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Sammy hears the voices more regularly now, and they seem to be chanting.  She can't quiet make out what.

Chanting?  That can't be good.  Sammy is really scared now.

She'd fly, but she can't see.  She doesn't know if she'll go up 3 inches or 30 feet, or what she might collide with if she tries to bolt blindly.

She wants to put up a force field, but again, she can't see.  She doesn't know if her action would trigger an attack from the chanters, and if it did, she needs to be able to see them to evade them and fight against them.  She holds off on that, but is ready to put it up in an instant.

If she can wriggle her hands, try to work some of the wrapping away from her body without being too noisy or obvious about it, she will.  Otherwise, the force field goes up at the first sign of anybody trying to do anything to her.

With a little work Sammy is able to get the wrapping away from her face.  It's windy, and there is plenty of light.  It doesn't take her long to realize that she's on the roof of a building.  she can see guy lines for antenna and the place has an erie glow from teh spot lights.  Six girls and a boy that seems somewhat familiar are not too far away.  the girls have formed a circle around the boy and they are chanting.

The time for caution has past.  It must be the witches.  She can't leave that boy in the middle of them; who knows what they have done to him, what they could be doing?

Like she did with the boy who was falling when the bees dropped him, she grabs this boy and hoists him out of the circle.

The witches continue to chant, and the boy stops chanting, "Is this supposed to happen, you didn't say anything about this."

The girls open their eyes and see the boy lifted off the ground.  Immediately their attention turns towards Sammy. 

"Call to him, call the spirit now."  One of the girls says.

The boy glances around, and closes his eyes "Meno, I call to thee, Meno I call to thee, Meno I call to thee."  There is a flash of lightning and a deafening clap of thunder.  The girls are instantly thrown to the ground.

OOC: Need Sammy to make a Reflex Save DC 18 to keep from being blinded by the flash.

OOC:
Maybe YOU ought to roll to see if the blindness is permanent!
reflex (1d20=1) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=982971)

Terrified that she might really be blind, Sammy screams.

Sammy feels the wind kick up fiercly, tossing things about and she raises her forcefield out of instinct as things begin to assail her.

Sammy hears a voice that seems to come out of the wind itself say something about 'comforted to know not all the children of the Djinn are gone from teh world'  but it's hard to make out.  then the voice speaks again, and it's perfectly clear.

'You have asked for this power.  Use it wisely, and remember that the world is a balance of events and motives.'

There is another boom like thunder, and the winds are gone.

Still blinded? A very frightened Sammy goes into full defensive mode, ready to lash out at anything that gets too close to her.  She can only assume the voice was talking to the girls in the circle, or to the boy calling for -- what was the name again?  Meno?  She struggles to be free of the rest of the wrappings that bind her.

Sammy manages to get the blankets off of her and after several blinks she can see blurry shapes and splotches of light.  There is some movement, but nothing coming towards her and the voices of the chanters is gone.

"Are you okay?"  the boy asks.  "What are you doing up here anyway?"

Sammy is still freaking out.  "Stay away from me!" Sammy gets her back up against anything solid, maybe the mounting frame for the antenna.  "Who are you?  I'm up here because you or somebody took me from my hospital room and brought me here, dammit!  What were you and those girls doing?"  Her voice is probably still a little rough sounding, and she's blinking furiously trying to clear her vision.

"They did what?"  As he spoke his voice rose in tone, and took on a rumble that was not altogehter comforting.  "YOU DID WHAT?"  The sound of his voice echos across the roof.

"Rob, it's not what you think.  We needed someone as a witness is all."  Sammy recognizes the voice, it's one of the witches.

"You didn't say anything about kidnapping some girl.  What the hell were you thinking?"

"Rob.  Relax.  She's not hurt, we'll take her back to the hospital right now if you want."

"You've done enough, don't you think."  When he speaks again his voice is much more controlled and softer, and closer.  "I can take you back to the hospital if you want."

"No!" Sammy's body language practically shouts Don't touch me, don't come any closer!

