Chapter One

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There were days that just made you regret getting out of bed. Days that you wished you would have ignored the sun and just went back to the peaceful land of dreams. Those were the days that you wished you hadn't talked to anybody and stayed in the safe shell that was your home where it was safe.

The sad thing was that it was all of my choices that landed me in my current predicament. At the beginning I thought that even if there were consequences for my actions that night they might not appear so soon. They would appear eventually because that was how my life worked but I figured that was a problem for that future version of me. He could deal with all the problems I would create. The job I had been dealing with was too important to care about the possible consequences.

Now that I am the version of me who has to deal with the consequences of my actions I can honestly say that the past me was a jerk for making me have to fix this mess. I would definitely have to stop procrastinating and think more long term if I survived this.

Considering my current position of fighting for my life behind a quadruple damned night club with my possible killer standing above me watching my probably panicked face and clearly enjoying the sight and my friend Marcus being no help given that he had a thick spear of wood impaling him through the heart and coming out the other side of his chest. I can honestly say the past version of me did not foresee any of these events happening.

I was regretting so many choices for the past few days. I should have stopped searching when the job changed. I was just too stubborn to quit and greedy for money and now it might be the reason that I die. Remembering how this all happened was the metaphorical punch in the gut. Looking back I could see how all these events had happened step by step but I still couldn't understand how in just in the length of a school week a case could go from simple as could be to extremely complicated with a body count that just continued to rise. I hated cases like this, they required more energy and effort than I usually like giving into any one task. I remembered how it all began.

Like the story of Solomon Grundy it all began on a Monday.

I was in my office in Frankford. It was a simple building. With four walls and two windows that brought light into the room and let me see the streets and the people on them. My office's sign was on the painted white door. It had taken a long time for me to find a title that I liked for it. Besides the train that rode above on the bridge and the noise that accompanied it the building was an okay place to work.

In the city of Philadelphia there were lots of businesses run by either small families or big businesses that had corporations all over the country. For all the businesses that succeeded there were just as many that were closing down, changing hands, and becoming something else. To live in society and have a life that wasn't miserable required a job. I truly wished that I didn't have to work but reality and the government don't seem to share the same views that I do and so to keep my house I have to pay bills and doing that required having a job and working. So I chose the easiest solution and found a job that I didn't hate.

That led me to choose a job as a private investigator.

Being a private investigator was something that I enjoyed. I owned the business so there was no boss to report to and I got to pick my own work hours so that was one benefit. There was a lot of work for me in the city so I didn't have to worry about rent. It was pretty easy and there was also my other job that I had on the side so I was not in a need for money. It was easier but the downside to it was that it could not be told to the government.

That was also why I needed a regular job. On the off chance that someone decided to investigate me they would not question where I was getting my money from.

Hearing the phone ringing I walked to my desk. There was always a chance that it was someone who saw my business card and wanted to hire me though there was also the chance that it was someone who found one of my cards and wanted to make a prank call. It wouldn't be the first time that it has happened to me. I was Alex Blackwell and I just wasn't a simple private Investigator. I was a psychic private investigator. In Philadelphia if you were a non-magical and had a problem that was natural or supernatural my office was the one you called.

"Hello? Blackwell Investigations." I answered the phone with a voice full of confidence. If there was any trait people disliked in a detective or even a regular person it was a lack of confidence. I had to make them believe that I could solve their problems.

"I want to hire you." The voice on the other side of the telephone said. It was never good to assume the gender of the person you are talking to on the other side of the phone. I have met clients under one assumption or another before and then they get angry and storm off. Now I ask for their name before jumping to conclusions.

Live and learn is a very apt description of the detective business.

"Alright so what is your problem?" I asked. It was always good to get to the point early on otherwise people either get nervous and change their minds or they start to ramble on and on. I was a fan of neither.

People who call me for work are either the type that either have no options left that can help with their problem or they are the types to truly believe in the idea of psychics. That is a rare thing in the world with all the advancements science has made. People are more trusting in a method that can be observed and tested than believing in mind reading and fortune telling. Not that I blame them truthfully. To most people in this world psychics excluding television and in movies rarely turn out to be useful. More likely they are just people telling you what you want to hear and using psychology to give responses that are more likely to affect you.

We are treated as a joke. People out to make money by tricking the gullible and naive and for having really convincing lies. Many people doubted the existence of psychics and when you tell people they either think you should be wrapped up in a straight-jacket and sent to a white padded room or you are lying to them. To be fair to the people though it wasn't like they were wrong. I really was lying to them. I wasn't psychic, I didn't use psychic energy to understand the stars and see the past and the future. To speak with and banish ghosts.

I used something else. It was more powerful and more dangerous, it was magic.

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I was a Wizard. Wizard, Magus, Mage, Magi, and Homo Magika were all terms that could be used to describe my species. Basically it meant I was someone who used the mystical energy generated by the universe to influence things, people, events, and reality as a whole. The way I saw it was that I had the skills to do what I claimed I just lied about how I did it. I was simply an honest con man.

In my opinion It was like being a mix between John Constantine and Doctor Strange, my personality may not be perfect for dealing with other people but I was good at fixing problems. However, I lacked the tragic backstory that brought angst and cynicism upon characters like them. That was a good thing in my opinion. I wasn't a fan of brooding angst or deep introspective thinking.

So what if I lied about the way I did my work. I got the results that were promised, I just used a method I wasn't honest about. This was magic not science honesty wasn't required. I was a fraud but the thing was I truly could help people so I thought in terms of karma that it balanced out very well.

