Avocato had been involved with the organization out of Bella Vista for a little over a month now. He had worked out of a corner store on Fulton Street for the time and had his people run a seemingly legitimate drug store while selling a little more potent, less legal drugs on the low in a special back room. He had made enough money for Don Kaya and her little group of misfits in order to be recognized for special orders within the group.

Something always threw Avocato off though.. During the ceremony where he vowed to protect his family and his honor and took the sacred oath, something never seemed right.. Like, something off. He kept trying to remember why he always felt so weird about that night. It was the highest of honors within the group in Bella Vista and he was happy to be considered for such a position within the crew.

As he remembered back, it started with “Where”. The building was an old abandoned storefront that Kaya owned but never made much use of. It was an old clothing store run out of business by the great depression. He remembered being led to the back room and into stairs that took him down and down and down. It was at least three flights of stairs and it seemed very ..Odd. As he remembered what went on, he recalled the stairs being very new looking and couldn’t have been from the past owners, it was something Kaya had done herself.

As he remembered being led into the room where he took his special ceremony, he didn’t think about anything other than the event at hand.. But as his memory recalled, he remembers seeing multiple doorways in the small room in the lower levels of the abandoned store. He was very curious about what they were. Maybe a storage area for Kaya? Maybe it was where Hosico hid her money she had won from gambling. Maybe. Maybe, he thought again but curiosity had gotten the better of him. He had to know, something compelled him to check it out, even though he knew it could be treacherous if he was caught snooping on his boss and her #2.

He had slept for a few hours that night and decided to call Takkar and talk to him about it. When they met up for lunch, the discussion began. Takkar also noticed something very off about that building and it seemed very ..Sinister. Were we working for an organized syndicate or something much, much worse? He wasn’t sure but told Takkar of his plans and he agreed that he would try to distract both Kaya and Hosico for the day.

Now that he had the time to check it out, he prepared himself. He made his way over to the old storefront and scoped it out. He had waited an hour in an adjacent  building watching with cat-like vision for anything that could be an issue. He didn’t see anything go in, or out. He had figured Takkar had begun the distraction of Kaya & Hosico and he could have free reign to finally investigate the dungeon.

Avocato quietly stepped further down the flights of stairs until he reached the bottom level. The air was cool but musty. It was very cold down here. He must not have noticed that before. He reached the room where he, and many others, took the ceremony to become a part of the Coven. Just at this point, Avocato questioned himself. “Coven”. “Why would we be called COVEN? Isn’t that the name of a group of witches..” He thought to himself as he began to lose courage in investigating his friends. He looked around for the two doors he saw before but they were ..gone?

A chill went down his little cat spine and he felt like he was being watched now. No one was here, his cat-like vision and hearing would have heard or seen anything nearby. There was no sneaking up on him.. But yet, something told him in his gut that he had been found. He went back to the stairs and found that it went down another level.. “That wasn’t like this before..” He thought to himself as fear began to manifest in his fur. He was freaked out at this point.

He made it this far, no going back now.. He went down the stairs to a single, open door. He could hear some sound coming from the room now. It was almost a humming, like sound. How could he have not heard this before? Something was off. Something was making him walk towards the door against his will. He wasn’t sure what he would find but it wasn’t going to be good, he was sure of that. As he walked in he saw Biscuit and Karizma drawing these strange circles on the ground.. 

He had no idea what to say or do but now all attention had been drawn on him. They both said “Welcome to the Coven” simultaneously and it freaked Avocato out. He knew something was wrong. He and Takkar had joked about everyone being as cultist here but he didn’t actually think it was true until now. He had heard more familiar voices in a room further into the now aptly named dungeon. Kaya, Hosico and even Takkar had ventured out in unison and stared at him. Takkar was supposed to distract them for the day. Was he in on the plot? Was he a cultist too?

Kaya spoke in some strange language to the others, who, Avocato assumed, also didn’t really understand her. She began kneeling at the colorful circle and began drawing some strange non English letters that looked like a smiling face on it. In English, it almost looked like the letters u, w and u as a single word. It wasn’t English though and Avocato had no idea what was going on anymore. 

As she finished, they brought in a random man with a bag over his head. He looks as if he was from a rival gang. Probably one of the Durden boys who came over the state line every other day and got caught by one of our people. The sadistic smile on Kaya made even the other cultists look away. She made him stand on the circle and shot him. Blood splattered everywhere around the cold, hard ground. It was gruesome to say the least.

As he watched the grizzly murder happen, he wasn’t sure what to expect next. As Kaya glanced over him, she told him to go to bed and that was that. Avocato woke up hours later that felt like days. He wasn’t sure if what had just happened was a dream or some sick reality that he was a member of a strange cult. As he stretched and prepared for his day, he heard his telephone ringing and he quickly trotted over to see what had happened.

Takkar was on the phone and sounded a little strange. He began asking if I remembered anything about last night. And for some reason, all I could say was no. Nothing happened last night. We all had one too many drinks and that was that. Avocato tried spitting out what he remembered to Takkar, but something prevented him. All he could do was tell him that last night didn’t actually happen.  It was very surreal for Avocato.. As he put the phone down all he could think of was he saw things he wished he never did and now knew better than to snoop on his boss.

Takkar was at his desk restringing his favorite longbow late one night when the phone began to ring. "Hello..... Hey Avocato, what's up?" he asked, mildly irritated at being interrupted from his work. "Distract the boss? What on earth for..... Man I don't have time for that," he was about to hang up when he heard something interesting. "Cult? Did you say cult?" he gripped the receiver tightly and whispered quietly, "Not on the phone, meet me at the Donut shop for lunch tomorrow."

As he lay in bed that night, restless and unable to sleep, his mind wandered back to that special yet strange day. The day when he was asked to be part of the Coven. Everything about that night was odd but the thing that scared him most was what happened right at the very end of the ceremony. Takkar remembered how his body had froze up while his mind went numb and then he had uttered a strange word in Kaya's ears. Try as he might, he could not recall that word even to this day.

When he met up with Avocato the next day, Takkar recounted the events of his initiation ceremony including the part where his mind went foggy. It was a relief knowing that he was not crazy or paranoid. There might actually be something sinister about their crew. Takkar listened to the plan laid out in front of him and instantly agreed to it. "Leave it to me, I'll distract them."

A ball of black yarn, fish oil and sticky glue was all it took for the perfect distraction. After tossing the ball around a few times in front of the feline, he had Hosico tangled up in a web of yarn. He and Kaya spent the entire evening trying to free the cat from its bondage. Just as they broke her out of the crisscrossing thread something strange occurred. Kaya stared past him as if looking into the distance and then her gaze shifted towards him and she spoke "Uw.."

Flashes of light and then darkness. Takkar was in a dark musty room, the floor was smiling at him. Was someone chanting incantations... was he chanting them? "Part of the coven, part of the crew. Part of the coven, part of the crew." The chant stopped abruptly and he heard a cork pop. Warm thick liquid splashed all over his face and ran down his cheek. Another bright flash of light and then he was enveloped by a dark void.

"Avocato what the fuck happened yesterday," Takkar nearly screamed into the mouthpiece of his telephone. "What do you mean nothing happened last night? I woke up to find my cheeks covered in blood," his hands trembled. "We have to talk about this and we need to find help." Click. The line went dead.