She forcibly wrestles herself into barely-contained fear and anger, but it is more controlled.  "You didn't know about them taking me, but I know about them.  I know exactly who they are.  I know their names.  I know where they live.  I know what they have done, not just to me, but to other people, and its bad enough to send them all to jail and to keep them from practicing their" she practically spits the word out " 'craft ' ever again.  If you're not lying, if you really don't know what they've been up to, then you'll help me make sure they don't hurt any more innocent people.  You'll call the police right now and put an end to it."  A strong breeze picks up on the roof, sending debris scattering around, and Sammy's hair starts fluttering with the air.  She has that 'angry goddess' demeanour that Colin requested for one of the photos he took.  "I'll do my best to protect you while you make that call."

"Rob."  The girl that's been doing the talking says, "She doesn't know what she's talking about.  She's one of them, you can't possibly trust her ove us.  Not after what we've helped you become."

"What do you mean, what have they done?"

"Rob, Donnie's been telling them all kinds of lies about us, saying we did.."

"SILIENCE."  His voice has a strange doppler effect to it, then is normal once again, "What have they done?"

Sammy looks him straight in the eye without flinching.  "Let's start with today.  They placed a charm, unasked for and unwanted, upon me and some other girls.  Aside from the minor annoyance of being talked up by anybody who was even remotely interested in any of us, this also resulted in a boy going crazy and gassing the room we were in just so he could get some time alone with one of the girls.  Another boy tried to force himself on one of the girls because of this charm.  These witches of yours kidnapped me from my hospital room; I was there because of the combination of being gassed and smoke inhalation from the smoke pots they set up at the high school.  Thinking there was a fire, I had gone back into the building to search for people who may have been trapped.  I pulled out a girl who had been struck over the head and left to die, and wound up going to the hospital, where they knew I'd be because we're pretty sure they did some sort of ritual to see the future a few weeks ago.  For that ritual, they used blood magic of some kind, and a friend of mine was the unwilling source of their blood.  He was assaulted, violated.  They have used their magic to get others to do their bidding, to attack students at the high school we all attend.  I'm telling you the things I am totally certain of, the things I know because they happened to me or I saw what happened to others.  She talked about Donnie; Donnie can tell you the rest of the things he knows or suspects, things I didn't see with my own eyes so I won't accuse them of it.  He has no reason to lie; had these girls not harmed others, he would have never stepped up against them, and I would never have helped him.  All I was asked to do was to help to bind them from harming others.  I'm not a bully.  I don't start fights.  I do finish them." 

She reaches out her hand towards him. 

"My offer stands.  If you want to bring them to justice, to make it so they don't harm anyone else with their abilities, you can stand by me, and I promise to do the best I can to protect you."

Its kind of drafty up here.

"No.  I'll be alright.  We should get you down from here though.  If you were in the hospital, I should call someone."

"Rob.  You beleive what you want to, we're going to go.  We did what we promised, you have what you wanted.  You have to believe what you want."

"Yes, I need an ambulance.  There is a girl here who was taken from the hospital.  Oh, it's the roof of the Blackstone Building.  Please hurry."  Sammy can here a door open and close a few seconds later.  The blurs are starting to get more detail, but still not enough to make anything out clearly.  "They'll send someone soon.  You should stay still so you don't fall off the edge of the roof, we're pretty high up."

Sammy smiles grimly.  "I'm not afraid of heights.  I won't fall, I promise.  Even if I do it accidentally, I'll be okay."  Her voice takes on an urgent tone.  "But you...  don't you fall.  Don't let them get away with this.  You can take the easy way out and cover for them, or you can stand up, take the hard way, and fight against them.  I... I can't really see anything very well right now.  I can't easily follow on my own, can't easily fight them by myself.  But I'll try, because what they've done is wrong, at least some of it, and they need to be stopped.  Please!  Your name is Rob?  Please, Rob.  Don't run away with them because they did something for you and you feel like you owe them.  Its not worth the price you'll pay, and you'll be paying the wrong people.  Stay with me, help me to fight them, and you'll start to make up for what they did.  Please, Rob...  my name is Sammy, Samantha Jameson.  Stand with me, Rob.  Don't let them own you.  Don't let them win!"

"Don't worry Samantha, they're not going anywhere.  If they've done what you said, then they'll pay for it."

"I'll take that as a promise.  You will make them pay, or I will.  But they will pay."  She relaxes her posture just a little bit.  "I'm afraid for you.  I don't know what they did for you, or why, or what this is alll really about, but remember me if you need help stopping them from hurting someone else.  I'll do what I can."  She turns her head so that her glance is pointed away from him.  "If you're going, you'd better go now.  The police will be here soon.  Be careful, Rob.  If I meet you again, I hope its as my friend and not my enemy.  I'd hate to find out that I trusted you when I shouldn't have."

