Nightmares Vs Magic

Nearly every person but Laurence yelped or flinched in surprise or disturbed fear at the voice, looking around to where the sound came from. Joon looked to Dove and then Enzo with a face that said, "Did you hear that too?"

Ingrid looked to the door and shrieked, clearly upset.

"Leon! Don't just do that out of the blue!"

They all then turned to where she was shouting.

The tall, pale vampire learned against the door frame, one hand over the over resting in front of him as he let out a soft chuckle. He stood up from the door and made his way further into the room, his movements always so fluid, like a ghost especially paired with the long cardigan he frequently wore instead of a regular white coat.

"Forgive me children. I'm sorry." He said in between his soft chuckles. He said children as a term of endearment to them all as his way of wanting to put them at ease.

Very easy to think of a group of adults as children when you're as old as Leon is.

Enzo put a hand to his chest, having almost had a heart attack from hearing a voice in his head that wasn't his own, Ingrid was still frazzled and Joon looked ready to start swinging from how spooked he was.

Laurence was the only one who simply huffed, as if used to Leon's little jokes. He crossed his arms as he stood close to Dove, looking at the laptop and back to Leon.

"I heard your little dilemma, and while we don't have any field agents or other professional hunters available immediately, I do have an idea. It will just take a while."

"Which is what? If I may ask?" Dove responded quietly, peeking out from behind Laurence.

I feel like a bad person sometimes. I know Leon must be a good person, at least to his coworkers. Everyone has said good things about him, and even I feel that he's a pretty polite and caring figure. But I can't help but remember the hard lesson I learned about simply believing in surface information. I can't afford to forget the last man who was praised as a saint, only to show me a slice of hell.

Even now, I saw Leon gently smiling down at me, as if he could read my mind was giving me his best, soft expression to show he meant no harm. I think maybe the thing about him being a vampire is what always gives me this weird gut feeling? Vampires prey on humans after all, but if that were the case, then I should feel on guard around Lucia too, but I don't and I can't figure out why. Maybe it's because she doesn't choose to act proper and is just weird all the time. Devils in disguise tend to present themselves as normal or trustworthy, so it's likely that.

"I recently got word that my brothers were coming to visit me. They were in New Orleans for a prior event and are coming over to rest before traveling again. If you'd like, I can call and ask for them to meet you in Rangeley to act as guards for your case."

Laurence looked down to Dove, wanting her to choose.

"You've never met them, but I have, and they are good to work with. Almost as strong as Leon but that's already a lot."

Dove was silent, humming to signal that she heard but she couldn't come up with a proper response.

"That's cool and all, but what about Callius and Calder? I just remembered, don't they also work as bodyguards? I'm not sure about bothering your brothers." Joon answered for her.

"They do work as bodyguards, but they are work better around beaches or water, don't they?" Dove quickly shut down that option, and Laurence nodded.

"Rangeley has a giant lake, but I highly doubt that the farmhouse is right by the lake." Laurence added, showing the proof after a quick search on his phone.

"If it's really not a problem for your brothers, then we'll meet them in Rangeley?" She looked back up at Leon again, walking out from behind Laurence, trying not to feel like she was using him as a shield from a person who is supposed to be a good person, and has treated her well.

Leon gave her a nod as he clapped his hand together, happy to help the group reach a conclusion.

He walked out the door with a relaxed and gleeful smile.

"Of course, it won't be a problem for them at all. In fact, it'll be a good opportunity for them to meet our five new interns."

"Five?"

"Oh, please don't take that to mean Celadon will be joining you on this case!" He leaned back into the doorframe and corrected.

"But I do highly suggest that you bring the other three interns and Enzo with you. Safety in numbers, and Enzo can test out the ghost bullets."

Joon stared with wide eyes at Enzo, who raised his hands up.

"I didn't plan this." He quickly responded, unaware of the setup Leon suddenly made.

There were more questions that needed to be asked, but before all answers could be given, Dove and the other three interns were prepped and ready to go. Joon asked Annabelle why the twins couldn't come supervise them instead of Enzo, but Annabelle said that the twins were in charge of the gym floor. They can't just help them on field cases unless Ursa was there too.

