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"Here There Be Vampires" A Promise City, Arizona Story Hour
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<blockquote data-quote="orchid blossom" data-source="post: 2819602" data-attributes="member: 12815"><p>"Chubby little babies?" He then shakes his head and says, "You will not fit in that gingham dress that way. Come one, lets follow Chet."</p><p></p><p>"I'm sure they make those hideous dresses in extra chubby for unfortunate woman with the extra chubby baby in her belly," Ruby laughs. "Besides, I thought that was what all housewives want. And I thought we were going to look around here. What did you find to make you decide so quickly?"</p><p></p><p>As they sneak out Jake says, "I think I saw the outline of a trap door under the table on the first floor. That and they seem anxious for us to have it."</p><p></p><p>"Why don't you follow Chester and I'll stay here and investigate? We'll get more done that way. Plus I am dying to know if it IS a good chubby baby making bed," she teases. "I should be safe here, right?"</p><p></p><p>"Errr, maybe. But your suspected vampire wants you to rent this house, right? I'll follow Chet, but do not go too far."</p><p></p><p>"Yes," Ruby replies slowly. "But I did ask him to rent the place. Don't worry, I won't be inviting him in, that's for sure. I know I didn't want us separated but now I feel like we need to check this place out fast. I'll come looking for you when I'm done."</p><p></p><p>Romo heads west through town, stopping at the bank as he goes. He emerges from the bank and continues west.</p><p></p><p>Chester follows behind. Luckily, Thomaswell isn't too big, so staying back far enough is relatively easy. </p><p></p><p>Nanuet, Kate and Minerva make their way over to Whittaker's house which is the other end of town from where the former mayor's residence is. Once they get close Nanuet pulls them off the street.</p><p></p><p>"I will hide someplace over there" Nanuet says pointing to the west side of the house. "From there I can see three sides. Minerva, you will have to keep an eye on the east side of the house so that we have the whole thing covered. OK?"</p><p></p><p>"Si, I will find a place to stay out of sight. Luna will fly above and tell me what she can see from above. Stay safe mi amor." She says and reaches up to kiss him before making her way to the east side of the house with Katherine.</p><p></p><p>Nanuet positions himself in the best spot that affords him both a good view of the house and a decent hiding spot. He gets comfortable and keeps both eyes on the Whittaker house, scanning back and forth along the house and surrounding property. For the time being there is nothing unusual that he notices.</p><p></p><p>Minerva also notices nothing out of place except how the house is closed up completely to shield the inside from the sun.</p><p></p><p>Minerva walks around the east side of the house noting the 4 windows; two on the ground floor and two on the upper floor. All of them are shuttered closed.</p><p></p><p>Minerva places her eye against the window and tries to see through the shutters, then feels her skin tingle and gets a little shock. She quickly jumps back gripping her amulet. "By the goddess" she gasps. Minerva sneaks back to Nanuet. "I touched the shutters. I think the house is protected with magic."</p><p></p><p>"OK, well hopefully they will come to us and we won't have to worry about getting in. This guy seems to have a lot of money, I am sure he wants to protect it. Look, there comes someone now." Nanuet says pointing to Romo as he makes his way to the house.</p><p></p><p>Romo enters the house by the front door. Luna also communicates to Minerva that Chester is following him while hiding. Once Romo enters Whitaker's house, Chester circles around back quickly to see if he leaves that way.</p><p></p><p>Jake catches up with Chester, sneaking and hiding until he is close by but makes a sound so he does not startle him. "Hey, Deputy. Anything happening?"</p><p></p><p>Chester answers without taking his eyes off the house. "Hey there, Jake. Romo went to the bank after he left the house, probably to deposit the money you gave him. Then he went straight here. I circled around, but he didn't go through the house. Minerva's owl is flying around, so she and Nanuet are somewhere near." He realizes he doesn't hear Ruby. "Where's Ruby? Back at the house?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes, Ruby is back at the house. Send someone for us when something happens, I am going back. Keep your head down."</p><p></p><p>Chester glances at Jake. "Sure thing. I know all about keeping my head down. Don't worry. Just make sure the house is safe."