Claire stood in Emily’s bedroom getting a sense of the teenager she was. There was an old fashioned laptop on her desk and textbooks lined the shelf above. Her walls were covered with posters of boy teen idols and her music consisted of only songs from the soft rock band “Unicorn’s Way”. Her clothes were neatly put away in drawers and sorted by color and season in her closet yet her bed was unmade. Claire walked around the room looking at various things, stopping in front of her dresser and picked up a photo with neon letters in the frame spelling “Best Friends Forever!”.
“That was her 14th birthday.”
Claire spun around to see Mrs. Brown standing in the doorway. She held wads of tissues in her hands and sniffled occasionally, “She wanted a party and we gave her one. All her friends showed up but only Ashley, the one in the picture, stayed till the end.”
Claire smiled softly, “She’s a good friend.”
Mrs. Brown nodded as she walked into the room and took the picture from Claire. She sat on the bed as she dabbed her nose, “She was.”
Claire was silent as Mrs. Brown studied the picture, tracing a finger along her daughter’s face. Claire softly rubbed her hands together as she gingerly sat down beside her. She was unsure of what to do but she gently placed a hand over Mrs. Brown’s.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m so sorry for the loss of your daughter.”
Her hand shook under Claire’s as she tried to swallow her tears, “I know it’s not you. Detective Black told us she was found with some kind of black magic.”
“Yes ma’am she was.”
Eyes filled with pain pinned Claire still, “Do you know what it was?”
Claire took a deep breath as she tried to think of how much to say and decided honesty was the only way, “It’s something called Necromancy. Magic of the dead.”
Mrs. Brown shook even more and Claire brought an arm around her shoulders, “Is that what killed her?”
Claire slowly shook her head, “We don’t know ma’am. All we know is that magic was present with your daughter. We won't know the full story until further investigation.”
She let out a shaky breath as she turned back to her daughter’s picture, “She was such a good girl. She did her homework on time and got good grades.” She let out a dry chuckle, “She always loved magic. She was fascinated by it. You know she wanted to go to college and get a degree in magical studies.”
They shared a smile, “I imagine she would have been quite the thinker.”
“Yes she would have,” another shaky breath escaped her lips, “She always loved puzzles.”
They shared a quiet moment as Mrs. Brown gathered herself. Being careful where she tread Claire started asking some questions, “Mrs. Brown…you and your husband said Emily ran away from home before. She seems like such a nice girl, why did she run away?”
Mrs. Brown was silent as she sighed then heaved her shoulders as she explained, “She was having these nightmares, dreams. They terrified her to no end. She never told us everything but they were always dark and bloody. We’ve tried to take her to a doctor but after a while they stopped, we forgot about them.” She dabbed her nose again as she sniffled, “Then…about 6 months ago she started acting strange. She became depressed and reclusive. We’ve tried talking to her but she refused to. Eventually she started running away. At first it was only a couple of hours. The last time she was gone for a whole week.” More sniffles and new tissues, “She always came back.”
She broke down into sobs as Claire tried to console her. They spent what felt like hours on Emily’s bed as sounds of tears filled the house. In the living Mr. Brown was giving his statement to Raven when the sound of his wife crying came to the room. He started breaking down himself and Raven offered to fix him a drink which he declined. As the house quieted down the statements were given and Claire and Raven were making their way out the door.
“Detective Dunsworth,” Claire turned from the front door to see Mrs. Brown holding out a blue floral covered journal to her with her husband standing behind her, “please take this. I could never bring myself to read it and now I know I never will. Perhaps something inside will help with your investigation.”
Claire gingerly took the book in her hands and smiled at her, “Thank you. I’ll take good care of it, I promise.”
They were silent as they walked back to the car, racing off towards the office. Claire sat comfortably in the passenger seat as she flipped through the pages of the diary, Raven glancing her way as the pages turned.
“What were you so worried about earlier?”
Claire stopped at one page written in hurried ink and tear stained paper, “What earlier?”
“When we were making our way over there.”
“Oh that,” Claire sat back and closed the book holding her finger in place, “there are rare cases where…kids, especially teenagers, suddenly come into their magic. Sometimes it’s slow enough where the Guild can detect them and get them help in time, but there are times where it’s just…an explosion. Their magic runs wild and generally the ones near them at the time are hurt or worse during the action.”
“So you were thinking worse case scenario, the girl’s magic ran wild and her parents were killed in the crossfire.”
“Yeah, something like that.” A heavy silence grew as Claire went back to the journal and Raven made his way down the road towards their building.
Raven was the first to break the silence as they walked up the steps, “Her parents said she’s been missing for 3 weeks but she’s only been dead for 2. We need to find out where she was that first week.”
“I agree.” Claire made a fast stop as they walked past the break room and she got a whiff of the food inside, “What is that?”
“We ordered pizza-“
“-hope you like anchovies.”
Raven pointed a glare at the twins sitting at their desks, eating pizza, “Why’d you order anchovies? No one likes them.”
“We do.” They said with one voice. Raven could only shake his head as he went to his desk.
