one down, three to go Who: Anne Marie and Jericho Where: Anne Marie’s house When: Sometime after midnight
Anne Marie had spent all week preparing for her guests. She stole four of the cages from the woods down south, set them up in the basement, and put locks on all the doors. Shackles would have been better, but they weren’t easily accessible and she couldn’t exactly let her guests roam about. Even with a gun, she knew she could be easily overpowered and she wasn’t willing to risk that happening. Once the preparations were made, she set about making soup, figuring that they’d be hungry. The goal wasn’t to starve them, at least not unless she had to. Anne Marie would do whatever was necessary to get what she wanted.
Jericho had bound Clementine up after he'd gotten her out of her home, just in case she woke up. He'd hit her pretty hard, though, so he expected her to be out for a while. The swelling black and blue on her face was evidence enough that he had rung her bell just fine. When he got to Anne Marie's house, he walked up to the door, and banged on it hard. “Open up, petit.”
“Coming!” she called out, putting the lid on the soup before running to the door. Her eyes lit up as she opened the door, landing on the girl in Jericho’s arms. “You got her!” she grinned, taking a step back to let him in the door. “You didn’t have any trouble, did you? She looked like the easiest of the four, but I wasn’t completely sure.” Even then, she didn’t think she could have handled the kidnapping, especially the part where she’d have to drag a body across town.
“Her roomie was a bit of a troublemaker, but the kind I like. It was entertaining. This one, however...I've seen more intense six year olds.” Jericho walked inside then dropped Clementine on the couch unceremoniously.
“Entertaining is fine, so long as you didn’t kill my East,” Anne Marie said, circling around to the couch to get a look at Clementine. She reached out, attempting to touch the yellow glow around her. It was fascinating and beautiful. She couldn’t wait to have the other three. “I’m glad she’ll be easy, though. I need at least one easy one in the bunch.”
“Well this one'll be it,” Jericho assured her. “You want me to put her someplace? Where you keeping these girls, anyhow? What you plannin on doing to them?” he asked, curious. He only knew vague details, and was pretty sure Anne Marie was batshit but that just made it more fun.
“Can you take her downstairs for me? I have the cages all set up,” she said with a little clap of her hands. “You know how you hear about people that can lift cars to save someone when their life is in danger? Like their body goes into overdrive and suddenly they have strength they’ve never had before? I’m going to do something like that. Threaten someone enough, make them fear for their life, and their powers will come out. Then I’ll have them work together to turn off the sun.” And then they would make her a vampire, just like they promised.
Cages. Interesting. He headed toward the basement, heading down the steps with the girl easily. He saw cages down there and picked one, placing Clementine into it. As he listened to her plan, though, he officially knew she was insane. “Sounds good,” he said. “You got techniques down for how you're going to threaten them? I suggest pain. A lot of pain. People don't fear death til they can see it looming over their shoulder.”
“I’m good with a knife,” she said, throwing a blanket over Clementine, then shutting the cage door and locking it. “I figure that once they get their powers, at least one of them should be a healer, so if they lose a finger or two it won’t be a big deal. I have buckets of water and a generator, so I thought electricity might be a little fun. Or fire and pokers. It’ll be an experiment.” One that was worth the effort and their pain.
Jericho nodded. “Lovely,” he said. “Let me know if you need anything. And when you do trigger 'powers', I'd love to see it,” he added, thinking at no point would that happen. Or if it did, it would be some delusional part of her mind. If that happened, though, he’d probably just encourage her to be more extreme with things, just because.
“Of course,” she said. “Right now, they just glow. That’s how I knew who to take.” Or have taken, in her case. With everything set, Anne Marie started to lead Jericho back upstairs, but this time left the basement door open, just in case her guest woke up. “What do you plan to do next?” she asked curiously. She hadn’t been let in on every part of the plan, so it was fun to see how it all played out.
Jericho shrugged. “Go find trouble,” he said. He might see if anyone was going to be looking for some of the 'guests' taken by various members of the group and sic werewolves on them. That ought to be a good time.
“Sounds fun,” she smiled. “I really appreciate your help here. If you get bored later this week, feel free to drop by and you can help me out.” She knew she wasn’t scary, but she had the feeling he could be easily. If she couldn’t scare the girls into bringing out their powers, he certainly could.
Jericho smiled. “Sure,” he said, patting her head. “Until then, have fun playing, Petit,” he told her, heading for the door. It was all fun and games now. The plan was in full swing and he was feeling damn good about it.