The Council Meeting (Part 1)(Janice)

“We have arrive at our destination, Ms. Lee.”

The car rocked smoothly as it made contact with the ground. I watched as the car door to my right instantly opened. Outside waiting for me we’re two women and a man. All were dressed completely down in business attire and holding large circular disk against their chest. We’ll except for one.

“My advisors,” I thought.

I stepped out of my vehicle and into the cold stagnant night air. I was on top of the Chancellor’s Carport attached to the Savo Building that overlooked the city. The “sun” had now long been set and the city lights allures the darkness around.

Various sounds of commotion could be heard below. The deep atmospheric background boom of the Savo Building was one of the main things. The loudness of the structure could be felt as it hummed from the sheer power it generated.

Down below; however, a different disturbance brewed. I could here it. Beyond the other vehicles honking. Beyond the various sounds of entertainment and random conversation. I could hear it. The anger. The rage. The screaming. Faint cries of terror and sadness rang off my ear drums as the noise stirred down below. I didn’t bother to look. I knew what I would have seen would have angered me.

“This is ridiculous,” I thought to myself.

I looked at one of my advisors as the door to my vehicle closed behind me silently. The wind began to blow stiff dank air into my nostrils as I eyed one of the advisor.

“Peculiar,” I thought.

Something was off. This was someone I didn’t know. Someone who shouldn’t be here.

The “advisor” was a woman and lord was she tall. Almost as tall as me and Im damn near 6 and a half feet tall.

She had long white hair that was as white as snow and reached down to her waist. She was an older woman. I would guess, just by her looks alone, that she was at least 40+. Then again, in this day in age you could never tell.

The woman was wearing crimson red lipstick that complemented her extremely pale skin. She had cold glowing blue eyes with large irises that seemed to beam through me. Her stature was firm, professional, confident,….imposing.

“Old Blood,” I muttered.

The woman gave a small smile as she bowed her head. She then raised her left hand and revealed he palm. Suddenly, a large mouth with rather large cartoonish teeth formed on her palm.

She raised her head and as soon as the mouth formed, it disappeared.

“There was no doubt about it now,” I thought to myself, “she was definitely an Old Blood. What was she doing here?”

I looked at my other two advisors. My ACTUAL advisors. They both looked down at their feet. One of them, a woman who went by the name of Solaris, had been recently crying. Her face was dry and lips were cracked. Dried tear streaks lined under her eyes.

I couple feel it burning inside of me. Her sadness. Her grief. Her despair. It was flowing into my heart. Coursing through my veins. I was feeding off of it. Not by choice, of course. I’m not a monster….. well I try not to act like one. It’s because I was half succubus. My body passively feeds off of other’s emotions. Wether I want to or not. Which is both a gift and a curse. However, most of the time I viewed it as a curse.

“What’s wrong,” I ask her.

Solaris and the other advisor look up and into my eyes. I could feel their emotions flowing into me. Their sadness nourishing me. I felt disgusting.

“Its Mr. Kai, Ma’am, our other advisor,” she muttered, “ he’s dead.”

A brief silence. My eyebrows scrunched. A mixture of emotions flowing through me. None good and definitely not welcome. The main one was definitely irritation.

“How?” I asked.

“The explosion. He was caught in the blast. His arm was blown off and half of his body was charred. He died from the shock of his missing limb. His death was at least nearly instantaneous.”

I looked at both my advisors. They both looked exhausted. The fatigue digging it’s dirty nails into the sacks of their skin.

I put my hand on both of their shoulders and look them in their eyes. They look back into mine. I wasn’t good at comforting people. You’d think a succubus would be, but that that doesn’t seem to be the case with me. Especially, when it comes to me. I’m not like others. In fact, I do the exact opposite. I-

“We’ll figure this out,” I reassured, “Whoever is behind this has a lot to answer for.”

Indeed, he, she, or whatever the case may be does have a lot to answer for. I…. have a lot of questions. They will be answered.

I look away from my advisors and over to the white haired woman. The breeze had picked up and an familiar smell alluded my nose. It was the smell of dried blood and decaying wet wood. There was no doubt about it now. She was Old Blood. An Elder. Someone before this current time. Probably way before mine.

