The pictures everyone took was to be submitted through an email each of them would receive, and some copies were to be made to send to the real estate agent so he can figure out what repairs would need to be made before he can put the house back on the market.

When they all drove back, Annabelle still had more energy left and went back up to the gym floor. 

"I'm off to bother Ursa if anyone needs me!" 

Joon practically ran up the stairs with her, heading for the labs to eagerly tell the others about the dolls he found and was intrigued by. 

It seems like Vernon and Dove were the only tired ones. 

"You can go home early if you want, the rest of the procedures after the case is mostly writing reports. Since you were with me, I can recall most of your actions and observations, just be sure to submit the photos to the email link once you get it." Laurence kindly told her. 

Dove's eyebags must've been awfully prominent today. She shook her head. 

"No, I'd like to finish my full shift as usual. Today was, a little strange, I'd like it to end normally at least."

He paused, and then both him and Bence standing next to them gave her quizzical faces after they reached the detective's floor, all three stepping off as she waved to Vernon as the elevator doors closed for him. 

"A little strange? You sure are being polite to describe it like that, we almost got trapped, and I'm sure you couldn't have missed any of the other weird things today like you usually do." Bence said to her as he carefully held the music box, planning to examine it.

He walked over to his desk, taking his phone out to lay near his keyboard as he searched through his drawer for one of his tomes. 

Dove tilted her head at those last couple of words. 

"Like I usually do?" She echoed back for Laurence to clarify. 

"Yeah, for the past few days after we got a new batch of interns, we've been keeping all this magic on a down low, introducing it to the newcomers slowly." He opened a couple of drawers to his desk, searching, then knelt down to the bigger drawer at the bottom, pulling out what was clearly a magic book as he held it by the spine on his palm, standing back up to present it to Dove. 

"Although, not for Annabelle and Vernon, those two were different, we mostly did it for you and Joon. That boy got very excited when he first noticed the small signs and just made the alchemists show him everything else. But you-"

He let the book sit on his palm, his fingers flattened as well as the book stayed balanced on its spine, then it suddenly opens. The pages rapidly flapping as the whole thing split open to magically right down the middle pages, showing some drawings of horrific creatures inside, very similar to the nightmares seen at night or near windows. 

Laurence glanced from the pages to Dove's face, she didn't really shudder or react much to the drawings, just grabbed her own arm as a form of comfort from the surprise, returning his stare, inviting him to continue. 

"You,,, barely reacted much, we almost thought you just honestly haven't noticed. Even after a couple days, it just got to the point Bence didn't even bother hiding his real job from you. Today, we literally just decided to let you see everything to at least get something out of you while introducing you to our world." 

"What world?" 

He snapped the book shut, a hint of black smoke arising from the pages like it was huffing out evaporated ink, using his index finger to gesture her to follow him as they went back into the elevator, and he pressed the button for archives.

The basement floor. 

"The one that'll explain to you why we're able to see the nightmares that other people can't, the one that reveals the physical forms of creatures considered myths, and basically the one where magic is real, but not the childish kind." 

The young woman hummed as they stood in the elevator. She looked at the book in his hand, and then to the button he pressed.

So far, I was familiar with nearly all the levels in the building save for the sixth, and excluding the rooftop and the basement, as there was never any reason for me to go to any of them before. The top floor was empty, unoccupied, the rooftop had a garden of some sort, but I did wait for the day I'd have to go to the archives floor. I thought it'd be to move some things from the files room to down there, not like this.

The silence between them was alright, but the girl was both curious and uncomfortable with the silence. 

"I have always noticed." She shrugged. "I just didn't think it was my business to question it unless I was to get involved. I could tell it was normal to the rest of you, so I didn't feel the need to be wary of it, because all of you acted normal with it." 

"Well that certainly explains it." He finally lets out a laugh. 

The reflective doors in front of them showed their faces, their stiff standing bodies, slowly loosening with good conversation, 

"At this point, today was just a subtle, 'Hey kid! Look! Magic!', and still, not much from you, not a scream or a panic."

"Well, you were with me, and you weren't panicking much..." She tried to find a reason for her own reactions.

"I get that but believe me when I say I might already have a guess as to why your reactions to all this is so toned down." 

The elevator finally stopped, a very light bounce of the lift and the doors opened.

The basement floor, or, the Archives, was much neater than expected. We were immediately greeted by a polished, wooden floor design, with bookshelves on the side, reaching all the way to the ceiling, and then just following the walls from there, the legendary ladders on wheels attached to the shelves, to slide past each of the books on were also there, on each side. There were no walls, sort of, the shelves were the walls, and it wasn't just books on the shelves, one section looked like it had binders filled to the brim, another had airtight jars of scrolls. I knew they were airtight because there was a cloth over each of the neck tops, tightly secured with ribbon string.

"There's, a lot of research here. Whoever works here must be a really good organizer." She said, looking around.

