Ghoul Circles

2am was something of a paradise for those driving down the long gray highways that led south. What was normally two to three hours of congested vehicular hell, was now a simple congregation of some few hundred cars going down a near empty midnight road. For the first moments of the ride, the radio blared the usual midnight rock radio that their superiors were so enamored with, that was until the commercial break. Sidetracked by the near endless blaring of shampoo and beer ads, their relative impatience took over. Prompting them put on the radio caster, playing the spirited beats of 80's Japanese city pop mixed with the slow but heavy grind of Stoner Metal. Despite the divide in musical interests, their underlings couldn't argue against it. It did fit the current mood. The rough hum of the van and the buzz of the air conditioning was accompanied by the quiet patter of fingers on smartphones and the hushed snores from some of the Uncursers, it all fit perfectly so to speak, but the swish of the cooler that acted as his footstool was a bit of a distraction. Nonetheless the noise convinced him to open it revealing a plethora of zero sugar, black coffee and energy drinks. Jude picked up a bottle of Monster Energy zero and gulped down a third of the drink and then waited for the ingredients to do its work. He sat at the back by the window, far from the view of his colleagues. Ideal for some private phone surfing. Opening up his email he lowered the brightness as he reread the message from his possible new employer. "Good day Mr. Blanco, We'd like to inform you that we at Trese Warehouses were very impressed by your application and would like to immediately accommodate your employment as a Management Assistant"

He reread the email again, contemplating his reply. He had till 10am to do so he thought. Leaving his current job would be fairly easy, Human Resources was accommodating. Usually forgoing the one month notice, minimum was usually a week plus backpay was processed on the day you left. But it wasn't the HR's empathy that he was gonna miss. He silently observed his colleagues, Rick, the one beside him was snoring away while his earphones blared some lowbrow mainstream EDM. Steph was playing a mobile card game, cursing wildly in hushed whispers, Soma was watching cooking videos salivating in a rather explicit manner while Richard read a horror novel he'd been engrossed for the past two days. Then there were his superiors, the one driving the van was Francis Ki; lean, plucky, well shaven professionally dressed in a white button down shirt and slacks. He sang along to the radio's tunes with all the enthusiasm of a lovestruck teenager. The other supervisor, Sam Williams, bald headed but bearded, bulky and dressed in loose jeans and a brown muscle shirt covered by a neon vest that contained every mini tool he needed for the job. He'd definitely miss this if he left, the dullness of the waiting time mixed with the foreboding dread that followed the reward at hand. Of course the pay was amazing, worth the ever tiring graveyard shifts. Crow Company hired him seven months ago, and since then he'd be able to pay his debt some five times over. His parents couldn't complain since his work had contributed to removing his impulsive gambling problem. But, there had to be an easier way to earn money. And listing down a near endless stream of food crates and cardboard boxes seemed to be the answer to that.

"Hey Jude?" the imposing baritone of Williams breaks the junior out of his self induced contemplation "Sir?" he replied, trying to hide the low taint of nervousness in his voice, perhaps produced by the guilt involved with the intention of resigning "Any report from the Drone crew?" no message had arrived, as far as Jude remembered. That was until a notification popped up on his phone.

"Just now" He replies, opening a text that just arrived. Beginning to recite the contents in verbatim as he delivers the update from the advance team that handled observation and assessment of an infestation site. "Building evacuated, sent in flying drones, no visual but we've detected traces of miasma from a malevolent presence. We're sending in car bots now to check the vents."

"Man I hope that specter better be worth this trip" his boss replied, his dry enthusiasm for ghost slaying not shared by the rest of the team, evident by the nervous looks they gave him. The van went silent once more, save for the radio and the background noise. Jude leaned back and took in the dreariness of the midnight road and pondered how his day was going to end.

It didn't take too long for the van of Uncursers to arrive at their destination, the lack of grinding traffic perhaps made that all possible. Their objective, the Global City was a hub that seemingly never slept. A business district that was also network of congested bars,night clubs, condominiums and restaurants that catered to the rich and financially stable. Its high rises dominated the skyline, seemingly no different from the megalopolises like New York, London or Taipei. But the truth was, the tiny district was so squeezed in to the point of standardized inefficiency that it made the buildings look as if it could carry the weight and grandeur of a skyscraper despite being barely half the size of one.

But due to its trendy reputation, the sidewalks still had drunken college age millenials giggling with blank faced office workers as they waited at bus stops and taxi lines. "Glad I ain't part of that grind anymore" muttered Steph her phone blaring the stylized sound effects as she dropped a combo that completely obliterated her opponent. "Staring at a computer and not having to deal with disembodied voices and shadows that can scratch your eyes off is kinda appealing don't you think?" added Rick, which warranted him an odd scowl from Steph. The conversation ignited by whatever graveyard shift induced sleepiness was lost to the glaring lights from streetside neon billboards and a few experimental hologram ads. Jude spent the waning minutes of the ride rereading the email and contemplating his plan until the van screeched to a halt beside the empty parking lot of an eight story building that had a crowd gathered at its entrance. Just outside, a white van stuck with an imposing logo of three black crows sat in the middle of the crowd. A police vehicle and an ambulance was there as well, with emergency services taking in interviews and tending to those affected by the attack. "Dismount and gear up for a Level 4 infestation" Williams commanded as he quickly left their ride and headed towards the Drone Crew's van. A collective groan echoes from the team; preparing for Level 4 usually meant having to carry more equipment and protection gear "Mr. Ki, a Level 4 already? Drone Crew hasn't even reported anything for a Level 3" protested Richard. Though both were equally nice, Ki was the softer one but his reply came dry and fast. "That crowd makes it a level 5, that amount of psychic energy coupled with the right ritual could fuel some dead Hittite god. We're being lax with a level 4." Ki says before following Williams. "They're overreacting" complained Rick, "It's just another fear specter for sure, this is the mall basement incident all over again" added Steph as she began strapping up her padded vest. Jude nodded is head in agreement, just two months ago Crow Company cleared a basement that was supposedly filled to the brim with high level demons. The nefarious kind that read your mind and convinced you it could grant your deepest darkest wishes all while attempting building some cocoon where you'd spend the rest of your days getting your brain cells drained for the demon's sustenance. What was instead encountered was a ghostly apparition that had a few illusion casting abilities but the most dangerous thing it could do was scare you into a three minute coma. Not exactly as harmless as a stray cat but it was no embodiment of some other worldly wrath.

