Page 106 - Hunter the Vigil - Mortal Remains

THE RESPONSE

parachuted in to ensure just that. Families of laid-off employees Regardless, one thing is clear: when the Lucifuge encoun-
and relatives of the deceased have been making life very hard ter a mummy, these hunters put themselves at considerable risk
for the company at that facility, though, and the police have given the truth of their heritage.
been called in due to a few incidents in recent weeks.
For someone looking into the incident very carefully, inves- Malleus Maleficarum
tigating news of the Midwestern “incident”, they might notice What, then, my brothers and sisters in arms, can we say about
photos published by a local student on his Facebook page look those who will not die? How vile must they be that even the demons of
like something smashed its way out of the research facility. Said Hell will not welcome their souls amongst them?
pictures have since been removed. The student took them down We know these are not creatures of Heaven, for surely God would
himself after she was awarded a well-paid internship with one of welcome them into His grace. But they are not entirely of the Devil,
the Group’s subsidiary, where she now spends all her time. either, for He opens His doors and casts them back into the world.

The Lucifuge Truly, they are lost. There is no redemption for such as these, and
I wanted to update you on last week’s events before I report back God’s gaze is turned from them. Those who rebel might yet repent —
and we welcome those who do. But amongst the Undying, there can
to Milan. It was exactly the same situation that you described to me be no repentance, for God has abandoned them, and the Devil refused
last summer: a classic cult set-up, using a quasi-religious system beneath them. The Gates of Heaven are forever closed, and the maw of Hell
a business organization that promised networking and contacts. spews them forth, unfit for the company of even the most abject and
We went in and dug deep until we found the heart of this rot, fully unrepentant sinner.
expecting it to be one of our less repentant siblings. And, like you, we These creatures have no home in Our Lord’s Creation. They are
found something else. trapped in an eternal, earthly limbo, and it is our sacred and righteous
I’m still not sure how to characterize what happened next, but the duty to prevent them from harming others while they exist in this
cult seems to be disbanded. Whatever was leading them has dropped twilight state between the Saved and the Damned.
from sight. Did you see any evidence that it might be the other side at Let us pray.
play? The Shadow Congregation has a hard time wrapping its
Throughout their long history, the Lucifuge have taken mind around mummies. Oh, they have some knowledge of
cults and cultists as a red flag for finding one of their own too the creatures that won’t stay dead. After all, both groups have
late. They were a sure sign that a child of Lucifer was at work, been around long enough for that to have occurred. The trou-
reveling in his heritage, and that they needed to be put down. ble with mummies, however, is that they’re unsettling. To the
It’s clear now that they occasionally encounter a different super- Malleus Maleficarum, these creatures don’t fit into their theol-
natural entity, one they have yet to classify. Despite the powers ogy. To explain a mummy’s existence, members must perform
that hell grants them, precious few have survived an encounter theological gymnastics to justify how and why these creatures fit
to describe what happened in detail. Those who did either walk into God’s creation. Those leaps of judgment leave little gaps
away assuming they’d encountered the work of Angels or specu- in faith, holes through which doubt worms its way in. This ex-
late that what they faced was, in fact, a much, much older child ercise can be deadly for any hunter, but worse for those who
of Lucifer than any they’d encountered before. belong to the Malleus Maleficarum: members can’t afford to
Such incidents are on the rise, yet only a few Lucifuge are hesitate when they’re facing down a creature from Hell.
aware of this. It’s also questionable as to whether or not the The mummies are — and continue to be — a profound chal-
Lady is aware of what’s happening to her charges. Within the lenge to the Congregation’s worldview. Thankfully, they’re en-
Lucifuge, members worry that it can take a long time for mes- countered infrequently enough that this conundrum isn’t a serious
sages to reach Milan, given the way members are spread out problem. Thus, the response to them, provided a mummy is cor-
across the globe. Some older members still refuse to use the rectly identified and located, varies widely within this conspiracy.
internet for security concerns. If the Lady has any response The Order of Saint Longinus, for example, might claim
to this increase in encounters, she has yet to say anything of- little or no knowledge of such creatures. They’ve had more en-
ficial. counters with them than they realize, but they’ve almost always
Precious few within The Truth may make comparisons be- treated them as they would a vampire or a zombie. To them
tween the returning cult leaders and their own patroness, the mummies are either a distraction or a slightly harder challenge
Lucifuge herself. Could the Lucifuge be just another cult? Is the whenever their cultists are involved. The Brotherhood of Saint
Lady deathless? It’s rumored that some amongst The Reconcili- Athanasius, on the other hand, may take a perverse joy in put-
ation may have dropped from contact entirely since they had ting down the same creature again and again.
an encounter with these cults. The natural assumption is that Conversely, some amongst the Order of Saint Ambrose
they didn’t survive, but some of the missing Lucifuge have been may find themselves deeply troubled by what they see. The cy-
spotted alive and active. clical pattern of death and rebirth is deeply embedded at the
Could the unthinkable have happened — could hunters heart of their faith. Jesus Christ died and rose again three days
have fallen prey to evil after all? Or has Lucifer Himself re- later. According to some, the dead shall rise again on judgment
turned to the world, fed up with the Lady and her activities, day. These creatures sleep restlessly in their graves, and are re-
and wishes to reclaim His offspring? awakened not once, but many times over. What power other

105