Nightmares Vs Magic

Dove held the phone as Dimitri started the car again. She asked for Leon to give a summarized description of the contents of the love letters, and to send a photo of the shrine. She took her notes during the car ride, until Dimitri gently snatched the pen from her, telling her to wait until the car stopped, lest she wanted to get car sick. 

Jean ended the call and would instead send a written description through text.

"We have a lead now! Right?" Annabelle asked with a smile as Dove handed her phone back. 

"You're thinking that the photos they found are of the man we're about to meet?" Dimitri asked.

"I know it sound out of the blue, when I thought about what Annabelle told me about the person she met yesterday, the person who wouldn't say much about the guy but knew his address and then learning that the basement in the house has a discrete photo of her, it just seemed right."

The girl looked over her shoulder to look back. 

"Plus, it would explain who might've swiped your phone away from you, if they managed to sneak a picture of you."

The girl in the backseat suddenly got a glint in her eyes, and crossed her arms, nodding happily. 

"Oh right, I still need payback for that."

"I thought you already got payback on the nightmare who impersonated you?"

"That was punishment for the shapeshifter's attempt to copy me. Identity theft is not a joke; millions of families suffer every year. The next punishment is for the thief who stole my phone."

The guy they were looking for lived in one of the vacation cabins, specifically the one that resided deep in the woods. They exited the car and Annabelle looked at each of the buildings before opting for them to try knocking on the door of the cabin that seemed the most isolated from the others, or at least the farthest out in the woods. A simple, Mitsubishi car was parked in front, implying someone was home. 

The cabin also appeared to be a two story, with a flat roof that had rails that could be seen from down below, hinting that the roof was accessible for star gazing. 

Joon sent a picture of the shrine to Dove's messages, right as they were making their way over. The phots he sent were taken from every angle, including close-up shots of the love letters and lipstick kiss marks on the headshot phot. 

The man in the photo had simple, brown curly hair, shy eyes, a mole on the side of his nose, and a complexion that showed he went out into the sun often. In some of the scattered photos pinned to the wall, he wore casual clothes such as plaid button up shirts over black tank tops, jeans, and typically had a sketchbook in his hand. In the angle for most of the scattered, small photos, he wasn't looking at the camera. 

The headshot photo is the only one where he looks straight at the camera. 

"Alright, what do we say when he answers? 'Hello sir! We are here to ask if you might know about a kidnapper in town who also happens to be your stalker!' or are we trying to be discreet again?" Annabelle asked right as they got up to the neatly carved, wooden door of the two-story cabin. 

"Don't bother with discretion, it'll be quicker if we tell him everything up front so that he can provide assistance." Dimitri responded to her instantly.

"And if he is somehow working for the kidnapper or tries anything funny, no need to worry, I'll simply tie him up and keep watch of him." 

Dove nodded in thanks, proceeding to knock on the door and wait, while Annabelle was in the back, asking Dimitri if they legitimately are going to ask the question that she came up with on the spot. 

The door opened, revealing the person with the exact face that she had expected, even down to the plaid button-up. The sleeves were long and covered nearly past his wrists. She held up her phone quickly.

Simple, brown curly hair that the man was still brushing and fixing as it was formerly a bedhead earlier. There was a mole on the left side of his nose, he was slightly tanned, and he looked at her in a timid way. Shy eyes, but they looked like a deer's doe-like eyes in person. 

"Can, can I help you?" He asked. His voice came out timid but crystal clear, like a firm accent you'd hear in an office. 

"Yes. Apologies if we caught you while you were busy, but we're looking for a suspect and we believe you may have a connection to them?" She turned her phone around for him to see the picture of the shrine. 

He took a step back. She took one forward. 

"What is that?"

"Apparently, a shrine that a possible stalker of yours made, for you. Unless, the man in the picture, isn't you?"

He became more shaken up the closer he looked at the picture on her phone, and she handed it to him. He zoomed in on smaller details of the photo. 

"N-no, that's, that's me but..." He stammered and paused, holding her phone closer, spotting something. 

"Are those my sketches?" 

Dove tilted her head, thinking gears moving again. 

