murderclubhq

[murderclubhq]

hollys-eve​:

The noise was enough to alert her of something bad. As much as she wanted to keep rummaging around in here and find more clues, if she didn’t get out with what she had, this whole thing was a waste of time. She held the VHS tape close, hiding it under her jacket.

Holly looked around for somewhere to hide until she could no longer hear the creek of the staircase. That would be her chance to get out as soon as she could. If a door opened and someone went inside she would leave.

You wait.

The creak at the top of the staircase turns into voices muttering. 

“There’s something down there...” 

“You know you’re not supposed to go past these doors.”

“I know, but what if she’s back...”

The conversation gets hushed and the footsteps continue. After listening long enough, you figure out that they’ve receded back up to where they’ve come from. 

The coast seems clear for you to escape, but you leave wondering whether someone had known that you were there or if that was another ‘she’ they were talking about.

[murderclubhq]

hollys-eve‌:

When the door cracks open the only thing Holly feels is fear. Dread and fear as she realizes the horror of what the church must have been getting up to. These marks were made be someone small and the realization that they were made by children hits them hard and fast. She takes a few quick photos to make sure they have the evidence they need. Jamie will definitely think this is worth a look at. Keeping children captive to the point of them wanting to claw their way out from a secret door? Could religion get any weirder in this town?

If Nancy Drew taught her one thing, it was that there was something important trapped behind a locked door. She pulls a bobby pin from her hair and inserts it into the lock, twisting a few times. Thank God this is a skill she picked up from all those crime books. Who would have thought it would be useful in breaking and entering into a church’s janitorial room. She does her best to keep quiet, making her movements small and careful as to not cause any more suspicion. 

The door pops open and she quickly moves inside.

When you enter the janitor’s closet, you’re greeted with a puff of dust that makes you sneeze. It’s just as dark as the last chamber you unlocked, only there doesn’t seem to be anything odd about it other than the fact that it looks like it hadn’t been used in a while. There’s an eerie emptiness about it despite the clutter, the chemicals on the shelves and dirty towels looking like they’ve just been sitting there for a while. It reeks of ammonia which stings your nostrils. You notice there’s a mop bucket that’s open and exposed, the water murky and the mop saturated like someone had abandoned it mid-task.

When you look inside, you see a video cassette bobbing in the dark liquid. You take that but more bobs to the surface when you lift it. You can’t tell what it is because the sound of a door opening startles you.

There’s a low creek coming from above that sounds like a weight on the stairs you descended.

Quick, what do you do? Stay and try to rummage the rest of the Janitor’s closet or attempt an escape with what you’ve got? 

[murderclubhq]

hollys-eve‌:

Holly stared at the painting for a moment, twisting it in her hands to get the light to shine in every direction. It was a curious thing, strange how it twisted. She repeated it to herself again. “How is a wolf like a mastiff like a dobermann?”

Before she could finish her thought she heard rustling upstairs. Shit. She wasn’t getting out of here anytime soon and it would be better to be inside of a room than some deserted hallway. She thought about the question again before suddenly it clicked into place.

“They all go black when it becomes night.” 

She looked around, unsure what was supposed to happen. Maybe this was when Jesus could down and told her he was real and was going to purge Normal of all it’s sin, staring with the mistake that was Norman Normal of the normal normals. Wishful thinking, really.

The hallway was silent, then slowly, the tick-tick-ticking of something moving could be heard. You panic. It sounds like a bomb that’s about to go off. For a moment, you think that maybe it’d been booby trapped and you’d gotten the wrong answer but the painting shudders and the hiss of a lock releasing quells your fears.

The section of the wall opens up just a crack. When you pry it open, it makes a loud noise that echoes in the chamber behind it. At first glance, all you see is darkness but you can see the faint shine of dark grime coating the wooden walls and pooling in the tiny scratches running down the length of the grain. 

It’s horrifying how much the inside is marred with these grooves. You find them everywhere from the floors to the inside of the door like someone or someones were trying to get out. The scratches stop at about waist level, suggesting that they were made by something small. 

Your observations are interrupted by the sound of footsteps again. 

“Oh it’s probably just the raccoons,” you hear a voice say from up the stairs. Your time is running low and you assume that you’re losing more time before your window for a safe exit is closed.

Do you go in and examine the inside of the chamber or will you move onto the JANITOR’S DOOR or the PILE OF JUNK?

[murderclubhq]

hollys-eve‌:

Holly looked at that painting, curious about the large out of place work as well as the riddle underneath. She studied the door and pealed the painting up to look behind it in hopes of uncovering something else. She wasn’t sure how this painting might link to the door opening but if she’d read enough Nancy Drew books and played a few games it was definitely related to it somehow. 

Now all she had to do was see if there was a device hidden somewhere for her to answer this riddle. Why could nothing in normal ever be easy? Even the churches had cryptic rooms with God/Dog puzzles.

“Alright, Jesus,” Holly whispered, “I’m not sure what you want from me here.”

She just needed to look at the door and painting a little bit more so hopefully she could get in and avoid having to break into a church later tonight. That sounded a lot like fuel for her therapy fire.

