Nightmares Vs Magic

Malachite ran over to the older necromancer and hugged him tight, as soon as he arrived, then pulled him back down into the basement to help figure out how to undo what they did.

Dove led Vernon out of the warehouse for some fresh air, and soon, they were all able to leave the nightmare warehouse afterwards, marking the paper with Roswell's request 'complete'. 

At the agency, on the gym floor, Annabelle practically bounced on her heels as she and Dove followed Ursa to a special room in the gym floor that was only for her, until someone could also learn to train hellhounds or other such spirits. 

Laurence had taken the collars of the dogs who had died or passed in the labs and brought them to Ursa. If the spirits of the dogs remained vengeful and refusing to pass on, to angered by their deaths, she would strike a deal with them and train them into hell hounds.

The room itself had a door that required a non-physical key only Ursa had, which was tattooed on her arm, so that no one could pick any locks. Inside the room was a red, warm light and shelves surrounding the walls of the room. The shelves all had items that sat by themselves, nothing stacked or bundled. No dust or anything. Every item on each shelf was placed there with polite consideration and care, like they were all relics despite appearing as common items.

In truth, they were all remnants of dogs who fell.

Dogs have historically been known to act as guides for spirits and there are many canine characters in different cultures. From Cerberus in Greek mythology, to dogs in the Chinese zodiacs, and especially the Xoloitzcuintle from the underworld in Mexican mythology, play a significant role in aiding people.

I used to think Ursa was like my mother. Strong, imposing, intimidating, and always professional. But she wasn't. Ursa is surprisingly more,,, empathetic is not the right word, rather, she can put logic to emotions better than most people. I know very little about her beyond that, and that she has a family.

I felt strange about that at first, thinking it was like taking a beaten-up person and taking advantage of their emotional state to make them a servant for the sake of their goals. But Ursa then said something to me, after she could feel me giving the dogs a conflicted look as she made a deal with them.

"These dogs, just like humans, have no idea what happens after they truly pass on. Trying to convince them to give up on their grudges is like telling them to simply, 'get over' all that has happened to them. Obviously, that won't work and they will roam the earth until their goals are met. Better to have them in control as they do, rather than have rogue dark souls wander the world, attacking whatever human ticks them off."

Dove only nodded and watched as she put the old dog collars in the middle of the room, where there was a carpet with a large symbol. 

That is where she did her ritual to summon the spirits and spark a deal with them. Their services in exchange for her ability to grant their desires.

I thought to myself, "Why would she make it vague like that? Her ability to grant their desires? What if she can't fulfill those desires?". Annabelle assured me that Ursa could. Ursa could fulfill any desire of animals, because the desires of such creatures were always reasonable, unlike that of humans, and so Ursa never had an issue making such a deal with any dog. Vengeful dogs who wanted vengeance for their deaths or to find a loved one, or to fulfill one last service of their own.

The wishes and desires of animals have always been more reasonable and purer than any human.

Edith the cat and her kittens were brought all the way to the rooftop garden, along with the rest of the strays that still had some days' worth of life in them. Vernon just didn't want to leave them behind and had them roam free for however long they had left. He and Malachite kept watch of the animals as they recuperated from the incident. Dove went to go join them afterwards, and Joon and Annabelle soon followed to see how they were doing. 

Laurence never let Dove turn around to look at the,,, designer pet, after he put it down. But she knew enough about bullets and how the creature looked to imagine how it looked when dead. The pet made no sound, but she could not help but imagine what sound it must've made as it died. It's a bad habit of hers to imagine how one must've felt when they died or what sound they made, and to have those thoughts linger for a while. 

Malachite sat by the base of one of Vernon's nectarine trees, sketchbook in their lap. Bence had given them a new one to practice their runes and symbols. The notebook they had stacked underneath the sketchbook was for when they needed to communicate and forgot how to sign, the notebook had directions.

Vernon sat beside Dove under one of the lowest branches of the tree, and he waved one hand for it to bend lower so that nectarines hung right in front of them. He beckoned her to pick one and she did. 

"Give me the pits when you're all done eating them, I need them to make charms." He told them. 

"I remember once before that you can use peach or nectarine pits for cyanide, right? Exactly how many fruits have seeds with cyanide components?" Dove asked as she plucked one. 

She took out a pocketknife, a small one, and began cutting the little fruit in her hand into neat slices, before sharing them with Vernon. 

"Almonds, apples, apricots, peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, pears, mangoes, and so on. But the amount in each seed is very little, so it would take large amounts of consumption in order to feel any effect of cyanide poisoning." Vernon answered. 