"Your stalker stole your sketches from you. You sketch drawings of mythical creatures." She stated as a simple guess. 

He looked up in surprise and stammered again. Nodding.

"How did you know?"

Dimitri then spoke up, reading aloud a text from Jean on his phone.

"Zane Morrows. A man who recently began visiting this town for a personal project revolving around the study of folklore, that required him wanting to be surrounded by nature and feel as though he is isolated for the sake of his work yet not be completely isolated for the sake of safety." The vampire stated.

"If you're wondering how we know, it's because as she has said before, you have a bit of a stalker situation."

"Who are you? What do you want?" The guy, now known as Zane, asked as he took another step back.

"May we come in and discuss this?" She asked, looking over her shoulder, past the porch to the trees surrounding the place.

"Preferably away from any possible prying eyes and ears?"

He nodded. A little shocked and unnerved, and yet a mix of excitement and curiosity. 

I mean, he is the type of person who enjoyed studying theories, myths, and legends. Any person like that would of course enjoy when something interesting in their life happens, enough to become an interesting story of their own to tell. That or it was just something he was enjoying, he did take the news and everything else oddly well.

They politely entered the cabin, and the door firmly shut behind them. 

When he led us inside, there was a living room with two sofas facing each other, and a coffee table in the middle. It was covered in opened notebooks, sketchbooks with multiple designs of different folklore creatures, multiple sharpened lead pencils, books on folklore, some receipts, and what looked like art supplies.

He had a camera as well, but it was mostly used for recording changes in the sky.

He at first attempted to clear it out whilst asking if they wanted any water, but they quickly declined, wanting to get straight to business. Dove even offered to help him clear his items and asked where to put each stack of paper and such. He showed her to the wastepaper basket nearby a desk provided by the cabin owners.

Meanwhile, back at the farmhouse, Jean was busy showing the boys exactly how to use the 'Captum' book he and Dimitri brought with them. 

"You just open it up to an empty page and hold it out, letting it get a good glimpse at the little monster, and it'll do the rest." He explained as he held the book open to another empty page, holding it out to another one of the shapeshifting nightmares in the cage. 

The boys watched its body shrill, then dissipate into inky smoke, seep through the bars, and narrow into the book. The smoke tattooed the pages in the most elegant way, and what appeared wasn't even a Pukwudgie as they were trained to imitate, but rather different forms of ink blobs. Blobs or clouds of charcoal smoke, like those old cards used in psych evaluation tests. 

"Now. Who would like to try first?"

Joon raised his hand first, mostly because Vernon wasn't paying attention. He was listening, but he was focused on something else. 

Stepping in line with the neat lines of cracks of the floorboards, he walked to a random spot, tapped his foot there, tilted his head, and kept going. 

All the way up to a random wall, he knocked, and there was an empty sound. Jean's ear twitched, and he told Vernon to keep investigating that slot of the wall as he handed the book to Joon. 

The boy made his attempt of copying the vampire, but he held the book out to the next little nightmare in its cell like he was sheepishly offering food to a stray in a cage. 

"Don't hold it horizontally, tilt it. More vertically, the pages need to see the creature." Jean critiqued him. 

He kept watch of the boy, and when he successfully captured the little creature in its pages, he nodded and turned his attention to Vernon. 

The young witch had summoned vines and weeds to grow through the cracks of the floorboards. He was attempting to use them to pry open the wooden planks on the wall, having found something behind it. 

This slot of the wall was different from the rest of the room. It looked not only new yet disguised as old, but unlike the other planks, the ones he was trying to pry off were put in place with screws, not old nails. 

Jean texted more notes and sent them to Dimitri before pocketing his device and gently ushering Vernon to the side. 

The vampire used one hand, stabbed all five of his sharpened nails into one plank, then gripped harder, his fingers going in deeper. Then, without much effort, 

*ccCCRREEAAKK*

He pulled the first plank off. 

He tossed it to the side, pride off the second and third wood planks, and peered through the small entrance into the red room. The man simply hummed at what he saw, pulled his head out of the little door entrance, and stepped to the side so Vernon could see. 

Joon became curious after having captured the rest of the nightmares, hinted by the lack of rattling cages in the background, and also walked over to look. 

