It's Lily. Is everything all right up there? Amy and Mitch haven't checked in for two days. They don't answer their phones. Shade and me are a little worried.

They said they'd only stayed with you guys for a couple days before transferring everything they'd had to a hotel, so I know you might not have heard anything. Two days ago, they said the investigation at the school had hit some brick walls so they were checking out those murders. If you know anything, we'd appreciate the news.

Where were they staying? I'll look into it myself.

I, uhm... I know it was a Holiday Inn... Shade can't remember which one she said it was, either.

I know they were taking a taxi into the Blight to check out what they could.

I'll give ya a hand Ron. Do you wanna start at their motel and work foreward or start in the Blight and work backwards or find the Cab Company and work from the middle out?

Glad to hear they're alright. Any idea what had them out of it, yet, or is that still being figured out?

Amy, here.

Mitch is still kind of out of it, so I'm going to share what I know with everyone. Mr. Caliburn, thank you again for finding us.

I don't know all the details, but apparently, this past weekend, there was an entity which was calling an unpleasant number of homeless persons away from their regular begging stations to participate in some kind of mass-sacrifice. I think the word that was used was "heccatomb". I don't know what that entity was planning, but it was all supposed to go down last night... I wish we could've been there to stop it, but I'm glad we weren't there to participate.

I don't know what the whole thing was about, but I get the feeling that Mr. Windner is either connected with or behind the whole thing.

Wish we could get more details, but it's a little late, now...

It's Shade...

Mass sacrifice???!!!??? How many people are we talking about?!?

***

Hey, guys, it's Lily! Sorry we didn't respond sooner, but we've been up to our noses down here. Glad to hear you and Mitch are doing alright. Hopefully your investigations around Ms. Hannah will go better than that one did.

I wish we could say we're doing much better down here. It'd seem that the cops screwed up in several major ways, including inadvertently tampering with the crime scene (accidentally creating a trail of blood during the investigation and somehow breaking a window afterwards). The cops are now trying to cover up their screw-ups, in the most major way they can...

They're trying to pretend the whole thing never happened, including burying all the paperwork as deep as they can. Wish you were down here, Amy, 'cuz you have a way with cops that I just don't. I've been arguing with them, but they're acting like the whole thing never happened. They even threatened to arrest me over the whole mess! As if I was the one in the wrong!

Among the paperwork that's gone missing is Mrs. Franks' death certificate, which has put a freeze on the finances that should rightfully go to Mr. Franks. I don't know what they're doing with the body.

Shade and I have hit a dead end down here. Any help would be appreciated.

If Windner is behind a heccatomb, it probably means he's forcing the other gates open...

No... nonononono... Not Windner. Not Windner at all.

I...I get it now. I finally got it. It isn't Windner, it hasn't been Windner, Windner's dead... Elliot Windner is FUCKING DEAD!!! Gabriel DID kill him! I kept asking my runes what Windner wanted and they kept giving me gibberish and nonsense. I kept asking what he was doing and couldn't make heads or tails. Then finally--finally--FINALLY--I ask them if Windner's behind what happened to DD's wife--AND THEY SAY NO! So I ask 'em who is. I can't tell for sure. Some kind of echo. Some kind of magical echo that wants to destroy all life. But only after making us all suffer as much as possible!

It thinks it's Windner, maybe? I dunno. I couldn't get that much. I know it's not after finishing Windner's plans so this sacrifice isn't to open those gates.

I just know I CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!!! There's another goddamned monster that should be easy enough to kill and I can't be there to kill it because Khavik has Claw and I need to get him back!

And I can't even do that right. I have to go to work tomorrow... I dunno if I can do this.

I--yes, Claw is my dragon friend who lives in a sword... We haven't been tracking Khavik, but I'll be getting to him this weekend...

And then this--this fucking nightmare can be put behind us!

There's too damn much echoing around here.

No... No, this echo is different... This echo didn't exist before Windner died... It...it has something to do with his magic. I can't...can't tell what.

I...I do know that the people he killed...he only killed. He didn't use them to fuel a spell or anything... He...he just killed them...for the sake of killing them.