It was one of the reasons that I worked for myself. With all the detective offices in the world why would I start a business with how risky it is. For the complete autonomy to do my cases the way I liked without having to explain my methods. Also so I could charge more for doing less work. Who questions the psychic for their methods when they are always right?

The answer is no one.

"Okay what is the problem?" I asked expecting it to be a simple séance or checking if their house was haunted. I got a lot of cases like that and few that actually were. Didn't stop me from charging them. Cynical people would probably believe they are getting tricked either way but my belief was if the psychic isn't charging you that is a clear sign you are getting tricked.

"I lost something and I need help finding it." The voice responded and I nodded getting out my notepad and pen from my trench coat pocket.

"Okay tell me what it is and it's description." I said clicking my pen and getting ready to write. Finding lost items was super easy and given how important it is to them that a psychic had to be called I bet I could get paid a lot more if they weren't simply going to replace it in a store.

"It's not that simple." The voice said and I nodded it wasn't such an unusual request. Some people were incredibly shy with what they lost. Sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for stupid reasons but in a rare once in a while it could be both. I charged double for those because of the urgency to find the item. Supply and demand was a big factor in all businesses.

"Do you want to tell me over the phone?" I asked it wasn't the first time someone hired me and gave me a contract to do something and not tell other people. All that mattered to me was that I was going to get paid. At the time I had no idea how complicated this job would get.

Some people just did not trust telephones and had a fear that the government was listening in. Paranoid types would be the ones to call psychics. They were not the type for trusting the police. I had dealt with these kinds of people before they were mostly harmless. For the ones that weren't harmless well I had magic and they didn't so it was an easy fight.

"Do you have someplace that you are comfortable meeting at?" I asked patiently. There was no reason to spook the person yet. Paranoid people were very quick at jumping to conclusions on their own and they got scared and defensive very easily. It was better to let them drive the conversation and make the decisions. It was easier on me too. All I had to do was show up.

This was the event that led me down my current spiral, If I had the power to see into the future I would have not answered the phone. Instead I would have conjured a pillow and went to sleep and not answer any call for the rest of the day.

"Yes." The voice said and gave me an address to their house.

I saw nothing wrong with that lots of people feel more comfortable in their house than they do outside. I was one of those people but reality and the economy wouldn't let me stay indoors and earn money so I had to work. Getting up from my desk and grabbing my coat I was about to leave but I wanted to make sure I looked professional.

This was one of the few things I disliked about the job.

As a detective psychic or not you had to be impressive if you wanted to be hired. Each new case was like a job interview. I had to impress the client so they would hire me. I didn't do well in those types of situations. On a phone I could fake enthusiasm well enough but when it was face to face that was a little more complicated.

Grabbing my wand out of my trench coat I began to cast my spell. I used a variant of latin for my spells. Spell casting was never done in a casters' native language otherwise if you say a word and aren't paying attention you can cast accidentally. If you cast spells in another language accidentally cursing someone is very unlikely unless you got really mad and switched to it by accident. The words were a way to channel energy and give a mental image of the effect that the castor wanted to happen depending on how much energy was put into the spell.

In a way the words were like training wheels for the younger magically talented. The more powerful and or experienced you are the less you needed words to cast spells and achieve the desired effect.

In my case however the reason that I used it is because it sounded cool and to me that was a very important thing. Aesthetics are important to me. I base my entire style around it. My wand is made of wood. It was a bit longer than the length of a pen. The reason I use a wand was because my depth perception isn't the greatest and I needed help aiming. In my opinion a wand was a wizard's version of a combination of a slingshot and a Swiss army knife. It had long distance damage and the more spells you knew the more tools you had.

"Speculum." I said and conjured a mirror.

It was taller than I am so that my entire reflection could be seen. Being five foot eleven it was rare to find a mirror taller than I was if I didn't create it. I saw my reflection staring back at me and I will admit that I spent more time than necessary staring at myself and in my opinion I was clearly handsome. With my raven black hair, sky blue eyes, and a face that looked younger than I actually was.

Wizard and witches aged slower than regular people so that was to be expected. Though it didn't help with clients who were extremely wary of hiring a young detective it made me feel better about myself and that was all that mattered in my view. I was wearing a black shirt and jeans, black and blue sneakers, and my trench coat was a deep blue that reached shortly past my knees. I didn't wear a tie with the outfit because they weren't very useful. They were often one of the first things that people thought to grab to choke others with. They were also very uncomfortable to wear. I had no idea why people decided that wearing nooses around your neck made you look more professional but I wasn't buying into it. The fact that I didn't know how to tie one also factored into the decision a little bit.

For some reason I couldn't help but feel like the trench coat was in the wrong color for the moment. The colors of the coat were changed often either for drama or my mood and right now I wasn't in the mood for it to be blue. Several years ago I had the coat enchanted for it to fit my needs. It was a favorite of mine and I was reluctant to change. It was designed to always match my size and to also repair itself if it was damaged from all sort of problems like magic, age, rain, fire, and the like.

It could also change colors at a thought. This way I could emphasize situations without talking about my feelings on the matter. With a simple thought the coat changed from blue to a tan brown. With that done it was now time to meet the client. I only wished that the case had been as easy as I thought it would be when I first left my office. Going off I had expected to find the lost item charge more money than was needed and use magic to cut back on resources and wasted hours that regular detectives would spend on the same case. It was supposed to be easy.

I was right in that aspect of course. The beginning of the case was easy it only got more difficult after that. It was like a video game the first level was easy but as you go deeper the difficulty increases.

That was the reason I don't play video games that much. I like things to be simple and easy. This case was anything but that.