Nightmares Vs Magic

Bence's mouth fell agape as he thought up a correctly worded answer, looking off into space, thinking to himself, before he closed his jaw, making a pained hissing sound breathing in.

"Well, she'd be willing to hold back for a sensible reason." He said, with an unsure tone.

"Can I, take the role of getting Theo back home? Please?" She gently asked.

Bence subtly glanced at Laurence who looked a bit proud at her finally asking for something, eagerly nodding his head for Bence to give her permission. The necromancer shrugged.

"Sure, you might still be frightened by the functions of the archives anyway." He grinned at her as he brought the doll back closer to his chest, still choosing to gingerly hold it like a child as he headed for the elevator, giving them a nod before pressing the button to close the doors. 

He seems aloof at times, but, it's not hard to see that he is a kind man, just strict.

Theo had a scowl over his face as she led him to a sitting area in the breakroom. She took out some papers and did the usual procedures she was taught for dealing with clients, sliding him a sheet to fill out some information on his contacts. 

This type of break room was specifically for the clients, or any people that people out in the field would come across while working their cases. Theo had a car, but there's a policy that I remembered Laurence telling me where we can't just let them go just yet. Unless they were completely alone or had difficult circumstances, we have to let someone come and pick them up. 

When I first went into the room, I noticed some details that I already knew the reasons for. All the seats were attached to the floor, and so were the tables. There were no coffee machines, only a cold drink dispenser and paper cups, and there were windows but there was no way to open them.

"So, when are you guys gonna let me go back to the motel? At least so I can get my car?" He asked as he tapped the pen on the side of the paper, not writing anything down yet. 

I had to bring a pen along with the paper, as there were no pens in the room.

"I can take care of getting your car here." Dove answered stoically, sitting across from him. "As for letting you go back, I would recommend getting you back to your parents."

He slammed his hands on the table, pushing his chair back as he stood up, but didn't knock back the same way any normal chair would've reacted to his movement. She didn't flinch but continued to give him a pitiful look.

When I write that the chairs were attached to the floor, I mean magnetically. The floor is metal, and the feet of the chairs are all entirely magnets. Yes, it was also something designed by the alchemists.

"Do you even know what you're saying?!" 

The girl looked him in the eyes, tightly clutching the small, now folded piece of paper in her hand from earlier, nodding her head while he clutched tightly onto the pen in his fist.

"Dove." He seethed, as if her name were a poison seeping from his teeth. "We're not close, at all, but I'm sure you should know how I feel about my parents."

"I do."

She sat there, composed as he pushed the paper to one side of the table, leaning in until his face was right up in hers.

"So how could you, of all people who used to know me, fucking suggest such a thing?! I thought you volunteered to prevent that scar face guy from sending me to my parents, I thought that maybe deep down you really did have some good intention left in you even after what you did." He said as he pointed the pen to his eye, making a back-and-forth motion as if teasing the idea of stabbing his own eyes out.

Dove finally revealed the little paper in her hand, also standing up and keeping eye contact so that his gaze followed hers. She took one of his skinny wrists, turning his palm up and pressing the little note into his fist. 

"I will be calling your parents to come here, and I will even bring your car here for you if you lend me your keys. Whether your parents choose to take you back home with them, or whether you want to go with them, is all your choice. But believe me when I say, I want to help you. Either call this number or come to this address if you want it." She said quietly but still with a strong, unwavering tone as she continued to hold his gaze. 

She grabbed his other wrist, squeezing it to drop the pen. He made no movements other than contorting his face into one of doubt and disbelief as she sat back down, sliding the paper to herself and getting the pen to begin writing down his information for him. 

I normally would never try to take the matters of someone else's issues into my own hands, but I couldn't just let him live his life in misery so long as I knew I could do something about it. This time, unlike the past, embarrassing events, I'm not going to shoehorn myself in, I'm simply offering him a hand, or a different place to stay in this case.

She wrote down his name and age into the first couple boxes, writing the case he was a part of and what role he played in the situation box. He laughed that same doubtful laugh at that motel room.

