When Evil Wins

Aaron was absent, thus, they played a one-shot with provided PCs.

Clarice [Whitney], Jamal [Jordan]

3pm, 1983 Intro: You are two police officers on car patrol in Concord (outside of Boston) when you get a call on the police-car radio, “Squawk, Jamal/Clarice I show you closest to respond. Head to the Thorp Mansion. Just got a strange call from their oldest daughter. Couldn’t understand her hysterical crying before she hung up. Over.” 

This isn’t your first call to the millionaire’s estate. All the wild parties they’ve thrown over the years. Thank goodness it’s a private estate deep in the woods. And if you remember correctly, just recently, Industrialist Milford Thorp filled restraining orders against his wife Teresa. A divorce must be looming. Which means Milford lives at the house with his two daughters, 17-year-old Erica and about to turn 13-year-old Melinda.

Drive Up: Clarice drove with both lights and sirens till they got to the private turnoff where she silenced the siren. It wasn’t till she saw reflections of the lights across the trees she remembered to turn them off. Didn’t want to warn any trespassers or criminals. They were surprised there were about a dozen cars already in the driveway. And two women stood conversing just outside their cars. Jamal out and confronted one of them, “Well, well, Janet Winslet. How the hell does our pesky local reporter always seem to meet us at crime scenes?” Which prompted the other woman, “Crime scene?! What are you talking about? I’m here per coordinated meeting with Mr. Thorp to go over his will. Names Althea Pinto, personal lawyer for the Thorp family. Well, at least for Milford.” Clarice was pissed and getting more agitated, “Jamal! We have a case! Forget them and join me inside.” Jamal gave stern warning to the women, “Stay outside. I don’t care you’re a lawyer. We have a scene to secure.”

With the front door ajar, they drew their revolvers and entered, “Concord PD, show yourselves! Erica? Erica Thorp, you called the police. Are you OK? Mr. Thorp? Hello?!” Jamal closed the door behind them as they cautiously entered further inside. 

The smell of iron drew them into the dining room where they found Melinda covered in blood just standing in the middle of the room. All furnishing pushed to the sides. Clarice already suspected the girl a murderer and kept her gun pointed at her. “PUT YOUR HANDS UP! What the hell Jamal?!” Jamal approached the girl to look for wounds, “She’s obviously hurt and a victim.” Clarice reluctantly picked up a phone and called for backup and paramedics.

Jamal had watched enough old horror movies to recognize the significance of the pentagram chalked onto the center of the room where Melinda stood. “Some kind of devil worship or ritual.” Clarice protested more when Jamal grabbed Melinda’s arm (cold to the touch… going into shock?) to lead her to a couch, “Tampering with evidence, Are you out of your mind?!” Not that she was a cold-hearted b…. eat cop. But that is when she saw someone outside the bay window… only to recognize, “It’s that damn reporter taking pictures!” But Jamal wasn’t concerned as he took off his coat to cover something in the corner, “We have bigger fish to fry. I just found Teresa Thorp’s body beside the couch.” The woman’s wrists cut along with her throat.

Clarice even more pissed when Jamal led Melinda out the door to the front veranda calling for the other women. Jamal reasoned, “You want her to have to stare at her dead mother? Let the other women comfort her. Keep them busy as we search the active crime scene and the rest of the house.”

When they re-entered the house, Jamal glimpsed something in the parlor to the left. Milford Thorp lay in a puddle of blood. Multiple stab wounds. Clarice reasoned, “With the restraining order, I’d suspect his wife if she wasn’t dead herself. But then, she could have slit her own throat in suicide AFTER killing him.” But what really drove Clarice into anger was finding the family dog butchered in the kitchen. “We have a psycho on the loose!”

After clearing downstairs, they headed up the kitchen stairs to the 2^nd floor. A smaller bedroom to the northwest proved to be Erica’s as evident by the boy band posters on the wall: Osmonds, New Kids on the Block. Clarice kept calling for the girl since she was the one who placed the call. “Concord PD, come out. You’re safe now.” They searched the closet and under the bed. No blood trails, they kept searching thru the bathroom and adjoining larger bedroom. That proved to be the younger Melinda’s. “Odd how the youngest got the bigger room. Spoiled?” And that’s when movement outside caught their attention, “Someone nude running thru the forest. With at least a dozen cars outside, there has to be more. Do you suppose it was another wild party gone wrong?” Upon entered the master bedroom, they found piles of clothing cast on the floor and bed.

