SKELETON KEY #4

12. The Creeping Cat

13. Phillipa Knicely

14. Ms. Moss

12. The Creeping Cat

Although the actual identity of The Creeping Cat remains a mystery, some details about the life of this ruthless, methodical killer have come to light.  

There was once a group of vigilantes known as The Fellowship of The Creeping Cat.  The masked members of this secret society regularly took the law into their own hands.  Criminals who, for one reason or another, remained beyond the grasp of the law, were executed ~ gunned down in the street.  Then one night things went tragically wrong and a young husband and wife were caught in the crossfire.  Because innocent blood had been spilled, the remorseful fellowship voted to disband forever.  

However, there was an orphan involved, and evidence suggests that years later, the now grown child returned, seeking revenge.  In the guise of The Creeping Cat, he hunted down and killed all of the former members and (in the event that they were already deceased) their children.  

According to official police records, authorities concluded that a failed poet named Avery Finch was the masked killer.  However, readers of Avery's private journal know better.

(See: The Fellowship of the Creeping Cat in the book MANIAC KILLER STRIKES AGAIN)

13. Phillipa Knicely

Phillipa Knicely is a normal teenager who accepts a scholarship at a prestigious but somewhat mysterious school ~ far, far away from her family and friends.  Once there, Phillipa is confronted with several unnerving experiences.  In addition, she is urged by one of her professors, Dr. Frauenhexer, to undergo the school's  battery of tests for extrasensory perception.  Oddly, the professor seems to know quite a bit more about Phillipa's upbringing than he could have possibly learned from her application.

It turns out that Dr. Frauenhexer has been locating promising candidates for his experiments and luring them to his laboratory.  He has discovered a way to harness and strengthen the latent telekinetic powers of the students.  He then sets about indoctrinating them ~ training them to become psychic assassins!  He plans to offer their services to various governments for a handsome fee.  

When Phillipa discovers the truth, she tries to extricate herself from the situation.  However, several of the professor's more talented students have managed to push their psychic abilities to such extremes that they are able to conjure up all manner of strange forces and ectoplasmic beings from "beyond the veil."  

During one of their attacks on her and her friends, Phillipa finds that her powers have grown stronger, too, and she ultimately defeats them.  

She is assisted in her adventures by another student who takes an interest in her ~ young James Jekyll, whose late father had engaged in some dubious experiments of his own.

Eventually she becomes a member of a special government team of extraordinary crime fighters.

14. Ms. Moss

Ms. Moss is a member of the Science Faculty at Lone Mountain College.

She led a rather colorless and uneventful life until she became acquainted with the work of Massimo Ibex, after which things changed dramatically.

Although considered harsh when it comes to grading her classes, she is nevertheless well-liked by her students, especially those she sees something "special" in.  Occasionally, she will invite one of her lucky pupils for a private tour of an old, condemned building on campus where ancient occult rituals may or may not be secretly performed.

Interests: Scorpions, forbidden knowledge, arcane texts, alchemy, glandular research, needles.

(See: MAD NIGHT)