The Detective of the Dead

Full Moon

  The night of the full moon. A weekend without her, without friends. Maybe I need time to be alone. I am in a restaurant. My lonely heart was in the center of chatting people in black, white dress and suit, eating gourmet meals and sipping wine. But my face doesn't show any traces of loneliness. I should not go out alone because it intensifies the sadness in me. I thought Veronica will go out with me tonight. It was early in the evening, during my silent dinner without Veronica. I don't know where she is. Until someone called in my crystal phone. It vibrates on my table. I was surprised. I swipe the little amount of tears in my eyes with tablecloth. 

"Whoa! What was that? Uh, it was just my crystal phone." I answered it. 

 Some people look at me with curiosity.   

"Hullo? Veronica?"

 "This is Veronica's teammate. We need back up!" 

 "Where are you?" 

 He gave the coordinates. They are in a warehouse in the coast. 

 "Alright, I'll be there!" 

 I went home quickly to change my clothes from formal to casual with my brown scarf. Before I go outside, the clumsy maid of the dormitory slipped. Her cold pot with herbs spilled on me from my head to foot. She stood herself while I'm cleaning myself. 

 "Oh, sir, pardon me. Pardon me." she begged. 

 "It's fine. I'm fine." I replied. 

 She help me to clean myself. Suddenly, I felt different but I don't pay attention. I am too preoccupied. There were chopped and ground herbs all around me. Belladonna, hemlock, henbane, opium, foxglove, and parsley. Some of that herbs are poisonous, except for parsley. Never mind! I don't have time to analyze this. 

 When I got there, the warehouse was abandoned, dusty, with empty boxes. The place was dark so I used my crystal orb as a flashlight. I slowly walk in. I hear nothing but my weak footsteps. I felt that somebody was looking at me in the dark. I can't locate them. Eventually, someone attacked me with an injection. When I saw the face of the assailant, it was Veronica. 

 "Veronica?" 

Her face doesn't show any emotion. A man descended from the stairs. His eyes and hair was green, he is wearing an overcoat, a monocle on his eyes, with top hat on his head and he is holding a cane and cigar. 

 "Veronica is now my puppet. Your Veronica is mine." 

 "Filmore Derwint!" 

 "This is not just a revenge but a task!" 

 "A task from the murderers of Dunstan?" 

 I can't feel my legs and my feet. It make me lame. While we are talking, he is approaching to me and I make the best effort to get away. The poison made me slow. 

 "Of course! Now for the info of the poison in you, it was a secret but surely it will make you paralyze in a moment, maybe twelve hours. You will have the same fate with Dunstan but I make sure that you get what you deserve!" 

 "But no one wants her dead!" 

 Derwint approached me with haze and grabbed me on my hair. 

 "No! You did it! You killed my love! My girl! She may killed herself but the cause of it is you!" 

 "Then I'm sorry! Sorry that my clumsiness killed your wife!" I cried.

"But it is too late for you, Agnis a. k. a. Mavis Quincy!"

"You are doing this because you can't defeat the Elders." 

 The warlock is going to kill me with knife dipped in poison of hemlock but I prevented him when I threw an empty box to him by telekinesis. It drove him away. I float myself off to him with telekinesis. In meditative pose and my eyes are closed, I quickly draw the powers of earth, air, fire, water and spirit to protect me and build a magick circle of shield. It gave off a pentacle and purple light. 

 "You can't stay there forever." he cried. 

 "I know." 

 He threw the empty injection to me but I avoided it. 

"Ha! It can't protect you from physical attacks!" 

 "Who said that?"I extended the magick circle until it reached him.  

 "Hey! Why I can't move, novice?" he shouted. 

 "Because this is my circle. You can't cast a spell here. Nobody can do a ritual here except me." 

 While he was starring at me with anger, I was slashed myself a little on my right shoulder to remove the poison by spell. Then I tied it with a cloth. 

 "You can move now. I'm not like you, cheater." I said.

 I lost in the warlock's sight like a ninja and I attacked him. To Veronica, she is watching a wrestling like combat, if she is wide awake. 

 "Ha! So you want a close combat?" 

 He threw me and break the circle but I landed like a cat, having well-balanced feet. Before the circle is completely gone, I politely dismissed the five elemental towers. While we are fighting, my crystal orb fell from my satchel. But I don't have time to pick it.I attacked him with fire balls. He managed to avoid it but it came back to him. The warlock protect his body with shield of ice but it crushed after the last fire ball. He attacked me with thick vines and it squeezed me. Earning the fire within me, I burn the vines and it explodes to free myself. 

 "I will make your life cursed! I don't let the light and happiness come upon your poor soul!" he said with dark power on his hand. 

 As he approaching me, I slowly moving away from him until I was cornered by the wall behind me. 

"But ever mind The Rule of Three, what you did with spell will bounce back to you three times." 

 "I don't care! As long as you get cursed, I can tolerate the karma or The Rule of Three! The pain is nothing to me because I'm powerful than you!" 

 Filmore dragged Veronica to me, then he sucked her energy and I felt drained too.I saw colorful glitter like energy. It was my manna coming out of my body. 

 "My manna! No!" I cried. 

 He laughed at me. My manna or magickal energy was drained. 

I can't perform any spell or ritual unless I recharge myself.But it's too late, the warlock hold my head and cast a curse to me. It made me see the haunting past of mine, the flashbacks of the death of my family and more, then he threw me away.My love was suffering and my light was diminished. I was about to lose hope. Through the broken window, I saw the full moon covered with dark clouds and hope that there's no way out here but through.In an instant, the darkness swallowed me. The darkness may save me. So I let it swallow me to protect myself, my light side. 

 "I have an affair with your mother!" 

 "What?!" I replied astonishment. 

 I know that he is joking and teasing me but I can't control my emotion. From the broken window, I saw the dark clouds unveiled the shining full moon. The heat is increasing in my body. With rage and heat, I lay down to the floor. Itch, pain, and other symptoms of transformation went to my senses.The warlock just stared at me with confusion.