Nightmares Vs Magic

I had a theory that he set everything up just to get me to act differently, to see if there was something in me that he thought I had. I don't know what he thinks he saw, I just saw an opportunity to make the noises stop, but there I was, suddenly on my first errand out of the building. Except it wasn't just an errand, it was a whole field mission that only the detectives and other experienced peers went on, and I was apparently shadowing Laurence who's going on it?

Laurence told Dove about a possible open position she could be qualified for if she wanted to graduate from the intern position, and instead of asking her for a yes or no, he added in that he needed a hand with a field assignment, subtly tricking her into shadowing him on a case like this.

She sat silently in the passenger seat of his car as they followed the one in front, driven by the Necromancer who was also bringing some interns with him on this simple assignment.

"These places tend to have very old buildings, and well, I'm sure you're aware that some sketchy things have happened in the past, back when people were none the wiser." The detective began filling her in as Dove stared out front.

Her folded hands in her lap digging into her palm.

"We got several confirmed reports about some strange movements coming from an old property, sometimes at night, other times during the day. Either way, both are when the noises and eyes of others feels scarce, and the real estate agent is getting frustrated with the lack of potential buyers."

"Why wouldn't the regular police be called for this?"

"Because, when a normal detective went inside the house to investigate, he never came back out. The real estate agent even investigated the property himself, claiming that it was alive and out of his control. 'I almost didn't make it out alive!' are his exact words. Said he would find the dead or tied up bodies of people that weren't there the day before."

"... So, he's desperate and almost going crazy?"

The detective chuckled beside her, as they followed the car in front onto a road leading further out of town, where more weeds grow, and the older houses reside.

"Crazy is definitely what these entities are trying to make him, I believe."

"I see..." Dove stares out at the car they're following, she could see Annabelle sitting in the back seat, giving her a backwards wave from the back window, knowing the silver girl was staring.

"I thought you and Sienna were supposed to meet..." She said with an unsure tone, but she would rather keep sounding unsure as she spoke rather than let there be awkward silence between her and someone whom she is mildly comfortable around, potentially distancing them.

"No, she's one of the field agents we have, so she's typically gone for a while. Today was the day she'd give her report on everything and recoup, but she can also be a bit, uhh..."

"Hmm?"

"Well, laidback, and would just view the bickering as entertainment, maybe even add fuel to the fire." He sighed.

After following the long road into the old neighborhoods, the two cars park at a fairly large house of two stories, made of red wood and bricks, looked like it was built in the early 1900s for a big family, at least what I could imagine from all my reading. A fence around the house to keep the kids in, big gates for the working daddy to drive through after a hard day of work, and double doors for everyone to walk in without pushing. Only it would've been a struggle for the poor mother who would've had to clean up all those windows.

Laurence gave some instructions to Dove, while Bence did the same for the more excited interns, well mostly Annabelle and Joon, Vernon went to observe the vines that had climbed and dominated most parts of the house, Bence tried to keep the wandering boy within hearing range anyway, hoping he doesn't go wandering off like a cat. Vernon went off anyway, and Bence had planned to give the same instructions to him later.

- Go in pairs at least, or in groups.

"In this case, two groups of three is suggested since you're all new."

- Take a picture of anything you feel you should take a picture of, regardless of how insignificant it looks.

- Avoid touching anything especially if you feel tempted to.

- Never step into any type of room alone, you can peek your head past the doorway but don't step fully through. Regardless of if there's a door or not.

- If you see a doll or any type of children's toy, do not turn your back to it. Keep your eyes on it just in case, remember which room you're in and immediately call for Bence.

- If you see anything move or anything suspicious, anything at all, pick it up and interact with it, or chase after it.

"Wait, what?" Joon interrupted as they all stood on the front porch of the house, hands on his hips.

"Don't you mean ignore it?"

"We're intentionally hunting down whatever is causing the disturbances, any clue that leads to them, we follow." Laurence summarized, reminding him of the purpose of the case.

Some of them tilted their heads over to see Vernon, seemingly reading the roots and vines all over the windows and climbing up to the roofs, waving his hand up like a cat wanting to grab them.

"So, did you guys volunteer for this?" Dove asked them as Bence searched around the yard first, his eyes almost glowing. She ignored that.

"I have been begging them to let me have my firsthand experience as an investigative guard!" the blonde-haired girl squealed, all giddy and holding her hands together as she gushed at the large, eerie old house.