"The chemists rarely ever make cyanide except with the almonds that he grows. These ones will likely go towards making necklaces for warding off evil." Joon said as he finished a second one. 

He neatly placed it in the basket that was put in the middle of the group, along with a small plate of fruits, chopped bite-size for the rats, raccoons, and possums. 

Vernon had to put up a good argument when pleading with Liora and Lucia to let him keep them. 

Annabelle was sitting laid back on one of the branches and then flipped to hang upside as she dropped her finished pit into the basket, surprising one of the rats and causing them to scuttle away.

"Protection charms don't do much against physical attacks, so if Liora and Lucia are ever interested, I could show them how to make necklaces that transform into swinging maces."

Malachite made a sad noise. The mention of a mace made them think of a club with a spiky ball at the end, and the idea of a spiky ball made them think of a fluffy ball, and the last fluffy ball they saw was a sentient one who had no chance of survival but as some rich woman's living handbag.

This was all expressed through the drawings in their sketchbook. Annabelle tilted her head to look at the pages as she swung down from the tree branch. 

"Your art is getting better! But is that really what that designer pet looked like?" She knelt down and pointed at the latest pencil drawing.

They nodded, sad eyes as they wrote down notes of all the messed up and pitiful features of the pet. 

"No eyes, no feet, no teeth, holes for ears, a digestion system that only allowed a liquid diet, and fur specially designed to match the leather fabric of a popular purse brand." Dove guessed out loud, already knowing the notes that must be written down.

One of the kittens came over, and when noticing that Edith was fine with letting her babies be around them, Joon gently leaned over to a kitten and held his finger out, letting the kitten paw at his finger. 

"By no feet, you mean it was a literal ball?" 

"No, no feet as in it only had nubs for legs. But, seeing as the nubs were so short they couldn't even roll over or walk, they might as well have been a ball. I think that was the intention, just with limbs that the scientists could not completely get rid of when creating the pet."

"Ah genetic mutation. What an abomination of humans. The dogs in Chernobyl are much prettier and functional than the purse dog. At least, I'm guessing it must've been a dog?" Annabelle asked, crouching down to play with the other kittens.

Edith trotted over to Malachite and plopped down next to them. Her eyes were wide open, and she was still turning her head every so often, ears flicking for any sound or trigger. Aside from those, her tail was still swishing as she laid down, and she was likely in the most peace she ever felt. Malachite hesitated to touch her. 

"She's fine, she's at peace. This place will be an Eden for them and the others." Vernon said. 

Malachite's eyes lit up at his words. They looked around, taking a clearer look at the garden before getting up and signing to them that they were going to go find Bence. 

"How did you convince the ladies to let you keep them? And for how long?" Dove asked as she waved bye to Malachite who began making their way out of the garden and to the stairs. 

"I told the ladies that I wanted to start searching for a familiar. They get to stay for as long as I think about my decision, and also however long it takes me to test any of the strays' magical aptitudes and suitability to me." 

"You better test very slowly." Joon said as he noticed one of the stray dogs timidly walk over. 

He reached into one of his many pockets and pulled out a Ziploc bag of dried bacon.

"So that's why the animals kept coming towards you." Dove commented, a flicker of amusement in her eyes as one of the kittens walked over her lap to get to him.

"It's a good tool for when you come across a rabid dog or feral cat or any other animal blocking your path! How do you guys think I always manage to get here on time despite not having a car?" He opened the bag and made soft, whistling sounds to beckon the timid and hurt strays to come closer.

Annabelle said something about wanting to try a similar trick, but more to attract birds or a swarm of insects. Something about a mesmerizing entrance, or an intimidation tactic. 

Before leaving work that day, Dove told Laurence that she would be taking tomorrow off. 

"Mrs. Annie and Mr. Joel need help with Halloween decorations. And I think they also need help with a new dog they adopted. Old Border Collie if I remember correctly. Anyway, I probably won't be available tomorrow."

"Alright. Just stay safe, and if any of the Halloween decor feels sketchy, you're free to bring it here for inspection." Laurence responded from his desk, then he paused, and looked back up from his paper.

"Actually, never mind, if it's not an emergency, don't bring it. We're getting a large shipment of cursed objects tomorrow."

Dove chuckled as Laurence sighed and rubbed his hands down his face, voice muffled. 

"Literally everyone in the building has a part to play in doing cursed object inspection!" He groaned. 