Both the boys reeled back in disgust, covering their noses and hiding behind Jean. 

"What the hell man?!?!?!" Joon shrieked.

"Why would you let us look at that???!?!?!"

"So that you both can see and learn where the killer put all the corpses and bodies." He shrugged. 

Inside the little room hidden by planks meant to look like the rest, but given away by the screws and Vernon's senses, were all the bodies reported from last night.

"Do we have to go in there and collect them?" Vernon asked. 

"Or is there no need to return the bodies to anyone?" 

"We'll leave that up for the local police to deal with. Joon, take your phone and send a photo to Enzo so he can go to the police as we continue investigating. I imagine he should have woken up and is about to call you anyway. Might as well make the call productive after he's done scolding you." 

"Wait, what-"

The boy's phone rang; he looked at the screen to see who was calling. He gulped when he saw Enzo's name. Jean reached over his shoulder and tapped the 'accept' button.

"JOOOOOONN!!!" 

The boy winced. 

He went to a far corner of the basement; Jean left him to get scolded as he took a picture of the corpses piled up in the hidden room and sent it to Dimitri. Vernon did the same but with some difficulty, still covering his nose as he recorded a video instead, and controlled one of the vines to hold his phone, bringing it inside the room to record and capture the pile of bodies from different angles, along with some of the satanic little symbols painted in a circle around the pile. 

More of the candles they found upstairs were also found in the four corners of the room. 

"Should we do something about the circle? None of it is accurate and likely won't do much, but it will still disturb the atmosphere with its implications." Vernon said. 

"Yes. We should also ask Enzo to bring your plant pot over here so you can undo that."

After much scolding, a sheepish excuse from Joon, and a summarized explanation over the phone, Enzo eventually settled his temper and made his way over, bringing his briefcase of weapons and Vernon's plant pot. 

The boy needed the plant pot due to the dirt inside. 

Jean showed Enzo to the basement, and he took note of the shrine, the cages, the newly filled pages of the Captum book, and the hidden room. 

Vernon used the vines and weeds to grab the edges of the entrance and pried it open wider so they could easily step inside. This was done after they had taken pictures and videos of everything. Aside from that, they made sure not to disturb or leave any fingerprints on anything else. 

The witch stepped inside, taking multiple hand scoops of dirt from his plant pot and tossing it into the puddles of blood scattered throughout the messy red room. The dirt soaked in the blood and began shifting into something dark green and almost fluffy looking. 

Moss. 

It spread and grew from each of the piles of dirt he put down, reaching and covering spots of blood on the floor until reaching the marks in the circle.

"That is the fastest I have ever seen anything grow." Joon whispered in slow astonishment. 

"Moss are nonvascular types of plants, they reproduce through spores instead of seeds and lack roots, leaves, and stems. Because of that, they absorb their nutrients through the surface. Blood has a very rich source of nitrogen; it helps make the leaves greener."

"Wait, so do you use blood fertilizer for your garden?"

"No, too much nitrogen is bad, plus it can attract pests. The moss I'm growing is also different; it'll cover and eat up all the chalk on the floor."

He had the moss all pause and then wither away before they could eat away any more evidence. The colors faded, and the moss dried up and crumpled into dust, beginning to float into clouds making their way back into Vernon's plant pot. He held it out with both hands as they all flew back inside, becoming dirt again. 

They all left the basement soon after, Vernon and Joon began texting their findings to the group chat and Enzo got ready to retrieve the local town police. 

Jean got a call from Dimitri a moment after about some news from his side. 

He told him about the man they found, Zane Morrows, who was actually a young man taking a gap year to travel and work on some research projects. After that came the discovery Dove had soon figured out about suspect they are looking for, and the one responsible for the bodies and the use of the old house in the woods.

"Her name is Isabel, and she's my ex-girlfriend. That portrait from the shrine, it's a year old. She took it when we first started dating." Zane told them as he sat across them in the living room. 

"So, based on it being a year old and near the time of your relationship, I imagine the breakup wasn't that long ago." Dove predicted.

"Yeah, we broke up about a month ago." He nodded, then his shoulders shivered. 