"Guard?"

"You've heard, right?" Joon said, holding up his phone eagerly in camera mode.

Dove noticed a small notebook in one of the pockets of his black cargo shorts.

"Whenever a team is sent out to investigate, at least one guard is needed! It looks like you're being tested for the detective role."

He tilts his head over to where Laurence was, studying the floorplan layout of the house that the real estate agent emailed to him, comparing it to his notes of strange sightings and sounds.

Dove stared at him as if he was a teenager high for the first time, not on a lot but enough to convince himself as he excitedly tries to act as high and cool as whatever pothead friends he might sit with in a situation where a teenager is led astray.

"... I think you might have the wrong people, one being me for the detective role, and two, Annabelle, as a guard... No offense." She told the graceful women who, while she was much taller than the average girl, didn't appear to have a lot of muscle on her.

"None taken, I know I don't look the part. I do that on purpose!" She said cheerfully, looking at her cute-looking gym uniform that still had some specks of dried-up blood on it from whatever poor guests who signed up, and paid for, defense classes on the gym floor, just to get bloodied up by inhumane attacks. She wore a long cardigan with long sleeves, but Dove still noticed the wraps she wore, staring from her knuckles. 

Like the kinds of bandages that professional martial artists wore during practice.

Annabelle looked like she wanted to try and climb the vines into the window. Dove followed the girl's excited beady eyes up to the windows on the second floor, where she noticed a silhouette of something moving away and hiding out of view.

Too quick to take a picture.

"If you're not here for the detective role, then why did they bring you on this test run?" Joon asked, bringing her attention back.

Before Dove could answer, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Vernon beginning to act strangely. He looked like he was having a telepathic conversation with one of the trees in the yard, tilting his head at it. He then pointed to some spot on the ground. 

"Really? Here?" He seemingly asked to the tree. 

Bence heard him and walked over just in time to find Vernon staring at a spot in the ground, which began moving on its own. Vernon looked excited, his pupils dilating like a cat. 

"Uh, Vernon? What do you have there?" Bence asked him, trying to get the boy's attention. 

"I found a skeleton!" He said in the softest, excited voice ever heard. It was like he speaking in the same volume, yet you could tell he was raising his voice in a happy tone. His fists punching the air with glee as he kept staring at the spot that was digging itself up for him. 

In the ground was slowly revealed to be a skeleton that has come apart, but the roots in the ground seem to lift all the pieces up in order, just for Vernon. He smiles a toothy grin, making excited little hops in place, unable to show his excitement in any other physical way.

"It's a full skeleton! And it's still fresh! You can see how much calcium it still has because the bones are still white! I can get so much phosphorus from this!" 

Dove and Joon looked at his discovery in awe, shocked that he found a skeleton out of the blue, Annabelle and Bence didn't look all that shocked. 

Bence instead looked around the wide property of the house, scanning it. 

"Well, it seems like he doesn't need my help." He shrugged. 

Dove was confused as she watched Vernon move on to a different spot, the ground digging itself up for him, and the roots helping to lift more bones out of the ground. This time, it was the bones of a large rat, based on the skull. 

"No headstones, and no signs that the spots dug up were marked for a burial ground. Looks like either some undocumented deaths occurred here, or this place was used for killers to hide corpses after the house was abandoned." Laurence said, kneeling down to first look at the human skeleton which was still being held up by the roots from the ground.

The fact that the skeleton was still wrapped up in old and near rotted, but still in-tact clothes helped the roots a lot. 

Dove knelt down beside him, examining the color of the bones. She looked at the clothes it was wearing, which looked similar to that of a suit, the fabric rotted from being underground for so long. 

"Did the real estate agent say anything about what happened to the owner.

"From the only information he knows, the owner moved out with his family. It could be wrong, and it's possible that there could be a chance of identity theft. There's not enough evidence to make a theory yet."

Joon and Annabelle were following behind Vernon, who was enjoying his own world, walking to another spot, sensing the ground for more bones. Bence gently asked for him to stop, as soon as he noticed the size of the full skeleton.

Still wrapped in its blanket like a former bundle of joy, was the skeleton of a baby. It looked very small, like the size of a newborn.

"... Vernon, I hope you know, you can't take any of these back to the garden. We'll have to send these over to get DNA tested to find their families." 

