2 - Tracking Down Ethan Blane
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Re: 2 - Tracking Down Ethan Blane
There is no direct reply to William renewed knocking efforts; the chanting resumes and increases in tempo and volume. Loud enough that now he can make out some of the words being shouted from the other side of the door.
"Eegah!...Yogah!...Megah!...Gonah!...Seenah!...Ronah!...Yog!...Iä!...Thoth!...Iä!...Nyarlath-Hotep...Iä!..."
"Eegah!...Yogah!...Megah!...Gonah!...Seenah!...Ronah!...Yog!...Iä!...Thoth!...Iä!...Nyarlath-Hotep...Iä!..."
Re: 2 - Tracking Down Ethan Blane
"What to do?" A perturbed William looks around for another apartment door, and will knock at that one instead.
Re: 2 - Tracking Down Ethan Blane
After some time the door opens slowly and slightly.
William finds himself facing a middle-aged female face peering though the narrow space left by the slight opening of the door. The door chain attached to the track is clearly visible, obviously the resident isn't exactly extending an welcoming mat.
Her voice, somewhat tremulously, asks "Yes..?"
In the background the shouted ramblings of whoever is making that ruckus on James Daish's apartment can still be heard; from this distance William can no longer make out words.
William finds himself facing a middle-aged female face peering though the narrow space left by the slight opening of the door. The door chain attached to the track is clearly visible, obviously the resident isn't exactly extending an welcoming mat.
Her voice, somewhat tremulously, asks "Yes..?"
In the background the shouted ramblings of whoever is making that ruckus on James Daish's apartment can still be heard; from this distance William can no longer make out words.
Re: 2 - Tracking Down Ethan Blane
"Mr. Daish is unwell: hysteria, fit, madness, whatever. Is there a concierge? The man needs help. . . ."
Re: 2 - Tracking Down Ethan Blane
When William mentions Daish a transformation takes hold of the old lady's features. Her expressions of cautious fear turns into anger and a stream of words come spatting ferociously through her mouth.
"That Daish fellow? Tell me about it! The man is mad's as Alice's hatter. Ain't left his apartment in days. Days, if you belives me. And all that chanting and moaning and shouting at any and all hours, be it day or night! I've already called the superintendent, but he's a useless no good drunkard, he is. And now he's started it again with the chantin'. Why!...I've got half a mind to head to the grocery store, pick the phone and ring da police; or maybe my nephew Patrick. He'd come down, all the way up from Lane on the north side 'cross the river but he'd come for his aunt he would, and batter down that darn door and silence the fool with his fists..."
Then she seems to realize she's nearly shouting at a stranger who knocked on her door and her rant ceases abruptly. The woman takes a moment to compose herself and resumes speaking, in a calmer tone. Daish's sonorous ramblings can still be heard in the background.
"Say young Mister, you look hale yerself. Can't you do nothing about it? You could push the door open and see to Mr. Daish, the hinges ain't that strong. Not worth a rusted dime if ya ask me, damned superintended won't change or fix a darn thing on this building even if we tells him to get off...ahem, I mean as you said he's mad hysteric. Sick maybe! Lord knows what he's capable of doing. Likely keep to shout and scream 'till he drops, or worse!"
The woman's eyes clearly tell William she just wants her neighbor to shut up, by whatever means necessary.
"That Daish fellow? Tell me about it! The man is mad's as Alice's hatter. Ain't left his apartment in days. Days, if you belives me. And all that chanting and moaning and shouting at any and all hours, be it day or night! I've already called the superintendent, but he's a useless no good drunkard, he is. And now he's started it again with the chantin'. Why!...I've got half a mind to head to the grocery store, pick the phone and ring da police; or maybe my nephew Patrick. He'd come down, all the way up from Lane on the north side 'cross the river but he'd come for his aunt he would, and batter down that darn door and silence the fool with his fists..."
Then she seems to realize she's nearly shouting at a stranger who knocked on her door and her rant ceases abruptly. The woman takes a moment to compose herself and resumes speaking, in a calmer tone. Daish's sonorous ramblings can still be heard in the background.