As you get closer, you can see the raised ridges of the painting, depicting the patience of the artist who painted it with much love and admiration. It really is a beautiful painting of the night sky. Somehow, the artist has managed to capture so many values of darkness with simple oil paint.

When you tilt your head, you see that there’s more to the painting where the light catches it. It’s not just a night sky, but it’s a night sky with dogs under it. Three dogs, in fact. A wolf, a Mastiff and a Doberman. You wonder for a moment if they really were that colour or if they were only that dark in the night.

“How is a Wolf like a Mastiff like a Doberman?”

You hear a flurry of distant footsteps overhead and assume that mass must be starting, reducing your chances of leaving without notice. You can hear the far away sound of Brother Damien speaking to church goers overhead, announcing the service with much enthusiasm. He’s giving a sermon about the power of vocal repetition to reinforce ones faith in church. What a bore.

[murderclubhq]

hollys-eve‌:

Well that was useless. Or about as useless as it could get. Brother Damien had been far from helpful, only giving her basic information that she could have figured out by herself. He certainly wasn’t getting a highlight in the article she wasn’t writing, that’s for sure. As she exited the office, frustrated beyond words, Holly noticed a dark corridor and a light corridor. Being in the murder club for this long told her that if she wanted to avoid something spooky, she should follow the light and avoid anything that was even remotely pitch black.

But then again, there was hardly anything to be gained from going down the safe road.

Looking around to make sure no one was following her, Holly descended downstairs, curious as to what dark horrors she might find below. Perhaps she would get lucky and a Lovecraftian Old One would come to life and devour her so she didn’t have to live in the Hellscape of Normal for any longer.

As you descend the stairs and into the darkness, you get the sense that you’re entering somewhere you’re not supposed to be but there doesn’t seem to be anything to get in your way aside from creaky stairs. Your path leads into a long, wide corridor and the light that spills into it doesn’t illuminate anything of interest but some junk and a few doors.

The place looks like what you’d expect a church basement to look like. There’s miscellaneous instruments and an old organ sitting among boxes of papers resting among other holy junk. It looks like it could be valuable but it’s so dark that you’re certain that looking through them will cut your investigative time in half.

On the other wall, there’s a large oak door with no lock on it. In fact, you’re wondering how anyone gets in and out of it. When you try to rattle it, it’s heavy and its hinges so solid that it doesn’t make a noise. You realize that the oak must be a front to disguise the reinforcement behind it.

On the front of it is an old oil painting of a night sky with an ornate frame around it. It’s beautiful and innocuous if not a little out of place in a church. A plaque is posted underneath that reads: “How is a Wolf like a Mastiff like a Doberman?”

The last door looks like any other door you may encounter with a knob. When you rattle it, it also does not open. The plaque outside of it says JANITOR.

What do you do? It’s safe to assume that investigating any of these items puts you at risk of being caught and with how noisy the stairs were, you have no clue how long you have before you’re busted. 

Do you take your time and dig through the junk, try to open the heavy door or try the janitor’s door?

[murderclubhq]

PLOT DROP 15 // WET HOT NORMAL SUMMER

With another vanquishing in the books for the Murder Club and Co., the teens had forgotten to check their calendars (and perhaps study for finals). It wasn’t until the group, tired and still drained from what the demon had put them all through, walked into school the next week to see kids emptying their lockers into plastic trash cans put out by the custodians that it hit them—Summer was here.

Harvey was the most thrilled for the last bell for ring since that meant freedom from secondary school forever as well as freedom from Mystery Inc. At least, he thought that until Charlie Matthews handed the boy his graduation gift at the station—a rather nice watch along with the soul crushing extension of his assignment.

“If Violet is going to run around with those friends of hers freely all day then I need you more than ever to keep an eye on her.” 

He was going to need some child leashes.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

No doubt that both sides were annoyed at the sheriff’s orders, but somehow someone convinced the group to show up to graduation and sit in the blistering southern sun to watch Harvey accept his diploma. They may not all be getting friendship bracelets, but the junior deputy was there when the demon was defeated so the least they could do was be there to clap for the guy. They were noisy and squirmed in their seats the entire time (it was a lot like Kaz’s baseball games, but no hotdogs), but they certainly did what they came there to do and that was cheer for their biggest annoyance when he walked across the football field in cap and gown.

After the ceremony, the group insisted on going to their usual stomping grounds for milkshakes and taking Harvey along with them. He tried to refuse, but half the group wanted to bring him to celebrate his big day/be kind while the other half had motives of acquiring a possible discount for the group if Harvey showed up in his graduation gear. It wasn’t clear if he actually agreed or not, but everyone dragged him to the streets chanting “Milkshakes! Milkshakes!” on the walk.

It was actually nice. They had all been so wrapped up in death and trauma and secrets that they were slowly forgetting that they were just teenagers. Strolling down the streets with your peers on a clear and happy day while making jokes about how May Bird tripped on her gown while walking away from the podium was almost therapeutic. For a split second, they were all just high schoolers again.

