The way to become the Great Sorcerer

Chapter 6: Investigation to Commence

I woke up with puffy eyes in the morning. Due to the dream, I had yesterday. I was afraid to sleep, sighing I went to the bathroom to wash my face to erase my sleepiness. I stare at the box that I bought yesterday. Contemplating whether to throw it or not, I pursed my lips as I squinted my eyes. Giving up, I went downstairs to have my breakfast.

I saw my father talking to our neighbor, Mr. Eastwood, and his son. I tilt my head curious about why they visited early in the morning. I sat beside my brother at the dining table, he was so busy playing through his phone that he didn’t even notice his untouched food waiting for him. 

Ignoring him, I prepared my breakfast, stealing a glance at my father. I noticed his facial expression changed. 

“What are they talking about?”

 I nudged my brother’s arm to gain his attention which resulted in him clicking his tongue in annoyance, he glared at me when he lost the game. 

“A suspicious man was standing at our house last night” Almost choked on my cereal, I covered my mouth in shock at the information he gave me, glancing at me with disgust he continued to play on his phone. 

“Lucas was the one who saw the man,” when I heard it, I took a peek at him, but then he turned his head in my direction that caused me to lock eyes with him, startled, I avoided him, acting casually then looking down at my bowl.

‘Why did I avoid it?’ thinking that maybe he finds me weird, I continue eating my cereal, embarrassed. 

The Eastwood family and I have been neighbors for years. Lucas happened to be my classmate every year. I don’t know if it’s the work of our fate but I believe this is not just any coincidence. Due to our different personalities, we never tried to be friends. Lucas was popular while I was average, not that I envy him. In our middle and high school years, he was the type to always make trouble, a delinquent student, and because of it everyone knows him at our school, the only thing that I envy of him was his god-tier looks which contributes to his popularity.

I’m a bit more of the safer type, those who always follow the school rules, answer all the homework, always doing the cleaning duty, that’s the type of student I am, I admit it’s pretty boring but I’m one of the people who are afraid of taking a risk. I watched my father bidding goodbye to both father and son. He sighed, worry evident on his face, he took a seat opposite of us,

“You too should be careful from now on, I’m going to tighten the security in the neighborhood from now on” 

So all of it was true, there was a man last night, I gulped feeling scared. My mother came to my father comforting him, also worried about the welfare of their children. After finishing our breakfast, my father went to the community center to report what happened last night. I went to my room, planning to clean it. However, when I caught the attention of the box, I had this sudden urge to look into it.

Squatting at the floor, I carefully took all the things and sorted them out. There were tons of books, a journal, the vinyl, and the cassette player, and lastly, a photo book filled with pictures. I scanned the books first; all of the books were all about magic stuff. I raised my eyebrow, bewildered. 

I paid attention to the photobook and decided to open it. I gasped when I saw a familiar figure. My eyes widen and my mind can’t process anything. The photobook was filled with pictures of those people I met in the dream. 

Thinking that I was hallucinating, I rubbed my eyes trying to convince myself that it was just because of my tiredness or maybe because I was still caught up in that dream, but no matter how I convince myself the pictures won’t change, I flip unto the other page and saw the mansion.

Everything was overwhelming for me, I grind my teeth, feeling anxious. Maybe that dream I had yesterday wasn’t just any ordinary dream. All of these people, as much as I don’t want to admit, we're the ones I met in that horrifying and weird dream, the place, their dresses, everything was exactly as I remembered. 

Drown in my thoughts I started to get scared, my sweat trickled down my face. ‘So, everything that happened in that dream was all true?’ I gulped and recalled what happened next, the fire, the corpses, even that was true?

“Larcade!” I jumped at my seat, screaming in the process, grabbed the nearest object, and threw it in the direction of the voice. I watched as my cousin fell to her knees touching her face. I pursed my lips when I realized that I accidentally threw a book to her face. She cursed loudly expressing her pain. 

I paused there not moving an inch, silence taking over the room only her groan was heard. My beating heart was finally beating normally when she finished whining.

 “You can kill a person with this” she grumbled picking the book that hit her, I chuckled awkwardly. She was the one who scared me so it wasn’t entirely my fault. Before giving me the book, she read the title, puzzled by what it said. 

