The Strange Case of Miss Lavinia Armitrage

Ritual

Azathoth Prinn shined his flashlight upwards from underneath his chin, illuminating his features in a most distasteful manner, like a Halloween hobgoblin.  Licking his lips and grinning, standing several feet away, he was flanked by two of his goons; one was a new one, who looked more refined and less thuggish than the usual lot.

"Who's this?" Nathaniel asked, producing his own very bright flashlight, which he directed purposefully right into the newcomers' bespectacled eyes. The light flared and reflected as it struck the figure, who ducked and shaded the beam with a slight, gauntleted hand. Besides the round dark red goggles hiding his eyes, he wore a large hat, a voluminous scarf that hid his lower features and neck, and a long coat that reached to the ground. "So, Mister Goggles, are you a replacement for the one that I clobbered back in Dunwich?" Ward said dispassionately.

"Just a friend," Prinn answered slowly.  He glared back at the newcomer as if to silence him before he could add anything to the story.

"We all know that you haven't got any friends," Ward retorted.

"Let's say that he's...an interested third party, then..." Prinn turned and winked at Lavinia.  She shuddered and turned away, pulling her jacket tighter around her. Prinn's gaze stayed on her much longer than either Lavinia or Ward was comfortable with.

Prinn's hand was still extended outwards. He wriggled his fingers for emphasis and shifted his gaze from Lavinia to Nathaniel. "Well?"

Ward feigned ignorance.  "Hmm?"

Prinn kept his arm extended.  "Little metal box.  In my hand. NOW." Then snapping his fingers repeatedly for emphasis; Ward still did nothing.  Well, not nothing; he slipped the box into one of the many pockets in his 'trenchcoat of wonders', then edged his way backward.

Prinn stopped smiling.  His shiny little toothpick, which he'd replaced since their last encounter, didn't even waver.  Nathaniel noticed a glistening drop of blood on Prinn's bruised upper lip, near where he had smashed the previous toothpick with his fist.  At that thought, Ward DID smile...

"How's your lip?"

"Sore. Like you're gonna be...all over."

The newcomer stepped forward. "We don't have time for this now. " His voice was almost feminine sounding, yet harsh and sinister. "The recitation." He thrust out one gauntleted hand.  Ward looked at it thoughtfully, then looked up innocently.

"Recitation?"

Slowly, and with some exasperation,  he explained himself. "The hand-written verses of incantation that were inside the small metal box that you just retrieved from the cemetery grounds." Each word was carefully pronounced and purposefully drug out. Something about this guy reminded Lavinia of a bug, particularly a shiny little beetle. A chill went through her.

"Oh, those verses of recitation..."

"Yes-hand them over!" This from Goon Number Two. He had slithered up and was trying to interject himself into the business; he then brandished a set of brass knuckles menacingly. With a snap, a blade shot out of the front end of the knuckles. He flamboyantly waved the blade in Ward's face.

"Nice," Ward said, looking unimpressed. He started patting up and down his chest and sides, in a flagrantly vain attempt to appear to be looking for the paper.

"No recitation. Sorry." He held his hands out, helplessly. He then nodded at Mister Goggles.

Prinn, moving faster than Ward thought he was currently capable of, suddenly shoved Goon Number Two purposely into Ward, while at the same time grabbing Lavinia and pinning her arms behind her back.  Nathaniel blocked the half-hearted punch that was thrown at him when Goon Two (also taken by surprise) was shoved his way; his weak swing, even with brass knuckles, was child's play for Ward to fend off. As Ward did this, he sidestepped Goon Number Two and knocked him flying with an elbow to the chin.