"Help?" He facepalmed himself as he looked up at the ceiling lights, not caring how it would burn his retinas, something he would've preferred considering his haunting situation. 

"Why do you keep trying to play hero, Dove? Don't you remember in juvie, you were all moping and told me you were never going to play a naive hero ever again." He looked down at her, genuinely curious, before slumping back into his seat and scooting back in himself, only to tilt his head to look at her eyes that were down, attention mostly on the paper. 

Her pen was still as she waited for him to continue. 

"Who do you think you are? Why are you in a suit and acting like a copper? What happened to the girl who didn't care about crimes anymore? Said nothing was stopping them, so don't bother?"

She finally glanced up. 

"Why haven't you tried to hit me then? I know how much you must dislike me, so hit me. I won't fight you. I'll let you have one punch." She firmly said. 

He shook his head. 

"I'm not believing any of your words, considering listening to them in the first place is what got me insane."

She sighed heavily as she didn't fight back even verbally, knowing there were no words to get through to him now.

"Do you still have a phone? Do you know your parents' phone numbers?"

He huffed with a smirk and leaned back in his chair, head back. 

"No, I don't remember them at all, cause' I never planned to ask them for help. They're sick of helping me and probably hoping for me to get out of their house soon anyway. I guess you can't call my parents here then." He raised his hands up and shrugged in laidback triumph, knowing he ruined her plan.

His hand was still holding that little note, not bothering to unfold it, but he didn't crumple and throw it back at her either. 

Dove took a deep breath and left the contact information blank, only marking down the other parts to identify him, such as his appearance, and then marked him as difficult situation. She guided him to the elevator and pressed for the 2nd floor, at least hoping Leon could get him to sit down and have the bruise treated. 

Leon has a really calming atmosphere about him, especially for a human predator, he has great people skills. I have yet to know how long he's been a vampire but it's safe to guess much longer than a decade. He of all people should be able to keep Theo calm and waiting while I went to go get his stuff.

After explaining the situation to Laurence, he nodded as she went to submit his paper and showed her to the meeting room where they put the boxes of evidence for his study, including Theo's stuff that was still neatly put into a box, including all of the photos that were rightfully his. They don't need photos of a ghost anymore. 

She saw Mori again when picking them up to bring to Theo, he nodded his head as he walked past her, easily carrying large boxes stacked on one arm, and a thick orange folder in his other hand. 

He had incredible strength, and that combined with that fishnet shirt he wore, it was pretty easy to tell he had to be a werewolf. Mainly because I honestly couldn't think of any other creatures that would around as humans and then transform into something larger. I have yet to see his werewolf form, but I did see Lucas trying to tease him with a bone he picked up once we went back to Macabre House. 

A werewolf, a vampire, and a sorceress of some kind. I wonder if they met at a bar.

Walking down the stairs with the box to the apothecary floor, somehow, as if following a 6th some people may guess she had, Annabelle came up the stairs right on time, swooping in to carry the box for Dove.

Dove wordlessly stood there for a moment as her arms stayed in that holding position, a little surprised. 

"Ah, did someone tell you I was coming down? - um- thank you by the way." 

The blonde-haired girl turned around, pointing her head to the stairs as she walked with Dove.

"I have a lot of features you don't know about yet. Leon was also able to guess you'd be coming down, he told me you were bringing that pale boy's stuff for him, so I came up."

"How'd you know I wasn't gonna take the elevator?"

"I saw the way your body reacted when we took the elevator the other day, Vernon's too. When lunch time rolls around again, we won't take the elevator this time." Annabelle said as they walked. 

I was really touched, and yet I felt burdensome to her at the same time. I was very conflicted because I hated the feeling of the elevator as it gave me vertigo each time I stepped off and I have to rapidly walk around fast, or else I get dizzy standing in place. And yet, I didn't want someone to make a decision of doing something else just because of me, but there was Vernon. He also hated the elevator as she confirmed. So, I just stayed silent as usual.

