I had a theory that he set everything up just to get me to act differently, to see if there was something in me that he thought I had. I don't know what he thinks he saw, I just saw an opportunity to make the noises stop, but there I was, suddenly on my first errand out of the building. Except it wasn't just an errand, it was a whole field mission that only the detectives and other experienced peers went on, and I was apparently shadowing Laurence who's going on it?

Laurence told Dove about a possible open position she could be qualified for if she wanted to graduate from the intern position, and instead of asking her for a yes or no, he added in that he needed a hand with a field assignment, subtly tricking her into shadowing him on a case like this.

She sat silently in the passenger seat of his car as they followed the one in front, driven by the Necromancer who was also bringing some interns with him on this simple assignment.

"These places tend to have very old buildings, and well, I'm sure you're aware that some sketchy things have happened in the past, back when people were none the wiser." The detective began filling her in as Dove stared out front.

Her folded hands in her lap digging into her palm.

"We got several confirmed reports about some strange movements coming from an old property, sometimes at night, other times during the day. Either way, both are when the noises and eyes of others feels scarce, and the real estate agent is getting frustrated with the lack of potential buyers."

"Why wouldn't the regular police be called for this?"

"Because, when a normal detective went inside the house to investigate, let's just say, he came out very exasperated and shaking. The real estate agent even investigated the property himself, claiming that it was alive and out of his control. 'I can't actually sell a living house like this, sure a haunted house but not this.' are his exact words."

"... So, he's desperate and almost going crazy?"

The detective chuckled beside her, as they followed the car in front onto a road leading further out of town, where more weeds grow, and the older houses reside.

"Crazy is definitely what these entities are trying to make him, I believe."

"I see..." Dove stares out at the car they're following, she could see Annabelle sitting in the back seat, giving her a backwards wave from the back window, knowing the silver girl was staring.

"I thought you and Sienna were supposed to meet..." She said with an unsure tone, but she would rather keep sounding unsure as she spoke rather than let there be awkward silence between her and someone whom she is mildly comfortable around, potentially distancing them.

"No, she's one of the field agents we have, so she's typically gone for a while. Today was the day she'd give her report on everything and recoup, but she can also be a bit, uhh..."

"Irresponsible? Forgetful? Skittish to loud noise?"

"Well, forgetful, and have the urge to jump into the fight if she saw the two of them going at each other's throats." He sighed.

After following the long road into the old neighborhoods, the two cars park at a fairly large house of two stories, made of red wood and bricks, looked like it was built in the early 1900s for a big family, at least what I could imagine from all my reading. A fence around the house to keep the kids in, big gates for the working daddy to drive through after a hard day of work, and double doors for everyone to walk in without pushing. Only it would've been a struggle for the poor mother who would've had to clean up all those windows.

Laurence gave some instructions to Dove, while Bence did the same for the more excited interns, well mostly Annabelle and Joon, Vernon went to observe the vines that had climbed and dominated most parts of the house, Bence tried to keep the wandering boy within hearing range anyway, hoping he doesn't go wandering off like a cat.

- Go in pairs at least, or in groups.

"In this case, two groups of three is suggested, we're not in a rush to explore everything."

- Take a picture of anything you feel you should take a picture of, regardless of how insignificant it looks.

- Avoid touching anything especially if you feel tempted to.

- Never step into any type of room alone, you can peek your head past the doorway but don't step fully through. Regardless of if there's a door or not.

- If you see a doll or any type of children's toy, do not turn your back to it. Keep your eyes on it just in case, remember which room you're in and immediately call for Bence.

- If you see anything move or anything suspicious, anything at all, pick it up and interact with it, or chase after it.

"Wait, what?" Joon interrupted as they all stood on the front porch of the house, hands on his hips.

"Don't you mean ignore it?"

"We're intentionally hunting down whatever is causing the disturbances, any clue that leads to them, we follow." Laurence summarized, reminding him of the purpose of the case.

Some of them tilted their heads over to see Vernon, seemingly reading the roots and vines all over the windows and climbing up to the roofs, waving his hand up like a cat wanting to grab them.

"So, did you guys volunteer for this?" Dove asked them as Bence searched around the yard first, his eyes almost glowing. She ignored that.

"I have been begging them to let me have my firsthand experience as an investigative guard!" the blonde-haired girl squealed, all giddy and holding her hands together as she gushed at the large, eerie old house.

"Guard?"

"You've heard, right?" Joon said, holding up his phone eagerly in camera mode.

Dove noticed a small notebook in one of the pockets of his black cargo shorts.

"Whenever a team is sent out to investigate, at least one guard is needed! It looks like you're being tested for the detective role."

He tilts his head over to where Laurence was, studying the floorplan layout of the house that the real estate agent emailed to him, comparing it to his notes of strange sightings and sounds.

Dove stared at him as if he was a teenager high for the first time, not on a lot but enough to convince himself as he excitedly tries to act as high and cool as whatever pothead friends he might sit with in a situation where a teenager is led astray.

"... I think you might have the wrong people, one being me for the detective role, and two, Annabelle, as a guard... No offense." She told the graceful women who, while she was much taller than the average girl, didn't appear to have a lot of muscle on her.

"None taken, I know I haven't perfected limits yet." She said cheerfully, looking at her fists that still have some specks of dried-up blood on them from whatever poor guests who signed up, and paid for, defense classes on the gym floor, just to get bloodied up by inhumane attacks.

Annabelle looked like she wanted to try and climb the vines into the window.

