Dear Diary: July 10, 2014
It was another good two minutes before the shaking stopped. There were cracks in the wall and in the floor. Everyone, human and immortal alike were hanging on to stable furnishings. A lot of people screamed in the more severe shaking period. Dan O'Leary seemed to be the only one really enjoying himself. Even his wife Julia looked petrified. When it was all over, security appeared to assess the damage and thankfully the penthouse was intact. I still couldn't believe they called it a penthouse; considering it was on the 5th floor of the office building. It was hardly a skyscraper like say New York City. But whatever.
Once everything was back to some form of normal, the dinner party resumed. Esme had been talking to a few of the other writers and enjoying herself as the rest of us just mingled around. We helped ourselves to the delicious food that was set up buffet style and the now mellow again atmosphere. Some people chose to leave after the earthquake though Dan did everything in his power to get them to stay. An earthquake of that magnitude has never been felt on the east coast before and it was quite disconcerting for people. Who could really blame them?
I noticed Julia escort some of the guests into a back room area; our eyes met and she smiled at me. There was something a bit off about that smile but I couldn't put my finger on it. Just then Esme returned to my side looking a little perplexed.
"What is it honey?" I asked her.
"Oh nothing, I guess. It's just that when Dan invited us to dinner he said his other guests were writers. And though that's true, most of the people here are investors and don't know the first thing about writing." She said looking confused.
"Really? What kind of investors?" Alice popped to my side instantly having cleared through her vision haze. We still hadn't asked her what she had seen.
"Like what you do Alice. Stocks and bonds and trading. It's all very confusing for me but that kind of stuff. Why would Dan invite investors to a dinner party for writers?"
She had a point that was really puzzling. This evening earthquake or not, was getting weirder by the minute. Before I could ask Alice about her vision, I saw Julia emerge alone from the back room and go over to Dan; she then whispered something into his ear and he smiled. But even with our keen hearing we didn't know what was said. On top of that, Edward mumbled it was in some kind of a different language he had never heard before.
The Watchers were outside on the patio where Dan then went to join them. He was waving his arms about like a giant bird but he kept staring at Rogue. Julia had taken her place by his side and it was quite obvious to anyone with eyes that Dan was practically drooling all over Rogue; to such an obvious degree that Julia had to swat him on the arm a few times. Alexander was looking down at him with a look of disdain as Rogue didn't pay him much mind and Amy's face was scrunched into a "eww" expression. I could only imagine what kind of thoughts were going through his mind. You could practically wipe the patio floor with his saliva. Yuck! Get a grip man! Your wife is right there! Humans, I tell you!
The rest of us remained inside until the sun set as we didn't want to turn the evening into a shining spectacle but I did notice one sparkling thing and it wasn't any of us vampires. There was a staff leaning against Dan's chair. It looked like it was made out of some kind of iron or metal and wood and on top of it was what looked like a precious gem of some kind. I couldn't tell what it was because it kept changing color from purple to blood red to white to sapphire and back to purple. It was a very fascinating piece. As I approached it, I heard Dan's voice behind me:
"Quite fascinating, isn't it? An art dealer sold it to me in Kenya." I turned to look at him.
"Yes quite. I've never seen anything like it." I said. He gestured toward it.
"Go ahead; pick it up if you want." He said, smiling.
I did as he suggested. It was a hefty thing that would be a problem for most humans but I wasn't one. I looked it over as it fit in my hands. It seemed to exude power. I looked at Dan and saw a strange look on his face, almost that of disappointment. Julia who was standing next to Dan just shrugged, smiled at us and then disappeared into the back room with 3 more people. I gave the staff back to Dan and then walked over to where the rest of the family was before it dawned on me that the original bunch of people that Julia had taken with her into that room had not returned to the party. Was there another exit we didn't know about? I decided to wait and see if those other 3 people were going to come back this way or not. When after 30 minutes Julia appeared alone again, I became suspicious. The fact that neither Julia nor Dan were vampires was obvious. But could they possibly be something else? As my brain finished processing that last thought; Alice said:
"Oh ew, brains."
"Alice, what do you mean?" Jasper asked.
She nodded toward the room where Julia had recently exited. We couldn't bring attention to ourselves by all rushing toward that room so Rogue nodded that she and Alexander would distract Julia and Dan while Edward, Emmett, and I would check out the room. We dashed in there faster than the human eye could pick up on. Once we got closer, the hallway went from light to nearly pitch black. We could still see where we were going and cautiously walked forward until we were in a room a little to the right that was the total opposite of anything we'd seen thus far.
For starters it had a fireplace, the whole room had dark burgundy rich wood paneling and it had light sconces hanging from the ceiling as well as candles around the room. The furniture was very Victorian and matched the paneling. For a second we all thought we'd stepped back into time. Outside where the people were it was the 21st century but here it was like 1876. As our eyes adjusted to the surroundings, a particular odor filled our nostrils. We've been around for long enough to know what a fresh human corpse smelled like. As we all looked down we saw bodies; maybe 15 of them all neatly stacked in piles in the corner of the room. They were ready to be disposed of.
As I approached them, I nearly slipped in the blood. I realized the room was covered in it and that was the reason for the dark décor; to hide the devastation in the room. But it was the bodies themselves that were what drew me even closer. There weren't any puncture marks on their bodies except their heads. That's when Alice's last phrase popped into my mind; "oh ew, brains." Their brains....they were missing! Something had taken their brains out. Buy why? And how? I couldn't stand for much longer to examine without getting caught. I knew it was time to leave. And not just the room but the party.
