Nightmares Vs Magic

The man who called himself 'Simon', showed the group a notebook he had brought with him. Inside were recordings and sketches all done in pen. It was the only form of entertainment the man had when he kept himself safe inside the cabin that had nothing but old, wooden furniture, a few chairs that he occasionally used as barricades, and a dusty old couch. Laurence had the girls sit down as he read through the man's notes.

"Those are pretty detailed. And, you're definitely not crazy?" Laurence commented as he looked from the pages to the guy. 

The guy took the notebook back with disappointment. 

"I should've known you guys were too normal to understand." He said with disappointment. 

"Sorry, sorry, I shouldn't have said crazy. But it is a bad idea for you to draw full, realistic sketches of those creatures." 

"What?"

There came the knocking sounds at the cabin door. A slow, rhythmic, continuous knocking. 

As if expecting it and having made a whole routine for it, Simon signaled for them all to remain quiet and to avoid looking at the windows. He went and pulled the table next to the door, sliding it in front of the entrance and ensuring it was locked. 

"Don't make too much noise! The crawler will hear you!" He whispered to them.

"And who is this crawler?" Laurence whispered back, not alarmed like the guy, just observing him.

Annabelle, still with her tired eyes and grin, boldly looked up and looked at the window next to the door. There was a clear attempt someone had made to barricade the window with some wooden boards. But the monster peeking inside knew which cracks in between the boards would allow anyone inside to get a clear glimpse of just its eyes and the tip of its mouth. 

"Is that the crawler?" She chirped in a chipper voice and pointed at the window.

The creature at the window clearly had an unnaturally long neck that allowed the body to stand right in front of the door, while the head careened to stare through the window just a foot from the door. 

Wide, doll-like eyes with a scarlet-stained rim around them, pale-skin that was beginning to turn yellow the same a human's skin would from the lack of sun, and a mouth shaped like a long 'V', the corners of the mouth nearly reaching past around the eyes. It was like the mouth was put through surgery to be bent that way. Pair that with its long, greasy black hair, 

As soon as Annabelle gave it any attention, it opened its mouth about as best as a flat, human face could with a 'V' shaped mouth and made another knocking sound on the door as its eyes pressed further into the window. 

"D-don't- You shouldn't have let it know you could see it!!!" Simon panicked, ducking his head away from the window as he opened his notebook backup, frantically flipped through the pages, and tossed it to Laurence. 

He kept his head down and rushed around the room, looking for more items to possibly block the windows. Laurence was calm and so were the girls. The detective looked at the man's notes as he recited what he wrote in it from memory, still pacing to cover the window as a carving sound could be heard. 

The creature held up one hand, one hand that appeared more like a claw made up of no nails, but human skin. Like there was no muscle but bone underneath the skin. Sharp bones, and they were carving their sharp bone finger against the window. 

"This creature found me once and chased me one night. It chased me to this cabin that I made my safe place! It knocks on the door every night as it stares through the window! Mocking me, smiling at me, trying to get inside! It's weak but if I give it too much attention, or any attention whatsoever, it will start becoming more aggressive! Bullets don't work on it, I've tried, bullets don't work on any creatures here!" 

Simon tried to wrestle Annabelle down to get her to stop giving the creature attention as it then summoned another claw and was scratching at the glass. Sharp teeth, teeth that were similar to the shape of nails, making the mouth look like there were nails inside its mouth, coming out and growing longer and sharper. 

He could not get her to budge and opened another door in the room, rushing to tell Laurence and Dove to follow him further inside the house to hide, and to leave Annabelle. 

"This girl with the freakishly long hair is going to get us killed!"

He noticed Laurence and Dove were acting calm, Laurence was flipping through other pages of the man's notes, taking note of other monster sketches and the recorded facts that Simon knew so far about them.

"Hello!??! Are you guys trying to die??!?!"

Laurence, deciding he was making the poor soul panic enough and having gotten enough information that he needed at the moment, snapped the notebook closed. From the corner of his eye, he observed the monster who was now creating more noise, one of them being the jiggling of the doorknob as it began to scream and make chomping motions with its mouth, making sure they could all see their mouth through the window. 

The detective took his gun out and aimed. 

The bullet flew right between the wooden planks, cracking the glass, went between the creature's eyes, and a splattering sound was made. 

Its eyes rolled into the back of its head as it collapsed, Simon let out a noise between a scream and gasp.

"How did- but- how, bullets didn't work on it before." He stammered, one hand clutching his chest while the other clutched the door that he had opened, leading to another room. 