"I almost forgot to ask, where did you get the picture of that shrine anyway? The lighting makes it look seriously creepy."

Dove was silent for a moment. She sat between Dimitri and Annabelle on the opposite sofa, first looking to Annabelle who had a wide grin and nodded eagerly. She then quickly turned to Dimitri for a second opinion. Dimitri was much older and had a better experience of reading body language and reading people. 

He glanced at Zane, looked him up and down, and turned back to Dove, nodding. The girl took a moment to figure out the right words to use and swiped for more photos on her phone. 

"This picture was actually found by another team we're working with, from the inside of a creepy basement. That said basement was found inside an abandoned farmhouse in the woods. The reason we were investigating that house is because of some supernatural activity and several occurrences of murder." She said plainly, putting her phone on the table to show him the pictures of the basement sent from Joon and Vernon.

The man sitting across from her blinked, then tilted his head, frowning. He was processing the information, she nodded to confirm. Her phone then made a sound as she received some new messages, and pictures. She picked it up, hummed with a frown, and flipped it for him to see. 

"Oh, and it looks like she was planning to do some demonic ritual with the said corpses."

"W-why, why, w-WHY DID YOU COME TO ME ABOUT THIS?!??! S-shouldn't you go to the police first?!?!?" Zane responded, stammering and staring at her phone in shock, now fully processing the information, and the pile of corpses in the photo. 

His hands were even doing that thing people do when becoming shocked from something terrifying.

"YOU'RE TELLING ME THERE IS A HOUSE IN THE WOODS, WHERE PEOPLE WERE LITERALLY MURDERED?!??! RIGHT HERE IN TOWN?!?! AND YOU'RE SAYING MY EX-GIRLFRIEND IS A LIKELY SUSPECT?!?!" 

He then paused, took a breath, and slumped back into his seat. 

"Actually, wait- no- that does sound like something she'd do." He grimaced and said with disappointment, his face in his hands.

The statement was surprising enough for even Annabelle and Dimitri to listen in more. Dimitri was looking at some new messages from Jean before he perked his head up at the statement, put his device away and interlocked his fingers, resting them on his knee. One leg crossed over the other as he leaned in to question him next. 

"Forgive me- ah- we do have someone who has just now alerted the town authorities about this incident, however, could you elaborate more about your statement? The murder and demonic circle, you're saying this would be a common thing your former girlfriend would do?"

Zane nodded in his hands, before slowly and lazily dragging them down his face, now looking up at the ceiling in disappointment. His hands were now clasped together, as if praying to God for this to be a dream. 

"I was a weird kid; I was a fan of occult stuff- mostly the lore and history and culture- I met another weird girl, I thought she also liked occult stuff, and she really liked me! Who wouldn't want to give that a chance?" He asked rhetorically, finally facing them again. 

"We met in college. She and I both liked occult stuff, and we both grew up reading and fanning over creepypasta stuff."

Annabelle glanced at Dimitri, wondering if he understood that long word Zane just said, ready to explain. Surprisingly, Dimitri wasn't fazed by the unique phrase.

Zane began to rub the back of his neck, thinking back on regretful memories as he began to slump again. 

"I thought we were just both the regular kinds of creepypasta fans, the ones who just really liked the lore and characters, but,,, she was one of the creepy, fans. Like, the ones who believed the characters were real and stuff. In hindsight, I should've broken up with her over that, but I didn't, because she seriously liked me! Like, a lot. So, I just tried to overlook it. But then, even that got bad."

"May I take a guess?" Dove asked.

"Shoot."

"She was not only overtly serious about the belief of these creepypasta characters, but also began making the relationship too serious too quickly? Did she perhaps ask that you both got matching tattoos of something you now find morbid? Push your friends and family away to ensure you only had her?" Dove began listing off some guesses. 

His expression grew uncomfortable with each guess, and he looked her in the eyes, as if seeing the woman he was afraid of. Dove tilted her head as she read him. She sat up straight, picking up her phone, and swiping to pictures of the shrine through her messages, zooming in on the love letters that she now knew was written by an obsessive ex-girlfriend named Isabel.

"She must've left you pretty shaken up if all of that is true, you must've had to schedule multiple appointments with a therapist." 