Dove murmured a thank you to Annabelle, who gave her a more normal grin, close to that of a cheshire cat but less eerie.

In the apothecary floor, Theo refused to sit on one of the beds and was in one of those office chairs on wheels, sitting still, rubbing the long, white patch over his bruise, as Leon gently told him not to. The tall man was sitting next to the boy, writing something in a book at the table, he lifted his head up soon as he heard the door open, smiling gently and standing up to greet the two interns. 

He took the heavy box from Annabelle, not because it looked heavy, it wasn't a problem at all for her, but simply out of courtesy and good manners. He placed it on the table within Theo's reach.

"Dove, did he already fill out the information sheet?" Leon asked Dove in the same gentle voice he spoke to everyone with. 

She nodded, looking at Theo's hands as he stood up to look inside the box, and seemed to internally sigh when she noticed he was still holding the little note in his hands. The boy shoved it into his pocket and Dove quickly glanced away. 

"Good, and, I heard you were familiar with him?"

She frowned up at him in surprise, and then glanced at Annabelle who held both hands up, waving them happily.

"I went to visit Joon earlier to ask how things went, I would've visited you too, but I was told you were busy."

Dove gave her a blank stare, before shrugging and saying, "We know each other.", while fiddling with her hands. 

"Good, I'll leave him in your care then. As for you Annabelle, I need you to come with me so you can apologize to another one of the clients from the gym floor."

Theo seemed look up surprised at this, eyes carefully, subtly, wandering over to the tall blonde girl who now looked a bit more intimidating than before in his eyes. Just in time, she stood in her perfect posture, hands held over her stomach as she smiled a very wide smile at him, tilting her head to imitate confusion when he sharply looked away, a hand shielding himself from her.

"Okay! I think I can muster up a genuine apology." She told Leon as he led her to the curtained bed where the injured client would be. 

Annabelle looked over her shoulder at Dove as they began to walk away.

"I want you to know that when I apologize, I am being genuine. Joon however, he won't be coming up here, because he finds it crueler to give a fake apology then none at all. He told me that when I asked him about why he was in trouble."

Dove looked over to Theo who was distracting himself by trying to find his keys, muttering about wanting to leave quickly, and nodded to her. 

"That's good to know, thank you." 

She watched them pass through a curtain, before turning her attention to begin helping Theo, however much he would allow her to.

While Theo sifted through it for his keys, staring longingly at his great aunt, she dug through her own pockets, getting ready to get her keys out. 

"I was told she was a really nice person." He murmured almost sheepishly. 

Dove tilted her head at him as he kept his down, looking at one of the photos, gingerly picking it up. 

"I heard the rest of the family she took care of was pretty decent too. I also wanted to try and meet them"

Dove hummed in curiosity.

"You, wanted to meet them?"

"Yeah, I heard from my mom that, after a lot of the kids got these schizophrenic outbreaks, they got a nanny, moved to that big house, to relax and spend time together. They stopped pressuring their kids to study, stopped forcing them to come to church with them, stopped, worrying about image, they just, bonded." Theo shrugged as he looked at the old photo he likely took from the house, of the old family.

Dove looked at him with sympathy as she did her best to choose the gentlest to talk to him. 

"When my bosses and other interns and I went to that big house, it was haunted. Genuinely haunted, I think when you did that whole ritual with the Sennentuntschi, you almost succeeded. The soul of that nanny in your photos, she was haunting the place, she was also the woman you saw in the mirror. She wasn't there before."

"Great, I could've met her if I wasn't so chicken then." He groaned as he let the photo fall back into the box, sticking his hand back in to find his keys, pulling them out along with his phone.

"No, well, you could've met her, but it wouldn't have been interactive. She was manipulating the house into this, like doll house scenario, like taking care of her family as she usually did, but with mannequins. It was actually kinda terrifying, I don't think she would've even known who you were or cared."

He lightly giggled, just for a bit before lifting his head up, tired and picking up the neat box.

"Oddly nice box." He said as he lifted it up and down by the handles.