Quickly unpacking the equipment from the van's back door, Jude sets up the gear for his teammates. There lay a set of smartphones used as tracking devices, Demon Stun Batons, Net grenades, and the ever reliable Plasma spitters. Level 4 Gear, the "kinda serious stuff" Ki would call it. Jude picks up a spitter and quickly inspected the batteries, he knew they were brand new but it didn't hurt to be sure. The spitter was a highly durable plastic gun that fired burning balls filled with iron dust, rock salt, concentrated ethanol and some purified oxygen. The projectiles ignited in contact with a supernatural being but only left nasty burns on living ones. The tool looked like a megaphone with a coiled mouth as its head and an ammo tube behind it. It was probably the fastest way to take down a ghost, but the fact that it relied on batteries turned off some of the older Uncursers. The Demon Stun baton on the other hand was just a regular nightstick, but it was covered in salt crystals all lacquered into the frame. The juniors found it odd how it was called a stun baton when the thing was normally used as a bludgeon.

As the group was strapping on gear, Ki and Williams returned without much a word, putting on their own equipment fast after thanking the juniors for preparing them. Ki wore the standardized neon colored shock pads over his shiny corporate garb, arming himself with the personally modified triple barreled spitter; a beast of a ghost gun, The thing could shoot a thousand rounds and had an ammo tube nearly half it size, Jude always found it amusing to see someone in salaryman office clothes covered in a belt of ammo and glowing body armor. Williams was geared from the start, wearing his vest and baton but his spitter was still in the back; an old C6. A relic from the 80's looked like a mix of a crossbow and rifle, it used a box magazine that Williams liked to tape two together, "Jungle style" he said it was called. Referring to the military term. The C6 shot small crossbow bolts propelled by a mild explosive charge, they were tipped with salt and iron shards that were held in some superglue like substance. He obviously preferred the older more firearm like weapons, forgoing energy type projectiles and going for ammo that was just two steps from being regarded as a bullet. Besides their batons, the two also carried hunting knives that were laced in some anti spectral coating made up of crystal pieces. The knives lacked the dissolving properties of the baton but two swore by its reliability, when spitters, gadgets and even old fashioned superstition failed. Ceaseless stabbing worked.

After gearing up, the juniors lined up in front of their seniors. The squad of five looked piped and ready, each member had limbered up in both body and armament, their heads were relatively clear thanks to the early chugging of black coffee and energy drinks. "Any Snickers left?" asked Williams as he rummaged through the food packs which mostly contained small bags of chips and candy. Ki loaded his vest with some extra energy drinks and some water while Williams had some chocolate bars on his. "Ok, briefing time" he announced as he chewed on a bar with unbridled enthusiasm. "First things first, it is as bad as we expected so far." Ki pulled up his tablet and began playing security footage as the team huddled around him. The video depicted a relatively empty office room, characterized by messy cubicles and piles of both scattered and filed documents. There was only one person in the room, she sat idly in front of dual monitors clasping her forehead in some form of distress. "Approximately two hours ago, an employee on the western corner of the office reported experiencing extreme dizziness and difficulty breathing. Said employee, whose name I can't remember, also mentioned that she smelled something that was like a mix of gas and smoke, so the custodians began checking for a possible fire despite the smoke alarm not going on" placing his finger on top of the image of a woman in a white hoodie, Ki directed the team's attention to the odd shadow that formed under the chair. As its shape began to materialize, it carried the unmistakable form of a hunched man that was terrifyingly gaunt in shape. The hands were outstretched, clamping upon the arm rests of the woman's chair. Its head was a mix of swirling shadows and huge gaping white eyes that it used to stare menacingly at its victim. Within a few seconds, the woman began to cough and wheeze while staggering for help as the thing quite literally melted onto the floor it stood upon before the woman's coworkers could witness it.

"The victim got sent to the hospital after that and the custodians inspected nearly every corner of that room, finding nothing, till they started looking at the vents on the floor" Ki sped up the video, skipping rudimentary custodian checks but quickly normalizes the pace once at a point where a janitor knelt down as he peered into an air vent with his flashlight.

Despite the grainy quality of the video you could still see the uneasiness in the man's face as he peered into the hole. A few seconds passed where nothing happened, thinking the vent empty, the janitors lift his head to call his colleagues, only to be assaulted by a long gaping arm of swirling black matter. The thing had reached from the vent, the black limb bore the same shadow built appearance such as that of the specter they saw earlier. It grabbed onto the man's face and attempted to pull him into the tiny portal. The vent was smaller than the man's head but nonetheless it was repeatedly smashed upon the hole's cramped entrance twice until his colleagues eventually pulled him free, his face was red with blood and his body seemed to twitch uncontrollably. The video continued, depicting human-like figures seemingly formed from black smoky water, crawling out of the single vent. Their eyes were wide and pale, their form slouched and their demeanor somewhat predatory as they began crawling towards the onlookers. Ki began speeding up the video, depicting the hurried evacuation accompanied by a few scenes of attacks. Many of the onlookers were too slow to react, falling victim to the specters as they leapt onto their victims, clasping their fear ridden faces and gawking at them with the wide voids that appeared to be their mouths. After some time the specters would leave their victims ridden in terror as they crunched up in fetal positions cowering from the onslaught of demons around them. A few minutes would pass and the victims would regain their senses and trudge towards the elevators. Ki would adjust the camera views, depicting their appearances. Which by now had looked gaunt, pale and something close to grief filled zombification. Characterized by the drool and blank stares that they carried.

"So what we have are definitely specters, possibly a Stress Manifestation made by an anchoring spell. Victims say they felt an incredible amount of emotional weakness the moment the creatures attacked them, as if their will to live was being sucked out. Drone Crew thinks that it's possible we're facing some sort of golem type specter, but it's nothing our spitters can't handle" Ki turned off the tablet and placed it in his backpack. Seemingly unperturbed by the video they had just watched, he yawns and removes his necktie, oblivious to the horror ridden faces of his juniors who simply stood their wide eyed in some form of abject fear.

"Could be some sort of black magic harvest, militant occultist or just your plain old neglect of Specter safety protocols." Williams added. Jude didn't think much of the cause, but he was pretty sure this was another neglect in the near rigid guidelines in supernatural infestation protocols since most ghosts weren't considered much beyond jump scares or perpetrators of sleepless nights. But like nearly every infestation, keeping it around only made it worse. And judging by the crowd that had formed outside of the evacuated building, worse was already happening.