"Not normal bullets of course. Ghost bullets are what work best for the supernatural."

Laurence waited his gun to cool as he held the notebook with care, which was still opened to the page with drawing of the monster that mimicked the one previously standing at the window. 

"What you called 'the crawler', we call the typical nightmare created from people's common fears of seeing something scary in a window at night, and the fear of random knocking sounds coming from anything not human."

He put his gun away and took the page of the monster, said a quick apology to the man, and began ripping the page out. 

"What are you doing?! I spent so many sleepless nights taking observation notes to learn all I could about that thing!" Simon said, rushing over and trying to reach the page Laurence took out. 

"These types of creatures are born from people's basic fears. They are highly attracted to people who are easy to scare, and of course, drawing about or writing in detail about the creature is also likely to attract it." Laurence told him, keeping the paper out of the guy's reach. 

He crumpled it into a ball and tossed it to Annabelle for her to shred. 

"Please think about it, you said the creature chased you into this cabin at night, right? Did it stay at your window until morning? Did it leave you alone the next night? Or did the creature start knocking at your door every night ever since you wrote and drew about it?"

The man stopped thrashing and struggling for his notebook, pausing to think about Laurence's questions and settling down. Dove peeked past the recently opened door into the next room, seeing more items inside. 

"I guess, when I came to this island at first..." The guy collected his thoughts and memories, piecing them together. 

"I saw that creature once when I first arrived, chasing someone else, I drew a picture of the thing, because that's what I do- I-I draw, to cope, and then suddenly it chased me one night, into this cabin... Y-You're saying I pretty much summoned it to me?!" 

The detective nodded, giving him back his notebook. 

"Pretty much, but don't blame yourself. Nightmares prey on humans and so of course they'll have the most random rules and ways to attract or summon them."

The guy looked down, sheepish and pondering everything else he had done to try and survive.

"Is, is there anything else in this notebook that's causing monsters to be attracted to me?" He looked up and asked. 

"Because, I thought I was good at surviving, but clearly,,," 

"Say no more. I was thinking we should head out anyway, search for the rest of our teammates. since you took a bunch of notes on monsters anyway, might as well use it to our advantage and read through it. See what to expect. Perhaps you can also help us find some of the kidnapped people while we're at it." 

He went to check if Dove was alright to walk, and while she still felt sore, she grits her teeth and brushed it off, saying that she would just be slow for a bit, but she would make sure to keep up.

Nervously and still surprised by the whole thing, Simon nodded, quiet and speechless as he followed them out. He expected the door to open and reveal the corpse of the monster at the window, but instead, what laid in front of the entrance was a pool of ichor. He groaned with disgust as he nearly stepped in it. 

"What the hell did that bullet do?!?!" 

Laurence told him to make sure not to step in it as the rest of them hopped over the puddle and began their move. 

Staying in one place could be safe, yes, but unless you could figure out a way to repel monsters from said safehouse, your chosen spot will eventually lose its safety and become a plate for whatever creature will soon become aware of your presence. 

They moved to find Calder and Callius, but first, Laurence wanted to head back to the place where they first met Simon. He had dropped something at that location. 

The man who called himself Simon was confused why the girls and the detective weren't paranoid or just as uneasy as him when walking through the dark woods. 

"This is our literal job. I guess you haven't heard of us since our business can't be found online, somehow." Annabelle told him simply. 

Of course, that only made him more confused. 

"What?"

"Ooh! I always wanted to do this!" Annabelle squealed as they finally got to the location of the fall. 

Laurence told them he'd just be looking around and to not split up, no matter what, and he told the girls to make sure the skittish guy did not run off.

"Why is he only worried about me running off!? I'm the one who's been here the longest!" Simon gasped in offense as Laurence went off to search for the items he dropped. 

"If anything, you two girls should be afraid and clinging to me for safety! That's how it works in the movies."

Annabelle spun around and stood in front of him, Dove followed, mostly to not be next to him after that sentence and readied her phone to help assist Annabelle's little performative introduction. 

"We never introduced ourselves earlier, because we were in a hurry, but we are employees of Macabre House! An agency that helps with all and any case involved in the supernatural!" She said with enthusiasm as she showed her employee ID.

Dove copied by showing hers, discreetly holding it by the bottom so her finger covered her surname, playing a silly recording of a video on her phone. She helped Annabelle make that video somewhere in June as a birthday present for her, around when they first met. She's kept that video on her phone ever since, it was a silly introduction to Macabre House and its services.

