August 21, 2016

Pure Human - Shadow Caster

[Posted by Ted H]

Big move day is coming. Prepare for delays...

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[Pure Human - Shadow Caster]

            "I can't identify any of this," Kimberly said as she continued to stick her hands in the human gelatin. "Anyone tell you lately you're a little gross sometimes?" Blake asked, not fazing Kimberly in the slightest. "I've touched worse things," she said "But yeah, I can tell you this is human, uh, stuff, but judging with my own eyes, I can't tell what it's from...but it is squishy."
            Blake was about to say something when he heard John screaming "Blake! Fading man! Right now!" Blake stood up while Kimberly gave him a puzzled look. "What's a fading man?" she asked as Blake helped her up and they stepped out of the chamber. "You need to leave, now," Blake said as he stepped out and strained himself to look out into the hall. "What are you looking for?" Kimberly asked as Blake pulled her with him into the hall.
            "Blake?" John called from the other end of the hall. "Where is he?" Blake called out. "One of the chambers, I dunno which!"
            "Right," Blake said as he dug into his pocket for his lighter. He also reached into his coat for what looked like a blue piece of chalk. He pinned the chalk in his left hand with his thumb and ignited the lighter with his right hand. "I don't see anyone," Kimberly said as Blake stood in front of her and raised the lighter. He extended his left hand behind the flame, keeping the chalk almost touching the fire. With that, a blue hue was cast forward, extending throughout the hall wherever Blake was aiming it.
            Blake panned around the hallway until a dark shadow appeared against a wall deeper into the hall. "What the hell is that?" Kimberly asked as everyone looked to the empty space where the shadow was occupying. "Shadow Caster," Blake said "Nifty little trick. Casts a light that hits everything, seen and unseen. It won't illuminate the unseen, but if it's here, it'll cast a shadow."
            The faded man, unseen to everyone in the hallway, walked towards Blake, who kept casting his light to match the location. Kimberly broke from Blake and ran to John, who had his gun drawn, though he questioned its current need or effectiveness. By time he reached Blake, he was absorbing the brunt of the generated light, casting a large and imposing patch of darkness behind him on the hall.
            "Blake, get out of there!" John called. Blake smirked, but did not move. Instead he closed his lighter and pocketed it and the chalk. "We're fine," he said "We can't touch him and vice versa."
            "You sure about that?" John asked.
            "I'm...Pretty sure?"
            "Oh my God!" a voice cried out from behind where John came in. "Oh, no," Blake said while making a face "Did you invite Whitey?"
            "I didn't invite anyone!" John protested as Blake marched over to him "She just showed up. Said she was tracking you."
            "Fan-freakin-tastic," Blake said as he kept walking.
            "I knew he'd be annoyed," John said.
            "Wait," Kimberly said as Blake and John walked away "What about Mr. Invisible over there?" Blake shrugged. "He's just scenery right now," he said "Just don't fall asleep...or be alone in a dark room with him." Kimberly quickly ran to catch up.

August 14, 2016

Pure Human - Attempted Arson

[Posted by Ted H]

At this point I realize my already written material is almost caught up to where I am right now...

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[Pure Human - Attempted Arson]

            John and Bryant returned to the parking lot so Bryant could retrieve the rest of his gas. The early morning sun was already being hidden behind some ominously dark storm clouds that were quickly moving in from the west, the brunt of them still approaching from the distance. "I know you don't want me to do this," Bryant said "So why allow me? Is it because your friend holds the leash?" John rolled his eyes. "I used to be a cop," he said "I know six different tactics off the top of my head to detain you, some of which I don't even need to use my gun for."
            "Then what?" Bryant asked, intrigued.
            "Then I'd call the police and have you arrested for attempted arson."
            "But you won't will you?"
            "I never said I wouldn't. I just need to make sure Blake has enough time to investigate. Once I call the police, they'll be all over this place and no one will be able to investigate."
            "And once he's done with that? Will you try to stop me then?"
            "No. I plan to do it much sooner." John then pulled his gun out.
            "Threatening my life won't work," Bryant said plainly "I already want to die."
            "I never said I'd kill you," John said as he raised his arm slightly to take aim and shoot Bryant in the left foot." Bryant screamed and fell over as blood gushed out of him. "You crazy son of a fucking whore!" he screamed. "I've been called worse," John said as he casually walked to his car to get a pair of handcuffs. Bryant meanwhile was trying to hobble his way back into the office so he can either hide or blow it up, he wasn't yet sure of which. John was easily able to catch up though, and dragged him to his own car and handcuffed his arms behind his back with the cuffs threaded through a door handle.
            John patted him down and retrieved his lighter and key card and tossed them aside. "You won't be needing either of these, right?" he asked as he heard approaching footsteps. At first he figured they were either Blake or Kimberly, but they were coming from the wrong direction. He spun around, pistol ready, when he realized who it was. "Lena," he said as he lowered his gun "What are you doing here?"
            Lena looked more pale than usual, and she kept her one hand pressed to her side. "You aren't hard to find," she said "I can sense the demon power in your buddy's coat. It's just a matter of following." Bryant's cries for help caught Lena's attention. "Who is that?" she asked. "As far as I know?" John said "The last living person responsible for all this." Lena's eyes went wide as she stormed around John to Bryant and looked him over.
            "You shot him?" she asked. "He was looking to burn down this building and all proof of his crimes with it...and himself," John responded.
            "So you shot him?" Lena asked, baffled "What gives you the right?"
            "Spare me," John said "Not all of us can do funny tricks, or have God given powers."
            Lena looked like she was about to respond, but didn't. Instead she placed a hand on Bryant's shot foot, bowed her head and started praying. "You know," John said "If Blake were here, he'd call you out on following us around despite you constantly threatening us not to do the same thing to you." Lena stopped praying a moment to regard John. "Well it's not like you two actually honored my threat, so I don't see the problem," she said before going back to praying.
            "Not quite the same," John said "What are you even doing?"
            "Healing him," Lena responded without looking up. Bryant had remained silent throughout the whole conversation.
            "So long as you don't let him go," John said as he walked to return to the office building.
            "Where are you going?" Lena asked.
            "There is no way you're going in there before Blake knows you're coming," John said. Instead of waiting for a response, he continued on his way inside and back down to the complex. Once back in the control room, he noticed the computer with the camera feed on it was back working. "I'm getting used to the rotting corpse smell this place has taken on," he said to himself as he walked to the computer "I don't know if that's good or bad."
            He shifted from camera to camera until he found Blake and Kimberly in one of the chambers, both kneeling over a pile of human waste. The feed's view setting was different as it wasn't a regular view, but colored differently. Blake and Kimberly lit up with bright colors to indicate where they were, almost like thermal vision. The pile of human waste left behind by the test subjects after becoming the creature also lit up, but the rest of the room remained black.
            John wasn't interested in the awkward view, so he tried to set the camera to a more normal view setting. He clicked what he could, but he found he could only switch to different cameras. He switched from view to view, trying to see something besides empty test chambers when something different caught his eye. Another figure lit up the screen, in darker colors than the others, and he walked into view before walking through a wall in the direction of the chamber Blake was in. "Oh shit!" John said as he jumped away and ran for the door in the direction of Blake.

