152 First Phase of the Plan

"Is Fright really dead?" asked an emotional voice that belonged to a young man.

In a dark chamber illuminated by torch lights on the wall, nine cloaked people were sitting at a long stone table with stone chairs surrounding it. It was only a simple table without any carvings or decorations, but it emitted a gloomy aura nonetheless.

"Yes, and it is our own fault for being overconfident," said a woman who was hiding anger in her tone.

"Tell us about what happened, Fear." asked a man whose voice sounded charismatic.

The other six people turned quiet and were preparing to listen. Only a few of them were sitting rather tensely.

"We found our target after our investigation and we did a stakeout at his apartment. His name is Graham Hymes and he is a private detective," said Fear.

The others nodded and memorized the information.

"Today, his neighbor came home to get something and Fright noticed a tiny bloodstain on the backpack that he was carrying. It is the bloodstain that Shrouds usually use for their anti-divination, that was why he saw it right away,"

"Because he was a Shroud, yeah?" asked a man with a mischievous voice.

Fear nodded.

"So we decided to follow him since we thought he didn't know about us. We had our presence concealed and all. However, the man led us to a trap and we were ambushed and outnumbered,. On top of that, the enemy had a gun," she explained with a heavy tone. Her hands were clenched in fists.

"After that, when we should have retreated, Fright instead chose to keep fighting. He even refused to fall back and told me to leave him there,"

"But that's not how Fright usually is," interrupted a man who has a rather beautiful voice.

"Indeed. The enemy must have planted a false thought inside his head at some point. He killed Shade after all," added the man with the charismatic voice.

Fear nodded slowly as if she had come to the realization.

"Who were the other people there?" asked a woman whose beautiful voice sounded vulgar.

"There was another woman, a Gore, but I don't know who she is. She seemed rich judging from her clothes," replied Fear.

"Do you remember her appearance? Master Tenebrosity can help you show it to us, right master?" said the young man.

The person sitting at the end of the stone table nodded slightly.

"I won't forget any of them! What should I do, Mr. Tenebrosity?" asked Fear.

"Draw a blood circle in front of you first," replied Tenebrosity calmly. His voice sounded wise but there was a hint of bitterness in it, like someone who had experienced too many things in life.

"Now focus on the people who have ambushed the two of you. This will feel slightly uncomfortable, so bear with it," instructed Tenebrosity coldly.

Fear nodded and began concentrating on the painful scene in her memory. Meanwhile, Tenebrosity put his hands on the table palms down and began chanting something inaudible. Suddenly, Fear felt like someone was sucking her brain out using a straw and transferring it to the blood circle in front of her. She bore with the pain and slowly, something appeared in the circle.

Something pale pink and gooey began squirming about in the circle. It looked like brain matter that had been chopped up and was now piled up to form something. The pink substance crawled on top of each other and slowly began forming the figures of three people. After a while, it solidified and showed even the color of the clothes the people were wearing.

There were two men and a woman inside the circle. One of the men was wearing a Gemini mask while the other one looked young and sleepless. The woman, who was wearing a tight black coat looked very beautiful and dignified like she was from an upstanding family.

The other eight people were observing the tiny people on the table while Fear looked to be in a trance.

"That's Agatha van Nostrand!" exclaimed the man with the charismatic voice.

"Are you sure, Morbid? If that's really that van Nostrand, then we can't do anything about her," replied the woman with the vulgar voice.

Morbid nodded confidently.

"I am sure it's her. Ghastly is right. We cannot do any frontal attack against her because her family is too strong,"

"Who is the one in the black sweater? He is the one with the gun..." asked a woman who sounded like she was in her early twenties.

The man sitting closest to Tenebrosity then looked at her.

"That's Luuk van der Meer!" he exclaimed.

"Van der Meer? That's another rich and powerful family! Why is our target associated with people from powerful families?" replied the young woman.

"But there is a rumor going around in my university that he has been disowned by his family. That means he shouldn't be that big of a threat," replied the young man.

"So the Shroud is the one with the mask. What should we do about him, Mr. Tenebrosity?" asked the man with the beautiful voice.

"Since according to Dread that van der Meer boy has been disowned, he must be with the Shroud, Hymes, wasn't it, to protect each other. We will still try to eliminate them, but do not be careless. Our target is smart and dangerous," said Tenebrosity solemnly.

After that, the tiny figures disappeared along with the blood circle and Fear regained her consciousness. She was breathing heavily like she was in great pain.

"The first phase of our plan is now ready. We will release those creatures tonight," added Tenebrosity. There was a hint of excitement in his tone.

"I'm sorry for asking this question so late, but I just want to confirm. Every soul killed by the creatures will go to the Pale Lord, while the people we kill we'll just be a waste. Is that right?" asked the young woman.

"That is correct, Macabre," replied the young man sitting next to Tenebrosity.

"So, for now, we need to focus on our plan. I am sure those two will show up as well, so keep your guard up. We must not let anyone foil out plan. The Pale Lord is the only one who can prevent the apocalypse," said Tenebrosity solemnly.

Everyone sitting at the stone table nodded.

...

"Did you see her reaction just now? It was so funny," said a woman who was wearing a pink sweater and a pair of denim pants.