Her next statement made him stand up from his seat, but she also stood up at the same time as him. She kept her eyes on him still and read him enough to copy him as if she were a mirror. 

"But then she likely kept sneaking in to listen to your therapy sessions, and you had to find a new one. Her presence was so big that when the breakup didn't give you enough space, you decided to achieve it physically by coming here."

The man looked as if he was about to get a shiver down his spine from her look, and his breathing was about to change. Dimitri stayed seated, observing her with half-lidded eyes. He has never known her until yesterday technically, he needs to know more before deciding to act. Annabelle knew her enough to act. She stood up slowly, patting a hand on the girl's shoulder. Dove blinked, like pulling herself out of a work mode trance she unconsciously fell into. 

Out of habit, as usual, like a possession. Like something I regret but cannot get rid of. Just like at the mirror room with Claire. Just like how I almost acted at the camp with those poor campers...

Dove felt her friend's hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. As if saying, 'you're acting different. It's not good.' 

She blinked again and changed her stare, glancing back up at Zane, but in a non-studious way.

"If I am making you uncomfortable, I apologize." She exhaled. 

"Maybe I dug too deep? None of those were my business. I'm sure. Sorry again." She softened herself. 

Zane had a tremble in his eyes, looking away as he rubbed his right arm.

"Yeah... How'd you, I mean I get the guess about the family and friends. That's textbook action for toxic partners, but, how'd you know about the tattoo? And my therapy sessions." He asked with a gulp. 

I felt so guilty in this moment. I try to be a good person. I promise I do, but I just notice things too easily, and the receipts were right there, along with all the clues, just sitting there at the coffee table.

"The receipts from the coffee table, one was for a tattoo, another was for the purchase of a bottle of makeup, specifically foundation." 

His eyes widened in alarm. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to look. I saw the foundation bottle as well; thought it was an art supply at first since I don't shop for makeup. But then you carried it away quickly and asked me to carry your papers, but one of them was a little note, reminding you of your therapy session tomorrow. The statement I made about you coming here due to get away from your ex was a genuine lucky guess, a hypothesis really, after learning of your therapy appointment."

Zane breathed in and out manually, grabbed the sides of his head as he walked away from the couch, slowly pacing the living room.  

"If you no longer want to cooperate because you're too uncomfortable, I understand. We'll leave if you'd like-"

"LEAVE?!" The man suddenly turned around and repeated. 

His eyes were as wide as saucers, alarmed as he walked back to the sofa, not to sit but to reach out and clutch her shoulders. Annabelle's eyes squinted in suspicion. 

"No, no. I'm, I'm uncomfortable, but I'm not dumb. If you managed to figure so much out about me in the blink of an eye, then how much does Isabel know?" 

His breathing grew heavy. 

"If those guesses were just your suspicions but you were dead right on everything, then what if Isabel really is the suspect because you think so? And if so, that means she's here, and if she's actually killed people, then what is she planning to do to me?!" 

"You'll be alright." Dove firmly said, taking his hands off her shoulders.

She pushed his back, guiding him to sit back down. 

"Because I already have an idea." 

The police were brought to the farmhouse's basement while Dove had her talk with Zane. The police were of course deeply concerned. The only hard part was when Enzo had to convince him not to let it out to the public. Yet. He reasoned that the real culprit would simply hide better, and that all of the victims so far were people who purposefully went looking for the cabin or were led to it. 

The farmhouse had police tape around it a couple hours later, and as long as there was no official trail, they shouldn't have to worry about anyone but the suspect visiting the crime scene.

Enzo and the others were then asked to come over to Zane's house. Dove wanted him to meet the others so that he could feel safer, her way of also making up for digging too much into his business earlier. 

A thorough inspection of his cabin and the perimeter was done. She introduced Zane to Enzo and the others whilst she went to her car, remembering the briefcase. As she went to search her car and the briefcase for any possible tampering, Vernon went out to check on her. She noticed how quickly he came out with her, she could tell by the feel of the wind and the rustling of leaves, and whispered something in his ear, and he nodded.

Then, she told him the idea she had come up with.

