| Details for Something Inferi'd |
| Summary: | Following Shelley's insistence there was unfinished business here, Katherine apparates blind into the Cheddar Cemetary, not knowing what she'll find. The last two members of the Willis Family are killed. Again. |
| Date: | 1939-02-17 |
| Location: | Cheddar Cemetary, England; Cheddar Forest, England. |
| Related: | Never Negotiate in a Cemetery - Scene One and then All Torn Up. Part of the What Men Kill For Plot |
| Characters |
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Cheddar Cemetery. Again. Hundreds of small tombstones, leading to a few dozen stone crypts. One of the moderately sized ones has been the subject of violence - The door shattered inwards, stone scattered about, and the heavy stone table inside has grown legs, wandered outside and seemingly tipped. They still walk, awkwardly enough. Not too far from there, the meaty strips of Shelley, some scattering of hair and blood, clothing and wand make up a nice, neat pile. Faint bloody smears are visible on the inside of the tomb, as well as on the path leading out of the cemetery towards the nearby woods. Scraps of burnt flesh, the occasional clot.
Dark Witches and Inferi are nowhere to be seen, right now.
*CRACK* Katherine arrives in the cemetery and takes a moment to calmly look around. Although her body language is relaxed, making it clear she really isn't expecting to find much here, she does have her wand in hand.
The young Auror takes a moment to take in what there is to see and she starts to frown a bit as she sees not only the results of Shelley's splinch but also blood streaks and other ominous things that the splinching can't really account for.
A little more cautiously now she starts to make her way towards the tomb bearing the bloody smears.
Up closer, the tomb bears another sign - A brief spray of blood against the table. The interior of the tomb has the disturbance of many footsteps, and the smell of old, burnt flesh and death. Whatever happened here was wrong. On so many levels.
Katherine makes a quick examination of the tomb. Not finding anything more out of the ordinary besides the blood spatters and smudges she starts to slowly follow the blood smears leading into the woods, senses straining now to make sure that she doesn't miss a noise or a movement that might alert her of danger.
It's dark. Very dark. The woods close around Katherine almost immediately. Signs of passage become significantly easier to follow - Torn scraps of white fabric, branches that are stained red, smears or burned flesh where Katherine's quarry has forced it's way through, forging it's own path. Only a few minutes in, there's a clearing - And a small cottage. Whatever it is she's following, subtlety isn't it's language - There are two breaks in the simple wooden fence that rings the stone and thatch building. The door has been physically broken, as has the kitchen window. A bloody smear, from something that's been dragged through it.
There's no noise though. No screaming. No rustling. No breakages. Narelle's final orders were very, very clear. Find an inhabited building Wait. And kill anything that disturbs your passage.
Katherine stops at the edge of the clearing, crouches down and waits for a moment, looking for movement or waiting to see if she can hear anything that will give her an idea of what's happening inside the cottage. After a few moments of this she starts to make her way around the clearing, hoping to find a back door to the cottage.
Of course there's a back door of the cottage. Katherine finds it easily, and completely unmolested by the forces of evil. Even in the darkness. There are no lights on in the cottage, sadly, but simply by peering in through the window set into the back door, the silhouette of a young woman is visible, standing in the middle of the lounge. Eerily still, in fact, she doesn't move, there's no signs of her chest rising and falling. The little moonlight and starlight that creeps inside doesn't do anything to help identify her.
Katherine Takes pains to creep up to the back door without making any noise that might attract attention to herself. Once there she slowly opens the door, wand at the ready and senses still straining, doing her best to make sure she is not surprised. Among other things she is also paying careful attention to what the smells around her might be telling her, actually sniffing the air every minute or two.
… It smells like the Crypt. Something's not right here.
There's a hoarse scream, something that sounds twisted and inhuman. Vocal cords burned and stretched, the attempt to make sound only comes out a strangled moan-come-hiss at high volume. The smell of old burned meat is intense, sudden, as a figure in the darkness is visible for only a moment, lurching at the Auror and grabbing her robe with both hands. Skin blackened, cracked, the breaks showing deep reds and sickening yellows. The corpse of Nancy Willis /throws/ Katherine deeper into the cottage without warning and with the ungodly strength of the living dead, away from the safety and slight light cast by the doorway and windows. The other figure turns to face the Auror as she tumbles by - And the pair, return to silhouettes as they both converge upon her.
They move slow. The one good thing about the colossal force of the throw is how far it's thrown Kat - Clipping a door frame, she's tossed into the master bedroom. What little of the bedroom is visible aught not be seen. The owners of this cottage experienced what the young Auror faces now. It did not end well.
The time for stealth now well and truly over Katherine scrambles to her feet, gasping at the pain the aggressive movements cause. God only knows what might be broken after that throw but now is not the moment to be checking. Instead she grits her teeth, aims her wand at the ceiling of the cottage, above and slightly ahead of the inferi and hollers out, "CONFRINGO!" intending to bring the cottage's roof down on the undead to buy herself some time.