…

By 3am, the squad had met up with their counterparts, the Drone Crew. Responsible for assessing and analyzing the initial situation through use of piloted robots before Sanitation members like Jude would be called. They were usually made up of a few engineering nerds and IT specialists. They rarely ever had to deal directly with a demonic threat. It was common for Jude to see the Drone Crew staring intently into their screens or burning away the hours smoking and vaping with their eyes locked onto some smartphone arena game. But this time it was different. The Drone Crew didn't have their eyes glued to their video screen nor were they wasting away on their phones. But instead they were staring at the elevators with their hands on Demon stun batons, the only anti spectral weapon they carried. All of them looked considerably nervous, evident by the sweat stains and pale faces they all had. "Hey, we gotta snyc up" called Jude, presenting the tracking monitor to Liandro, the man responsible for linking equipment. Seemingly, he doesn't recognize Jude and looks surprised seeing his fellow Uncurser. "Oh. Uh, alright alright" He stammers, plugging in the modified smartphone to his laptop. "You ok?" Jude asks, noticing that Liandro's hands were shaking. The specialist pauses for a short moment before his reply, rubbing his face with his hands. "I don't think so man" he says before continuing the tool sync. "That scary huh?" Jude scoffs, trying his best to hide the light teasing in his tone. Despite the apparent terror the sanitation team experienced as they witnessed the security feed of the assault, it helped to carry some measure of bravado or indifference for morale. A trick they had learned from the gung ho likes of Willians. Who was perhaps an extreme case.

"Yeah, the damn things. There's like a swarm of them upstairs, they're just huddling and shambling around like…"

"Zombies?" Steph bumps in, a mischievous smile on her face, "yeah. Zombies" Liandro says, handing the tracking monitor to Jude. Steph, finding the analyst's fear somewhat hilarious , lets out light yet clearly condescendjng laugh "Come on Liandro, even after considering the haunted mansion back when we were rookies?

"Or Perkin's Basement?" Jude adds, briefly recalling the nightmare inducing Squid faced god wrapped in a cloak of what appeared to be freshly peeled human skin.

The specialist, taken aback ponders for a moment anf then replies

"I uh. I guess not?" Liandro mumbles, loading up the map to Jude's tracking device.

"So, any tips based on the readings?"

"They're in the area dubbed Grid 4, some could be hiding but they've been ignoring the drones so I they'll be gunning for you guys once you head in, highly likely these are despair demons. So if they catch sight of something fairly hopeful, it'll drive them into a frenzy." Liandro shakes his head, probably trying to calm himself down

Jude was sure there were other things, other factors he could discuss. But his superiors had called, looking edgy and excited after meeting with the Drone Crew's supervisor who had just finalized the assessment.

Entering the elevator, they form up. Ki and Williams stood in front of the team, Soma, Steph and Richard in the middle while Jude and Rick stood at the back. The last two held the scanners, with Rick on the spectral intensity sweep and Jude on the map layout. It was their job to constantly send updates to their superiors who had their phones strapped to their forearms for easy access.

The site was on the 8th floor, a supposedly lucky number for the more superstitious business owner, which apparently wasn't much use as of the moment.

It was a resource efficient model, moved at a relatively slow pace and was built to consume less power. This allowed the slow beeping tick of the elevator's counter to bite upon the nervousness of the Uncursers, as the numbers slid towards their destination. Jude breathed slowly, squeezing the handle of his spitter while wiping away a few beads of sweat that trickled down his forehead. He observed that the rest of the crew were doing what they could to manage the biting fear, except for Williams. He leaned on the elevator's side, checking some game app on his phone. Groaning softly at what was a possible virtual defeat. Signifying their arrival at the 8th floor, the elevator's bell rings and the doors slid open. Williams rested his weapon's stock on his shoulder as he examined the relatively tight room. Ki checked every corner to his right while the rest checked the left side. Scanning their surroundings for any visual or residual trace of the demonic threat they were dealing with. The office lobby was a pale room mixed in with furniture that sported abstract shapes and high contrast colors. It reeked of the usual corporate office that was trying to not look like some Orwellian capitalist nightmare. Thankfully, it was also empty, save for a few scattered miscellaneous office items. But the presence of a supernatural threat was evident by the stench that stuck to their surroundings. There was a musk permeating nearly the entirety of the room, characterized by a mixture of charred smoke, sweat and bodily grime. The kind that stuck to your body after a long day at the gym. "Richard, log the smell as Musky, Smokey, possible summoning materials comprising the creature. List it down as strong traces of bodily fluid and burned substances permeating the site" Williams' command was quick and precise, and so was the junior's reaction. A quick log on the tablet had settled things right, and soon after they progressed through. The team moved in a single file, weapons aimed at corners. Fingers practicing trigger disciplined, eyes on their weapon's sights. Each Uncurser underwent basic tactical training from ex cops. No more intense than what most actors experienced for military movies but more than enough to keep them sharper than an airsoft or paintball enthusiast. Jude thought he could almost smell the excitement in Williams and Ki's breath as they neared the wide entrance of the main office floor. There was a huge neon sign board depicting the company name Infobreak Multinational. Steph opened the door, the team slides into the vast room of scattered swivel chairs and blinking monitors all running the same monotonous screensaver. A plethora of bags, jackets, caps and a mish mash of personal items scoured their sights, still no sign of the specters. A red glare began to bite at the corner of Jude's eye. He looked to his right and sees one of the Drone Crew's Quad rotors sitting on the cross section of an office aisle, the black gaze of its camera peered at them "Clearance team is on location" the radio piped, the voice coming from one of the operators at the ground floor. Jude and Ricks checked their sensors for any reading, so far no sound or sight of a threat had appeared."What section of the floor are we?" Ki asks, "Designated Grid 1 sir" he replied, turning the scanner on once more. "Check it as clear" Ki commanded, "Grid 1 clear" announced Jude and Rick as they ticked off the location on their maps. "Entering Grid 2" Williams radioed in, "Got it, Site team" the Drone Crews replied.

