*Content Warning: References to the occult and human sacrifice*
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Farnell collapsed on a bench in a public park, exhausted from all the walking they had been doing for the day. “I can’t keep doing it…” Farnell said, shaking his head. “We’ve been going at this for hours, and every tip we’ve investigated has been a bust. We’re not making any progress at all.”
Olive sat down with Farnell and nodded, shaking her head. “It seems like it's an unending task that there’s no possible way of completing. I just don’t know how we can get anything useful done…”
Digby sighed. “Is this what Jac wanted us to do? Keep us completely occupied running around in circles so we are out of the way of the investigation? I mean, the press has now taken an interest in this case, so maybe to keep us from spilling any information, he’s having us do this?”
Dorian shook his head. “Not likely, as he didn’t know Iona was even in town until she came with us. There’s no way he’d have used that as a reason to give us this task.”
“Then what exactly is the point of this task? All we’ve gotten are people who say things that are completely opposite of what this man is like, or what happened with the previous woman who eventually confessed that she only sent in a tip because she wanted to be a ‘part of something big.’”
Dorian chuckled. “Yeah, that woman pissed me off. She didn’t even think she did anything wrong, only hoping that somehow this would lead to her fifteen minutes of fame.”
Miriam walked up to the four of them and patted Dorian and Digby on the shoulders. “Come on you guys! You’re still young! You should all be overflowing with energy! Sure it’s been a frustrating experience, and it is getting close to lunch time, but not every investigation is successful or an easy one. There are times you feel like you’re doing and are just spinning your tires, not moving. You just have to keep on grinding though.”
Olive looked at Miriam. “So, what do you think we should be doing? Are we doing something wrong?”
Miriam gave Olive a slight grin. “That’s for you to figure out. I’m only here to keep an eye on you and keep you all safe. How you conduct your investigation is up to you all, though I will say that I’d be doing something different as soon as we received those tips.”
Farnell leaned forward, his brow furrowed. “So guys, what do you think we need to do differently?” He asked the other three, all still visibly tired.
Farnell shook his head. “I’m down for any strategy that doesn’t involve us walking our life away.”
Olive grabbed the stack of tips they hadn’t yet checked up on and began reading the first few on top of the stack. She sighed as she finished reading them. “See, whoever sent this tip in obviously has no clue what he’s even talking about! ‘The man had a long, white beard and large gut, but I saw him carrying a bloody cane that he used to walk.’”
Digby laughed. “Well we know at least we don’t need to visit that guy then. Probably wouldn’t even know what we were talking about.”
Dorian reached for the pile and began reading more. After a few seconds, he laughed. “Same with this one. Says he saw a man acting suspiciously last night, but his description of the man is…very different.”
Farnell and Digby had taken leads of their own and read through them. As they rejected lead after lead for obvious reasons, Farnell happened upon one that caught his attention. “What about this lead?” Farnell asked, holding the paper out a bit farther in front of him so the others could see it. “The witness describes the man he saw as being aloof, and once he noticed that the witness was watching him, the witness immediately felt an overwhelming feeling of fear. However, he watched as the man walked over to a building near the residential district and entered. The address to this building is listed here on the bottom.”
Dorian asked for the paper from Farnell and read it over before handing it back. “What do you guys think? Should we head to the building listed here?”
The three others nodded their heads. “Sounds like this is a good lead to me.” Digby said, who had also finished reading it.
Miriam smiled and got on her phone, quickly making a phone call. She motioned for the paper to be handed to her. “Hey, Nikki, it's Miriam. How are you? …that’s good to hear. Hey, I have a favor I need to ask of you. I’m assisting in the investigation of the murders of the police officers and the disappearances of families, and we have a credible lead, but to follow up on it, we need to enter a building. Could you be a doll and get us a search warrant? …yeah the address is 890 Deidra Street…yep that’s correct…thank you! I’ll call you again if something comes up. Bye!”
Miriam ended the call and handed the paper back to Digby. “I got you all a search warrant. You can’t just go entering random houses without a warrant, you know.”
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Thirty minutes later, the group had made their way to the building, which was a rundown, wooden building that looked like it should have been torn down years ago and rebuilt. “Oof…this doesn’t look like any place I would live in.” Olive stated, giving the building a glance over. “I’m surprised it’s still standing considering the way it looks. The termites have already done considerable damage to just the exterior alone…is it even safe to enter?”
Digby walked up to the door and knocked. “Well, at least the building didn’t collapse from a single knock so that’s good news…” Digby knocked again and the group waited a few moments before giving up on receiving an answer. Miriam walked up to the door and took out a few small tools from her front left pocket. Putting the tools into the keyhole, all it took was some tweaks before the door unlocked. “And there we go! Piece of cake.” Miriam twisted the knob and the door opened.
Digby, Farnell, and Olive stared at Miriam before looking at Dorian, who shrugged his shoulders. “She has a career as a locksmith at the ready if she ever gets discharged from the military.”
Miriam took point as they walked into the building, which was nothing more than just a large, expansive room. The middle of the room had a circular, dusty rug that Dorian thought was more dust than rug. Throughout the room were scattered furniture including an overturned chair and a table that held a candle stand and an almost completely melted down candle. There was a fireplace in the west wall that looked like it was last used centuries ago, and a half-full bookshelf in the far right corner of the room. Olive tried to hold her breath for as long as possible, not wanting to breathe the visibly dusty air for as long as she could. Digby coughed as he walked deeper into the room before putting his shirt over his nose. “Are you sure someone came into this place? From the looks of it, no one’s been here for at least a decade.”