"If you need me to come in tomorrow, I'll tell you when I've finished up my own business." Dove said with a lighthearted tone as she headed for the stairs. Laurence waved her goodnight as he looked in misery at the papers on his desk, telling him the number of cursed objects they were to receive and begin inspecting. 

As he ensured Dove had left and was out of hearing range, he opened his drawer and screamed into it.

Dove went all the way down to the first floor, passing through the magic store that had yet to close. 

Lucia and Liora had a tendency to close very late. You never know when someone suddenly needs to come in for items that ward off evil, or for scented candles. Lucia once recalled that her favorite customers were the ones who came in during the witching hour. 

As Dove was walking through the isles, casually looking at the diverse merchandise on the shelves, she overheard some lingering customers talking. 

"Another influencer went missing I heard." Said a man looking at the perfume bottles, likely as a gift for a partner.

"Oh, was it the guy who did a lot of workout vlogs? I heard he got scammed by a group to go travel to a certain destination." Responded his friend, who rubbed her arm up and down to calm the goosebumps. 

"You think it's a group trying to kidnap people?"

"It must be. There are some human trafficking rings who operate that way. Why else did that one guy online say he got invited to go on a local hunting trip and then never made a follow up?"

"I don't know. He failed big time on the hunting trip and got too embarrassed to post the rest?"

"If that were the case, then he would've deleted the earlier post in the hopes people would forget." 

They soon changed their topic as soon as the woman spotted a perfume that she claimed the man's girlfriend would like. 

Dove passed Liora at the counter and waved goodnight, then stopped and looked up to wave goodnight to Lucia. The wendigo was mystified at how Dove knew where to look, but the girl only shrugged and said, "I just had a feeling."

She got into her car, and while she did think about the topic she overheard, it was only for a moment before she started the ignition and made the drive back to the lighthouse inn. 

You may think me heartless for not butting into the conversation and asking more about these missing people, but if you lived my life, you would know that sticking your nose where it doesn't belong is rarely ever good. 

Besides, if I'm supposed to get involved, the mystery will find its way to me. 

And it would do so in the form of a person who was on the list of missing people, making a sudden appearance the next day. 

Dove woke up early to help the old couple decorate, wearing something more casual, like the outfit her friends convinced her to get during the Rangeley case. She put a Halloween themed reef on the door, decorated all of the outer windows, and placed the carved pumpkins throughout. 

Yesterday while she was at work, Joel and Annie had set up a pumpkin carving stall for the tenants and guests staying at the inn, or for anyone passing by. Because of this, there were many jack-o-lanterns that needed to be placed, and that was where Dove spent the longest time when decorating. 

She made multiple rounds at all the front areas of the inn, trying to find places for each carved pumpkin. Lord knows nobody wants them inside, what with the possibility of all the bugs becoming attracted to them. 

When going to the table where all the other jack-o-lanterns were stacked, Dove suddenly felt the urge to look up and see a figure in the distance. 

It was a motorboat, quickly heading to the shore that could be seen from the area she was standing, but it was also too far for her to distinguish the situation at first glance. When Dove continued to watch the motorboat move towards the shore, Annie came out to check on her and ask why she was just standing there. 

The girl pointed to the shore in the far distance, showing the small group of people that just crashed their boat and desperately got off, still moving somehow. Each one seemed to act panicked and frantic, it was clear even from a distance. 

"Oh my, it looks like some people had a fishing accident." Annie said, watching the scene with Dove.

"Should I go call the police or something? We don't know if they are deranged or not, but either way, they seem to need help." She asked, already taking her phone out. 

"Oh, don't be so assuming sweetie. I've been alive long enough and met enough meth heads to know if a group is high on bath salts. Believe me, they aren't anywhere near cloud nine, they're scared." 

She had Dove follow her to go tell Joel about the people they say on the beach nearby. Joel had also considered getting the police but decided that since their grandson was there that day, they would have both him and Dove go and investigate. 

Joel and Annie's grandson, Jeremiah, was nineteen and the second oldest of their five grandkids. He used to work part-time at their inn during the summer before becoming busy with college and was visiting them during October to try and relax. Exam season was coming soon and he was very stressed, trying anything to distract himself, even small talk as Dove drove them down to the beach to see the strange group. 

"So, are you considering college?" The frat boy-looking nineteen-year-old asked in the passenger seat. 

"No. I graduated high school; I have a job and a car. I have no other goals outside of that." She answered more curtly than intended and bit the inside of her cheek. 

Jeremiah just chuckled awkwardly. 