The next section was designated for a business segment that cross referenced law books for law firms, the cubicles were a bit more personalized but stacked with 3 monitors per spot along with a plethora of file folders covered in highlighted papers. Grid 2 was located just beside where the attacks first began, and the stink of the miasma was stronger here. The scanner's readings began to show traces of spectral activity, but no movement was present. Well at least to the devices in their hands, but their eyes did catch a clear sight of the thing they were hunting. It stood a good 6 feet tall, taking the shape of a man as it stood slightly hunched over with its big white eyes staring straight at a window. The thing craned its head to the right, seemingly amused by the sight of its reflection while it suddenly clasped its hands upon its face seemingly aroused by touching its own being. The Juniors had seem them so many times before, ghosts, demons and ghouls. Some formed from concepts of human emotions mixed with a form of gathered excretions Others were other dimensional monsters, possessing only the desire to feed on the fear and sanity of the human race. But it didn't mean they were used to it, clearly evident by the sudden shivering in Soma's hand as he clasped his gun. Steph didn't fair any better, as she cursed nervously under her breath. Ricks did his best to do his job, aiming the scanner at the thing and sending in the reading to Jude who by now was doing his best to manage his breathing while streaming the analysis to the seniors in front. This was his fourth Clearing Op, he'd seen worse. And it didn't seem to get any easier. Ki signaled the team to spread out, limiting the creature's escape routes as Williams neared the thing. He kept his gun trained on the specter as he approached it slowly, before he took a clear shot. Ki tapped him on the shoulder, signaling that the rest were ready and a second later he pulled the trigger. The specter's head snapped towards Williams' direction as the bullet landed on its neck. Still alive it dodged away closing in on Steph's position, prompting her to land a few shots on it as it began to drop to a crawl. Williams shot the limbs off the specter, as he approached it. He pulls out trident like device that brimmed like a jet engine, "first catch of the day" he mumbled driving the weapon onto the struggling specter's back. The trident was called a Vortex Rod, it sucked in Supernatural energy, effectively a corpse cleaner for the otherworldly. Usually used on dead or disabled targets, but Williams liked to watch the thing squirm and squirm it did. The creature bawled in pain as it swung its disabled arms and legs wildly while chunks of it began tearing away into the thing stuck onto its back. Jude breathed a sigh of relief, feeling they'd just downed the main threat. But this was just Grid 2 and this spot was dangerously close to the origin of the spectral threat. With all that in mind, he immediately checks his tablet for scans. The drones begin their signal sweep, revealing moving blots of miasmic presence heading for their direction. "Sir! Movement!" he says, fear and anticipation laced in his voice.

"Team form up on me!" Ki commands, rechecking his weapon. Jude responds immediately but begins to hear the sickening noise of something scratching upon the varnished ceramic floor. He looks to his right and sees a specter not unlike the one they had just removed. Crawling towards him with maddened enthusiasm, the dead white spaces that passed for eyes staring directly at the team while its gaping black hole of a mouth was wide open in excitement. Jude swore felt his knees buckle as the thing suddenly stood up and lunged towards him. The short moment of utter panic was redeemed by his quick thinking, immediately catching the specter with the barrel of his weapon, unleashing a burst of plasmic energy straight onto the creature's chest. Scrambling back to his feet he joins the rest who were now formed in a defensive circle. "Fire only at the targets in front of you. Leave the rest to your team." Williams ordered, letting out a few headshots at the specters that were beginning to reveal themselves by crawling on top of the cubicles, staining their pearl white surfaces with the stains of the sweat grime and dead skin that made up their integral structure. The team fired in clean aimed bursts, taking down the creatures before they could near them. Their seemed to be an endless wave, but their training did them well. That was until the first few ones started getting closer, a trickle of panic began to spill through the juniors as shots began to miss their marks and reloading didn't go in as smoothly. The seniors on the other hand kept their cool, every shot cut through clean, any specter that got close got stepped on or stabbed. One specter moving faster than the rest, dove onto Williams, it's claws going against the side of his face, leaving faint scratches upon his already scarred face. The stench of the specter was intensely dizzying, its miasmic aura was filled to the brim with cortisol and each time a trace of it entered Williams' nose he could feel the monster's abilities seeping onto his emotions. He summons up his strength and grabs the creature's hollow face with both his hands and forces it to its side as he gets back on top. Williams then plunges his knife onto the thing's heart and neck forcing it to dissipate into agony. All of it was over in less than a few seconds, giving him ample time to resume the hunt with the rest. The juniors must have fired over a thousand rounds, and ate through 3 clips each. "Time to move" Ki ordered, signalling Steph and Soma to watch his back. Ki was mobilizing towards a corner further down the room where the position would give him a good firing space cleared for splitting up the swarm. A single one got through and jumped on Steph and Soma's back but Jude and Rick immediately took them down before they could do anymore damage.But that moment opened a window for another pair to leap onto the two. The one on top of Jude bit hard on the side of his neck, in that moment he felt a sharp pain in his chest and a heavy weight sitting upon the back of his neck. He breathed in, trying to stabilize his thoughts but a torrent of stress inducing thoughts flooded down his brain as he was constantly bombarded by the anxiety inducing horror of quitting rather exciting but tiring job for a boring but stable one. Didn't seem much, but it had been eating him for the past few hours. Not to mention that a rather ghoulish creature made of grime, sweat and shadows had just dug its teeth onto his shoulder. "PUSH IT UP" he heard a voice command, and quickly both he and Richard shoved their specters from their bodies as the grayish glow of Williams' bullets tore through the things. The two didn't waste any time as they scrambled to their feet and resumed firing. The ordeal went through for another three minutes and soon enough all their assailants lay dead or dying in a heap of their own filth. "I hate that smell" Jude held his breath as he fumbled for a face mask. A specter, though somewhat corporeal, still had an anatomy. And since they were dealing with ghosts made out of sweat and cortisol, their torn up bodies were exposing more of the substance into the air. "Room's clear, we'll start the cleaning. You guys head to Grid 3." Ki said pulling out his Vortex Rod as he began driving the thing onto the Specter's bodies.

"Let's move" Williams grunted, as we entered the following room.

It was a hall of smaller rooms, made for interviews, meetings or phone calls. A number of offices and desks were present each containing the rank of an important individual, ranging from manager to CEO. "Jude and Rick. Sweep?" nothing came up on the scanners, save for one blot of miasmic presence. Just in the following room. The sign said Conference, as they neared it each one took position for a tactical entry and once they were done Williams opened the door and sitting down in a chair at the edge of the room was another Specter. It looked significantly less animalistic than the rest. Instead of a hollow scowl, it sported a wide grin, and there appeared to be a faint miasmic suit sitting upon its body. The thing growled and gestured for the Uncursers to take a seat but Williams just shot the thing's arm. The specter howled in pain as it stood up to attack us, but then Williams fired another two at its legs. Realizing its demise, the thing began crawling away as its stumps began leaking cortisol. Williams approached the ghost and stabbed its back with a pen like device, immediately pointing at Jude and Rick to do the necessary. Their trackers spiked up, as the thing crawled away and fell into an air vent on the floor. "Drone crew, we have placed a tracker on a specter" "We saw that, sending in the car" A wheeled vehicle drove in, and dove straight into the open vent, using its suction wheels to stick to the walls the thing helds its place as it followed the specter to its origin. "Sweep the room, something else is up" Williams commanded.

