So I'm pretty sure I was correct in assuming that the thing that connected all of the kidnappings and subsequent murders of all those poor women up to now, was in fact the supermarket of the middle and upper-middle classes; Waitrose. I mean it had to be, all of the streets that the women had last been seen on surrounded the place. I couldn't wait for my Aunt to get back so I could tell her all about my amateur sleuthing. I didn't have to wait long though as she came strolling in to the lab with Arne in tow just around dinner time. I say dinner time, I actually meant lunch time. My Aunt's vernacular was rubbing off on me.

'Wow Maddie you've been busy.' My Aunt said to me as she looked up at the cork board with all of the photos and random bits of police reports I had cut up and neatly arranged on it. I had even got a hold of different colours of string and had hooked them on to the thumbtacks making lines from one point to another, connecting everything; kind of liked what you see in films and TV shows. I was quite proud of myself to say the least. I watched My Aunt study the cork board then turned to look at Duncan and Arne who were rooting around in the little fridge my Aunt kept some bags of blood in for them if they got a little peckish. It seemed like they needed to do a restock as there was no B negative for either of them and they had to settle on a few bags of O negative, warmed up for half a minute in the microwave. I wasn't even phased by this any more nor I did I feel a bit queasy at the thought or sight of them sat around the island, casually drinking out of their Vampire Capri Suns. This was their dinner, who am I to judge? They would probably recoil at the fact that I occasionally indulged in a digestive biscuit drizzled with salad cream once in a while.

I looked back at my Aunt who was now staring at me with a pretty serious face.

'Don't tell me it's Waitrose. It's fucking Waitrose isn't it?' She said to me deadpan.

'I'm fairly sure it is Auntie M.'

'Where did you get all of these reports and other photos?'

'Duncan got it all for me.' I smiled. Duncan was sat opposite Arne, sucking the last few drops of O neg out of the bags. He looked over and casually waved.

'Nice one. In fact that's awesome, I should've maybe pulled a few tricks when we were there about Francesca but...'

'Not exactly a thing on your to do list when you're reporting a kidnapping.' I said.

'Exactly. Kinda hard to concentrate when you're doing something serious regarding someone's life, even though they are an abhorrent spoilt little twat.'

It probably wasn't the nicest thing to do but I did let out a little chuckle. To be honest, I was sort of thinking the same thing. Francesca was horrible at the best of times, but even being a nasty piece of work; she didn't deserve to be kidnapped and sacrificed in the most awful way possible like the other women.

'Where have you two been anyway? You've been gone all morning.' I asked.

'Well we, have been doing our own sleuthing too.' My Aunt said as she walked round to Arne and draped her arms around him, resting her chin on the top of his head.

'Oh Christ that's not a euphemism for some weird sex thing is it?' I quipped, it literally fell out of my mouth. Duncan instantly started laughing and it even got a near spit-take out of Arne who just started doing this strange almost noiseless chuckle. My Aunt looked a little taken aback, somewhere in between howling with laughter and embarrassment.

'Err no actually. It could be though...' She trailed off and grinned. I just buried my face in to my hands. My Aunt continued.

'You mentioned that odd little book you found in the school library yeah? The abridged history of Saint Augustines or whatever? Well, we found the author. We actually went and had a little chat with her earlier.'

'You're joking? She's still alive?' I squealed.

'Yep, took a bit to track her down but she's still going, lives just outside of Knebworth now. Wendy just had her seventy eighth birthday a few months ago and she's still pretty spry.'

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

'That's amazing. What did she have to say?' I asked, curious to know what my Aunt and Arne had found out.

'Get this, she was a secretary at the school years ago, like fifty years ago. She was a bit of an amateur historian in her spare time and started writing that book in her first few years of working at Saint Augustines.'

Auntie M wandered over to her coffee machine near the sink and started messing around with it, getting two cups out of the cupboard ready to make herself and I a nice latte. Then she continued to talk as she clattered about with a spoon.

'She was also friends with your old Chemistry teacher too. She also...' My Aunt paused for a moment as she spooned some sugar in to the cups, stirring away at the frothy lattes the machine had just spat out. '... knew what she was.'

