Hotel Selten

Canine Mess

“I’m pretty sure they don’t know us, right?”

Miss Eve sighs, “Remember that incident in Gerstheim? People there might be looking for us too. They are already familiar with Thilda and she was exposed too. With these information, they are going to complete the puzzle and discover us. Or at least not exactly us but our existence.” The lady just held her cheek with her hand in frustration. “The humans are already aware something magical is happening. I mean, some are since before but this is too much. Too much exposure is bad news for us. A little bit is okay but this is too much. ” 

“Isn’t that good for us? I mean, they will get sidetracked.” Ophelia reasoned, “This spider incident will get them busy for days.” The others nod as the lady thinks, “But we still need to be alert, the others might be focusing on who defeated those anthro-arachnids. Besides, they might have footages of those. I don't know how much humanity's technology has evolved. In every angle of this situation, we are in the verge of getting screwed." She took a deep breath and sigh, "Anyway, we need to go to that cathedral right away.”

“Do you remember anything about the location of the cathedral?” Thilda looks at Hibi, “Well, I just know how the cathedral looks like.” She groaned, “I think we need to ask somebody.” She looked at Ophelia, as the brunette girl noticed her staring, she sighs. “Fine. I am not good at talking. I am awkward at starting conversations. I’m just gonna ask, right? That's all?” Thilda nods, "Yes, just ask, it's not something hard to do." Ophelia opens her mouth, about to say something. But, she shrugged it and gives up. She stands as she opens the door a bit, the rays of sun touches her skin. She closed the door immediately and look for anyone to ask where the cathedral is. 

She looks and walks around as people start to walk to the sidewalk, it seems they are going with their daily business. She searches for who seems nice to talk with and hopes she find someone who can understand English. She approached a lady, “Hey, uhm, hello miss.” She said awkwardly. Her voice is making it more awkward than it should be. The lady looks at her, which seems to wait for what she wants to say. “Do you know any cathedral here of some sort?” She blinks as she saw in a second a horrible figure she doesn’t want to see again. She blinks again as everything seems normal. It might be a side effect of these sudden culture shock that she's in. She shook her head, “Uhm, miss? Can you understand me?”

The lady is still smiling at her, which made her uncomfortable every single second that has passed. She decided to make gestures, “Is… There… Any… Cathedral… Here…?” She moves her hand implying she is finding a cathedral. She blinks again as she saw that figure again, it was a black beast with fangs and a drooling mouth. She blinks several times and shook her head for the second time. Everything seems to be normal. “I guess you don’t really understand a thing. I am sorry for disturbing you, thank you.” She said as she was gonna awkwardly walk away.

She was stopped when she was held by the lady, now transforming what she really was. She was like a big wolf, Ophelia screamed as she tried to struggle away from the monster’s grip. People were disturbed by her scream as they were terrified by the scene. Some screamed too and ran away. A loud bang conquered all of the screamings as the big monster wolf look behind its back. Ophelia notices a French policeman trying to seize them. He didn’t hesitate to shot it again, the monster ran towards him as Ophelia just stood frozen, she looks at her already reddish arm. Other consecutive shots can be heard again as the monster fall on its face. The police shot it one more time on its head to make sure it's already dead. 

“Est-ce que Tu vas bien?” The police approached her, she looked at her confused which the policeman realized. “Anglais? Allemand? D'où êtes-vous? Êtes-vous un touriste?” Ophelia rubs her aching arm, “If you are saying I am a tourist, I guess I am.” The police chuckles, “Oh! You understand English, I am sorry. What I am saying is if you are fine and I asked earlier if you are an English speaker and where are you from.”

“I am fine… I just have an aching arm from being squeezed so much, I am from Germany.” The officer looks at her left arm which is already reddish, “I am happy to help, where did you even fi—” He was cut as another roar emerges which alerted the police. Another beast appeared as it throws the people and things away from its sight. It came from the restaurant, it seems it was disguised as a human too. 

The police fire his g*n again at the monster, Ophelia finds any water source. She gives up pretending that she is just normal, she starts to levitate water from a drum as others watch in fear, they were all confused. She controlled it and puts all the water on the head of the beast, making it drown. It was struggling and kept removing the water out its face to breathe, but it can’t.

The policeman watches it as he looks at Ophelia. He can see that she was focused and one of her arms is extended and pointing where the beast was. He was just frozen and can’t even shoot anymore. 

Behind the scene, Thilda was watching her, “What is she doing!? Why is she showcasing her powers!?” She was nervous, many are watching. She was looking around the people’s faces, they were terrified, amazed, and all other emotions. Another set of beast emerged as Adam commented, “Then, we should join her.” He charged as the others follow, Thilda was a bit hesitating as she follows them. 

They started attacking as the attention of others went to them. It was a scene you can only see in movies. They were fighting them with their abilities which only exist in fantasy books. They want to go out of this mess and go to safety, some chose to stay to watch or even record this event that can only happen in a century, or even it’s the first time. 