Jude and Rick immediately set out a series of high intensity low area sweeps that were better for more precise tracking. The scans returned a few traces of Miasmic aura, but nothing too jarring that the two had to blast the floor with plasma. That was until the sensors began to spin like crazy. "Over there" Rick pointed at the room on the far corner, fairly larger than the rest and elegantly decorated to the brim with some really flashy looking glass paint. The sign said Jacob Alka-Vice President of Operations. "Sir Williams, we got something"

Jude felt a bit of fear run down the back of his neck as he reread the scans. Miasmic levels were over 40%, which was the usual minimum when engaging demon infested abandoned buildings. But not an office that had the bad case of the hauntings. His blue and white screen had a huge bright red stain, usually reserved for the worst, but it was happening right in front of him. Williams and Ki had arrived by now and after checking scans, the two barge into the room without hesitation. The juniors half expected some bizarre demon to break through, claws out, teeth bared and a few blasphemous chants. But it was empty, save for a single goblet sitting on the manager's desk.

The thing was gold by the looks of it and had a number of odd looking images were scrawled around its body. Grotesque depictions of a satyr like beings fornicating, killing, eating. It was disturbing to look at and it seemed to be trying to speak to them. Ki didn't even think twice as he pocketed the thing with a dispelling spray before dropping it into an evidence bag. "Get the drone crew boss on the line" he commanded.

It took another 30 minutes before the Sanitation Team eliminated all traces of the specters. Any concentration of a supernatural threat was scrubbed clean with Vortex rods while the drones had completed a full floor scan, scrubbing the room with plasmic beams to burn away any tell tale traces of an infestation. Over fifty specters were eliminated that night, this was one of the more serious days. The drone crew's boss and her team had joined the Operations crew during the final clean up. The Drone boss was a pudgy woman sporting a crew cut and a nice set of runic tattoos on her neck. She ran by the name Wilhelmina Theeds but her peers called her Wil for short, while the juniors addressed her with her preferred nickname, Ten Eyes. "Full sweep complete, sending the drones for repair" she piped after checking on her tablet. "News on the rover that chased the last specter?" asked Williams, "Oh yeah about that, it reached a dead end at the basement. But it's still within sensory reach, and I'm telling you they're all demonic" "Is that an expression or?" "Oh no, I do mean demonic. Like possibly horned, long tongued saber toothed demon types who scream Christian blasphemies while poisoning the land" a smile cracked on the faces of the seniors, calculating the bonuses they'd get for bagging such a thing. "But, I ain't saying it's a full on confirmation. It's at 30% alright?" Ten Eyes interrupted. "Hyped us up for nothing" growled Williams, "Calm down baldy, listen that thing, this room is messed up. And for someone to vector in nearly 50 specters into the 8th floor, all the way from the basement. You're dealing with someone who knows their occultism good. And I ain't talking teenagers being rebellious, I'm talking religious beliefs. They needed faith to pull this through" Wil pulled her tablet and began displaying notes from a demonology book, the juniors initially uninterested were sneaking in a look. The images on Wil's tablet displayed observations on practicing occultists who were able to summon in a large number of gangly ghoulish beings no different from the army they had just exterminated. The video was interrupted after one of the things began attacking the worshippers. "2009, Alikar Residence" Williams muttered, mentioning one of the rare incidents where a supernatural incursion resulted in the death of 8 people. "We need to check out that goblet first before I send in my drones to get pulverized by some six horned thing made out of dead skin and sweat."

Ten Eyes inspected the thing in the bag while the crew waited anxiously for a result, the Drone Crew members weren't known for their prowess in cleaning up infestations. But they did have a keen eye for inspection. They were after all the first to a site, so their analysis was always critical for preparation. "Anything Wil?" Ki asked, "Well, it appears to be relatively recent, like 1970's recent." "What makes you say that?" "There's a satyr here smoking a bong and he's wearing a sweater with flowers on it." Ten Eyes showed the seniors the carving on the goblet, it definitely did look like a hippie. "Not only that, there's some blood here. Standard occult requirement and a lot of dead skin. Some runic charms written in a white marker, I thought it was Nordic but it's actually the Roman alphabet written in a weird font." "So, it's an anchor?" "Oh definitely, one of those low intensity types. The demon they summoned probably ain't much." Ki and Williams break down laughing, mocking Ten Eyes' comment on the possible threat they were facing. "Leave that to us Wil" Ki says as he readies their team.

The squad had 10 minute break before they headed down the basement. The senior Uncursers had a spark in their eyes this time. Lacking the mundane boredom they carried since they arrived at the site. The rest of the squad was tired though, the juniors were running on the fear induced energy kick of the thought of hunting down a demon. The only thing keeping their bodies from fainting was their superior's post incident evaluation that could lead to increased incentives. Despite their experience, they lacked the bizarre gung ho obsession the older ones had with the job. Besides, catching a demon wasn't exciting. It was downright terrifying, only the hunter types enjoyed it. As the team walked down the basement, Jude couldn't help but notice that the initial air conditioned smell was fading away as they went deeper. According to the Drone Crew, they tracked the specter into one of the control rooms for the building's entire air-conditioning system. Jude recalled the building manager mentioning that for the past three days he'd been getting complaints from the tenants on strange smells coming from the vents, when he'd sent a custodian to the basement. He reported no anomaly but did feel a strange presence coming from the place. "None of the Spectral Security protocols were broken, I thought he was just being paranoid" the building manager said. "Wow, this is a creepy basement. That mold looks like a dancing shadow" commented Ki, scraping his stun baton on one of the walls. The plasmic field causes a ripple to emanate on the surface, clearing away the dark spots from the concrete. Williams does the same, but with his Vortex Rod instead, allowing him to clear away a good portion of the wall. "Are the lights even on?" he asks, Soma flicks the switch nearby. Lights go on, and in the far corner of the hallway it stays dark. "Hmmm, well can't blame the manager for doubting the custodian. I mean we did do a good job warding this place" Williams says as he checks his rifle. "You're sure it's a summon then" pipes Ten Eyes through the radio "Yeah, the wards were clean remember?" "Checked them myself. Even got an upgrade last month" "And the client profile says they didn't wanna spend extra on warding the vents remember?" "That's true" "Definitely an internal summoning, your analysis on that goblet was right as rain Wil. So what are we facing?"

