Winds howls through the streets as I push against my car door, the rumbling soon shifting to a sharp whistle as I try to force the door open against the buffeting wind. With a harsh and somewhat pained grunt I lurch forward, the door catching a wild gust before swinging open on its own with a loud metallic crunch.
For a moment the sound of bend metal and plastic echos through the industrial district before disappearing beneath the roar of the wind around me and the dull hum and thud of the factories in the distance.
In an instant my teeth are set chattering, the wind chill immediately cutting to my bones. I begin to shake, my hands sliding quickly into my pockets in search of warmth as my torso is left to fight for itself beneath its simple shirt and threadbare sweater. Trudging forward I shove the car door with my hip only to find it stuck, the stubborn thing only slamming shut with the help of one good kick.
"Fu... fuck this..." I huff, my breath turning to a thick fog as I speak with a shudder. "Couldn't it have been a different night?"
My foot steps are met with an uneven ground as my weight quickly displaces the simple gravel underfoot, the seemingly cataclysmic winds threatening to topple me over as I glide across the rough drive way every few steps.
Looking up it's hard to miss the massive warehouse in front of me, the exposed brown bricks bearing a large '57' painted on beside the ever so slightly raised metal shutters. Dim light radiates out from the thin gap, the occasional shadow passing by and stretching out into the driveway before vanishing almost as quickly to parts unknown.
As a light spitting rain begins to pelt me at an almost horizontal angle I reach the door. Raising one arm to protect my face from the freezing rain I knock at the metal shutters, the dull banging soon being followed by the sounds of the metal slats flexing and rumbling against the wind as well after being disturbed.
"Can we help you?" croaks a voice from the other side, the weak and crackling rasp being almost imperceptible in amongst the rest of the sound around me. Swallowing hard I think, my mind trying to remember just what I was meant to say.
"That depends..." I mutter, pausing as I bite my bottom lip in thought before piping back up. "How can I help you?"
For a moment I'm left out in the cold, the wind and rain only getting worse my the second. As the spitting rain begins to tun to a legitimate downpour I watch the door raise ever so slightly more, just enough for a person to crawl underneath and into the light beyond.
"You've got to be..." I grumble, staring at the gap as the shutters grind to halt. With a sigh I quickly scramble down onto my hands and knees before eventually simply laying on my stomach and squirming sideways to just barely wriggle inside.
For a moment I feel a stomach churning sense of disorientation, the sound of the outside world vanishing in my right ear as the warmth inside hits my side. Muttering echos fill the room, the simple conversation bounding high into the ceiling before bouncing back down as a soft but incomprehensible series of mumbles. As I finally manage to roll inside I lay on my back, my gaze staring up as a robed figured standing beside the shutter controls.
Tattered fabric practically entomb the frail figure, a set of bony gnarled hands resting by its side and barely visible beneath a cavalcade of ornate rings. Deep crimsons and navy blues take up the lions share of the disparate fabrics, a heavy black hood rising up and hiding the figures face as it leaves a set of faintly glowing eyes staring down at me.
"Ah... Mr Hughes..." the croaking voice cackles, hanging on the sibilant S for far longer than necessary . "Come, please..." it coos, waving a hand out into the warehouse proper. "We have much to offer..."
Looking to my side my jaw drops, the sight of the various seated or prone figures leaving my heart skipping a beat. As I open my mouth to say something I feel a hand somehow press against my back as I lay on the concrete floor, an invisible force soon pushing me up into the air before I am righted and left standing beside the eerily tall robed figure.
"Come..." it coughs, the seven foot tall tangle of fabric moving forward as though floating along the ground. Freezing in place I soon feel the hand at my back again, the figure shouting out with a chuckle "Come!"
The room itself is rather poorly lit, a mixture of high up overhead lights and dim floating orbs that dance around the makeshift aisles doing their best to light up the expansive warehouse. Staggering after the robed figure the slumped figures in the seats or simply left laying on the floor soon grow clearer, my blood running cold as I stare into the glazed eyes and blank expression of a rather heavily tattooed woman ahead of me.
"Bane of Havoc Pass..." the figure wheezes, pointing a gnarled finger at the easily nearly seven foot tall woman built seemingly entirely out of muscle. Flecks of blood sit dried into her wild and sweaty black hair and onto her bundled up fur clothing, her mouth hanging open as drool pools and runs down to the tip of her tusk.
I practically jump out of my skin as it hits me, my eyes finally adjusting to the light as I begin to make out her rather pale yet certainly green skin. Her powerful arms and legs are on full display, the hides and furs that made up her cloths having been pulled up to show off the goods. She looks as though she could crush my head with her bare hands, her arms and legs revealing a mixture of sharp tribal tattoos and deep scarring from various blades and arrows that failed to find their way past the iron wall of muscle beneath.
"Many felled in her capture" the robed figure explains, pausing in front of her before the hood tilts down to look at the axe beside her. The rough hewn wood looks more like a thick limb of a tree than anything made by a skilled craftsmen, a thick black stone rests wedged in the top and sharped to a wicked edge. "Rage suited for weapon, we think she would approve" the figure chuckles, its gaze lingering on the deep dark stone in the axe.
"That's not... that's an..." I blurt out, my heart catching much like my words in my throat.
"Orc? Yes..." the figure coos, stretching out the sibilant S for all it is worth. "Prime specimen, long lived" it continues, the figure shifting around the husk of a woman as it seems to appraise her. "No information how long orcs live, die in fights far too soon to tell. Bane of Havoc Pass though... operating for over a century, maybe why she was of such a size... more study needed, but payment was made to pacify..."