Sammy's vision is almost clear.  More details caqn be made out, and it's certainly clear enough to realize that the boy vanishes in a swirl of light.

A few minutes later some paramedics and a police officer arrive.  The cop tells Sammy that her folks will be happy to find out she's okay.  After the paramedics check her over for injuries they take her back to the hospital.

Sammy asks for someone from the Chicago PCD to go to that rooftop to look for evidence of a ritual.  She wants to let them know that the witches kidnapped her to 'witness' something that happened up there.  Then she asks someone to call her parents to let them know she's all right.

The police on the scene are more then happy to make the calls.  It's probably less then thirty minutes later Sammy is back in her hospital room with her family there.

Sammy appeals directly to whichever of her parents has gone the most ballistic over this event.  "I want to go home," she says, "It's not like this place is any safer than there, and I'll be able to rest a whole lot better in my own room.  You can take me to see a doctor in the morning if somebody needs to look me over.  While you take care of telling them I'm checking out of their security nightmare of a hospital, I'm going to talk to Elrod, because I need him to call somebody for me.  I don't have anybody's number memorized and I need to warn somebody about something."  She's just a wee bit grumpy, and doesn't wait for them to try to persuade her to stay put.  She grabs the phone by the side of her bed and calls Elrod, the one number she does know.

"Hey.  Its me.  I'm back at Gottlieb, but I'm trying to get my parents to bust me out of here.  I need you to find Donnie for me, right now.  Will you do that?"

"As long as you promise to stop giving me heart attacks.  I can get his number from Dave.  Why am I finding him?"

"I know more about the witches.  They have someone with them.  I don't know for sure what he is, but he might be on our side.  Maybe.  Donnie or maybe Colin might be able to figure it out.  What?  Hold on a second El--"

Her hand goes over the mouthpiece of the phone and slightly muffles the words "What do you mean my clothes are at home, getting washed?  They smelled like smoke... OK, fine, I'll go naked if I have to, just give me a blanket.  I don't care.  I want out of here."

Sammy's attention returns to the phone.  "You still there?  Or am I giving you another heart attack?"

"I'll reserve comment until you're better.  You need cloths, that's done too.  I'll be there in ten minutes."

"OK.  I'll probably still be here.  What?  No, I do not want something to relax me.  Yes, I do see the nice security guard in the hallway.  I don't care.  I. Want. To. Leave.  NOW.  Got it?  Sorry about that El.  See you soon."

Shortly after the call, Colin and Sarah arrive in Sammy's room.

Colin pants slightly, as if they ran to get there, and his eyes have a distant shimmer to them, as he takes a concerned look at his friend.

"Sammy! Are you fine? What did they do to you? Elrod is parking, he'll be here in a minute."

He takes some breath as he steps forward to take her hand.

"What happened?"

Sammy squeezes Colin's hand.  "I'm okay.  Somebody gave me something to make me sleep very deeply, and the witches kidnapped me from here.  They rolled me up in some blankets so I couldn't move around, and took me to the roof of a building, the Blackstone Building.  When I woke up, I could hear some girls and a boy talking, practicing something.  Then they started chanting.  I wiggled out of the blankets enough to see what was going on.  The boy was in the middle of the witches circle -- I recognized the voices.  I tried to break him free of it by lifting him up, but then he said some words, and there was a bright flash of light, and I heard other voices in the wind,  voices that said some strange things about children of the djinn and wisely using what you ask to receive.  It didn't make too much sense to me, maybe it will make more sense later."

She pauses to take a breath, then continues.  "Anyhow, he came over to see if I was all right, and got upset when he found out what they had done to me.  I told him what they had done to others, asked him to call the police.  I couldn't see very well because of the flash; it blinded me, and I didn't think I could fight, but I thought I could defend him while he called for the law.  Then... it was strange, he said that if they had really done what I accused them of doing, that they would pay.  I got the feeling that he was the one to make them do it, but I don't know for sure.  Then he called the police to get help for me.  The girls ran away, and he vanished in a spiral of light."  She thinks for a moment.  "I believe I've seen him before, but I don't know when or where.  The witches called him Rob.  He didn't seem like a bad person, but he was with them, so I don't know what to think."

