The police station was in an uproar. They had only just announced the fact that there may be a rogue magician in Bath and already there had been a murder. There were not many rogue magicians and there hadn't been one to make themselves known for around fifteen years.

“Just what we need, a rogue magician. I get transferred here from London and this is my first case. This is ridiculous!”

We join the lady and the stuttering man Beau had previously seen at the crime scene, they have just returned.

“W-w-w-well Ma'am, th-there is a good reason for that. Y-y-you have dealt with a case like this b-b-before. I p-p-personally think it was the r-right decision.”

“Doesn't make it any less troublesome, though, does it, Spencer.”

“I guess not M-M-Ma'am.”

“This case is ridiculous, everyone we've talked to have alibi's and no one has a proper motive. Either this Albert guy was a genuinely good guy or he has friends in all the right places, and I'm guessing it's the latter, right Spencer?”

“W-w-well remember the witnesses.”

“Yes, the couple we found mentioned a girl and a man walking along with them. My bet is one of them being the murderer. For the next week, we play hide and seek. I'm going back to the scene of the crime, I have a basic description of the girl. I'll find her.”

 ---------------------------------------------

It was the next day. Beau had closed up his shop for the night. He threw on his black overcoat and fedora then donned the white mask. After locking the door to the shop he hopped onto his Rover safety bicycle which he had rolled outside and ridden off towards the office building the fat man had mentioned. After arriving he found a decent spot to park the bike and locked it up. The time was nine o'clock and he was just on time. He knocked on the door of the building and stepped back. He waited for a while and finally, the door opened up to a man in a suit. The man in the suit stepped back and allowed Beau in, Beau kept his mask as hidden as possible. The room was large and dark, the only light coming from a door to the left. The man in the suit walked silently towards the door to the left. Beau faintly heard voices through the door. “What's the plan, now that we know Albert's dead, someone must be on our tail.”

“Maybe, maybe not. We'll have to wait and see.”

“Wait for what?”

“Who the guy on the other side of the door is.”

With that sentence Beau hesitated, they already knew Albert was dead, that was to be expected, but he didn't expect himself to get found out so quickly. The man in the suit who must have been a butler of some sort, opened the door to reveal two more men in suits. One blue, the other dark grey. Grey man moved first, immediately jumping towards Beau, Beau maneuvered himself away, whilst setting a trap in the location he jumped from, as grey man landed his leg was stuck to the floor, Beau walked past the grey suit who was now trying to force his way out of the trap, with little success. Blue suit laughed. “What'd you come here for then?”

“I was hoping you would tell me.”

“Was it you who killed Albert?”

“And if it was?”

“True, you were going to die here either way.”

Blue moved first, summoning and shooting razor blades towards Beau, who had already conjured a fire shield which crackled a beautiful searing blue when the razors passed through it, the fire instantly melted the razors. After the onslaught finished, Blue suit stood up and managed to seize control of all the furniture, before he was able to do anything with the now floating furniture, Beau overcharged the electrics in the building with caused a blackout.

Now they were blind, at least Blue, grey and the butler were, Beau had quickly put on a pair of glasses that allowed the user to see like it was the day. Within seconds Grey had summoned light which lit the room. Only to realise it was too late.

Blue suit was lying on the sofa, a trail of blood coming out of his mouth. Grey suit was still in the trap, unable to move. Beau approached Grey, smiling a creepy smile. “You'll tell me now where the rest of you are.”

“I don't think I will.” The butler seized this opportunity to run, Beau let him go, from the moment he entered the building he had had his mask on so there was no way for the butler to identify him.

Beau looked back at Grey.

“Let's see if you're right.” Very slowly Beau started burning the man's shoe off, then started scorching the man's big toe, the skin was starting to melt and the man was screaming. “How does it feel?” Grey spat at the feet of Beau.

“Bastard.”

“That's not nice, I have a question. What did you do to join the Creed?”

“Am I going to die here...?"

“Most certainly, yes.”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“I set fire to a man's house in front of his eyes with his whole family inside. His screams were delightful. Then I killed him, slowly mind, didn't want to spoil the fun. And someday one of us will do the same to you.”

“They can try, what was the job you had asked Alfred to do?”

“Like I'd tell you.” Beau turned up the flame and started to cook the man's whole leg. The got the man screaming again after the leg was sufficiently burned he moved up and scorched the man's groin, at this point the man had almost fainted from lack of oxygen and pain.

“Ready to talk?” Grey was now lying on the floor clutching at his groin, his non-burnt leg still thoroughly trapped, but, he showed no sign of talking, Beau sighed and crouched down next to the man. “Well, don't say I didn't warn you.” He chuckled and summoned needles that shot through each of the man's remaining toe and finger nails. He screamed again, Beau continued with the relentless torture, letting the man come very close to death then healing him with healing magic. Eventually, he had given in. The man said through gasps and chokes, he could tell that Beau wasn't going to let him die until he talked.