"Oh she's perfect!" cries a voice from elsewhere in the warehouse, the spluttering and husky voice seeming to not only snatch my attention but also that of the robed figure. Looking out down the warehouse floor I spot the flabby young woman before anything else, the bloated brunette standing beside an identical robed figure as it looms over her short five foot three frame.
However, where her height was relatively slight her weight was not. A large black dress tents out around her bulging belly and rear, her jiggling thighs and calves being poorly hidden beneath of weather appropriate black thermals. Shinning jewelry jingle and jangle in her ears and face as she bounces excitedly at the sight of the slumped over blonde clad in a form fitting yet still protective gambeson.
Sweat clings to the young tan blondes face and hair, the somewhat dried and caked on grime leaving her complexion shining somewhat under the lights. Large emerald green doe eyes stare into her lap, the involuntary gaze passing over her bound yet sizeable bust and into the wooden bowl of faintly glowing water.
"You like Catarin Renmark?" the identical robed figure asks, its towering form inching closer to the overweight young woman. "She is strong, yes? To be a knight no doubt. You wish to know why she is..." the figure begins to ask, only to be cut off by the brunette.
"Oh I don't care" she coos, her double chin shaking as she lets out a delighted squeal. "I'm going to be so pretty... and so strong" she practically purrs, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip and the two snakebite piercings through her black painted lips. "How do I..." she begins to ask, a sharp squeak escaping her lips as the water in the wash bowl seems to try and lunge at her.
"No fear..." the figure mutters, inching forwards before placing a hand over the bowl. A flash of lightning surges from his finger tips, cascading down into the bowl as the glow grows painfully intense before fading down to a practically imperceptible level. "Syr Renmark..." the figure states, not bothering to finish the thought before turning back to the brunette. "You agree to terms? We ask favor for... this" it continues, waving a hand towards the blonde.
"Yeah, sure whatever" the brunette giddily replies. "Just..." she begins to coo excitedly, her words failing her as the robed figure raises a hand as a steady stream of faint blue light seeps from the brunette's mouth. With a sharp yank of the figures hand the brunette simply collapses like a marionette with its strings cut, her body slamming into the floor beneath her with a painful crack.
Wisps of blue lights float around the figures hand, the sight of him turning to face the blonde knight-to-be being cut off as the towering entity beside me glides to block my view.
"She will be happy customer" the figure croaks, its tone almost excited at having made some sort of sale. "Shall we continue, or are you interested in being the Bane of..."
"What happened to... what was that favor she agreed to?" I bleat, the robed figures glowing eyes flickering for a moment before it gestures for me to walk down a neighboring aisle.
"We..." the figure begins, slowing to float just a bit ahead of me. "... Assist in removal of threats from elsewhere..." it explains, gesturing to my left as we pass by a massive coiled snakes body as a beautiful fanged woman droops from the 'head' as the scaly tail connects to her waist.
"Big and small..." it continues, waving its hands in a wide arch as it waves to other creatures from a top heavy feathered woman with bright yellow wings instead of arms to a tiny oval headed green skinned girl with razor sharp teeth and sharper knives. "... And we are not discerning about clients..." the figure states as we pass another group of bodies, a handsome knight struggling to sit in his heavy plate armor seated next to a young bespectacled woman drooling into her robes and spell tome.
"They are problem" the figure huffs, reaching the end of one aisle before turning into another as we weave past another of its duplicates and a short balding man. As we pass by a caramel skinned woman dressed in a duster jacket with shooting irons on her hips and a purple haired pale olive-skinned woman in a skin tight black body suit with a glowing visor over her eyes the figure turns to me. "You are solution... Your kind easy with magic... We find your Earth and we come with an offer... You pick a new life, we get a favor from you..."
"But I... what sort of fav..." I weakly ask, the glowing eyes hidden inside the robe growing brighter for a moment as if in frustration before mellowing out.
"Up to client..." it explains, turning back to continue its hidden strides through the warehouse. "Do something... don't do something... ignore someone... Never too bad... just... important"
I walk along behind the figure for a while longer, my gaze darting between a deeply pale seemingly young man with blood red eyes and a dark skinned young woman with a curvaceous body clad only in beads and gold jewelry.
"We ask you to come... we offer something new... better..." the figure states, our little walk soon leading us back to the shutters. "You may leave..." it says softly, gesturing towards the door. "Regret... is a terrible thing..." it chuckles, watching as I look back into the warehouse proper as I hear another voice excitedly coo at finding a perfect body.
For a moment I think about leave, of crawling and squirming back out into the storm outside. I had only been told about this place today, the letter having simply appeared on my kitchen counter with the address and time to meet printed in gold cursive on the white card.
Merely looking at it had burned the information into my brain, my thoughts having been consumed by the reminder that I needed to come to this specific warehouse tonight and this specific time.
My stomach sinks as I ponder, was I under some sort of spell? While the thought chills me, a shiver running down my spine as I stare at the figure, it's not like I could really do anything about it.
After a moment my gaze shifts from the figure and to the closer bodies behind it, lingering for a little too long on the chest of the 'Bane' as the shelf of leather and hides leaves me curious about just how else she was built.
"Shall we...?" the figure croaks, its towering form heading back towards the rows of men and woman before I weakly join in behind it.
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