22 December 2009, Bea's Personal Journal

Sunday. Well.... You know how it is when you get so keyed up that you don't try and think about something while it's going on? It's generally a mixed blessing, but it may have been the only thing that really got me through the tending of the mess that the Good Pastor left behind. Gotta love a guy who can rot your arm off with a smile; we're talking fabric-fused necrotic tissue that had to be peeled from Zeek's body. It was yucky, and bloody, and not a good place for me to be. I'm a big girl and can admit that.

You know me; I was getting sick to my stomach. Fortunately, Robin showed up for work and Zeek needed his backpack, so I slipped out into the alley and fetched it from the his beetle. By the time I made it back to the store, I was still pretty warped by the whole thing, but I had just enough time to force myself into a mostly kinda-sorta clinical headspace. He didn't make much fuss, even though I knew it had to hurt like a sonofabitch, but I also realized that he was trying to put on a good front for me. It was a little easier, anyway, and Zeek has been kind enough not to laugh at me too much about it.

Not long after, that Gwalchafad showed up and then started talking me. Literally. It was, well, strange. Sue's cat, duh, and well, one story at a time.

Zeek settled in to rest, that left the locating of Rad. It's not actually hard to get Rad home, when I need him. I just call this phone number, leave a message and he usually shows up not too long later. He was in the kitchen waiting for me, drinking that protein crap he likes so much, and I just fell apart.

His usual calm, rational, and reliable self, Rad just enfolded me in the relative safety of his arms until it passed; he knows I'm trying, anyway. We wound up curled up together on the couch and then I got down the the short form of the story. Rad got generally peeved a the notion of the demonic things moving into town; I medicated with beer. We were there for a while before I had the composure to continue with life and get back to dealing with the fallout from going to church. Rad promised me that he'd come down in a while and I was anxious to see if Korshan had any news about Sue that was more useful than the cat had offered me.

There weren't cops waiting for me as I got back to the store, and I was pretty happy about that. I had banked pretty heavily on that little 'look the other way' juju to cover our egress from the church and while we sped across town in the Zeek's beetle. For the most part, given a Sunday and the shop not open until Noon, no one was probably any the wiser, and the few Sunday customers we had were too busy spending their money to even care about anything that might be going on in the back room.

The back room of P&P is cozy in its own way, especially with a decent table, desk, and armchair, but it isn't secure in the sense that you need things to be for situations like this. Rad came down about an hour after I did, and after Robin closed up, to talk to our guest. We pretty much decided to let things be, do some homework, and find the others before doing much more about it. I was needing to share some information directly with my husband about what I saw, so it was that much the better. In the end, for good or bad, Rad and I decided to move Zeek into the guest room at our place to shelter him until the shit storm passed.

Korshan, as usual, brought his bag of tricks. His magick is totally different from ours and whatever it is that he does, it certainly works. Doesn't work on the really ugly stuff, but bruises and contusions seem to fall before it well enough. Korshan is full of interesting tricks, to say the least. Zeek was certainly impressed, while looking a hell of a lot better for his trouble. Zeek also had the time to work on himself, so by Monday afternoon, when I got back in from the bank, he'd pretty much gotten rid of the sling.

So, that pretty much leaves things up in the air. They got a make on Zeek and they posted a description on the police webpage, which pretty much means he's going to grow hair and a beard for the time being. Thankfully, no one really seems to have gotten a good enough look at any of the rest of us for that to be a problem.

I'm honestly waiting to see what Sue has to say, but suspect that it's going to be a few days before anything more happens. She's right about not going back to the scene of the crime too quickly and I hope that everyone else appreciates that sentiment as well. With everyone clamoring for last minute gifts and some few interesting and pretty things on the shelves at the store, Robin and I are going to be fairly stretched until after the party at the store on the 24th.