Jack Stone's Flat

The apartment building was on the smaller side compared to the much larger ones around it. With just four units, the upkeep was easier, it didn't take up much space at all. Small alleyways on either side of the building kept it separated from the buildings on both sides and connected to a larger alley in the back where the tenants parked their cars instead of out front on the street.

Corinth approached the front door that was in between the two bottom apartments. Pulling on the door, he wasn't surprised it opened as the people inside often left it unlocked due mostly to complacency. Stepping in, there was a door to the left and right of him and postal boxes about midway down. On the right side leading up, was a stairway that did a 180 degree turn about halfway up. There was no reason to stay on the first floor so he headed up the stairs.

At the top, the door to Jack's flat was cracked open. Corinth gave two knocks and then pushed the door open to find Templar Jones standing in the kitchen going over some paperwork. He was thorough like that.

Jones was tall man, but also a young one. He was probably mid twenties with dark brown hair that he kept short and was clean shaven. Brown eyes and a baby face. He gave Corinth a nod when he walked in and went back to looking at the papers he was holding.

"San Francisco didn't need you anymore," said the young Templar, still focused on the papers.

"Pointless more like it. Seems we were a couple days behind others that were looking into things. Like following breadcrumbs, but never getting the bread."

"We," Jones asked, looking up.

"Yeah, Lumina and I. SO I take it you and whoever already looked everything over?"

"Lumina? That's a weird person for you to team up with." Jones leaned on the counter, his mind rolling with all kinds of useless theories and reasons why the two of them went on an assignment together.

Corinth turned to Jones, getting a little annoyed with the questions that had nothing to do with the setting. "Yeah, thought I might need a partner and that's who I was assigned with. Body in the bedroom?"

"Right. We had a Magus come in and do a preservation spell on the body so it wouldn't rot away until you got here. Same for the other two across the hall."

Corinth nodded. "I'll take a look around here first and then go over there." Jones shrugged and grabbed his papers again.

Entering the bedroom, the body of Jack Stone laid on the bed, shirtless with his arms spread out to both sides. His eyes were wide open and if it wasn't for the large gaping hole in his chest and the large amount of blood soaking into the bed, it would look like he was simply lying down staring up at the ceiling. Corinth moved closer and looked at the wound and indeed, Jack's heart was completely removed. On a closer inspection, it was torn from his chest. The edge of the wound told him that whoever or whatever did this, pushed their hand into his chest and then yanked the organ out.

"Damn Jack, what did you do to piss her off this bad?" Checking his nails and looking over the body, it was clear that he didn't fight back. She got the jump on him.

Yelling back out to the kitchen, "did you ever find his girlfriend, Ivy?"

"No," Jones answered back, his voice closer as he appeared in the doorway. "We think she skipped town after finishing off the neighbors."

"Probably, but where's his heart?"

"Shit," Jones said looking shocked. "They didn't tell you? She ate it. She ate his and the neighbor's daughters, but only took a bite out of the daughter's moms."

Corinth looked confused as he processed the new information. "That doesn't make any sense. Ivy didn't have a violent bone in her body and to eat a heart, that's escalation at an incredible pace. We need to find her."

"Already ahead of you. I got some of our best trackers on her and even got the local police involved."

"That's good for the time being. I need to look at the other bodies. You said they were across the hall?"

Leaving Jack's flat, Corinth moved across the hall and entered the flat of Abigail and Charlotte Morrison. Abigail was the mother and Charlotte was staying with her while she went to university. Now, the body of Abigail layed sprawled out on the bedroom floor and Charlotte was face down in the hallway, both had pools of blood underneath them.

Looking over Abigail, her chest wound was similar to Jacks. Someone had pushed into her chest and pulled her heart out. Next to her, was said heart. Corinth picked it up and turned it over. There was a bite mark in it. Looking at it more closely, he noticed that some of the teeth marks were sharp and some were flat. That was interesting.

Making his way over to the body of Charlotte, instead of having a chest wound, she had a back one. Ivy had pulled her heart out through her back. A feat that was both terrifying and impressive, especially if she killed all three and pulled their hearts out with her bare hands. Unlike her mother, there was no heart to find around her. The timeline of events were falling into place for him. Standing back up, he went back to Jack's flat to meet back up with Jones.

"Alright," he said moving to the kitchen sink and washing his hands, "I think I know what happened for the most part, but motive is still illusive. I think she killed Jack, ate his heart, and then moved across the hall. She then attacked Abigail, but got interrupted when she took a bite of her heart. She then went after Charlotte, killed her and ate hers. Is that what you got?"

"More or less, yeah."

"Ok. And you did a thorough search of both flats?"

"We did."

"Then where is she? Where's Ivy?"

Jones looked both confused and insulted. "What do you mean?"

"Killing three people by ripping out their hearts creates a lot of blood. I'm sure you've noticed that. I'm sure you've also noticed the blood that's out here when she left the bedroom. You did notice the trace blood, didn't you? There's a clear trail of it leaving this apartment and going across the hall."

"Yes, Corinth. My team isn't stupid. We know how to check a crime scene." Jones crossed his arms in annoyance.

"I'm sure you do. So I'm sure you also noticed the trails of blood all through the flat across the hall. It goes from the bedroom to the hall, off towards the kitchen, and then back out the door."

"What are you getting at?"