When Marie’s was finally in sight, the challenge of a race was thrown out before most of the group was sprinting towards the diner and leaving their laughter in the dust behind them. As multiple hands slapped the glass door finish line, an argument broke out on who had gotten there first. While half the group fought over the winner and the other half tried to defuse the situation so they could go in and order already, Violet turned her attention to the trucks and people moving about the large stretch of lawn across the street.

The mayor was out and about instructing workers on where to put stands or set up metal fencing. It was difficult to hear what was going on, but when Violet saw the familiar tall clown mouth door being unloaded from a truck followed by a gaggle of mirrors, she knew exactly what it was.

“Hey, guys.”

The group stopped bickering and turned their attention to the Matthews girl. “I think the carnival is in town.”

OOC //

Direct Interact To Post?: No  Tags: N/A​ Other Parts: N/A Admin Notes: Summer is here and so is the carnival! The coast has been clear of specter’s for about 2 weeks at this point (there’s a time skip), so the group feels safer than they have before. To make up for the other event not being wrapped up yet, we’re just going to go with the logic that everyone just wants to have a good time for once and want to focus on summer instead of all the shitty things that happened with the last demon.  This also counts as an event of sorts, so they group can go to the carnival (which ends, in game, after the Fourth of July). The carnival has the usual works: rides, food, fun houses, carnie shows, games, and all that good stuff.  For the next week, we’re going to encourage doing memes to just have some fun! These can involve starter memes, send x for y memes, or just AU memes. Just make sure if you're sending them as well as reblogging them! We’ll post some in the discord to give people ideas, but feel free to post any from whatever RP blog you want. While this is going on, feel free to make threads about summer, the carnival, etc. while also doing your other threads from the truth or dare demon. Just tag those with “past thread” or something along those lines just so people don’t get confused on what’s going on during what time line. We know this might be a bit confusing, so feel free to keep reaching out if there’s still questions. We know there’s still some stuff left up in the air so it’s hard to proceed, but we’re chill with if someone from the past demon gets brought up in this new story point, but we know it’s gunna change. Basically, we’re just vibin’ so don’t sweat.

[murderclubhq]

hollys-eve‌:

Much of what he was saying were things she already knew, having done a heap load of research during the night to keep herself busy and away from nightmares. That and it was good to be informed about the lion’s den she might have been walking into. She makes sure to write down every bit he mentions about the orphanages. That’s the information she’s here for after all. Anything and everything that might get her a little closer to helping solve the mystery of just where the hell Alfie might be. Kaz deserved some peace of mind.

Three questions. That wasn’t exactly a lot, but it would be a start if nothing else. She flipped through her notebook and tried to find the pieces she thought would be the more pertinent to ask.

“Alright. I’ll do it a bit rapid fire then, so it makes things easier for you. I’d hate to keep you away from such important work. First question: what was the orphanage shut down?” It was likely she was going to get some bullshit answer but at least it would help her determine if there was anything suspicious going on. 

“Question two: what do you think the biggest regrets the church has? No one is perfect except God, after all, even those striving to be in his image.”

The last question. She contemplated pulling out the picture but the odds of him having any idea what it was about was low. Especially when she was worried he might end up snatching it away from her. For now that would stay securely tucked away in her pocket.

“Can you tell me a little bit more about the child who essentially started the orphanage, who’s parents died? I haven’t heard about that before and getting some history on the orphanage could prove interesting for my article. Did his parents pass away tragically? Do you happen to remember his name?” She hoped that a few questions lumped together about a specific point wouldn’t be too much. It technically was more than three questions but it was all about the same incident. All she wanted to know what exactly how the orphanage got founded.

“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your help with this.” A complete truth. If nothing else she might be able to use what he said as a hopping off point before she broke into some files.

Brother Damien looks a little uneasy. You aren’t sure whether it’s the roaring heat in the room or if his discomfort was brought upon by your questions but he smiles politely enough to disregard the way he reached for a handkerchief in his desk to dab his meaty face.

“It was shut down in the early ‘70s due to some... controversy with the staff. It was different times then, as you may know, but I promise, things are much better now than they’ve ever been,” he says, fidgeting with his hanky. He sounds at ease when he talks of religion, his voice carrying with it a sense of hope and optimism.

“I suppose our biggest regret is not spreading the good word of the Lord to everyone in Normal. There are still quite a few noisy members of our community who object salvation, but we do the best that we can and it’s all the Lord can ask of us. They’ll come around in due time, I’m sure of it.”

Brother Damien looks content with his answer. You get the sense that he has a lot of pride in his work and truly believes in the Church and his religion. He looks a little worried about the following question, or maybe just apologetic. He chuckles inappropriately but with the way he’s sweating, it’s easy to dismiss it as nerves.

“Well, it was far before my time so I’m not sure of the particular details but presumably, all parental deaths are a bit tragic, don’t you think?” he says, voice rising with a means to bring some levity to the situation as your time comes to an end. 

“That’s all I have time for today. Hopefully, that’s given you some insight for your article. I’d be very happy to provide you more answers at a different date but I must get to my duties now.”

With that, he dismisses you from his office. You have a choice now to WANDER THE CHURCH or GO HOME. As you exit the door, you see a dark corridor that leads you to what you can only assume is DOWNSTAIRS while further down the hall is a lit corridor that leads you UPSTAIRS. What do you do?