'A magic user.' I said.

'Yep. Turns out Ms. McLintock has some ties with the other side too, she knew exactly what I was. Arne too. In fact she's one of the few humans that do know about us.'

'Ties with the other side? Like a clairvoyant or something?'

'She had some kind of clairvoyancy gift.' Arne answered me this time as my Aunt carefully placed one of the lattes in front of me as she sipped her own. 'Something similar to what a medium experiences.'

I ahh'd at this response before having a drink of my coffee.

'She was quite taken with you Wendy, wasn't she?' Auntie M raised her eyebrow at Arne who just cradled his chin in his hand and smirked.

'Yeah I still got it.' He said coyly. My Aunt just pushed him in the shoulder and laughed.

'Anyway with Wendy doing all her research and documenting on the school and the local area, she amassed quite a few documents and bits and pieces over the years. She very kindly said she would get her son to dig everything out of storage for us to use.'

'That was nice of her. Um, did you tell her why?' I asked.

'She sort of knew already. We just confirmed everything for her.' Auntie M said. 'Wendy said that if she could help us in any way to do what we need to do, then she's only a phone call away. She knew something bad was going to happen regarding the school when Mrs. Clarkson died.'

I kinda wished my Aunt would've woken me up this morning and taken me with her. Wendy McLintock sounded like such a nice lady and I would've liked to have met her. Maybe next time I thought.

'She did tell us something interesting about the school though.' Arne piped up as he rose from his seat. 'Because the grounds have been built upon over the years, Ms. McLintock said there are possibly caverns or some kind of basement system under the school that stands there now. They may even be accessible.'

'Okay there's definitely something down there then.' Duncan said as he left his seat. We all nodded in agreement.

'Either way, Wendy said she'd call me when her son gets all her old notes and stuff. She said she had old drawings and blueprints of the school and grounds too so maybe we could get a better idea then.' Said Auntie M. 'Anyway, you two need to clear off for a bit I need to talk with my niece. Witchy stuff.' She smiled.

Taking the not so subtle hint, Duncan and Arne wandered off out of the lab and shut the door behind them.

'Right Maddie.' Auntie M said with her serious face back on. 'We need to step up your training a bit, prepare you more for what we may have to deal with.'

'I knew you were going to say something like that. But first, can I ask you something?'

'Of course you can, what's up?'

I was in two minds on whether or not I should tell my Aunt about the horrible dream I had the other night, the one that felt so real I could swear I was seeing it all with my own two eyes. I took in a deep breath and started to tell her what happened in my dream.

I was nearly crying again by the time I finished telling her. She sat next to me and watched me intently as I told her everything in great detail; about all the women I recognised who worked in Hitchin, about Francesca and my two best friends Katie and Victoria. My Aunt then laid her hand on top of mine to comfort me.

'I'm glad you told me this Maddie. This could potentially be some kind of precognition you're having. And if that's the case then we have to work quickly because if this nutter is gathering that many in one place, it sounds like he's planning on summoning Baal for good.'

'So all the women he's killed up to now are...'

'Not the real sell out final ever tour at Wembley I'm afraid. These poor women who have been bled out up to know are just the support act.'

Interesting way to put it Auntie M. But I understood what she meant. I had read it in some demonolgy books that some demons before their one true summoning too several sacrifices beforehand in order to bring their own strength up as well as provide power to the idiot doing the summoning; mainly so they had the power to cast the final summoning spell. All of the women sacrificed up to now were just the appetisers.

'Right, we need to keep a level head now. Can you do that for me Maddie?' Auntie M stared at me with a hint of a smile on her face. I took a deep breath then nodded.

'Of course.'

'Good girl.' Auntie M got out of her seat and gave me a big hug from behind. 'We've got a job to do. We've got people to protect, friends and the public. And Francesca too I guess.' I saw my Aunt's little eye roll at the mention of her name. 'If it gets really bad we may have to draft in the rest of the Coven which I really don't want to do, I don't wanna put them at risk if I can help it. But they will assist if needed.'

'Sounds like I need to get good then.' I said.

'Get the basics down. C'mon, Duncan and Arne can help too.'