Claire came back out of the room with a plate in each hand and the diary under her arm. She went over to Raven’s desk and sat down, handing him a plate, “Here. I pulled all the fish off.”
Raven looked up from his computer, “Thanks, and do you have to sit there? There’s some empty desks on the top floor, just go grab one.”
Claire brought her legs up and sat Indian style on his desk as she ate, setting the book on her lap, “But I don’t need one.”
Raven quickly ate his slice and balled up the paper napkin throwing it in the recycling can, “Then why do you have to sit on my desk? Just grab a chair.”
Her shoulders shrugged as she took another bite mumbling around her food, “This is more comfortable.”
“For you.”
Claire ignored him as he went back to his computer and she pulled the book open. She had finished her slice and was half way through Emily’s entry of her first day in school when her wrist begun to beep. She answered it quickly, holding her hand to her ear. She spoke to the phone and quickly hung up, turning to Raven, “That was Tess. She’s got something.”
They got into the car racing towards the ME’s office, trying to beat the rush hour traffic heading home. The floors squeaked as they walked into the welcome A/C air of the ME office building. With a few hints from the receptionist they were able to find the morgue and saw Tessa standing in her lab coat, scribbling on a clipboard as she adjusted her glasses. She heard them walking in and looked up and smiled as Claire and Raven walked over.
“That was fast.” Claire only smiled as Raven pulled out a cigarette, “Uh this is a smoking free building. Sorry Raven.”
Claire looked back at Raven as he grumbled and stuffed it back in the pack, “Oh don’t apologize to him. He shouldn’t be smoking in the first place.”
He only growled at her as Tessa made a small noise clearing her throat, “Yes, well…they brought some stuff over that belongs to the victim. I thought you would want to know.”
“The victim’s?” Claire walked over to the bag Tessa indicated with Raven close behind, “How’d they know it’s hers?”
“Oh, uh, her student ID is inside. I haven’t had a chance to go through it yet but you’re welcome to take a look.”
Claire reached to open the bag and Raven stopped her. He pointed to the box of gloves on the counter and she grumbled herself as she went to pull some on. She turns back to see Raven already pulling stuff out of the small duffle bag with gloved hands. There were various candy wrappers and chip bags. Some old notebooks and a music player, some spare clothes. Claire thought it strange that there was no electronic device to be had and suggested to Raven that perhaps the killer kept or pawned any items. He agreed and suggested they talk to the parents again to see if they could tell them what Emily would have taken with her, to learn if anything was stolen.
For some reason Claire felt drawn to the bottom of the bag and scraped her fingers to find nothing. She turned the bag upside down as Raven flipped through the notebooks and only dirt twinkled out. She knew there was something, something Emily wanted her to see, but there was nothing in the bag and no pocket at the bottom. Still, Claire felt her fingers drawn to the bottom scrapping it again and again, but before Raven could question her she felt her nails catch on something through the gloves. The bag had a false bottom, possibly for valuables, and Claire was finally able to work her fingers around the edge and pried it up.
She pulled the bottom out and held the bag open as both she and Raven pried inside. There was a single composition notebook, neatly lying in the center of the bag. It was dog eared and clearly torn and well used, but for some reason Claire felt a dark energy emitting from the book. She stopped Raven from reaching in and he stopped the retort on his tongue when he saw the dreaded look in her eyes. She slowly reached down and gingerly pulled the book out. She breathed heavily as she reached a hand to the cover and slowly opened it up. The book creaked like squeaky hinges as she pulled the cover back. Claire was so fixated on the book that she didn’t hear Tessa whimpering in the room. Raven heard and looked over to see the ME cowering in the corner, holding her clipboard up as if to protect her. She was muttering under her breath and Raven had to strain his ears to understand she was begging for mercy. From what, he couldn’t tell.
The first page was white, untouched but Claire felt a pit in her stomach as she knew, whatever this was she was feeling, was coming from the next page. Her fingers slightly shook as she reached for the page and nearly whimpered herself when her fingers grabbed the paper. She pulled the paper back and heard a shrilling scream fill her ears. The soundtrack of a bloody murder played over and over in her head in an endless loop. She felt blood pour from her scalp and cried tears of black blood. She was falling, falling in this endless abyss of darkness and pain.
“Claire…,” She blinked her eyes as she felt a hand on her shoulder, pulling her back from the vision. Her head felt sluggish as she turned to see Dillon holding her shoulder with his other hand on top of the composition notebook, closing it, “…this is not meant for the eyes of the living.”
Claire panted as he took the book from her and she felt weak, wobbling to her side. Raven caught her and held her up as he vented his anger on Dillon, “What the hell is that?!”
“Raven stop, stop,” Claire felt her voice crack as her energy returned, “It’s not his fault, it’s mine. I should have called him the moment I saw it.”
Dillon was silent as the book dissipated in his hand and he walked over to Tessa who had collapse. He places a hand on her and pulled her out of the illusion, much as he did Claire. Raven was still visibly angry as he turned to Claire, leaning against him, “What the hell is it?”
“It’s hers…it’s Emily’s…it’s her Book of the Dead.”
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