Before they left for the short journey, Annabelle was given an aid kit from the twins, Vernon searched for a new pot plant of dirt to bring with him, and Enzo had to pack some weapons. He told the other four to meet him outside when they were ready, and went to his office, deciding that if he was going to be taking some weapons out on the field for testing, he might as well take some that he was planning to inspect at least, only some.

He also recommended everyone dress as casual as possible beforehand, showing an example by wearing a polo shirt tucked neatly into utility pants. Far from the usual all black attire that he would typically wear.

Joon already looked casual and Vernon looked like a park ranger after getting ready, it was more of a struggle to get Annabelle to not stand out. Her smile and hair aside, letting her wear her usual gym clothes was pretty fitting for the august weather anyway, so he let it slide. The real struggle was getting Dove to put on regular clothes. A t-shirt and jeans at best, but she refused, and didn't have t-shirts and jeans anyway, she only had suits, suit pants, and buttons up varying kinds.

I had long since got rid of those. Dresses always felt too strange on me, and the casual wear like jeans and any other shirt that wasn't a button-up, felt sloppy. No offense to anyone who likes those outfits. I just don't know how else to dress myself outside of just wearing variations of a suit.

Annabelle gave her one of her breathable, black gym shirts and told her to just switch her current button-up with that shirt, tucking it into her suit pants.

"Just copy Enzo for now." She said.

Dove continued interacting with the laptop as she waited for the others. It was Laurence who gave her some items to take with her before she left, knowing how she didn't actually want to go on this trip. The items he gave her were his way of seeing that if it were up to him, she wouldn't have to go, but the suspicious timing of this new case made it this way.

"A dense flashlight that lights up a room, you can even use it as a weapon if you want." He told her, presenting the first item from a suitcase he brought of things he thought would come in handy.

He laid it on her desk, letting her continue to interact with the laptop as she listened. It was a suitcase similar to one Bence had carried around before during the beach case, the one that seemed to have a black whole or an unlimited amount of space inside. No matter what you put in, the weight of the suitcase didn't seem to change, making it very convenient.

"Here's a backup phone in case a pick pocket or something else tries to take or break yours. It's a flip phone, but I think you already know how to use one?"

She nodded her head and he noticed her pupils got just a bit bigger when seeing the sleek and smooth, black flip phone.

"There's a knife, a small aid kit since I know Annabelle was made to bring one herself, your baton that was confiscated after the camp incident. Enzo and I agreed since you don't really use it as a weapon but more a skeleton key, that you can have it back, he's only letting Joon have his baton back because well, we don't know what to expect from this dangerous case."

Dove stood there silently, realizing he doesn't know about how she spent a few minutes with Joon, attempting to interrogate the camp counselors in not-so-friendly ways.

"I put a jacket in there too. I don't exactly know what the weather will be like in a town only two hours away, but it is further up North, so surely it will be cold in the dark. Or if you just need a jacket." He said gently without really looking at her, and she saw the folded jacket inside the suitcase. Based on its height despite being folded, it was a rather big jacket.

He took it out and unfolded it for her to look at, she grabbed one sleeve, feeling the texture, murmuring a thank you before he put it back in and closed the suitcase.

"One more thing." He said before tossing her a granola bar.

She tossed him back a blank stare after reading that the granola bar had chocolate chips inside.

"I know you didn't eat much today."

"I had breakfast."

"Are you planning to eat anything else afterward? It's pretty early, you and the others didn't even get to go to lunch yet, and I have no idea if anyone might try to drug or poison your food at the town."

They gave each other a long stare, and she only agreed to eat it after asking him to stop drinking coffee for the rest of the day. She counted the amount of cups he hand one day as seriously as a professional shooter would count their bullets. He agreed, but then soon realized she would only take a few bites and save the rest of the granola for later.

Laurence used his sleight of hand skills to make another deal that she finish eating the entire granola and he would then give her back her car keys. Dove held a piece of granola in her mouth as she started packing her pockets, only to then wince in embarrassment after remembering she left her keys on the table next to the suitcase between them.