“So, you’re finally attending Hogwarts?” She said showing me the book, The History of Sorcerers, was entitled to the book I threw at her. Giving her an insincere laugh, I took the book.  

“Why are you here?” I asked curiously, organizing the mess on the floor, but due to her curiosity she messed it up, I sighed glaring at her. 

“I just want you to come to my newly built stand” Her eyes twinkle, her nose pointed, a smug look pasted on her face. I asked her for confirmation to which she nodded.

“I choose a product that can surely sell in this tropical weather” finally piqued my interest, “What product?” I asked. She stared at me for a second which made me flinch, 

“A lemon” I paused, dumbfounded. 

“Wait, your newly built stand is a lemon stand?”

 I snapped in which she proudly nodded her head filled with delight. My eyes twitched, annoyed, as I had a sudden urge to choke her. I sighed, giving up. 

“Neveah if you don’t have anything to do, don’t just decide to annoy me”

Neveah Collins, my cousin and my childhood friend, we’ve known each other since our diaper days, and just like Lucas we’ve also been classmates for all school years, I’m typically the type of person who is nice and friendly to everyone however I don’t have any ability to maintain a friendship. 

Neveah was the only one who still stayed with me. I found it annoying at first but I eventually felt grateful. Neveah was an extroverted person; she prefers to go out and meet new people. I remember when we were kids, she told me about her dream, that she wants to become a superhero with powers and that she wants to travel around the world helping people. I still remember how much she grumbled when he found out that most of the superheroes were all men.

“What is all this?”Curious, she picked all the books on the floor. 

“Nothing.”

 I dismissed her going back to the photobook, I glanced at her to see what she’s doing but to my surprise, she was reading one of the books that she picked. Thankful that she’s not annoying me, I flipped the photobook to another page. The page had only one photo of a woman, but what shocked me the most is that it's the same woman, who talked to me in my dream. I carefully separate the picture from the photobook. And for a split second, I thought that maybe that dream has a hidden meaning. How can I even dream of people that I didn’t even meet? My mind was a mess and I tried to find any reason why. I flipped the photo and saw a handwritten note.

 My very first photo as The Great Sorceress.

 ‘What’s a great sorceress?’

“Isis Dewin?” Neveah suddenly uttered.  

“Look, Larcade, this woman has the same surname as you” 

She showed me a picture in the book that she read and my eyes widened when I saw it. It has the same woman that I met in my dream. I took the book and compared it to the picture from the photobook and without a doubt, she is the same woman. 

‘So her name is Isis…’ so this wasn’t a coincidence at all, everything from that dream was all true, it may sound weird but I had to admit it. I read the book that I grabbed from Neveah and it was filled with information about her lifestyle, the things she likes and dislikes, like a biography. 

I noticed that there is a small photo at the corner of the page. It was a photo of a boy, he was smiling cutely at the camera, his dirty blonde hair and yellow eyes were the first things I noticed 

‘Damian, My student’ it says below.

“Hey, this looks like the abandoned mansion we used to scare ourselves when we were kids.” 

Neveah said, laughing as she remembers some memories, now that she mentions it, it does look like it. I gulped as I finally found a clue after another. I look back at her photo, and then the photo of the mansion. I want to deny it but I have this urge to know everything about this woman and why I dreamt of her. 

And the fact that we had the same surnames makes me on edge. I flipped the book expecting to find some clue, what I found was other people’s information. A ‘ting’ was heard from my head as I grabbed all of the books including the photobook and the journal and slipped it into my bag, Neveah who was just sitting there watching me with confusion, 

“Where are you going?”

I grabbed a random hoodie from my closet, “I’m going to the mansion.”

 She jolted standing up when she heard what I said, wearing the backpack I was about to go outside when she stopped me. I watched her as she blocked the door. 

“You can’t go back in there, the last time you went, you were hospitalized.” Her face was full of anxiety.

 “I understand your concern but I have to do this for personal reasons and besides it’s a different case now, I was a kid back then.” I grabbed her shoulders reassuring her, she contemplated before deciding. 

“Then take me with you.” She said with a serious face, for her not to worry I have no choice but to agree, I nod hesitantly, her frown turned upside down with my answer.

We went outside of my house, bidding goodbye to my mother. Before she could let us go she warned us first to come home early. We were going to start our journey when we met Lucas who was trying to escape the arms of a little girl. Neveah, who laughed at Lucas’ discomfort. She started joking with him. 

