I was looking through my less valuable collectables for something to give to Sarah because she had been getting more and more restless and needed something to calm her down. She was pretty petty and if she couldn't sleep, neither could I.
I picked up a sword that I didn’t even remember how I got, when I was suddenly assaulted by a rancid smell from someone appearing behind me. There was neither a trace of magic nor movement in the air, only the bizarre smell. It smelt like ancient parchment, dried herbs, and a hint of weathered wood, but tainted with the metallic smell of rotten blood.
It was someone small- no, big- it was hard to gauge from the impressions they were giving me, appearing out of my mirror and trying to sneak towards me. Once out of the mirror, they positively radiated magic, glowing to my senses like a bonfire and unfolding to increase their size.
Before I could whip around and attack them or figure out what they were, I felt something surge towards me, aiming for my stomach.
Completely on Instinct, I twisted to the side, dodging the first strike, but a second one followed too quickly for me to dodge it from my current position.
Foolishly trusting my thick hide that had saved me so many times to block it, I embraced the attack and prepared to throw the assailant by grabbing onto it.
This only allowed the tendril to shoot through my shoulder, throwing blood over my room and sending spikes of pain roaring through my body as I twisted against the unyielding flesh.
I clawed at it but it recoiled a moment later, my hand uselessly sliding off. It left a huge hole in my shoulder. I would need to transform to survive and I started to do so.
I turned around to my mirror and threw a punch, launching myself towards-
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I grasped at my shoulder as the phantom pain took a few seconds to fully fade away, breathing heavily.
It was an ambush after all, but he’d managed to defend himself somewhat.
It didn't give me much, as there was too little blood to go off of, but I had another lead and I could always try to use the huge pool even if it might be a dumb idea. I couldn’t control how long I stayed, that was fully dependent on the amount of blood shed. I might get stuck long enough to lose my mind.
I unpacked the sword against my better judgement and strained myself to find purchase, anything for my power to work off of. If I could look through their senses, I might be able to glean insight into their motives or even figure out who they are.
I felt the little smudges of blood with my power but they felt distant, almost recoiling from me until-
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I ducked beneath the punch and shrieked. It did nothing to stop the punch and it continued undeterred, shattering the mirror, my only escape.
No, I could always find another one to return home.
Harvey Klein, that bastard, swung down his sword and I caught it with two of my tendrils, expecting it to bounce off of them like everything else I've encountered so far but against my expectations, it sank halfway through them and spilt my blood. It was blue.
I shrieked in terror, coiling more tendrils around it so he could not swing it again, almost burying it in tendrils and yanking with all my strength to restrict his movement.
My free tendrils whipped around us uncontrolled, throwing over anything not nailed down and smashing that which was. I strained myself to try and control them but found my grasp on the sword slip when I did, so I let instinct take them over.
"Who are you?" He snarled, spit and blood covering his short beard.
I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to risk someone hearing or finding out about it, like he had with Miss Bauer. I didn't know the limits of him after all, and he was already getting too close for my taste. If I could do stuff like this, I feared to think of what others could.
He reeled back his free fist and prepared to smash my head in, but I coiled another tendril around it, protecting my face with my hands. Light glinted off of the ring I’d forgotten to remove, and I quickly dropped my hands to hide it.
I took a knee against my stomach for that, as my tendrils kept twisting the sword, seeking to break it apart.
I retaliated with two quick stabs through his chest, getting stuck as he grew in size and the wound began to close around the tendril. He looked almost swollen, muscles and fur spreading over his skin as he towered over my diminutive figure.
I had to end this quickly, I knew that, but seeing his expression twisted in pain and anger had me hesitate. He didn’t look like the corrupt, greedy owner of a Security firm, but like a ragged, dying puppy.
He let go of the sword as it snapped and I felt my tendrils rise higher at the sudden lack of resistance, leaving me wide open.
I knew I had to raise my guard, but before I could do anything, he darted forwards, grabbed me by a tendril, lifted me high, and slammed me on the ground.
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Stars filled my vision before an alien instinct took over, clouding my judgement and filling me with the desire to see him dead, to rip him to shreds for all the people he has hurt, until not even his mother would recognise him.
That thought caused me to abruptly sober up, two tendrils in his chest as he slumped against me, lifeless.
What had just happened?
My hands hovered in the air as his last breath left him and I was left wondering.
What have I done?
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That had been a bombshell.
The beast felt familiar and I knew I recognised the ring on its finger.
It was the same model as mine.
It didn’t have to be Rebecca’s. It was a regular commercial ring and Claire owned the same one, even if she was single. But it just fit too well.