[murderclubhq]

jamieslut666‌:

Muffy didn’t think she was prepared for what was about to happen when she stepped foot in that club room, but she never expected one of the things to occur would be Fubric speaking. Muffy blinked a few times and rubbed her eyes. When the thing still seemed to be leering and whispering to her, Muffy stuck a pinkie in her ear to make sure she wasn’t just hearing things. She was hoping to find some sort of obstruction to her hearing in there, but when she saw Kaz and Jamie’s face she knew it wasn’t her senses deceiving her.

“Alright, you’re not really Jamie! I’ve calculated how wide his smile it from pictures and it’s 3.2 inches!” she yelled at the ‘Jamie’ hallucination. Demon or no demon, she knew her mans.

The stares the the room is giving her quickly evaporate any confidence she had in the moment. It was chilling to look at her classmates staring at her like kindergarteners about to tear a rag doll apart. The Murder Club all looked uglier than usual. 

As she looked back at them all, Muffy took a deep breath before spewing the truth out. Her face was serious as could be as she spoke.

“I’m here because Jamie and I are going to get married, but he’s dating a Cabbage Patch Kid so I’m trying to prove I can be the rightful queen of darkness. Jamie and I are going to retire to Salem, Massachusetts in a Georgian style home where I’ll write vampire/mothman hybrid YA novels and he will sage the house and make me lentil soup whenever I read a 3 star Amazon review of my work.” She took a break from speaking, looking out and examining everyone’s faces for a reaction. “Also… my only friend got a snatched waist overnight and dumped me so I really wanted people to hangout with.”

The room erupts into laughter at your story, even Fubric whose tinny voice has distorted into something made only in nightmares. The windows snap shut, bouncing on its hinges like chattering teeth while the curtains flap like banners marking its victory.

It’s chaos and noise, lights flickering on and off like lightning or a parade. It’s all for you, the queen of all fools. 

You blink and everything looks normal again, the room as warm as it’d always been with so many bodies in it. The club all looks at you, stunned at the abrupt interruption. A gentle breeze blows in through the window, not nearly enough to cool the flames you’ve stoked.

The silence is deafening.

Jamie’s the first to react, his expression hardening like steel. He grabs you by the arm and pulls you to the door only to shove you out of it. “And stay out,” he barks and slams the club room door behind you.

It’s loud like a gunshot. You might’ve assassinated your only chance to have friends but at least it’s all out there now.

[murderclubhq]

screamqvccn‌:

Edwina goes wide eyed, quickly spitting out the eclair and jumping to her feet. She doesn’t even care about the searing pain she’s going to feel once it hits her how much pressure she was putting on her leg right now, the adrenaline coursing through her is only making her think of survival.

As she watches the seams slowly pluck open on the the lion’s mouth, Edwina’s mouth gapes horrified. This can’t be happening. When the cross hits the ground, Edwina yelps and grips at the hair on her scalp. Perhaps maybe shutting her eyes tight will make it all go away, but the giggling won’t go away.

“FUCK YOU!” she screams, shaking her head, “I DID YOUR DARE AND YOU BROKE MY LEG NOW LEAVE ME ALONE!!”

Edwina knows what’s coming. There’s no other truth eating away at her than the secret she’s been keeping in the back of her closet.

“Kaz, it’s here. It’s here right now.” her voice shakes as Edwina backs herself into the corner of her room. She continues to sob and yank at her locks as she tries to get as physically far from her lion and the blood staining her bedspread as possible. Edwina knows she can’t say no to this thing again or else she’s going to get it again. Knowing she’s going to have to do what it says is more fear inducing that the nightmare happening in her room right now.

“Please… please just give me a dare instead. Please, I’ll do anything.”

The lion giggles at your torment, its tiny plush nubs wiggling in delight. “See, but you lied and broke your leg which makes me think you need another lesson!”

Its voice is so childish that it’s unnerving. You’re being lectured by a cartoon animal-gone-rogue. You hate the way it affects you while sounding like Fivel. “Lesson number one, honesty is the best policy!” it sings.

You feel betrayed by the way Kaz seems to have frozen with it in his hands, an unwitting pedestal for it to taunt you, his smile taking on a malicious glint.

“Isn’t it only fair that you tell him what happened at prom first before asking? That’s the game we’re playing now, right?” 

The lion claps its paws, chanting ‘fairness’ like it’s the word of the day.

“Come on.” It’s Kaz now, his golden smile stretched beyond the limits of his cheeks. He sounds so much like him that you’re almost caught off guard. “Tell me, Edwina, what’d you really do at prom? You said we weren’t going to keep secrets from each other anymore, didn’t you?”

[murderclubhq]

jaspermalek‌:

Jasper wanted nothing more than to break free from this nightmare. This girl he cared for toying with him in a way that’s so unholy he can feel a chill run up and down his spine. The smell made him sick, the food spilling from the microwave makes his whole body lurch forward as his hands begin to shake. Whatever this thing is it was bringing out a side of him he worked through years of therapy to fix, to control, to not let take over his life.

