Dunst Till Dawn

The Quest for The Philosopher's Stone

Was this really the home of the man that would end up destroying the world? It was just a quaint little one-story single-family white ranch-style home. With a cute little white wooden porch in the front, adorned with two brown wooden rocking chairs. The whole thing was surrounded by a white picket fence. It was the kind of home that you would expect the perfect loving family in a family sitcom to have. But it was probably a lot cheaper to get insurance coverage on than an underground base inside of a dormant volcano would've been.

Dawn entered the home. No one was there. That didn't quite feel right to her. She wasn't a thief. She didn't break into people's homes when they weren't there. She was just looking for clues, she kept telling herself. And if possible, maybe even The Philosopher's Stone itself. That is, if Booth was telling her the truth, and this stone really was too dangerous to be left in this Colin guy's hands. 

But then Booth didn't actually send her to go after the stone itself, only Colin's notes on it. Probably because Booth didn't fully trust her. The feeling was mutual.  

Searching the house for any notes, she tried to ascertain just what kind of person this Colin was, from the photos around the house. They showed an average family. A father, a mother, and a kid about 17 years of age. None of which seemed to be wearing any death cultist attire. They all looked quite happy together. Laughing and smiling in all the pictures. Though Booth didn't say that they were evil. Only that this man would 'destroy the world.'

That realization made her revaluate what he had told her. Replaying as much of what she could remember in her mind. The exact words, the best that she could remember them. Paying very close attention to Booth's exact wording. Knowing that while he may not have straight-up lied to her, that he may have lied by omission. 

The way he was talking, especially about this stone, was very cryptic. It was like he was hiding something. It made her distrust Booth even more. He always had an ulterior motive. And he was also the reason that her brother was dead.

She remembered how he had asked her immediately upon her picking up the phone; not even first saying hi. "What do you know of The Philosopher's Stone?"  

She remembered how he sounded sort of calmly frantic. Which was the usual for him. He always seemed like he was of the edge of freaking out but was trying to hide it under a veneer of calm authority.

She answered, telling him all that she knew on the subject. Which wasn't much. "It's a stone that turns lead into gold. It was searched after by many alchemists. And it was their greatest treasure. It was a modernized version of The Midas touch, basically."

He had paused after she had told him that, for what seemed like forever. Then he said, "There is a man (She now knew as Colin) who has... discovered it." And then he told her that, "he needed her to break into his (Colin's) home to find any information that he (Colin) had on it." 

This had irritated her a bit. The way that he just took for granted that she would help him. "Getting a little ahead of yourself aren't you. I haven't even accepted this job yet." She told him.

He responded back in his typical insolent and condescending manner, "Dawn, we Masons do not ask for help. We tell you what needs to be done. Then you do it."

That had pissed her off more. She responded back in her own insolent manner, "No Jimmy! That's not how this works at all! First, you offer me the job! Then I choose whether or not we go on it! Then we negotiate price! And then, once we do all that; then I put together a team to work on it!"

"Your brother and I had a deal, Dawn." He told her. As if that meant somehow, that she was therefore under contract as well. 

"I'm not my brother." She had told him back.