#Lore24 – Entry #292 – Sentinel City by Night #18 – Humane Treatment
From the Journal of Sheba O’Rourke, Private Investigator
“Well, think Sokolova’s anger has finally been cooled. When the news came out about Emmerson’s mental break, complete with multiple videos of her attacking people at the steakhouse while raving like a madwoman, it didn’t take much of a push from Sokolova for the media to distance themselves from her. Her own paper issued retractions and apologies for running her stories, the editor-in-chief who had approved them even stepped down. I’d scrubbed everything I could from Emmerson’s home and office systems, made the trail as hard to follow as I could, but kept what I needed to try and locate her source. Couldn’t find any information about who had clued her in on the backdoor, though.
An eventful few days for sure.
Reckon they’d taken Emmerson to the Edgewater Mental Hospital. Called up Misha Kyle, got her to set me up with a meeting with Jennifer Tempest regarding Emmerson. Not real sure why. Maybe I’m feeling guilty? Maybe I just wanted to be sure? I don’t know. Whatever the reason, I just felt the need to follow up on the matter. Clear my mind of lingering doubts, maybe.
Tempest was pretty much what I’d expected at first, a no-nonsense type, real strict on keeping her facility in order. She was agreeable to me seeing Emmerson, but not face to face. Fine. We talked little as she lead me through her facility; was certainly more modern than the hospitals I’d visited around San Diego, but had that run-down feel that came with a certain amount of age, use, and lack of funding. Emmerson was safely tucked away in the maximum-security area on the top floor, in a drug-induced stupor, sitting in the corner of a padded cell, straitjacket and other restraints secure; they’d even had to gag her to keep her from biting off her own tongue.
After I’d had my look, I turned to see Tempest glaring at me. She’d wanted to know if I felt good about what I’d done to Emmerson. Couldn’t say I’d felt good about it, but I didn’t feel bad, either. Some things just had to be done, especially when she was endangering the entire Sentinel City Kindred community. Don’t know why exactly, but I decided to explain to her what I’d originally intended to do, but things had gone sideways.
I’d sensed something in the air then, that sixth sense I’d developed regarding the supernatural, and took a look at Tempest’s aura, saw a swirling mess of randomness I couldn’t focus on. Knew what that meant. Needless to say, she wasn’t from around here, was from somewhere I would never have expected. I’d only ever seen one or two of her kind before. Demon. Fallen. Whatever they called themselves. We stared at one another long enough for it to get uncomfortable. She broke the silence, said that now that we understood each other, she’d see to it that Emmerson recovered, however long it took, and though she didn’t care for the method I’d used, at least I’d given the woman a chance to redeem herself, hadn’t killed her outright like many of my kind would have done.
As she walked me out of the psych ward, she told me to visit the Light’s Hope Chapel and see the preacher if I was feeling particularly guilty about my choices in life or unlife. Said it would be an enlightening experience, attending one of the preacher’s sermons, even if her faith might not have been in exactly the right place. Said it might do me some good to unburden myself of my sins. Wasn’t sure what that meant; wasn’t particularly bothered by then if I’m being honest, well, mostly. I was already damned, so what would it matter, anyway?
Still, can’t say she hadn’t piqued my curiosity about this mysterious preacher, Ankara Ausar. Reckon she was of my clan too, was close to Sokolova, even had her own mortal following. Maybe I should look into visiting her before long, see what she was all about.
Later, though. Had to follow up with Blumenthal about this drug; reckon he’s gotten the results back from the lab.”