The beast kept coming, they were many just hiding from the crowd of people. After the anthro-arachnids, they are facing some werewolves of some type. Ophelia pants and rest for a bit as the others took care of the incoming monsters. She focused as she extends both of her arms, picking a lot of water. The others kept the beasts from attacking her so that she could pull the stunt she is planning to do, whatever it is. 

“Set aside.” With only those two words, the other stand behind her as she released the big wave to the beast up coming to them. With the waves, the beasts were pushed backward. They bump their heads and back to a concrete wall, stunning for them a bit. The others start attacking them while they are still reverting back to reality. They slashed, suffocate, stump, or any other ways they can do to end them. 

Ophelia takes back the water to her as she looks around. The other people are running, she was suspicious about it as she ran after them with the water elegantly follows her. She kept following them, they seem scared. “Hey, Ophelia! Why are you running after them!?” Peony said as she kept up with her, Ophelia looks at her, “They are suspicious, we need to seize them.” 

“Hey, take my seeds to them.” Peony drops some of her seed as Ophelia nods. The water swipes them away as it carries the seed to its stream and splashes it to the escaping people. The seed grows into vines and its roots pierced through their skins. It invades their body and squeezed their hearts to death. They stopped and look at their dead bodies, Ophelia checks their mouth and they have fangs. She also noticed some of them have hairy napes.

Meanwhile, the media already entered the scene back where the original battlefield was. “We can see here some bodies of werewolves! Yes, people, they seem like werewolves! With their hairy body and head of a wolf, it seems like our fantasies slowly coming true!” Said a female reporter, facing the camera. 

“I am Almon, reporting for duty, another magical incident happened in Strasbourg again. First, we have those humanoid spiders, now we have humanoid wolves! Wolverine’s cousins seem to pay us a visit today, it created whole havoc in this street and a lot of people were so concerned about their lives and everything! It was wild!” 

“What’s your name lady?” Asked another male reporter. “I am Jess,” The interviewee introduced. “So, what happened here? Can you give us your perspective of what in the world took place here?” He pointed the mic on her mouth, “Yes, yes. I was just getting my breakfast when of all the sudden a girl screamed, the police helped her taking down the first beast which just appeared.” “So, there was the first batch?” He chuckled. “Well, honestly yes, that was the first showdown. Then, another one emerges, they were some disguised monsters, I honestly was scared because one of these people near my table could be one! I thought of going away, but when I saw the brunette girl controlling water like the Avatar, I was frozen in place. I thought it was just a dream, I tried to pinch myself and everything. Then everything just played in front of my eyes like in the movies!” “That was a thrilling experience.” 

“Earlier this day, a great fight was taken place, right here. People have taken some video and recorded the whole event, watch this everyone.”

It seems every media that can go to Strasbourg in minutes was here. They were all tackling about what happened, interviewing some witnesses, and even finding the fighters. Thilda and others already hid themselves to not to expose them more. 

“If only Ophelia didn’t show herself, we wouldn’t be dealing with this.” Thilda groans. “Hey, stop making it a big problem, they will forget it anyway. The real problem here is where these are coming from and we must put a stop to it.” Arabella said as she pants. “She’s right, we shouldn’t blame each other, we should blame who kept sending this army of weird things,” Adam commented.

“We should find the cathedral right away, that is where the lair of that crazy-a*s doctor,” Thilda said as she looks around. “Where are Ophelia and Peony?” She looks at them as they all shrugged. “They suddenly just popped out of existence. If they were captured, they should have screamed or something.”

Speaking of them, they were looking at the tall building in the distance. “It seems it’s the cathedral, Ophelia!” Peony said as she looks at her, “Let’s take a look!” Ophelia nods as they ran inside the circle of small facilities. They saw the huge architecture with its gleaming bronze walls. “It seems this is it! It looks old enough to be a cathedral!”

Ophelia was fascinated too, it was so oddly beautiful. Of all places, why did the doctor chose this beautiful church? It seems he is too crazy to even invade a holy place. Well, it's the last place you will think that he will build a facility underground. 

She looks at the people and was planning to ask if this is the cathedral, but she was already traumatized earlier. “Hey Peony, can you confirm it to the others?” She looks at her as she enthusiastically nods as if something didn’t happen. “Sure!” She approached a bystander, “Hello, mister! Is this a Cathedral!?” The man nods, Peony gave him thanks as she comes back to her. “The man over there said yes. So we finally found it!” 

“Let’s check it.” They approached the cathedral and went inside. They saw some cool ancient paintings, “I guess this is what my art professor is blabbering about.” They explored the cathedral. “This seems legit!” They are starting to enjoy it. Ophelia was looking at some cool stuff in the walls, she felt someone on her back. “Isn’t this cool?” It was weird when no one answered her, “Peony?” 

“They seem gone here, I saw some seeds of Peony here.” Bennet shows them some unused seeds of Peony. They followed their tracks and found the cathedral. They went in, hoping they are just there. Thilda saw Ophelia was being taken away, “Hey!” She shouted as she runs after the one who took them, they followed them to the secret entrance. 

“I have been waiting for you.”