"Hahaha. Yes, totally. I bet she'll be too embarrassed to show up tomorrow," said another woman with long blond hair wearing a yellow coat. She was laughing at something.

"It's already ten now. We'd better hurry home," interjected a woman wearing a hoodie to cover her hair.

"It's that late already? Crap. My dad's gonna kill me," said the woman with the pink sweater.

The three women increased their pace and walked down the quiet street near Raadhuislaan. The moon was shining brightly tonight and the wind was blowing rather strongly. They tightened their clothes and crossed their arms to warm up their bodies in the cold night.

"Huh?"

Suddenly, the wind brought the smell of iron that penetrated the noses of the three women.

"Did you guys smell that?" asked the hooded woman.

"Yes. What is that? It smells like rusted metal," replied the blonde woman.

The other two shrugged and they kept on walking. The farther they walked, the stronger the smell of iron in the air. The few other people in the street had also noticed the strange scent in the air and were curious to find out.

"Aaaaaaahh!!!"

Then, there was a sudden scream coming from far ahead of them.

"What do you think that is?" asked the woman in the pink sweater curiously.

"Maybe we should check it out? Maybe someone needs help?" replied the blonde woman.

"Or maybe we should just go another way. It might be dangerous there," suggested the woman in a hoodie.

The three of them stopped for a while. The smell of iron became stronger and unsettling.

"Okay. That smell is giving me the creep. Let's go another way," said the woman in the pink sweater.

They then turned around and walked back to where they came from without looking back. They really had a bad feeling about what they might find in the other direction. If someone did need help, there were other people who had gone there to check, so they didn't feel too guilty about that.

"Aaaaa!! Help!!"

Suddenly, there was another sound of screaming coming from far behind them, in the direction that they were originally going. The three women became alarmed and increased their pace.

"What was that??!" said the woman with the pink sweater. Her voice sounded scared.

"Quick! Let's run away from here!" urged the blonde woman.

They started running in the other direction without looking back. The night breeze brought an even stronger smell of iron, which made them even more frightened.

"Help me!!"

There was another scream coming far from behind them. The other people in the street were also scared and had started running in the same direction as the three women. They were all avoiding the place where the screamings were coming from.

In the distance, they then saw a figure of a thin man standing in the middle of the sidewalk. He was just standing there motionlessly with his back against them, so they couldn't see his face. However, the man looked to be naked and his hands were abnormally long.

"Wait! That doesn't look like a human! Let's go another way!" said the woman with the hood. Her tone sounded alarmed.

The other two also noticed the man's abnormality and agreed. They decided to cross the street and went to the left. Some other people also decided to follow them while the rest still went straight ahead, seemingly not worried about the boney man.

Suddenly, the boney figure jumped at the nearest person to it and started biting his neck.

"Arrghh!! What the fuck!! It hurts!!" the man shouted as loudly as he could while trying to push the boney figure away.

Stab!!

The thin naked 'man' clawed the man and his blood spurted on it. It then started munching on the man on the dying man on the ground. Pieces of flesh were torn apart by the figure's sharp teeth and blood and organs were cut into shred. The other people in the street used that chance to run away as far away from the thin figure as they could.

"Growl!!"

All of a sudden there was another, identical thin bloody figure that jumped out of the dark and mauled another person who was running. Just in a matter of seconds, the quiet street had descended int chaos.

"Shit shit shit!! Did you see that? It is eating the man!" shouted the blonde woman frantically. They were running in another direction as fast as they could.

"Don't look back! Keep running!" replied the woman with the hood. She tried to sound calm but her voice couldn't hide her fear.

The woman with the pink sweater hand taken off her high heels and was now running barefoot. Her feet hurt but she could run faster that way.

"What in the world is that thing??!" she exclaimed.

"Growl!!"

There was another thin figure covered in blood appearing in the way the three women were going. The became paralyzed with fear instantly and stopped running. They couldn't even move a muscle because of the extreme emotional distress.

The figure then jumped at a nearby woman, clawing her into shreds and eating her flesh.

"N-now! R-run!" said the woman in the hoodie.

It took them everything they had to start running away from the spot. The fact that the creature was busy eating someone else gave them the release they needed to start controlling their bodies again.

They ran more frantically now that the creature was so close to them. Everyone seemed to be scared for their own lives and didn't care about other people. Although the street was not very busy, they still managed to push other people aside to make way for themselves.

After running for a while, the group of people escaping from the man-eating creature suddenly stopped again. Their faces were all pale and there were drops of sweat on their foreheads. Ahead of them, there were three boney figures with wounds all over their bodies, and behind them, there was a giant headless man carrying an axe.

The headless man looked to be at least two meters tall and its body was covered only with a tattered piece of cloth with bloodstains all over it. Its skin was ashen grey and there were veins bulking on the surface. The headless man emitted a grey aura that made the people there want to vomit and collapsed on their knees.

The three women were very pale and were struck by paralyzing fear again.

"What do we do now..." asked the woman in the pink sweater weakly. Her voice was wavering and her body was shaking.

"I... don't know..." replied the woman wearing a hoodie. She had peed herself because of fear.