But the anxiety of this moment was a trigger so intense he could feel himself crumpling under the weight of her.

“I have to check everything before I leave the house. My moms curling iron, the water taps in the house, the lights. If I don’t make sure everything is turned off three times I can’t leave the house. I’ve been late to school before because of it. I have to check on my siblings multiple times a day and if they don’t answer I get worried and…”

Her touch was too much, too tight, bad and terrible and unwanted. Jasper pushed her away and stumbled backward trying to get control of his thoughts. A flood of intrusive thoughts overwhelmed him.

What if someone had broken into his house while he was gone and hurt his mother and sisters?

Did he lock the door?

Was the garage closed?

Had he checked the padlock on the gate and the backdoor?

“I order things to help reduce the anxiety.” It was a reminder to himself that if he could just get back under control of this with a temporary relief than things would be okay. He saw a stack of her books and sat beside them, taking a deep breath as he moved them around my length of title. “That’s it, okay? That’s all. Leave me and Mariana alone, please?”

Mariana’s cackle takes on a haunting echo that seemed to fill the room a the lighting intensified, her eyes hollow like a marionette.

“How pathetic. You’re just a baby. A wittle, simpering baby,” she says condescendingly, trailing after you as you tidy her books. She prances to the table and picks up one before knocking down the rest, rupturing your need for order. “Does it kill you not to have your ducks in order?”

You have no control in the house. She proves this by opening up the book and tearing out a page. Her laughter rings in your ears as she makes a show of the chaos, Margaret Atwood’s literature now confetti to her sadistic parade. 

“Rock a bye baby, on a tree top. When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,” she sings while upending her own furniture, flipping pillows and knocking over chairs in a shameless display of petulance. It’s a tune that will stay in your ears for a while. You bury your face in your hands to drown it out.

By the time you look up again, everything is as it was. Mariana is where she had been, your Tupperware neglected in the microwave.

[murderclubhq]

hollys-eve‌:

Given her current track record in normal and how terrifying all inhabitants were proving to be, Holly was reluctant to follow him inside a space she didn’t know in a church she didn’t completely trust. But somewhere private meant potentially an office which meant archives if Brother Damien proved to be useless in her endeavors.

“How about we go to the office. I don’t want everyone around to hear what you’ve got to say before I even get my article to print.” Holly followed him to the office, sitting down awkwardly before pulling out her notebook and turning on the recorder in her pocket, carefully hidden just in case he wanted anything off the record.

She pretended to flip through her notes before settling on the only question that really mattered to her. “So I did some research and I found out there used to be an orphanage here. I think that’s really admirable. I was an orphan before my adoption so hearing I’d love to know more about that part of St. Paul’s history.”

Just a little strum on someones heart strings. Hopefully if he wasn’t some monster in disguise the mention of her parental yeeting would be enough to make him more willing to open up.

Brother Damien relaxes into the chair behind the office desk. It looks far more cluttered than you would have imagined the back office of a Catholic church to be. About his desk are various scattered items - a Normal Ghouls coffee mug, a plastic dog bobblehead toy, stacks of Excel spreadsheets, a Bible (of course), a few of those Virgin Mary candles... It’s a mess, but a very North Carolina Catholic mess.

“Oh yes, the St. Paul Mission for Children of the Divine. A lengthy name, to be sure, but perhaps that’s why it was shut down ultimately. Branding must have been a nightmare.” He smiles at you, anxiously straightening some of the items upon the desk. The dog toy’s head bobbles as he scoots it an inch to the right. It’s clear that Brother Damien is not used to being interviewed, but you aren’t sure whether his nerves are sketchy or endearing.

“Well, I’m sure an astute journalist like yourself is already well-versed in our town’s humble history,” he begins. “St. Paul’s was actually not the first church established in Normal, but it has been the longest lasting. While the town was founded in the late 1500s, our little church came to be about fifty years or so afterward when an Italian scholar joined this humble English settlement. Paul the Apostle - or Saint Paul, historically, is the patron saint of missionaries and theologians, and we were set up with such ideas in mind.

“The orphanage began as something closer to a school. You could compare it to a modern day Sunday school, with the goal of teaching children the word of God. It’s mostly legend and conjecture after all these years, but it’s believed that the orphanage truly came to be after the tragic death of a students’ parents. With nowhere left to go, he found salvation in the church, and thus began the clergy’s goal of housing any children who found themselves in destitution. Until, of course, it was shut down in the early ‘70s.” 

He glances at an old cuckoo clock hanging on the wall. “If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them to the best of my ability. I do have some seminarian duties this afternoon, but since we’re hiding back here, I think we have time for about three questions before they find me.” 

Because you opted to speak in the office, Brother Damien has given you the opportunity to ask him THREE QUESTIONS. You have three chances to get the information you want from him. What do you ask?

[murderclubhq]

mariana--diaz‌:

The way he said the dog’s name, and the tug on the collar was the all information she needed about how this conversation was going. He didn’t want to be here, and regardless of how captivating she might be to some, he wasn’t being fooled by her good looks. That meant she’d have to step her game up, find a way to eventually touch him to get him to let his guards down a bit. Break some walls. When Sassy finally rolled onto his stomach and then stood up, Mariana followed. She got up out of the kneeling position she had been in and dusted off her pants as she gave Harvey a simple nod. 

