Let's see who is missing.
Chapter Three: Missing You
Nelson Investigations
Vicki Nelson sat at her desk as she was speaking to a client about her missing daughter Hannah. She was supposed to have walked home with her fiancé the prior evening, but Tomas had to work late and she decided to head off for home.
The mother was hysterical and Coreen had just walked into the office with a large dress-bag in her hands.
"Sorry," she mouthed as she walked in and went into her bathroom to put the bag.
"I am worried about Hannah," Mrs. Royce said to her. "It's not like her to be missing or to walk away."
"Was she under any kind of stress or anything else that was going on between her and her fiancé?" Vicki asked.
"Everything was fine. He even suggested that she stay at the Library near the Cultural Center so that he could come and meet her," the mother said as she blotted her eyes and took care of her runny nose. "I just wish that she wasn't so independent and waited for him to come. Then she would be home and no one would have taken her."
"I'm sure that she will turn up," she told the mother. "Now you have to realize that there is a possibility of a bad result."
"I understand." Mrs. Royce surrendered the check for the five-hundred dollars for the first day. "You will let me know what you find?"
"As soon as I do, you will know," Vicki replied.
The mother soon got up from the chair and headed out of her office.
Coreen soon reentered and came to her. "Is there anything else that you need me to do?" she asked.
"For what?" Vicki asked.
"For your date tonight, duh."
Vicki set down her papers in a huff and looked to her. "I'm not going all out for this. It's just dinner with Henry."
"Oh, I'm sure that it will be just dinner if you are going to style your hair, get your dress altered and dry cleaned, and you're cancelling your evening appointments so you can meet Mr. Fontana and then have your romantic evening with Henry."
"I wouldn't go that far." Vicki proceeded to leave the office to go into the bathroom.
"I would. You know that ever since the two of you went through the dark ceremony and battle with Asteroth, you two have been cancelling dinners and dates left and right. The two of you are on course for a very romantic, maybe even a little…"
"Don't," Vicki blurted out with her hand in Coreen's face. "Don't want to think about it."
"Oh come on. You can't honestly say that you haven't wondered what it would be like to be with him."
Vicki decided to keep her mouth shut and shut the door to the bathroom to keep her away.
She stared at herself in the mirror after she washed her hands. In the mirror, the dress bag hung on the hook on the wall, stared at her reflection.
She turned and undid the zipper to release the dress.
The long black dress had a light shimmer to the silk. It was spaghetti strapped and would be very tight at the chest, but the shimmering veils would fall to her ankles. The shoes were stiletto heel that would string her legs to the mid-calf.
She did have to admit. She was hoping that this would seduce Henry and they would experience each other in the most primal of fashions. It was something that she was looking forward to. Henry had fed on her in previous years.
It would be only natural that this would be the next step.
And Vicki Nelson was going to invite her lover to take her.
Abandoned car assembly plant
The Ford Canadian plant was now empty and abandoned, but that was by the people that used to work in the plant.
It was being used for more sinister means.
An altar was surrounded by candles and candelabras while a demonic symbol was engraved into the floor.
Everything was prepared, but they were still lacking one central detail.
They needed the woman that their master was asking for.
The leader had attempted to grab her last evening, but something prevented him from getting his hands on her.
Now his Master was berating him as he knelt before the altar and the glowing flame was speaking to him.
"You disappointment Derrick," his master's voice said to him. "You told me that it would be easy to get my precious Victoria and bring her here, but yet I see two women and they are not my bride-to-be. Why?"
"My humblest apologizes Master," Derrick said. "We will get her this time."
"And how do you plan on it?"
"All of us are going and we are going to wrap her in her magical shield and take her by force…"
"Did you say magical shield?" his master interrupted his groveling. "My Victoria has a shield."
"It activated without her doing a thing," he said to the flame. "It was instantaneous."
"He must have changed her icons with his purifying of her soul." His master was angry. "Well, I can change that."
"How?" Derrick asked.
The flame glowed brighter and lashed toward his hand.
When Derrick opened his hand, there was a bottle in his palm of glowing red liquid.
"Throw this at her when her shield comes up," his Master said. "It will curse the shield and come down, allowing you and your followers to grab her. Bring her here so that tonight, she can witness the fruits of the alignment. With those two precious morsels to spill, Victoria will soon belong to me again. Now…go."
Derrick bowed and left
Asteroth laughed as his brain-dead follower left the factory with the potion that he gave him. Little did this mortal knew that once Victoria was cursed again and she belonged to him, he would have her kill them all and begin the slaughtering to create the icon which would in turn release him back into the mortal world.
How he longed to finish what they had started nearly a month ago.
It was all coming together now…and soon, he would be free again.
One of the women that was caged beside the other one while a third cell remained empty stood with her hands clinched on the bars.
She wondered why she was here and if she was going to be let go. If only she had stayed at the library until Tomas had come to meet her. She wouldn't be where she was.
The other woman that she had been talking to was a prostitute named Amelia, but she called herself Cherri; like the fruit, she made a point to correct her.
But they had nothing in common so why were they here? According to what she overheard, they were looking for a woman named Victoria. What was it with this Victoria?
Maybe when they found her, they would be released?
Hannah prayed for it be so.
So we found the missing girl, but now Asteroth is back in the picture. What will happen next?
