| Details for No Place is Sacred |
| Summary: | It was supposed to be a simple statement-gathering job for a rookie. Then, it all went horribly wrong. A young auror is left traumatised, struggling to remember just what it is the Dark Witch was searching for - What she's willing to Kill for. |
| Date: | 1939-01-27 |
| Location: | St. Mungo's |
| Related: | Plot - What Men Kill For |
| Characters |
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OOC Note: Other characters NPC'ed by Myst's player.
St. Mungos is as crisp and clean as ever. The seventh floor ward is reserved for people who are recovering from a serious hex, but not in immediate danger - The typical person would be a victim of a severing charm gone wrong, or a lesser splinch. Abram Willis is a special case though, admitted following a staggered, pained plea for treatment. His gasping revelation - A tale of Cruciatus, dark wizards and a cursed artifact - Is at first dismissed as a fever-dream, although within a few hours something trickles into the Auror's office. Probably nothing. The sort of case the youngest, most inexperienced would be assigned to. This is a case for Rena Lee.
The seventh floor is eerily quiet though, the hallways manned only by a skeleton staff. Healer Noel is in charge of leading the Auror to the room where her 'interview' awaits, her steps as neat and well planned as the rest of St Mungos - A hourneyman, the ideal candidate for an easy nightshift. It's late, after all. Nearly midnight. So when they arrive at the private room marked, 'Willis, Abrams,' and she tries the door to find it locked, she looks at the Auror with a sigh. "Maintenance. They do this all the time. Please excuse me while I find a key, Miss Lee."
One of these days, Rena is going to be able to spend a night at home with her fiance, but obviously, this isn't going to be the night. Another rookie call has been made. Foot-work, running errands and collecting statements; it's all part of the learning process - and a lesson in patience.
Pausing outside the door with the nurse, the young woman's brow furrows slightly at the locked door. She could be a good girl and wait for maintenance, but it seems silly when she could just attempt it herself. "Wait, 'alf a tick. I can give it a go…" She remarks, already withdrawing her wand. She's a gentle soul - and unlikely to break anything. Unfortunately, the nurse is already on her way to get help. The right thing to do would be to wait, but it hardly seems necessary under the circumstance.
"Alohomora" Rena enunciates properly, touching her wand to the handle lightly.
The door clicks, unlocking easily. The seal broken, the silencing affect of the seal has shattered, and the hallway fills with sound. A scream of unmatched agony, a soul being tortured to the utmost limit of it's endurance. The cries of pain die away a moment later into pained sobbing, begging, as a strong, female voice calls out. "You will tell me where it's hidden, or you will /die/ /screaming/. CRUCIO!" There's a terrifying silence, before the corridor erupts in a noise of incomparable pain.
Crucio. Cruciatus. Unforgivable. And Abram Willis is being tortured to within an inch of his life, on the other side of the door from Rena. One word can be discerned within the animalistic roar of pain - 'Please.' The curse stops again, and there's the sound of something being kicked, and the distinct clatter of something hitting a wall. "NOW!" The female voice again.
There is always that moment of satisfaction when a spell actually works for Rena. One of those All Is Right With the World moments… However, these moments aren't usually shattered a second later by screams of agony.
Horrified by what she hears, Rena gives a start, and then immediately pushes open the door with a kick of her foot. Her training has always been to keep a cool head under the worst circumstances and to use non-harmful means foremost. And so, her wand is thrashed -possibly too fast to aim properly - in the direction of the woman tormenting her victim: "Expelliarmus!" She cries, trying to disarm the intruder.
The door slams open, alerting the witch within of her presence. Her robes are black as liquid midnight, seeming to drink what little light filters into the room from the city outside. The room is thrown into sharp relief by the lights from the corridor outside. A battered man - Abram - is up against the far wall, pinned to his bed by a hefty metal stake through the chest. His face and limbs are covered with burns, lacerations and bruises. The torture has been going on for hours. Flickers of blood are visible all over the room, where the Dark Witch has got too enthused - And some of the furniture shows marks from having the man, and the bed, thrown up against it. Her wand is already up, but turns towards Rena at the sound of her presence.
