-To where? Oh. – Gabe immediately understood the answer to his question, as he saw where they arrived. The shack in front of him was one of the first ones he saw in this village. It was Mike’s house. They went to the old man’s front door, to the same rusty door knocking handle, knocking with the same knock echoing in the forest like before. The old man opened almost immediately after.

-Oh, it’s you kids again. Find my dog yet? – The old man said.

-Unfortunately, not yet, sir. But we have something to ask you. – Lucy replied.

-Of course, of course, come right in. I’ll make ’ya some coffee.

-No, thanks sir, we just had some. – Lucy said coming trough the front door. They sat on an old, ripped sofa in the living room.

-Ok then, what was it you kids needed to know?

-Well, sir, we wanted to ask you about the night Matthew died. Did anything strange happen while you were there? Did Matthew act strange before he went to sleep?

-No, no, he looked perfectly fine. He even started getting out of his room more, eating more. I just don’t understand who let him go into the basement.

-Wait, sir, say that again.

-Well, he couldn’t’ve gotten the rope otherwise. Somebody gave him that rope, I’ve been saying that for years.

Gabe suddenly stood up from the table. Mike and Lucy looked at him, confused.

-What are you doing, kid? Come back here! – She whispered.

-Shhh. I’m trying to focus on the smell. – Gabe answered.

-What smell? – Lucy was pretty upset right now.

-Blood. – Gabe said firmly.

-Wait hold on, turn around. – Lucy called to Gabe. He turned, confused.

-What?

-Oh, it’s nothing. For a second I thought. . . oh it's nothing.

Gabe continued to follow the smell around the house, searching for the source. He went to the door of a room. The door was old and scraped, it looked like they were the door of a closet. He opened them, and the smell of a corpse came oozing out of the room. On the floor there, in a pile of blood, lied Mike’s dog, Caesar. He had a bullet wound on his chest and a torn neck.

-Yes, I remember now. – Said the old man. – I found Caesar’s body this morning, mauled by the creature. See his neck? It’s all torn apart.

-No sir, unfortunately you didn’t. – Claimed Lucy.

-Yes, I did.

-Sir, you might not know what happened, but I do. You killed your dog, Mike. You killed Matthew too. But unfortunately, you’re too sick to see that. I know a thing or two about wounds, and that’s a knife one, not a claw one.

-Wait, what? – Gabe was pretty confused.

-Don’t you see? The old man is sick. He must be scitsofrenic. He hanged the kid to make it look like a suicide, but then forgot about it when he went back to sleep. When he killed Caesar, he probably just saw him chasing a squirrel or something, thought he was a demon, and shot it. He then came to it to finish it off, and got his leg bit in the process. That wound on Caesars neck isn’t a claw wound, it’s a knife wound. I know the difference. He wanted us to think there is a demon out here so he snuck into our shack last night and broke the mirror. He hid the body of Caesar in this room and forgot all about it, like he did with Matthew and last night. – She turned to Mike then – Sir, I will ask you to come with us.

-No, no you don’t understand. I didn’t kill them.

-Please, sir, at least let us take you to prove that you don’t have an illness, to prove that you’re innocence.

And after a short conversation, with Lucy’s persuasive tone, Mike agreed to come along. Lucy then whispered to Gabe.

-Told ’ya he was crazy. Though I didn’t know he was „homicidal“ type of crazy. By the way, what was that, um, „smell of blood“ trick you just pulled out there?

-Oh, that? I have a pretty sensitive nose, if I may brag. – Gabe smiled.

-Oh, cool.

They went further out into the forest to find the shack they were staying in. They were to report to the Academy as soon as they got there. It was pretty late at that time, and the sun began to set. The sky was red and orange, twisting with some white clouds here and there. Gabe was so happy that he finished his first assignment that he didn’t really pay attention to anything. At the moment he had realized he dozed off he noticed that that hand was already in front of him. That hand that was double the size of his face. That hand was of no human.