Halloween Horror (Epilogue): Dawn After The Nightmare

--- Val ---

Consciousness slowly returned to her as she found her head resting in Artemis’s lap. (Not bad.)

More bad was all of the flashing lights she could see nearby, which following her duende’s gaze led her to Audrey having a heated exchange with the Sanctuary reinforcements that had finally arrived. Their soldiers and several bulky vehicles clearly visible all over the little courtyard they’d fought (and kicked the ass of) the Halloween Horror in.

“What’s goin’ on?” She mumbled out, her mouth feeling dry.

Artemis blinked before looking down at her. “You’re awake?”

“Yeah… how long was I out?” She asked, not bothering to get up from where she laid.

“About twenty-thirty minutes.” Artemis frowned. “I’ve been healing you as my magic comes back, but it’s not enough to deal with… everything wrong with you at the moment.”

She vaguely nodded at that because it definitely felt like she still had a lot wrong with her.

(“There’s an understatement…”) The Scarecrow laughed within her mind.

(“Good to see you’re okay.”) She told her pet Demon, her eyes drifting over the nearby shadows in search of him.

(“Didn’t feel like splitting a meal with the Horror, so I left before the soldiers could see me.”) Espanta explained when she couldn’t spot him anywhere.

“Right… how long they been here?” She wondered aloud, not caring if her Demon or her duende answered her.

“Maybe ten, fifteen minutes.” Artemis answered. “Apparently between their team being killed, the surge of Creeps in the area, and us detonating those Soul Shards had them send everyone they could this way.”

“And of course they only get here after we deal with the Demon.” She scoffed. “Just like the cops to be late when you actually want them here.”

“Yeah…” Artemis absentmindedly agreed watching Audrey arguing with a Sanctuary soldier in a different uniform than the rest.

“What’s going on there?” She asked, pretty sure that whatever that was couldn’t be a good thing for us.

Artemis gave her a wry grin. “Apparently they think we’re responsible for the Horror getting loose.”

“What?” She hissed, half because of her rage and half because she felt something pull in her side. “We did their fucking jobs!”

“Yeah, I’m thinking we should’ve left when Whitaker did.” Artemis admitted.

“He didn’t bother sticking around after the fight?” She frowned.

Artemis shrugged. “He stuck around until we heard the Sanctuary sirens then he… dipped.”

“Yeah… can’t blame him for that.” She sighed, knowing that she’d have done the same if she was conscious at the time. (“Espanta, why couldn’t you take me with you?”)

(“Your laying with your head in the elf’s lap.”) Her Demon pointed out with dry amusement.

(“... You are forgiven for abandoning me.”)

“So… How much you want to bet we’re spending the rest of the night down at the station?”

--- Artemis ---

(That was a fool’s bet.) She couldn’t help but think wryly as she found herself once more sitting in an interrogation room waiting for an officer to come in and question her about the story she’d already repeated four times.

But she’d repeat it as many times as she had to, after all even Sanctuary didn’t believe her, they’d done nothing wrong and she had nothing to hide. (Well, aside from that thing Audrey asked me and Jon to do.)

She was pretty sure they only agreed to that due to how exhausted they both were, but if it worked out it would work out lucratively for all of them. (As long as Whitaker doesn’t fuck us over anyway.)

Admittedly, she wasn’t holding her breath on that one but between being screwed over by him and screwed over by Sanctuary she’d prefer he be the one to do it. That way she’d have irrefutable proof of his two-faced nature for Audrey and Val.

An officer opened the door to the room and leaned in to tell her, “Ms. Foster, someone is here to see you.”

That… made her frown, there weren’t too many people that would warrant that. Since this was an official debriefing inviting a lawyer was highly suspect and largely unnecessary given the lack of official charges against them. It also couldn’t be her parents due to her being an official employee under Audrey’s Hunter License as well as of working age. (Unless they actually are charging me with something…)

Rather than either of her parents entering the room she instead found a tall dark haired woman seemingly in her early forties despite looking nearly the same for the entire decade that Artemis had known her. “Miss Edme!”

“Artemis, it's good to see you too.” Her mentor smiled before sighing. “Though I do wish it was anywhere other than a Sanctuary interrogation room.”

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Despite knowing she’d done nothing wrong she couldn’t help but be bashful about that. “I um, I thought you were out of town?”

“I was, though there was a… complication while I was there, so I decided it best to leave a bit early. Which given the state of things was probably a good idea all things considered.” Miss Edme explained with a grimace. “Based on what I’ve been told, the Horror escaped its seal, forcing you and the other girls to fight it?”

“Yes, though I think in doing so I’ve also discovered why the seals seem to be getting weaker.” She told her mentor.

“You have?” Miss Edme blinked, before smiling. “I suppose I should expect nothing less from my greatest student than to solve a complex problem so easily. Why don’t you tell me everything, my dear?”

She couldn’t help but squirm as a heat filled her cheeks, before coughing into her hand as she pushed through the embarrassment and began relaying the events of the night to her mentor. Knowing full well her mentor would take care of everything with ease.

--- Audrey ---

Stepping out of the station she checked her phone, already half aware of the time thanks to the rising sun. “Well, that was a waste of several hours that could’ve been spent asleep.”