On the road after they all finally finished prepping, Joon was upset, having tried to think of any other person off the top of his head, but it was too late. He had his arm resting on the edge as he put his face in his palm, looking out onto the passing trees and roads as they were in Dove's car, making their way to Rangeley.

It was a little over a two-hour trip, depending on how fast you drive. Dove couldn't decide the speed since she was following close behind Enzo's car. It was a polished, Rolls-Royce Phantom model, but since Dove wasn't familiar with the model, to make sure she didn't lose him, she had Joon sit in the front seat with her so he could keep an eye on it.

Annabelle was in the backseat with the laptop, her turn on the controls since she didn't get motion sickness, somehow.

Vernon made sure her braided hair was pinned down, using the middle seatbelt. Due to her hair-length, letting it loose behind her, even in braided form, was dangerous.

"Why are you so upset about Enzo coming with us on a field case? Are you still made about how he banned you from touching any alchemy items for a week?" Dove asked as they drove, unable to ignore the upset face Joon was wearing.

"It's not that. I just don't see why he has to come along. We'll be meeting Leon's brothers there, and they'll also be vampires, way more powerful!" Joon reasoned.

"Enzo is going to use this as an opportunity to test out some new weapons. Remember? One of them are these things called ghost bullets?"

"Or so he can nag me as he checks exactly what choices I'm making during these trips." Joon grumbled.

"Before we left, he even insisted on checking all the engines in your car, again! All because I used his alchemy notebook to change some parts."

"Or maybe he just wanted to check if my car was still good to make a long drive? Since we told in our reports about how I let all those campers take turns driving it? Especially the part where I let Georgie crash it into the cabin."

Joon just hummed as he looked out at the road. Silent for a few moments.

"... I guess that makes sense. Even I still can't believe your car was fine after that."

"Old models. More durable." She shrugged, a proud tone when she responded as she adjusted her grip on the steering wheel.

"Still doesn't change the fact that I wish Enzo wasn't going on this trip with us."

"Hey. I hate that Vernon is going on this trip with us, he could get hurt, but I'm not saying anything."

Vernon lifted his head up from fiddling with Annabelle's hair, having heard his name. He looked to the people in the front seats talking and listened to the conversation.

"Why would you be concerned about Vernon? The case takes place on a farm, in a forest, he'd probably do better than all of us."

"Yeah but what are the chances that this mysterious farmhouse is haunted by a racist ghost?"

The entire car became silent, Joon opened his mouth to respond, closed it, opened it again, but fell silent.

"Rangeley is said to have been founded in 1855, and sure, there was an anti-slavery society in 1833, but you never know. I'm sure I don't have to spell out the rest?"

"Then shouldn't you be worried about yourself too?" Annabelle piped up, eyes not leaving the laptop screen, but it was like her smile was pointed towards Dove.

"You've got brown skin too. It's an oddly pale tone, actually, are you drinking enough water?" She squinted as she asked.

"I couldn't care less. I just don't want any irrational thing or person saying anything bad to Vernon."

"I've been bullied before." Vernon piped up.

"Not exactly for my skin color, but I've been picked on before. I've since learned how to protect myself. My last bullies were found suffocating underneath giant tree branches that had fallen, or stuck in tree roots and had hypothermia. I don't exactly know when it happened, probably some time at night when I was sleeping? That was the last I ever saw of them."

The car ride was quiet again. Dove hummed, trying to express that she was happy for him. And, also holding back wanting to ask about the bullies that got killed by a tree, what kind, how many, and if that was when he learned about his powers, but she held her tongue.

Annabelle was the first to snort with laughter. And it was not because she caught another glimpse of those strange creatures in the cameras that looked less scary, but more like goblins.

"Alright! So mother nature helped you get rid of your tormentors? That's nice. My mother once told me of a banshee that she once knew. The poor spirit kept warning my great uncle about his death, but he didn't listen. But then again, my mother said he got drunk often, didn't need a banshee for the family to realize he would die soon. Fate works in mysterious ways."