There was a slow pause in Ten Eyes' reply, it did its job lending a bit of tension to the atmosphere the group was handling. "Blasphemer type maybe, or a six to ten foot Satyr thing. Nothing your guns can't handle." she called in "You think it can cast spells?" Williams asked, "Really depends on how long it's been stewing in their. If three days is the estimated summoning period. High chance it actually can. Not unless the summoner had some extra ingredients or was a fervent believer in the magic." Wil replied with the dulled, withdrawn, radioed in response that was so normal of the drone crew. All up nearly half a kilometer from the possibly gigantic otherworldly infestation that was laying nest in the basement. "Alright, guys we rest here. Let Jude log in the observations." Williams ordered, shining his mag light down the hall which disturbingly seemed to stretch on forever. "Pretty empty for a 10 meter long hallway" mumbled Ki as he sucked on the lollipop in his mouth with annoying enthusiasm, the sucking noises echoed down the hallway, weirding out the sleepiness of his subordinates. "Hey, calm down. You know the kids hate it when you do that" Williams grunted as he he danced his palms around his knee "Not a big deal boss" Steph snickered, Ki nodded his head as he continued. Seniors liked to ease the tension with small talk, years spent hunting, cleaning and warding had taught them that this was more than just a day job. "Uploaded sir" Jude says as he places the tablet onto his bag. Soma does the same, just after he sends the notes to the cloud. Incase the gear got broken or they were devoured by the otherworldly being. A rare occurrence but possible nonetheless. The two seniors were evident of that, bearing the garish scars underneath the padding of corporate clothing and demon warded body armor. The team did one more gear check and moved up the hall. There was a plethora of emotions that sat around the heads of Uncursers, it was the dread mixture of complete workplace anxiety, fear laden thrills and the undying curiosity involved when anticipating the appearance of the threat they faced. The younger members were understandably less enthusiastic, they were of course paid less and were at this point just here for the job. The only thing keeping them from running away in fear was their work ethic. The walls began to ripple at their presence, must have been the stun batons or the charms the seniors wore on their necks. It was jarring to say the least. Their lights barely illuminated their surroundings, as the strange miasma absorbed it. "Alright stop" Williams signalled, "Vortex rods on that" he said pointing towards what appeared to be a gigantic red blood clot stuck on the wall. The thing moved with a beat to it, as if it was a heart pumping blood. From its form it appeared that waves of black miasma poured onto the surface that it latched to. Soma and Steph drew their rods and plunged it into a thing, but not after Ki took a few pictures. The Vortex Rods sucked in the supernatural matter, dissipating it into the tube where it was broken down into something akin to some highly really potent dustlike particles. Uncursers made a business out of selling processed miasma to various industries that adapted supernatural body parts for enhancing everyday utilities, mostly fertilizer and natural insecticides. "How much do we have now since the cleanup earlier?" Ki asked, "Roughly 10 pounds total sir" Soma replied after adding up their meters. "Good, get the extra canisters ready, the cleanup will be big" Williams mumbles as he takes samples from the wall with his knife. The group move slowly, cleaning up each miasmic postule they would come across. Slowly the lights began to work, as the living shadow's power weakened. What were earlier just blots of white among a black canvas, were now simply just light bulbs in a deep cavernous basement. Their return was enough to give the junior Uncursers a bit of relief, but to the senior it was all the same, whatever was in the end of the short hall was the threat they were hunting. With each postule removed, the living shadow receded. Its moldy presence dying away when the source of its expansion was vaporized, it would naturally creep back to its main point of origin. Jude could feel the hair behind his neck prickle at the presence in the room. He could feel the grip on his spitter loosening, as his trigger finger trembled as he kept it steady. The heavy breathing that emanated from his companions definitely signalled the bizarre horror they could feel from being in that room, except for the Seniors. They were probably shaking in fear from excitement, at least that's what the younger Uncursers believed, especially Jude. In his four months working with the crew, he had seen Ki and Williams dive straight head into the most horrifying spectral threats with the unbridled excitement in their eyes. Williams raised his fist, signalling a halt. Checking the corner on the right before entering. "This is the main valve right?" He asked. "Yes Mr. Williams, just down the hall is the sewer" Jude replied, fumbling for the building's map in his tablet. "Good, guys get in position." he replies, commanding them team to move in. The main valve's corridor was pitch black with miasma like the hall's earlier state, the light bulb's sat on the ceiling like white dots on a black canvas.

The stench of sewage was strong but so was the distinct smell of rotting blood. The iron filled aroma danced around the air they breathed, making them wish they brought the face masks. But what was perhaps most concerning about the situation was the odd noise that came from the end of the room. Gurgling, laughing, moaning. Some words could be heard, they were deep and distorted. Demonic was perhaps the only way to describe it. "Rod the wall" Ki commanded, a slight stutter echoing in his voice. Steph and Soma immediately prime their Vortex Rods and begin sucking in the supernatural matter from the premises. "Max it up, so we can see--" despite the near pitch black darkness of their surrounding the rest of the team could see what had interrupted Williams mid order. The arm was grey, muscular, boil ridden and smelled like dried sweat and blood mixed together. Its fingers bore long elongated claws as pale as the moon, but strangely capable of disappearing into the dark. Williams didn't have a second to shoot at the thing but his left forearm had blocked the arm as its claws dug at the sides of his face. The blast of a spitter roared as Ki fired at the arm ripping it clean off. The triple barreled weapon hummed and groaned like a miniaturized truck engine that was spitting out a clog on its exhaust port, the plasmic bolts eating away at every piece of supernatural matter it would come across, the darkness included. Plasmic projectiles shone brightest in demon induced darkness, and for the brief moment when Ki fired at the arm, the entire squad caught sight of their target's visage. Jude froze at the sight of it, he'd seen the demons in training videos, stored corpses and even grisly trophies kept by the seniors at the company headquarters. But up close was another story entirely. The very presence of the thing being in front of you was another experience entirely as it reminded you of the inhumanity of what you were facing.