</p><p></p><p>Chester and the others wait patiently for what seems like an eternity. As the sun sets and dusk falls over the small town a light can be seen from inside the grand house. It looks as though the light is heading to the back of the house and sure enough, the back door can be heard opening an shutting, then the sound of a key jingling on a ring can be heard.</p><p></p><p>Chester slowly and quietly creeps to the back of the house. He bumps into Nanuet and Minerva, who were doing the same thing. "Hey there. I just saw Jake. He said if anything happens, someone needs to go back to the house to tell him and Ruby. I wonder who's leaving."</p><p></p><p>Chester can see both Romo Sanchez and Bobby Whittaker exiting out the back door. They make their way to the stables and emerge riding horses only moments later.</p><p></p><p>Nanuet offers to go tell Jake what is going on, but he figures he should wait and watch which way they go while Chester fetches a mount. "You'll never keep up with them on foot my friend, but it will be easy to track them in the sand. Hurry, go now, I will see which way they head from here."</p><p></p><p>After Jake leaves Ruby begins searching around the house, starting with the false door Jake pointed out to her directly under the table in the parlor. As she looks it over, she discovers it is a well hidden trap door and searches it for any latches or traps.</p><p></p><p>In a few moments she sees that if she were to lift the door a trap would be triggered. Ruby sighs and takes her lock picks, attempting to disarm the trap.</p><p></p><p>Ruby fiddles with the trap triggering mechanism for some time and is getting frustrated and just about to give up when she hears a friendly click. She gently removes her lock picks believing the trap to be disarmed.</p><p></p><p>"I wish I had Jake's duster," she mutters to herself. She brings the lantern that Romo had left closer before opening the trap door slowly.</p><p></p><p>There is almost no sound as Ruby lifts the well oiled hinges. The door swings smoothly open to reveal steps that head down about 8 feet to a basement room. The lantern flickers reveal what appears to be cots and blankets as well as preserved foodstuffs.</p><p></p><p>Ruby coughs and waves her hand in front of her face as she descends into the basement. She looks around for anything hidden, our of place or any signs of recent use.</p><p></p><p>It looks as though it has been a while since the room had been used. Everything was coated with a thick layer of dust but it was all in neat order, folded blankets on the half dozen cots and the food all neatly shelved. There is a narrow door on the north wall about 10 feet from the stairs.</p><p></p><p>There are torches and oil lamps as well as a supply of oil piled up next to the door.</p><p></p><p>Ruby makes her way to the narrow door and discovers it is not trapped nor is it locked. There is a bar on it that would swing over the door keeping anyone from beyond the room that Ruby is in from getting in. The bar appears as if it could be easily raised from it's resting place and the door opened.</p><p></p><p>Ruby furrows her brows. "Why would you need to keep people out... in a basement?" she says, again noting she is talking out loud to herself. She raises the bar and opens the door.</p><p></p><p>There is a narrow cobweb filled tunnel behind the door. It leads on into the darkness beyond the meager light of the lamp that Ruby holds.</p><p></p><p>"What the..?" She looks back up the stairs, wondering what Jake will think of her adventuring alone.</p><p></p><p>She takes the lantern and slowly heads down the narrow passage, using her hand to wipe cobwebs as she goes.</p><p></p><p>Jake makes it back to his new rental, and quickly finds the trap door open. "Ruby?" He calls out. Getting no answer he climbs down.</p><p></p><p>Ruby stops and takes a moment to listen. She has the burning desire to go forward and investigate but thinks of Jake, and how she would feel if he did this without her. She stays facing that direction but slowly backs up through the tunnel, back towards the house. She prepares to cast a spell if necessary.</p><p></p><p>Ruby traces her steps about halfway back through the tunnel when a huge segmented insect with slender legs, each ending ina sharp claw emerges from the ground in a burst of rock and dirt only a few feet away from her. A tough chitinous brown shell covers it's entire body, and glistening black eyes stare out from above powerful mandibles.</p><p></p><p>Jake sees the open door via the dim light coming in through the trap door above, but no Ruby. He unsheathes his dagger, "Incendie."</p><p></p><p>Ruby's heart stops for a moment. "What the hell is that? What the hell are you?" Ruby calls out while starting a much brisker pace back to the door, drawing her gun. "Why me, huh?" followed by a stream of curses flows from her mouth. She continues backwards as fast as she can with her gun pointed at the thing.