She giggled as she sat back in her seat.

Joon leaned over to the left in his seat, laughing with her before telling his story of the time he took fate into his own hands, joining baseball solely because a boy who would pick on him was on the rival team. Dove smiled as she listened to her friends' stories while driving.

"I beat him up every chance I got! And I made sure it was with my fake leg because if they ever tried to confiscate it, I would argue that it was a hate crime!"

"How many times did you win those fights?" Vernon asked.

Joon's face went blank for a moment, trying to remember.

"You know, I honestly can't remember. I think people kept pulling us apart. But if they let me continue! I would've won!"

Annabelle only giggled, her smile sharp as her eyes stared with playful scrutiny. She looked up from the screen finally to crack her neck and give herself a break.

"If you were more clever, you could've made sure to mock him enough to where he hit you first, during an official game and made yourself look innocent, at first. That way, most would see him as the bad guy and would understand if you kept wanting to fight him, or get him kicked out of the game."

Joon shook his head.

"That wouldn't satisfy me. I didn't want him kicked off the team. I just liked fighting him."

"I felt pretty satisfied when my bullies left me alone. You're almost as confusing as the aunt I once knew who would frequently text her ex. The excuse was always that she was bored."

Joon nearly spat and wheezed as Annabelle let out a scandalized reaction. Vernon smiled and laughed with a huff.

"The only thing I ever understood about her, was when my mother would signal for me to play clown music each time we picked her up from that man's house."

The car had sounds of wheezing laughter, Joon imitating the sound of clown music, and Annabelle cutting in with a better impression. Dove smiled as she drove.

After finally arriving in Rangeley, Enzo had Dove follow his car to the parking lot of a motel with a cottage-looking aesthetic.

After they all got out of the cars, Enzo told the kids to explore the town first, get used to the area, and make themselves familiar with the place. He also specified to not ask around for a woman named Hillary, or make it clear they are searching for a specific haunted farmhouse, or investigating any kidnappings.

"Just act like tourists for now until we're ready." He told them as he took out a briefcase from the shotgun seat of his car.

"I already booked some rooms for us at this inn, not that I'm saying we'll be staying here for long, it's just good to have some sort of base. I'm hoping we get this done soon and only have to spend a day here. Unpack whatever you don't want to leave in your cars, I'll get us checked in." He locked his car, holding a beautiful, red leather briefcase.

Different from Bence's briefcase that appeared more for rugged men, but it was bigger and bulkier than Dove's. She tilted her head, wondering if it was like hers, and if Enzo was also carrying many things in his like she was. It would certainly make carrying weapons easier.

She offered to help him carry anything, wondering if they may need to take multiple trips to carry all of Enzo's gear inside.

But, when she peered through the window of his backseat row, it was empty, save for some duffle bags that were too short to carry any long range weapons that she was expecting.

Didn't even look like the proper bag to carry that baton that's usually strapped to his hip or thigh. Which he was not wearing at the time.

Enzo even shook his head and waved off the duffle bags.

"I'm not worried about those. Those are just spare clothes and shoes." He told her.

They all headed inside to get checked into their rooms, Annabelle passed the laptop back to Dove. Enzo booked two, one for the girls, and one for the boy and him, but then he asked Joon and Vernon if they perhaps wanted a room to share together, and he gets a room for himself. Joon got upset again.

"How could you even think of making us separate more??!" He nearly screeched, before then trying to change his tone and force a smile.

"This is my only chance to jump on the beds and see you shake your head at me! And then nag me like a mother monkey trying to warn her boys about jumping on the bed! And if we do have to stay longer, it'll be my one chance to act as your alarm clock!"

Enzo rolled his eyes and turned back to the clerk, agreeing on just the two rooms as he showed his ID and card. The clerk giggled at him.

"We get a lot of tourists here, but you bunch seem like a very entertaining one." She smiled.

Enzo politely laughed back, shaking his head.

"Better hope we don't end up leaving some stories for this place to tell after we leave."