It wasn't completely archaic fancy however, there were desks in the middle, desktop computers on each one. It looked arranged the same way computers in school libraries were.

"Well, years of research collected, all the way from,,, sss..." He mentally thought and remembered, making that light, non-aggressive hissing sound. 

"A little after the medieval times, whenever our dragon began recording stuff. You likely won't ever meet the person assigned to this floor, they're shy." 

"Oh right,,, dragon... Say, I never really hear much about this dragon, who's apparently our boss?"

He shrugged as they walked further down the hallway of shelves, turning a corner.

"She's not social, just studies in her cave on top of her piles of whatever treasures she's horded during each century, or so I'm told at least from our, older, coworkers."

They turned another corner, passing a place that was labeled, "Useful History", mostly filled with scrolls and binders and a computer in the center, that was followed by other sections labeled, "Scientific Mistakes", "Human Facts- Mustn't Forget", and "non-human/living beings", all with their own archaic materials and one piece of modern equipment.

I could tell, and was hoping, that they kept all this research both on paper and digitized. I know it would take some effort to do both but so far, I was sincerely hoping that was exactly why each section had a computer. It would've been the right kind of efficient, and smart for keeping the information just in case something happens to one or the other. The papers get destroyed, or the computers get hacked and info erased. Makes me giddy to want to ask more but I couldn't.

"She used to go out more, but that was before it got so crowded and before skyscrapers."

Turning another corner to a place labeled, "Nightmare containers" is when they finally stopped, more like a section or a small square room, glass wall and door separating it from the rest of the knowledge. 

"Is this floor, like the biggest because it's underground?" She asked, feeling not so shy as before, while looking up at the glass wall.

He chuckled again, grinning, and she turned her head to him, strongly curious. 

"Sorry, I'm not laughing at you. It's just nice to hear you ask questions, being as curious as anyone else would, finally."

He stepped forward, walking towards the door, but the door had many locks on it, some look like they would require large keys. Dove was near flabbergasted but stayed silent.

He was fully conscious, clearly smart, and not the type to just suddenly joke by bumping into glass and pretending he didn't see it, he's not silly like that. He was going to show me something without saying anything, one of my favorite character interactions to read about in books, that much I knew.

Laurence confidently strolled up to the glass, held up the magic book containing the scary monster drawings inside, and pressed it against the glass door.

Just like magic, it suddenly glowed green and he just, phased or walked right through the glass, it rippled like water as he went through. I could no longer hear his footsteps as he fully stepped inside the room, turning around to look back at me with a grin, tilting his head, watching for my reaction. 

I tapped my foot against the hardwood floor to make sure my hearing was still fine. When I heard the satisfying sounds, I then took my turn to slowly, carefully, walk up to the glass. He didn't shake his head or mouth for me not to, so I thought I would try and touch the glass. 

Sure enough, it felt solid to me.

Laurence snickered from the other side as he watched her interact with the walls put up by multiple locking spells, like watching a child interact with something new to them but old to him.

He turned around to do the routine thing, there was a pedestal in the middle of the room, along with a computer sitting beside it, although it didn't look like any normal one. An opened book laid on the pedestal, he picked up the pen next to it and the screen of the computer suddenly turned on that same second, like the pen was a trigger. I guess it was a logbook of some sort, like a magic security system but library level, and then he just put the book onto a random spot on the shelf, only to then walk over to the opposite side labeled "Empty", and taking a random one out. 

He walked back through the glass door without actually opening it, again like it was just gravity-defying water rippling for a few seconds as his body passed through, before stilling back into solid glass. 

"The best way I can describe this floor at the moment, is that because it stores so many memories, it is the most magical. No customers or clients can access this place, and even if they did, they'd have to figure out the 'library maze' trick." He smiled gently as he gestured for her to look behind her. 

Dove turned around and was taken back to see they were back at the elevator doors, all the way back at the beginning. 

She reached behind her as she quickly turned back to make sure he was there. He patted her shoulder and smiled. 

"Sorry, sorry. Almost forgot what happened today. I'm still here, this floor has no intentions to hurt you, it just wanted to make the trip back more convenient for us." 

"This floor is alive..." She said in a near questioned tone, yet it was mixed with a tone that said she could already tell. 

He nodded as he gently coerced to turn back to the elevators, walking with her to go back up. 

"That little 'maze' trick is a part of its security, a lot of research here is very valuable and gets updated every day. It's also why we never sent you down here before. The data from the computers here can't be accessed by the computers on the above floors unless during an emergency. I knew how calm you've been, but I also knew that the Archives' little security measure certainly would've scared you."

"... And yet, you brought me to a haunted house." She said quietly.

She hesitantly stared at him, he was already staring back, but when he cracked a smile and chuckled, she no longer nervous and also chuckled with him. 

"Yeah, I did. I'm sorry kid, I would've had to eventually." 

"What,,, what do you mean by that?" She asked in a slight nervous tone that he could detect.

"I just wanted to see whether you would qualify, and you certainly do."