"They have a lot of nice things here, and people too."

He didn't really respond to her.

Before they completely left the building, having just went through the elevator, down to the magic store to head out, Liora stopped them both. 

"I was told the place you and Joon went to was a very sketchy part of town."

"Funny how things spread fast between coworkers in this building." Dove said, genuinely curious. 

"I was just about to comment the same thing." Theo muttered under his breath, not really wanting to start another conversation with her, but couldn't resist the urge.

Dove gave him a small grin, shuffling to stand in front of him when she saw Lucia. Vernon was with her, helping to restock some herbs packaged into cute little bottle with corks. He seemed to light up when he saw her, and walked over right, still holding the box of bottled herbs, forgetting his previous errand. 

"Hi Dove, how was the belladonna perfume? Did you use it a lot?"

Dove cleared her throat, not expecting to converse with him so soon, and the words got stuck in her throat due to lack of mental preparation.

"Vernon, good timing." Liora lightly chuckled as she took the box from him, placing it on a nearby table with candles and picture frames of people that didn't exactly, look like people.

"Dove, I hope you don't mind if Vernon accompanies you both to your destination. I don't mean to intrude; I just want to make sure you stay safe. People can be, very scary."

Dove watched as she handed Vernon some seeds for his pockets, along with carrying that same empty plant pot that she saw him bring to the food court. It still appeared to contain nothing but dirt.

She shook her head at Liora and grinned back. 

"It's okay, I understand. Thank you for being thoughtful."

I used to aspire to be as kind and polite as her, to present myself and talk the same way as her, but I eventually couldn't take the pressure, nor could I manage to keep up all the kind words. At one point, I finally understood my parents.

She gently led all three of them out, understanding Dove's intentions to walk behind Theo as she looked over her shoulder, looking for Lucia on their way out. She was the last to leave the store and was of course surprised by the wendigo lady who called out to her from above. 

I just looked up, and there she was, lounging on the top of a thankfully sturdy looking shelf, looking down at me from above. I felt like I was being stared upon by a predator sitting on their branch. 

"You were really keen on shielding that boy from me." She said in a taunting voice, ignoring the eyes of some passerby in the store who reacted with more visible surprise than Dove did, even though she was just as surprised internally. 

"Less shielding, and more that I was sending you a subtle message." She squinted her eyes up at the pale woman. 

"Thank you for respecting my wishes."

"Well, I may be insatiable, but I'm still picky. I prefer bigger ones and he didn't have much meat on his bones." Lucia shrugged. 

Dove simply nodded, not knowing what else to say as she left the magic store, leaving Lucia to pose on the shelf for some people taking photos or videos of her perched there, having her fun. 

The car ride back to the motel was filled with silence, something Dove was used to and comfortable with. Vernon found nothing that triggered any information or facts he knew of as downtown areas had less plants. He'd mostly been giving most of his attention to the pot of dirt in his hands, like he was meditating with his eyes open, and the key was to focus on what was in the dirt.

I sometimes made things worse when I talked, choosing the wrongs things to say a lot. It's safer to be silent sometimes, it's not because I don't want to talk, I'm just scared I'll hurt the person I'm talking with.

The downtown area looked mildly sketchy, and less peaceful without Lucas to make it silent, or without Sienna and Mori to wipe the most previous memory of any Normals seeing what they shouldn't. Dove side glanced at Vernon in the passenger seat.

I knew what he could do and made guesses on why he was carrying seeds and that pot of dirt with him. There was definitely something in it, and he could probably make it come out should we have an emergency in the area.

The motel was in a cramped location, but Theo told Dove to drop him off in a specific location around the motel's area, indicating where his hidden car was.

It was hidden in between two tall buildings, wide enough for his car. Clearly, he placed some trash cans and whatever lay there, in a certain way to block the exits so people would just pass by it. Good to know he still has the will to remember using some of his own street smarts. Makes me worry less about him, not that I could afford to be, his business is not mine.

