Now the actual story begins.
Enjoy.
"Yeah yeah, I'll be there in about half an hour." Robert Smalls spoke into his cell phone as he carried a bag of trash out to the cans in front of his house. "See you then."
Stuffing the phone back into his pocket, the man turned to head back into the house with a smile on his face. Now he just needed to change clothes real quick and he would be ready for his date. Things were finally starting to look up for him.
Movement from the corner of his eyes caught the man's attention.
"Hello? Who's there?" Robert turned his flashlight in the direction but all he saw was a row of rustling bushes. He took two steps back as he started to panic. He was too far from his front door to get there quickly.
He sighed in relief when a small stray cat came out of the row of plants.
Robert laughed to himself. "Getting worked up over nothing Robert, not like a monster is going to get you or anything."
When he turned to move back to his house he froze. He was face to face with a pair of eyes glowing like burning coals. The thing before him held no shape, it appeared to be made of swirling black mist. The face the eyes were attached to was nearly imposable to see even by the light of his flashlight. It was as if it just sucked in and absorbed the light.
Whatever it was before him smiled. At least Robert thought it was a smile, part of what he thought was its face opened revealing what must have been rows of razor sharp teeth.
The man did not even have a chance to scream before a tendril of smoke lashed out and wrapped around his neck. It may have looked like smoke but it certainly did not feel like it. It burned like fire on the skin of his throat. Whatever sound he tried to get out was instantly chocked out as the tendril tightened its grip.
On reflex, Robert tried to grab the thing to pull it off his neck but he could not grip it. Even worse, the moment his hands touched the smoke they became equally stuck, and burned just as much as his neck.
Before his very eyes, the flesh of his hands blackened and cracked. Taking on an almost charred appearance. His eyes widened in utter horror as he could only imagine the same thing was happening to his neck.
The next thing Robert knew, the shape crashed into him faster than his eyes could process. Then he knew no more.
ONE WEEK LATER
Jake really should have seen it coming. After the main clippings book had its 'freak out' about the dragons, it should not have been a shock when the smaller one in his possession had a similar ability.
The book in question was sitting at his bedside table when it started throwing what could only be described as a tantrum.
Opening his eyes in the middle of the night, Jake was greeted at first by the sight of the book vibrating of its own accord. He looked at it curiously before it suddenly shot out and struck him in the face.
"Ow!" Jake rubbed his nose before he snatched the magical book up. The movements ceased instantly.
"Okay okay, whoa up there." The oddity of talking to a magical book didn't even occur to Jake as he flipped open the pages.
The last time something like this happened, the dragons were waking up prepared to wreck havoc "until there is no more havoc to be wrecked" as Jenkins so aptly put it.
That was why when Jake opened the book to its back pages only to find a couple of missing persons found clippings, he was a little... disappointed. No weather disasters? No strange creature sightings? Just missing people being found? Hell, half their missions consisted of missing people in one form or another.
It was after he read the rest of the article that he saw what made this especially strange. It was two things, the location and state of the found people.
The place was Salem, Massachusetts.
The people were found dead, drained of blood, shriveled up like they'd been dead for a long time despite people having seen them the days before, and their flesh charred. So far there were three people found in the last week.
Red flags were definitely going way up. If the book was reacting like this, then there was something big going on.
Looks like he was not going to be getting any sleep tonight.
Cassandra hummed quietly to herself as she walked into her dark apartment. Flipping on the light, she closed the door and sat her bag on the couch.
She was about to go into the kitchen to figure out something for dinner when she heard a noise behind her.
When she turned around, the redhead saw nothing at first. It took a few moments for her to realize the bag she just sat down was moving.
Cassandra approached the bag cautiously, it would be just her luck that some kind of small furry rodent or something had snuck into it when she wasn't looking.
The redhead discovered, to her relief, that the activity was not actually an animal. It was her clippings book.
"Oh no! Not the dragons again!" Cassandra groaned as she flipped through the pages, clearly remembering the last time something like this happened. The only new entry was towards the back of the small book. Three found missing persons, all dead and... drained of blood? In Salem, Massachusetts?
"Salem... witch trials... witches... green skin and warts... " Cassandra suddenly found herself dizzy and about to fall over. Thankfully, the couch was right there for her to fall onto.
God, she wished Jake was there. He always broke through to her when a spell hit. But he wasn't, she was again all alone in her small apartment. She could usually get her mind to eventually calm down, Jake just made it so much easier.
She was unsure how long she sat there holding her head in her hands, but once she calmed down she slowly stood back to her feet.
If the book was reacting like this, then it must be important. Knowing what she knew of magic, there likely was real witches in Salem back in the 1690s.
Time to go research the Salem Witch Trials.
Twenty kills on Call of Duty with no deaths. It was a good evening for Ezekiel Jones. No one could top his awesomeness. He felt on top of the world.
At least until something clocked him in the back of the head making him slip up and get shot dead.
"Hey! Not cool!" Ezekiel looked over his shoulder but saw nothing. He was completely alone in his apartment.
With a groan, Ezekiel turned off his game. He was so close to breaking his flawless twenty-two kill record! Now the magic of what should have been his victory was ruined.
The thief's eyes scanned the room for anything out of place as he turned his swivel chair around. There better not be ghosts in here.
His eyes soon fell to the clippings book on the floor. Did his book just try to attack him?
When the book started flopping around on the floor, Ezekiel shot up and out of his chair.
"Nuh-uh no, no bloody way am I arbtizing another stupid conclave!" Ezekiel shrieked. The last time a clippings book did this, it was a nightmare. Dragons waking up, putting him in charge of a meeting between all the fancy representatives, evil golden apple. Granted he kinda accidentally made himself the arbiter and got a chance to pickpocket Flynn (with permission too!) but that was not the point.
Stepping on the book, Ezekiel glared at the offending item under his sock clad foot.
The one-sided staring match lasted several minutes before he caved. If the book was doing this he probably should check it out. Who knows, maybe there was some fancy artifact he could steal?
The idea brought a grin to his face as he snatched the book off the floor. Flipping pages, he quickly found the entry in question since it was the only new one.
Dead people found in Salem?
"Hmm..." Ezekiel mused to himself. It probably had something to do with witches. It that were the case then he could make this work. Morgan Le Fey was practically a witch after all. She was pretty good looking, maybe if this was a witch she could be just as easy on the eyes. Hopefully without the evilness.
Eh... it was worth looking into at least.
First things first though, research. No telling what was waiting for him in Salem.
The very idea of doing research sent a shudder down the thief's spine.
Once again, this chapter required very little fixing. Review so I know what you all think.