"You want to take a guess on what I didn't find downstairs or even on the stairs coming up? That's right. Blood. Meaning she never left." Corinth dried his hands off on a towel and then tossed it back onto the counter. "Hundred bucks says I find her."

"You're on, but you might as well pay me now."

Moving out of the kitchen and into the living space, he looked all around for any kind of hiding space large enough to house a small woman. He then looked in the bathroom, in cabinets, everywhere. Nothing. Once again he was in the bedroom with the body of Jack. He looked under the bed, but found nothing and even looked in the closet.

And that was when he saw it. In the ceiling was a small square that had a border around it. It was an entrance to an attic space. Most apartments didn't have an attic, but this one was an exception and probably had insulation and maybe even the water heater up there. Whatever it housed, it was large enough for a person to crawl up into and reset the cover. To top it all off, there were traces of blood along the edges. They were faint, but they were there.

"Did anyone check the attic space," he asked to jones.

"What do you mean? There isn't an attic space?" Jones moved Corinth aside and looked in the closet. "That wasn't there when we did our search. I promise you that."

"Well it's there now. Stand aside and let me check it out."

Corinth moved into the closet and jumped up, knocking the covering away from the entrance. Maneuvering himself, he was able to stand on some shelving and hoist himself up. It wasn't something he was happy to be doing. Sticking one's head up into a dark space had him at a hefty disadvantage. Plus, he didn't know what he was pulling himself up into.

Jones gave him a flashlight when he requested one. Corinth was now sitting on the edge of the opening, his feet dangling through the hole and into the apartment. He clicked on the flashlight and slowly began scanning the room with his left hand, while his right rested on the hilt of his gun. Movement to his right sent the flashlight beam over into that direction and it focused on a young woman, cowering with her knees pulled into her chest.

It was Ivy or it looked like Ivy, Corinth could confirm that. Her dark hair was disheveled and her clothes were covered in dried blood. Her hands rested on her knees, her knees hiding the lower half of her face.

"Ivy? You ok?" Corinth kept the light on her. "Hey. I'm going to need you to come to me so we can get you out of here and some place safe. I can get you some help."

"Is...is...," he voice was cracking and it looked and sounded like she had been crying for a long time. "Is Jack going to be ok?"

Corinth wasn't a negotiator or someone capable of dealing with this type of situation. If you were about to jump off a ledge, Corinth would not have been the person you wanted to talk you out of it. It wasn't a skill in his wheelhouse. "Um...no, Ivy. No he's not. He didn't make it and neither did the Morrisons."

"I did that. I hurt...hurt them."

"Yeah, you did. You hurt them very badly, but...," Corinth began to move closer to her, very slowly. If he could grab her, he might be able to subdue her though he wasn't sure how just yet.

"I didn't mean too...it was an accident."

"That was a helluva'an accident, Ivy." He moved closer and closer, until he was just within arms reach of her.

"I know...but....but..."

"But what, Ivy?" He could almost reach out and grab her arm.

"But their hearts were so delicious." There was a malevolence to her voice and when she looked at him, her eyes were a start orange and red. She lifted her head and smiled at him reveling a mismatched set of sharp teeth and normal human teeth.

Corinth jerked his hand back towards his gun, but she was faster. She dashed forward knocking him over and then making a rush towards the opening. By the time Corinth could regain his balance, he saw the last bits of her legs sink out of the opening and down into the apartment room below, followed by a startled scream from Jones.

Dropping down from the opening, Corinth gave chase, jumping over Jones who had been pushed over in the doorway to the bedroom. By the time he made it out of the apartment, Ivy, or whatever she was, was running down the stairs heading for the front door. Corinth followed as quickly as he could.

Outside the building, he turned and followed the sound of bare feet slapping on cement. Ivy was running towards the alleyway behind the building and if she escaped from there into the city, it could be days before he finds her again. She took a hard right and disappeared behind the building next door. When Corinth followed, he was grabbed around the neck and slammed to the ground in a surprise move. Ivy had never been strong, but she was more than that now. Her other hand grabbed his right wrist as his left hand grabbed the wrist of the hand that was secured around his throat.

Corinth looked up into the wicked smiling face of the woman that was once Ivy, girlfriend to Jack Stone. The smile slowly faded and the real Ivy pushed through. "Help me," she pleaded.

"I can," Corinth tried to reassure her. "How did this happen?"

"I don't know..." Her grip was still tight on his wrist and it was beginning to hurt. "I just smelled the perfume...." And then she wasn't Ivy anymore. The smile was back. "A Templar's heart will do wonders for my complexion."

"Not this one." He moved his left hand away and three magical purple darts appeared. With a flick of his wrist, the darts shot upwards before turning over and coming back down. Ivy's gaze followed then and quicky rolled to the right as Corinth rolled to the left once he was free. The three darts slammed into the ground creating a set of mini explosions. Both Powel and Loy were in his hands and they were both pointed at Ivy.

"Help me," came the voice of Ivy one last time, but before Corinth could respond, Ivy turned around and dashed off into the bushes that lined the alley way. Corinth gave chase but once she was out of sight, she was gone. He cursed and cursed and cursed again, before holstering his guns in anger. The though of a heart eating monster loose in the city of London did not sit well with him. Not at all.

"Did you get her," came the voice of Jones as he ran up behind him. "I got back up coming, they should be here in ten minutes."

Corinth sighed angrily and turned back towards the apartment building. "You owe me a hundred bucks...or quid...or whatever."