A Call.

Voicemail:

"There was once a shady lady,

Who attitude was quite degrading

She fought little proxies

And kicks some guys balls

But she met the love of her life

And she never returns his calls.

I'm awful at rhyming. Mediocre at best. Check your refrigerator for a number to call, and give it a test. Hehehehehehehe." 

I shook my head and went into the woods after retrieving the number. It was morning by then and I was pacing through the trees, listening to the crunching of leaves and branches. Ignoring my pajamas getting snagged now and then on branches. Kicked a flower. Apologized knowing Mystery would have scolded me. Then I dialed the number, and once they picked up I didn't give them time to speak, "Is this a joke? Who is this? How did you get into the mansion?

"Hehehe, hey love muffin. You sound antsy. You look delicious. I must say, your apparel is very alluring today. Hehehe, please, please, please, one question at a time. What do you think this is? Cranium? Hehe, go fish, love. Let's begin." I heard a timer turning on through the phone. "Questions?"

"How did you get into the mansion." I demanded an answer, the prior two answered already.

"Hahahahohohohehehe, how DIDN'T I get into the mansion? Hehe, too bad you don't have your witch around to help you... So vulnerable, so vulnerable." Advocate snickered, no doubt pleased with his ability to stalk me with a lack of being detected. "You really should consider better security... But to give you a straight up answer, I walked through the front door. Hehe. Didn't you see me? Oh what a pity... Nice place you've got."

I scowled, glancing into the direction of the mansion. "Mystery might have left but the wards were returned and are being maintained. You expect me to  believe you walked on through an armed establishment like a fucking ghost?" I scoffed quietly, "You intend to do harm. There's no way..."

"Harms been done, babe. Check the woods, I'm sure you'll find a nude MASC greenhorn out there somewhere, if you search long enough. Hehe, but that begs another question? Was it me who did the killing? Or am I even telling the truth? Does anyone really know? Do I know? Hehe, maybe. So many questions but we're on a time crunch, beautiful. Next question."

"Impossible." I muttered about him beneath my breath. "What is the purpose of giving me this number?"

"So we can keep in touch, sexy pants." He giggled, I groaned. "And I need a more direct, personal way of contacting my very best friend." I heard screams from the other end. "Shut up, I haven't even started drilling yet! Hehe, anyways, darling. I have a guest who keeps interrupting me. Attention hog. What was I saying? Oh right, have you ever been to Broadway?" A drill turned on in the background.

I sighed, pushing the screaming aside. There wasn't anything I could do and feeding Advocate's attention towards that was not something I'd do. "Twice a while back. Why?"

"Oh just curious. I'm writing a play. Hehe, we should have a sit down sometime and talk about it. Are you free this weekend? Hehe... Oh and I apologize for my absence of blogs since the party. Busy, busy, busy! But now things are starting to simmer down, and it's time to stir the pot..." I could hear a loud banging in the background.

I flinched at the first bang before relaxing, back to not being surprised by his antics. "Right... I can see that. And are you actually asking or are you going to show up either way?" I asked dully, examining the woods around me. For any sign of the enemy, or any surprise from Advocate even.

"Stop looking around like you expect me to be there in person, dear. Hehe, I can't be in two places at once, can I? Can I?! Hehe, I guess we'll have to wait and see." The banging abruptly ended, a gurgling noise picking up in its place. It sounded like someone was fricking drowning. "My response isn't as important as yours. Are you freeeee?"

That question would become something frequent. As would the background noise. Since then I caught glances while running errands outside the mansion. In a reflection, moving through crowds, passed an isle and there he was. He's always been bold but this was upping his usual games. It was a taunting, just standing from the corner of my eye. Out of reach, damn well knowing no doubt the knife I had on my person at all times. Trying to chase after his form after it disappeared was useless, led me nowhere. I stopped feeding that game and would continue doing what I intended, without becoming overly distracted.

I've been doing a lot of research, assisting around the mansion, and teaching Josie a thing or two. Speaking of which, I threw her out the front door a few evenings ago. Woke her ass right up. Josie perked instantly and turned, attacking me in return for it. I laughed, pulling a knife on her and watching as she fumbled on properly evading an actual weapon. A surprise attack to teach her to be ready, especially with weapons. Well, she was ready immediately, but not for the weapon.

"You're going to drive me insane." I smiled, flipping the knife at my handiwork on her. She wiped the back of her hand against her bleeding cheek, "I think you're losing your marbles."

"Just means I gotta find them" I mused, "Like in Peter Pan."

"They were found for the old man." Josie sighed, I threw the knife at her as she finished her sentence. Squeaking she narrowly dodged it, her chest heaving. "ARE YOU-"

I was back on to attacking her, unable to stop grinning. She ran away, in circles. It came to the point where it went from an actual sparring match to tag. A rougher version of tag that involved tackling and punching. And occasional head-butting.

Brood came out the front door, "What are you two imbeciles doing?" He spat, completely dumbfounded by how we were tangled. Both of us looked his way before laughing. "Are either of you drunk?"

I lifted my hand, "Not this time, sir."

"I wish." Josie whined.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose, sighing dramatically. "Drugs?"

"Nope!"

"I could use some painkillers." Josie whined further.

Brood looked at us flatly, "Don't kill each other. We'll need Shady for the searching for the body in the morning. You both should rest."

