We were driving to the last the spot on the map that I had marked that had the residue of the killer’s mana. This was the strongest source so we had avoided it until we couldn’t anymore. It wasn’t wise to come to a killer’s lair unprepared after all.

I was now fully paranoid and on guard. In horror movie lots of white people died because they made stupid mistakes and I wasn’t going to add myself to that list. I would not separate from the group or go to the attic or the basement by myself.

Marcus was going to be walking ahead of me though. He could take countless injuries and he would be fine I on the other hand wasn’t that durable. The pain threshold of a vampire was an incredible thing.

We pulled up at the place and saw it the house. The duo of Marcus and Ethan were thrown off by how normal the house looked. It was a single building that looked to have three floors given by the windows. There was an iron fence and a driveway that was missing a car. Well at least whoever was living here wasn’t home at the moment.

It was made of brown bricks and a roof that was painted white that were beginning to peel off. There was a tree in the yard. All in all, it looked like a regular house. The size depended on how many people were living in it.

The moment I saw it I became suspicious. I had seen to many movies and read too many books to not be suspicious of something that looked that normal. The houses and cities that looked like nothing bad could ever happen were the places where the craziest things were found. If you read any book from Stephen King that involved Maine, you would be suspicious of normal places as well. That was one of the reasons I planned to never visit that state.

I pulled my wand out of my coat’s pocket on the right side and was prepared for anything.

“How do you fit all that stuff in there?” Ethan asked and I decided to show him. I pulled pens from my pockets and switched where I put them and where I pulled them from. We ignored the sounds happening around us of someone fighting with a door and loosing.

“How did you do that?” he asked completely curious and I tried hard to keep the grin off my face. I had created it just so someone would ask that question. This enchantment was similar to the one in my workshop. It connected all the pockets to a room inside the workshop and I could pull out anything with just a thought. I had five coats that had the same enchantment in case something happened to the coat and it couldn’t fix itself for some reason. If it was stolen, then it was designed to turn into a normal coat and turn to dust. Being a wizard meant you had to think ahead.

“My coat’s enchanted. The pockets are all interconnected to a pocket dimension that is bigger on the inside than the outside.” I told him. It taken me months to get the spell work on this thing right and it was one of my greatest creations.

“Open the door” Marcus told me sulking by the door. While I had been explaining to Ethan he had been trying to get in for the last five minutes and nothing he was doing was having an effect. He first tried opening the door and when that didn’t help he began trying to break down the door with brute force. After his third try the door began to bounce him back more painfully each time.

Looking at him I could see that the suit that he was wearing was covered in dirt and the sleeves were ripped. I wondered how hard his falls were and then I felt a sense of satisfaction that he was getting beaten up by a door.

“All right wait for a bit.” I told them and headed back to my car. I had plenty of ways around a ward that was created to keep unfriendly people out but for the quickest way I needed things that were in my car.

Opening the trunk and the suit case that was in it I grabbed a few slips of paper and brought them back to the others. These slips of paper were enchanted to both stick to whatever surface I chose and depending on the type of spell infused into it they had many purposes. I had based them off talismans that eastern Wizards and Witches liked to use.

They didn’t last long but we would not require that much time to walk through the door.

“What are slips of paper supposed to do?” Ethan asked full of doubt even after seeing so much magic. He should know better than to doubt me.

“Watch.” And they watched as each talisman was attached to a side of the door and it glowed blue before a portal opened that showed the inside of the house.

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“Now we can pass.” I told them and waved them through feeling smug that I got through the wards of the killer’s house.

“Alex is the Anti-Gandalf.” Marcus said jokingly as we had passed the door. It was at times embarrassing to admit that I knew him.

“After you” I let Marcus walk in front of me just in case that there was some type of spell to harm intruders and when nothing happened to him Ethan and I followed him. I would have sent Ethan in front of me too but there was the whole thing with him not being solid.

“This place looks so normal.” Marcus complained the entire way he had been talking about how he had been planning to storm the killer’s lair and confront him like he was the main character in a horror movie.

