Checking in and Finding Out More

             Yolanda got into her room after a brief but awkward parting with Ian. It confused Yolanda a little. Yes, she was interested in him. He was gorgeous, that was for sure. Gods, he smelt even better than he looked. She was sure he was interested in her. He hadn’t taken his eyes off of her since they had first met. But He seemed undecided whether he should mention it to her. He wanted to work with her. Was he struggling with mixing business with pleasure?

Time to report to Gregory. Yolanda knew she would not do that exactly. She was leaving a message.

She couldn’t tell Gregory that she was now a guide. A guide to these misguided humans. They were looking for something nasty. She found the Wi-Fi information and set about emailing the Alpha couple.

She wrote, ‘Hey, Boss got here and finished the initial investigation. They have stuff with our logo on it, and they wondered if it was stolen at some point. I’ll send your assistant a list of the stuff they have, and she can see if there are any records for its theft. They’ve requested that I guide them through the wooded area. I believe they are looking for more evidence on what happened. I will keep you posted. Yoyo.’

Yolanda blasted off another email to Terry. She had to make sure Terry knew what she needed. It didn’t matter if the records were real, it was all up to Terry’s discretion.

Yolanda also requested a list of potential enemies and disgruntled people.

With that done, she went to get warm with a hot shower. Which didn’t go so well? Of course. The hot water sucked rocks and was almost non-existent. She left the bathroom. There was a knock on her door.

A peek out of the window beside the door revealed Hal at her door. He made a motion for her to open the door. “What’s up?”

“Dinner. Ian’s had some food delivered. Grab your coat and come eat dinner.”

Hal returned to a room a few doors away, expecting her to follow.

It was just like home. You’re told something, and then they expected you to do it. Whether you wanted to do it, it didn’t seem to matter. Why did he feel the need to feed her? Who was still delivering in this weather?

She stomped off towards the room Hal had disappeared in. She knocked on the door with her coat and phone in hand.

Inside the room. Three men were sitting at a table, a hot plate and food covering its surface. “What’s all this?” Yolanda could smell beef. “Burgers?”

                “You brought a go-bag, I brought a few extra things, including camp food, frozen food. I have yours almost finished. Would you like some cheese?”

                “Yes, and bacon is there still is some.”

                “Uh… yes, there is. I cooked that for breakfast. How did you know?”

                “The smell is lingering.” Something distracted Yolanda. She was looking at the other things scattered throughout the room. A couple of laptops were open on the two double beds. There was also a series of files randomly laid out on the beds as well. A cellphone was charging on a nightstand, and an astonishing number of bags were open and spilling things out onto the floor. Equipment bags, a cooler plugged into an outlet, file boxes and clothing bags.

                “Wow, you seem like you have an interesting setup. I thought you worked out of the station, though.”

                “Well, we get a lot of criticism about our work, so we keep the bulk of it away from prying eyes.”

                “So, a lot of occult stuff and UFOs?”

                “Along with sightings and encounters with legendary creatures.”

                “Really like what? Vampires and dragons?”

                “. Here’s your burger. As for this, we’re thinking, magical satanic rituals and such.”

                “Satan, eh? That’s not in my range of experience. You’re talking demon summoning and things like that?”

                “Exactly.”

                “Well, that’s some really nasty business. Only a fool would be idiotic enough to mess with things like that: gods, an actual demon on this plane. Nope, I can’t see it. That would destroy everything thing. Just a part of the reason my people avoid all real magic like the plague. What gives you this idea that it was all Satanic?”

                “We have been in contact with some experts, and they’ve been able to identify some symbols. Want to see the ones we’ve identified?”

                “Eating right now, maybe later. Or never, yuck. Why did you want my help?”

                “We need to go back to the site. I have evidence that there’s more back there, and we want to see if we can lay a trap in case the people come back.”

                “Fine. But we are not acting out any of this. In case it works. I am so not prepared to take on a demon. You have a priest ready in case freaky things happen?”

                “So, you’re a believer?”

                “Better safe than sorry.” Yolanda shrugged and took a bite. She was cursing herself as she chewed. She knew very well what could happen if those people were more than crackpots. If those bones came from near one of the battle sites and dated to after the battle. That meant there was something else connected to the Lich still going on. But if the Lich wasn’t the biggest and baddest thing. What was? “Did they have any idea what these rituals were trying to achieve?”

                “Not yet a couple of people are working on the symbols in the photos.”

                “Crap.”

                “What? What did you think of?”

                “I need to text my boss again. What if things are missing from our estate instead of our business? I’ll send a text explaining what they need to ensure isn’t missing.”

                “You think they might have stolen them from your estate itself.”

                “We have a small medical centre there to treat small things. I’m part of security, so I should know of any breaches. But what if, in all the craziness, something missed getting to me?”

                “How long does it take to get ready for Christmas?”

                “Not Christmas. Yule and it traditionally starts of Stir-up day.”

                “What is Stir-up day?”

                “The day we start all the fiddly bits and stuff that takes weeks to do. The name comes from the fact that that’s traditionally when the Figgy pudding manufacture starts. Then it’s set aside for the brandy wine to soak into everything.”

                “You mean fruit cake?”

                “No fruit cake takes over a year to make correctly. If you watch Scrooge, you’ll see the Misses Cratchit come out at Christmas dinner with some cake on fire. That’s Figgy pudding. But Stir up day is the start of the preparations for Yule, and it starts on December twenty-first.”

                “You said something about that earlier.”

                “Hmm… okay, that’s sent. My boss is going to hate seeing that text. I know I’m not happy about that thought either. You guys must have had a long day as it is. Did you want to ask me anything else? I seriously think I’ll go back to my room and try to sleep in the bed.”

                “Will, you or won’t you work with us?” Ian set his burger down and turned off his hotplate. Then sat back and looked directly at her for the first time.

                “Truthfully, it’s not my thing. I have plenty of things I could back at home with lots of things to do. But since I’m trapped here, I might as well amuse myself and make sure you don’t get into any real trouble. So okay, I’ll work as a guide for now.” She had so much work to do in the armoury, repairing and putting things away: cleaning and reordering.