"Macabre House solely employs people who have no veil over their senses, meaning people who are unnatural in the sense that they can see what others cannot. Ghosts, creatures from folklore, mythology, legends, fairytales, etc! And that includes the strange monsters with no names! We have a universal name for those creatures, and that's 'Nightmares'!" Her voice cheered from Dove's phone. 

Annabelle stood by with a proud smile while Dove cringed, just a little but, but really, the video was fun to make and that's why she kept it.

"I'm employed as a melee support! And this mysterious girl who only ever wears black and white, is our junior detective!"

"Unofficial detective." Dove corrected her.

"I work and study under that man you met earlier. He's the lead detective here."

"But she does do a lot of field work, so she's pretty much a detective-in-training!" Annabelle not so subtly leaned forward and whispered indiscreetly to the guy. 

"Quit it." 

"...You? You're a melee fighter?" Simon asked with disbelief, pointing his eyes at Annabelle and scrunching his nose. 

"You have long hair, and, you're pretty girly."

Annabelle did not look at him with any negativity, but rather excitement. She loves sowing seeds of discord when she can, and she loves when fools come to challenge her, like a rat to a baited mouse trap. 

"Yes, my hair is long, but it is very practical actually! Would you like a demonstration?" She asked with excitement, lifting one hand to prepare to undo her hair, ready to reveal just how long her hair actually is.

"Annabelle no."

Laurence was done searching, having found the briefcase he was looking for and handed it to Dove. They were all in a hurry before, so Laurence could not find the time to give it to her. It has her basic supplies and more. She did not even think about it before and was very surprised. Simon was also surprised, and looked between them, now starting to get the bigger picture.

"Wait so, you guys are like, monster hunters?"

"Yes and no."

"I thought so, she was lying about her and the emo girl being some kinda fighter and detective like some cringe high schoolers, wasn't she?" The guy asked Laurence with a full confidence and a smirk, fully expecting Laurence to tell him that both the girls are just two students he's taking care of.

Annabelle cracked and popped the bones in her hand, wanting to sink her fingers into his eyes, Dove only stopped her by holding her arm in front of the girl.

"The 'she' you are referring to, is right here to answer your questions, and she cannot physically lie no matter how much she wants to."

"Why is it that Fae are more powerful than humans and yet humans can say the falsest things at the drop of a hat?!?" 

Laurence pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. 

"Look, we don't have time. You can ask Annabelle all your questions, Dove," He called to his intern, turning to her as he watched her just about finish taking a quick glance at the contents inside the briefcase and almost give him a frown when finding a scarf and more energy bars inside.

"Don't give me that look- you need to grow still- anyway- you will be helping me find Calder and Callius, and you-" He paused, turning back to Simon.

"We will be using your notebook and your knowledge to help us get through this island. According to the quick research I did before hand, we're looking for twenty missing people, and according to your notebook that I did a quick skim of when I had it before, we have a list of monsters to watch out for." He explained, before giving Simon an eerie, tired smile. 

"I hope you're ready to be our tour guide this evening."

"What... Ah, y-yeah yeah!" The guy shook his head and paced around the three, opening his notebook and recounting all the data he wrote inside. 

"I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who knows all there is to know about this place, so, yeah, I'll help you guys."

They first began by trying to find the sirens. 

Laurence took a guess of measurement when pondering about the place he landed, and where he remembered Calder landing, then asked Simon where he knew a lake to be. 

The man stammered and helped lead the way. 

He admitted that when going to search for water, he didn't remember nor make a proper trail to the lake so as to excuse why it took them awhile to find the lake. When they did find it, the person Laurence and the girls were looking for wasn't there. Out of worry, Dove asked to see the guy's notebook and flipped the pages for a water monster. 

There was one that appeared to be a naked woman with wet, long black hair. The drawings and sketches of her took up two pages, and the only notes written down were theories on ways to appease her so as to make her a wife.

She looked up at the guy with a judgmental stare.

"What!? There can be good in her if the right person can fix her."

"So why haven't you done anything yet?"

He crossed his arms and huffed, not liking the judgmental tone she was giving. 

"Rehabilitation takes a while if the patient isn't willing to cooperate, okay?"

Dove rolled her eyes and continued flipping the pages. 

"Been on this island long enough to be driven crazy with loneliness, I'm guessing."

"I have seen cases where that happened more than once." Laurence confirmed her guess as he also took a look at the notes. 

The longer that looked, the more nervous Simon appeared to get as he held his arms crossed and stood in front of them.

