Misinformation Can Be Deadly

Chapter 18: Ah Yes, Good Old Lore

CW: mentions of blood, gore, death, cults, and gangs (all of it is just mentioning it)

Roman went to the first house, the home of Justin Flint. Immediately he sensed a heavy and dark presence there. He stayed outside and looked into the windows at first, not seeing anyone. He teleported into the hallway and snooped around inside some more.

Everything seemed... modern. He didn't know what a normal house looked like anymore, but aside from the presence everything seemed normal. Something was here, and whatever it was, it probably felt him as well. Obviously he was stronger than it but... he didn't want to stay longer than he had to.

He looked around some more, trying to avoid where the presence was coming from. He didn't want to be caught, even if it was weaker than him.

Walking down the hallway towards the bedroom, he heard hushed voices coming from one room. He decided it would be too risky to listen in and continued towards the parents bedroom.

It was cracked open and he looked in, finding the bed empty. The parents were probably with their son, which gave him a good opportunity to look through the room.

Teleporting in, he found nothing out of the ordinary. He went over to a nightstand and opened the drawer, finding medicine, remotes, and a weird book with a symbol of a red hawk head on it. Something told him that it was a familiar symbol.

He closed the drawer and teleported back to the hallway, moving to the living room. There was nothing in there that caused any suspicion so he carefully made his way to a door that seemed out of place. Opening it, he found it was a basement, and he realized that the heavy presence was coming from there.

Quietly closing it, Roman decided that he had seen enough and teleported far away. He pulled out his phone and typed in the next address. All three houses were actually in the same neighborhood, which was strange. Maybe all the friends met because of this instead of at school?

He teleported to the next house, Noah Melany's. Once again, on the inside it all seemed normal. However, it had a similar presence, though it seemed different, only slightly. Like the last house though, Roman was still stronger than the presence here.

He went inside the house and walked around in the hallway, realizing that no one was in their rooms. He frowned and anxiety formed in his chest for a moment but he continued his way through the home.

This time he explored the kitchen, quietly opening drawers and looking through them. After going through a few drawers, he found one with papers and envelopes in them. Several of them had that same hawk symbol from before.

Roman decided he had seen enough from this house and left. He quickly put in the last address and made his way to the house. He really didn't like any of this at all. The weird pressences that obviously weren't human, the strange symbol, how close they all live near each other couldn't be a coincidence.

Once again, at the third house, it looked completely normal. Roman teleported inside, feeling another presence. It was demonic. Of course it was. All of them were demonic presences and they were all dangerous, though Roman was of course more powerful than all of them.

He knew exactly what to look for, and instead of wasting time he went downstairs to the basement. The presence wasn't coming from there anyway.

For some reason, he wasn't surprised to find a room in the basement that had that giant red hawk symbol on the wall. There seemed to be an altar under it with candles on both sides and a giant book in the middle.

"Shit," he groaned, teleporting away. He had an idea of where the last time he saw that symbol was.

So he teleported back to the forest, where he was first summoned and where he met Virgil. He teleported outside of the abandoned house, which looked exactly as it did since that day which wasn't too long ago.

He went inside and saw everything was the same, except cleaner which was weird to say. It still had dirt and dust everywhere, and plants still grew inside and all over it, but the area from the basement to the door had less of it.

Roman walked down to the basement, frowning at the odd smell of chemicals. Of course, the first thing he noticed was the lack of blood and bodies. In fact, everything was gone! The altar, the book, the daggers and goblet, it was all gone. Even the pentagram that had summoned him was gone, as well as the chains and Virgil's blood. Though, there was still a dark ring around it as if the ground was burned, and there were holes in the ground where the chains were nailed in.

Whoever had come here to clean up did a great job of it. Though... it didn't matter. Being here reminded Roman every detail of what had happened. Including the red hawk symbol that was on the red cultist's cloak, and that each cultist had it tattooed to their body.

No wonder Janus wanted them to stay away from those boys, they were part of the cult that had kidnapped Virgil. Roman had so many unanswered questions that made him burn. Why did Janus know that? Why was Remus so afraid of them? Why did he feel like he couldn't protect Janus? It was obvious why he felt like Roman couldn't protect Virgil considering...

No, there were more pressing matters at hand than that. Roman remembered what Virgil had said about the gangs in town, one of them was called the Reds, right?

Roman pulled out his phone and looked it up. Instantly he got articles about the Reds and Yellows, their fights and results of their fights. Articles of how the authorities could never catch them. The demon scrolled through, reading article after article until he came across one that described a victim of the Yellows.

It described how the victim looked, and mentioned the red hawk tattoo on the body, identifying them as a member of the Reds. It also mentioned how the Yellow members' had a yellow snake tattoo in comparison.

The gangs in town weren't gangs! They were cults! That's why Virgil has never heard any gunshots in town, or anyone else for that matter! That presence were demons that guarded the house! Low level demons sure, which must be why there have been so many deaths.

Janus seemed tied into it too. Question was, how? He obviously wouldn't tell, and he doubted that Remus would say anything either.

Roman wondered if that meant Virgil was still in danger. Would any of the cults dare touch his human while he's there? No, he was a prince, the strongest demon that could walk the Earth!

He left the basement and walked out of the house, letting the cold air hit him. However, the moment he walked through the door to the house, he felt another presence. The moment he turned to where it came from though, it disappeared. He had been caught.