"M-maybe that's a good choice. Everyone says it's great and you'll figure out who you are there, but really, it's just, a different type of work and busy schedule, and if you think you have a goal when you go in, you come out with a lot of self-doubt." His voice cracked.

"Sounds like you should take a gap year."

"No. What if I forget how to study after coming back from a gap year? Or forget how to be a student?"

"I didn't go to college, nor am I planning to, but I do have some friends in college, and they seem to be thriving. Not because they are focused on studying, but because they seem to be doing well at learning how to be independent and become their own people. Don't take this the wrong way but you sound like a high schooler, not a college student."

Dove cringed internally as soon as it was too late to stop herself.

He sat up straight and looked at her from the side, slightly offended but open to listening.

"What do you mean?"

She hesitated, trying to focus on driving, and then opened her mouth again. 

"I have two friends in college; I see them at work. They don't talk much about their classes because they keep all the classwork and assignment talk at their campuses, while work is for work and perhaps their social lives. They seem to be thriving to me, because they aren't stressing about dedicating their time to being students. They are just focused on learning about themselves. I think you should try it... I-I don't mean that sarcastically, I really do think you should try not being a student. and just trying to be an adult with your new freedom." She gripped her steering wheel tightly.

He huffed a bit and then sat in silence thinking about it.

".... Easy for you to say. You already have a car." He replied in a snarky, joking tone.

Tension eased from Dove's shoulders, not just because he didn't take too much of an offense but because they had now gotten to the beach. 

She parked and they got out, running over and then slowing down as they saw the four people at the beach, muttering and nearly sobbing to each other. 

One of them spotted the two and immediately called for help. 

"You have to help us! We-We were kidnapped and taken to some island!" The woman with drenched hair wailed. 

Her clothes were torn and covered in dirt, as were the others. Dove tossed her keys to Jeremiah and asked him to get some blankets from the trunk of her car. She knew he wouldn't be able to drive off with it because he had no idea how to work the pedals. 

The girl carefully approached and knelt down, asking the woman to clarify. Behind the woman, there were two other women and a man. 

"Would you like me to call the police?"

"NO! No don't! We tried! They killed the police too!" The man in the back yelled as he kept his head facing the ground. 

He was sitting on his heels, heaving as he leaned on his hands that were getting buried in the sand. Between his hands was a recent puddle of vomit. 

The woman sniffed and nearly hyperventilated as grabbed handfuls of sand, trying to ground herself and looking down. 

"We-I, I got this invitation to for a free ride to test some boats. I-I went, and then we drove around on the boats. It was fun, until we noticed the boat driver led us too far from the docks." She sniffled and caught her breath. 

Jeremiah came back with some black blankets. They weren't big but they would do. He gave one to Dove so she could carefully drape it over the woman, while he went to cover the others.

"The boat driver asked if we wanted to s-see this cool island. We did, and then everything went wrong!" She choked up and began sobbing again.

"Right, well, I think I should still call the police." Dove offered calmly. 

"At least so that you can all be identified as found, if anyone reported you missing." 

She took out her phone and began to dial the number, before a hand shot out, trying to stop her. Dove looked up to who grabbed her wrist, and saw one of the other women in ragged, draped clothes, who somehow silently made her way over. She was now staring at Dove with dead tired eyes. 

"They can't help us." She spoke. 

"Right, they probably can't help with your island case, but you all may have been reported missing. I should at least call fire rescue for you. Just to check your health."

The woman let go of her wrist, and then lifted up her torn shirt, revealing a large bite mark that took up nearly the entire space on the right-most side of her torso. The teeth marks ranged from puncture wounds to deep bruises. Clearly, none of the teeth were the same, and whoever that bite mark belonged to, they had a small, horizontally narrow mouth, but a wide, long row of teeth for a grin.

"How, the fuck, do you expect me to explain this to them?" 

Jeremiah stared perplexed after trying to help the guy up and the other woman up. He looked in horror, wondering what could've possibly bit her, while the woman stared down at Dove, waiting for an answer or none at all, expecting the girl to be just as shocked as the boy. 

Dove only studied the bite mark, and then made eye contact with the woman, regret and worry filling her eyes. 

"Maybe, you can't explain that to any normal people, but,,,," She paused and considered before deciding. "I might know some people, if they aren't too busy."

It was difficult, figuring out how to get four people into her convertible and drive them to Macabre House without catching attention from the police, and so she opted to gulp down her worries as she called Laurence, hoping he wouldn't respond with a too-annoyed tone. 