"Rob?!" He looks back at Sarah. Rob is a friend of her, and this is not good news.

I should have talked with him yesterday. Now what have they done to him again? I'm just a stupid snotty kid! I can't allow fear to control me!

A look of guilt and anger paints on his face.

"Sammy, Rob is the guy that at the party... He was the one that had the snake spirit within. The witches summoned that spirit in him, and now they did something else... I don't know."

Blackbird, can you tell me anything about the Djinn?

OOC: Does Colin's sight pick up anything funny from Sammy?

They are the people of the air.  One of the long forgotten magical races of this world.


OOC: Nothing it didn't see before.

Elrod arrives a few moments later with some bags.  "I come bearing cloths."  he says, dropping them on Sammy's lap.  It's a pair of sweats with the hospital logo and a pair of canvas tennis shoes obviously from the gift shop.  "Begger's can't be choosers." he says.  "And I do not want to hear anything about me thinking your fat.  Sweats come in one size fits everyone.  At once."

Sammy falls back quite suddenly against the pillows on her bed.  She looks pale.  "I let him go.  I felt I could trust him to take care of the problem.  I offered to protect him from them, and he wouldn't take it.  What have I done?  I'm afraid for him, Colin."  She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, then opens them again.  "The words.  He called on someone or something called Meno.  I don't know what that means.  Does that help?  Would Donnie know?"



In spite of everything else that is happening, Sammy finds a smile for Elrod.  "I'm not Lisa, boyfriend.  Thank you.  These will be fine.  Though you should close the bed curtain so your heart doesn't stop.  Then again, we're in a hospital, so your survival odds are pretty good unless my daddy catches you looking.  But right now he and mom are out in the hallway having a discussion, so you might just get away with it.  Its up to you.  Either way, close the curtain.  I want to get dressed."

"Better not to burn any bridges I might have built with dad."  He says, pulling the curtain and going into the hall.

"Sammy, you couldn't see, and couldn't do anything about it. We'll try to find what happened, and help him, if help is what he needs. I'll call Donnie and tell him about it."

Colin leaves the room so Sammy can change.

I have to ask. This Meno means anything to you?

As the blackbird answers (or not), Colin dials Donnie's number.

"Donnie?" he hears the wind roaring "Donnie can you hear me?"

Sarah talks to Sammy through the curtain, "So Rob... if it's.. well my Rob.. well used to be my Rob.. not that he was... uh.. I just can't believe Rob is doing this.  I mean.. is he letting them summon things into him like some sort of paranormal  cookie jar?"  She paces across the room and back before plopping into a chair.  "I can't believe it.  Are you really okay Sammy?"

Sammy pulls the curtain aside.  It doesn't take long to put on sweats.  "I've had better days, but I think I'm okay.  Other than drug me and kidnap me, I don't think the witches did anything else.  When Rob got angry at them for kidnapping me, one of the witches said something about them needing a witness.  I don't know what that means either.  All I know is that he seemed okay after, and he treated me well."   She nervously twists a corner of the bedsheet.  "The only good thing about today is the way El came through for me.  Otherwise I'd just as soon forget it.  Why were you guys with him anyhow?"

"A little bird showed us the way," quips Sarah.  "No really.  We followed Colin's bird and Elrod pulled up.  We wanted to get here and make sure you were still in one piece.  You've had one awful day.  I have to admit I'm pretty confused about what happened today.  What the heck were the witches up to?  Was their whole plan just to summon an entity into Rob?"

"I don't know what they're doing, or why Rob is mixed up with them, or why the hell they needed me to witness anything.  He seems to have some sort of magic or powers though; maybe he was wishing to be special?  They seemed to be trying to convince him that Donnie is spreading lies about them, so it seems like it has to be something magical.  He was your friend?  I'm sorry.  He seems like he's still a decent guy; he still might have a chance, if he can be pulled away from them."

"Hold on a second -- I don't feel like repeating myself too much.  I'm going to let the guys know its okay to come in."  She calls out into the hall.

He is one of the old world spirits.  An entity formed or magic and shaped by the will of humanity.  Think of him as a personification of an emotion.  The world created him and the people's of the world shape him with their collective subconscious.  He is neither good nor evil, and his gifts are bestowed for free, but then the user is judged from time to time to see if they are worthy of them.

Sammy's voice can be heard from the hallway.  "All clear.  Its safe to come in."

