Chaser

"Who are you?!" Helena cried as she shone a desk light directly in the cultist's face.

"Aaahh." The cultist flinched as he looked away from the light, "It's John."

"Huh that was easy." Helena said as she placed the lamp back on the desk, "This should be easy."

"So are we the good cop or the bad cop?" Roland muttered.

"I think Helena has enough energy for both." Roko replied.

"Now." Helena sat across from the accosted cultist with an energetic smile, "Tell us about this cult you're in."

"Well we do charity work every Sunday."

"Bullshit."

"No, it says here that they walk dogs for the nearby pet shelter every Sunday." Roland said as he consulted the background report that the police had given them.

"That's not charity work, that's volunteer work."

"What's the difference?" The cultist blinked.

"I don't have time to get into this." Helena growled, "Listen. You are going to tell me everything about your occultist friends and once you do..." Helena paused for a moment, "...I'll cook something up for you."

"You can cook?" Roko said.

"I think you'll find that most princesses can cook." Helena smirked.

"Helena rarely cooks though." Roland frowned, "I'm surprised you'd be willing to cook for some cultists."

"A good negotiator knows how to bargain." Helena smiled.

"Food personally made by the princess?!" The cultist's eyes widened, "I'll do it. I'll tell you everything I know."

"Good!"

"She never cooks for me." Roland grumbled.

"Oh, I'll cook for all of you." Helena rolled her eyes, "You, Roland, Roko and your cultist friends in holding."

"Hooray!"

"Do you have to cook for the prisoners too?" Roland mumbled.

"Roland, you need to learn to take what you can get." Roko sighed.

"But this all on how good your intel is." Helena turned back to the cultist, "So tell me everything you know!"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Alright then, Roko." Helena turned around, "I'll leave the questioning to you."

"Why me?"

"You always seem to know the right questions to ask."

"Thanks..."

"How many of you are there?"

"More than you think."

"How many of you are in this city?"

"Not...too much, I guess. We've been steadily gaining members but we're still pretty small."

"What kind of spell were you trying to cast?"

"It's a spell that uses the victim as a host for the eventual birth of the Elder God."

"How does it work?"

"Hmm...I'm afraid I can't reveal how it works."

"You think you're in a position to keep secrets?" Roland scowled, "How about I show you what secrets will get you here?"

"Whoa there big fella. I'm really not at liberty to say. If I reveal the innermost workings of the cult, I'm liable to die."

"We'll make sure nobody will touch you." Helena said, "So long as you remain in our custody that is."

"That's not the problem here. No matter how much guards you get, they'll be no match for the kind of power our head priest can employ. What's more, he probably wouldn't even need to use that power. The Unborn God could reach beyond dimensions and crush me without anything more than a thought."

"You expect us to believe that?" Roland smirked.

"Trust me. If you could see the type of things the head priest can do, you'll believe it yourself."

"That's fine." Roko nodded, "You don't need to tell us. We'll just extract it from the head priest himself."

"Have you been listening to a word I said?"

"What kind of language is this spell written in?"

"What language? I dunno, you kinda just know how to say it once you memorize it."

"How'd you memorize it?"

"Uhhh...there was a book. I know that much. After that my head gets really fuzzy and I don't remember much."

"Hmm..." Roko looked away in thought.

"So I guess I'll ask the pertinent questions." Helena stepped up, "Where can we find the rest of your cultist friends?"

"From what I can tell we're stationed across multiple districts though if you want specific locations, I'm afraid we never shared those."

"Is there a way we can find any of them?"

"...There's an old church we've adopted as our own. We use it for group meetings but I can't guarantee anybody will be there nor can I say when somebody will be there."

"Alright." Helena looked up at her friends, "We're doing a stakeout."

"Can't we leave it to the police?" Roland frowned.

"No way! I want to be there when it all goes down!"

"You know this cult kidnaps women right?" Roko said, "From what I've seen they don't exactly treat them well."

"As the princess of Aporia, I refuse to stand by while the women of my city are captured and tormented!"

"And what are you going to do if you get captured?"

"That's what Roland is here for."

"You really expect Roland to save you?"

"That's true. But that's what you're here for."

"There's no arguing with you..."

"Can we go back to the part where you just dissed me right to my face?" Roland scowled.

"So this is the church."

The trio looked up at the abandoned church in front of them. The entrance has been boarded up and the church showed signs of neglect with grass growing high and vines reaching up around the walls. That said, the church couldn't have been abandoned for more than a month or two. The church wasn't too bad in the way of disrepair and the greenery wasn't too overgrown to indicate any longer period of time. Even the wooden planks barring their way forth wasn't in bad condition.

"I'm surprised they managed to operate out of a church in the center of one of the wealthier districts of Aporia." Helena noted, "This church is pretty fancy but not much else."

"How do they get in?" Roland squinted as he peered through the bars and into the yard.

