CHAPTER SIX: HARRY AND LILITH...

Lantern in hand, Harry began the trek back to town with Lilith in tow. "How'd you find yourself back here? Charity Collins it was who conned me and others into joining her little séance. The Ross woman... Hestia, as I recall... conducted it. Couldn't wait for Stokes to return from overseas, the voice said. Whoever or whatever it was drew us here, sacrifices on Charity Collins' altar."

"Yeah both of them were there. The summons came from Collins at Hestia's insistance, but Stokes was the one who did the actual work." Lilith responds as she follows Harry and the lantern. "How long have you been stuck here?"

Harry grunts a reply. "Not yet a month. Spent most of it working with the fishing fleet. Willoughby and McKenzie, the pair I arrived with, vanished not long after Abigail Collins' death. Willoughby attracted the ire of some witch-hunter from Salem named Trask, who was here at the old girl's request. Trask is Charity Collins' maiden name, just so you know. McKenzie seems to have a Jekyll-and-Hyde thing going on. Also, there's another late arrival like yourself — Macintyre by name — holed up in the cemetery with a wee case of lycanthrophy. Hope you like scary movies, 'cause you're in one."
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Lilith listens. "Lycanthrophy? Really?" She shakes her head. "Next you'll be telling me that Vampires are real too." Lilith was putting on a brave face. She grew up with the stories of Ruvaushes and Mullos. She quickly muttered another prayer. As soon as she was in her own room, she was going to look at the cards and draw protections on herself.

Harry crosses herself reflexively. "Reckon it'll only be a matter of time before a vampire shows it face. This being Collinsport a hundred years after the witch trials, reckon there are ghosties, ghoulies, and witches aplenty. More than enough oddness in 1966, who can say what's afoot in 1795."

You're telling me that all the nightmare stuff my buna...er, Grandmother use to scare me with as a child is real here in Collinsport?" Lilith says as she takes in her surroundings.

Harry simply grunts. "'Fraid so. Cursed aplenty, the Collinses. Grew up here. Town's always had a pall over it."

The light from Harry's lantern barely penetrates the thick evening fog, but she navigates through it with an ease that borders on the eerie. "Avoid ranging about at night by yourself, even with a light. Especially when a fog rolls in. Folk have wandered off cliffs in daytime fogs. Muffles sound and foils sight in equal measure. Wolves aplenty in these parts, too. They'll stalk lone people when there's a fog."

Lilith nods. "Thanks for the heads up. I probably won't be leaving the town much without someone with me. But we do need to figure out how to get back. This place gives me the heebie jeebies." She says with a shiver.

Harry nods her agreement. "Feel oddly ay home here. Could live here, maybe even thrive. But imagine meeting someone you know is dead, that you buried as a child 150 years in the future. Disturbing."

"Running across ancestors who met a grisley fate and wanting to change it but knowing you can't." Lilith shakes her head as she continues to follow Harry.

A faint glow in the fog ahead gradually resolves itself into numerous individual lights as Harry and Lilith reach town. Harry heads directly to the Blue Whale, orders meals and drinks for herself and Lilith, and finds a table where she can put her back to a wall. "Plenty of nosy neighbors hereabouts, so keep your voice low as possible."

Lilith nods.“Thank you for the food. I’ll figure out a way to pay you back.” She says softly.

Harry simply grunts. "Think of it as your first paycheck. Like as not could find you work as a maid, or even a cook if you've any head for running a kitchen," she murmurs. "Might be best were I to coax another dollar out of Old Man Collins, though, and hire you to assist me with my investigation."
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Lilith again nods. "I'm a decent cook, better house cleaner. I can make jewelry too. However, if helping you gets me back to our time faster I'll do whatever you need to be done." She says before looking around, getting a better idea of her surroundings.

Harry mulls Lilith's words for a moment before responding. "A job in the Collins household won't leave you much freedom, but you'd be privy to all the scuttlebutt the servants hear and have the run of the house to some degree. Sole lead I got on getting home is the aforementioned resident of Eagle Hill Cemetery. May need you to go pay your respects in the near future."

"I don't mind being an extra set of eyes and ears around the house. Given my formative years, I'm quite good at blending into the background and being invisible. You'd be surprised the things people say when they don't think anyone's around, listening." Lilith says, her eyes coming back to Harry. "Then again, you might not be." She says after studying Harry's face a moment.

Lilith finishes eating. "I can go pay my respects now, and then find a place to bunk down for the night. I can meet you back here in the morning?" She asks as she stretches and looks around the room.

Harry leans forward and lowers her voice further. "Best not to hang out in graveyards after sundown, even if folk hereabouts weren't all riled up." She shakes her head. "Bad enough when they're just everyday superstitious. As for a bunk, Widow Morgan might be able to put you up or recommend somewhere that can. I'll pay."

Lilith nods and leans in. "Good point. Don't need to get the gums wagging, plus the fog wouldn't help me gettin around." She sighs. "Sounds like I'm going to owe another one. So where is Widow Morgan?"

Harry murmurs an answer. "About a quarter of the way to the docks from here. Stayed there myself since arriving. No complaints thus far. Widow don't pry much, long as she's paid."

Lilith nods. "Sounds like a good place then." She stifles a yawn. "I can pay my respects in the morning."