But screams drew them to the southern windows over the veranda. Beside their parked cruiser, they witnessed Melinda slowly rising into the air. “Holy shit!” Jamal thought about shooting her till he realized she too far. He ran for the stairs with Clarice barking at him, “I TOLD you to handcuff her! Didn’t I tell you to cuff her?! You stupid…” They reached the front door just as it burst open. Clarice dodged. Jamal was caught off-guard and knocked to the floor as Janet and Althea came bursting inside in fright. The police-officers gathered themselves and stepped outside.

Where they found Melinda now transforming into… “What the hell?!” They steadied their aim… “BLAM, BLAM!” Each hit dead-center of the levitating… devil? Both killing shots yet the man-form only looked down at them as if them insignificant bugs. “Back in the house!” As they retreated, they could hear sirens in the distance. Backup arriving! But they also felt an unnatural surge of energy pulse from what-used-to-be Melinda. And heard the distant screech of metal and sirens suddenly ending. Both mentally pictured the bridge (spanning the gorge around the Thorp estate) collapsing. Their last sight before entering the house was the cloud of dust rising from where the bridge once was.

It was now Jamal barking at Clarice who stopped in the kitchen, “What are you doing? Kitchen knives and a bottle of brandy? Now’s not the time to drink. We need to run for it. Out the back door! We need to find one of those party-goers and interrogate them.” Clarice ignored him as she gathered ingredients for her Molotov bomb. Luck that they spotted one such nude party-goer running thru the woods out back. Seemingly following another, who was clothed. And younger! “That man is holding a knife and chasing Erica!”

Clarice was faster and closed on the man, “Stop, or I’ll shoot!” The man, crazed and with dilated eyes, turned on her as his new target. She fired her taser (a recent creation (1976) and new tool for the police) hitting him in his bare chest. While she could see ripples in the man’s arms as muscles twitched, he didn’t slow as he raised his knife high for a plunging strike. And that’s when Jamal tackled him, knocking him to the ground where they both struggled for the knife. Clarice wacked at the man’s arm with her baton trying to break his wrist or at least knock the blade away. Disarmed, the man wrapped his hands around Jamal’s throat. Which gave Clarice the opportunity to cuff him.

[Persuade-extreme] It took time, but Clarice was able to calm Erica down. The poor girl obviously distraught and in shock as she sobbed her story, “Where’s daddy? Mom and her friends… stormed into the house. They took him away. And tied Melinda and stood her in the center of the dining room after moving everything to the side. They started chanting something while all nude… Narlat… Oh great. Mom… mom cut her wrists and dripped blood on my sister. Why did she do that?! Mommy led them in more chanting. And then she cut her own throat! I ran! And ran. And they chased me!”

CHASE: Erica turned at the sound of rustling, “What’s that?!” They could hear others in the woods, “Spread out. Look for them. I heard someone talking nearby. We need to sacrifice them all for oh great Nyarlathotep.” And that’s when their prisoner called out, “Over here!” Jamal cold cocked him with a solid blow to his chin. Unconscious. They ran with hopes of being stealthy and quiet. Clarice had to hold her hand over Erica’s mouth as the girl whimpered. They slipped further into the woods when Clarice removed her hand to instruct Erica, “This is the time to be quiet.” Removed her hand? Erica blurted out, “Oh my God, they’re going to kill us! What about daddy?! Where’s Melinda?” In the background they heard, “They are over there!”

Clarice almost jerked Erica’s arm out of socket as she pulled the girl along. They knew the estate was surrounded by a deep gorge. Their only chance of escape was the bridge. Maybe enough left to crawl across. They worked their way around the house to the east and kept circling to the south with the cultists in pursuit. “This way! There they are!” Slowed by Erica, Clarice and Jamal ran as equals. They both fired at their pursuers as they pushed thru low hanging branches and dodged tree roots. Jamal looked over his shoulder once more to gage his pursuers. And that’s when he stumbled and fell after tripping on a large rock.