"You guys really are acting like monster hunters, you know that?" He fake-laughed. 

"Well, it's not like anyone else has bullets that can shoot nightmares dead!" Annabelle told him as she walked past him and to the water. 

She picked up a large rock, one the size of her head, with one hand, and threw it into the water. 

"Hey! You're gonna wake the water spirit there!" The guy scolded him.

 The girl looked over her shoulder at him. 

"The woman in your drawings is no spirit. She's another nightmare created by subconscious minds. Subconscious minds that refuse to admit that even though the allure of a naked woman excites them, deep down, they know that no sane or human woman would willingly let herself be seen that way and is actually using her body as bait to trap them in the water."

The water rippled from the rock she threw, and nothing appeared. Only birds flying from the trees, alarmed by the sound, and perhaps some insects now flying in the air. 

"The water's safe, looks like someone killed her." 

"What?!" 

Annabelle's eyes darted around, able to see and notice more than what the average human could, before stopping at a point and waving for the others to follow. 

The man seethed but surprisingly kept quiet. They followed Annabelle to an edge of the lake where they found another pool of ichor, leading out of the water and out into a trail. 

"Callius killed the nightmare of the water and then left a trail when he noticed her corpse left a substance behind." Dove guessed, noting how the corpse of the nightmare was clearly killed and then dragged out of the water by someone, then dragged for as long as possible, based on what she could see from just that spot alone. 

Even in the dark and with the grass, the ichor was visible. 

Laurence turned on the flashlight on his phone and confirmed it for her, showing the drips of ichor on the tall grass blades. He then looked out the corner of his eyes to check on the person who is supposed to be guiding them. 

He was gritting his teeth. 

They continued, Laurence managed to talk him into focusing. 

They followed the trail and asked him what other nightmare creature was likely to appear. 

"... Spiders. Or more spider-people. These things that will appear at first, like crooked humans who seem normal just took a bad fall, until you notice the others sets of limbs that they have, and then see them get low to the ground, ready to chase you."

There were sound of humming as they listened, following the trails of ichor that grew thinner and thinner. 

"We saw one of them when we first arrived at this beach. That means there must be more."

As they kept going, there were no more droplets of ichor to follow. Laurence clicked his tongue, but Simon told them to stay calm since he knew where to go from there. 

He tried to get them to follow him somewhere left, farther away from the thicker parts of the forest, before Annabelle stopped them. 

"I hear something."

"I'm sure it's nothing; I've heard all sorts of things ever since I got here."

"My ears don't fall for the typical noises that human ears can fall to." She said, making the guy annoyed. 

She shushed him before he could protest, and she ran into the thicker parts of the woods where light only became less and less. Simon protested against the other two going after her into that place, but they ran anyway, and he groaned, going in after them.

There were monsters in the woods. 

A skinless head of a human with a very rubbery, boneless neck, popped out from behind a tree. Its jaw missing, and its skinless hand reaching out for Annabelle. 

She punched it in the skull and grabbed its wrist, flipping it over her shoulder. Only the upper torso hit the ground. The girl had only ended up ripping the torso off the body of a spider body with human skin. A big gaping wound now bled where the torso was once attached. 

it kept moving. 

"You should've listened to me and read my notes more!" Simon shrieked as they caught up and saw the situation. 

"Those things don't die easily; each limb and body part has a mind of its own! They'll keep squirming like squid parts after being chopped!"

Annabelle looked at the torso on the ground, slowly crawling toward her with just its arms, and then to the now, technically headless but still living spider body of human skin. The size and height gave her a morbid idea. She squinted her eyes as she sized it up and let her hair down finally. 

The long-braided rope for hair was let down as she leaped forward, letting the torso chase her on just it's arms, and she grabbed her hair in coils, jumping up and landing on top of the abdomen. She tied the bottom-most ends of her hair into a noose and waited for the crawling torso, then snatched it by its neck through the noose of her hair. 

The headless abdomen bucked and ran in circles, making it difficult for a person to stay on, similar to how a horse would wrestle a rider off when it did not want to be ridden. 

Annabelle was no ordinary person, and Dove felt like helping Annabelle have her way. 

Laurence told her of a taser in her briefcase that could be used on anything physical, nightmare or human. 

She rummaged for that very item and ran over, tossing it to Annabelle. 

The girl turned it on and jammed it right into the creature, but not the spider half that she was crouching down on. She jammed the taser into the human half, right in the spot where the lower jaw was missing and pointed the taser up. 

