When Siobhan stopped reading the table went silent. Like the kind of silence they say ‘you could hear a pin drop’ only in this case you could hear a feather drop or a snowflake or an atom or something smaller and lighter that made even less noise.
“Bisman was the name on the receipts I found in the library,” Kim said with a note of resignation.
“And with every discovery this stuff gets weirder.” Ivan said. “So, we have Mal who was Jack and we have Bisman who was…?”
“Bluebeard.” Both Dan and Siobhan answered at once, stopping to give each other grins.
Dan ticked off the points on his fingers. “Don’t go in the basement. Room full of bones. The only thing that’s missing is the key.”
“And maybe that’s the point.” At Kim’s confused look Siobhan expanded. “Mal had the axe. Maybe Bisman has the key?”
“So we have some psycho killer out there somewhere?” Ivan asked.
“I guess I’m the best qualified to say and all I got is “I don’t have a damned clue.”” Dan’s tone held a note of frustration.
“Do you think someone is using story magic to make people do things?” Ivan pressed.
“I don’t know.”
“Or maybe people are doing things and then someone is writing them; like stalker Magick style?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you know?”
Irritation boomed in Dan’s voice. “I don’t know!”
Siobhan stacked the pages in front of her, buying herself a moment to think. Slowly, she suggested, “I think we’ve got a mystery to solve and very few pieces of the puzzle yet. I’m not even sure where we should start. Dan,” she turned to him, “I’m guessing you will keep looking into the Magick. Ivan?”
At his name Ivan turned. “Yes?”
“We need information on that house. Not the Mystery House, I know you are already working on that. What we need is information on the house from yesterday and its owner. Let’s determine if their name was Bisman, where they work, and then we can see if they are missing which the condition of the house suggests.”
“I’m guessing, based on the condition of the,” Prairie swallowed, “Karen, that if he is missing it hasn’t been for that long. The state of decomp wasn’t that far along.”
“I’ll ask around too,” Ben offered. “I’ll offer some monetary reward if anyone hears anything about weird stories being found.”
“Or people changing their personalities, maybe? Or spontaneously manifesting alternates without any of the standard markers? Or disappearing after receiving weird stories that are about them?” Gwen suggested.
Dan shoved a toothpick in his mouth and started furiously working it with his tongue. He pulled out a small spiral notebook, and started writing with enough force to tear the paper.. “I can give more details to the other Bibliomancers. Maybe that will help in their research.”
“I have absolutely no one I can poke and absolutely nothing I can do,” Kim stated, folding her hands. “Maybe I can make cupcakes.”
“I don’t know what I can offer in an investigation, but I’d like to work on the potential connection between Spiritis magic and mine.” Gwen said. “My gut says we may need to use the same techniques again and, honestly, I’d rather not scream myself hoarse next time. I’m thinking of creating a buffer.” She waved her hand in a vague manner. “I don’t know if that’s a thing.”
“Maybe I can find a way to strengthen my fire in case I need to jump start Prairie again.”
“What would that entail?” Ivan narrowed his eyes at Kim to which she shrugged.
“Dunno? Could be a lot of things. Like getting in touch with my inner me or something totally crunchy granola like that. Or it could mean actually finding out what that means. Like I’ve always taken for granted that I can do this stuff but I haven’t dug down to figure out why. There are some theories about elementals which I’ve never explored. Could be interesting.”
“Could be dangerous.” Ben’s expression went dark and distance and his response held a note of a history unshared. “Contacting the source of your magic…” He shook his head. “Those things aren’t like us. They are alive but they don’t have, I guess you’d say, morals or concepts of empathy or really an understanding of mortality. You go to one that exists in a place that doesn’t recognize time and you can end up coming back to us all gray and wrinkled.”
Oh, there was definitely something there. But, protocol and politesse said don’t probe. Of course, politesse wasn’t Kim’s strong suit.
Hush you, she counseled herself. More heart less mind.
“I’m going to do things with stuff,” Prairie said, the sweep of her hand suggesting there was nothing to what she was going to do.
“Try not to die.” Gwen said dryly
“Or if you do, do it loudly.” Kim finished the unofficial motto of the group.
“I think I can try to do that.” She opened her mouth and made a comical peep.
“Yeah, we’ll work on that.” Gwen smiled and brushed her hand over Prairie’s hair, tucking it behind her ear.
Their laughs bound them together as they each rose to go out and do what they needed to do.
At the bar a figure wearing a hoodie quickly shifted their attention back to their drink, leaning forward to give Patti a bit of a flirt and a tip. Just another customer. Absolutely no reason to focus on them like they’d been so intensely focused on the group at the back table.
They reached into their pocket and pulled out a small notebook, scribbling something on a new, blank page before taking a swallow of their drink and settling back into the background noise of humanity.
Enter The Woods 