"Say young Mister, you look hale yerself. Can't you do nothing about it? You could push the door open and see to Mr. Daish, the hinges ain't that strong. Not worth a rusted dime if ya ask me, damned superintended won't change or fix a darn thing on this building even if we tells him to get off...ahem, I mean as you said he's mad hysteric. Sick maybe! Lord knows what he's capable of doing. Likely keep to shout and scream 'till he drops, or worse!"
The woman's eyes clearly tell William she just wants her neighbor to shut up, by whatever means necessary.
Re: 2 - Tracking Down Ethan Blane
William considers walking away, returning to his bookstore, and posting the $100 back to Quincey.
. . . Instead he walks over to Daish's door and gives it a firm kick.
. . . Instead he walks over to Daish's door and gives it a firm kick.
Re: 2 - Tracking Down Ethan Blane
Spoiler:
Doing so reveals the apartment beyond it, a small, cramped, single-room bedsit. Immediately noticeable is a naked man, whose features look very much like those on the sketch Quincey made of "Ethean Blane", crouching feral-like in a pentagram on the floor drawn in some dark brownish matter that reeks terribly...are those feces?! Besides the man an old, thick octavo book is lying open on the floor, and bones who look remarkably human from their size and make are arranged in bizarre patterns around the room.
Spoiler:
Re: 2 - Tracking Down Ethan Blane
Spoiler:
Re: 2 - Tracking Down Ethan Blane
Spoiler:
Realizing William's intent, taking advantage of the intruder being taken aback a bit upon seeing the interior of the apartment, and being already in an hyperactive state, the crazed naked man grabs the book and sprints to the only window of the room.
"No, no, NO!" he half-mumbles, half-shouts as he flees flight, "You shan't have it! You shan't have it! You shan't have it!"
With remarkable simian-like agility for a brute of his size Daish is already trying to make his way over the window sill when William gets to act. However, before he reaches the naked fugitive fate conspires against the lunatic tragically. There is a clattering of bones as the foot Daish is using for balance trips on a human skull lying near the windo. He overbalances on the sill for one terrible second before plunging headfirst from it.
As the man vanishes William hears one last shrieked "You shan't have iiiiiiiiiiii......." that the doppler effect makes sound ever more distant for a very short moment, before a sickening dry thud resounds from below. A short moment later a female scream expressing horrid surprise at seeing something can also be heard coming from the street below.
With his mind reeling from this terrible turn of events, William suddenly notices that the book didn't accompany the man on his fall. It is standing on the ground by the window, quite near the skull that prevented Dais from making off with it.
Re: 2 - Tracking Down Ethan Blane
Spoiler:
His first thought is to run away, William longs to escape the corruption, the stink of faeces, in the room. Despairingly he fights off his instincts and rushes over to the dropped book, is it the Scipture of Shul?
Re: 2 - Tracking Down Ethan Blane
Spoiler:
Re: 2 - Tracking Down Ethan Blane
Hiding the book inside his jacket, William makes for a hasty exit. (He will return to his apartment, but take a circuitous route in case anyone had noted his presence at the scene.)
Re: 2 - Tracking Down Ethan Blane
William meets no one as he goes down the stairs of the building where Daish lived; there is a small crowd beggining to gather around something somewhere near the outside of the building but none seem to pay any particular attention to his leaving. After that William has no problem being circuitous around the mostly narrow and widing streets around French Hill, taking care to walk nonchalantly as to call as little attention to himself as possible. Before he leaves the area he thinks he can hear a siren wailing somewhere in the distance. Either an ambulance is en route, or one of the rare police cars of Arkham has been summoned to the scene. Eventually he makes it back to his own home without hindrance, still carrying the book hidden in his jacket.
Re: 2 - Tracking Down Ethan Blane
William puts a pot of coffee on the gas ring and prepares some sandwiches. Then he settles down in a comfy chair, exhales loudly, which turns into a whistle, and opens the cover of the book and begins reading.
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