</p><p></p><p>The creature clacks it's mandibles together and some liquid drips from the mouth of the creature as it eyes Ruby for a moment. The insect creature sways back and forth for a moment as Ruby backs away and then awkwardly rushes forward taking a swipe at Ruby with it's clawed leg and narrowly misses opening a slash on her shirt.</p><p></p><p>Chester arrives back at the house to tell Jake and Ruby about the latest. He doesn't see them, but notices the open trap door. He climbs down and sees Jake holding the flaming dagger. He gasps, "Romo and... Whitaker... are riding... away. Nanuet is... following them on foot." Chester catches his breath. "I'm going to grab a couple of the horses and follow."</p><p></p><p>Ruby's eyes widen and she lets out a high pitched scream as the insect claws her. "I like this dress dammit!" She aims her gun and shoots at the creature, continuing to make her way out as fast as she can.</p><p></p><p>Jake looks up as Chet speaks while climbing down when he hears the gun shot from the tunnel. "Ruby!"</p><p></p><p>Ruby shot goes off but she doesn't stick around to see the results. She bounds several more steps back towards where she started before she finds herself back in the original room face to face with Jake who is holding his magical flaming dagger. Jake wears a look of surprise after just hearing the gunshot.</p><p></p><p>"Damn." Chester draws one of his guns. "What was that?"</p><p></p><p>"Apparently we need an exterminator," she quips, hiding behind Jake, looking down the tunnel.</p><p></p><p>Jake's eyes go wide while he drops the dagger and draws his Colt. He clicks the cylinder back two places and looks to the doorway.</p><p></p><p>In response to Chester's question the large insect creature rambles forward on it's rear legs and as it enters the larger chamber it raises it's head and spits a stream of liquid towards Jake.</p><p></p><p>Jake manages to duck out of the way of the liquid stream, even though he should have probably at least gotten some of the foul ichor on him he manages to avoid it completely.</p><p></p><p>"I think I shot it," Ruby says. "It's a small tunnel. But I'm not sure. It's a big... crunchy... with claws...drooley...I don't know what." She shudders. "Thank goodness my knight showed up. I'd much rather check out the chubby baby making bed."</p><p></p><p>"Mierda!" is all Jake says and fans off two shots at the huge insect.</p><p></p><p>Ruby gives another shrill scream as the creature tries to blast them with some foul substance. Ruby scrunches her nose and shoots at the creature again.</p><p></p><p>The first shot goes wide of the monster hitting the wall of the room and splintering the wood. The monster screams a high pitched squeal as the second shot from Jake's attack hits the creature in the torso. Black goo wells up and out of the wound.</p><p></p><p>"That's a big bug. What are they feeding it?" Chester aims carefully and fires his Remington.</p><p></p><p>The creature lunges forward towards Ruby who is now unobstructed after Jake's maneuver to avoid the stream of acid that was recently spewed. She shoots just as the scrawny arms reach back to swipe at her and then collapses in a heap as Ruby's bullet finds the same area already injured from Jake's attack.</p><p></p><p>Chester's Remington goes off and hits the helpless creature finishing it off as it lay helpless on the cellar floor.</p><p></p><p>As he lowers his smoking gun, Chester says, "Was that thing trying to vomit on us? Are you both OK? I've never seen anything like that before."</p><p></p><p>The thought of what the thing might eat makes Jake feel a bit queasy. "Should we ask for a discount on our rent now?"</p><p></p><p>"Heh," Ruby laughs, "Funny." She looks down and examines the slash on her dress. "Dammit," she swears again. "Can you see anything?"</p><p></p><p>Chester gives Jake a dirty look. "Was it a guard animal or something that was supposed to eat us while we slept? Where's this tunnel go anyway?"</p><p></p><p>"No, the door locks from the inside, so it shouldn't have gotten in with the door shut. Then again, it did come up from the ground... I don't know where the tunnel leads, I didn't get that far."</p><p></p><p>"Hey, what happened with Romo? What's the business they had going on?"</p><p></p><p>Chester slaps his forehead. "Damn. I was supposed to get horses, so we could follow them. Romo and Whitaker rode out from the house at dusk. Nanuet and Minerva are following them. I was coming back here to tell you when that thing attacked us. I got to go." </p><p></p><p>After the bug incident Ruby comments, "We have to take a look where that leads. But first I want to check the rest of the house. Damn," she shakes her head as she climbs the ladder. "You know, we could use some of these supplies..."