I relished the warm feel of a hot cup of coffee in my hand, welcome in the cold autumn air. I was going to need a lot more as it seemed like I was going to be here for while.

The here was the home of one Jacob Larson. The Jacob who's body I was looking at now. A mutilated corpse. One of eight victims that had been found in the last month.

All the victims had been found the same way. Bodies horribly mutilated to the point they were unrecognizable. Strange heat and cold marks across the body. Like the victim had been both burned alive and bludgeoned with dry ice. Half the body a burnt mess. The other half frozen solid.

"Have we found any new leads?" I asked the young looking new recruit the Bureau had saw fit to assign me. I didn't know what they were thinking but it wasn't my place to judge. I'd just do the best I could by the kid and hope he learned a thing or two.

"No mam, same thing as all the other victims. The only thing in commen with the other victims was his coma and the uh shared delusion." He said a little nervously.

"Stop it with the mam, I ant an old lady yet. Just call me Alice or Miles." I said while giving the kid a annoyed stare.

"Yes ma... uh Alice." It sounded awkward. Unsure. Good unsure and Awkward was just progress to me.

I started looking around the Room. It was a copy set up, or if had been before it had been wrecked. I could imagine the room. Some nerdy posters and nice copy tucked into the corner. The walls showed damage were the victim had most likely been thrown. Thrown in seven separate directions to be specific.

It was not hard to imagine how frustrating a case this had been. Nothing about any of this made since, half of what had been found out I would have called impossible less then a month ago.

Calm. Breath. Go through the steps.

what did I know about the victims? So far all of the victims had been murdered while alone. The only thing connecting them was that all victims had come out of comas during the last year. All held the same shared delusion, with some varieties on the nature's of the "worlds" they had been living in.

What do I know about the killer? The killer seemingly possessed supernatural powers that or had access to some kind of advanced here to unheard of technology. This is proven by the impossibility of the burns and the fact that victims were thrown around in feats of strength even a bear couldn't recreate.

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Is there anything unique about this crime scene? n- wait there was something.

As I had been deep in thought I had noticed something. A small area of the wood floors were the paint was just a bit off from the rest of the floor. On a hunch I approached kneeling as I examined the small area. Now that I looked I noticed other smaller details. How the wood had small lines like it had been cut out and placed back in.

The pain made it hard to notice. But now that I was looking it was clear.

"I think I got something" I announced to the room full of forensics experts and other police related professions. I grabbed a pair of rubber gloves from the pocket of my coat and quickly pulled them on. That done I gently pried the peice of wood out.

Clicking on a flashlight I peered inside and pulled out what looked to be a pendent of some kind. Was it left by the killer? No, the paint was newer compared to the rest of the floor but not that knew. So, something left by the victim.

The pendent was made of silver and had strange glowing symbols across it. The symbols weren't written in any language I'd recognized. Still it was something, and after checking the room for similar spots we managed to find 5 similar pendents.

Were they stolen? Or maybe it was religious in some way? I would need to hand it over to the forensics and hope it led to some clues.

I motioned the rookie to follow as we both headed down the stairs of the simple surberbon home. The victims relatives were sitting on the couch. 2 sisters, 1 brother, and a single mom.

All of the family wore either a shocked expression, puffy eyes, and for the mom it was a mix of both.

"Miss Larson. I know you've been through a lot but me and special agent mcroy here would like to ask a few questions if you don't mind?" I asked keeping my tone soft but firm.

"Oh, uh sure." The mother said absently. Great she was still in shock, I couldn't blame the poor women but it was going to make this harder. Part of me wanted to wait, but waiting just meant the information I'd get wouldn't be as reliable. I needed reliable information.

"Has your son been acting strangely? Any sudden mood swings or paranoia?or any odd behaviors that have only occurred recently?"

The mom shook her head and I knew it wasn't going to be that easy. We knew the killer took his victims by surprise and didn't seem to need to worry about locked doors or distance.

"Has your son made any enemies? Anyone who might want to hurt him?"

"No Jacob's a good boy. He's friendly to everyone." She said absent midedly. Damn, I might have to wait after all.

"That's all the questions for now. Though I'll want you to come down to the precinct for some more thorough questions within the week." I was just about to add the typical "sorry your son's dead" line, worded differently of course. When sudden BOOM! Filled every iota of my hearing. Dust and degree went everywhere and I could hear the family screaming even through the ringing in my ear.

Had the killer left a bomb? I ran upstairs my partner following me as I burst into the room. The scene was chaos. Somehow no one had died but everyone laid sprawled out on the floor groaning in pain. In the center of it all sat the wreckage of one of the pendants.