The woman was currently looking outward into the blinding night sky. The wind gently danced with her long white hair as the cries from down below rang free. Her eyes were glazed and seemingly oblivious to the world around her. Her arms were crossed.

“Who are you?” I asked.

The woman looked at me. Her cold blue glare landing into mine. She was really pretty.

“Forgive me,” she started, “It’s a lot less “lively” here than where I come from. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Vasilisa Dranburnikki. I am an adjudicator from sector 354 of the Hell Sanction Court.”

“An adjudicator from the Hell Court?” I said.

I could feel my face contorting in disgust. This is the last thing I need right now. A deep burning pain heat rose in my chest as my head began to ring like a church bell. The air around us went stagnant as my eyes began to peel into hers.

She could feel me and how I felt of her presence. Instantly, she stiffened and took a step forward. She wasn’t easily intimidated.

“What are you doing here? Under agreement,your people are not welcomed here unless you are invited through invitation. This defies the agree-“I was cut off.

“Oh don’t worry,” she reassured, “I haven’t been assigned to judge anyone… we’ll at least not yet.”

I let her statement marinate in the air for few seconds.

“So why are you here?” I questioned.

I didn’t back down. My gaze still upon her. The Hell Court knew how I felt about them intervening in my business as Chancellor.

There were contracts, agreements, meetings, and so many other things to establish the rules and regulations of keeping the peace between the dead and the world of the living. Nobody wanted another war. Nobody wanted to fight again. Especially me. There had been enough blood shed. Enough fighting. I was tired of it.

“No more,” I thought to myself.

Vasilisa smiled. It was a jaded smile. A smile that, without question, no longer had meaning. At one point, it probably could have. But now, at this point in time…. No it didn’t.

“We are sorry for coming unannounced on such short notice and contacting you. You seem to have your hands full. However, I’ve come here on official business along with one other member of the Court. It’s an urgent matter regarding the footage that was sent to you.”

I look at her, puzzled.

“Another member?” I asked, “Who?”

She turned back towards the city lights.

“Go see for yourself. I’ll be there shortly….. He’s waiting.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. I began to walk forward into the buildings; my advisors following close behind.

Quickly, we make our way into the building as the automatic doors opened before us to reveal the conference hall. Inside was a hectic mess of commotion. I watched as creature of all shapes and sizes moved sporadically amongst each other in a rush to god knows were. I looked left and right as I tried to gather the details in my head.

I took a step forward into the chaos. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at me as I walked onward. A stagnant chill swept through the hall.

“They’re afraid,” I thought.

The energy they gave off was intoxicating, and all for the wrong reasons. I looked around as I walked onward. Reassuring them that everything was going to be fine. That we would figure everything out. But it was in vain. These people were scared and it was my job to fix it.

I make my way down to the end of Conference Hall to the Board Room. Without warning, my body stopped. A strong odor of unknown origin began to flood my nostrils. A familiar odor. A pungent odor. An unwanted odor.

I took a step closer as the smell of malice and charcoal flooded my nose. The smell of heavy magic and gore. A presence was in this room that shouldn’t be here. A presence that was unneeded, and very much unwelcome.

The air had become thick and heavy around me. A throbbing headache was beginning to form and it had no plans of goin away any time soon.

There was only one person powerful enough to do that to me. One person who my powers had little effect on. One person that I hated the most with every being in my body.

Fixing my posture, I open the door. The more I open it, the more his existence became known to me. The headache intensifying more an more with each passing second.

The door was opened now. I made my way inside.

Immediately, we made eye contact. A sense of static flared between us.

Standing across from me, he stood in the darkest corner of the room. Standing past the table old, decrepit, white men and other twisted looking individuals. Behind the table of corrupt moral and corporate greed. In the farthest place possible from everyone else in the room was the highest ranking member of the Hell Judicial Court. One of the most powerful warlocks to ever exist was here in my board glaring at me from the darkness.

“The Demon King of Hell himself, Basket.”