Problems Amongst Artists The clouds began to gather in intercity, drifted into town and spiral above the rooftops, as the patrons of The Raven's Keep murmured to each other over their drinks. The winds outside began to pick up to a furious pace, rattling the window shutters and causing the awning to flutter about wildly. Charles cautiously approached one of the windows and peered outside, "What a tremendous day this is turning out to be." He nervously took a sip of his new martini, "I wonder if Samuel is still out there trying to paint the trees?" He muttered dryly, "How that man can paint with a stub for hands is beyond me." He stated turning his back to the window. "That is not very nice." Elizabeth gave the actor a hostile scowl, "Samuel is a very good painter. You should not put him down for his..." She paused trying to find a polite way to describe their friend's uniqueness. "Disfigured appearance?" Charles concluded her statement, yet again sipping his drink, "I was not putting the man down. I was just stating how amazing well that man can work. I would have quiet after losing the right eye, but not our Samuel. Nor did he when that circus tiger took both his hands. Knowing the man he probably will not come in until the rain start to run his colours again." He shook his head in stupefied amazement. The air abruptly filled with the sounds of barking dogs and the door hastily burst open. Samuel rushing into the café, slamming the door shut behind him and pushed a chair up against it. He had a wild look to his eyes and was panting heavily as he stared at the door in fearfulness. "Why Samuel! We were just talking about you!" Elizabeth chimed, getting up to give the man a hug when she noticed the tattered condition of his clothes and stopped in mid step, "What happened to you?" She asked aghast at the sight of her friend as she rushed to the man's side, "Your back... it is all cut up." She noted walking around the man in stunned bewilderment. The sound of the barking grew ever so louder and the door began to rattle as the sounds of claws could be heard scratching against the wooden surface, "Poodles." Samuel mumbled as he backed away from the door with fear filling his one good eye, "Tens of circus poodles... all trying to eat me..." His eye widened as something banged at the door at deafening rate and with such force that it shook at its hinges. "Poodles?" Charles said with a chuckle, "You have to be joking dear man." He turned to look out the window to see what he could see, "Why would poodles want to eat y-" The window was suddenly smashed open as a large furry arm reached in and grabbed Charles around the neck. His terrified screams filled the room as a ferocious black bear started to pull Charles through the window. "No - You - Do - Not!" Elizabeth grabbed the actor by the legs and begun a vicious game of tug-a-war with the bear over a broken window. Shards of glass gauging large slash marks across Charles's chest and poured blood down the wall. Many of the patrons screamed in panic and tried to flee to the back of the café when a swirling green light appeared on the ceiling creating a large vortex of green luminosity and darkness. One by one the people found themselves becoming mesmerized by the patterns of light and drew closer to it. ***** Jamie cowered in the corner of her room. She realized too late that something had gone horribly wrong. She had not cast a spell to return her lover; she had opened a door to death itself. A pit of light and darkness had appeared twisting in the centre of her room. A long dark green translucent tentacle arose from the edge of the hole and slithered towards her, followed by several others. She was too frightened to scream so just curled up in her corner where she was trembling in dread as the tendrils of terror came closer. One touched her foot and she pulled it back, trying hard to pull herself into the cracks in her bedroom walls. Quickly, a tentacle took her by the ankle, pulled her off the ground and hung her upside down. The others rose up on all sides of the girl and eyeballs floated to it surface to stare upon her, almost as if they were looking her over with strange curiosity. Jamie gave one of the tentacles a wry smile and wave. The creature seemed provoked by this movement and attacked the girl, tickling her relentlessly under the arms pits, causing her to squeal out in laughter. ***** "I said let. Him! Go!!!" Elizabeth growled in rage. She gave one final mighty heave and pulled Charles free of the bear's grasp, causing the two of them to tumble to the ground. The bear was about to continue after its prey when it noticed the vortex on the ceiling and started to back away. It turned and ran off down the road with the poodles close behind it. Elizabeth rolled out from under the actor's body, "Charles? Charles are you all right?" She turned the man over to find the bear's claws had horribly mauled his chest and glass fragments from of the window jutted out of the gaping wound. She choked on her own vomit as she looked at the foot long slash marks that covered her friend's upper torso exposing his ribs, even his throat had been torn open, "It is not fair." Elizabeth cried collapsing next to the actor pounding at the floor in frustration, "It is just not fair." Samuel tentatively approached the woman, "Beth, we need to get out of here." He said anxiously, while he trying to avert his eyes from the corpse of his friend, "We must flee before we join Charles." "How could you just leave him?" Elizabeth