Seek not the Darkness
Act I: Introduction to Evil
"Fillmore!" Vallejo shouted as Ingrid and Fillmore entered the room, "and Third, get in here, this is big."
Ingrid and Fillmore looked at each other. Vallejo always sounded stressed, but he sounded worried, and this was new. He looked like he had been waiting for them, as if it was urgent. They followed him into the office and saw him sit down in his chair with a stack of papers in front of him.
"Have a look at this," he said, pushing the stack toward them. Fillmore smiled and pushed them over to Ingrid; if it was important she would fill him in.
Ingrid, using her incredible memory, flicked through the notes. "Vallejo, did Folsom give you this?" she asked.
Vallejo nodded ever so slightly. "I have never seen anything like it, Third."
"What is it?" Fillmore asked, interested now due to the anxious look on Ingrid's face.
"There have been a series of attacks on kids in the school," Vallejo explained. "Not the standard stuff, for money or respect, but something else."
"The kids who were attacked were cut Fillmore," Ingrid said, and Fillmore frowned. "They weren't just assaults either. Symbols were cut into their skin. The cops have got involved, and they want our help."
Ingrid pushed some photographs cut onto the victim's arms. Fillmore examined them and realised what was wrong. The symbols were inverted crosses and pentagrams, as well as sections of the lord prayer backwards. "This is…" Fillmore began.
"Satan worshipers," Vallejo sighed. "According to Tehama and the cops, they were cut from different people. We have an underground satanic group at X."
Ingrid looked through the pictures, taking them into her mind. Despite what you might think, Ingrid Third was a Christian, an unorthodox one. The sight of the inverted cross unnerved her. Her fist clenched under the desk as she looked across to Fillmore, who was having a similar reaction.
"This is a whole new type of crime, Fillmore," Vallejo said. "These aren't normal kids. These aren't lunch money stealing bullies. These are insane monsters Fillmore, and they have got to be stopped."
Fillmore leaned back in his chair. "So," he said. "What information have we got?"
"The police say that there are at least three members," Ingrid said, who already had all of the information on her mind. "The wounds were cut with short, similar knifes. The victims were knocked out and cut, in some sort of strange, satanic rituals."
"Do the victims have any memory of the event?" Fillmore asked.
Vallejo shook his head. "Apart from the fact they were attacked in the halls in the morning, in deserted areas, by people dressed in a robe and a goat mask."
"What is wrong with these people?" Fillmore muttered.
"I don't know Fillmore," Vallejo replied. "What I do know, is that three won't be enough. This is not three attacks in one morning for a ritual. The police think this will happen again, soon."
"We need information," Ingrid mused, clicking her tongue, thinking. "From the sound of it, this is some sort of Devil date; these are some sort of dark mass."
"Are there any other known kids interested in the occult?" Fillmore asked.
"I don't know, Fillmore," Vallejo said, leaning on his hands. He sat in thought for a while. "Have a look through the online personal records. See if you can find anything. We have to get ahead of these monsters if we are going to catch them." Fillmore and Ingrid nodded. "Well, go on then." Fillmore and Ingrid rushed out of the room, more serious than they had been in a long time.
Vallejo sat alone in his room, and reached into his shirt to pull out a cross on his necklace. He didn't know why this was bothering him so much, but it was terrifying him. He knew there were some nasty kids in X middle school, bullies and the like, but he had no idea there were underground Satan worshipers, apart from the wannabee gothic kids who pretended they were tough, but he doubted they would do anything like this.
[X]
"What's going on guys?" Tehama asked, she had a large coat on and was hanging it on the coat hooks by the door. "You look worried."
"Have a look at the file," Ingrid said, and handed it to her when she came over. She raised her eyebrow. Karen was an agnostic, so the religious aspect didn't bother her as much as the others, but the idea of kids being attacked and scarred with knives would unnerve anyone, unless they were insane.
"What on earth?" she muttered. "Are there any leads at all?"
"Not one," Fillmore said, turning his computer on. "I'm going to search the records for people with a history."
"Good idea," Tehama said. "This is some scary stuff Fillmore. The police are involved as well."
"They can't do anything," Ingrid said. "They don't know enough about the school. So they are relying on us." She looked up. "I don't want to let them down." It was a joke, she didn't care what the police thought of her, but she was intent on catching the criminals, even if it meant working day and night for weeks and weeks until she dropped.
Ingrid was racking her brain for information on the case, but she had never read anything on satanic sects at X. "Fillmore," Ingrid said. "What about those gothic kids who always hang out at the back of the trees on the field?" She suddenly remembered their obsession with the arcane.
"Do you think they would be involved?" Fillmore replied.
"Probably not, but they could give us some leads, I suppose," Ingrid said.
Fillmore nodded and left his computer. Anza walked through the door. "Hey guys," he said.
"Anza, can you do me a favour?" Fillmore asked.
"Shoot," he replied.
"Can you search the personal records for students involved in the arcane?"
"I suppose so," he said, frowning. "Why though?
"Tehama will fill you in," Ingrid said, standing up and heading for the coat rack to pick up her coat. "We have a lead."
Ingrid and Fillmore walked out of the safety patrol office, to find the group. They doubted they knew anything, though they were willing to try anything to bring this group down.