I actually had a great day today with my Aunt. She helped me so much when I was practising my glamour magic and I even got to the point where I didn't really need to use any words or chants to help it along. It didn't take me long to get there either, Auntie M said it was because I was quite relaxed but also had the right amount of focus too. But things got a bit more serious around lunch time, when we started going through all the bits of information we had acquired about that horrible weird man who was in our school a few nights back, chanting away, trying to sacrifice my new familiar Domino and then blighted my arms. What a dick.

'So there's been several confirmed murders now. All moderately attractive young women.' Auntie M stated as she pulled a folder out of a drawer in her desk. She sat down at one of the tall stools round the middle island and pulled out actual crime scene pictures of the deceased women, laying them out in the order they were found. The most recent two found murdered was seventeen year old Maxine Gorman who was a waitress in a local restaurant and the youngest found so far; and twenty five year old Theresa Dixon, a recently qualified history teacher who was the first confirmed black woman to be killed in this series of murders. Auntie M was convinced there were more murders according to her witchy spidey-sense, but they were probably considered unlinked or undiscovered and most likely not in the local area.

'Where did you get all these photos from?' I asked my Aunt who looked a little sheepish after I asked.

'I acquired them from a very nice police officer.' She replied curtly. Knowing her she probably wandered in to the local police station and hypnotised some poor unsuspecting police officer in to giving her copies of the forensic photos from their case. I felt a little uncomfortable looking at them, but I figured this was something I had better get used to. I stared at all the pictures Auntie M had laid out.

'Lisa Murphy, first murder. Second murder, thirty year old Amanda Christiansen who was found just outside of Hitchin, third murder found completely drained Maxine Gorman and fourth murder, Theresa Dixon also drained. Look at the markings that have been carved on them.'

I looked closer at the gruesome images, all of the markings and symbols that had been carved in to skin of all these woman were the same.

'This is not good for us.' Auntie M said to me in a serious tone. 'This is the kinda shit that draws attention to us.'

'I guess the sooner we stop this guy, the better then?' I asked. Auntie M just nodded at me. 'So what's the plan?'

'We need to track this guy down and get to him when he attacks next.'

'And how do we do that?'

Auntie M grinned at me.

'With this.'

My Aunt held up a small vial in between her fingers and shook it in front of me. It had something in it, some of it looked like hair and I couldn't quite tell what the other stuff was in it.

'Is that, hair?' I asked, squinting at the tiny bottle.

'Yep. Homeboy also had pretty bad psoriasis too he left half of himself in that stinking cloak he vanished out of. Daniel managed to collect some of the flakes.'

I really wanted to barf right now at the strange little collection of flaky skin in a bottle. But I had read in my witches guidebook that spells using "body fluids and parts" of a person could result in some serious shit. Auntie M was busying herself with rummaging through drawers and cupboards, pulling what seemed to be random stuff out and laying it out on the island top. Eventually she brought out a dark grey speckled pestle and mortar and shoved it over to me along with random bottles and jars and the gross skin bottle. She then handed me a small notebook and a pen.

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'I'll tell you what to do. Do exactly what I say and write it down, you can transfer it to your own spellbook later.' She told me. I perched myself up on a stool so I could comfortably do this spell she was about to recite to me.

'Ready when you are Auntie M.' I said to her. She had quickly searched for something on her computer and was eagerly waiting beside a huge printer that had just erupted in to life. Within seconds, she had laid down what looked like a map of the local area she had just printed out on an A2 sized sheet then set about rummaging again. She then brought out an odd looking contraption made of metal and assembled it above the map. It was triangular in shape and reached about two feet in height with a small hook in the middle of the triangular peak. Auntie M then hung a sharp, crystal pendulum off the hook and let it swing a little before it stopped moving.

'Okay lets get started. First you can dump the contents of that vial in to the mortar there along with a good pinch of rock salt and half a spoon of that mugwort. Secondly, take a sheet out of that notebook and write on it "track and find."

I did exactly as she said. I emptied the gross vial in to the mortar, added the other ingredients she told me to, then wrote what she requested on a scrap of paper I tore out of the notebook in large capital letters.

'Visualise that horrible man, channel your energy in to paper and make it known that we need to find him before he commits another murder. You've felt his magic first hand, concentrate on how it made you feel and how it affected you. As you're doing that, fold the paper up three times, it doesn't matter which way.' Auntie M continued. I carried on with her instructions, remembering that night when that man set his horrible borrowed magic on me that turned my arms in to a blighted mess. I could feel my energy flowing in to the scrap of paper as I concentrated. My Aunt continued to watch and talk me through it.

'Okay, now set the paper alight in the mortar along with everything else in there.'

Thankfully I had managed to somewhat perfect lighting things with magic now. I held my hand out over the mortar and focused on the folded paper and within a second it began smoking then burst in to flames. I watched as the paper glowed orange, flickering with flames before it turned black and eventually burnt out. It didn't smell that great as it was burning but it soon dissipated.

'Now, grind up everything in the mortar in to a fine powder.'

I circled the pestle around the mortar in clockwise and anti-clockwise directions for a good few minutes until I had a fine, greyish coloured powder.

'Right then, spit in the mixture a few times and bring it all together with the pestle.'

I looked up at my Aunt when she gave me these instructions but she just closed her eyes and lightly nodded at me to carry on. I shrugged my shoulders and proceeded to spit as much as possible in to the bowl, mixing as I went. After half a minute of mixing, the concoction became quite gloopy. Auntie M wandered round, eyed up the weird gunge I had just mixed, then spat in it herself. It was strange, but I could almost feel the magical potency of this bizarre substance go through the roof as soon as my Aunt donated her own saliva which I suppose was a good thing.

'Just needed to be a bit slacker. Here, coat this pendulum in it then hang it on that hook there.' Auntie M said as she pointed to the stand above the map. I dipped and rolled the pendulum in the bowl making sure it was completely covered in the spitty slime and took great care in hanging it up on the hook. I watched as the pendulum sprang in to life. It moved around in fairly large circle to begin with but soon the tip of the pendulum became focused on one point on the map, the chain it was suspended on was on quite a gravity defying angle.

'Sunnyside.' I said aloud. 'Does he live there?' I asked.

'Or maybe he works round there.' Auntie M stated. 'The pendulum will keep tracking him until you ask it to stop, but the best thing is; it'll drop a little blob of that goop on the area where he's actively using magic.'

'So do we have to stand here just constantly watching this thing waiting for that to happen?' I asked, curious to know.

'Nope! You'll know when it gets a hit.' Auntie M grinned at me. Oh great, that means I'm gonna be getting tome weird twinge or something when this horrible murderous bloke starts doing something he shouldn't. I was wishing at times like these we could just teleport straight over to the guy and sort him out or something, like; did my Aunt have the power to just instantly find this guy and stop him from using magic?

'It doesn't work like that Maddie. He uses magic to sacrifice these poor women but not when he kidnaps them. At least with this method we can keep track of his movements to the point where we might be able to prevent him from even doing that next time he tries.'

Wow I really need to start thinking a bit more logically. And I need to remember my Aunt can hear what I'm thinking.