“Of the three most powerful cults, the Blood Callers are the least well-documented of the big three. Centuries ago they had not been considered a particularly large or powerful cult. Many might even consider their beliefs not particularly harmful to society. But take heed to those who read this. All cults are evil, and the Blood Callers have more than proven this undeniable fact by their actions in the last hundred years.

“From what scholars had managed to uncover about this cult's beliefs, the entire organization is based around a singular prophecy. They believe that something called the ‘True Blood’ will one day come into this world and save all of existence, undoing all past, present, and future sins. It is not clear what this ‘True Blood’ is, or when and if it will ever arrive. In their belief in this thing called ‘True Blood’, they appear to be willing to do all varieties of manipulative and inhumane acts in service of it.

“Only two pieces of information are concretely known about this cult at the time, besides their vague prophecy. This cult operates with an extreme amount of subterfuge, more so than any other known cult.

“Firstly, they had an overwhelming amount of success in infiltrating various important parts of society in the past. The famous ‘Red Book Incident’ of Vorx eighty years ago highlights this fact.

“For those who do not know of this incident. The ‘Red Book Incident’ was a secret lab belonging to the Blood Callers that was discovered and raided in the city of Vrox. In that Lab, a red book was found containing over a hundred names of members of the cult. More than half the names in that book were politicians, wealthy business owners, and a host of other people in leadership positions in everyday society.

“Once those people's names were revealed, they were arrested or had disappeared, likely going into hiding. Those who work in the field of intelligence suggest that members of that cult are highly active even today, and are still trying to sneak their members into positions of power. However, thanks to the counter-intelligent agencies, they don’t seem to be as successful as they were during the ‘Red Book Incident.’

“Secondly, they had been found to be conducting inhumane experimentation from what was found in the labs discovered in Vorx.

“From what could be gathered from those experiments, they were trying to create the thing they call the ‘True Blood’. It seems that there is no consensus even within this cult on what the ‘True Blood’ is from the research notes recovered from those disturbing experiments. As such, they were attempting to create this ‘True Blood’ through human experimentation.

“Those human experiments involved Krimson and were so vile, I refuse to recount them in this work. For more information on that, please refer to Light Scholar Lorel Vesps's work ‘The Monster in Blood: A detailed retelling of the Crimes of the Blood Callers’ if you require to know the specifics.”

—Writings of Light Scholar Lukka on “The Machinations of the Nameless Cults”

“This isn't going well.” Joe thought to himself.

Ever since he walked into this strange store he’s been feeling on edge. There was nothing particularly overtly strange about the interior of the store, but there was just something about this place that didn’t sit well with him that he couldn’t explain. That unease was making him blunder this conversation he was trying to have.

He even introduced himself with his real name without thinking. He didn’t mean to do that at the time. Joe wanted to limit as much information about him being here on the east end as possible. Yet, for some reason he just blurted out his name when asked.

That was his first blunder. The second was trying to ask about curses.

There is no good or easy way to ask about curses with a stranger. It’s an illicit magic that most wouldn't have that much knowledge about, especially for people who lived on the east side of the city. As not many spellcasters lived around here.

For better or worse, Joe decided to go for the quick brute force approach and just straight out asked about it.

The red-eyed man seemed to hint at knowing something, but was noncommittal to it. Despite how uncomfortable he was feeling, Joe’s intuition picked up on that and he tried to push this John guy for more info.

However, this man was being very insistent on knowing Joe’s identity.

Joe didn’t want to tell this man any more than he had to. So, he gave him an ambiguous answer and tried to move on to his own inquiry. The response that followed his questions pretty much confirmed in Joe’s mind that John knew something about deadly curses. The store owner seemed to be hinting he knew something, but was unwilling to tell him.

Joe could understand being tight-lipped about that kind of information. It was a dangerous type of magic that you wouldn’t want to be casually spreading around. Once he knew that this man likely knew something, he opted to be a little more open with this man. Telling him who he really was. In hopes that the red-eyed man would trust him enough to divulge more information.

This was his third and final mistake in this entire conversation.

For whatever reason, once John heard Joe confirming he was working for the police, he shut down. His demeanor completely changed and didn’t seem interested in answering any more questions. The store owner started to deny knowing anything about curses too.

Joe, being somewhat bullheaded, pushed even harder once John started denying having any knowledge. He started grilling him. This resulted in him currently being told to leave.

John: “Sir, I think you should leave.” he said, sternly.

“Maybe I should have eased into asking about the curse, or not tell him I was a cop. It's too late now.” Joe thought to himself.

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Joe felt stupid for confirming he was a cop. This was the east side of the city, where cops were not welcome. John's change in demeanor wasn't that strange for Joe if he considered where he was. He should have said he was a private investigator and denied any association with the police. Then maybe John wouldn’t have turned antagonistic.

Joe: “Please, this is important.”

John: “I told you. I don't know anything about curses!” he said, clearly annoyed now.

Joe: “What about somebody else that knows about curses? Could you tell me about them? Or, maybe a book or something about deadly curses.

John: “No,” he said flatly without even considering Joe's question.

“If this wasn't the Nighthounds territory, I would try using some of my authority as a cop now. But, I can’t do that here and I'm not sure if it would even work on a guy like this.” Joe thought to himself.

The senior investigator stared at the man’s red eyes in front of him. Joe felt like the conversation was starting to look like a flop. Threats were not an option. Didn’t look like a trade of information was now possible either. Joe was starting to wish he sent Mike to question instead of him.

Joe thought he could put on the air of an amiable person, but the unsettling feeling was getting to him. Causing him to act out a bit irrationally and make poor choices in trying to steer the conversation. Joe needed to focus, but couldn't.