Its eyes rolled up into its skull, making no sound, only jolting and wrangling itself even more as its hand struggled against her hair, which she kept tightly around its neck. 

It finally hung limp, swinging back and forth in the noose of her hair. She stopped jamming the taser in any further when the arms drooped and fell, the pupils of the eyes never returning, and it swayed back and forth. 

Simon looked on in horror while Laurence and Dove looked happy for the girl, knowing she's always wanted to put her long hair to use. 

"I'm just glad it wasn't a human." Laurence said, shaking his head but not out of disappointment. 

He's seen crazier. 

Annabelle gloated about the new ride she got for them, since the spider half could still move. She just had to figure out how to get it to stop moving to buck her off and how to get it to go in the direction she wanted. 

Dove was about to advise against it until she heard a noise. 

Annabelle noticed that they could now all hear what she was hearing, and they convinced her to leave the headless spider after Laurence shot it with a ghost bullet, making it melt into ichor below her.

Where they headed further down, there were less nightmares, or more, none at all. Something was repelling them in this area. 

"Over here." A smooth, male voice was heard. Smooth like melted chocolate. 

Simon nearly freaked out, asking if they heard the same thing. The only thing Laurence could answer with as they quickly followed the sound, was that a friend of theirs knew how to throw his voice. 

Simon was no longer acting as nervous, rather he seemed more resigned now. 

"Closer." The voice came again. 

They finally found the two. 

Callius seemed fine, a bit of ichor around the corners of his mouth, but he appeared to be energized. 

Calder was next to another one of the few seemingly abandoned structures of the island. 

It was an old house built on ground that was flattened and cleared out by people. Someone went through great effort to build their house on a mostly lone island just a few miles away from the mainland. There were even rows of planter boxes surrounding the property, some spots have died while others have grown messy and out of control with no farmer or caretaker to take care of the vines. 

The doors and windows were sealed, and based on the rickety structure, if any pieces were removed, the whole building might collapse in on itself. 

The sirens heard voices inside and they didn't require any property damage; they just wanted to get inside somehow.

"We found five out of the twenty missing people." Calder informed them using the voice function on his phone, then knocked on the locked door with his back hand. 

"Laurence, I don't suppose you still remember how to pick locks from your younger days?"

"Please don't say it like that." The detective sighed, and then looked to Dove, gesturing for her to give the door lock a try. 

"Picklock? That's a really old door, I doubt anyone can pick lock something like that. I certainly can't." Simon said. 

Calder raised an eyebrow when looking at him, and so did Callius. 

Annabelle snapped her fingers and gestured for him to watch. 

For some reason, while I have had many times where I fought with my fists, the only special use I've mainly had with my baton was for pick locking, or to use as a skeleton key. While I liked being strong or liked staying in control, what I loved more than anything was what I tried to keep myself from hoping I'd be able to do ever since the incident, which was solve mysteries. Any kind. Because I loved finding answers. 

The Simon that was with us on the island is not the same Simon from my nightmares. I shouldn't have to be so worried for now. And solving mysteries is a part of the job now so I didn't feel guilty for doing something I tried to keep myself out of. I just wish I knew earlier why I had this weird pit in my stomach, or why I felt the urge to glare at the Simon guy every time he'd look at me. I only held back because I took pride in being polite. 

Simon's eyes widened as he watched Dove use her alchemical item, turning it into a skeleton key to unlock the door with ease. Calder and Callius had been haunted by the voices ever since they found the house and rushed in to find the source of those voices. Annabelle asked to stay out, hoping and wanting to find another flesh-walking spider to and attempt to tame it, because she failed on the first one. 

Laurence relented and asked Simon to stay out with her, not asking him to intervene in case Annabelle does something. He just wants the man to tell him everything that happens after they get back. Surprisingly, Simon agreed despite the visible fear in his eyes of being alone with the visually ladylike yet savage girl. There must've been something in the house that Simon feared being around more than Annabelle.

The house was decorated like a 1950s middle class house with lots of decorations. It would've been considered adorable if there wasn't dirt on everything. Every surface was dirty and dusty, some curtains were torn and filled with holes, cabinet doors in the kitchen area were nearly falling off their hinges. The siren gentlemen went off to search the basement door which they left wide open on purpose. Leaving the other two, room to investigate.

Dove, after telling Laurence that she wanted to search around, explored the house meticulously, liking the feeling of exploring a different, quiet world despite the monsters around the vicinity. 

