Nightmare Crusade

Chapter 16 - Pizza Time

"Good morning, Mr. Darkmire," his secretary chimes, "Dr. Lopez and Dr. Steer are here to see you."

Fenter kicks his feet up on the table and politely responds, "Good. Send them in."

Out from the cold, the two doctors nervously step into the office. The snow on their boots flake onto the floor. Immediately, they notice the lifeless, mutilated body of Alissa Thorne slumped over and buzzing with flies.

"How can I help you?" Fenter asks.

"H-hi," Dr. Steer stutters, "We were wondering about the disea—"

"Sorry," Fenter interjects, "Can you take those ridiculous masks off? I can hardly hear you."

They do as asked, revealing the faces of a young, blonde woman and a brunet middle-aged man.

"Yikes," Fenter remarks, "Alright, continue."

"We were wondering when you were planning on maybe letting us put an end to the curse?" Dr. Lopez asks.

"Mm. I'm afraid that won't be happening until I get the Revenantial Blade."

"People are dying!" Dr. Lopez lashes out. Steer tries to calm her down, but she continues, "People are dying and all your care about is some... antique!!!"

Fenter squints at the ranting woman and scoffs, "Huh. Are you stupid or something?" He looks to his secretary and says, "Kill her."

She protests, "Sir, I can't I—"

"Then get someone else to kill her," Fenter snaps back at her.

The secretary bows and makes her way towards the exit.

"Women." Fenter gripes.

"Wait!" Dr. Steer shouts.

Fenter adds, "Kill him too, for thinking his input matters. Drown them both in the lake."

The secretary leaves and two cultists wielding spears barge into the office to seize the doctors. They are dragged out of the house with little protest.

Fenter rubs his chin in contemplation. "Guess this plague is going to be here for a while now that I just put the last two known Orchid members to death. Good thing everyone under my stellar leadership in Greyhope was made immune to the curse. Good thing, good thing. Good thing."

***

Inside the Greyhope cathedral, two henchmen stand guard at its entrance.

One asks the other, "So, what exactly are we guarding here?"

The other looks over in confusion. "What?? I have no idea, Jimmy! I thought you knew!"

"Nope," Jimmy replies, "I don't, Bimmy. I don't. Fenter probably told us but we weren't listening."

Bimmy sighs and rolls his eyes. "This isn't good. One day he's going to tell us something super important and it'll end up costing us our lives. Why do we keep getting paired together when both us have attention deficit disorder?"

"Hey!" objects Jimmy, "I was never officially diagnosed with a—what was that??" He averts his attention towards the door which leads down to the crypt.

"See?" Bimmy points out.

"No seriously, I heard something. It was a knocking sound and it came from the crypt!"

The two men nervously investigate the entrance to the crypt.

After a brief silence, Bimmy speaks, "I don't hear—" his words are stunted by a sudden knocking on the crypt door.