</p><p></p><p>The porch leads to a large parlor in the front of the house, behind which is a kitchen on the left and a room on the right. Stairs on the right side of the house going up to the second floor where there are three smaller bedrooms in the back and a larger master bedroom in the front over the parlor.</p><p></p><p>Ruby checks each room out, not finding anything out of the ordinary. Finally Ruby checks out the master bedroom and the chubby baby making bed by bouncing on it a few times. "This'll do while we have to stay here," she smiles. She stays on the bed for a few moments, fighting off the urge to have a drink while she composes herself.</p><p></p><p>After a few minutes she goes back downstairs to find Jake. "We still have time before dinner, let's check the tunnel again."</p><p></p><p>She starts back down the tunnel, listening cautiously as she slowly makes her way back in.</p><p></p><p>As Ruby starts down the tunnel Jake says, "Hey, want this?" He unties his small travel bag and pulls out the sawed off shotgun. "If you see another one of those bugs it may be more effective." He closes up the bag, grabs a lantern and follows her.</p><p></p><p>"Thanks," she says grabbing the shotgun. "Let's hope we don't find out."</p><p></p><p>They go about 100 feet in and comes across the whole where the creature dug out of the ground. Continuing past that the tunnel continues on it's straight path. She walks cautiously for about 10 minutes without coming across anything other than cobwebs and shadows.</p><p></p><p>...She looks down and examines the slash on her dress. "Dammit," she swears again. "Can you see anything?"</p><p></p><p>"If you hold it at the proper angle, yes, thanks." Jakes says playfully as he drops the empty shells from his Colt on the floor. </p><p></p><p>"Ugh it smells down here." He moves the remaining enchanted shells from his fast draw pistol to the long barrel pistol so that there is a mix pyrotechnic and enchanted shells in that. He reloads the fast draw with ordinary rounds. While doing so he remembers the map that O'Neil had drawn and tried to recollect if there was a particular symbol on this house and if it related to any other location.</p><p></p><p>After the 10 minutes go by she turns to Jake and asks quietly, "Should we keep going?"</p><p></p><p>"Which way are we headed? Does this go towards the well or Whittaker’s place or where?" They stop and try to figure out their orientation.</p><p></p><p>Jake scratches his chin and looks up and down the tunnel. "We have come this far," he says, shrugs and points ahead down the tunnel.</p><p></p><p>"I have no idea which way we are headed," Ruby smiles, "But it seems like an adventure to me. Let's find out, I'll never get sleep tonight not knowing where this goes." She looks down the tunnel, "Of course, we don't have any supplies with us..." She shrugs, "Ah, who cares, let's go."</p><p></p><p>Ruby continues down the tunnel, keeping Jake close behind her.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="orchid blossom, post: 2819602, member: 12815"] "Chubby little babies?" He then shakes his head and says, "You will not fit in that gingham dress that way. Come one, lets follow Chet." "I'm sure they make those hideous dresses in extra chubby for unfortunate woman with the extra chubby baby in her belly," Ruby laughs. "Besides, I thought that was what all housewives want. And I thought we were going to look around here. What did you find to make you decide so quickly?" As they sneak out Jake says, "I think I saw the outline of a trap door under the table on the first floor. That and they seem anxious for us to have it." "Why don't you follow Chester and I'll stay here and investigate? We'll get more done that way. Plus I am dying to know if it IS a good chubby baby making bed," she teases. "I should be safe here, right?" "Errr, maybe. But your suspected vampire wants you to rent this house, right? I'll follow Chet, but do not go too far." "Yes," Ruby replies slowly. "But I did ask him to rent the place. Don't worry, I won't be inviting him in, that's for sure. I know I didn't want us separated but now I feel like we need to check this place out fast. I'll come looking for you when I'm done." Romo heads west through town, stopping at the bank as he goes. He emerges from the bank and continues west. Chester follows behind. Luckily, Thomaswell isn't too big, so staying back far enough is relatively easy. Nanuet, Kate and Minerva make their way over to Whittaker's house which is the other end of town from where the former mayor's residence is. Once they get close Nanuet pulls them off the street. "I will hide someplace over there" Nanuet says pointing to the west side of the house. "From there I can see three sides. Minerva, you will have to keep an eye on the east side of the house so that we