Disclaimer: All characters, names, settings etc belong to their respective copyright holders, only much of the convoluted plot, Night Wolf and a few other things are of my own creation (but inspired from many things under copyright, which aren't mine).
Chapter 22
"You're on BBC One and this is the news…"
The screen dissolved from the spinning world into the BBC Studio in London.
"Tonight in the news; massacre at popular holiday and historical recreation village of Candlebright a town a short distance outside of Brighton…we go live to the scene…."
A small village of house lining the streets, a darkened pub and a small general store, the town, not illuminated by lights, in fact it seems the entire town is blacked out.
The picture pans around, but breaks up into static and pixels as it comes to bare on a reporter in a warm jacket.
She looks freezing, despite the fact her hair is flat, in fact there seems to be no wind…
But in the distance…or it could be near her…there is a whistling…it sounds to some like distant screams and to others the frightened whimper of children.
The camera finally stops moving, but it is still shaking as the reporter looks down past the camera, there is something in her eyes…this person had seen death…and she definitely was not a war reporter…but all the war journalists watching this report, be they in Syria, in the safety of their homes or abroad in an unknown location, they knew the look that she had on her face.
It wasn't the loss of innocence, for no one in these dark times was truly innocent…it was more a loss of virginity, of seeing something so…wrong against the normal grain of usual existence that they were left scarred for life…this person had witnessed something…truly outside their experience.
The only light on the scene was from the various emergency services scattered around and behind her, there were multiple ambulances that appeared to have come from many townships, police cars scattered around the green and outside houses, fire trucks appeared to have been emptied of their fire retardant chemicals to fight…whatever was burning…though nothing was casting any sort of fire light onto the scene.
"James…." She said pausing to shiver…either from the none existent cold…or just not a cold from the wind chill. "I…We arrived her at Candlebright shortly after the bulk of the emergency services began arriving…"
She paused to cast a glance off camera, the camera man either seeing her pained look, or determined to show the public what was happening panned the camera towards…the scene. Claire McKinlay, the reporter continued. "The scene James…is something that will haunt me…probably forever…almost the town's entire population has been…" She trailed off, there was a sound of someone vomiting off camera, either from the smell or the images that were being relayed to the BBC television centre in London.
The controller inside the television centre made a quick decision, and decided to continue broadcasting, flashing up a quick warning along the bottom of the screen, while he fought not to do the same as his on location weather reporter Claire McKinlay was doing so.
The view of what was in Candlebright toppled anything he had seen over the past 30 years of television, be it images from Vietnam, the Real IRA bombings, Syria, or anything else…this was here…at home…he'd taken his kids to Candlebright…
The 'scene' was of over 80 bodies, strung up by their wrists from some sort of vine…they had all had incisions running from the bottom of their throat down to their crotch, part of his mind recognised the procedure as a vivisection.
Another part heard what Claire had begun to say.
"We heard…I heard as we arrived…the ambulance and coroners…these people…that you can see…they were vivisected…their organs…ripped out falling before their bodies…the…the worst thing…worse than…they…who ever did this…they did it while they were still alive…"
The camera turned 180 degrees over to the other side of the town.
"This isn't the only…'collection'…that's what the police's initial investigation is saying…there are more 'collections' around the town…grouped together in groups…they're all like…like this…I think…I think we might…"
There was some muttering and the camera was pulled off its tripod as Claire walked briskly…she wasn't running nor was she calmly walking, there was a stuttering to her walk, as though part of her body was trying to cope with what her eyes were seeing.
She walked over to the ambulance where the ambulance officer, who looked like a hardened war officer was swallowing in quick succession.
"Claire McKinlay…BBC World News…do you know anything more of…what has happened to the victims?"
He looked blankly to her and the camera before answering.
"The victims…thus far that we've examined…there are signs of extreme head trauma…all of them…even the children have been subjected to some sort of torture…autopsy should…their bodies were put through extreme pain…it is most likely that there were a large group of attackers…they…they were doing…whatever they were doing as they…vivisected them…"
The camera shook for a second as the camera man obviously grappled for control.