The boy turned to him with a surprised and confused look. Bence continued as he then carefully picked the newborn's bones, placing them gently on the ground. 

"I'm sorry, I know you were hoping to find some bone meal, but we can't use any of these. Especially the baby bones. But, if it's no trouble, can you search for the rest?"

"I'll stay with him to search!" Joon raised his hand, also wanting to study the bones that Vernon finds. 

I remember how Joon told me about his prosthetic leg. He likely wanted to study the mobility of the bones and somehow combine that with his prosthetic designs. 

"Do not touch any of them, and don't try to move anything." Laurence told him carefully as he began taking some keys out from his pocket, presumably the keys to the house that the agent gave him to temporarily use.

Him, Bence, Annabelle and Dove were heading to the house to begin investigating. 

"We need to know what positions the bones were buried in, just in case this haunted house case turns into that of an actual murder mystery."

Joon shrugged him off and continued to follow after Vernon.

"I work in a lab! I already know the 'don't touch, don't move' rule!" 

"Come join us inside as soon as you're both done. We may need your help." Bence said to them one more time before the group separated.

The house smelled of dust, of the past, of time stood frozen as soon as they all walked in, Dove looking over her shoulder to glance one more time at Vernon who was seemingly at peace in his own world, Joon was with him, using his phone to take multiple pictures and multiple different angles of the skeletons.

All of the furniture and decorations were left behind, set frozen in time of keeping the atmosphere of what the home used to be like. Delicate fabrics of doilies on the table, the big shelves placed strategically in the hallways, lined against the pink painted walls, a grandfather clock right in the living room, the first thing to be seen as soon as someone enters the doorframe.

A lovely, realistic dollhouse for playing pretend. It had to have been pretend, it definitely wasn't set up for the intention of showing off.

"Scratch marks." She said quietly to herself, pointing and humming to the scratch marks on the floor around the chair and the table, and even some of the desk pieces.

The detective grinned lightly as she took her phone out, taking a picture of the marks all around the floor, and some of the rubbed marks on the pink doll-like walls.

"Dove, you're with me. I'm sure Bence is experienced enough to handle the eccentric intern as usual as usual?" He subtly teased the necromancer, who clicked his tongue as he led Annabelle with him down one side of the house, hinting that they were going to survey the first floor.

The staircase to the second floor had that dark, polished wood with finely carved details on the railing posts, unlike the summarized and manufactured designs today, it was easy to tell it was polished due to the smooth texture after Dove swiped some of the dust off, rubbing it between her fingers.

"Does it feel normal? Cold in anyway?"

"Just the wood is cold... Is it really okay for us to just leave them out there-"

The double doors of the house suddenly slammed shut. Dove froze, and then slowly, cautiously walked toward them, grabbed the handles, and pushed as she turned the handles left and right. 

Multiple knocks could be heard from outside as Joon showed he was also trying to open the doors from the outside.

"You guys okay in there?"

"... I think so?" She looked to Laurence for confirmation. 

He looked around the house, and aside from the doors, nothing else bad was happening. 

"It's alright. Likely the ghost just trying to scare us. If anything happens, one of us from the inside will call you to pry the doors open. If hours pass and nobody answers when you try to call us, break the doors down. Until, let's just keep doing our separate jobs."

"Got it." Joon said from the other side, his footsteps heard stepping away from the doors.

Dove turned to follow Laurence as he gave her a reassuring nod.

"We're just, going to continue as is?"

"Looks like we don't have a choice... but at least we know everyone has their phones, and our devices still work here."

Dove still stayed silent and stuck close to Laurence as they walked up the stairs to the second floor. Each step made a heavy creaking noise, and he would tell her not to worry as it's simply the house playing tricks on them to get them to physically stutter and slip up.

The amount of dust on the rails would've allowed to make it slippery.

Another hallway, doors on either side of the halls. She takes a picture aimed down the hallway.

"Will something bad happen if we take too long?" She asked as he counted down the rooms going down the hall from their spot.

"Well, there's no evidence to confirm that, it's just now become clear that there is a ghost residing here that's strong enough to manipulate the house."

The girl seemed to wake up a bit more, not in an excited way, just more like she was able to hear a signal in his sentence on where to pinpoint most of her energy towards to fulfill a goal, making it easier, making her more motivated. She pointed all the way to the end of the hall.

"Attic." Was all she said as she walked down the hall in firm footsteps, rotating her head, left and right passing each of the rooms.