Surprisingly, he picked up quickly and greeted in a calm voice. 

"Everything ok?" He asked genuinely, as if there weren't boxes of cursed objects at the office that he and other workers had to sift through. As if he wasn't swamped with work, acting as if he was perfectly available for Dove if she needed help, and only picked up as fast as he did because he saw Dove's name on his phone screen. 

"Well, I'd hate to bother you, but-" She blinked and pushed back her nerves to answer quickly, knowing her mother taught her that if she hesitated or waited too long just because she was trying to be polite and say all these considerate things, she'd never get her point across.

"I found a group of people that need emergency medical service that normal med workers can't provide. And a possible case for a kidnapping revolved around an island containing nightmares hunting humans. There are four of them and not enough room in my car." 

She was expecting Laurence to let out a long, very tired annoyed groan from the other end, maybe even expecting him to lecture or tell her that they are too busy and she'll have to call the Police or EMS. But he never did, he simply asked more questions, such as what clues told her it definitely had to do with their area of expertise, that the people weren't high, where she was, and the status of the people she was calling for. 

He ended the call after telling her to wait there for someone to come by and help her bring them all to Macabre House. 

Jeremiah asked her what in the world was going on and what the heck she was talking about on the phone. She simply told him it was difficult to explain since he didn't work in her field. He asked what kind of job she had that made her say words like 'nightmare', 'haunted folk', and 'special medical attention for a mystery bite'. All she could say was that she worked in a trauma center basically, and that she doesn't know how to fully explain it either. 

Before help arrived, she drove him back to the inn, before going back to the beach and seeing Leon's brothers again, arriving in a different car this time. They were revealed to be staying in Maine for a while and were the only ones available to offer a helping hand. 

Before Dove could even explain the situation, one of the women who had been silent the whole time, saw Dimitri and Jean, pointed at them, and screamed. 

"Vampires!" In a tone of horror rather than the typical excitement others would've had. 

The others tried to weakly get up and run. That pretty much told the couple all they needed to know without Dove having to explain, and they helped her get both of them into the cars.

After much negotiation and calming work, both cars made it to Macabre house, each holding two of the heavily traumatized people. 

Liora saw and helped them bring the people up to the second floor to get treated. 

The woman with the bite-wound was already drowsy and passed out as soon as she was given a cot. 

The man who threw up earlier, was the only one who had the stomach to recall the events as he sat up in his cot. Dove was given a chair and sat in front of him, using a recording app before he started. She asked him to start from the beginning, and to kindly not omit any details, promising not to judge or get them in trouble.

"A bunch of us got invitations or were tricked into coming in different ways. Whoever kidnapped each of us weren't picking at random, they were looking for specific people and said that we were one of those targets. People who could see the cursed things?" 

"Haunted folk. You can see the supernatural, ghosts, monsters, and shadows with faces from the corners of your eyes I assume?"

He nodded, had wide eyes but soon got over it and continued. That revelation was nothing compared to what he had just been through. 

"They were looking for people like us and tricked us all into going to this island that no one recognized. We were all given different stories of what it was supposed to be, but everyone soon realized what it was after the first person screamed something about a demon, and we all saw blood."

"Did you see the people who took you to the island?"

"Each of the guys who took us wore sunglasses and a hat. We never saw them after they took us to the island."

"Do you know where this island is located?"

"No. They told us it was private owned, and none of us recognized it."

"How many other people are still on the island?"

"Several. Don't know if they are still looking for people."

Dove took a long pause, hesitating with her final question. She watched and observed the man for any signs of lingering panic. His breathing took an hour to steady after some assistants gave him some medicine to calm his heart rate and breathing. 

"What did you see on the island?"

It was silent for a moment. The man fiddled with his hands, squeezing his fingers. 

"Freaks." He said, one by one.

"Demons maybe. People or something, they didn't act like people. Messed up moose, disembodied faces in the dark." He gulped

"Monsters."

Leon was coming over, wanting to check on Dove as well and overheard. 

"That many nightmares in one place?"

She turned her head and looked up at him.

"Nightmares,,, yeah that's one way to describe them." The guy murmured, head down with eyes still sunken with shadows.

Dove stopped recording and stood up, telling Leon that she was going to pass all the information on to Laurence. He only let her go after she reassured that she was fine. 

"Sorry if I'm being invasive." He said to her politely as she he walked her to the exit.

"I just can't help but notice the bags under your eyes." 

"Those are fine. I've had them for years." 

