Session Five: Forgotten
Telling Setakawa and Onan to wait in the car, Karen sneaks back into the parking garage to look for Conroy. Making her way back towards the van and the dealers, she slips up and kicks an empty bottle. It spins into the wall, alerting her presence to everyone in the garage. As the thugs head towards the source of the noise, Karen sees Conroy hiding out behind one of the cement pillars. Knowing that the thugs will come across him before they see her, she decides to confront them head on and give Conroy time to run away.
Pulling out her pistol, she fires and wings one of the thugs. Although surprised, they recover quickly and a pitched firefight quickly ensues. One of the thugs sprays the area with machinegun fire and pegs Conroy several times while he dives for cover. Karen fires and hits two of the goons squarely then ducks back behind one of the parked cars. Conroy, obviously hurt badly, shoots and scores a solid hit on one of the other men. Knowing that they’re out gunned, out numbered, and that Conroy’s nearly dead, Karen breathes deep and charges into the fray. Running forward, she takes a hit, then blasts one of the men down and uses him as cover. The last thug runs to the van to make his escape and Karen stops him cold with a shot through the windshield. After the echo of gunshots subsides, Karen has 4 dead bodies, a van with several boxes still in it and a severely injured friend to contend with. Quickly gathering Setakawa and Onan, they throw the boxes in the car and carry Conroy to the backseat. Speeding away from the scene of the crime, Karen frantically calls Mr. Melt.
Melt tells her that he can meet them at Lenox Hill hospital. As they swerve into the Emergency department, Melt’s car pulls up and Conroy is wheeled away by the paramedics. He’s in bad shape and needs emergency surgery to extract the slugs imbedded in his body. Karen tries to explain the situation to Melt without including any of the supernatural elements, but it just ends up coming out as a confusing mess. He can’t understand why she’d take a middle-aged Japanese man and a financial planner to spy on a drug deal and the more she tries to explain, the worse it gets. Telling her to leave it until tomorrow when they’ll explain it to Claudio, he picks up the boxes from Setakawa’s car and takes them to one of the mob’s warehouses for safe keeping. Then, he drives her back to her apartment and tells her he’ll stay the night to keep an eye out for her protection. He’s angry, confused and the uneasy silence between the two of them on the drive home leaves Karen feeling wracked with guilt.
Stumbling into her bedroom, she’s exhausted but her mind keeps her awake. Smelling flowers again, she opens the lid of the Snapdragon Box and finds another note. Grimly, she unfolds it:
Greetings,
I hope this letter finds you well. I mean you no harm. Whatever ills are befalling you are because of the changes happening on your side. I am not initiating them. The transition will be difficult, but you must persevere. As your awareness increases, you will be able to take hold of the power gathering.
Open the book. Calm yourself completely, flip the pages and see the patterns of things unseen.
I will do my best to protect you from my side, but my influence is distant and weak.
Miller
Angry and sick of the constant barrage of mysteries, she harshly scribbles a note and puts it in the box:
No, this letter does not find me well! Thanks to this otherworldly crap, I’m in a $%@*load of trouble with my family and being watched like a hawk. And I can’t even tell them the truth, which makes it even more suspicious.
Karen
Unable to sleep, she lies in bed and stares at the ceiling, trying to come up with an alibi that she can tell the mob and trying not to think about the people she killed. She needs the right words to get her out of this situation, something she can say to make them believe her. By morning, she’s still unable to come up with anything and packs a bag so she can run away when Melt falls asleep. But he stayed awake all night in the living room and is still watching the apartment, guarding over her.
As the sun rises, Karen groggily heads to the kitchen to get some food. As she does so, Melt looks up at her and suddenly, his eyes widen in surprise. Pulling his gun off the coffee table, he aims it at her, asking her who she is and what she’s doing there. She can’t understand why Melt doesn’t recognize her, and tries to calm him down. She tells him who she is, but he has no recollection of her at all. Looking him in the eye, she can see that he’s completely sincere, that he’d shoot her like a stranger that’s invaded his house. Melt grows more agitated as she tries to explain why she’s there and he throws her out of the apartment, telling her to “go steal somewhere else.” Hastily leaving the building, she can’t understand why Melt has suddenly forgotten her. More things unexplained, ruining her life.
Calling Setakawa, she’s relieved to hear that at least he still knows who she is. He comes to pick her up and listens to her frantic explanation of Melt pulling the gun on her. Although he doesn’t know why this has happened, Setakawa suggests that they consult his ancestors for guidance. They go to a curio shop owned by a friend of Setakawa and perform a ritual at a small shrine that is set up in the back. Setakawa sends forth one of his birds and promises her that when it returns, it will help guide them to their next goal. They decide to visit Onan in the meantime and see how he has recovered from their wild evening.
Onan is still quite tired and has taken the week off of work to reevaluate his work schedule in the face of the supernatural events that have been happening. He takes a closer look at the wounds Karen has suffered and tells her that his spirit totems may be able to help. Taking some cold ashes from his fireplace, he rubs them into the wounds while chanting. Although skeptical at first, Karen is astonished to feel a numbing chill and see the wounds slowly disappear. Her pain and scars are completely gone. Still inspecting the smooth skin where her cuts had been, her cel phone rings and she answers.
Sedrick from the bookstore asks her if she’s feeling better and whether or not she can take an extra shift. She can tell that he’s nervous about something over the phone and tells him that she’ll come by the next day. Hanging up, she tells Onan and Setakawa that they’re going to go pay Sedrick a surprise visit. If the mob or anyone else has gotten to Sedrick, this will be a good way to surprise them. If not, at least they played it safe and looked into it. After last night’s fiasco, she’s not taking any chances.
Parking a few blocks away from Dog-Earred Pages, Setakawa sends forth one of his ancestor birds to spy around the shop before they go in. He’s surprised that for some strange reason, although the bookstore looks normal, it has powerful wards protecting it and making it practically invisible to the supernatural. His birds can’t enter, so they’ll have to go in themselves...
