June 19th, 1983
The three of them found themselves trapped inside the cafeteria with the Split-Jaw Vulture.
Jasper, Dorothea, and Cosmo sprinted for the exit, only for Dorothea to slam into the door first and realize it would not budge.
It was locked.
"What the hell?" Dorothea snapped, rattling the handle before kicking the reinforced metal hard enough to make it echo through the room. "I just came in through here!"
"Damn it—open!" Jasper shouted, throwing himself at the door next. "Let me out! Let me out!"
Cosmo barked wildly at their feet.
Then a crash exploded from the kitchen.
All three of them turned.
Jericho burst through the doorway in a storm of feathers, black fluid, and screeching metal, his warped body barely fitting through the frame. His bone beak clicked and twitched, the many eyes embedded across his flesh rolling madly in different directions.
"Fiery… beautiful… Dorothea…" he screeched.
His voice sounded like nails dragged across a chalkboard.
Then his gaze snapped toward Jasper.
"And best beautiful friend… Jasper?"
The monster lunged.
Its wings snapped outward and drove it forward with horrifying speed.
Dorothea reacted instantly, shoving Jasper down to the floor just as Jericho's beak shot toward him like a spear.
A sharp metallic clang rang out.
The beak buried itself into the reinforced door behind them, piercing deep enough to stick for a moment.
"Move!" Dorothea shouted.
Jasper didn't hesitate.
He scrambled to his feet and ran while the creature was still pinned, panic making his movements clumsy and desperate. He dove beneath one of the cafeteria tables, pulling himself into the shadows beneath it.
Dorothea slid in after him.
Cosmo followed close behind, crouching low with his ears pinned back.
Even the dog seemed to understand.
One sound—just one—
and they were dead.
Behind them, Jericho tore himself free from the door with a shriek of twisting metal.
A second later, he leapt onto one of the tables above them.
The entire surface groaned beneath his weight.
"Friends…" he crooned.
His talons scraped slowly across the tabletop.
"Play hide and seek…"
Jasper clamped both hands over his own mouth, desperately trying to quiet his breathing.
"You hide."
Jericho leapt from table to table above them, each landing striking with a heavy, bone-rattling thud that made the cafeteria tremble.
Then, without warning, he stopped at a table several rows away.
His head snapped downward.
A second later, his beak slammed through the tabletop.
The impact was violent enough to shake the whole table.
A shrill squeak cut off almost instantly. For a brief moment, his beak was stuck in the table.
When Jericho lifted his head again, a rat was skewered on the end of his beak, its tiny body twitching weakly before going limp. The bone point had pierced straight through the table and flesh alike as if both were made of paper.
He swallowed it with a sickening crunch.
"Friend… Jasper…" Jericho rasped, his voice wet and broken. "Makes more beautiful food than… this…"
Under the table, both Jasper and Dorothea went rigid.
Their breathing had already turned shallow and uneven, panic tightening around their lungs with every passing second.
Unlike the others, they had no gun.
No taser.
No way to fight from a distance.
Only a kitchen knife in Jasper's hand and Dorothea's wrench clenched tightly enough to whiten her knuckles.
Against something like that, it felt like nothing.
Jasper forced himself to think.
His eyes followed Jericho's movements carefully, studying the rhythm of the creature's jumps, the way it attacked, the way it committed its whole body to each strike.
Then an idea came to him.
A terrible one.
A gamble.
But it was all they had.
He quietly nudged Dorothea to get her attention.
When she looked at him, Jasper dragged the knife lightly across his own finger.
Pain flared.
He winced, praying the creature's sense of smell wasn't sharp enough to pick up fresh blood immediately.
As red drops hit the floor, he smeared them quickly across the tile and began to write with shaking fingers.
Heavy attack. Get stuck. Make opening.
He finished just as another heavy thud sounded above them.
Quickly, he tore a strip of cloth from his clothes and wrapped it tightly around his bleeding finger.
Dorothea read the message.
Her eyes narrowed.
Then, silently, she nodded.
Dorothea moved first.