"I'm going to ask Zane to take a selfie with him and a certain someone and have that selfie posted on his social media. Show the world where his interests currently lie, and then ask where I can find his therapists, find out exactly what is wrong with his ex, just because I'm curious of something." She said, taking her case and was about to walk back inside with Vernon, before pausing. 

"Oh! Wait, don't let the others know I'll be visiting his therapist!" She turned to him and said with an alarmed voice, almost flinching at her unintended volume. 

"It's fine if Enzo or one of the others went, they'll just ask the basic questions. I need to go and ask something personal, the others don't know enough about the culprit. They don't even know what she looks like. But I have a guess. I know of her type."

"How?" 

"I have a strange history dealing with girls like her." Dove admitted honestly. 

Vernon didn't question much else, only nodded and held out his hand for her. 

The rustling of leaves quietened down. the wind picked up a bit, revealing his beautiful eyes. Dove smiled at his face, and they went back inside.

Later, as it got dark, Enzo went out first to go search for some leads. 

Zane told him of a nice local therapist he was seeing in town, apparently a nice woman who helped him figure out how to reconnect with his family and friends after his relationship. He wrote down the address on a small piece of paper for him, and called his therapist in advance, notifying the therapist of his arrival. 

Since Enzo appeared to be alone, some concerned teammates asked that he stay on the phone with one of them as soon as he got there. 

The man closed the door to his car as soon as he parked right in front of the little clinic. He parked into one of the parking lots closest to the door in reverse. 

"Are you sure Dove didn't want to come along? This could've been some good work experience for her." He said on the phone as he made his way to the glass door. 

"I'm sure. Dove once said that she doesn't feel comfortable with therapists, or most psychiatrists never said why." 

"How strange." 

He went inside, went to the front desk, saying he had an appointment with a Mrs. Shirley, and was pointed down the hall. The clerk told him which room number, and he kept going, still having his phone open but of course he had long turned off speaker. 

"Alright, I'm looking for a Mrs. Shirley in room four."

"You know, I don't mean to alarm you, but the number four is considered pretty unlucky."

"Are you trying to scare me now? I'm just meeting with a nice professional, there's nothing supernatural about this part."

"I'm just telling you to be careful."

"That's rich, coming from you." He rolled his eyes. 

Room number 4. The window next to the door had its blinds open. He saw the woman inside. He knocked on the door, her head perked up, and she saw him through the window. 

She gave him a polite wave before she got up from her desk, shuffling some papers to the side, and went to open the door. 

They exchanged the usual polite greetings; he took the door as she went back to her desk and closed it behind him, forgetting the lock. 

"So, I'm told that you are working with the police on a case? And this case may have to do with his ex-girlfriend?"

"Yes. I apologized to Zane in advance about having to go through some personal information, and I apologize to you as well for asking you to break therapist-patient confidentiality."

"Well, normally I wouldn't have told anything regardless, but the said patient did call and explain everything in advance, so I will cooperate." 

She then looked him up and down. 

"And I'm sure a well-dressed man like yourself is someone I can trust."

Enzo was an attractive man, and while it wasn't talked about often, there is another reason why he is a gentleman and always respectful towards women.

He asked the basic questions, first asking how much Zane knew about Isabel, then the last time they saw each other. And so on. 

While they were talking, the clerk was doing her usual things at the computer, before looking up when hearing the glass door open again. 

The next person, instead of first going up to the clerk's desk, went straight past her, down the hall. She moved quick.

"Hey! Ma'am? Do you have an appointment-"

The person cut her off, pointing a gun at the woman. 

The clerk raised her hands and backed away, back into her seat behind the desk. 

"Shut the fuck up!" Said the person holding the gun. 

"Who came in here before me?!" She asked. 

The clerk stammered, staring down the gun's barrel. 

"Answer me!?! Was it a guy or a girl? Did she have silver hair? Or was it some whore with a big blonde braid??"

"I-I- No! It was a guy!" 

"Perfect." The person huffed, marching down the hall. 

The clerk watched her walk down the hall and turned back to her desk, quickly scrambling for her purse, beginning to pull out her phone. 

The person marched back and quickly shot the woman before she could even react.

"Don't even think about it, bitch."