"Who cares?" Helena said as she patted the barred up entrance, "Let's just bust this open and go in."

"There's nobody in there right now remember?" Roko explained, "If we recklessly enter then we'd just be giving away the fact that we're waiting for them."

"Oh yeah. I suppose so."

"Curb your enthusiasm a bit won't you?" Roland said, "If we're doing a stakeout then we'll be doing nothing for a really long time."

"Should I bring some games then?"

"I don't think you understand how this works." Roland sighed, "For now let's just find a place to stakeout as well."

"You're taking this surprisingly seriously." Roko noted.

"If we're doing this then we'll need to do this seriously." Roland scoffed, "We'd just be wasting our time if we wait out for them and then they get away. And if my princess is too enamored to do this properly then it's up to me to make sure this operation goes smoothly."

"You just think stakeouts are cool too, don't you?"

"..."

"You two make a good match." Roko said as he turned and began to survey the perimeter of the church, "When you're not arguing all the time that is."

After checking around the church, they found a part of the fence that was bent inward due to some unknown impact. Crawling carefully on top of the bars, they managed to drop into the grassy backyard of the church.

"So this is how they get in?" Helena said as Roland helped lower her onto the church's yard, "This is pretty simple. I imagine most kids could get in this way."

"It might be how they got in but not how they get out." Roko said as he walked up to the bent fence, "We can drop in but it's not as simple to climb out the same way. There has to be another way they use to get out. Maybe it'll allow them to get in as well."

"We can figure that out along the way." Roland said, "For now we need to secure a place that we can use to hide ourselves."

"Wait." Helena yelped, "We forgot to grab some food."

…

"Can we get some delivered?" Roland gulped.

"Stakeouts are harder than I thought." Helena frowned.

"No helping it now." Roko said as he began to walk around the church to the front, "Let's get what needs to be done first."

As night came and the group huddled behind a desk in the rafters of the church's main hall, they did their best to quell their growling stomachs as they waited.

"I'm so hungry..." Helena moaned, "Are we sure we can't get food delivered?"

"We can't tip them off that we're here." Roland said weakly, "Just bear with it."

"You guys have never skipped meals have you?" Roko said.

"Have you?"

"I skipped lunch all the time in school. Lunch wasn't that great to begin with though so it's not like I was missing much."

"Yeah but do you still skip lunch?"

"Occasionally. When I have too much work to do."

"Unbelievable."

"You need to take care of yourself." Helena nodded.

"I'm still alive aren't I?" Roko frowned.

Before the argument could develop any further, the loud opening of the hall's door alerted the group to a lone robed figure walked into the room.

"Is that them?" Roland whispered.

"One way to find out." Roko replied.

"Wait, how do we get down quickly?!"

"We do it slowly." Roko said as he grabbed Helena and pulled her away from jumping over the banister, "And quietly."

Helena nodded and the group moved silently to the staircase leading down to the church's mezzanine and further down onto the ground floor where the hall resided.

"What if they escape before we get there?" Helena hissed.

"Then we either look for him or wait for the next one another day." Roko replied.

"Augh. They better be there by the time we get down."

Much to Helena's relief, the figure was still standing in the middle of the main hall.

"What's he doing with here all alone?" Roland whispered as they watched the stranger stand in the middle of the room, "Why isn't he doing anything? This is a trap."

"Yeah." Helena agreed, "Probably. But there's no point in backing out now."

Roland made an estranged noise as Helena stood up and walked forward in full view, "Hey! You're part of the Unborn Cult right?"

The robed figure turned to look at Helena, "And you must be the Crown Princess of Aporia."

"I suppose I don't need an introduction then." Helena said as Roko and Roland emerged from behind the entrance to stand by her side, "But who are you?"

"I'm exactly what you think I am. That's all you need to know."

"No, I'm going to need more than that. Like a name maybe?"

"You won't need that where you're going." The figure sneered, "Your meddling will be quite troublesome if you have the backing of a princess with you. Our great leader has decided to deal with you promptly. And I have the honor of doing exactly that."

"You and what army?" Roland said.

"Do you even need to ask?"

From the shadows emerged monsters. Monsters of a completely different type than the tentacled mass or the formless blobs that Roko had seen before. These...almost resembled humans, the way they shambled about on what could pass for legs. But the rest of their body was malformed with a mess of flesh serving as arms in inhuman places and teeth and spikes protruding from the surface of it's body in an unnatural design. There was no face that could be interpreted and no eyes that could be seen on their body. Five of such creatures surrounded the three of them, shuddering and jerking in disturbing ways.

"Cute aren't they? Don't worry, they won't harm you princess. You'll be a very valuable host. The rest of you however will be torn apart."

"I knew this would happen." Roko muttered.

"You can worry about it later." Helena said, "For now we have to beat these things so we can at least grab some dinner."