I forgot that these two were friends, I stood there awkwardly, clutching the straps of my backpack. I watch them bicker, the little girl Lindsey, let go of Lucas’ arms. To our surprise, she suddenly kicked Neveah’s legs. Lucas and I widened our eyes, breathing cold sweat. 

Neveah, who was crouching because of the pain, glared at the little girl, but before she could snap, I immediately held her down knowing Neveah’s personality. She can easily kick a child and successfully get away with it. I tried calming her down by saying her favorite things.

“Don’t steal my Prince Charming from me!”The little girl went back to Lucas clinging to his arms. 

“Lind—Princess… Lindsey, Neveah isn’t stealing me, she’s my friend.” I can’t help but stifle a laugh at Lucas’ actions. 

“You, pathetic brat, I’ll kill-” Before Neveah could finish her sentence, I immediately cupped her mouth, preventing her from saying anything. 

“Princess Lindsey, can you get us a first aid kit? I think Big sister Neveah was hurt when you kicked her.” I said smiling at the little kid, trying to make her feel guilty, which she did, she turned around walking to her house to find a first aid kit.

 I sighed, praising myself for saving a little girl's life. I finally let go of Neveah who just regained her composure. 

“Thanks.” Lucas, who scratched his head, embarrassed, replied to him with a nod. 

“That kid, I swear I’m going to beat her to a pulp someday.” She said, cracking her fists.

 “Where are you going? And with a bag?” Lucas, tilted his head, curiosity filled him. 

“We’re going to the old mansion, wanna come?” Before I can refuse Neveah’s statement, Lindsey who was shouting inside the house cuts me off. 

“I can’t find the first aid kit but I did find a band-aid!” Hearing Lindsey’s footsteps, we panicked. I stopped when Neveah grabbed my arms and Lucas’. 

“Let’s go before the witch comes.” She said running away dragging us behind her. After a moment of running, we stopped to catch our breaths. 

“Let me guess, both of you are heading to the abandoned mansion, right?” Lucas said in between pants. Neveah nods indicating that he was right, after a second of regaining ourselves we proceed heading to the mansion. 

The location of the mansion was far from the city, but we decided to not need a car to go there, after all since we're running around for minutes it seems like the path to the big house was getting nearer. The mansion that was abandoned for 20 years was now buried between trees, luckily the path heading to the mansion was still visible although you can notice the weeds forming onto the path. 

Arriving at the mansion, I had this mixed feeling building inside me, gulping the fear away. I tried to ease my tension. The mansion looks exactly like the picture and if I’m going to guess the location in my dream, I’d say that it was in the backyard. 

“It’s been so long since I’ve been here, now that I look at it, it isn't as scary as before.” 

Neveah gawking at the mansion. I don’t blame her for the welfare of this mansion when we were kids, it was so scary, it looked like a haunted house from a horror movie. The fact that it was abandoned made creeps on us when we were still little. Finally having the courage to go in, I took a step however Lucas raised his arms, stopping us. Neveah and I look at him, puzzled by his actions. 

“I know this is so sudden, and I don’t want to scare you both right now, but there’s someone who has been following us,”

 Lucas warned us. We widen our eyes feeling scared at what we found, freezing in our place. 

“I want both of you to act casually.”

 He said and to which we agreed, we walked inside as if nothing happened, when we were at the mansion, Neveah and I hid in the corner while Lucas hid in the opposite corner. I heard Neveah gasping, covering her mouth when someone finally went inside confirming our suspicion. Unfortunately, this guy was wearing a robe so we were unable to see what this guy looks like.

Lucas suddenly attacked the man from behind with a wooden stick but we were surprised when the man blocked it without even looking at Lucas. Lucas, who was taken back quickly recovered and threw a punch at him. After Lucas successfully hit him, we left our hiding place. Due to Lucas’ attack, we can finally perceive what he looks like. When he turned to face us, the three of us were filled with horror. 

His appearance was not that of a normal human. The thing that caught us the most was his horns that look like a ram’s. We freeze, unable to do anything, scared to even move an inch. This man wasn’t an ordinary human at all. His vibrant yellow eyes bore into our bodies, piercing us with great terror.