She was definitely going to have to try harder. “I’ll see you at school then. I wasn’t lying when I said I’ll save you a seat in newspaper. You’ll probably be able to hear a bit better too, if you stop standing in the back of the room.” Her shoulders shrugged slightly, as if to leave him with something to mull over as he began to walk away from her. As she stepped back into the street to continue on with her run, mentally scolding herself for not succeeding in her plans to have him bend to her ever will, she heard her phone ping.

It was muscle memory, to lift the screen up and check who had texted her. But when she saw the incoming message her stomach dropped. Fuck. Not here. Not again. Looking up from her phone to see if anyone had noticed, she contemplated just ignoring it. That wasn’t going to happen, not with how incessantly the unknown force was texting her. With a huff she responded, figuring there’s no way a truth would be as bad as a dare, not right now. What did it want her to tell Harvey? That she wanted to fuck him? Yeah it’s not like that wouldn’t be something she could come back from.

Except the response back she had gotten wasn’t something she could do. Everyone knew how close Harvey and his friends had been. She could see how their death’s had changed him, and if she said anything remotely negative about them, there was no way she’d be able to carry on with her plan. It’d be game over, and that was not something she was going to let happen. Biting her cheek, she thought for a second before sending her response. Hesitating before hitting the send button. 

“No.”

Mariana was defiant, but boy was she a fun person to play with.

The phone was clear of messages now, aside from a few from Bryce and one from her mother tell her to get milk. Sassy, however, was growling at Mariana and tugging violently at his leash. His low snarls quickly turned into barking as the dog made hard lunges forward. Sasquatch was putting up a fight to get loose until it finally pulled hard enough to send Harvey falling backwards onto his rear. Before Harvey could snatch the leash again, Sassy was pouncing.

Sasquatch jumped on Mariana like she was filet mignon in a windbreaker and began to bite at her arm. With how hard his teeth sank down into her and broke skin, you would have thought that Mariana has abused the dog. The attack came out of no where and it only continued when Sassy bit into her exposed shoulder. Blood trickled down and began to stain the ground below Mariana. 

Perhaps it was the demon trying to give her a taste of her own medicine. This must be how that guy felt when she bit him, only Sasquatch wasn’t wearing a push up bra like she had been.

[murderclubhq]

hollys-eve‌:

violet-matthews‌:

“Holly, it’s okay. There was legitimately no way you could have been there for me. No one even knew I was there,” Vi was quick to reassure, ignoring Holly’s words about if she needed to talk. She didn’t. Not quite yet. Her actual time at Our Lady had been uneventful, but thinking about that previous weekend only reminded her of what had gotten her put into that place in the first place. And that one was still a tricky topic. Until the dust had truly settled, she was pretending like it hadn’t happened and avoiding any reminders of it.

“I’m good, actually,” she insisted then, setting the offered cup down in favor of giving her full attention to seeing what she’d missed. Because apparently it was a lot.

“You did what?!” she asked as soon as Holly confirmed that she had, in fact, set her house on fire. “Holly! Is everything okay? Your moms… are they good? Did you figure out a way to loophole it? Are we talking a trashcan-sized fire or?” She kept firing off question after question, but they all felt like important ones to be asking.

Without even really waiting for answers, Vi pushed forward, determination evident in her tone. “Truth or dare has to stop. We need to stop it. It has gone entirely too far.” The demon could crush her relationship with her dad like it was a weak little bug, but between Holly setting her home aflame and Jamie being pushed to drown himself, she’d had enough. People were really going to start dying soon.

It didn’t matter that she couldn’t really have been there for her friend, what mattered is that she wasn’t. Come hell or high water Holly knew that she wanted to be right beside Violet fighting whatever demons came her way. That was the point of a friendship like theirs, the kind you get when you’ve never felt that kind of love and connection you could have for another human before. Whatever kind of pain her friend was experiencing, Holly wanted to rip it from her shoulders and offer to carry that burden together.

But Violet wasn’t ready, which was okay too. So she gave her coffee and pulled the old blanket from the back of the couch and draped it around her. 

Slightly overwhelmed by the questions, Holly did her best to answer them. “Everything is okay, for the most part. No one was home when I did it. I god dared and the thing threatened to kill me and Edwina so I had to do it. I tried to start a small fire in my living room with candles and it worked a little too well. I um, didn’t realize how triggering flames can be for me. I ended up freezing instead of running out and Edwina called the fire department so I spend the weekend in the hospital on oxygen. I didn’t burn down my whole house. It’s only the living room that’s a mess so I would have out smarted it if I hadn’t freaked out. Maggie’s wants to sue the candle company and Lizzie is upset about her antique rugs but other than that everyone’s okay.”

“We do,” she agreed. If there was one thing everyone in the club could agree to at this point it was that stopping this life or death game of truth or dare needed to stop as soon as possible. “This whole thing sucks and I’m really tired of watching my friends almost die and/or traumatize themselves.”

