12/12/2022

I started my search for help online. Of course you can post on forums all you want, and people can believe you, but that doesn't change much. /x/ was full of people arguing over the validity of my claims but no one who believed me cared enough to meet up and help.

I felt alone, and afraid. The best I thought I could do for a while was talk online. If I went yelling in the streets about the witches and wizards living among us I'd just be seen as a madman, and risk whatever's out there finding out I know, if they don't already. I've been sleeping during the day ever since I first saw a wizard before my own eyes. I'm aware they aren't like vampires, they could easily come for me in the day, but at least people might see me then. Of course this means that on days I work, I get no sleep for well over 24 hours. Or that's what I think's been going on. For all I know they could be torturing me, experimenting with me, and wiping my mind of it every day. I can only impart onto myself through my journal what I think is happening in life.

Eventually living in constant fear became too much for me and I just made the risky leap. I rented out the meeting room at my local library for a "Paranormal Investigators Club". Vague enough, maybe they'd think it was some ghost hunter or even alien theorist.

Four people showed up to the meeting. I had put it together but it was less of something I led and more something I took part in. Everyone shared stories of interactions they'd apparently had with the supernatural, they mostly talked about ghosts, and spooky things that had happened to them. They spoke like it was just some lighthearted fun. That was, except for Spencer. Spencer wore a heavy coat and never took it off the whole time. His hair was long and pulled back, it was clear this was more serious to him than anyone else there, possibly even myself.

He talked about how his sister was killed by a vampire. A rich businessman who swept his aimless sister, who lacked self confidence, and needed financial support, off her feet, treating her like a queen, and manipulated, no, hypnotized, her to cut out her friends and family, to become an obsessed devoted thrall, before she went missing entirely. He said that if there was any justice in this world that Elijah himself would have come down in a chariot of fire and destroyed the beast, but that often people must make their own justice. He ended his story with a cryptic and concerning,"We can't expect God to do all the work."

When I showed the others my video, of the wizards disguising themselves, the other three seemed amused and in awe, but Spencer understood what this meant, and shot me a serious, understanding look.

He stayed after the meeting ended, and the others had left. He started out interaction by ripping his jacket open. At first I thought he was trying to expose himself to me, but he was instead revealing the inside of his jacket. He had a necklace on, with several crosses (of multiple varieties, including the Saint Peter's Cross, and the Russian Orthodox Cross), a hebrew symbol of some kind, a Hamsa, and other charms I didn't recognize. The inside of his coat seemed lumpy but anything in it was either sewn into it or hidden in pockets. It seems he was making sure I wasn't a supernatural creature before going any further.

After confirmation that I was just a normal man, and a thorough investigation of the room to confirm there were no listening devices or hidden creatures, Spencer told me who he really was. He was a member of a group known as the Society of Leopold, a group of 'Hunters'. They send members to investigate meetings like this, just in case. He said that he couldn't offer me membership, but that he'd be willing to help me and equip me for whatever battle lies ahead. Though, from the sounds of it I wouldn't really want membership. They sounded like a bunch of religious fanatics absolutely off their rocker, but I would sound like I'm completely insane to anyone who wasn't in the situation I was in either. I was just dipping my toes in this world, so maybe they were right.

Spencer and I met up in a neutral zone, a parking garage near the alley where I first saw the mages, when the day came. He was wearing a trenchcoat and hat, something like a long-brimmed fedora, I was never a fashion guy, along with a domino mask, the kind of thing zoro or the green hornet would wear. In the trunk of his car he had a borderline armory. All sorts of weapons; conventional and specialty, along with armor, protection charms, and of course, a copy of the holy bible. I could see bookmarks clearly sticking out of the bible.

He gave me a mask to wear as well, in addition to a cross necklace which I also donned. I felt extremely underdressed as I just wore black jeans and a hoodie otherwise. He equipped me with a bowie knife and a pistol, he said it was loaded with bullets coated in silver and pork fat. I had some sort of vague memory of hearing about religious battles where soldiers coated their bullets in pork fat to 'send them straight to hell' or something of the like. I really didn't like the vibe The Society of Leopold was giving off, but they are my only allies.

We hid in separate areas, him on a rooftop and I in a set of bushes. We messaged each other if we needed to communicate. I of course only really half paid attention to our stake out. We were there for hours, with nothing happening other than the standard transactions and cars passing bye. I used my phone to try to look up information on magical beliefs and The Society of Leopold for a time, eventually I resorted to playing games and infinityscrolling some inane app. This drained my battery of course, which I needed to communicate with Spencer without getting caught, so when I got a low battery notification, I put it away. With nothing to distract me I quickly got bored late at night, and started drifting off.

That's when a gunshot went off. I was snapped awake by the loud noise, and rustled the bushes I was in considerably. I saw some figure in robes walking towards me with a glow coming from the end of a wand in their hand, before I was engulfed in a thick smoke! I couldn't see a thing and it burned my eyes! I lashed about as I felt someone grab me and start trying to drag me. I grabbed my knife and stabbed them, which I immediately regretted when I heard a grunt, and a voice that I recognized as spender say "It's me!". I pulled the knife out and dropped it, following him where he dragged me, with my eyes held tightly shut.

I was such an idiot for dropping that knife. After we escaped to safety he told me that witches had ways of tracking people down using items they owned, and that even the clothes I was wearing at the time could have a metaphysical connection to the event and with the knife they could connect the two to find me. He said I should stay away from anything I normally had a connection too for a while to decrease the likelihood they get to me, but that the knife having his blood on it meant he was more or less inescapably in their sight. He said he'd make his way back to his monastery where he was safest, and dropped me off at a motel. He let me keep the gun and the cross necklace.

I had to walk to the closest convenience store to buy crappy behind-the-counter dollar t-shirts and sweatpants. I changed in their bathroom and threw my old clothes in the dumpster behind the store. I couldn't dare to throw out my phone though. So here I write this in a model room with the blinds shut and the door locked tight. I'm shaking, sitting on the side of the bed, clutching my gun like a kid's safety blanket refusing to turn my back on the door. No closer to discovering the truth and letting the world know, and in much more direct danger than I was before, with the person who helped get me into it off who knows where. -Norman P. McKinne 12/12/22

OOC Author's Note; Please keep 2 things in mind. 1. while this is in the world of harry potter, it's from the perspective of a normal human, and it will be a slow burn before he actually fully learns about the wizarding world. 2. Statements made by the society of leopold as to the capabilities of wizards and other magical creatures are not necessarily accurate, they have limited experience with such things.