Hunt

"Nice car." I say as I eye the sleek black ride Anthony parked out front. I see him smile as he gestures for me to get inside. The duffel bag grows heavy on my shoulders and I happily oblige in his invitation after putting it in the trunk.

He eyes me, keeping his hands on the wheel. "You've been drinking again, haven't you Mister Graves?" I swear I die inside every time he calls me that.

"Call me Mike or Graves, not that. Please." I hear him chuckle and now I know he has a talent for irritating me, just a bit. The car whirs to life and we speed off to our destination. I take out my journal, its worn leather cover looked pretty ugly to the eyes, but it works. "Any theories on what we could be dealing with?"

His eyes don't leave the road as he answers. "Cursed object? Hexes? Something around that line?"

I turn the journal to the page of my notes on hexing, scribbles that I was actually pretty proud of. My eyes fall on the section about witches, detailing their common methods and how to deal with them. "Think it could be a witch?"

Anthony shrugs, still focused on driving. "It could be, which would make our job a lot simpler." His eyes grow wide as he looks at the road and I turn to look at what he sees. In the distance, a car was tumbled over with glass scattered all around it. An ambulance can be seen approaching it, causing cars to make way for it to pass through. The vehicle swerves to the right as Anthony doesn't look back, leaving behind the scene.

"Not a good sign." I prop my head back against the seat and put my journal in the glove compartment.

We arrive at the site, with Anthony parking at the nearest outpost at the foot of the mountain. A tall burly guy wearing a flannel shirt comes out to meet us, closing his distance in a short amount of time. "You must be Brandon's boys?" He seems to have noticed me eyeing him and he smiles. "No need to be all wary, see?" He pulls out his sleeve to reveal the mark of the office, a cross over a pentagram drawn in blank ink, on his forearm. "My name's Adam Mason. I'll take you guys up the site and fill you in on the details."

Anthony looks at me and I nod. We head up towards the top of the mountain; the path was hard to follow since it seemed to be hastily made. "Have you guys found any leads?" I ask while trying to make sure I don't lose my footing.

"Not much. We were advised not to touch anything until you guys arrived, so we were pretty much on standby." Mason takes a turn and we follow, Anthony right behind me. We duck underneath the branches of a few low hanging trees before arriving at the scene. Police lines were tapered all over the place, surrounding an old beaten up shack with its doors askew. Mason leads us in, careful not to disrupt anything in the room.

The stench of dried blood hits me as I enter, its pungent aroma was unpleasant to the nose. The bodies were now replaced with outlines drawn with chalk, three of them scattered around the floor. "Anthony.��� I call out to him and he nods, understanding what I meant. He puts on gloves and starts scanning the area as I start to do the same.

A small kitchen was found at the back of the room, lined with drawers with broken handles. I scan the floor and I notice that one body was further from the others. "These two are the brothers right?" I point at the two outlines that were much closer than the other. Anthony nods, approaching me to see what I had found. I scan the area surrounding it and I see a faded circle which seemed to be drawn by a red substance.

"Blood." Anthony speaks, following my trail of thought. He opens the case file and looks at the details of the bodies. "Unlike their friend, the brothers had no tail sprouting from their bodies. However, they had the same bumps on their skin and their eyes were also missing." He pauses for a moment, continuing after closing the folder. "According to the autopsy, they died much later than Damon through the same means."

"They must've been forced to stay inside the circle if they wanted to live." I speak, knowing what kind of monsters witches are. "Were there any warts on their bodies? Maybe other similar marks?"

"All three bodies had some sort of fungus growing in the back of their right ear." Anthony seems to have come up with the same realization as I have.

I stand up and look at the different markings on the wall. Symbols were also present, ones that were not seen in the pictures given. I walk towards the drawers, opening them to see what's inside. It was empty but a small panel can be made out at the back of the drawer. I push it aside and take the panel out of the wall. Hex bags. I crouch to see small pouches made out of animal skin that were found on the floor behind it. Each one of them were filled with tiny animal bones that seemed to have been broken.

"I found some here too." Anthony calls out, pointing towards a hole on the roof.

I set myself up and face towards them, now knowing what it is that we were dealing with. "Alright boys, who's up for a witch hunt?"