"Don't. Try it." Dove firmly told her, following the girl's excited beady eyes up to the windows on the second floor, where she noticed a silhouette of something moving away and hiding out of view.

Too quick to take a picture.

"If you're not here for the detective role, then why did they bring you on this test run?" Joon asked, bringing her attention back.

She could hear Bence in the distance, asking for Vernon to come over to a spot he stood with Laurence, in front of menagerie of entangled and piled up weeds and plants, asking him to move it, then move the soil below. She frowned at this, especially since no one brought any gardening tools, until she witnessed Vernon shrug and simply put a palm on one of the dead, thin branches.

It moved, twitched at first, but then he made them move again, the two fully grown adults stepped back as the technical adult, who only gently touched the rotting plants, seemed to make them move to his will. Psychedelically.

Creaking and crunching sounds heard as he stepped more forward as the piled-up plants unraveled, revealing the living plants shielded from the world on the inside, and then those untangling without him even touching them, just staring intently as they all leaned away, revealing the dirt on the ground.

"I can feel something, deep underground, but it might take more effort to move, the soil here is dense." He told the two, not moving his away from the spot.

Curiously, which she normally doesn't indulge in, Dove walked over to see the soil moving, stirring really as she saw Vernon focus only on that spot.

It stirred, as if there were blades underneath moving everything, and slowly the soil started rising outward through dirt ridges, the middle caving in.

"That's enough." Bence said. "We can come back tomorrow, for now this is good enough progress."

Vernon didn't really pay attention, most likely, he drowned the world out as he knelt down to further observe the deeper layers of soil whilst still moving it, finding the worms and Rolly polies and bugs underneath, smiling to himself.

"Uh, Vernon? He said that's enough." Dove repeated for them.

But like any passionate person, Vernon has started on this project, he is enjoying it, and he is going to finish it, and maybe even after finding the skeleton, he might go search for the others that he certainly feels are in other parts of the ground.

"This one has a lot of Rolly polies, and worms, worms are a good sign for fertile soil." he said nonchalantly.

"I should've predicted this." Laurence chuckles softly to himself, but he shakes his head and sighs.

"Oh well, I guess that'll leave five people to go in. It might be safer this way for him." He looked up and observed the rest of the property.

"The real estate agent said he'd pay extra if we managed to spruce up the house for him, if he wants, he can busy himself with the over groves on the outer walls and fence."

Dove left Vernon to his own findings, after passing him a few bandages from her pocket, putting it carefully into the pocket of his coat as he paid attention to nothing else but moving the plants around him, the roots seemed to walk on their own by his will.

She stood next to Laurence, looking up at the house.

"... It'll be safer if he stays outside, because the inside is going to be like a caged maze, isn't it?" She asked-mostly said in a resigned tone.

"Yeah, but it might be pretty on the inside?" He turned his head to her, trying to give some hope.

"While he does his discoveries out here, we'll find ours inside. Be careful now." he patted her back as he signaled a nod to Bence, who took out the key for the house, going to unlock the door.

Annabelle bounces on her heels, her braided hair which usually hung long and low, was bundled up more and contained. It looked odd in a way, when her hair isn't swaying freely.

The house smelled of dust, of the past, of time stood frozen as soon as they all walked in, Dove looking over her shoulder to glance one more time at Vernon who was seemingly at peace in his own world, before following everyone else.

All of the furniture and decorations were left behind, set frozen in time of keeping the atmosphere of what the home used to be like. Delicate fabrics of doilies on the table, the big shelves placed strategically in the hallways, lined against the pink painted walls, a grandfather clock right in the living room, the first thing to be seen as soon as someone enters the doorframe.

A lovely, realistic dollhouse for playing pretend. It had to have been pretend, it definitely wasn't set up for the intention of showing off.

"Scratch marks." She said quietly to herself, pointing and humming to the scratch marks on the floor around the chair and the table, and even some of the desk pieces.

The detective grinned lightly as she took her phone out, taking a picture of the marks all around the floor, and some of the rubbed marks on the pink doll-like walls.

"Dove, you're with me. I'm sure Bence would like to handle two kids as usual?" He subtly teased the necromancer, who clicked his tongue as he led the other two more enthusiastic interns with him down one side of the house, hinting that they were going to survey the first floor.

The staircase to the second floor had that dark, polished wood with finely carved details on the railing posts, unlike the summarized and manufactured designs today, it was easy to tell it was polished due to the smooth texture after Dove swiped some of the dust off, rubbing it between her fingers.

"Does it feel normal? Cold in anyway?"

"Just the wood is cold... Is it really okay for us to just leave him out there-"

"I found one skeleton!" Vernon softly shouted with pride.

She gave the man an almost surprised look but wasn't all that fazed by that sentence.

He laughed as they looked out the double doors pinned open by some old bricks lying around that Annabelle moved into place.

Vernon didn't meet their faces, rather he observed the skeleton still lying deep in the hole, before proceeding to slowly stand up, stretch himself out and happily trot about the yard as he hovered his hand, palm down, like sweeping over the area as he walked.

His head darted to a certain spot, underneath one of the bigger trees, but that didn't stop him, rather it made him more excited as he began talking to himself about seeing the skeletal like roots of a great old tree that have grown around the skeleton. As he hovered his palm above the spot, moving the grass, the weeds, then the first layer of soil, before then psychically churning the soil with seemingly air or his mind, as he began the same digging routine. Happy and calm.

"Looks like he's enjoying his own company... Amazing how he's able to do that."