Red Light District Disturbances

Posted on Tue Sep 2nd, 2025 @ 2:09am by General Dizzy House & General Harold Morton Mr. & Colonel Elizabeth & 2nd Lieutenant Michael Stern

1,472 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Armed and Dangerous
Location: Red Light District
Timeline: Current Day

Dizzy watched as the coteries went out into the night to look for answers. She wished them well and luck and to have care. Then she went into her office behind the throne dais and looked at the map of Vancouver and the suburbs that she claimed as her territory. It included a very large area and somewhere in her area, someone was hunting those who walked in darkness, kindred, kine, lycan, fae, hunter, and witch alike, no group was safe from whatever was hunting them and playing for keeps.

Her liaison from the lycan, fae, and kine in the city all reported missing people and from her kine allies, she learned that some of the more devout of those called hunters had also gone missing. Some bodies had been found, but most just vanished forever. The odd thing was that the kine and hunter bodies didn't have a mark on them or any reason why they should be dead, they were just dead. She was almost afraid what could with without leaving any clues inside or outside the body. Her Lydia, Den's childe, still worked night in the city morgue and reported back what was found. With her abilities from her time as Dizzy's ghoul, she could see auras, and reported that the souls of all the dead were gone and not gone like from most of the dead, naturally, but ripped out painfully.

In the night, in the red light district, something hunted that wasn't looking for an easy sex partner, drugs, or other questionable reasons to have a red light district. The eating and drinking places and clubs were all packed with people trying in the almost manic way people would get sometimes to have a good time. The city was on edge, and even those who had no idea about the world of darkness, knew and felt something was wrong. People were scared and turning to vice in all it's measure to pretend they weren't. And it was into this that most of the coteries were headed to being their searches.

Liz was, once again, quietly observing her surroundings. While the city was pretty much about to become a battlefield, if the number of missing people was any indication. Something was going on. And it was by no means an easy fix to the issue at hand. She wandered the streets, keeping to the shadows where she was less likely to be seen. Fear lingered in the air as a heavy blanket over... pretty much everything.

Considering the generally manic energy of the city and the fact that Mack was never the most stable of people, it should have been no surprise that he was trying hard to maintain some kind of facade of normalcy - and failing miserably. His eyes darted around, seeking out minds and thoughts, seeking out not only those taken (his mind spun for a moment with a thousand conspiracy theories), but those who might have done the taking. For years he'd been on the move, never comfortable staying in one place for any length of time, but something had told him this would be different. Like he had a role to play in the drama being set out before him. He looked at the other kindred around him. "I bet it was the black helicopter men that took them. I don't know how they'd do it in a city, but that's what the stealth choppers are for. They dart in during the night and take you. I think they have blue ones for during the day, too, so you can't see them against the sky. Not that I know anything about daytime anymore."

Gillian, one of Dizzy's ghouls, voodoo high priestess, sat in protective circle in her rooms, speaking with the spirits around them. Then she felt a predator among them, searching for something. Then the spirits gathered around her, hiding her as the focus started to hone in on her, and then the moment passed and was searching again. Gillian felt the sweat that drenched her during this summoning suddenly turn to ice and she shivered. Ending the session with her thanks to the spirits for their protections, Gillian gathered her courage to her and walked through the palace from her rooms to Dizzy's rooms. She scooped up one of the ghoul kittens that Dizzy always kept around her and petted it, holding it for comfort as she sought the safety and protection of her master and friend.

Dizzy looked up when Gillian came in and gave her a smile and then the smile faded. "I hear....tell me." Dizzy gathered Gillian to her arms and held her, listening to her tale. "Gilly, I.... The moon rises which is our sun and if you hide our sun from me, I wither and perish. Always stay in our sun, be light and warmth, let the stars protect you, but leave the daylight alone, leave the stars alone."

Gillian nodded, understanding. "I promise, Dizzy. I won't walk in the spirit world until this hunter has been caught. May I...refresh?"

Smiling again, Dizzy gave her arm to Gillian and felt the peace that came when her ghouls fed, caressing Gillian's soft, ginger red hair. When enough had been given, she gently pulled away and kissed her ghoul. "I need to send Den after this." Dizzy then walked to her desk and picked up the cell phone and hit the speed dial. "Den, the darkness that stalks the night tried to take Gillian tonight. Find it. Stop it. Stay safe. I will haunt you else."

Mack looked away from the ghoul ceremony with a definite discomfort. Unlike most vampires, he wasn't keen on the idea of ghouls - or on anyone else drinking his blood. He hadn't been taken the slow way, and he'd never wanted to hold power over others like that. His focus was on using the power of his blood, and thus the power of the mind that was no longer wholly his. He turned and headed out to the street - Dizzy's power far exceeded his own, so he didn't see what she saw; but knew without doubt that she could see through his eyes if needed. He looked at the others as he pulled his cap low over his eyes, and rechecked his appearance - average, unlikely to stand out in public. With a gesture, he headed out into the street. "Let's see what we can scare up."

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Harold walked the street front front of the City Morgue again, for what seemed like the hundredth time, his senses pushed to their limits with the Auspex discipline, though what he did find was conflicting. He stopped and rubbed the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes, his other hand shaking, almost dropping his sword-cane. He was tired and pushing himself to far, but the horror that had visiting Vancouver needed to be found and stopped.

He took the blood filling hip flask from his pocket and drank what little was left, hoping it'd be enough to tide him over until he could get to Lydia's restaurant, he needed to rest and he knew it. He turned on his heel, his finger on the catch of his sword-cane. He could feel it... something was out there, stalking the night.

"Everything's.... twisted. Whoever or whatever it was that attacked Lydia is very good at covering it's tracks." He said to himself as he wandered down the street.

Mack walked out onto the street from where he'd been with Dizzy and met up with Harold. The older vampire looked tired. He'd obviously stayed up several nights and days now. He couldn't always control the fear, but somehow in this situation, he could keep it - and the voices - to a dull roar in the back of his mind. "Is it twisted itself, or have you worked yourself into being too tired to realize whether you're twisted or not? You're right about the attacker covering their tracks. I bet they were organized. Trying to prove that we exist, and haul us away to be cut up in laboratories."

Well, maybe he couldn't control it as much as he thought.

Liz watched from the shadows of the city. This was dangerous territory. Whatever, or whoever, was hunting at night, was a liability to vampires' safety. Actually, to everyone's safety. A moment later, she heard a scream from a few streets away. She moved towards the sound as quickly as possible. There were shouts. A man and woman were involved in whatever was going down.

Dizzy sat at her desk, reading the reports. Her concern was growing and the latest reports weren't looking good. It was time to up the ante on this and stop whatever it was cold in its tracks.

 

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