When opening the door to the stairs, Leon called out right before she left.

"Murder and human trafficking have been around for years, but that doesn't make them fine or something you should just let slide."

"Good point, but seriously, I'm fine."

Making her way up the stairs, she sent the recorded file to Laurence via email and eventually met him on the detectives' floor. 

The desks were covered. Each one had a large box or several small ones and everyone was filling out a paper for each one. 

First question on the paper was to check if it was actually haunted or if the client only wanted reassurances that the item sent wasn't haunted. If it was, there were more to fill out, such as what type of haunting and what kind of entity it was.

Those boxes in the paper required descriptions and all the reports had to be hand-written, lest they run the risk of making all these digital reports and the printer unable to print anything out. 

Bence isn't available to fix the printer with holy water, and all of the holy water is being used. 

Laurence had been waiting for Dove, and her desk was the only one that was empty. Mostly because she wasn't available and Laurence knew she was coming so he ensured her desk was clean in case she brought some cursed items of her own. 

"Are you ok?" He asked as she came over. 

"I don't know what about me causes everyone to keep asking, but yes, I'm fine."

She pulled the chair from her desk to sit beside him as he pulled up the recording she sent. 

"He had absolutely no idea where this island was?"

"No. The only clue we have is that the mystery island was close enough that they could make it back to the mainland by motorboat, at what I could guess was such a high speed because they crashed onto the shore. It must've been an hour, but I didn't inspect the motor before bringing them here since I wouldn't know what to look for. And when Leon's team gave them all a checkup, they weren't suffering from hunger or sleep deprivation."

Laurence hummed and sighed into his hands, face up to the ceiling. 

"I'm really sorry to bring this up, I know everybody is swamped already." 

Laurence waved off her apology, telling her there was no need to apologize. 

"This happens more often than you think." He told her as he opened a new page on his computer and popped the bones in his fingers. 

"Last year it was searching for a group in a cornfield, and the year before that was an entire bleeding mine in a small town. This isn't new, I'm just sorry that we don't have anyone available to go search for those people."

Dove nearly bit her tongue. Laurence began doing research on his desktop, fingers flying over the keys.

"I can do what I can to try and find this mystery island, but I don't have a lot of knowledge in geography. Adan has been working on a special item that should definitely make the search easier, but I have yet to hear if it's ready."

"...That's alright. I'll go myself and check, and,,, I can gather whoever I can find to come help me." She said with reluctance, mostly because she didn't know why she'd volunteer herself to work on such a case. 

Laurence was also unnerved to hear her imply that she'd be going and gave her a deeply worried expression. His fingers paused their typing. 

"...No. You can't go." He said instantly in a hushed tone, like he was slightly in disbelief at what she implied.

"You're too young, and I know you don't want to."

"I don't, but who else can go?"

"Anyone else but an intern."

"Who specifically then?"

He was silent and then shook his head. The item that he was currently inspecting, a vintage hand mirror with a rustic crack, he placed it back in it's case, closed that box, and put it gently to the side. 

"I'll go, and I'll gather a team to come with me."

"You're not allowed on field missions."

"And I'm not allowing you to go on this one."

"How do you even know that the danger levels are too high for me?" 

He stood up from his seat and looked through his drawer before closing and locking it, then began to pace and Dove kept up with him. She was not begging him to let her go on this case so she can help people. She was not eager to be a helper or savior. If someone is in a deadly situation, she cannot promise a rescue. That, she is very well aware of, but she never wants to be labeled a bystander.

"McCallister, I'm gonna have to hand over my batch to you, sorry!" He called out to another coworker who was hunched over at her desk, her pile being boxes of vintage dolls.

She gasped and made a silent scream at his in distraught. He returned her silent scream with a silent apology and continued walking as he went over to the elevator, Dove still following him. 

He was not trying to avoid or ignore her, in fact, he waited for her to enter the elevator with him before he pressed the button for the Alchemy floor.

"It's October, and at least one or two low mortality rated cases always appear during this month. I don't want you to get hurt or more traumatized than you already are."

"What makes you think I don't want the same for you?" She retorted

Silence filled the elevator. The main detective sighed, hands held behind his back as they waited. 

"How about neither of us go, and we have some experienced combatants go instead. Some field agents came by today; we can get them to go."

"Can we? Will there be enough hands to help keep up with the order of item inspections today?"

".... Let me pick and gather who I think will be eligible, and then we'll decide further. Is that alright?"

"For now."

"Annabelle taught you well in terms of verbal deals."