wailed as she reached out to touch Charles's pale blood splattered cheeks, "He was a good man. Probably the only man that I really loved, for he was family and you just want to leave him here?" She turned her angry eyes on the painter. "That is not what I mean." Samuel nervously peered over his shoulder at the spiralling hole above them and then to the growing number of people being drawn in by the light, "I'm just terrified of what might come through that thing if we don't hurry." He gingerly looped his hook hand around her arm and cautiously started to pull her to her feet. "Well, I'm not leaving." Beth stubbornly stated as she tore her arm out of Samuel grasp and plopping lifelessly back down to the floor, "Besides, we can't leave without Jamie. She went to her room a moment ago. She will be even more alone then she already is if we just run off without her." "Fine then." Samuel uttered, shaking his head in doubt that the young lady was still alive, "We will first find Jamie and then we can get out of here." He helped Beth to her feet again and the two started to skirt around the edge of the café, trying hard to avert their eyes from the swirling lights. Samuel made the mistake of looking into the vortex just as a mass of a green tar-like substance began to emerge forming a massive blob hanging from the ceiling that took up a large portion of the room. Many glowing eyes filled the blob and floated to its surface. A couple of eyes caught Samuel's gaze and they all rushed to one side to stare down upon the man with intense interest. He became petrified with fear as he found himself staring into the eyes of such a terrifying creature. Finding Samuel's fear filled eyes of no interest the creature turned all hundred or so of its eyes to look upon Charles's corpse. It reached out one of its tentacles and touched the man's forehead. Slowly, Charles's eyes began to open and he sat upright. "Oh my... what happened to me?" He asked in a daze, rubbing his head, "I have got to stay away from those martinis" He muttered shaking the fog from his head then looking down at his blood soaked body, "What happened to my tux!?! This was the most expensive suit I could afford in all of Paris." He exclaimed as he tried to wipe some of the blood of the front of the suit, not seeming to notices his ribs where showing through the ribbons of cloth, then he reached up to touch his neck and his fingers sunk into the opening, "Where is my tie!?!" He exclaimed in shock. Quickly he started to search the ground for his tie, oblivious to the monstrous creature that hovered behind him. "Charles!!!" Beth cried out, delighted to see your friend moving again, "Charles, your alive!!!" She left Samuel's side in an attempt to reach her friend. The creature's eye's suddenly reeled around to face the woman, yet she seemed ignorant of the fact that the creature was paying any attention to her. Samuel suddenly snapped free of his terror and sprung towards the woman. He planted the stub of his hand against Beth's back and pushed her to the ground. At that very moment a large tentacle, the thickness of a tree trunk, shot out from the middle of the monster's body, it hit the patchwork artist squarely in the chest and crushing him against the shelving behind the café bar, sending bottles of alcohol crashing down from their spots on the shelf. Crimson spat forth from his open mouth, as ever one of his ribs was simultaneously broke under the force of the blow, puncturing both of his lungs, instantly killing the man. Victoria watched in horror from her hiding spot under the bar as the creature released Samuel, letting his lifeless body fall to the glass-covered floor in a heap. It then swung the grotesquely large limb covered with glowing eyes at the other frightened patrons knocking them around like a kitten playing with defenceless mice. **** Jamie grabbed one of the tentacles in her hand sinking her teeth into the fowl thing. It let out an ear piercingly shrill wail and released its grasp on the girl. Freed from the terrible wrath of the tentacles she fell to the ground in a heap. Quickly she sprung to her feet, fumbled with the latch on the door, flung it open the door and fled down the hall. The tentacles swiftly noticed their pry has escaped and regained their composure to make chase. Jamie took a quick peek behind her to see that they were indeed gaining on her. She quickened her pace in hopes to avoid another round of tickling. She turned to face forwards again to found herself at the end of the hall and about to crash into a very large window. She had no time to stop herself as she collided with the window, sending shards of glass twinkling to the street below followed closely by her own body, hitting the ground with a sickening thud. She tried to move only to find that her right arm was twisted in an unnatural position, one of her legs was broken in several places and the other badly sprained at the very least. Just then there was a crash as the blob creature tossed yet another body through the front door. She turned her head to see a carriage coming down the road. The driver madly steered the horses to avoided the flying body only to come trampling towards our poor writer. She didn't even have time to conceive what was about to happen to her as the driver unknowingly rolled over the girl, the wheels of the carriage severing her head from her body at the neck ending the tragic writer's life of suffering. **** To be continued...
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