1This is an alternate reality. Here, voodoo is a scourge in southern California...and then some.
Meet Sebastian Blood. He's an alderman...and has a very creepy night life. If you think he looks like Dan Espinoza, you're right. You might even say that he's Espinoza's Earth-40776 doppelganger.
With dark magic, Blood conjures, from nothing, a vial of the Mirakuru supersoldier serum; one that Japan once meant to use to win WWII...back when they still stood a chance. Blood knows a mad scientist, in this reality, who'd pay more than a shiny doubloon for a warehouse of these...
With another dark spell, he vanishes the vial. It will be, after all, the LAST thing tonight's tribute will need.
"The sun is almost set," Blood acknowledges. "Soon, my work will be cut out for me."
He spreads his arms out, and conjures a mask, which he uses to cover up his entire head. The mask is brown, and leathery. It's got slits for nostrils, and vented slits, running vertically, for a mouth. It's got small tusks, on either side of its head.
"Tonight, as always," he says, through the mask, "there will be Blood...as I will be. As we will all be..."
From sandy graves, all around, adherents of the Church of Blood rise. They all wear leather masks. Some wear gas masks. Some of their masks have prehensile tentacles around the necks.
Not too far away, atop a hill in the Sierra Nevadas, an altar stands. A tribute lies on it, in chains, and in a little black dress. The skirt is loose, and streams hang from it. Her wrists are chaffed, from having spent the past several hours in a vain attempt to escape.
If you think the "tribute" looks a lot like Chloe Decker, you're right. Or rather, you're only half-right...but you might as well be right. She's Trixie, all grown up. She looks just like her mother...almost as if she wasn't her father's daughter at all...
From all around, the vampires of the Church of Blood close in. They chant, eerily, as they come.
Trixie panics, of course, thrashes against the metal, and screams for help. From nowhere, a gag is conjured, and she's silenced.
Brother Blood, as Sebastian calls himself while wearing the mask, levitates to a spot above the altar. She spreads his arms, and summons ash clouds, from all around. Below and around him, the other vampires keep chanting. Around all, the winds pick up speed.
Ravens land here and there, surveying what's about to happen. Rattlesnakes slither from their burrows, and watch. Some of the vampires collect these snakes, and wear them as scarfs. They hold Gila monsters and pet them, as if they were scaly and venomous rabbits...
A herd of peccaries scurry in, snort, and watch. Their eyes glow red...
Tarantulas and scorpions crawl up the vampire's arms. They perch on their shoulders, and watch. Some of their hosts pet them...
Atop the altar, the rattlesnakes, coral snakes, scorpions, tarantulas, and trapdoor spiders join Trixie, the tribute. She screams, and thrashes more, as a tarantula crawls all over her, and over one of her boobs...
"Tonight," Brother Blood announces, "we pay our tribute. For whoever said that the devil and the tax man live at the same address...was right!"
At this, the vampires chant even louder. Trixie thrashes even more, with furry spiders all over her, and squeals through the gag...
High above the alderman, a portal seems to open, as a funnel-bottomed cloud forms above him. Its inside glows with yellow light...