At least, I had assumed they all looked the same at first.

Laurence didn't say anything, just letting her lead as he scanned each of the rooms more thoroughly, walking behind her.

Dove took another picture and then pulled the string of the attic door down, stepping aside to see the ladder slip down and hit the wooden floor.

Dust clouds everywhere, not much of a surprise, but she did try to ignore the aching feeling in her eyes, only to sooner give in and turn away, scrunching her face and snapping her eyes shut, bringing her hands up upon reflex.

He rushed towards her concerned, wafting the dust clouds away as he held a hand near her face, as if wanting to hold her head to see but not wanting to touch her.

"Hey. Hey, are you okay?"

"Yes." She answered instinctively, even though it wasn't true.

Outside of that strange building where I couldn't stop being honest or saying everything on my mind at the moment, I was back to my old instant answer habits here. I was sort of happy, even if my instinctive answers don't match what I'm actually feeling.

"No, you're not." He fired back gently.

"Here, open your eyes slowly, pull your top eyelid down and tilt your head downward." He instructed, hovering his hands over her shoulders as she followed along.

With her eyes all fully watery, she hung her head low, wiping her eyes back to normal quickly.

"Sorry." She spoke.

"Don't apologize, just be more careful next time."

He went up before her, sticking his phone in first, recording a video as he turned his arm, rotating so that the camera was able to look around instead of him sticking his head up the dusty room.

He pulled it back down, watching the video he just shot, eyebrows creasing as he studied it.

Dove said nothing in the hopes of not disturbing him, taking another photo aimed down the hall, now from the opposite end.

She suddenly put a hand on the back of her nape, feeling a shiver as Laurence fully stepped off the ladder, face serious.

"We're keeping our eyes on this, call for Bence and the others."

She nodded as she stood stiffly, stepping back as he crossed his arms, staring pensively at the attic entrance, also urging her to step back as he extended his hand outward, like blocking her from it.

Dove used Annabelle's phone number to reach the group, she didn't have the necromancer's number, but she wasn't going to shout throughout the house for them.

"Please tell Mr. Bence to come upstairs, you as well please."

Rapid footsteps could be heard shuffling throughout the house, really helping in understanding how much noise could travel throughout the house's structure.

"That came out awfully polite." Laurence said on the offside.

He lightly grinned as he kept his eyes steady and up.

"Well, the others usually talk very polite... I don't know why I said that." Dove looked away, slightly embarrassed.

"You don't have call formally to any of us, we're not Korean." He lightly teased. "Except maybe Joon? I'm not exactly sure."

Dove pursed her lips. 

"You're not sure as in..."

"I never heard him speak Korean, I know he knows a lot of Korean dishes, but sometimes Adan, the guy you saw earlier, would recall Joon occasionally cursing under his breath in Chinese."

The footsteps grew louder so for just a second, Dove looked over her shoulder to see if they had come up yet, the footsteps all collectively sounding so loud.

There was no one there.

Her phone was still on call with Annabelle but suddenly heard her voice outside of the phone.

"Where are you?!" She heard Annabelle yell out.

"Upstairs!"

"Where are the stairs?!"

Her chest, slowly like it had fully woken up, rose up and down slowly, as Dove's eyes widened, and she side glanced at Laurence, who's eyes were also wide, pupils shaking but he was also grinning. Grinning tiredly, like a parent who just witnessed their child break something but can't be too mad at them and honestly expected it.

As Annabelle was asking for a response from the other side, Laurence gently took the lead with the call.

"Don't panic, don't rush. Somethings, happening, stay close to Bence, he'll tell you the rest."

*Beep*

"Hah, so this is how the spirits want to play. We didn't even do anything yet."

"I'm sorry." She said, eyes growing worried not out of fear of the house shifting, but of her mistake as she tries her best to look him in the eye through her shame.

Walking backwards, he placed his hand on her shoulder to have her follow as they continued watching the attic entrance, waiting for whatever was now waking up.

"It's ok. Just don't panic, so I didn't explain any instructions for scenarios like this since it can be hard to just remember on the spot, so I'm telling you now: If it appears the entity that we still haven't found is beginning to mess with us, we can either approach it or run."

"Okay, and I'm really sorry." She said, thoughtlessly just responding as that was better than silence.

"For?"

"For triggering something that got us trapped."