We strode back into the room unnoticed and rejoined the rest of our family where Nessie looked like she was going to throw up. Perhaps something in the food wasn't up to her liking. We said goodnight to our hosts and made a haste exit saying Nessie wasn't feeling well. We didn't say a word until we got back home. When we entered our house, Nessie ran to the bathroom and threw up and I heard her washing her hands repeatedly. I was worried she'd gotten a stomach bug. As we got settled, she scurried out of the bathroom and came to a halt in the middle of the living room shuddering and shaking with disgust.
"Oh ew ew ew ew!!!! Gross gross gross!!! OMG!!!" She shuddered again.
"Nessie, are you alright?" I asked looking at her with wide eyes; I wasn't the only one. She hesitated and looked at Jacob. He nodded.
"Go ahead, tell them what you saw."
"What did you see?" Bella asked concerned.
"That Julia lady......oh ew.....she um......her head......it......um......turned 360 degrees!"
"It did what???" Esme gasped.
"Are you sure?" Bella countered.
"She's sure; I can see it in her head." Edward said looking disgusted himself.
"That-that's impossible for a human; the anatomy of something like that is just impossible." I stammered trying to get a grasp of what I just heard.
"Well then she's---" Jasper started before Rogue cut him off saying:
"A Sloulah demon."
"A say what now demon?" Emmett said confused.
"A Sloulah demon; pronounced sloo-lahhh. The h isn't silent." She repeated.
"I'd say....sounds like you have a lot of phlegm." Jacob muttered as we all rolled our eyes. Rogue just got off the couch, walked to a window and stared out into the backyard as she explained:
"The Sloulah are like giant rodents in their natural form. Obviously you saw one in a human shell. Julia belongs to that group and some of it makes sense to me now. The gruesome scene in that back room that Carlisle, Edward, and Emmett discovered is their signature calling card. The Sloulah ingest human brains; both for nutrition and for knowledge."
"Ingest? But how?" I asked revolted.
"Their tongues are a lot wider and longer than ours. They're also sharp enough that with enough force can be driven through a person's skull."
"But how do they incapacitate their victims in order to perform this feasting ritual?" Jasper asked with macabre interest.
"That really depends on the situation. It can be anything from slipping something into their drinks, conking them on the head with a blunt object just enough to get them unconscious, or throwing their saliva in the face of someone which immobilizes a person instantly. See a Sloulah demon that is about to eat a brain needs it to still be working......meaning....." She trailed off.
"The person has to be alive during the extracting process." Bella finished for her. We heard a gagging noise.
"Oh I think I'm going to be sick again....." Nessie moaned as she bolted for the bathroom again.
The wolves were looking a bit green around the gills as well. The rest of us were just trying to absorb while the Watchers just sat in silence waiting for Rogue to continue. This was all so new to us; this topic of demons. We've met a few on the "other side" and recently saw a slew of them on bikes but this was actually contact with dealing. Suddenly, sparkling vampires didn't seem so big and bad anymore when there were all these other unknowns in the world. Even the Volturi seemed pesky in comparison. Meanwhile, I remembered something Rogue had said when first explaining this demon to us so I asked her about it:
"Rogue, you mentioned that it all made sense to you now. What did you mean?" She turned around and looked at me.
"Well think about tonight's party. It was supposed to be for writers only and yet there were all these random Wall Street investors that had nothing at all to do with books or publishing. Then there were all the disappearances into Julia's back office which when I think hard about; only the investors disappeared not the writers. Plus when we first arrived at the party remember my thinking how well Julia was dressed as well as the impeccable decor around their office or "penthouse"? No way can they afford that publishing a few works a year. They own at least one Maserati. Not a cheap vehicle to own or maintain. The money; where is it coming from?"
She stopped there and let us start arranging the puzzle pieces in our heads ourselves. Bella being our resident puzzle queen with both real and fake puzzles got up:
"So you're saying the-that Julia O'Leary or the Sloo-whatever demon I can't pronounce, ate the brains of the investors in order to get the information on trading secrets, stocks, and such?"
"Exactly." Rogue answered.
"That's genius!" Emmett said loudly and then sat back down when we looked at him like he had two heads.
"Ok ok, genius but diabolically immoral and insane. Not to mention really gross." He corrected himself quickly. I think this is where Nessie would insert an "smh" or "face palm" or something teeny-bopper of that effect.
"Ok all that aside, aren't these people going to be reported missing if they don't show up for work on Monday by their families?" I asked worriedly. That would also explain why the Feds would be all interested in the paranormal all of a sudden.
"Possibly." Rogue said reading my mind.
"But also, knowing the Sloulah; they cover their trail really well. They wouldn't pick noticeable targets. Meaning people that could disappear without a trace and not be very looked for. Plus not so sure now of the coincidence of that earthquake helps with the cover story." Alexander spoke for the first time.
"How do you know so much about demons anyways?" Jacob asked.
"It was part of our Watchers' training back in the very beginning. We had to take this whole massive course on demonology; got the books and everything up in Rogue and Alexander's attic now." Amy piped up.
"So you think the earthquakes and tremors are related somehow to these Sloulah demons and their brain pillaging?" Jasper asked.
"It's all related somehow. I just can't put my finger on it. But I somehow feel that everything is connected and the picture is just so much bigger than this but I can't see it for some reason." Rogue said her eyes narrowing as she turned her back to us again as she gazed at the dark night sky.
As we set there in our living room with Nessie who rejoined us halfway through Rogue's last speech, in total silence.....we all felt the same thing.
Something was off. Way off.
~Carlisle Cullen