Jacob fell down a dark, endless tunnel.

And then he stumbled out into a room and fell to his knees. The ground beneath his palms was rough, unnatural. Through it he could see an infinite, starry void. He reeled with vertigo. Then he remembered where they were, what they were doing, and shoved himself to his feet. He engaged his magic, cast strength and perception.

Tanaka and Camilla were already on their feet, magic engaged, surveying their surroundings.

They had entered a small, box-like room. The walls were translucent, ward-like material. All around them stretched a black void filled with twinkling stars, as if they'd been teleported to the furthest, frigid reaches of the solar system, far from the Sun and any other celestial body. Their casing was imperfect, as the void rushed through the walls, darkening everything. The occasional star flitted through the walls, but passed through their bodies harmlessly.

"Where are we?" Jacob asked.

"We're in the barrier between worlds," Camilla answered. Her voice was pitched higher than her usual, smooth, sweet tones, as if she'd taken a shot of helium. Her perception and strength must have been outclassing his.

Since a psychopath hadn't jumped out and attacked them, they each moved around the room, feeling the walls, searching for signs, clues, anything. Jacob's heart was pounding hard, and not just from the fact that they were in the killer's lair. The walls and floor seemed so flimsy, as if at any moment he could just phase through and fall through that endless void until he died of starvation.

"I thought we couldn't leave Tisdale because of the time dilation," he whispered.

"Whoever it is has attached this pocket dimension to the Tisdale one. We're still within the bubble," Camilla said.

"Found something," Tanaka said simply. He felt at a section of translucent wall like a French mime. His fingers dug into the wall, then he heaved open a hinged door. Beyond was another translucent chamber that seemed to materialize out of thin air.

Jacob peered in, bracing himself.

The room was larger than the one they'd portalled into.

A complex symbol was carved into the floor, all acute angles and sweeping curves and concentric circles. It made his head spin with suggestions of impossible, archaic geometries. Dried blood crusted the lines and curves. Thirteen melted wax candle nubs surrounded it, and blood-stained chains littered the floor.

"Jesus Christ."

Tanaka moved past him and into the room. He bent down and traced his hand along the symbols. "Well, I think we found it."

They were all lost for words. It was real. They'd been right. No more guesswork in the dark now.

Jacob was suddenly dizzy. He didn't want to think about what those chains were, or the stark reality of the morbid details he'd read in Magical Absorption and Transferral.

"Anyone got their phone on them?" Camilla asked finally breaking the silence.

"Why?" Tanaka frowned.

"Let's take a picture of this."

"That's a good idea, actually."

Jacob pulled out his phone and snapped a pic of the ritual circle. His hands were shaking. While Camilla examined the circle, he kept an eye out. Tanaka was feeling along the walls again.

"There's another door here," Tanaka said. He heaved it open. Another boxy space lay on the other side, but it was empty, like the first room.

Jacob turned and checked the first room, making sure nothing had spawned behind them. Could never be too careful in a place like this. He frowned. Something about the first room was off.

He stood there for a moment, circuits whirring, trying to figure out what it was. He took a step forward and brushed the far wall.

The room was shrinking.

Once he noticed it, the reduction became visible. The floor space had diminished, as had the head room and the length and width, as if the space was compressing in on itself.

"Uh, guys? You should come see this!" Jacob cried.

Tanaka and Camilla rushed over.

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"Shit!" Camilla hissed. "It's shrinking!"

The room was maybe half its size now. The ritual chamber had begun to diminish as well. Something hit Jacob in the head. It was the roof. He ducked down, then squatted back on his heels. Sudden, shrieking claustrophobia assaulted him.

"Tanaka, get us out of here, now!" Camilla screeched.

"What spell is it?" Tanaka barked.

"Normal portal spell!"

Tanaka turned to the wall and splayed his hands. He bent over as the roof came down. A blue-white spasm clawed into existence on the translucent wall. Tanaka leapt through.

"Go!" Jacob said.

Camilla ran through and he followed immediately after, barely sparing a glance for the minimizing lair.

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They stumbled out onto warm, soft, beloved grass. The portal winked shut behind Jacob.

"...It is paramount that you all remember to respect the curfew and comply with the orders of the campus security."

Jacob looked around. They'd been dropped in front of the Vanderbilt Building. Students packed the quad, all listening attentively to President Russell.

The President presided over a podium that had been set up on the steps leading up to the Vanderbilt Building, his hands gripping the sides, his amplified voice booming across campus.

A few nearby people shot surprised glances at the trio, but their sudden arrival went mostly unnoticed.