have the whole thing covered. OK?" "Si, I will find a place to stay out of sight. Luna will fly above and tell me what she can see from above. Stay safe mi amor." She says and reaches up to kiss him before making her way to the east side of the house with Katherine. Nanuet positions himself in the best spot that affords him both a good view of the house and a decent hiding spot. He gets comfortable and keeps both eyes on the Whittaker house, scanning back and forth along the house and surrounding property. For the time being there is nothing unusual that he notices. Minerva also notices nothing out of place except how the house is closed up completely to shield the inside from the sun. Minerva walks around the east side of the house noting the 4 windows; two on the ground floor and two on the upper floor. All of them are shuttered closed. Minerva places her eye against the window and tries to see through the shutters, then feels her skin tingle and gets a little shock. She quickly jumps back gripping her amulet. "By the goddess" she gasps. Minerva sneaks back to Nanuet. "I touched the shutters. I think the house is protected with magic." "OK, well hopefully they will come to us and we won't have to worry about getting in. This guy seems to have a lot of money, I am sure he wants to protect it. Look, there comes someone now." Nanuet says pointing to Romo as he makes his way to the house. Romo enters the house by the front door. Luna also communicates to Minerva that Chester is following him while hiding. Once Romo enters Whitaker's house, Chester circles around back quickly to see if he leaves that way. Jake catches up with Chester, sneaking and hiding until he is close by but makes a sound so he does not startle him. "Hey, Deputy. Anything happening?" Chester answers without taking his eyes off the house. "Hey there, Jake. Romo went to the bank after he left the house, probably to deposit the money you gave him. Then he went straight here. I circled around, but he didn't go through the house. Minerva's owl is flying around, so she and Nanuet are somewhere near." He realizes he doesn't hear Ruby. "Where's Ruby? Back at the house?" "Yes, Ruby is back at the house. Send someone for us when something happens, I am going back. Keep your head down." Chester glances at Jake. "Sure thing. I know all about keeping my head down. Don't worry. Just make sure the house is safe." Chester and the others wait patiently for what seems like an eternity. As the sun sets and dusk falls over the small town a light can be seen from inside the grand house. It looks as though the light is heading to the back of the house and sure enough, the back door can be heard opening an shutting, then the sound of a key jingling on a ring can be heard. Chester slowly and quietly creeps to the back of the house. He bumps into Nanuet and Minerva, who were doing the same thing. "Hey there. I just saw Jake. He said if anything happens, someone needs to go back to the house to tell him and Ruby. I wonder who's leaving." Chester can see both Romo Sanchez and Bobby Whittaker exiting out the back door. They make their way to the stables and emerge riding horses only moments later. Nanuet offers to go tell Jake what is going on, but he figures he should wait and watch which way they go while Chester fetches a mount. "You'll never keep up with them on foot my friend, but it will be easy to track them in the sand. Hurry, go now, I will see which way they head from here." After Jake leaves Ruby begins searching around the house, starting with the false door Jake pointed out to her directly under the table in the parlor. As she looks it over, she discovers it is a well hidden trap door and searches it for any latches or traps. In a few moments she sees that if she were to lift the door a trap would be triggered. Ruby sighs and takes her lock picks, attempting to disarm the trap. Ruby fiddles with the trap triggering mechanism for some time and is getting frustrated and just about to give up when she hears a friendly click. She gently removes her lock picks believing the trap to be disarmed. "I wish I had Jake's duster," she mutters to herself. She brings the lantern that Romo had left closer before opening the trap door slowly. There is almost no sound as Ruby lifts the well oiled hinges. The door swings smoothly open to reveal steps that head down about 8 feet to a basement room. The lantern flickers reveal what appears to be cots and blankets as well as preserved foodstuffs. Ruby coughs and waves her hand in front of her face as she descends into the basement. She looks around for anything hidden, our of place or any signs of recent use. It looks as though it has been a while since the room had been used. Everything was coated with a thick layer of dust but it was all in neat order, folded blankets on the