It stood at seven feet tall, possessed some charasterictally gigantic hooves for feet and its lower body was covered entirely in what appeared to be matted fur. But what was the most disturbing about it was the torso, a huge muscular build, covered in what appeared to be black drops of paint and on its horned head were wide black eyes that carried the corpse like vigilance of a scarecrow. It was a Satyr Magician, summoned by a passionate occultist no doubt. The source of the specter infestation that had been plaguing their respective client.

Really was no single word to describe what Jude felt at that moment, it wasn't simply panic, nor was it complete fear. Neither was it contentment. His irritation for the job danced around his head as well, cementing the desire to leave Crow Company for some mundane career as a Warehouse Assistant. But there was another emotion kicking him in the back of his head. It was telling him to aim his spitter at the direction of the Satyr and expend a full clip. And Jude was listening to it the hardest, because no matter how much he hated what was happening. It was clear that the voice telling him to fight back was what he needed the most. So he did, aiming the plasma spitter at the direction of the creature firing what appeared to be some 20 plasmic rounds. The Satyr staggered backwards, a myriad of curses flew from its mouth as it examined the wounds on its arms, which was now riddled with the pale stains of plasmic weaponry. "LIGHTS ON HIM" Williams yelled amidst the building blocks of frenzied panic heaping itself upon the Uncursers. The creature cursed in its language which was beginning to sound strangely like broken English, it gazed at the team in a mixture of bright enthusiasm and disgust. "Shoot him now!" Ki roared as he aimed his spitter, letting the rest follow suit. The dark room began to illuminate as the spitters spat their fiery projectiles at the Uncurser's prey. "COME HERE" the thing gurgled, and scurried shuffling of feet approaching from behind the Satyr. With the demon's magic weakening, the lights began to slowly work. Only revealing the horde of ghouls at his beck and call. These were apparently the survivors of the earlier clean up. The ghouls bellowed in their hollow calls, as they ran towards the team. A steady stream of plasmic energy tore them apart steadily as they approached. Ki's heavy spitter did most of the work while Williams kept his old fashioned C6 trained on the Satyr. The weapon was a hybrid semi automatic crossbow that rang like a gun and had nearly the stopping power of one. The weapon embedded its salt covered bolts on the demon, tearing away at its structure, leaving it in immense pain. "Charms?" Ki asked once the room cleared, "I don't fucking remember!" Williams replied, Jude kept his composure, thinning the horde of ghouls swarming towards them. Trying his best not to gag at the nauseating stench they produced. The demon infront of him was a Satyr, summoned by a promise for. He knew he'd read the banishment spell for one. "Move back!" commanded Williams as he reloaded his weapon, still keeping the demon at bay. Jude didn't hesitate, his first instinct was to sprint for the door and run out of the building and into the city. Free from all the nonsense he had to endure just for a paycheck, but instead after gaining ground back into the cleaned floor, he turns back, aims his spitter and fires at the ghouls swarm. His companions do the same, as they take a clearer position and return fire at the ghouls trickling into the hall. "Reloading!" Ki yells, removing the weighty spent ammo bin from his triple barreled spitter and replacing it with another. Williams must have been on his third clip by now, swiftly kept aiming at the Satyr who by now was nearly dismembered but still anchored to the world. "That thing has an anchor to this world and we need to remove it" He called, while throwing in a salt bomb at the ghouls. The weapon ignites in a wave of energy, leaving its victims in complete pain as they are slowly broken down. "A banishment spell sir!" Jude exclaims, multi tasking searching in his tablet in hand and his weapon. Swiping through a series of folders, and madly typing the words "banishment, satyr" Jude could feel his right hand weakening as he kept the spitter aimed at the ghouls while using the left to frantically search for the files he needed and being right handed this was definitely a herculean feat. "Jude, get both hands on that tablet, I'll cover you" Steph noticing her comrade's challenge had jumped to his front, shooting up the ghouls on his angle. "Good timing" Ki commented, as he finished reloading his spitter and aiming it at the disabled swarm in front of them. The Satyr was riddled with holes that glowed with plasmic energy, it was on one knee, head facing down to the ground. Two crossbow bolts protruded from its hollow eye sockets, its hands shivering. But despite its ruined form, the thing began to chant. It was a mix of various languages, some familiar, others ancient but altogether arcane in their nature. Sensing one of the Uncursers taking notice of its change it covered its face with its right arm, taking in the blasts of crossbow bolts that flew towards his arm. The Satyr completed its incantation, summoning the unharvested residue of its fallen ghouls, rebuilding its broken body.

Jude froze in horror at the thing before them, the rest of the juniors seemed to follow suit. A mundane cleanup rarely ever needed the weaponry more powerful than the standard fare they always carried. He observed the seniors whose gung ho excitement usually kept the team in check, this time it seemed that Ki and Williams had somewhat frozen in fear as well, pondering what to do next. It was then at the corner of his eye, he caught sight of what he was looking for. It was a relatively grainy scan of an Uncurser's journal, dated sometime during the 70s. It was a list of combined ingredients that comprised of the demon's summoning spell.

Consisting of rat's bones, song bird's hearts, snake's blood and a bull's penis. It was a derivative of the symbolism involved with Dionysus, the God of Wine, origin was mostly unknown. There were no exact instructions on a banishment spell, but the author indicated at the bottom in near ineligible handwriting "Use extermination level deterrents for binding. Banishment is unknown due to the independent nature of the spell. Once the demon is bound, kill then extract to prevent reformation" Jude wasted no time, opening a pouch to his left revealing a myriad of ingredients ranging from salt shards, runed stones to cedar bark and white oak spikes. He relayed his findings to his superiors who immediately formulated their next course of action. Williams' face was dripping with sweat, he stared at the demon's rebuilt form. It had looked as pristine as their first encounter with the damned thing, they would not have time to prepare. "I'll toss another salt grenade, the rest fall back to the stairs" and with that Sam Williams quickly jumps into action, priming his weapon and throwing it at the Satyr. The entire hall once more stank of vaporized salt, numbing the creature. But instead it charges at them in a fit of rage. The rest of the team had retreated to the stairs, safe from the demon's attack. Williams instead charges back at it, firing at the monster's arm joints and rolling past its form. He lands behind the Satyr, his bald head sporting a long bleeding cut, aims his C6 at the demon's back and fires consistently. The demon cringes in pain, and its attempt at a counter attack on Williams is interrupted the sudden blasting of Ki's spitter on its face. "HURRY HURRY" Ki yells to the juniors who had squeezed in a mixture of ginger, white oak and a few packets of red salt into a pressure pump. Once loaded, Jude rushes to the front, pump in hand and fires at the ground the demon is in. "WILL, Your Knife!" Ki lunges in front of the demon, knife drawn, he strikes the ground where mixture had fallen, letting off an ethereal spark that begins to emit from the floor. Williams does the same, trapping the demonic entity as it falls on its knees. The demon's hulking form shrinks and shrinks until it finally turns into a thin, lanky creature. Ki and Williams waste no time driving their knives repeatedly into the creature, the guttural death screams of the Satyr echoed across the hall as the two senior revelled in its death. As its form broke, its internal structure shattered, revealing a plethora of clay formed bone and blood that smelled like piss and iron. The juniors were fazed by it, but the seniors not one bit. They kept at it till the Satyr was nothing but clumps of dust. "Vortex rod everything. Good job team"