When Holly-Eve finished her sentence, her face became demented like the night that thing had visited Violet and Charlie. ‘Holly’ laughed at Violet as if it was waiting for her to join in. In some sick way, it thought of them as old friends. Violet was one of its favorites now considering she played along so well last time.

“You want to stop me, Violet?” it whined, “Well the game is only over when I say it is! Just try to stop me. I dare you.” ‘Holly’ cackled in her face. “Just kidding! You already had a dare, Violet. Oh no, you’re getting truth, friend! I like to shake my games up. I get bored soooooo easily. I just have to change things up, but you know a lot about that don’t you?”

‘Holly’s’ head began to tilt to the side as she continued to look at Violet with wild eyes. When her neck should have naturally stopped moving, the girl’s head continued to tip until a SNAP broke the silence and a bone tried breaking through the skin. “Always hopping from friend group to friend group... Everyone says you’re so brave, but just how fearless could you be when you won’t even talk about your mother?”

Holly-Eve’s face was, unexpectedly, resting naturally once more. Had Violet triggered something for it to go away? When it seemed for a split moment that the thing had ran off, something called her from behind.

“Tell her why you really never had friends until now.” Mrs. Matthews (or whatever she was going by now) stood in the same outfit Violet had last seen her in before walking out on her family. The grotesque smile on her face let Violet know that this wasn’t really her back for her daughter, but there was something still very unsettling about the hallucination. 

“You’re not so brave as you pretend to be, Violet.” another voice joined in. Suddenly, a swarm of Violet’s mothers circled around the two girls.

“Tell her how I ruined you and your father.” they all demanded collectively as they continued to glare at the blonde. “Tell her, Violet. Tell her.”

[murderclubhq]

jaspermalek‌:

It was nice to be talking to her like friends again. Jasper hadn’t had that opportunity in awhile and he was grateful for it. He was beyond grateful for it.

Right up until Mariana’s mouth started moving in a distinctly not Mariana way.

Sweet cheese and rice on crackers again? Now? Well her certainly wasn’t about to eat a spider in front of anyone, let alone Mariana. He loathed to know what the hell this thing had in mind for another dare so instead he rattled his brain.

“Um….truth. Truth is what I pick.” he wondered if what Mariana saw right now was some idiot talking to themselves, like a rambling sociopath in her midst. What could he possibly have to say to his friend that would be worse than the spider incident. “So you know how we were just talking about seeing things? Pretty sure I see the thing, right now, talking through your mouth which is incredibly distressing.”

Mariana giggles, sounding pitchy and girlish in a way you’ve never heard before. It’s almost juvenile the way she laughs, her voice disconnected from how maniacal her face had gotten. She smooths her hands down the lapels of your jacket and sidles up close. You smell her perfume and something else distinctly rotten. 

When you look at the microwave, you see the food you’ve brought overflowing from its container, bubbling and viscous. It oozes out from under the door, dripping down from its perch and onto the counter. The sauce is red, but it doesn’t look like the tomato paste and saffron. It’s darker. Bloody. You swear you see eyeballs bobbing in your tupperware.

“Oh Jasper, you’re so silly,” she chides, pouring herself onto you. “How long are you going to pretend you don’t want me? It’s cute how hard you try but I like honesty in my men.”

She has you in her arms now, her grin boring into your soul. “And you’re an honest man, aren’t you? So what are you afraid of?”

Her voice is sickly sweet when she coos at you. You get the feeling you’re being toyed with but you can’t seem to dislodge her hold. “Tell me, Jaspy baby, tell me all about your compulsions.”

[murderclubhq]

hollys-eve‌:

Startled by his presence, Holly nearly jumped back before relaxing just enough and offering him a half smile. As much as she loathed to be here, this was the place that Jamie said had some answers. As much as she detested the use of the word client for Kaz, someone who was their friend, her more than friend, and prat of their club, the fact that she had been trusted with this was important enough to not blow it immediately.

“Oh, no. No confession. I actually had a few questions for you. My name is Holly and I actually work for the Normal High Newspaper. I’ve been meaning to do an article about important areas of local history and I figured the church would be the best place to start since it’s the epicenter of our community. Is there any chance you’d be willing to allow me to interview you about the past, present, and future of such an important monument.” Holly gave him her best smile, the kind she always saw Maggie giving that charmed even the most cold hearted of individuals. Hopefully this would work and she wouldn’t have to go break into the archives of the church.

Worst case scenario she had her own orphan card up her sleeve she could pull out for a sympathy play. Hopefully the holy man wasn’t stone cold.

Brother Damien looks at you like he can tell you don’t smile like this very often. His eyebrows are raised in a way that suggests you might look more like an axe murderer than sweet, bubbly Maggie. Nevertheless, he succumbs to your requests easily, with his own jovial grin. 

“Absolutely! I always have time for a child of God,” he says, splaying his hands out to his sides in a cartoonish gesture of welcoming. “The church doesn’t nearly get enough press these days. We love any chance to reach more young minds. Would you like to conduct the interview here? We also have an office through that hall back there if you’d like to sit somewhere comfortable.” He motions behind you, to a hallway jutting off from the right of the main foyer.