When she parked the car, while Vernon kept his head up and surveyed around just like Lucia's training taught him, Theo got out, easily holding his box and carrying it over to the car. 

"Do you need help moving the-"

"No thanks." He told her abruptly. 

She just sat back, watching him get to his car through a hidden path he made through the blockages he made. 

"Not like I want to, but this is just an early payment for just in case, since, you gave me this." He said, reaching into the pocket of his jeans, waving the folded note. 

Dove's eyes lit up. 

"You should know that the weird guy on the phone, when I told him about you, he was really quick to tell me to blame everything on you. After I told him some things about you, he started talking about you like he knew you, it got pretty creepy. I still hate you, but, well I mean, that was a really sucky thing for me to do, he was a stranger. So, sorry for that."

Dove sat up more in her car seat, tilting her body to lean on the top of the back as she stood up more, shaking her head gently at him.

"I guess you could think of it as a bit of vengeance against me then. Stay safer now." She told him. 

He continued to stare at her from his spot, nearly masked by the shadows of the alleyway. It wasn't menacing or intimidating, just a great contrast as he stared at her sitting in the sun, next to Vernon who was watching their surroundings for her. 

"I really, hate you. I hate that you cursed me with these visions, and I hate, that you're still a good person who won't even put up a fight with me. It just makes it more frustrating, and difficult to see you as a bad guy in my eyes." He told her, before turning around to go pack his items into his car parked in the quiet shadows. 

She sighed as she continued watching him to ensure his safety and begin to turn on her engine when she saw him get inside his vehicle, leaving when she heard his engine turn on. 

On the drive back, Vernon lightened the thoughts in her mind as he commented on the few plants they passed by as they went back into the more open parts of the city. It made her happy. 

He was just as lively as the plants he talked about, always at peace, unburdened, just, living.

"I think his anger was misplaced." Vernon suddenly spoke up as soon as they stopped at a red light.

Dove hummed whilst she continued keeping her eyes on the traffic light and the surrounding cars. 

"Why do you say that?"

"When someone continuously blames someone for everything, I was taught that there's a bigger chance it's usually not the said person's fault. They either just don't have anyone else to blame but themselves, or the blame is purely hatred. So, I don't believe you're at fault."

Dove huffed out in a bit of a voiceless chuckle, continuing to drive as the light turned green, and they continued down the road. 

"Thank you for your comfort, but you don't know the full story. Opening his eyes to the things we can see, hear, and interact with while Normals get to live in bliss, it's an ability I wouldn't even wish on my worst enemy. His anger, I understand it."

"That's true, but relentlessly blaming someone and claiming you hate them is still rude. I was told that you shouldn't be silent with those, and to defend yourself. It won't just help yourself to know that you're innocent, but it helps the accuser see the truth too. My mother told me, that if you just let them believe what they want to believe, they're eventually going to hurt themselves, still cursing you to the grave. If you know you're innocent, it will help all parties to know this."

They get to the parking lot outside Macabre House, and as Dove is carefully parking her convertible, she says to him, "You think I'm innocent, when you don't even know my story?"

After turning off the engine, she turns to look at him just as the wind picks up. 

Funny, how I honestly never managed to see his eyes, until that very moment.

"I may have difficulty understanding people, but that's why I learned how to observe and memorize body language, and actions, words, and the sounds of people voices when they talk to me. My mother taught me how and it's made it easier for me when I got older." He said as he slowly turned to her, not even bothering to shield his eyes from the wind, as if a lot of things in nature didn't bother him

Dove suddenly became entranced in the next moment, a sensation and action she had only ever felt once before. Unlike the first, this would be the beautiful, second time.

"I don't know your story but when I compare you to the memories of all the bad people I've met in my life, I think you are a good person."

The wind picked up a bit more, but instead of lifting up dirt into gusts of wind, it picked up the curls of his black hair, allowing me to see those beautiful, golden pupils of his, even for a glimpse.

"And I so far like your company."

I really don't know how I haven't noticed his eyes until that moment, when those golden eyes shown so brightly, and looked so lovely paired with his dark skin.