Colin comes back in, keeping his phone near his ear but not talking in it.

"Donnie and Sylvia are at the Blackstone Building now. Do you remember anything that could help them find the witches or Rob?"

Sammy replies, "They told Rob that I was taken because they needed me to be a 'witness' to what they did.  Maybe there's a mark on me, or some sort of magical tie to him since it all pretty much just happened?  Oh, and they left through doors on the rooftop, but he disappeared in a swirl of light.  He was also the one to call the police to come and help me, so maybe they can do the 911 locator thing with his mobile?  Does that help?"

"I guess that surely helps, Sam. Sarah, Rob had his cellphone with him on the roof, and he probably still has. Have either you or Dave got his number?"

Sarah nods, "I think I must still have it in my call list if he hasn't changed it."  She thinks about it as she digs out her phone.  "I haven't called him in months.  All this stuff started happening and I dropped him like a rock with no excuse.  I'm such a jerk.  Then after the first possession thing Dave said he didn't want anything to do with us anymore so I let it slide.  I gave him his space and now he's working with or helping or.. who knows what with the witches.  I haven't had a conversation or just played a game or watched a movie with him since the week before the attack at the lab."

Sammy winces in sympathy.  She has also been feeling guilty about not spending as much time with her band buddies as she used to do.

"Do you want some privacy when you call him?" she asks.  "I can go out to the hallway."

"Call him?  I don't have any idea what to say to him."  Sarah holds her phone to her ear and says, "Hey Rob, how's it going?  Great!  Listen I hear you've been letting yourself be a vessel for supernatural powers and consorting with witches... want to go shoot some pool and talk about it?"

She shrugs and looks at Sammy, "Seriously I don't even know where to start a conversation with him."

"How about you tell him that your friend Samantha is worried about him and wants to make sure he's okay?  You can hand the phone over to me if you want, but he's your friend.  At least he was.  You owe it to him to at least try to get through to him."

Sarah nods, "Okay, I'll try but I don't even know if he'll take my call."

She digs through her call list and finds Rob's number and hits send.  It rings...

The phone rings three, then four times and then Rob answers it, "Hey Sarah, what's up?"  he sounds like he just woke up.

Sarah smiles despite her worry.  It sounded like the old Rob on the phone.  "Hey sleepy... I was just calling to say thank you for helping Sammy out."

"huh?, oh.  Yeah, no problem.  She's okay then?"

"She's good.  In fact Sammy wanted to make sure you were okay.  She's right here if she can talk to you?  Oh and listen, you sound pretty sleepy so I wont keep you on but can you call me later when your awake?  Anyway, here's Sammy,"  says Sarah and she hands the phone over. 

Sammy's eyes go wide.  What are you handing the phone to me for?  I only said I'd talk to him because it would make you call... geez!

Sammy takes a breath, then takes the phone.  "Hey.  I just wanted to say thank you again for helping me to get back to where I belonged.  My family was really worried.  Is, um, everything okay with you?"

"Yeah."  he yawns, "I'm good.  Nice to hear you're okay, and I'm sorry about earlier.  I didn't realize they were going to maken you come up there."

"Oh."  Sammy is silent for a second, then tentatively continues.  "Have they been stopped?  They can't be allowed to keep hurting people, Rob.  I don't know why they chose me to be their witness, either, but now I'm personally tangled up in this mess and I can't just ignore it." 

"I'm sure they'll get what's coming to them.  You should get some rest.  It's good to know you're okay.  Good night."  He yawns again and hangs up the phone.

Sammy glares at the phone in her hand.  "The sonuvabitch hung up on me!  He rolled over and went to sleep!"  Mimicking him,  she says " 'I'm sure they'll get what's coming to them.  Good night.' Gah!" She gives the phone back to Sarah.

Sarah takes the phone back and shrugs.  "I'm really getting the feeling that we're just in a dark room with an elephant."  She realizes that maybe that's not the clearest explanation. 

"I mean, maybe there is a lot more to what's going on with the witches than we know.  Maybe they're not just greedy little bwitches."

Grumpy Sammy replies, "What, you mean like they might be doing all the wrong things for all the right reasons?  Wrong is still wrong."

"I know... I just wish I knew what was going on," offers Sarah. 

She drops her phone in her pocket. 

Sammy sighs heavily.  "Me too."