“John... Johnathan... Toole”

“Johnathan Toole, if this information is wrong, your family is going to follow you to the grave.

“You're even threatening my family? You're no better than us...”

“You're right, however, you started it. Anything else?”

“Something big is happening, next week sometime, that's all I know. Johnathan had called us all together. Alfred was just a new guy, came to share a drink.”

“I see.” With that Beau lit a fire in the man's skull that instantly melted his brain.

After exiting the building he took the mask off and slipped it into his inner jacket pocket. He straddled the bicycle and pedaled off into the darkness. Leaving behind a variety of treats for the police to find in the morning. He arrived at his shop and dropped the bike inside before heading upstairs and collapsing into his armchair. He lit up his small pipe and puffed. A single tear forming in his eye which he wiped away before it could fall. He hated to kill, he knew that the men were not innocent, they would almost certainly be hanged if their crimes were made public.

Beau knew, though, their crimes would never be discovered. He knew these men were guilty of despicable things, which helped him dull the pain of taking a life. There was also his need for revenge which burned through him like a wildfire during a drought. That also helped him process the deaths, but again, it just dulled it. It was a pain that felt more like a splitting headache than a stab through the heart. Beau had become very good at hiding it, though, his smile plastered on his face was as much a mask as the one he had worn tonight. He got up from his chair and got ready to sleep before collapsing on his bed, his azure hair flowing like the ocean over the clean white pillow. He wrapped himself up tight in his duvet, trying desperately to get some sleep before the morning.

 ------------------------------------

The next morning caused, even more, racket, someone had tipped the police with a noise complaint in the house where the incident occurred, somehow the newspapers managed to scrape together an article in time for the morning print. The news was big, again. There had been two killings in a row, the latest was 2 bodies.

Traces of magic in the crime scene that were the same as yesterday's meant it was the same rogue magician. Ella-Mae Watson ran her fingers through her dark blonde hair, she had been rudely awakened by an officer knocking on her door. It was Spencer, stuttering away about a double murder. She snapped her eyes open and rushed inside to don her police uniform.

She had been working for the MCR for around 4 years, she was a Constable in London but was promoted and moved to Bath thanks to her more recent successes in busting a string of rogue magicians that had been terrorizing London. She welcomed the move away from London, it was really quite a dirty city, especially in comparison to the more upper-class Bath. She certainly hadn't bet on a rogue magician appearing so soon after her arrival.

“Two men. Looks like one was treated a lot worse than the other.”

“Wh-what does that mean?”

“I'm guessing tortured for information, our nice rogue was even kind enough to leave us something.”

“What's th-th-that?”

“Use your eyes, Spencer, you think the name 'Johnathan Toole' was scratched on the door by the dead guy?”

“C-c-couldn't he have done it before he died?.”

“As far as I'm concerned you don't think to scratch a name unless it's your dying breath, which would mean it would have to be closer to the body.”

“S-s-so why would th-the rogue give us-s-s a name?”

“That's the question, is he playing with us or is he marking his next target, Spencer, find out who this Johnathan Toole is, actually, bring him into the station.”

“y-y-yes ma'am, oh th-there was s-s-s-s-something els-se.”

“Spit it out, Spencer.”

“Yes, there's th-th-this.” Spencer handed her a small box, on top of it was a small magic circle, there was also a note that read – 'inject magic here.'”

“W-w-we didn't d-d-do it incas-s-se it was a t-t-trap.”

“Why would they trap it?” She questioned then injected her magic into the box, there was a crackling then came a voice.

“'Am I going to die here?' - 'Most certainly, yes.' - 'I set fire to a man's house in front of his eyes with his whole family inside. His screams were delightful. Then I killed him, slowly mind, didn't want to spoil the fun. And someday one of us will do the same to you.'” Two voices, the first was shaky and scared. The second was cold as ice. Then the first voice came back again to finish. Ella-Mae shook her head.

“Wh-wh-who is who?”

“Use your head, Spencer, the guy even asked if he was going to die, poor guy got the worst possible answer, so he spilled the beans. Who wouldn't? What we're left with is a rogue who's doing what the police can't do, at least, that's what he wants us to think. Not sure what that other guy did to deserve dying though so it was kind of pointless. Still, now we know what our rogue looks and sounds like - I'd say young and very attractive.”

“H-how c-could you p-p-p-possibly work th-that out?”

“Woman's intuition, Spencer.” He didn't have the strength to argue with that.