And that’s when the man-form appeared to their left side. They froze in their tracks. Most cultists, blessed to behold their summation, paused to give worship. Two closed on their targets hoping to give offerings to their god. As Jamal rose to his feet, Clarice lit her Molotov and threw it at the crowd behind them. But her errant throw ricocheted off a branch and broke harmlessly to the side. Yet, while it didn’t burn the cultists, it blinded them per their drug-induced dilated eyes. Which gave both cops time to fire their pistols at the closest cultists raising knifes at them.

They both turned to continue running, but were surprised to now see the summoned devil in a new form. A greater, larger form of some ungodly monstrosity! An Avatar of Nyarlathotep! [Clarice failed her Sanity taking 19-point loss: Indefinite Insanity- Paranoia. Everyone out to get her] Clarice let go of Erica and took off running in panic. Leaving her partner to deal with all by himself. Jamal grabbed Erica’s arm and tried to pull her along, “Come with me if you want to live!” But Erica, too far gone to realize the danger, resisted and tried to pull away. Jamal grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder as he took off.

It wasn’t till Clarice reached the bridge that she broke out of her daze. She looked across the gorge where the bridge had collapsed and saw her captain and other police standing in wait. “They summoned the devil! It’s out to get us! Kill them. Kill the cultists! Help Jamal!” And that’s when Jamal appeared along the road, carrying an unconscious Erica. Behind her partner, Clarice also saw cultists closing, “Run Jamal. RUN!” She ordered the other cops, “Cover us!” And held her shot till the cultists within range. “BLAM!” At least she missed Jamal. But she also wondered why the other cops not firing…

She turned to look and saw most paralyzed with fear, starring at something behind her. She watched her captain scramble into a cruiser and drive off. Behind her… the avatar rose above the trees in full view of all. A lone cop fired his shotgun for no effect. Clarice and Jamal worked as a team climbing down the gorge with broken bridge railing as handholds as they passed Erica along between them. They made it to the other side. Thanking God the avatar chose not to pursue or attack.

EPILOGUE

The newspapers reported a drug-induced murder at the Thorp mansion. Teresa Thorp had supposedly killed her husband them herself in suicide. The kids? Melinda missing. 

Erica? Committed to an asylum. Locked away per her babbling about some summoned creation. Yet return to the estate proved no such thing. The other cars at the house? Prominent members of the city gone missing. No clue what happened to them. Possible guilt from being an accomplice to a murder; thus, now in hiding.

Officer Clarice? No newspaper article to describe her as another resident at the asylum. Suffering vivid dreams and nightmares about an avatar of Nyarlathotep. “He walks among us! He could be anyone!”

The reporter and lawyer? No sight nor sound of them. Gone along with the cultist bodies consumed by the avatar that grew bored and returned to his own dimension.

Jamal closed the door behind him as he settled into the chair in front of his captain’s desk. Captain Jack pulled out the bottle of Bourdon and poured them both tall drinks. They ignored the elephant in the room. “So, how is your new partner working out?”

BACKGROUND

Teresa Thorp was leader of a cult that wanted to summon an avatar of Nyarlathotep and have it possess her youngest daughter. Her eldest daughter proved to be an unacceptable vessel on her 13^th birthday. Melinda proved to be worthy. Milford Thorp was kept in the dark what his wife was doing. He learned late and thus filed the restraining orders while kicking her out of the house. Yet on the eve of Melinda’s 13^th birthday, Teresa led her cultists into the house killing her husband while capturing Melinda. Erica heard the commotion from her bedroom and hysterically called the police. And when she heard cultists coming for her, she escaped out the window and into the woods.

Meanwhile, Teresa strangled her youngest daughter and laid her in the summoning circle as the cultists circled and began to chant.  Teresa cut her wrists to drip blood on their offering. At the culmination of the ritual, Teresa cut her own throat as the final sacrifice of power to channel their spell. And Nyarlathotep entered the body of Melinda. Bathed in gore, Melinda rose as her own consciousness wrestled with the summation. A battle of wills. Meanwhile, the cultists, wild with glee, fled into the woods, both to escape the police and to find and kill Erica.

NEXT SCENARIO: https://wjr5oakley.blogspot.com/2022/11/tatp1.html