Fresh meat

Once inside the impressive shopping mall, the four investigators split paths, each of them looking around in another part of the entrance area. The floor and walls were all covered in a black substance that seemed to be smut. The air was filled with the smell of a recent fire, mixed with a note of barbecuing. The dark shadow was in the shape of a large circle but extended also up the walls, making it look like it was caused by a perfectly hemispherical explosion. Upon taking a closer look at the walls, they saw that at one point there was a void where the flames had not reached the concrete. It was about 3 meters from the floor and the size of a grown man. Ian, who found the black smut intriguing, asked the doctor for a test-tube to take a sample. Victor, who was staring into the dark beyond the barely lit entrance, turned around and threw a tube to the brute in leather. Ian stretched out his hand, caught the glass cylinder and instantly smashed it to tiny bits. Grumpily he brushed off the shards of glass and picked the broken bits out of his hand, when he realized that the minuscule parts on the floor started to move and scurried in the direction of their former proprietor. Ian rubbed his eyes in disbelief and thought he was probably hallucinating. Not willing to smash another of the fragile cylinders, he went over to the doctor and equipped with a new tube he started taking samples of the black substance. In the meantime Ruthven had joined Victor at the edge of the blast radius and they both noticed a window just a few meters from where they were standing, with the sign saying ‘Butcher’s shop’.

David, who had finally snapped out of his episode, had chosen to use one of his inherent abilities to look around the premises undetected. So he tried to remember everything his sire had taught him about Obfuscate, the ability to make everybody around you believe that you are invisible, and blended in with the shadows. He snuck past the two high society members of the team, and decided to have a look inside the shop, the two of them found so interesting. He remembered that the Seneschal had mentioned something about a man simply called ‘The Butcher’ but he couldn’t for the life of him remember what it was. When he was still in St.John’s, he had often snuck out of his room to meet his friend Seth Johnson, a fellow patient at the asylum. He was a master at opening doors without making a noise and even a shop door, outfitted with a bell, was no obstacle for the young man. With the finesse of a cat burglar, David reached up to stop the bell with his left hand and in the meantime opened the door just a slit to slide through. Serendipitous about his success, he looked around the small shop, still hidden from sight by his special ability. He looked through the smudged windowpane and saw that Victor was walking off to the shop next door and tried to pry open the door, while Ruthven and Ian where coming in his direction. Suddenly he noticed a buzzing noise from behind him and he quickly turned around to investigate. His eyes needed a couple of seconds to adjust to the half-light. He had never paid much attention when his master tried to teach him about Auspex, the ability to see in the dark and heighten your senses. At mastery you could even determine the demeanor of other beings by their spiritual aura. He shook his head to rid himself of the memories of his training and slowly recognized the silhouette of a very large being standing in front of him, with its back towards the youngster. The creature was apparently busy working on something on the desk, but David could not see what it was. At this moment the doorbell behind him rang and the noise startled him in a way that he lost his concentration and became once again visible to his surroundings. Ruthven had entered the store, the doctor and the mechanic hard on his heels, and he looked at the Malkavian with astonishment. “How did you…” – “What’s this? Who’s there?” The creature behind the counter had turned around and flicked the lights on. With a short buzzing sound the luminescent neon tubes sprung to life and bathed the room in an unnatural light. Behind the counter was now clearly visible a giant of at least 2 meters height, extremely broad shoulders and a leather mask on his face. He was wearing an apron that might have been white sometime in the past, but was now blemished with an obscene amount of bloodstains, ranging from deep red to almost black in color. In his right hand he was holding a giant cleaver; his right arm was packed with muscles and was almost twice the size of his left arm. The man, if you could call him that, was such a scary sight that the team was rather surprised when he said, “Oh hello there. How can I help you folks?”