August 7, 2016

Pure Human - The Melrose Theory

[Posted by Ted H]

Holy hell, remember this story?
I'm not sure if I'll have anything right for next week since I'm prepping for a move. We'll see. But in case I got nothing, I leave you with a pretty long bit...

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[Pure Human - The Melrose Theory]

            They waited outside for another hour, John not in the mood to smell the inside of the building any more than he needed to. They talked about random things, as if anything from last night didn't happen, and ultimately argued over whether or not John should go drive to the nearest gas station to buy coffee and cigarettes. Eventually, all conversation ceased when another vehicle made its way towards the parking lot. The approaching car stopped and out stepped Bryant, in a black t-shirt and jeans, with the same tired expression on his face from yesterday.
            "Did you bring coffee?" Blake asked "Or doughnuts? Or anything, really." Bryant gave a puzzled look before regarding the two cars parked nearby. "You came separately?" he asked. "Nah," Blake responded "I got a friend in there." Bryant's expression was of such shock, his mouth fell agape. "Why would you bring other people into this?" he yelled. "So I take it there's no breakfast," Blake said instead.
            "Why would I care about feeding you?" Bryant asked.
            "Because we were here all night," Blake responded quickly "Mostly."
            "I told you to come around now. Did you come right here after leaving yesterday?"
            "Dude, we were all set to call it a night," Blake said as he raised his hands to plead innocence "Things just happened and now we're here. Tell him, John."
            "Shit happened," John said with his arms crossed.
            Bryant shook his head. "How many people have you been blabbing to?" he asked.
            "Calm down," Blake said "Just us. Oh, and Anin, she's involved. And I guess Joey if he wants to believe it. Obviously Kimberly too, though not as up to date as everyone else."
            "Don't forget Matthew," John added, taking pleasure in the increasing misery Bryant was showing on his face with every name brought up.
            "Yeah, Matthew," Blake said "And I guess Clyde and Whitey count as w-"
            "Enough!" Bryant shouted, ready to tear his hair out "Are you planning to just run your mouths until this all gets out?"
            "Listen to me very carefully," Blake said, shifting his tone to a more serious one "This is already out. People are dead. There's a man grieving over his shattered family because of whatever the hell happened in that basement got out. You're not here as a courtesy, either. Don't forget that."
            "You've been in the basement?" Bryant asked, worried about what was already known.
            "Not yet," Blake said "You better have a keycard though."
            "I do, I do," Bryant said as he searched his pockets for it "Just, let me explain before-"
            "Guys?" Kimberly interrupted. Everyone turned to face her as she walked out of the building, covered in blood, with an uneasy look on her face. She led them to the corpse room, where her project for the last couple hours laid with an open chest and a pool of blood around from where Kimberly had been digging around. Upon sight of the creature, Bryant freaked out and began trying to explain, but kept tripping over his own words. "Shut up," Blake said. "But," Bryant began but Blake put his hand up for the man to be quiet.
            "So that...thing," John asked "What did you find out?"
            "It's a person," Kimberly said as she made a sideways face.
            "Please, I can-" Bryant started but Blake stopped him. "What do you mean it's a person?"
            "Well," Kimberly said as she walked to the table "This thing had its appendix removed. Plus what I could make of the teeth, though heavily distorted into these fangs, clearly show signs of a couple cavities being filled. Guys, if this is a person who's missing and this is super illegal shit I'm taking part in, now would be a good time to tell me."