November 22, 1800. 4:52 a.m.
basement of the closed factory
"She's evil, I tell you! Evil! You haven't seem her dark side!!" Alectz ranted at Carleigh.
Carleigh arched an eyebrow at the object of Alectz's terror. Mei sat cross-legged on the floor, rocking from her right to left, her pigtails sweeping back and forth across her face, and giggling as if it was the most wonderful thing in the world
"Right, Alectz. Of course." Carleigh patted the Malkavian's hand.
Alectz jerked away. "You don't believe me!" she accused. "You've allowed yourself to be fooled by that cute exterior! Well I won't be taken in!" she pointed angrily at Mei. "I'm on to you, demon child!" she cried, then turned and ran out of the basement, shoving Michaela Greywauld into the doorpost as the Gangrel entered, on her way out.
Carleigh shook her head. Alectz would have too come back soon. It would be daybreak in a little over an hour. But at least that meant everyone else was back. Seldes and Ben were talking about types of gardens off to one side. Carid was in a corner of the basement, reading some book she had picked up in town. In the other corner, Sharma was cleaning her sword, why Carleigh didn't know. Maria was watching Mei, who was still playing around on the floor, Sobek was watching Ben and Seldes for some reason, probably because they were making the most noise, and Cathy was sitting on a crate looking tired and bored. And Michaela was just coming down the stairs now. Well, that was everybody accounted for except Sugar and Courtney.
"Where's Sugar?" Carleigh asked as the Gangrel came within earshot.
"Dead Horse. We have to leave the city tomorrow night."
Carleigh blinked, not really follwing that statement.
"What do you mean we have to leave?" Maria piped up.
"And whose horse is dead?!" Carid demanded.
"No, no, Dead Horse is a bar. That's where I left Sugar." Michaela clarifyed. "And we have to leave because the Society is here. They attacked Sugar and me and tried to lead us back to their base."
"What?!"
"Sugar fell headfirst into one of their traps." the Gangrel shook her head. "But she managed to catch the bait before we ended up waltzing straight into an army of Knights of Saint John."
"What in the universe are you talking about?"
After Michaela had related the full story of what had happened in the street, Carleigh stood up.
"She's right. We have to get out of here." she shook her head. "We'll go back home and figure out a way to deal with this situation."
That statement met with a barrage of protests.
"We're just going to RUN from them?!"
"Maybe that's what the Camarilla does in an emergency..."
"Hey, shut up!" Cathy snapped at Carid.
"Look, you people can argue all you want about this, I'm going to go get Sugar." Michaela headed out again. "She probably got herself properly drunk this time."
"As long as you're going, find Alectz and Courtney, will you?" Carleigh called over her shoulder before returning to the argument.
Mika hurried out of the basement and shut the door to the street behind her, glad to be rid of the noisy room. She was actually quite sure that Sugar could make it back just fine on her own, but if there was going to be a basement full of people arguing and yelling at each other, Mika was going to be as far away from it as possible.
She jogged down the street in the direction of the Dead Horse.