Essence of Quinn Parts 3 & 4 (MxM)

Clean Up Crew

"How bad is it going to be?" Air asked, nervously tapping his fingers against the door of the van.

Quinn hummed, trying to weigh up what he'd seen. He closed his eyes and recalled the vision, trying to detach himself from the horror of the scene so that he could describe it impartially.

"There are maybe six of them. Young humans. A mixture of males and females. Lined up on the ground. Naked. Displayed." Quinn frowned. "They have something carved into the skin of their chests. Symbols. There isn't much blood."

He shuddered, opening his eyes again. Air took his hand and stroked his thumb along the back of it soothingly.

Fire was driving the van towards the outskirts of the city to a smallholding owned by a family of humans. Quinn had seen that someone had dumped the bodies in an outbuilding there.

"There will be seven of them," Fire said quietly, eyes focused intently on the road ahead. "Their wrists will be cut, and they will have bled out from there. The symbols on their chests are from some human book about the occult, minor ritual significance, but no power. Done purely for show. That's what the others were like."

Quinn looked out of the window and watched the scenery pass by. While Quinn and Air had been away, humans had discovered two other scenes like this one. Secondo's police contact had given them the heads up and the details. They always let Secondo know when something like this came up; something that could implicate their Abbey. So far, they had managed to keep the other scenes quiet and the press were not yet involved. They hadn't wanted to cause hysteria or for another round of satanic panic to occur. The police had already questioned Papa and Secondo about it and their investigation was ongoing.

The sooner the ghouls could get to this site, the less chance there was of the police being made aware. They would deal with it themselves, erasing all traces before any humans got involved.

Amongst the regular citizens, it was common knowledge that the Abbey was populated by Satanists. They played it down as a novelty. It was just another religious denomination to them. The Clergy played nice and obeyed every law that they had to. Mostly. They gave generously to charity and they helped out with whatever good causes in the city that they could. Most people thought of them as weird, friendly crackpots with more money than sense, and they were mostly left alone.

Of course, the general population accepted that demons, angels, gods and other celestial beings were the stuff of fairy tales. Aside from a few Christian fanatics who bothered them now and then, they flew below the radar.

Things like this, though, would damage their carefully constructed and cultivated facade. Things like this confirmed the stereotypes that the public had learned about Satanists from movies and TV.

Santos was trying to use this to his advantage by adding some drama to his kills and leaving them in places where they would be discovered and sensationalised. The obvious culprits, as far as the public were concerned, were always going to be their friendly local Satanists.

So far Santos' plan had not worked, but if he carried on this way, it would not be long until real trouble made its way to the Abbey.

"Do we know how many humans live there?" Air asked.

Water had been researching and he was the one who answered.

"Four. Two adults and two children."

Air nodded. He would be the one who had to deal with the humans. He'd have to persuade them that there was nothing to see so that the ghouls could go about their business and do what needed to be done. They would be none the wiser of the evil that had visited them during the night to leave the bodies on their property.