"Stay safe, and remember, 'Full hearts, strong minds.'" President Russell raised his hand to signal he was done, then turned and entered the Vanderbilt Building.

If people were supposed to applaud, no one did. Chatter broke out amongst the students. Some milled about the quad, others left.

Jacob sat down on the grass with a thud. He traded long, silent looks with Camilla and Tanaka.

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They decided to return to the woodsy spot where they'd first entered the killer's lair. On the ground were thirteen candle nubs and a handful of bloody chains. Of the pocket dimension, there was no trace.

Camilla explained that the miniature pocket dimension had begun to collapse in on itself when it had stopped being fuelled by the killer. The candles, chains, and any other non-magical material would have been squeezed out into the barrier, fallen for a time, then been squeezed out again from the barrier into the nearest 'viable, material space.' Whatever that meant.

"So we're back to square one," Tanaka said. They'd all sat down on the grass, in the crook of a nearby tree, exhausted and disheartened.

Jacob stared up at the shifting canopy above him, blinking as dappled sunlight crossed his face. It sure seemed that way. The more he thought about it, the more he realized their strategy had been faulty. They were banking on sensing Ritual Magic, which meant that the killer would have already started the spell when they'd begun to sense it. But how to overcome that?

"Wait, Camilla?"

"Mmm?"

"Why did the lair disappear, again?"

"Because a pocket dimension needs constant magical power to carve out its space in the barrier. I'm assuming once the killer finished, they stopped powering it, so it dwindled away into nothing."

"Hell of a way to cover your tracks," Tanaka said. "Except for this stuff." He kicked a candle nub.

"But that means they must be making a new one every time they kill?" Jacob pondered.

"Of course they are," Camilla said. "It would require a lot of power to keep one running constantly just on your own juice."

"So, hear me out here: The killer picks a victim, knocks them out, creates their pocket dimension, transports the victim and themselves, performs the Ritual Magic, then dips. Right?"

"Sounds right."

"So, couldn't we divine the pocket dimension spell to catch them?"

"I already thought of that."

Of course. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because it won't work," Camilla said. "We have no idea when to cast it. We've been waiting on hearing about the victims to do the divination."

"Oh, right," Jacob leaned his head back against the tree trunk. "But, if they're still patterning their attacks off a vampire, we know it'll be another three weeks, right? In fact, If I remember correctly, they've pretty much all been almost exactly three weeks after each other. We could wait, and then in three weeks, we could cast divination."

"That's a long shot," Camilla said. "If we're late by even an hour, or the killer decides to move even like twenty minutes earlier, we'll miss it."

"I can't think of anything else to do," Jacob said.

They lapsed into silence. Decomp Basics was in less than an hour, but none of them seemed itching to get up and go.

"Are we doing any of this correctly?" Jacob asked no one in particular.

"Any of what?" Camilla said.

"This," he gestured. "The investigating. I feel like we're just making it up as we go along. I feel like there's a manual or procedure that were not looking at."

"Okay, Mr James Bond," Camilla said. "Is there a right way to do it?"

"I don't know. That's what I'm saying," Jacob said. "Like, we're not detectives."

Tanaka stood up and stretched. "We're making progress, aren't we?"

"Well, yeah."

"So that's enough for me," Tanaka kicked another of the candle nubs. "Something Camilla said gave me an idea. That stuff about running the pocket dimension constantly being too costly. I was thinking, what if we ran a constant divination spell?"

"Can we do that?" Jacob turned to Camilla.

"Theoretically, but it means we're going to have to be keeping an eye on it for the entire day. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. How?"

"No, hold on," Jacob said. "What if we did that but just in the days surrounding when the vampire is scheduled to strike next?"

"Still, that's a big ask."

"It'll be like a stakeout," he said, remembering the buddy cop movies his parents seemed to love. "That's a legitimate investigation technique. Cops catch people with it all the time."

Camilla pursed her lips. "It might work, but we're all going to have to learn the spell, take turns casting it and watching the medallion."

"I can teach you," Tanaka said.

"Since we're talking about 'legitimate investigating techniques' I still think we should look at the victims," Camilla said. "We never ended up doing that."

"We can do that too," Jacob said.

"Who has all this time?" Camilla asked.

"Okay, why don't we split resources?" Jacob said. "Camilla, you look into the victims. Tanaka and I will start grinding the divination spell."

That didn't seem like the answer Camilla wanted to hear, but she nodded. "Fine, but I want your help with research if I need to do any."

"Yes, of course," Jacob said.

He looked around at both of them, feeling that little light of hope blossoming in his chest once again.

"Alright, let's catch this guy."