We exchanged some jackass comments back and forth before finally going inside.

When morning came around I got up with Mr. Sunshine at my side as I met up with Brood. "Keep your men here, just bring a handful to carry the body."

"Why?" He was skeptical, glancing at Mr. Sunshine who was grinning without the two layers of masks.

"Because this guy will sniff it out."

"He's a police dog now?" He snorted.

I shrugged, "Might as well use his abilities if we've got them." I beckoned both of them to follow, motioning for Mr. Sunshine to take the lead. "Find us a winner, deary."

He didn't need any further encouragement. His sharp eyes narrowing as we left the mansion, immediately we were chasing him through the woods. He brought us to a dead deer at first, his head shaking when he realized it wasn't the same scent. Mr. Sunshine tried to eat the deer, we said no, he tried to bring it with him, we said no again. And then the search was back up.

Which led us straight into Prosper. He was standing ahead of us, in the middle of the woods. His current body looked like utter shit, he was bleeding, holding his side as blood, both fresh and old was trailing down his neck. Both from the cuts and what looked like underneath, whatever happened to him fucked his day up. His cracked mask lowered, fiery eyes locking with mine as I heard the MASC soldiers take aim and removed the safety at once. Prosper was gone instantly.

"What does he want?" Brood questioned with a scowl.

I shrugged, "Hell if I know."

We walked for a few minutes before I caught sign of him off to the side of us. Disappearing and reappearing through the trees he weaved through, watching us as we followed Mr. Sunshine. As we walked I flicked Mr. Sunshine's hand, he snapped his attention to me and I motioned for him to keep leading on. His face contorted with dislike, a low growl emitting from his throat as he slid closer in a protective manner. I shot him a glare and motioned again, not wanting suspicion to form. Abiding he led on, as we walked I progressively slowed my pace until detaching from the group completely. My eyes landed on Prosper far to my left, waiting. I followed as he weaved through the trees, limping and not even caring for his injuries as he did so.

We ended up at the small fort which was barely holding itself together. Which meant we were near my house.

"Road Runner." Was the first thing out of my mouth, he cocked his head as he stood before me. Both of us on opposite ends of the small camp. "Lenore was her name, I have her file. You're Owen."

Prosper rolled up his sleeve, revealing the tattoo on one of his wrists. Confirmation. "Which one will live, which one will die?"

"It's a wait and see game." I rested my hand on the knife strapped to my thigh, some reassurance. "Your boss finally realize my information from the Darklings was true?" Prosper remained motionless, betraying not a single thing. "I guess it doesn't really matter, he's bound to die one way or another." Again, nothing. Not a flinch, a bitter retort, emotionless all together towards the comment. Which interested me as to why that would be. "You haven't been obeying him."

"Free reign. I do the job as I see fit."

"I haven't been dragged back yet."

"Advocate didn't hand you over. No different."

"Why are you here, letting me see you looking like shit?" He bowed his head, looking himself over and gave a throaty chuckle in response. "You and Road Runner have been fighting constantly for a few months now."

"We've always fought."

"Why?"

Another chuckle, then he was gone. A moment later at my side, a hand under my chin that tilted my head to the side, the other holding my head in place tightly. The side of his mask was at my ear, I kicked out at him, elbowed the spot he held, it didn't even make him flinch. "Why haven't you told her? Hello? Hello? Hello? I know you're in there." He hissed, the Caged One I could feel give a small tremble within, not out of fear, acknowledgement she heard him. Not that he knew. I could see her lifting her head, tilting it as if she was listening. "You're going to kill her and I won't have to do a thing at this rate. Waiting for the chance to regain your body. It doesn't work that way, it will never work that way. All or nothing, my girl."

The Caged One roared, a fit being thrown inside my own head. My knees briefly buckled at the sudden headache I got. She shook her head furiously, flailing, screaming. I didn't understand, that was the point. It wasn't about me, it was about her. "IT'S MY BODY!" was all I heard before whiteness took over my vision.

I felt like I was gliding for a moment, moving but yet not, unable to see anything but white. With a blink it was all back no normal, except I was on my back... Several feet from where I originally was. Prosper was standing over me, his head tilted down as I stared back with absolute confusion. "She's tired of waiting." He said, I didn't know if we were talking about Road Runner or the Caged One at this point anymore. Prosper simply vanished.

I looked around, nothing explained how I moved unless Prosper did it himself. But there was no signs of a struggle. Looking upon the Caged One she was breathing heavily, surrounded by the blackness with only a single ray of light shining down on her location. She wouldn't respond when I called to her, merely shied away out of the light and melted into the darkness.

Whelp, still alive. I managed to find Brood, he threw me a questioning look and I didn't give an explanation. Wasn't necessary. We found the body a few minutes after meeting up, a nude MASC soldier that was obviously murdered. We brought him back and buried him in what was becoming a graveyard out back.

I cleaned Mr. Sunshine up from all the mud he gathered on his arms and face. Off to the side I noticed a black cat staring, near where Lullaby and DeMii fell asleep together in a chair. It was the first time I came to notice things clicking together with Proctor's blog.

And then it was Thursday, the 26th of January. We were all caught up.

I'm going to post today's events, with Advocate's newest phone-call and Lenore's file. Oh yea, we're back to getting work done on this thing.

Stay safe,

-Shady