Jude drags himself out of the basement, his face drenched in sweat, his hands aching from adrenaline dissipation. He could say the same for his companions, weary, dirty, and heads face down on the dirt covered floor. It wouldn't be a surprise if each of them was thinking the same as Jude "Why do I work here" he thought to himself, behind him stood his seniors. Sam Williams and Francis Ki, smiling like they had just won the lottery. Ki's white polo was now stained with a nauseating mixture of grey matter and demon blood, Williams didn't fare any better, his usual dark colored t shirt garb was covered in the same residue as well. The triple barrels of Ki's huge spitter were smoking from its use, the exhaust vent was released for the weapon to cool off. Wiilliam's C6 semi automatic crossbow was black with soot from the mild gunpowder charge it used as a propellant. His round head was bleeding, bright red fresh blood stood apart from the black spot riddled formula that consisted of the Satyr's own. Not a single trait of fear was present in the two's faces, nothing but pure joy and exhilaration. "You got the demon?" Ten Eyes barges up, Coke bottle in one hand and a tablet in the other. "Yes mam, took awhile. But I think the bosses handled it well" Jude replied, pointing towards his superiors. "In less than thirty minutes?" Ten Eyes responded, her wide eyes expressing her bewilderment. "That was less than thirty? It felt like a day in there." Steph crumpled down on a white wall, staining it with the ghoul and demon gore splatter. "It was tough, but nothing like the Ivory Casino incident" Williams comments, "to be fair, that was a whole lot of demon wards broken in that hotel. It was mostly screeching haunter types." "We were there for three whole days Ki" Williams laughs, clutching an unseen chest bruise he took along the way. "Well yeah, that was a tiring experience. Hey Ten Eyes, let the Drone Crew handle the cleaning. We're done" Ki commands the rest of the team back to the van. Roughly three hours had passed since they had arrived, cracks of dawn could be seen through the sky. More and more vehicles were beginning to fill the near empty roads of the Global City. The call center agents, victims of the ghoul attack had somewhat dissipated, by then they were allowed to recover their belongings and head home for the day. The team despite their fatigue still had to follow disinfection protocols. Ghouls and Specters were mostly born out of discarded material, waste water, sweat, blood, dirt, feces and such. It was important to disinfect. Which mostly involved foot and hand washing in strong anti-bacterial solutions. Midway, Ten Eyes arrives, bringing the Drone Crew's update. "You done? Can you talk?" she asks Ki and Williams who were busily scraping away the splatter from their equipment. "Yeah sure, found the ritual site?" Williams asks

"Yes I did, it was under a nifty air vent." Ten Eyes displays the picture on her tablet, in view of the whole team. Under a huge air conditioning tube were a series of circles and symbols, etched in white chalk, common for occult rituals. The middle held a circle of powder so pale it made the chalk look dark. Inside the circle of powder were four bowls filled with the ground up ingredients necessary for the summoning. Jude remembered the notes in the journal that helped them, ten rat skeletons, ten songbird hearts, a bowl of snake's blood, and a bull's heart. Every ingredient was pulverized and shrivelled, in the middle of the ritual circle were burned markings of astrological symbols. "We found another anchor, a ritual goblet like the one you found at the manager's office." Ten Eyes showed the team a goblet of similar design, but instead of a satyr partying in hippie clothes, it was just the same image of a satyr eating the corpse of a woman, repeated thirteen times. "This was an inside job" Ki comments, "I'm putting that up on the report." Ten Eyes replies, later on the building administrator gets updated, he takes in the Vice President of the Call Center. Who in turn calls in the Operations Manager, whose face looked as white as snow. Naturally he has an alibi, one he explains as he fidgets with his own palms and wipes the sweat from his brow.

Dawn finally pierces through, the crowd dissipates. Traffic starts to build up in the overly congested Global City, a hub for tech giants, financial institutions and apparently a rather devout occultist capable of summoning an army of ghouls and a hulking Satyr demon. The Uncursers of Crow company knew the manager was guilty, the evidence all pointed to him. But their job was not to hunt the humans that allowed these things to happen, their job was simply to gear up and exterminate. It was really all they were good for, and they were really good at it. Drone Crew handled most of the updates, interviews and such with the police. Ten Eyes would be having a tiring busy day, a small price to pay to avoid having to actually pull a weapon and face the demons that popped out. Jude checks the time on his phone, it was now 7am. He had roughly till 10am to respond to the email regarding his possible future employer. Today's events probably confirmed his decision to leave. It all was terrifying that was for sure, ghouls made up of grime and sweat, a demon summoned from a hippie goblet carved in the 70s, and the disturbing enthusiasm of his bosses. Not to mention their speedy recovery from it as if it was nothing but a routine ward check. But that was made it fun, the mundane terror. The kind your brain made you think about as you drove through an empty highway, watching the lights flicker past your eyes. The kind of paranoia that danced in your imagination while walking home late in a dark sidewalk. Mundane terror, except for them it wasn't just pointless fear, it was real in every sense of the word.

"Traffic is bad, dinner is on me and we can sleep in the van after. Of course it's counted as overtime" Williams announced after removing his ghost hunting gear. The team rejoices at that, respite from the dreadful experience of adrenaline sweeping away. "Where to boss?" Soma asks, "There's a pizza place just down the road. It's 24 hrs. They have some pretty good Hawaiian" he sneered, echoing a collective groan from the group "I'm joking, we'll get meat lovers" He says as he leads them. Jude is lost in thought as he walks down the sidewalk. He looks at his phone a couple more times, wondering what his decision should be. He only knows that right now he isn't sure if he'll be leaving, but he does know that overtime pay sounds nice and so will the free Pizza.