"Are there any…any signs of the attackers?"
"The police…we just deal with any survivors…."
"Are there any of this…massacre?" Claire McKinlay asked after a moment.
The man looked blankly into the camera.
"The police said something about it…but…" He just shook his head.
Claire nodded and walked back to her original spot…but stopped, almost tripping over as she tried to swallow down the remaining bile in her stomach as she walked along, the smells and the feeling around her…it made her want to run and leave…the run away home and hide in the bathroom away from the world…
It made her want to scream…like something more unnatural than what she was seeing was going on…this was worse than any stupid haunted house or lightning and thunder rainy night…
This was so unnatural her body was crying out for her to leave…but whatever rational part of her mind that was still functioning insisted that she should try and stay.
Claire turned and realised Greg her camera man had walked over towards the police, biting her lip hard she tasted blood the pain or the blood on her tongue snapped her out of…whatever she had been in.
"Commander…what…how…" Claire stumbled over her words for a second, the police officer didn't seem to notice, he, like the ambulance officer seemed to be on automatic, unable to deal with the amount of death that they were witnessing.
"We've had word that some survived the attack?"
He turned and blinked several times at her.
"Yes…we have spoken to…" He paused for a moment considering. "There are some survivors…though at this point we are not considering them witnesses as it appears they were also caught in the…attack…We currently have nothing more the say…at this time."
He rushed away.
In the studio, James finally found his voice and at the floor manager's prompting asked a question.
"Claire…are there any signs of these witnesses?"
There was an overlong pause, she seemed to be staring at something.
"God…there are so many children…" She was muttering to herself. "What? Oh…James…there…not that we can see…all the houses…the whole village is blacked out…that's another thing…as we approached everywhere surrounding the village had power…but here…" The camera flared again. "There don't appear to be any survivors that we can locate within the town…we'll keep you apprised through the night…back to you…James."
Claire finished and nodded to her camera man, she still had that horrible feeling…not just what she had witnessed…but something else…it was only then…now that she had been in the town for so long…that she looked up…and that could explain some of the feeling…she hadn't looked up…there wasn't…she didn't see…she didn't look up…
"Greg get that!"
"James, anyone get this…" She shouted down her mic as she head the buzzing of the link back to the studio return.
On the screens of everyone who was watching BBC News late at night, they saw a fuzzy image, an image which the technology recording it was so clearly affected by what it was recording, yet despite this, it still showed it in all its…mind bending horror…something which crept up the spine of Claire and Greg and all the emergency services officers who were working on the scene…it was an image…sketched onto the night sky as though someone had cut it with a vast knife and tattooed an image of a skull with a snake crawling out of it…
It was something so profound, something that chilled the bones of everyone who watched it, the people who saw it in person only had a moment to turn around as they heard 'POP'.
Claire spun around, her nerves already on edge as she spun around…and saw 4 people in long dark…what looked like costumes.
Her mind didn't register it…she knew they were there…every fibre of her being was telling her to run…and yet she had been fighting that instinct all night.
She stared at them for a moment, she was aware that some of the emergency services had left for various morgues around the surrounding towns.
Had she not been staring absorbed in what she was seeing she would have noticed that the people in front of her pull out slim sticks and point them at her and her camera man.
The word one of them said wouldn't have made any sense to her…but to the parents…of children attending Hogwarts, to the squibs watching around the UK, others within the wizarding community who lives as 'muggles' they knew.
"Studefy! Legillamcy!" A pause…and while the camera was still pointing towards the sky the sound, both on the camera and on Claire's lapel mic continued to record…and transmit.
"Oblivate! …'ve got her address…get 'em 'eady for 'ort 'ey…"
Had the camera been pointing down the viewers, the people within the television centre and everyone else would have seen the pair disappear…as if by magic.