Inferi. The tortured scream of Nancy Willis is almost as disturbing as the sight of her - And the way she lurches, her muscles drawn tight. The roof of the cottage explodes suddenly, showering them with wood and straw, bringing the heavy beams that keep the roof up down in front of the Auror's pursuers. It's excellent for buying time - Although ultimately, either fleeing or facing down the inferi will be required. The burned creature, knocked down on the explosion, already crawling under the fallen beam, albeit slowly - One ruined hand emerging from the 'roof'. More noises, as the more 'whole' inferus begins to claw her way over the remains of the roof.
Katherine has her breathing room, although she's trapped in a room with the remains of two people that had been torn apart, two inferi right outside and working to get in.
Katherine makes her way to the closest window and climbs out of it as quickly as possible; gasping as she bumps a definitely injured shoulder against the frame and then following that with a groan as the gasp tells her there's at least one or two cracked ribs.
But Kat isn't one given to running away. As soon as she's out the window she turns back around and aims her wand at the mess of beam and straw she's left behind her, casting "Incendio!" hoping to catch both inferi in the resulting fire and thus putting an end to their threat. Even if it ruins possible clues as to who their creator might be…
Thatch is notoriously flameproof. Until it's shattered by an explosive curse and then exposed to a magical flame - And then it's like tinder, flame leaping from straw to straw. The light, and the heat drive the Inferi to change their tactics, but even as Evelyn's corpse releases the roof's remains, and tumbles into the cottage, fire spreads to her thin cotton nightie - Or at least, what remains of it. Nancy doesn't fare much better, the soon to be blazing roof raining fire down upon her head. Within half a minute, the cottage is well burning - And out of the front door and bedroom window respectively, lurch two 'human' torches. Flesh sizzling, popping, filling the clearing with a horrid stench as they haphazardly heave towards Katherine.
They might not last long like this. The inferius that burns twice as bright, only lasts half as long.
The young Auror was not un-expectant of something like this. Inferi are notoriously hard to deal with and her training makes her quite well aware of this.
Gritting her teeth against the pain that jogging causes in her ribs and shoulder she does her best to keep the inferi from diminishing the distance between her and them. She also tries to keep them between herself and the burning cottage because every time she gets a chance she casts a Cannon Curse, attempting to push the undead back into the flaming cottage and away from her. "Bombarda! Bombarda!"
The two successive cannon curses have two very different results. Nancy Willis is suddenly and violently tossed back into the window from which she came, and doesn't emerge again. The burned woman, destined to be burned yet again. The smaller woman, now lit by the flames as her skin melts away, only hesitates for a moment as the spell slams into her center-mass. She's only briefly staggered, but her chest is staved in dramatically. The distance between herself and the Auror is far too large for her to hope to make it before another spell. But the corpse of Evelyn doesn't hope. It obeys. Fat sizzling and burning, reeking as she forcible pushes one foot forward, spreading a path of fire behind her.
"Enough of this! Reducto!" Kat instantly regrets loosing her temper and yelling at the remaining inferus. One, she's not 100% sure there isn't anyone else around. Two, yelling brings another sharp jab of pain from what she is now fairly sure are not just cracked ribs but actually broken ribs. But the spell is cast and a bright bolt of blue speeds its way towards the shambling, blazing corpse…
Evelyn is breaking up. The order is imperative. Kill. Kill the woman. Staggering, picking up pace, as her muscles begin to tear apart as they're used. One arm reaching out, a hoarse whisper of a moan as it reaches for her. There's no realization in it's dead eyes, as the spell slams into it's chest. The corpse disintegrates mid-step, collapsing into a formless goo that spreads towards Katherine all the faster - Fire rippling upon the surface, boiling blood and liquefied human remains. Scorching her feet, but failing to catch the witch on fire.
Cheddar is treated to fire again. The Cottage is well ablaze, the forest unable to hide the column of smoke rising from the cottage. Mercifully, the clearing should be enough to keep the forest from going up. An optimist would assume that the Willis family are successfully dead again. And with their retainer clearly unsuitable for resurrection, there's only two ways for the Dark Wizards to get more bodies.
Steal them.
Or make them.
In a corridor, in St. Mungos, a beautiful, fine boned witch walks swiftly, holding a chart in one hand and her wand in the other. "Excuse me. I'm looking for Miss… Auror, Prewett?" She asks a 'fellow nurse'.
Katherine backpedals quickly away from the flaming mess until her back bumps against a tree trunk. Leaning against the tree's supportive surface she keeps her eyes scanning the woods, taking shallow breaths as she starts to shake thanks to the adrenaline dump. A few minutes later, when she feels able to attempt it safely, she Apparates to St. Mungo's…