He was about to try and ask another follow up question when he heard growling.

Dog: “Grrr!”

There was white dog baring its teeth at Joe while standing by the side of the table John was at. The canine was snarling. Joe didn’t notice the creature when he first entered. It looked angry and ready to jump and attack at a moment's notice.

A memory of Cory warning not to piss off this guy's dog flashed in Joe's mind.

Normally, Joe wouldn’t be too worried about an angry dog. He was a mage and a normal dog wouldn’t pose much threat to him even if he was attacked. Joe could easily defend himself. However, that was only for a normal dog.

Something about John’s white furred dog was different. There was no particular thing about its appearance that separated it from any other dogs Joe had seen before. But, a deep impulse within was telling him something was off, and was leading to an overwhelming amount of anxiety. That unease grew and actually started to become more oppressive than the moments just before Rob's death.

The officer's fight-or-flight response suddenly kicked in. He froze up. All in response to the dog’s growling. He felt danger and didn’t understand why.

“I’ve literally had a gun pointed at my head before and didn’t flinch. Why is this different? Why am I freezing up because of a dog? Or, is it really a dog?” Joe wondered.

John looked down at the white growling furred dog and then back at Joe.

John: “Seems that Lunar doesn't like you either. I suggest you leave before he tries to bite you,” he said coldly.

At this point, Joe was all too ready to leave, but that oppressive feeling kept him in place. His body betrayed him as he was too scared to move now. He couldn’t move his feet no matter how much he tried to force himself.

He looked at the large white malamute and felt like he was being stared down by a monstrous predator. Long lost ancestral vestigial instinct buried in Joe was now awake, and telling his body not to act. For even if Joe’s mind couldn't comprehend what was happening, his body understood something on a deeper level. One wrong move and he was dead, or worse.

Suddenly, Joe was overcome with a new strange sensation. That same feeling he got just before entering the store, the one that was telling him to turn back, started to fill his entire being. That feeling, Joe could only describe it as otherworldly. It was like there was some sort of strange force beyond himself that was pulling at him, trying to usher him out of this store to safety.

This new alien sensation pushed back the oppression he got from the dog and Joe could move again, but he hardly felt safe at the moment.

Slowly, he started stepping backward, not daring to turn his back on either the dog or the mysterious store owner. John didn’t say anything and seemed to just stare down Joe with a cold indifference in his eyes.

Eventually, he felt his back bump into the front door of the store. He reached behind himself and felt around until found the doorknob. He turned the knob and pushed the door open with his body while walking backwards out of the Mystic Emporium. Never turning his back.

Joe would never fully comprehend how close he came to ruin in this moment.

♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦

Sweat ran down Joe’s back. He didn’t understand what had just happened.

Joe didn’t go in there to fight, but the store owner seemed to turn hostile towards him.

“It was that damn weird feeling in that store. I couldn’t focus on being amiable.” He thought to himself, trying to find excuses as to why that conversation went badly.

That unease he felt put him on edge and caused him to revert to his usual stubborn ways. Grilling this person was the last thing Joe intended to do, but he ended up doing just that. He had no opportunity to try to charm this John person.

Joe was still standing in front of the Mystic Emporium. He looked up at the store sign and thought about what happened in that strange store.

“Cory’s information was right. There’s definitely something up with that guy.” Joe thought to himself.

Joe was thinking about that oppressive feeling he got inside the store. He didn’t know what it was, but he was comparing it to the feeling he got the moments before Rob died. It was similar in some ways, but what he just felt was way more intense than with Rob. The feeling he got before Rob died was malevolent. The feeling he got from that dog felt more like a warning.

He shuddered at the thought of what he felt was just a warning.

Joe wondered if there was a connection. He wasn’t sure there was, but this was the second time he experienced a strange feeling that was able to overwhelm him. He thought it just had to be. Maybe not a direct connection, but some sort of knowledge that the store owner possessed that could explain Rob’s circumstances. Joe felt like John was hiding something.

Then there was that other feeling Joe got that was even more perplexing to him.

“What was that other weird feeling? The one that stopped the fear and unease, allowing me to move. I don’t understand how I know this, but I’m pretty sure the source of that feeling came from somewhere outside the store.” He wondered.

Joe was about to turn around and walk back to Mike when he felt a knot in his stomach. His fight-or-flight response was still somewhat active, and he was having a hard time turning his back on this store.

Not wanting to stand here, Joe continued to walk backward towards Mike. Keeping himself facing the Mystic Emporium. He was hoping that once he got far enough from this store, the fear in his body would calm down.

“Ugh, I probably look like such an idiot walking backward like this.” Joe thought to himself.

While walking backward, Joe took a glance to his left and right to see who might be looking at him for his strange behavior. He became worried about what he saw. There was no one on the street. It was completely empty and not a soul could be seen. It was still the middle of the day and should have been crowded with people wanting to shop. It was beyond strange for Joe to see.

Once he got far enough, he was having a hard time seeing the mysterious store again, and the tightness in his body finally relaxed. Joe took a deep sigh of relief. He finally felt like he had full control over his body again.

He then turned toward the bench, where he left Mike. What he saw made him gawk.

Mike was still sitting where Joe left him, but there were five canine mutants, all wearing expensive-looking suits, standing behind him. They were tall and had constant scowls on their faces. Every single one of them wore dog collars, the signature of a higher-ranking Nighthound.

Mike’s hands were up in the air, as all five mutants had guns pressed right up against his head. Mike gulped.

Mike: “U-um, Joe. I think the Nighthounds now know we’re here.”