I like interior design, if I were ever to play any of those popular games that involve the player exploring the inside of a building or home, I'd waste hours just looking around the place. Looking at the setup of the room, wondering what rooms or items must've been used for what, seeing the unique designs, before I got any gameplay done. 

Laurence also had a habit of inspecting the interior designs of a place, and he beckoned Dove over to where he was, looking at the curtains. He listened to her footsteps as she crossed the floor before lifting up the edges of the curtains to show her the holes and frayed ends. 

"That's pretty torn up." She commented. 

Laurence moved his hand over the surface before finding some spots in the thin fabric. 

"When it comes to curtains, fingerprints are hard to find, especially if the material is thin and translucent. But, if it was ever pulled on, chances are, you can at least find the indented or uneven places in the fabric where the seams or threads were pulled, showing where the thumbs or fingers snagged when ripping the material."

Dove's eyes traced the fabric and saw the indentations for thumbprints that Laurence was referring to. Frowning and now sparking with curiosity, she went around the living room area, first looking at the tables and chairs. 

The legs didn't wobble and when cautiously brushing her hand over the tabletop and the two seats, her hand only came up with some dust, but no possible splinters or crumbs coming from the wood. The wood was well-taken care of and smooth, like new. 

Laurence knelt by the cabinets in the kitchen area and inspected the hinges. The edges of the cabinet doors where the screws were in to connect it to the hinges had splinters around the holes. 

"Want to know the difference between a door that fell off its hinges, versus one that was pulled off?" He asked, peeking his head over the kitchen island to see Dove looking at the walls with a flashlight. 

There were tan lines, or more, random spots on the wall with squares and rectangles. Places where the light had not tanned the wood as much as the areas outside of those shapes. There were picture frames in this house once. 

She walked over to see what Laurence was inspecting, saying she'd like to know the difference. 

"The holes where the screws were placed are now torn. There's splintering around them, and the hinges that are still connected to the cabinet appeared to have almost been pulled from their spots too. If a cabinet had naturally fallen off due to age or faulty carpentry work, there wouldn't be as much splintering of wood anywhere."

"Someone purposefully sabotaged a good house to make it look abandoned."

Laurence stood up and turned on his phone. 

He had some information saved on it, such as paragraphs he wrote himself before they left, along with articles he found to research islands around Maine. He frowned pensively. 

"Humans are unpredictable and have had moments where they left the mainland to try and start new lives on the islands close to the continent. That way, they can live their lives freely, but every once in a while, go back to the mainland for whatever reasons they may have. These have happened secretly and sometimes there are cultists who try to start new civilization on islands that are easily overlooked. Bence has had to come to some islands himself as well to do raids." He told her as he scrolled through his phone. 

"But for someone or some people to have lived on this island secretly and then purposefully wrecked their own homes, I can't think of a valid reason for at the moment."

"Well, the first one could be that they are trying to hide their presence." Dove took a guess as she walked further into the kitchen area. 

She noticed the old-world stove and seeing the pipe go all the way up to the ceiling, implying a piece of the pipe that stuck out of the house to let out smoke or steam when burning fire in the furnace area. The lighthouse inn had something similar, but it was mainly for show and a vintage aesthetic, the old couple don't dare use it for the dangers of fire hazards, but they once told her it's nice to look at. 

"They move here to isolate themselves, or to run away from the cold-heartedness of society." She thinks out loud, kneeling down to open the furnace and inspect it. 

It was filled with burned books and journals, based on some long spirals she finds inside, burned black. The soot gets on her fingers and she's now glad she did not come to this island wearing her work clothes. 

"They set up a garden, use old fashioned technology that they know they can fix. Suddenly, for some reason, someone is bringing people here, and they have to leave, erase any presence of themselves here. Flee to a new place. But that doesn't explain why the door would be locked or the windows boarded up, based on how visible the nails were and how the planks weren't even warped, the unknown resident had enough time to do all that before people arrived."

Laurence asked for her to allow him to see what she found inside the furnace. Unable to describe it, she merely gets up and gives him space to look himself. 

He rolls up his sleeves and reaches inside to pull out the burned journals. Underneath are also the corners and materials of printed or polaroid photos. 

Burned too much to see any words or identify the contents of the photos, but there was such a large pile inside that Laurence knew he had to dig further to reach the items in the middle. Underneath the char and the soot, was a slightly damaged but still identifiable, old ID. The edges were blackened and burned, but the words on the plastic card were still readable.

'Champlain College'

'Walter Reiss'

'History Major'

And then a barcode was at the bottom of the card. Conveniently, the ID photo was charred.