He would not stop talking of how ugly and dark the place had to have been and how it would just show how evil the killer was.

“Hey guys look at this!” Ethan brought our attention to a table that had mail on it and a wallet.

“Let’s find out who this killer is.” All I knew about the murderer was that he was a guy and he had a murder weapon that was cursed.

That is why this was no longer the case of the missing nephew but the search for the cursed blade.

We flipped open and saw the killer. His name was Bryan Mercer. He had neatly combed brown hair and hazel eyes. According to his wallet he was five foot seven.

“Well know we know who he is now what?” Marcus asked now we were in the home of the killer but we had no clue when or if he was going to be back.

“Let’s look around some more.” Given that there were no traps and it didn’t look like Bryan was home we were now free to separate and go our separate ways. I went upstairs, Marcus went towards the dining room and kitchen, and Ethan went wherever we weren’t. He tried to knock things over but given that he was a spirit and not a ghost it didn’t work.

I stepped into Bryan’s room and took a look around there were only two bedrooms upstairs but I doubted that he would leave any evidence of what he did in his guest room so I went straight for his bedroom and as I walked in I immediately felt that something was wrong but I couldn’t figure out what it was and that it was throwing me off in a way that annoyed me.

The room was common enough it had all the regular things you would expect to find in an adult’s room. A television on a dresser, a king sized bed, a closet full of clothes, a chest by the bed filled by albums with tons of pictures of him. They looked like happy times. I wonder what happened to change this guy into a killer.

I scratched my head. There was something in this room that was bugging me and I would not calm down until I figured it out.

Marcus and Ethan came upstairs and when they saw me pacing around the room scratching my head they asked if I was alright.,

“I’m fine just trying to figure something out.” There was something obvious that I had noticed but I couldn’t figure it out.

“Do you want to know what we found?” Marcus said holding up envelopes and coming closer into my personal space. It was at that moment that I figured out what was bugging me.

There was no doubt about it. There had been something wrong with the room and my mind had been trying to tell me.

I pulled out a pair of sunglasses from my coat and put them on looking around the room.

“Why are you putting on sunglasses indoors?” Ethan questioned me but I was ignoring him completely grinning and I am sure that from the outside I must be looking pretty crazy.

These glasses were designed to let me see mana and magic which was normally invisible and looking around the room I could see what had been bugging me. The entire room was covered in magic especially the wall that was behind the bed.

“Tell me later.” I told them and aimed my wand at the bed.

“Levo” and the bed began to float and I moved over by the dresser and looked at the wall that was the source of my issues.

“What are you doing?” Marcus asked clearly wondering what the point of that was.

“Conteram Seosum” when the spell was finished we watched as the wall fell apart and revealed that behind the wall there was another portion of the wall. Apparently Brian had extended the space of his room to use it as a workshop and a place where he kept his magic books.

“What in the world?” Ethan asked completely lost.

“This is like the place where I summoned you for the first time.” I told him and searched the desk that held what looked like a couple journals and research paper.

“What did you guys want?” I asked them no longer having to deal with my issues I was willing to listen to them.

“Why are your hands wet?” I asked looking at Marcus who was wiping his hands on the wall

“I had to wash them after I found a clue” he told me and Ethan pointed to the envelopes that they had placed on the chest. Looking over them I could tell that they were medical bills.

They were addressed to Brian but looked to have been crumpled up.

“They were in the trash.” Marcus said and that explained a lot. Marcus didn’t have a fear of germs but he was really uncomfortable with anything that wasn’t clean. It wasn’t that hard for him to deal with but he still hated it and would wash his hands first chance he got if he touched anything he thought was unclean.

“Guys we have a problem” Ethan said looking out the window. They had no blinds but were far enough away that we hadn’t been seen yet. Ethan wasn’t seen due to the fact that he was looking while hiding near the wall.

“What is it Bryan?” I asked getting ready to head downstairs and start a magic battle with him the moment that he opened the door.

“No it’s those detectives” He answered and I nodded and begun to think of what to do next.

Things just got a lot more complicated.