Who: Dahlia Gillespie and an NPC What: Dahlia's second victim When: Late tonight. Where: A house in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Rating: Contains violence, but not graphic... Status: Narrative; closed.
Dahlia finished pouring gasoline onto the carpet. One match, or rather a book of matches to be on the safe side, and she'd be on her way.
She had investigated this victim after seeing her in the shop, and found that she was a useless and meddlesome old woman. Right now she was asleep, having no idea what Dahlia was going to do to her.
It reminded Dahlia of when she had burned her daughter to incarnate the god. She had taken the whole house down along with Alessa. That should have been one of the most climactic moments of her life, of both their lives, if other people hadn't tried to interfere.
She knew she was being quite obvious about the fire. When inspectors came, they would certainly detect it as arson. But she had no connection with this old woman, for anyone to even suspect her as the arsonist.
But it did mean she had to stay hidden. She needed to be next to the house to absorb the power of the woman's death into the crystals of the necklace. So she went out the back door and hid in the yard among the bushes, inhaling the fumes of the fire and feeling proud of herself.
The woman died quickly enough, probably from the smoke, and Dahlia slipped away. She didn't even hear sirens yet. It looked like she would get away with this, too. Soon enough she'd be after LaCroix. Alessa had been unusually talkative lately too. It was almost like they were on the same side already.