half dozen cots and the food all neatly shelved. There is a narrow door on the north wall about 10 feet from the stairs. There are torches and oil lamps as well as a supply of oil piled up next to the door. Ruby makes her way to the narrow door and discovers it is not trapped nor is it locked. There is a bar on it that would swing over the door keeping anyone from beyond the room that Ruby is in from getting in. The bar appears as if it could be easily raised from it's resting place and the door opened. Ruby furrows her brows. "Why would you need to keep people out... in a basement?" she says, again noting she is talking out loud to herself. She raises the bar and opens the door. There is a narrow cobweb filled tunnel behind the door. It leads on into the darkness beyond the meager light of the lamp that Ruby holds. "What the..?" She looks back up the stairs, wondering what Jake will think of her adventuring alone. She takes the lantern and slowly heads down the narrow passage, using her hand to wipe cobwebs as she goes. Jake makes it back to his new rental, and quickly finds the trap door open. "Ruby?" He calls out. Getting no answer he climbs down. Ruby stops and takes a moment to listen. She has the burning desire to go forward and investigate but thinks of Jake, and how she would feel if he did this without her. She stays facing that direction but slowly backs up through the tunnel, back towards the house. She prepares to cast a spell if necessary. Ruby traces her steps about halfway back through the tunnel when a huge segmented insect with slender legs, each ending ina sharp claw emerges from the ground in a burst of rock and dirt only a few feet away from her. A tough chitinous brown shell covers it's entire body, and glistening black eyes stare out from above powerful mandibles. Jake sees the open door via the dim light coming in through the trap door above, but no Ruby. He unsheathes his dagger, "Incendie." Ruby's heart stops for a moment. "What the hell is that? What the hell are you?" Ruby calls out while starting a much brisker pace back to the door, drawing her gun. "Why me, huh?" followed by a stream of curses flows from her mouth. She continues backwards as fast as she can with her gun pointed at the thing. The creature clacks it's mandibles together and some liquid drips from the mouth of the creature as it eyes Ruby for a moment. The insect creature sways back and forth for a moment as Ruby backs away and then awkwardly rushes forward taking a swipe at Ruby with it's clawed leg and narrowly misses opening a slash on her shirt. Chester arrives back at the house to tell Jake and Ruby about the latest. He doesn't see them, but notices the open trap door. He climbs down and sees Jake holding the flaming dagger. He gasps, "Romo and... Whitaker... are riding... away. Nanuet is... following them on foot." Chester catches his breath. "I'm going to grab a couple of the horses and follow." Ruby's eyes widen and she lets out a high pitched scream as the insect claws her. "I like this dress dammit!" She aims her gun and shoots at the creature, continuing to make her way out as fast as she can. Jake looks up as Chet speaks while climbing down when he hears the gun shot from the tunnel. "Ruby!" Ruby shot goes off but she doesn't stick around to see the results. She bounds several more steps back towards where she started before she finds herself back in the original room face to face with Jake who is holding his magical flaming dagger. Jake wears a look of surprise after just hearing the gunshot. "Damn." Chester draws one of his guns. "What was that?" "Apparently we need an exterminator," she quips, hiding behind Jake, looking down the tunnel. Jake's eyes go wide while he drops the dagger and draws his Colt. He clicks the cylinder back two places and looks to the doorway. In response to Chester's question the large insect creature rambles forward on it's rear legs and as it enters the larger chamber it raises it's head and spits a stream of liquid towards Jake. Jake manages to duck out of the way of the liquid stream, even though he should have probably at least gotten some of the foul ichor on him he manages to avoid it completely. "I think I shot it," Ruby says. "It's a small tunnel. But I'm not sure. It's a big... crunchy... with claws...drooley...I don't know what." She shudders. "Thank goodness my knight showed up. I'd much rather check out the chubby baby making bed." "Mierda!" is all Jake says and fans off two shots at the huge insect. Ruby gives another shrill scream as the creature tries to blast them with some foul substance. Ruby scrunches her nose and shoots at the creature again. The first shot goes wide of the monster hitting the wall of the room and splintering the wood. The monster screams a high pitched squeal as the second shot from Jake's