"Protego!" The witch reacts perfectly, the disarming hex hitting her shield and amounting to nothing. "Leave, Or Join Him!" The witch orders. Her voice loud. Proud. Her face pale, lips thin, face fine boned and elegant. But her countenance is terrible.
Rena's features blanch upon taking in the horrific scene with a single sweep of her gaze. She doesn't have a poker face right now. She's absolutely mortified at what this wretched woman has done and her dismayed expression shows it plainly. Both witches have their wands pointed at each other, and for a heavy moment, a silent standoff ensues between them.
Though shaken, Rena is resolved not to be baited into saying or doing anything foolish. Drawing one quick shuddering breath, she then cries out, her voice breaking slightly: "Stupefy!"
The Witch's face is pulled into an ugly sneer. She could be so beautiful. So elegant. But right now she's the very picture of soul destroying evil - "Petrificus Totalus!" She orders loudly, the body-binding curse taking effect immediately on the Auror. Snapping her arms and legs together. The Witch doesn't even wait to see Rena fall, she turns back towards Abram. "We will find it. We have time. You do not." She kicks the bed obviously.
Healer Noel finally arrives to the commotion, bending down beside Rena's now prone form with concern writ large upon her face. "Miss Lee!" She turns her head… Eyes widening at the scene she'd beholding. Unlike the auror, though, the Healer doesn't respond with her wand. Just an expression of shock.
Apparently, Rena was too shaken to pull off her spell very effectively. No sooner had she failed than she found her body lashed into a full bind that has not only thrown her to the floor quite helpless, but also silenced her, locking her jaw shut. Unable to respond or move, a despondent sense of failure sinks into her heart - failure of her job, failure to the nurse, failure to St. Mungo's and most especially, the poor wretch whose body has been riddled with torment. All this, long before a sense of anxiety over what the other witch will do before the binding spell wears off. Dark eyes are locked on the intruder as she can do nothing else for the moment.
The Nurse's shocked expression is well deserved. A moment later, a twirl and a dismissive "Stupefy" light the corridor red, the spell slamming straight into her chest and throwing her against the wall like a ragdoll, leaving a smear of red where her head hits the wall. The Witch finally casts back her hood, revealing the slicked back hair, and the smirk if victory. "Farewell, Abram." Her wand turns towards him, smirking as destructive force erupts from the tip and slams into the bed - Obliterating it, and carrying the mattress and the man upon it into the window - It rips through the glass as well, shattering it outwards, and carrying Abram with it, out into the cold night, and looking at a fall well over thirty meters. The night air and wind flutter through the room, picking up the various pieces of parchment and detritus. as she looks back upon his would be savior. "And to you as well." Arm raised.
Everything is falling apart around Rena right now, seemingly. Now the innocent, hapless nurse has been injured, and the witch has had her way with her intended victim. Even as his body is flung from the window, the bind placed on her own body unravels of its own accord. One could easily criticize her for being too light-fingered in her approach, but the moment she is free - though still on the floor - her wand whips toward the dark woman, and she regains her resolve crying forcefully: "STUPEFY!" Pained anger flashes in her eyes.
The Witch seems to be preparing to cast, when she noticed the twitch and her spell changes abruptly. "Ava— Protego!" The stun slams into her shield, the red light spreading around her, before the protective cone coalesces and the remaining force of the blast hits the dark witch squarely in the chest. She follows her victim out of the window, dark robes fluttering as she spirals, and falls down the side of the hospital, leaving the horrific crime scene behind, the Healer well unconscious and Rena the only witness.
The wreckage at the ground floor is strewn around - Shards of glass, of brick, a mattress, and some distance away, a tortured, desecrated corpse of Abram Willis. It's absent the Dark Witch that would later be accused of causing all of this.
Painfully, Rena first sits up and then stumbles to her feet. Her first instinct is to run to the gaping, shattered window, but she moves over to nurse Noel instead. She’s no healer, but at least she can tell that the woman is breathing. That’s a hopeful sign, at least.
Hospital security arrives to find the horrific mess and a young shaken Auror standing essentially in the midst of the chaos. There are a lot of questions to be answered, and a lot of horror to be answered for.