The choice is yours: a short interview where you stand so that you might have an easy getaway if Brother Damien proves to be all surface level OR a more intimate space that will be harder to escape from, but might invite Brother Damien to share better information.

[murderclubhq]

hollys-eve‌:

Holly stood outside the church, studying the architecture like perhaps underneath that was the reason that little boys and girls were going missing in the woods and her boyfriend was currently suffering an affliction of the decidedly supernatural variety. When had her life gotten so bizarre? Some days she longed to go back to the easiness of writing about what might be in the mystery meat (turkey neck) and how likely it was they would lose in the next big sports event (very). But in many ways, this felt infinitely more fulfilling. At least now she felt like she was doing something.

And this was certainly something.

The topic of orphanages was not Holly’s favorite one. Her time back in Florida was not remembered well but she recalled at least the feeling of constant misery that had accompanied her back then. Everything in her self preservation screamed at her to turn tail and run. Get the hell out of Normal before it swallowed her whole. Be her parents to go on another adventure to somewhere hunting monsters that probably weren’t real.

She walked forward and entered.

This was her first time entering St. Pauls. It seemed underwhelming for how much people went. But then again she had never really understood the appeal of church. Not that she would be telling anyone about that right now.

Holly took a deep breath and looked around, hoping for find something that might guide her in the right direction.

@murderclubhq​

Even for a small town like Normal, the Catholics had a way of outdoing themselves. The small foyer at the front of St. Paul’s opens way to the heart of the church, a grandiose display of stained glass, rosewood pews, and golden iconography. Despite its age, everything is kept polished and pristine, a far cry from the poorer sections of town that you’ve become accustomed to. The only betrayal of the church’s years is the floor of the aisle, well worn by a town caught up in religious praxis.

Before you can venture forward, you are greeted by a stranger. A portly man, he looks about as old as your parents. He smiles at you, kind and welcoming.

“Hello!” he says, the cassock he wears betraying him as a member of the church staff. “I’m Brother Damien. You’re a new face I haven’t seen before. Are you here for confession?”

[murderclubhq]

mariana--diaz‌:

jasper

“Alright, alright, I’m just saying that I do occasionally worry. I can’t help it,” he smiled gently. Where in the world was Mariana running around to up in North Normal? It wasn’t really any of his business in the long run but he couldn’t help but admit he was certainly curious about where she might be and what she might be up to in the middle of the night. Maybe she was out haunting bars with a fake idea. “Well I’m glad I came by at the right time. I’ve missed you.”

The newspaper club was a group Jasper had been watching for a little bit, trying to figure out what made them tick. So far all he had put together was the sheer chaotic energy that radiated around the room and made even the most positive of people incredibly nervous. It was like walking into a tigers den but instead of wanting to eat you they might rip out your heart and use it in a purging demonic sacrifice.

“If I try to get in will you be willing to vouch for me?” He teased. “Maybe since I helped Edwina with the broken leg situation they’ll be willing to let me in. I’ve proven I can be useful and not just another haunting mystery to solve.” 

Jasper hummed. “You mean have I seen Sue-Ann’s mom since prom? I um…I haven’t seen her but I saw something that didn’t feel right. What about you?”

It had been a while since the two had spoken, literal months, but Mariana did appreciate the fact that Jasper cared enough to check on her. Regardless of the fact that it had been so long since they had hung out. So she gave him a soft smile. It wasn’t used to mask her true feelings, or seduce him in anyway. It really was just a smile, a soft, silent thank you to him for always keeping her in the back of his mind. Even when she wasn’t doing the same for him. “Yeah, I’m glad you came by too. I do appreciate it.”

She playfully rolled her eyes at his question before giving a short nod. “Yeah, I’ll vouch for you. But I also don’t know how much my word will go for in that group. I’m still new to it, and I don’t think they all trust me yet. Honestly the only reason I’m still probably around is because I was at that prom after party and saw more crazy shit go down.” She also wouldn’t be surprised if they let her stay around because they wanted to find out more about her. Keep your friends close and all that shit.

“Just anything. Not even her. Everyone’s freaking out about this truth or dare game, but like, has anything even happened yet?”

JASPER

Aw, how sweet. You bring your old friend some leftovers to check on her and so far, she seems receptive of your offer. It’s disarming how simple it is between you two at the moment. You, pathetic weasel outside her door. Her, hot weasel, always keen on a bite. 

She asks you an innocuous question, her fluttering lashes and casual banter lulling you into security. You answer, of course. Everything is right.

Then out of the corner of your eye, you see a glimpse of red over her shoulder. A crimson flash that draws your attention. You stutter and look at it closer and the whole room behind her is glowing ominously like a flame hidden in a dungeon, back lighting her in red. Her angelic, beautiful face takes on a new light, literally. She still looks like an angel but one no longer in heaven.

“What’s wrong?” Mariana asks coquettishly, her expression sharpening at all edges like a knife. She’s no longer sweet but deadly, her smile a surgeon’s blade eviscerating you.

“You look like you want to play a game.” She leans towards you, her blouse falling open to display her chest. She touches your chin with a finger.

“What about... truth or dare?”