Prologue
The giant tuber flowers of the spirit dimension pulsed like grotesque hearts by the glow of the large multicolored crystals that grew beside them. The ground rippled with instability, causing a building with legs to tilt a little. Inside the building’s sharp, arched roofs, there was a meeting going on. Through a hallway filled with pictures of bird skulls and into a room of nice furniture that had slipped in from the living world.
Inside were nine beings, all waiting to discuss a very pressing subject. The tenth member of the group was late, which made the others sit rather impatiently, wondering if they should start without him. A moment later, black goop dripped from the other side of the door, and in stepped Kishnu, looking rather put out.
“Kishnu. You’re late.” Agatha scoffed, running her hand over the exposed cassowary skull that was her head. Kishnu frowned and took his seat, obviously in a bad mood.
“Did someone try to eat your pet again?” Pesuto laughed, his many legs wiggling underneath him.
“Let’ssss jusssst get on wiiiith thiiiis. I’m not heeeeere to talk about Biiiiill.” Kishnu growled, resting his arms on the table and getting black goop everywhere, much to Agatha’s irritation.
“Alright. Now that Kishnu is finally here, we can get started.” she said in a loud commanding voice, fixing the ruffles on her Victorian blouse. “You all know why we are here today.”
“I don’t see what could be so troublesome about a couple of men.” Methuselah scoffed, the branches on his head sticking out like large antlers. “They are fairly easy to manipulate or kill.”
“But they did get the best of Kishnu…” Pluto yawned, the stars on his body twinkling.
“Maybe Kishnu is just losing some of his touch…” Pesuto mumbled. Kishnu shot him a glare.
“Whaaaat waaaas thaaat??” he rasped, getting ready to stand up.
“Pesuto, we wouldn’t be meeting here if they weren’t a threat.” Agatha exasperated. “And don’t forget that they also have Josephine Washburn on their team.”
At the sound of this, Abigail, who was also sitting at the table, folded her arms and leaned back in her chair, her cyan flames burning a little brighter.
“And Joey is not someone to be taken lightly…” the imaginary friend said coolly. “I remember some of you laughing at me when she did her little ritual to banish me here, but look at her now. She’s sent hundreds of us back here and somehow none of us have been able to do anything about that.”
The others murmured in agreement and a little bit of worry. After all, Josephine Washburn was very well known among the spirit dimension, and the thought of anyone teaming up with her was a scary one.
“I also wouldn’t underestimate the other two new ones.” the collective spoke up, putting a hand to their chin. “After all, that one woman’s father is still giving me trouble after all these years. If she is anything like him, she could also be someone we need to look out for.”
Lux, the little poltergeist, floated over xyr seat a little nervously.
“What about the fat one? The one obsessed with games?” xe asked. “Hasn’t he been making a bunch of stuff to fight against us? No one has really been able to do that before.”
“And the five of them have all been working together, sooo… we should probably do something…” Pluto said lazily, leaning on his hand as if he was bored.
“Are you even taking this seriously Pluto?” Abigail asked, annoyed. “Didn’t Shahwah run away from them?”
“Abigail, Pluto is much more powerful of a genie than Shahwah ever was.” Agatha said, poking her beak up in the air. In response, Pluto simply shrugged as if he didn’t care either way.
“Whatever.” the imaginary friend mumbled. “But we need to do something quick, cause anyone associated with Joey Washburn could really cause us trouble later down the line. We need to nip this in the bud.”
“IIIII agreeeee.” Kishnu hissed.
“Alright then.” Agatha nodded, clasping her hands together on the table. “But we shouldn’t jump into anything. We should do reconnaissance first. Does anyone have any friends in the living world that we could contact and give this assignment to? I have one. He can observe the two brothers.”
“I have a group that could look into the pudgy one.” Lux spoke up. “What’s his name again?”
“Brian Miller I believe?” Agatha said, looking down at a piece of paper to double check.
“Part of me is up there, but I don’t think it would be a good idea to get close to them right now.” the collective said. “I’m a little unstable at the moment.”
“Allow some of mine to check in on this Jordyn Hastings then….” the swallower named Asani said as she skulked near the back of the room. “They can handle her I’m sure.”
“Good. Now who is going to handle Joesphine?”
This was met with silence. One by one, they all started to turn to Pluto. In response, the genie sighed.
“Well, I guess Shahwah and Dulagar are still up there messing around…” he mumbled.
“Then it’s settled.” Agatha said with another nod. “We will gather as much information as possible, and then we will start bringing our plan together and put it into action.”
The group was starting to congratulate themselves as they had made their plans, when Amanita, a typo spirit who had not said anything the entire time, cleared vis throat, an odd liquid oozing out of some of the holes in vis head.
“What about the Death Bringer?” ve said. “The one that has started to be called Nekros?”
The others grew silent.
“We will deal with the Death Bringer when we have to.” Agatha said in a low voice. “For now, let’s just focus our attention on these five before they become too much of a problem.”
The others nodded, leaving Ian, Roderick, Joey, Brian, and Jordyn completely unaware that they were about to be watched.
And that soon, they would be in mortal danger.
