I wasn't so much shocked, as saddened. Despite my years on the Bureau, the sight of people pouring all of their energies and destroying themselves on a con artist saddened me. There they were, using a steak knife to draw some weird symbol on their palm, going barefoot, burning themselves with matches, eating what appeared to be plants from the back yard, all while reciting some crap. They were in a circle.

With a sigh, I left them to their devices, and pushed myself to find a solution. Sometime passed and I got a text message from Charlie

"Make sure they don't sacrifice the koi!" He loved those fish, giving them the kind of care a parent would a child. They had been an impulse purchase, a few years back.
.

"sure..." I replied in text, not that fish were a popular item for sacrificing..

"Any luck?" he asked.

"Not really. Why are you texting me?"

"I'm sitting in one of Larry's classes" he replied.

"I see.."

"Class ended...gotta go meet with him."

"Okay buddy..."

I warmed up some of the casserole Dad had prepped just for them, and took it to the garage.

"Hey guys!" I made myself sound cheerful. They were all wrapping their hands in long bandages.

"Smells good!" Antha remarked..

"My Dad made extra food, before he left ,for my brother and me" I explained.

They ate, though I worried, when Elizabeth picked at her food and only took a few token mouthfuls.

"Would you like something else?" I asked with concern. As it was, she seemed thinner than the photo Mr. Fullerton had shown me. "I can buy it for you"

"It's okay" she said.

I had wanted to stop the earlier self mutilation but I realized that my efforts were better spent looking for a permanent exit for Elizabeth from the cult.

Soon, we were talking about various topics, with most of them being out there.

"Elves are everywhere!" Elizabeth said. "But they hide among us as humans." Well, that would explain a lot of things about Larry if that were true.

"Do they originate from Earth?" I asked, playing along.

"No…from the hereafter, but they've lived on this planet for a long time" Antha told me.

"I see.." I nodded and gave my 'ah..' face.

"I think my neighbor is an elf!" the teenager piped up.

"Maybe Don can investigate for you" Trixie suggested.

"I uh..didn't learn much about Elves at Quantico" I said, feigning disappointment. This wasn't a mission that I wanted to do.

A while and a lecture about Elves, later. Charlie called me on my cell. Claiming it was a client, I took it outside.

"Don! Why doesn't Larry, as Rick's mentor, channel a dead physicist?" he suggested excitedly as I sighed in aggravation.

"They're not gonna listen to a lecture on physics!" I argued.

"Larry says that he used physics to get a student to stop believing in dragons and fairies"

Suddenly, I finally had an idea!

TBC