Whoever our monster was, they were young, but strong, and constantly learning. A dangerous combination.
Somehow, they knew that we were using supernatural methods to investigate, but didn't know what. They were oblivious to somewhat public knowledge about spirits. It seemed overwhelmed by its newfound power and the revelations, but still sought Harvey to kill him for personal reasons. Perhaps someone it knew died because of his firm?
It wasn't a member of his pack trying to climb the ranks. That didn't mean they couldn't have hired them to kill Harvey, even if it seemed unlikely, not with the… emotions of the attacker.
They weren't used to fighting and failed to keep themselves defended, which further spoke to them being inexperienced, or perhaps, simply young.
I felt a headache approaching but there was one more element I had to investigate with my gift.
I stayed clear of the huge puddle. His visceral death and desperate defence would probably have broken me for good. I did not want to experience dying for half an hour, even with the monster thinking he breathed his last breath towards the end.
I refused to believe he'd died this quickly, not with his track record.
I wiped the tear out of the corner of my eye and moved into the hallway.
Claire was kneeling on the ground, investigating the last of the footprints and getting partials from them but looked up at me as I emerged from the room. "Holy shit," she exclaimed, rising to her feet, "are you alright?"
I waved her off, not wanting to mention my theory. I hoped it wasn’t correct. "Let me see, I'll try something."
She backed off and let me lean down to touch a blue spot of blood. With such tiny splotches, I thought that I would be able to play it off as a vague sense of what happened in the short time of the vision. I trusted Martha to stay discreet, but I didn’t want her to know the specifics of my gift-
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I was staggering across the hallway, using multiple of my tendrils to support my weight as I carried the corpse on my shoulder, careful not to touch it with my hands.
Sharp pain raced through my tendrils, dozens of cuts burning at the movement as my head swivelled from side to side, checking for any surprises. My blood felt like a raging inferno as I was intimately aware of every cut and bruise on my tendrils.
No one showed up, but my calmness of mind and lacking reaction to being covered in gore scared me as much as any witnesses would.
I should be feeling something, shouldn’t I?
I didn’t understand how I was so calm, but I knew one thing.
I had to get to a mirror, get home safely.
I couldn't put them in danger.
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The vision ended way too quickly and I found myself still kneeling on the ground.
It was too little blood to go off of, similar to the blood splatter on the bed, but it gave me a vague idea, a motherly instinct that overwrote the hatred. It was a difficult mix of emotions, and very unfamiliar.
I tried another footprint and was greeted by the same exact scene.
"Anything?" Claire asked as I returned from the vision.
I shook my head and lied. "No, nothing."
Martha scoffed and patted my shoulder, reassuring me, "It's fine, you'll get them."
"No," I said, startling them both, "I am handing this over to the Department of Esoteric Defence, I can’t solve it. We'll collect witness statements and then we are done with it."
Claire looked shocked, but trusted me enough to not argue in front of Martha.
Meanwhile, Martha glared at me. "I am not having the D.E.D. poking around our territory shortly after our Alpha died."
"Relax," I said, taking a step back. "We'll still collect witness statements and do our best, but if I don't manage to solve it here, I'll hand it off. They are better equipped for this and know a lot more about spirit politics than I do."
I was also going to have to have another conversation, but that wasn’t something I would share with these two. I didn’t want to be right and if I falsely accused her, I might get into a lot of trouble.
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Witness Testimony - Case M6-14-55 - Harvey Klein
Witness: Mark Groß
Date: 13.06.2022
Statement:
On the night of 13.06.2022, I, Mark Groß, the Gamma of the Klein pack, participated in our weekly movie night, as organised by Martha Klein.
The event took place in Harvey Klein’s manor, specifically the living room. Thirteen of the fourteen core members of the pack showed up.
Wolfgang Schneider, Ulrich Wagner, Greta Schneider, Emil Wagner, Ingrid Hoffmann, Klaud Hoffman, Heidi Hoffman, Dietrich Weber, Sarah Klein, Falko Weber, Martha Weber, Mark Groß and Jones Jones were all present.
Harvey Klein did previously tell us to start without him, seeing as he had to look for a gift for Sarah. We made jokes about it and left him to it, not expecting such dire consequences.
We had soft blankets and pillows scattered on the ground with a huge plasma TV on the wall.
After the first movie, around 22:45, we decided to check up on him and found blood in the hallway. We scoured the entire premise and found nothing, only the trail leading to another mirror with no traces of how they disappeared.
We were ordered to stay quiet until our new Alpha was elected but I sent a quick report to the Police Department due to a prior agreement.
Mark Groß