"It's okay, relax. We were looking for a trigger anyway, remember? 'If you see anything strange, pick it up and interact with it, or chase after it. You did good, you found something." He patted her shoulder and reminded her of the last rule he and Bence gave the interns before splitting up.

Dove gulped and nodded, holding back from apologizing again as she focused her attention to their surroundings instead, trying to be helpful.

The lights throughout the house faded in and out but it was too slow to see at first, only noticed when the sounds of old window curtains were heard, and the rings that kept them hanging onto the poles made shaking and clattering noises, polished wood against metal poles as the curtains flew closed for every window, and we could all hear the double doors of the entrance slam shut.

And suddenly, everything inside looked different. Blink once, it's the same just dark, blink again and things have moved, the paintings on the walls have different looking characters painted on them. It was like a filter cloaked over to a child's monochromatic play world. A lullaby-like melody, one played from a music box, started playing, I couldn't pinpoint the source, but the music was definitely the source of the hallucinations.

As they continued stepping back carefully whilst the music got louder, Laurence waved a hand behind him, searching for the post to the staircase. Dove looked back just a bit to see there was no longer any stairs, just a long hallway with doors on each side. Like an infinite corridor.

They were less shocked and more one sighing while the other tutted quietly.

"New plan. we can either go up that attic or down the hall."

Dove hummed, looking at all the rooms, seeing every door was open, like the house was trying to reveal something, like it wasn't hiding, aside from having dragged the curtains over the windows to block out the light.

Like we were being hidden from the world.

"Do all the rooms look the same to you?" She asked him as she carefully walked over to one of the open rooms, staying a good distance away from the threshold.

"They do, don't doubt yourself if you also saw it. Must be why all the doors are wide open. Normally ghosts like to keep all the doors closed, multiple surprises for the visitors. This one clearly wants us to see them."

"Likely for... three reasons I can think of." She turns her body to look at Laurence, to see if he was paying attention.

He never stopped paying attention and had eyes and ears on her, giving a grin and nodding for her to continue.

While it was comforting to know he was paying attention to what I was saying, it was also nerve wracking to hope I didn't guess wrong.

"One, the entity wants to show us a specific room they are clearly very tied to, from life to death. Two, it's, mostly tied to the first but, the entity wants to bait us into this specific room they are particular about. Three, it's both reasons."

Laurence hums as the young woman fiddles with her suit jacket, walking over to stand next to her to study one room as best he could from the only opened door and the best angle they could get.

There was a shower built inside but it wasn't a bathroom, it was clearly a bedroom what with the carpet and the stuffed animals.

The bed was peculiar, specifically it's frame. It looked a giant crib but with a lid on it, more like a mattress inside a cage. All the other rooms were slightly different based on wallpaper, or the different toys, but they all had the same set up.

"The stuffed animals..." Dove murmured, and the detective hummed, wondering what she meant.

"They have stitch marks all over, I can see them, even from this distance." She bowed and tilted her upper body further, to look just a bit closer, taking another photo.

SNAP!

The door shut right as Laurence grabbed her shoulder and reeled her back, nearly just getting her nose. 

A child's laughter - no, not exactly a child's laughter - more like the voice of an adult woman giggling like that of a child and then switching into an adult voice.

"Go to your room!" The voice said in a scolding tone. 

"Well, that definitely confirms your hypothesis, now if we can make a theory about a 'why' for all of this." He says while thinking, the gears turning as he pulls her away from the door, nearly lost in his own world of calculating logic with his hand still grasping her shoulder to keep her safe.

Dove simply lets him and quietly maneuvers his hand from her shoulder, grabbing onto his wrist to pull him along as they walk further down the hall.

All eyes were taken off the attic as soon as it was the rooms' turns to be studied, so of course it disappeared, and of course, the music could still be heard. All the rooms really looked the same, with the stuffed animals and everything, if only it was less black and white, it would've been easier to see, but the important details were easy to find.

"A shower in the room, a cage for a bed, and stuffed animals that have been torn and then fixed again, trauma, clearly, but a room with a built-in shower..."

She blinks an epiphany and turns to Laurence, squeezing his wrist to garner his attention, it didn't work, and he was looking at the other rooms, but he also seemed to have an idea as he returns her gaze.

"Do you have a guess too?"

"Yes. But it might sound rude."

"Not unless you phrase it carefully."

She gulped nervously.

"These entities had a mental illness when they were alive, and these are the rooms their family kept them in."