The rooms were nice, nothing suspicious about them. Dove did her routine of checking for any cameras and doing the finger test on the mirrors to check for any two-ways. Annabelle helped her, since her hands were mostly occupied with the cameras she was obligated to check out due to threats. But the girl used that as an excuse to try to lift up the beds for a thorough inspection. Dove heard the noise and shouted from the bathroom.

"Put the beds back down! Don't give the housekeepers a difficult time after we leave."

Annabelle huffed, in the middle of lifting the mattress out of the bed frame.

"I only untucked the sheets!"

Enzo must've had a similar time trying to wrangle Joon.

Dove was stuck with having to play with the laptop still, a few hours having already passed, and she knew she would have to act quicker to search for all the doors throughout the house. she asked Enzo if it was alright for her to stay at the motel while they explored.

"If they know about me, they might know what I look like too, and get freaked out and flee or something."

He agreed to let her stay inside but only if there was someone there with her.

He picked Joon. The boy joked and smiled that Enzo only picked him because he wanted to ground Joon for messing up the beds as soon as they got to their rooms.

The group split after that, Joon and Dove staying inside, still trying to remotely explore the farm house while Enzo's group went to explore the town and look for clues on the building's location.

They easily felt as though they slipped back through time, even when traveling by car. Vernon pointed out the buildings that he recognized by structure, the ones that were repurposed from barn houses. The buildings had old styles, rustic and pretty old western, just like how Rangeley is always advertised.

Enzo had to make Annabelle stop giving eerie smiles and waves to passing cars, or when they left the car to go walk.

There was a store that had pamphlets and maps. that helped to show the group all the downtown areas, the other popular tourist spots, and how to get to the lake.

Back at the inn, Joon was working the controls again while Dove helped him observe and take notes. They were occupying the room for the men, since Enzo left some gear there just in case, mostly ones that he trusted Joon not to cause too much trouble with.

She marked down two doors that were closed, or more specifically, the only two doors they found throughout the house, and so far, they didn't require keys, but they couldn't explore further because well, the robot being controlled is too short and has no hand. The sender didn't think to give whatever robot they were controlling, any function that allowed them to pick up or grab things. Just move around.

"Do you think this person thought it all the way through when they put this robot in this house and wrote that request? Or were they in a hurry?" Joon asked as they went down one room, only to end up in another hallway.

"Certainly in a hurry." She said while marking down another door found. "And not at all thinking straight, desperation tends to be easy to manipulate. I'm sure by now that another person must be involved, and not just this Hillary."

This time the door looked a little different, instead of simply wood that's a bit warped and old from time, this door had some metal supports screwed on, and there was a lock underneath the door knob. First door that required a key. She made a new row for that door and wrote down the description.

Before Joon could move the camera away, they heard the sound of a doorknob moving. He tapped on the keys to move the camera up. The door knob was jiggling. He backed the robot away from the door, but whoever was behind it, heard the motor sounds, and called out.

"Who's there?! Who's out there???" Said a shaky and alarmed voice.

Joon and Dove looked at each other before focusing on the voice, raising the volume on the device.

"Shh! What if he came back? You're gonna make him upset if you yell." Another voice said

"I don't care anymore!" The first voice responded back, almost quivering.

"If we're too loud, he hurts us, if we're too quiet, he still hurts us. He's insane! Nothing we do will make him happy!"

Dove clicked her tongue.

"Damn it, if only we had a mic we could talk through."

"And say what? That we have a robot exploring this house but we can't do much else aside from shine a flashlight?"

"No, but asking them if they perhaps know the location they are being held captive in, would be very useful." 

Joon instead opted to humor Dove's want to signal to whatever captives were behind the door, that someone or something was on the other side. He moved the mouse over the flashlight, and clicked it on an off, aiming it towards the bottom of the door, hoping the captives could see the light from underneath.

Some yelping was heard through the computer. 

Dove quickly searched some morse code patterns on her phone, showing Joon the morse code sound format for SOS. He translated that through the blinking of the flashlight. But even after doing that, the voices still sounded alarmed. 