attack hits the creature in the torso. Black goo wells up and out of the wound. "That's a big bug. What are they feeding it?" Chester aims carefully and fires his Remington. The creature lunges forward towards Ruby who is now unobstructed after Jake's maneuver to avoid the stream of acid that was recently spewed. She shoots just as the scrawny arms reach back to swipe at her and then collapses in a heap as Ruby's bullet finds the same area already injured from Jake's attack. Chester's Remington goes off and hits the helpless creature finishing it off as it lay helpless on the cellar floor. As he lowers his smoking gun, Chester says, "Was that thing trying to vomit on us? Are you both OK? I've never seen anything like that before." The thought of what the thing might eat makes Jake feel a bit queasy. "Should we ask for a discount on our rent now?" "Heh," Ruby laughs, "Funny." She looks down and examines the slash on her dress. "Dammit," she swears again. "Can you see anything?" Chester gives Jake a dirty look. "Was it a guard animal or something that was supposed to eat us while we slept? Where's this tunnel go anyway?" "No, the door locks from the inside, so it shouldn't have gotten in with the door shut. Then again, it did come up from the ground... I don't know where the tunnel leads, I didn't get that far." "Hey, what happened with Romo? What's the business they had going on?" Chester slaps his forehead. "Damn. I was supposed to get horses, so we could follow them. Romo and Whitaker rode out from the house at dusk. Nanuet and Minerva are following them. I was coming back here to tell you when that thing attacked us. I got to go." After the bug incident Ruby comments, "We have to take a look where that leads. But first I want to check the rest of the house. Damn," she shakes her head as she climbs the ladder. "You know, we could use some of these supplies..." The porch leads to a large parlor in the front of the house, behind which is a kitchen on the left and a room on the right. Stairs on the right side of the house going up to the second floor where there are three smaller bedrooms in the back and a larger master bedroom in the front over the parlor. Ruby checks each room out, not finding anything out of the ordinary. Finally Ruby checks out the master bedroom and the chubby baby making bed by bouncing on it a few times. "This'll do while we have to stay here," she smiles. She stays on the bed for a few moments, fighting off the urge to have a drink while she composes herself. After a few minutes she goes back downstairs to find Jake. "We still have time before dinner, let's check the tunnel again." She starts back down the tunnel, listening cautiously as she slowly makes her way back in. As Ruby starts down the tunnel Jake says, "Hey, want this?" He unties his small travel bag and pulls out the sawed off shotgun. "If you see another one of those bugs it may be more effective." He closes up the bag, grabs a lantern and follows her. "Thanks," she says grabbing the shotgun. "Let's hope we don't find out." They go about 100 feet in and comes across the whole where the creature dug out of the ground. Continuing past that the tunnel continues on it's straight path. She walks cautiously for about 10 minutes without coming across anything other than cobwebs and shadows. ...She looks down and examines the slash on her dress. "Dammit," she swears again. "Can you see anything?" "If you hold it at the proper angle, yes, thanks." Jakes says playfully as he drops the empty shells from his Colt on the floor. "Ugh it smells down here." He moves the remaining enchanted shells from his fast draw pistol to the long barrel pistol so that there is a mix pyrotechnic and enchanted shells in that. He reloads the fast draw with ordinary rounds. While doing so he remembers the map that O'Neil had drawn and tried to recollect if there was a particular symbol on this house and if it related to any other location. After the 10 minutes go by she turns to Jake and asks quietly, "Should we keep going?" "Which way are we headed? Does this go towards the well or Whittaker’s place or where?" They stop and try to figure out their orientation. Jake scratches his chin and looks up and down the tunnel. "We have come this far," he says, shrugs and points ahead down the tunnel. "I have no idea which way we are headed," Ruby smiles, "But it seems like an adventure to me. Let's find out, I'll never get sleep tonight not knowing where this goes." She looks down the tunnel, "Of course, we don't have any supplies with us..." She shrugs, "Ah, who cares, let's go." Ruby continues down the tunnel, keeping Jake close behind her. [/QUOTE]
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"Here There Be Vampires" A Promise City, Arizona Story Hour
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