Nine Swords

Ayiti's

Sometimes, it's good to get away from it all. The rush, the missions. It all seems to happen so fast. I almost feel like I just woke up from that awful nightmare, just there on the edge of thought, only to realize it wasn't a dream. The bee was real, the nightmare.....real. One story ending,a new one beginning.

Maybe that's why I like hanging out at Ayiti's. It sure isn't the coffee. Of course there could be other reasons. Before the Templers I would have screamed how insane Darkside is. Now, I guess it's normal. I do like my window seat, never reserved, but always seems empty waiting just for me. My window to the strange world I live in. The food isn't so bad. I always loved a little Creole from my time spent in the southern US. Mid Atlantic myself, always loved to travel though.

Or maybe it is because Mama Abena loves to chat. About the Old World. But this is the old world, isn't it? Maybe when she talks about the old world she means Haiti? Maybe she means the ancient wars that still rage today. Who knows. I just love to listen while I drink coffee and eat my dinner. It also doesn't hurt they let my cat in and sit at my table. Has to be some health codes being broken there, but TJ goes everywhere with me. I think I come here really though just to get away from that world, The secret one, no on talks about, but everyone knows exist. This is the perfect escape from Temple Hall. Such a different atmosphere. Laid back, quiet.

I guess since all this craziness has started I just need to write it down. The Templers did give me a fine PDA here, might as well use it. Not like anyone will ever see this. And maybe writing down my adventures will help keep my sanity. I mean, if you told me 2 weeks ago zombies were real and rampaging across Maine, I would have laughed at you until you left ashamed. Now, if I lost this someone would think I were working on some sort of novel. Jokes on them ain't it. Maine.......well I guess that's a story for another time.

There is the Cabal to. Another day, another story. Good group of people. I am still new. Still the "outsider" looking in. Takes time to earn trust, and there will be opportunities for that I am sure. You can't expect to join a unit and not have to work your way up. At least knowing I am not going through this alone. Well, there is that.

So in the end from time to time, I guess I will be coming to Ayiti's, were the food is decent, the coffee rancid, but the entertainment never ending. My window to a different world. That's where you will find me.

Ayiti's, a place to ramble......

TJ

As I sit here in Ayiti's, slurping down some Creole, I can't help but think about my first adventures as one of the Templers. TJ, my cat lazes on the table across from me. Once in awhile he swats at a fly, then sleepily yawns, quietly dozing back off. He was with me on that trip. Lots of people say I am crazy for bringing a cat along on my missions. I think it is the only sane thing I do. He doesn't need protecting, and if anything he protects me from the silent spirits. That's what I call the ones you never see until it's to late.

You see, I have come to accept that there are things, places, dark and mysterious. Places of power. One such place, a long abandoned mine, called Blue Ridge Mine. I was looking for a way to stop the fog. Not a natural fog, but thick and full of evil. Only real way to describe it. In this mine, it was as all mines are I guess, and that is to say dark. Luckily I found a helmet with a lamp just inside, sitting in the arms of a long dead miner. He was holding it as if he were keeping it ready just for my use. As if he knew I was coming into the dark.

Before, I would have thought that idea strange. How could a long dead miner know I was entering the mines. Now I believe that fate moves the world. I like to think as he passed he thought, someone will be coming here to avenge me, to right the wrongs of this foul place. I will be waiting for him and whisper the secrets of the dark to him as he enters. In this place were creatures that had never seen light. And it was when I ran into these creatures that I needed light the most. Almost sounds like a bad horror novel come to life, because just as the fighting was getting thickest the light failed me. It left me in the dark.

Obviously I survived if I am here to tell the tale. When the lights went out it was TJ that led me to a gun. Not just any gun, but a flare gun. And it proved most useful against the spirits that inhabited the mines. Whenever I fired a flare it blinded them just long enough for me to send them to their final resting spot.

So, as I sit here and tell my tell. Hold on...........Had to order another bowl of gumbo. I really can't get enough of this stuff. Anyhow, TJ will continue to keep me company on missions. Somehow, it just feels right having him there.