Back Again

JP with Jaxx. Trustno1, and Cindy

Peter explained, “We're headed to the Halliwell mansion, to pick up an extremely powerful spell book. It's more powerful than the book of Shadows. Only someone as magical as those two back there can handle just opening it. I can........"

He touched his pendant thinking of the one who gave it to him.

Agent Powers looked at Peter with a bit of confusion. He replied, “Ummmm yeah……..so it’s magic, huh?”

After a few minutes Peter said, “It is a book of spells specifically related to summoning portals and spells that can cause Madness. A woman in the woods, That same woman in your hotel room Alyssa, she's joking. A red portal......... A city in Arabia. Something huge. Masks. “

"What woman?" Alyssa, expressed outloud not really meaning to, she had no idea what Peter was talking about. Portals? She kept on driving wondering more and more what was going on.

"I......... used my profiling skills on those two back there. I don't know who the woman is." Peter would whisper to Alyssa about the other things he saw.

"You ever tried any of that kind of stuff they sell back there?" Peter asked Alyssa and Max.

"Oh, the edibles?" Alyssa responded, the store did have other things after all. "No, I have watched others do it. It's pretty popular at colleges.”

Agent Powers shook his head no as he replied, "Naah man. My dad would freak out if I did drugs. As it is he had me traveling the world on our family vacations and destroying the drug lords, their farms and their armies. It was not a good time for me. Besides, dad said I wouldn't make it in college since my grades were too bad.”

The mansion had once again had visitors. These visitors however were not the previous owners. As the Illuminati agents stepped into the house, they could definitely make out the smell of copper. What remained of the furniture had been turned over and along the walls were strange sigil's written fresh blood.

The Book of Shadows, lay by the open door, Sartre had remembered in reading the research that Alyssa had gathered that someone that the house considered evil could not remove the book from the house.“They must've dropped it right by the door. Someone has been in here, with fresh blood. Before going down to the basement, we need to go armed,” Sartre removed his pistol and slowly led the way for the other two agents.

As they crept down the stairway, Sartre used his flashlight to scan the room for any threats. There were none.

He saw the End Rite lying on the floor.

It was open to a page showing what looked like a tendrilled mess coming out of a portal.

Someone had scribbled in pen in the margins,

"You don't have to go through this. You can leave. They're coming. Don't suffer."

Sartre knew it was not proper to touch the book when it was opened. He removed his pentacle pendant and used the necklace to close the book. He put the necklace back on.

And picked up the book.

"Alyssa, put this in your backpack."

"Whoever has been in here, was doing some sort of magical ritual with that blood," he said.

If we could get someone to decode those occult sigils on the walls for us, you might have a program for that. Can you take pictures of these on your phone?"

We need to get out of here fast.

He went the other two up the stairs and made sure to lock the door behind him as they left.

If you two are not hungry for dinner yet, we can perhaps run those sigils through a computer program. He returned to the safe haven of the van.

Agent Powers nodded as he gave a smolder to both Alyssa and Peter. He replied, "Then I'll keep a look out while you do the research stuff. This stuff reminds me of the Pagan cults I had to take out a few years ago for my dad. They like to use odd symbols with blood for paint. I never learned what all that meant but it didn't help them much when I punched them through a wall. If anyone pops up I might have to get a little violent so take cover if it happens." Agent Powers seemed serious as he looked around the place as he tried not to knock anything over.

Alyssa really didn't want to be back in that basement. She kept glancing around as if something was going to jump out from the shadows. However, nothing occurred. Weird as the scene might have been.

Alyssa was also completely unsure about taking the book, but there wasn't really time to argue so she put the book in her backpack and then quickly took pics of the symbols on her phone.

They arrived back at the van, she ran the symbols through the computer and sent the info directly to Peter's chip. Handy device it was.

Alyssa said nothing though as she worked, her mind focused. Not really on the task at hand because it took little brain power to wait for the database's response but on who the strange woman might be, and if her father's disappearance could be linked to all of this as well. Logically the last part seemed unlikely but it wasn't impossible.

Agent Powers was alert as he kept watch for Alyssa till she was ready to move to the van. It was obvious that she was not used to being in such places full of blood. Sadly, he didn't even flinch by the smell or sight of death since he was used to it despite being only eighteen years old and hidden inside the body of a thirty year old muscle man. Granted, he was not an egg head like Alyssa, he did his best to make her feel safe as he kept a lookout. He replied, "Sure. Whatever helps you out is fine with me. Did you need any medicine for sleeping or upset stomach? I guess most people aren't used to seeing that stuff." Agent Powers was looking out the van windows but had a sad expression as he did.

"Thanks Max, I'll be alright. I've not been on a lot of missions." The blood wasn’t really what was bothering her but she appreciated Max's thoughtfulness. "I just need to get dry and warm. Oh, lunch. I could really go for a burger, fries, and a milkshake. You know. completely bad for you stuff.”

Agent Powers nodded at Alyssa and smirked as he gave her a smolder. He replied, "Well, I can vouch for the room service at the hotel and we don't have to worry about noisy people watching us either. Unless you have another place in mind?" Agent Powers was laid back and easy going even under stress.

"That's fine with me." Alyssa replied. She didn't know if Peter had another suggestion but staying in the hotel did sound like the best option.

Agent Powers then replied, "Cool. I can use that time to power down and recharge myself with some chow. I usually eat alone so I am sorry if my over eating freaks you out. I have a high metabolism and it takes a lot of energy to look like this." Agent Powers gestured with his hand to advertise his muscular body like a shiny new car. Then he smirked as he gave a smolder grin and a chuckle in hopes to cheer up Alyssa.