Haunting fires

“Um, hello…. Sir. Mr. Taylor sent us, and we were wondering whether you could help us out. We are supposed to investigate something here but other than the black floor outside and a void on the wall, we didn’t find anything.” Ruthven was not sure if it was the proper tone to address the giant with the meat cleaver, but he gave it a shot as he started to feel a bit lost on his supposed quest. “Taylor, huh? Typical of him to get other people to do his dirty work. I bet he didn’t even tell you what happened here, right?” It was a bit unsettling that the grossly looking brute was this friendly. Victor took the opportunity to communicate his own opinion on the matter, “Well he saw us fit to investigate in this matter; that should suffice.” – “Sooooo, you are the Butcher right?”, said Ian from the back of the room. “That’s what they call me. I can tell you work has been piling up since the incident. Now that I lost both my assistants it has gotten extremely hard to keep up with the clan’s demands. You have to know, I’m the main blood supplier for the Gangrel. I process meats and drain the blood in order to conserve it for later use.” After a lengthy conversation with the man, who calls himself ‘The Butcher’, the team found out that his two assistants Jonathan and Mike had not shown up for work after the fire. If it had been only Mike who had disappeared he wouldn’t have been surprised. It turns out that he was still a very young vampire and hated working at the mall. He even went so far as to have himself replaced on several occasions by a human. “It’s not that we hate humans, but it is always dangerous for us when they are introduced prematurely to our world. In this case, it was not that much of a problem since the guy was hoping to get turned soon. It’s still annoying when you never know, who will show up for the job. Anyway, on the day in question I was out on business and Mike and Jonathan were supposed to stock up for the next blood transport to the Prince’s Haven. I don’t know what really happened, but when I came back, the entrance was filled with smoke and several pieces of broken furniture were lying around, still on fire. I have seen neither of them since.” – “So this Mike… He seems like a ‘nice’ guy. In case nothing happened to him, where could we find him?” The butcher gave them an address and added, “So if there’s nothing else, I have to get back to work.” – “Actually”, the doctor added with reluctance, “would it be possible for me to take a look at your warehouse?” The creature shrugged, and opened a door behind the counter and went back to work. “Knock yourself out.”

David was crouched on the floor in the entrance hall, while Ian and Ruthven were standing around, looking for clues. Suddenly he heard a whisper, very faint from the right corner of the enormous hall. He thought he had imagined it, when the sound grew stronger. “It’s all your….” ‘That voice! No, not again! Why can’t he leave me alone?’ David started to panic, but he was still compelled to walk in the direction of the noise. “It’s all your fault! I thought we were friends!” There it was again, this time stronger almost like somebody was standing right next to him. He looked around, and threw a look at his team members, but none of them seemed to hear anything. There was nothing there. “You betrayed me! You are a murderer! You killed me just like you killed your grandfather! You MONSTER!!!!” The voice had turned into a deafening scream and David flinched and backed into the corner. He thought he saw something for a split second, but on a second look there was still nobody around except for the four vampires. Something suddenly grabbed his shoulder from behind. The boy jerked around and there he was, Steven, his old friend from the asylum, clear as day. David blinked and he was gone again. And without realizing it he himself started yelling, “Why can’t you leave me alone? I’m sorry…. Just let me be!” He dropped to his knees and almost started to whine, when he noticed that his right knee had hit something sticking out of the concrete floor. He looked around and noticed that his friends were looking at him with a bewildered expression. The sounds had stopped as sudden as they had appeared and he turned his attention back to the bump in the floor. Like the rest of the room, the place was covered in smut and so he started to clean the place with his hands best as he could. Ian and Ruthven were on their way over to him. Victor had just emerged from the shop and he saw that the three were gathering at a small spot in the right corner of the room, so he decided to join them. When the rubble had cleared David stood up and backed away from the place. He had uncovered a human skull, sticking out of the concrete, looking like it had been fused with the floor at an extreme temperature.