"What's going on?" One whispered. 

"I think the crazy guy is back, and he found a flashlight to play with." The other replied, almost sounding like he was about to start going insane himself.

Joon clicked his tongue next.

"Figures. They don't teach morse code in school. Reality is disappointing." He slumped back into the pile of pillows they made on one bed. 

He then sat back up when the audio picked up some footsteps being heard, and he quickly typed on the arrow keys to move the bot towards a hiding spot.

"This is somehow more scary than every game in the FNAF franchise."

Dove held her face in her hands as she sat beside him with her legs crisscrossed. Thinking. Then, new idea. 

"New plan. Forget looking for the locked doors, we know there are people inside, but we can't do anything. Let's try to explore a route that will lead us out of this house, or to any place that can give us a hint of where this house is at. Forget following the request. We'll do something better."

Joon smiled, even though he was also feeling mostly terrified because he was still moving the robot down what they could only see was a dark corridor, and hearing the footsteps felt like something was following the camera. 

"Yeah, let's get this little camera out of here. The other cameras were useless anyway. The rooms that they show are mostly empty, save for when a creepy looking goblin with greasy hair comes into view."

Back to the group exploring the town, Vernon and Annabelle heard some stories when walking through downtown. There have been reporting and posters about kidnappings, or people going missing, but some locals try to wave it off as runaways or people who just decided to leave town. 

Typical cafe gossip.

Annabelle decided to go up and ask for more information, talking to the person who first brought up the rumors. Enzo nearly had to pull her back by the shirt of her collar before the person confessed that if her and her friends wanted information, they should go meet the crazy conspiracy guy. Not many people knew his name, for he wasn't a local, just a mystery-lovers guy who decided to vacation at this town for the summer and was planning to leave by August. But something kept him staying longer, and not many knew what.

The young lady gave Enzo a cheeky grin, knowing she just helped give them a lead by being herself. Enzo squinted his eyes in annoyance but said nothing, giving in and asking where they can meet this conspiracy guy, with the excuse that Annabelle and Vernon are supernatural fanatics. Annabelle sat next to the stranger on the bar stool, feeling proud of herself.

The stranger told him that they didn't know which motel he was staying at, or even if he had actually rented a cabin. If they didn't want to spend their time going door to door, the other option was to go check the tower at the summit of bald mountain. It was similar to watch tower, providing beautiful panoramic views of the town and lake. The big issue is that getting to the summit would take an hour, and they wouldn't even be sure if the conspiracy guy was there. 

Enzo took a deep inhale to hide the annoyance he was feeling and thought of any better solution. 

"Could we have a description of his appearance then?" He asked the stranger.

The person nodded, saying the guy looked like a typical adventure lover, except more shy and quiet. Not like a hermit since he had a tan but definitely an introvert. He wore cargo pants and a vest with lots of pockets, a light brown cap, and he'd always typically have something in his hands. His phone, a camera, an audio recorder, binoculars, at least one of those. 

The guy also had dirty blonde hair, and was about as tall as Annabelle, or Enzo. The person they spoke to, looked between Annabelle, Enzo, and Vernon, comparing all their heights, and said the conspiracy guy was about their average height. 

Not completely reliable but Enzo recorded all of it on his phone anyway. 

They left the cafe after Enzo made sure Vernon had enough water, and they went out to look for the new possible lead. 

It was already getting dark, but Enzo decided to let Vernon try finding the guy through whatever senses he can pick up from the plants in the area. It was nothing like sniffer dogs, but flowers, trees, and other greenery were part of nature, someone he has always had a connection with, as they were all alive in some way. 

Annabelle plucked a dandelion growing out from between the cracks of a concrete sidewalk, and gave it to him to put in his pot plant. He then proceeded to focus after replanting the uprooted flower as Enzo led both of them back to the car.

Enzo then stopped them both from walking, holding an arm up to shield them as he raised his eyebrows in curiosity. Not surprise or worry, but curiosity, when he noticed a women peering into the windows of his parked car. She had her phone out, flashlight mode on and holding it up to the windows as she looked inside.