“I’m just glad Miss Edme got them to release us before her meeting with the local Captain.” Artemis shrugged, looking as exhausted as the rest of them. “Otherwise we’d be stuck her for even longer.”

“True.” She had to admit, Artemis’s connection to the Delacroix family was one of their greatest resources. “Still would’ve been better if they’d just listened to us at the start.”

“Let’s be honest, even if they believed us from the get go, odds are we would’ve been dragged into an interrogation room.” Artemis pointed out. “An incident this big was bound to result in them needing questions answered, regardless of who was still sitting there.”

“Don’t care one way or another, just glad we’re out of there.” Val chimed in, before giving her a look. “Don’t suppose they told you how much we’re making from stomping that pendejo?”

(And that is the real kicker tonight.) “Apparently, we aren’t getting paid for fighting the Horror.” She smiled bitterly.

“The fuck?” Val frowned. “Half the city would be dead if we didn’t pin that cabrón down! And duende found what those idiotas were doing wrong with the seal! That’s double pay minimum!”

“Hunters get paid for the kill, and we didn’t kill the Horror.” She pointed out wryly, the words bitter in her mouth.

“Oh, that’s fucking bullshit!” Val growled, turning back towards the Sanctuary building they’d just left.

“Don’t. It’s not worth it.” Artemis told the other girl, grabbing her by her arm.

Val glared for a moment before pulling arm free. “We’re at least getting paid for all the Creeps we killed, sí?”

“Yeah, though they wouldn’t let me claim all of the ones Jon killed all over the place since he wasn’t with us.” She explained, only briefly wondering if she’d made the right call on that before steeling herself knowing that Sanctuary would’ve screwed them over on it. “I just barely got them to count everything we killed in that courtyard.”

“And what’s that bring the total up to?” Artemis asked, while Val cursed those ‘pinche putas’ for ripping them off.

“Well, between what we had before, the few the Scarecrow picked off without us, and the ones we dealt with fighting the Horror we’ve got a grand total of one hundred and nineteen kills.” She answered feeling mildly proud of that fact. “Equalling just as many grand.”

“That’s almost twenty grand more than our goal.” Artemis blinked, looking notably more chipper than before.

“Would’ve been more if these cabrónes hadn’t fucked us.” Val spat.

“It’s also less since I plan on giving Jon half of that surplus.” She sighed, knowing how that would probably go over.

Despite what she was expecting Artemis only had a look of distaste rather than her expected outburst and Val, while frustrated, merely shrugged. “He fought, he bled, he deserves to get paid too.”

“Well, if we’re lucky I’ll be able to up that pay day by a fair bit for all of us.” She consoled the girls. (Just going to have to remember to talk to Jon about that package he’s carrying.)

--- Jon ---

Tossing his pack and all of its contents into the corner of his room he couldn’t but frown in irritation before finally remembering that the reason his eyes were so irritated was because he still had the refractory lenses on from the haunted house and taking them out. (Much better.)

Trudging through his house he tossed his jacket onto his bed and started towards the shower, knowing that if he wanted the hospital to let him in to see his Ma he’d have to wash off all of the mud and blood currently caking him. (Not that that would stop me if I couldn’t…) (It’s just a fight I can avoid right now.)

Checking his phone again -the screen cracked but still half usable- revealed the text from Garcia telling him which hospital his Ma was in, as well as a newer text telling him that Miss Edna would be in the city in just a couple of hours.

(Mmm, I hope she isn’t rushing because of me…) He’d hate to be an inconvenience.

Sighing as he turned the water on and undressed, he couldn’t help but contemplate how the night had gone after everything with his Ma. On the plus side, he was pretty sure he’d slaughtered enough of his prey to help his Ma’s recovery some, (but I’m going to have to talk to Ma to know for sure.)

Unfortunately, he’d failed to blow the horror’s skull off with his arrow (stupid, stupid, stupid) -Something he was fairly sure would’ve completely healed his Ma. (stupid, stupid, stupid)- and Val despite her best efforts had only managed to damage the Demon enough to force it back into its seal. (And I spent so much time convincing Artemis to go for a kill shot too…)

He was fully aware that the other practitioner’s plan of using the moon to burn the Horror into submission would’ve worked, but he didn’t want it to submit, he wanted it to scream its last breath.

At the very least he was confident that now that the Horror had been worn down and its true threat revealed, someone with the power to would put it down like a rabid beast. (After all, Miss Edna and DeSade could easily kill it so I’m sure they can find someone on that level easily enough. If not I’ll rip the seal open and slaughter it and them myself.)

Of course that was just if the idiots can’t do their job, his actual priority was making sure that everything was perfectly put together for his Ma when she got home that way she had absolutely nothing to stress about in the morning. (Speaking of, I should clean the entire house while I wait for the hospital’s visiting hours. That way everything is nice and tidy when I bring her home.)

After drying himself and Pix off he went ahead and got started on that, though he did take a moment to pet a worried Brutus and assure him that his Ma would be alright even if he had to sacrifice a god or two to make it so.

“Everything will be alright boy, I promise.” He smiled insanely. “Ma is just a little hurt right now, but she’ll be right as rain by morning. You know her, she’s far too stubborn to die like I have. In fact if she died she’d probably kick death’s butt and come right on back, and if she doesn’t I will.”

(I’m sure I can get the Cheshire to arrange that fight for me.)