Serena wasn’t as absorbed by her phone as her uncle had thought. In fact, she had been idly messaging some friends, while keeping a close eye on the older mage. When he announced that he was going to step out for a bit she pretended not to be interested. She had remained in her seat until she heard the front door close.

She got up, turned off her phone and left the dining hall. With an exciting bounce in her step she hurried upstairs, to the second floor. The west wing loomed as she looked around for the servants. The coast was clear. She tried to be quiet, just in case. There were four doors, all of different make and shape. Two were ornate, with intricate woodcarvings, depicting mages doing spells. A third door looked new, as if it had recently been replaced. It was however the last door that drew her attention. The fourth door was entirely made out of steel, looking almost aggressive in its heaviness.

She tiptoed towards the heavy metal frame, there wasn’t a doorknob. “How do you open this thing?” She muttered as she placed her hand against the cold steel. Suddenly, she cried out, something had cut her! She searched, finding a bloody spot on the door. Hidden in the door there was a small groove. She reached for the room inside her, and extinguished a light bulb. Light appeared in her hand and she shone it on the groove.

Inside the groove a tiny blade was hidden, her blood on it. As she shone a light on the blood it started glistening. Her eyes widened as it started to steam. A second later the heavy metal door swung open. She entered a small room. Wooden panels lined the halls, the ceiling and even the floor. She could feel the weight of hundreds of wards and enchantments wash over, making the air thick and a little difficult to breathe.

She ignored the lab coats, protective gear and everything else in the small room. Instead, she walked straight towards the door on the other end of the room. She opened it and what she saw made her jaw drop.

In the centre of the room stood a gigantic stone, covered in music notes. Had that been all, she would have been able to look at it objectively, but the fact that the stone was covered in a substance, which looked a suspicious lot like blood. Then, the smell hit her. The thick, metallic smell of freshly spilled blood. It made her want to vomit. She actually did, in a conveniently placed garbage can, when she saw the bodies.

To the left of the bloody stone three bodies were lying on slabs. They were all in different stages of dissection. When she reached them, she realized that two of the three bodies weren’t human. No, that was perhaps wrong, they were almost human. A man with a goat’s head and a woman whose bones were on the outside of her body. “What the fuck.” She whispered. Quickly she got her phone out of her pocket. When she wanted to take a picture however, her screen remained black.

“Fuuuuck.” She said as she tried to make the thing work. Maybe it was the enchantments, or the bodies, or the stone, or maybe her battery was just empty, but she wasn’t going to take a picture today. Surely, her mom would want her to come home if she realized that dear uncle Steven was keeping bodies in his house, right?

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She walked through the laboratory. She rifled through the desk, finding notes which were quite hard to understand. It was all advanced magic, things her magical education hadn’t touched on yet, and probably would not for a while. She was nervous as she sneaked around, searching the place. She felt a little bit like a detective in the crime novels her mother liked to read. If she wasn’t terrified that her uncle could enter the room any second, she might even have enjoyed herself.

After a couple of minutes, she decided on a tactical retreat. She had seen enough. Her uncle was bleeding bodies, supernatural and regular, to achieve something with that stone of his. Whatever it was, it was surely illegal and dangerous. As she closed the door behind her, entering the small room again, she realized that it probably wouldn’t be enough for her mother to bring her home. Between them they already knew that her uncle was into some dangerous and highly illegal stuff. That hadn’t been a deterrent for her mum, who had sent Serena regardless of that fact.

The steel door closed behind her with a kind of finality that made her jump. But her uncle didn’t appear suddenly, yelling his lungs out of his body or giving her one of those cold glances that made people shudder in their boots. He thought she didn’t see those, but Serena was a lot more observant than most people thought.

He wasn’t home, wouldn’t be for some time probably. Why stop here? There were three more doors, all with their own secrets. She walked towards one of the old ornate doors. When she pushed it open it revealed a bedroom, quite an ordinary one at that. A quick walk around made her lose all interest. There was no magic here, just a bedroom and a renovated bathroom. Boring.

She closed the door behind her. Two left. She chose the recently renovated door. Much like the bedroom it wasn’t locked and she quickly discovered why. The room was filled with sheet music, instruments and recording materials. It was a mess, unlike the rest of the mansion, which was immaculate and it didn’t feel like her uncle, who tended to be organized and the picture of control.

It was clear however that he had made this mess himself. The sheet paper had only one type of handwriting, her uncle’s precise lettering, which she saw everyday as he taught her. But this version of his handwriting was less precise and more hurried. She grinned as she saw that in the corner of the room torn up and otherwise discarded sheet music had gathered. It was like she was looking into a part of her uncle’s mind that very few people knew about. Together with the bedroom the studio made her uncle seem more human.

A notion which she quickly disabused herself off as her mind went back to the laboratory. A bit careless now, she pulled the door closed behind her. The house remained silent. She had come this far. The ornate door to the library stared at her. Before she knew it, her hand was on the knob. It was like she was in a trance, as if she couldn’t stop herself. She opened the door.

She entered the library, which by all accounts looked like a regular room, but she could feel the weight of enchantments. Yet, she was drawn towards the book case. She was barely aware that she had climbed the ladder, to reach one of the top shelves. The books there were dusty, but she didn’t mind as her hand searched for something.

In the corner of the room a large grandfather clock chimed. She turned to look, suddenly in front of the door. She blinked. The clock told her three hours had passed, but that couldn’t be right. She had been inside the room for only a few minutes! “What?” She half said, half asked, almost hitting herself with the book she was holding.

Wait what?