the Life Force of true evil. Well, the Wraith didn't care one way or the other if it fed on good or evil. The distinction was purely for Po's benefit. She would just as soon rip her own heart from her chest than take another innocent life by way of the Wraith.

	'[i]Eat now! Moralize laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaateeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer![/i]' The Wraith hissed.

	"Alright already!" Po muttered under her nose. She grabbed her gear from the bike. Her Walther P99 went in its shoulder holster after making sure it was operational. She fastened her fighting stick in its leather sheath on her back, put her night vision goggles on and started for the location she knew the followers of The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young gathered for their rituals. The one she was planning on crashing apparently had to take place during a new moon, hence the goggles. She didn't want to alert them to her presence before she got the chance to get close by stumbling blindly through the forest. She would have to take the goggles off once she neared the ritual grounds as she knew the place would be well lit up. She'd worked way too hard to identify this particular cell of the Black Goat's followers to give away her position and presence by fumbling stupidly through the woods. This particular cell of the cult was especially nasty and prolific in the department of summoning Dark Youngs for their mother the Black Goat. She'd linked them to a number of missing person's reports. Them becoming too greedy was what allowed her finally to get solidly on their trail.

	Po was making good time. She couldn't afford to go too fast as to not alert the cultists, but she also couldn't afford to dwadle too much. Lives depended on her. In the past three weeks five people had gone missing from the surrounding regions. Tiponi had used all her skills and knowledge as an investigator, as well as some of her other more unusual abilities to discover the ritual's location. After a hundred or so meters she slowed down as she started to hear the hushed chanting and ceremonial humming of the dark worshipers. She'd found the place!

	'[i]Yes. Yes! YES!!![/i]' The Wraith howled with hunger, sensing the wild Life Force of the cultists. '[i]Hungry! Hhhhhhhhhungryyyyyyyyyyyy! Eat, noooooooooooooooooooooooow![/i]' For a moment Po froze paralyzed with the effort to wrestle down the Wraith. Had it not been for the years of training and practice in controlling its more baser instincts, she would have burst into the clearing like a lunatic, eyes wide with hunger. Devoid of any intelligence. Only the insatiable hunger of the Wraith.

	[i]'Eeeeeeeeeeeeeat![/i]' The Wraith drawled. Almost as if pleading this time, realizing it could not sway its host into unplanned action.

	[i]Soon![/i] Po promised and began slowly, carefully and methodically picking off the cultists, starting from the outside in.

	That night the Wraith gorged!

[hr][center][h2]Andover, Massachusetts[/h2][/center][hr]
[center][i]Tiponi Camacho's residence. One week later.[/i][/center]

	Po had just finished her training and was cleaning and organizing the room that served as her own little personal dojo when the phone jingled indicating an incoming message. Moreover, a message from Melissa, as the custom ringtone announced. Tiponi loved her adopted mother to death. Melissa had rescued her from the clutches of the Disintegrator and its followers. She'd cared for her and nursed her back to health. More psychological than physical as the cultists had never resorted to physical torture, but had used manipulation and brainwashing to make the child, and the Wraith by extension, do their bidding. And it was precisely that bidding that had almost managed to destroy the young girl's fragile soul. Had it not been for Melissa Po would probably have died trying to escape from the constant anguish of having to drain innocent people of their Life Force. That or she would have turned in a deranged serial killer.

	So hearing Mel's ringtone Po hurried to check her device to see what her mom needed.

	The message read: "Hey, kid. I know we spoke soonish and I'm not calling on you to fuss, I promise. I actually have something interesting for you. We had our regular reviewing of the cold cases in the office. See if we could catch some fresh perspective and some such. And a three week's old missing person's file caught my eye. I probably would have breezed right passed it, had it not been for the unusual circumstances surrounding the disappearance. I think the Bureau has relegated this to the X-Files pile and it probably would not get the time of day. I've sent you all the pertinent information. I know you'll do it justice. Love you. Be careful!"

	Po had a soft smile on her face upon finishing reading Mel's message. "I love you too, mum." She grinned and proceeded to exit her dojo and head for her home office. The room was sparsely decorated. It held her desk with all the necessary equipment. The walls were almost completely covered in shelves upon shelves stacked with books. There was also a comfortable couch on which she'd crashed on not so rare occasions. Tiponi went straight for her desk and booted her computer. She proceeded to log into her secured mail account only she and Melissa were using. Especially when Mel wanted to send her sensitive information as was in this case the particulars of an FBI file which was open to public preview only via the Freedom of Information Act.

	Po spent the following few days familiarizing herself with the case and deciding it warranted further investigation started preparing for travel.

	She arrived in the town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts on the 21[sup]st[/sup] of August.