Farnell, who had taken Digby’s lead and put his shirt over his nose, nodded his head. “I’ve never seen a place that’s looked as abandoned as this place…another busted lead I guess.”
Miriam shook her head as she was examining some of the furniture. “That’s not necessarily the case. It’s subtle, but there is a clue that this place isn’t as abandoned as it looks. I’m sure you’ve noticed it by now Dorian.”
Dorian nodded and looked at the floor. “Considering how dusty this place is, you would expect the floor to be caked in dust as well. However…with the exception of some dust that’s recently landed on it, it’s been wiped clean, most likely to hide something like footprints that were left in the dust.”
Olive looked around, face under her shirt. “So what exactly were they trying to hide?”
Dorian had walked past the rug and up to the bookcase, looking at the selection of books that were on the shelves. “Seems like whoever lived here before, or our suspect, has a passion for some forbidden reading material, especially those concerning the occult.”
Miriam walked over next to Dorian and took a look at the books herself. “I recognize some of these. Like this one right here…it was banned by every nation shortly after its publication because it detailed rituals that all required child sacrifice. The publisher was sued into oblivion by the families of three missing children that were found dead in a grove, killed by unknown cultists who performed some of the rituals. However, that occurred over a century ago, and it was believed that every copy that was distributed was destroyed.”
Dorian glanced at Miriam. “And you know the details of this book…how?”
Miriam lightly punched Dorian in the arm, shaking her head disapprovingly. “I had a research paper I needed to do in college and decided to research what caused some books to be banned. I have no idea the exact details of the book, just the general story behind it.”
Digby had approached the bookshelf as well and gave the bookshelf a quick glance over before his attention was drawn to a mark on the ground. “What’s that?”
Dorian looked down and noticed somewhat visible scrape marks that were left on the floorboards. Taking another look at the bookshelf, he had an idea pop into his head. “Digby, can you help me move this bookshelf out of the way?”
Digby nodded and helped Dorian pull the bookshelf away from the wall, perfectly aligned with the scrape marks on the floor. Content with how far they moved the bookshelf, Dorian walked over to the area the bookshelf once was and immediately noticed a metal ring in an indent on the floor. Pulling on the ring, the floorboards underneath were lifted up, revealing a wooden set of stairs that led into a candle-lit room. Miriam gave Dorian a quick look and nodded. “Farnell, Olive, stay here and watch our backs. Digby, Dorian…with me. Get your weapons at the ready.”
Dorian grabbed his two swords and unsheathed them, prepared for any attack that could occur.
Miriam grabbed her two concealed daggers and held them tight as she slowly walked down the stairs, Dorian and Digby behind her. After several seconds, Dorian was finally able to see the basement, and the horror that awaited them. In the first half of the room was a desk with a freshly lit candle next to a few scattered papers. There was a door that was speckled with a red liquid, one that Dorian was all too familiar with. To the left of the desk and chair were large iron bars, similar to that of a dungeon, with a large, unlocked and opened door in the center. On the other side of the bars were several bodies, some lying on the ground while others were chained, their arms tied behind their backs for good measure. From a quick look, it looked like the bodies hadn’t been dead for long, as there were no noticeable signs of decay. Around the bodies were several also recently lit candles.
Dorian could feel his mouth become dry as he looked at the bodies, but there was nothing else that grabbed his attention. Miriam looked at Dorian and Digby before putting her daggers back where they were before. She immediately took out her phone and tried to call Jac, but reception didn’t reach down in the basement. “Stay here, guard the crime, but make sure you don’t touch anything! We have to make sure this is as untouched as possible for an investigation to take place!”
Dorian and Digby nodded as Miriam ran up the stairs, again trying to call Jac. Dorian walked over towards the metal bars and looked at the bodies. They ranged from the elderly to even a small child. Shaking his head, Dorian had a strong feeling these bodies were of those who had recently disappeared.
“Something doesn’t make sense…” Dorian said to Digby, who was looking at the other side of the room, not wanting to look at the bodies.
“What do you mean?”
“This place was obviously the man’s hideout…so why would he leave a witness alive that not only saw him, but the place he used to presumably keep his victims captive?”
Dorian looked further into the makeshift prison and spotted what looked like to have been a thick metal wire that ran across the wall before disappearing into a small hole in the wall. As soon as he looked at the small hole, the metal wire suddenly grew taut, as if someone somewhere had pulled at the end of it. Within a couple seconds, the distinct smell of oil assaulted his and Digby’s nose.
“You smell that?” Dorian asked Digby as he turned back to look at him, who nodded.
“Where do you think that’s coming from?”
Before Dorian could respond, the two heard a “whooshing” sound, with Dorian immediately feeling heat at his back. Looking back, he could see a fire had started in the corner of the cell, and was already quickly beginning to spread, already making its way past the bars. “Go! Move it!” Dorian screamed as he turned towards Digby, who had also begun to run. Dorian quickly made his way towards the desk and grabbed the papers that were on the desk, hoping he could save even a little bit of evidence. As he scooped up the papers, his back began to feel pain from the heat of the quickly approaching fire. Dashing up the stairs, he had just made his way up the last step as the staircase became engulfed in flames. Just as Dorian made his way to the exit of the building, the main room had also caught on fire. Dorian and the others ran to the other side of the street as Miriam was screaming at Jac to make his way over. Dorian was breathing heavily as he turned and looked back at the building as it was completely engulfed in flames, clutching at the papers he had managed to save.
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