Had this happened during the day every news organisation might have been all over it, but it happened in the early hours of the morning, a fluke that anyone had been in the area.
The next morning the controller of the BBC found that he had fallen asleep on the job…and had fuzzy memories of the night before, as did everyone else in the building, it was only because of a particularly efficient junior employee of the Muggle Relations Department in the Ministry of Magic had anyone thought to send an Oblivator to the BBC television centre…
Unfortunately, the Oblivator was particularly young…and didn't completely hide everyone's memories…and memories have a tendency to reappear…
Just as unfortunately…for those who's memories did seem foggy…when they ventured down into the recent archives for tapes of the previous night…none were to be found…
Fortunately, some people were watching and had already walked in flashing a non-descript military pass at the gates, taking all tapes with them and destroying any other evidence before walking out once more.
--/
"All of it went out?"
"Yes sir…it was all broadcast live…Lt Parkin removed all the evidence that was still in the television centre, while other Night Wolf teams searched out other relay buildings for other back up copies…we think we've got all the broadcast copies."
Lethbridge Stewart nodded.
Birmingham had for the past 4 days been in London along with a team of Sorcerers and members of the Utilities and Magical Strategy Devices division implanting new security measures at Buckingham Palace, as well as looking into various alternate means of defence against attack for the other royal properties.
Other parts of the Sorcery division were also working with the royals…following their ordeal.
Geneva had…requested they sign the amended articles before any explanation be given…he'd left that part to Birmingham, despite being at the Queen's recoronation there wasn't exactly any easy way to tell her that…they didn't trust them unless the signed a set of papers…to explain something they'd witnessed.
"Very well, all the copies down to research support, have it all put into our systems and analysed, keep all the originals, and get Research to keep an eye on all media over the next week." Lethbridge Stewart ordered, the man in front of him nodded before leaving the room.
Lethbridge Stewart opened the folder before him and read through the initial report, both on Candlebright as a town and what this attack suggested.
Candlebright; one of the few towns in the United Kingdom, which had a combined semi-aware population of both wand users and of the general population.
Candlebright it seems has always been a combined population, none of the wand user's houses are hidden from the general population, while initial surveys suggest some minor charms near the very front of the doors, they appear to be simple rodent repulsion charms.
The town has existed since the end of WWII as a 'historical recreation' town, apparently the town's wand user population taking advantage of their archaic lifestyle and using it to create business for themselves with tourists from nearby Brighton.
The pub in particular is a joint establishment where both parties of the town mingle together, while it was not apparent in the records or in the initial survey if the town was aware of the wand users actual identity…various news reports suggest that the locals simply think of them as 'back to history' enthusiasts.
But treat them with respect and care within the community.
There were no outward signs of wand user prejudice prior to the massacre.
The massacre from all footage and methods was performed by Voldemort's core group of Death Eaters….
Mr Remus Lupin has provided us with a partial list of Death Eaters who have been viewed as active over the past few years, and those who were active during Voldemort's previous uprising.
Currently we are still creating psychological profiles to ascertain which individuals were responsible for the attacks on Candlebright.
There were no CCTV systems within Candlebright and reports on town's appearance and spell activity are pending a visit to the site.
Lethbridge Stewart continued to read, looking through the various requests for a team…or two to go and start an analysis on the town, including requests for magical jamming devices and other equipment to perform a full investigation of the town.
Alistair held off on instantly giving full permission, the attacks had happened barely 10 hours ago…it would still most likely be crawling with ministry officials…and probably the wand user's press.
"Reconnaissance…for now…" He muttered to himself as he typed out and signed a reconnaissance order.
--/
I'm just playing with different styles of drama and writing style with this chapter.
The events described are (mentioned in Chapter 33 of Sorcery, UNITed, Independence, Space), but aside from a news article, the actual event wasn't explored.
Rather than just write what happened, which I felt wouldn't communicate the horror I thought a different take on events would be far more interesting.
Thanks for reading, I try to respond to all reviewers.