She hurled her wrench across the cafeteria, sending it crashing against the reinforced metal door with a sharp, ringing clang.
The moment the sound hit, Jericho's head snapped toward it.
Then the monster launched itself.
It crossed the room in an instant, wings driving it forward with terrifying speed, and slammed beak-first into the door. The impact thundered through the cafeteria.
Its beak punched into the metal—
and stuck.
"Now!" Dorothea shouted.
Jasper burst from beneath the table.
He sprinted forward and jumped onto the creature's back, clinging to its writhing body as he drove the kitchen knife down into it.
"I'm not confident I can kill this thing," Jasper grunted, grabbing hold of one flailing wing for balance. "So I'm going for the wings. If it can't fly, that's good enough!"
With all his weight behind it, he plunged the knife into the base of one wing.
Jericho convulsed violently.
"Jasper?" it rasped.
The monster thrashed harder, ripping its beak free from the metal door with a horrible screech.
"Jasper? Jasper? Jasper?"
Jasper held on for dear life as the creature bucked and flailed beneath him.
"Hey, buddy," Jasper said through gritted teeth, somehow still managing a smile. "Remember the very first thing we ever made together back in cooking school?"
While Jericho spasmed in confusion, Dorothea bolted for one of the cafeteria tables, where she had left behind a heavy toolbox earlier.
"First… meal?" Jericho asked, its voice cracking through its crooked beak.
"Yeah," Jasper said.
He yanked the blade free, then slammed it down again with all the force he had.
"Chicken wings."
The knife punched deep through one of the creature's wings. It didn't sever the limb completely, but it tore through enough flesh, bone, and feathers to ruin it.
Jericho let out a shriek so loud it rattled the lights overhead.
Before it could retaliate, Dorothea came charging back and hurled the entire toolbox straight into the side of its head.
The metal box smashed into its skull with a sickening crack.
Black goo spilled from the fractured bone as Jericho reeled, its many eyes twitching wildly before fixing themselves back on Jasper.
"Jasper…" it hissed.
Its voice had changed again, more human now, but only in the cruelest way.
"Make… chicken wings…"
Its beak clicked.
"Jasper was always… a mediocre cook…"
Its bloodshot eyes narrowed.
"Only kept around… to make me look… good."
Then it lunged.
"Yeah, Jasper's a complete loser," Dorothea snapped.
She stepped in and drove her wrench straight into one of its eyes.
"But you're way worse."
"Yeah," Jasper said, breathing hard, "everyone seems to think I'm a complete loser."
He tightened his grip on the knife.
"But I'm going to survive this hellhole."
Then he drove the blade into Jericho's neck.
The monster let out a choking, broken screech.
Thick black blood poured from the wound in endless streams, spilling over Jasper's hands and splashing across the cafeteria floor. Jericho collapsed in a twitching heap, its body thrashing violently as if every limb had forgotten how to belong to itself.
It sizzled.
Convulsed.
Shuddered against the tile while dark steam rose from its body in foul, hissing waves.
Then, slowly, the distortion gave way.
The feathers receded.
The warped limbs shrank.
The monstrous shape folded in on itself until all that remained was Jericho's real body, broken and motionless on the floor.
If he said anything, Jasper didn't hear it.
Or maybe he just didn't care.
The moment Cosmo came running out from beneath the table, Jasper dropped to his knees and pulled the dog into his arms, holding him tight.
"You're the only friend I need, buddy," Jasper murmured.
Cosmo whined softly and licked at his face.
For a brief moment, it was the only comforting thing left in the room.
Then Dorothea looked toward the locked cafeteria doors and let out an irritated breath.
"Great," she muttered. "Now how the hell are we supposed to get out of here? We're still locked in."
June 19th, 1983
Confirmed Incident Report
Third successful termination of an Azathoth-created organism recorded.
Agents Responsible: Jasper Quinn, Dorothea Rose and Cosmo the dog.
Agent Fatalities: Jericho Moon.
Hostile Designation: Codename — The Split-jaw Vulture.