S-BNG-008
St. Valentine's Ledger
Patron: Elliot Finch
Date: Aug 4th, 1923 – Báthory Block
Location: Filia Sanguinis
Proprietor: Nickels
You knew who I was when you hired me to sing for you. Turn your nose up all you like, call me whatever names please, but as far as I can tell we're both sinners all the same. And devils of all sorts come to claim sinners, you know that. But—this ain't my doing.
To be clear.
…And things just got a bit more complicated.
I ran into a human down here. Man dressed in black and grief. Pale. Dry as a sermon and twice as haunting. Sat himself right across from me in the back booth like he owned the shadow I was sitting in.
Father Eldin Voss.
Naturally I asked him:
"What's a man of the cloth doing in a sorry place like this?"
And he said:
"Same as you, I'd wager. Investigating. Keeping the balance between good and evil. Virtue and vice. I know what happened at St. Valentine's."
'Course, he was talking about the murder itself, not what done it and why. Figures. But he went on:
"More like it is on the horizon. Did you know, Nico—"
"Nickels"
"Nickels—" he corrected, "did you know, that the █████████ was split in half?"
"In what way, Father?"
"Same as the █████ itself. Cleaved in twain, down the middle, cracked by the ever-wrathful ██████████ himself in an attempt to find and break the █████████████ which hold his dear father, █████████, behind them. █████ built this town, you know. He turned a small village into a sprawling kingdom, in honor of his father. And he was given it to rule, before ████████, of course. Then—" Father Voss snapped his fingers and his eyes went wide and wild. "Split. In half. One part remained here in the █████████, and the other…"
"████████." I said. Obviously.
Then he said:
"Exactly. And where would a city of sin and wrath be in the ████████?"
Naturally, I said:
"Cairo."
"What? No—" The preacher blinked at me.
"East St. Louis, then." Why not take another stab in the dark? More than enough sorry towns in Illinois. One of 'em got to be it.
"No, son, listen—No city on a map. A city which sank below the ██████████████. Below the shores of Lake Michigan. The █████████ of Earth."
"Named as such?"
The Father shook his head and tapped the table nervously with his palms. Then he thrust his finger toward me with the condemnation of God himself and said:
"You. You are going to be the one to bring that sister city back to the surface. And we need to stop that."
I wanted to laugh, but something in his voice turned the air cold. You think he's onto something? Well, I'll let you be the judge of it, Ginny. He's coming back to St. Valentine's with me.
Unsmudge the Ledger
"Let us rejoice for torture has the power to create witches where none exist."
Music Trivia | 6 Words