Thread: The Alembic (SinfullyDelicious & Echoplex)

Benjamin Wells was spending his Friday afternoon like any other PhD grad student would. He was downtown in an old antique store, browsing for anything that might have to do with the ancient Occult. Ever since he was a child, Ben had been fascinated with stories of demons and hell. Every culture had their own unique take on it, but Ben thought he saw patterns that most people overlooked. Sure most of the legends had to be false, but there were so many similarities that Ben thought that some of it had to be real. So he studied hard, graduating top of his class in high school, going to a prestigious university, and staying in that university all the way through grad school. Along the way he learned a few ancient languages, and he had spent the past three years discovering the remnants of an ancient script that he believed was used by one of the first demonic worshiping cults that ever existed. That is why he was here in this old antique shop, with a notepad full of ancient symbols that he kept referring back to whenever he saw something that looked promising. Last week his professor had seen Ben's notebook and said he recognized one of the symbols from an item in an antique shop in town. So Ben had spent the rest of the week going to every singly antique shop, and it turned out that there were a lot of them. Yet as he reached the back of the shop, Ben knew that this had to be the right place. This shop had some of the oldest goods, and in the corner at the back of the room, at the very bottom shelf, Ben found it. What he found was a perfect square box. It carvings and lines running all over the box, and as Ben picked it up he could feel the pieces of the box move...it was a puzzle box. Ben brought the box to his face, and there in the top right square of the box was the symbol for demon. It was a simple symbol, an old carving of fire with what looked like an early form of an Egyptian hieroglyph inside of the fire. This had to be it. Ben contained his excitement, straightening up and walking over to the counter to ask the old woman behind it how much this box would cost him. The woman stared at it for the longest time, admitting that she barely remembered obtaining it in the first place. So Ben offered her 100, a price she said was more than reasonable as she snatched the cash before he could change his mind. The two beamed at each other, clearly thinking they had gotten the better deal. Now with the cube safely in his hand he gave the sides of the cube a little spin before stuffing the cube into his jacket pocket. He had not dressed himself this morning thinking he was going to the bar, but that is where he found himself going right now. He was wearing his favorite clothes. A pair of old jeans and a soft white t-shirt with a black Stark Direwolf on it. Over that he had on his leather jacket that now held his cube safely in his right pocket. With his right hand in his pocket he found himself continuing to spin and try and work the cube as he walked. His left hand held onto his cellphone as he text a few classmates to invite them out to drink with him. He let his classmates know that he had made a big discovery, and that the first round was on him. Only three of them showed up, so when he held up the puzzle box for the small crowd to see, they were unimpressed. He sighed, his classmates all were interested in ancient history, but none of them believed in the occult like he did. That didn't matter, the group still was here to celebrate with him, and they spent the next few hours talking about their research and spent turns bragging about how close they were to publishing their thesis. While his colleagues focused on their drinks Ben kept spinning the sides of his puzzle box, trying to find a way to open it up and see what was inside. After playing with it for an hour, and after more than a few beers, his focus was a bit lacking. So he didn't see the symbol that he had first noticed light up after he flicked a part of the puzzle into a new place. He never noticed that he sent out a signal straight to hell that warned all of the demons that someone was finally using the Alembic again. By the time they left the bar Ben's colleagues were completely wasted. Ben wasn't much better, but he thought of himself as tipsy and not drunk. The group stumbled out of the bar and down the street, losing a member every block or so until it was just Ben wandering down the streets of the city alone. When he looked up to see which street he was on he noticed something odd staring at him from across the street. At first he thought it was a dog, but that didn't make sense, because the thing was much bigger than a dog. It then stepped forward, and Ben had to take a step back. The thing was pitch black with flaming red eyes, it had the body the size of a grizzly bear with fangs like a Sabertooth. It opened its mouth to growl at him and Ben swore that he saw flames in its throat. Just because Ben was a nerd didn't mean he didn't know how to fight. He had taken martial arts ever since he entered high school. Ben tended to wear baggy clothes, and that was why no one would ever think that the man was actually quite fit under neath his jacket. He had a lithe strong body, but none of his training mattered now. All that mattered was how fast he could run, and he quickly bolted down the street away from the beast. The beast let out a huge roar and chased after him, gaining on him in seconds. Ben could feel the heat of its breath as it got closer, inch by inch, and Ben had to wonder if this was really going to be how it all ended.