Abandoned House

Veronica's thoughts were so turbulent, she couldn't even think properly. For the sake of her sanity she decided to ignore the first part of the conversation and focus on the answer to the question she had previously asked.

Looking at the pocket watch her eyes were gleaming. She opened it and closed it a few times. Hearing the satisfying click caused a deep satisfaction to grow in her heart.

She was definitely right about this item! It was much more than she had previously thought.

Another fact she realized was how vague They described the watch's abilities, like The Artist wanted her to figure everything out and just gave her mind a direction to go on.

After staring at it for a while longer her mind finally calmed down and she could properly think again.

Her sight wandered around a bit, encompassing the Theater she currently resided in.

"So that's what you are... A Primordial Structure..."

The whole building seemed to groan, which caused Veronica to panic a bit, but it looked like it was just a frightening way of saying yes. She laughed a bit, then sat down in the limelight and touched the stage floor below her.

"Are you alive?" She asked, but the building's answer wasn't the previous groan.

The music that had become slow after her last vision started to quicken again. It seemed like a yes, but it held a bit of doubt within. It was like the structure didn't exactly know the answer, only had a feeling of what was correct.

Veronica nodded in understanding, which turned the tune merry.

"Are you happy? Is that what the change in music is?" She already knew the answer, but she wanted confirmation.

The music in answer turned fast then nearly instantly slowed down. It was like the building was making fun of her.

The realization caused a smile to appear on her face and to giggle a bit, the music turned merry again as well.

After asking a few more question Veronica learnt a few new things about the structure.

For instance its intelligence was like a child's. When she asked a bit too complex question It didn't seem to fully understand her.

Another interesting fact was that the Theater had no idea what It was able to do. When she asked about Its supposed unimaginable power, It had no clue what she was talking about.

After conversing for about ten minutes, Veronica decided to do one more divination before leaving the Theater and try to get some sleep.

"Okay, Theater. Would you like to help me divine?" The music turned happy and soon changed into a famous tune that people loved to dance to.

After laughing at Its reaction a bit, Veronica didn't waste any more time and soon she was doing the ritual dance yet again. This time the question she spoke to herself was, "Who was behind the murders in the Red Swan?"

Everything was going well, she was doing the dance perfectly, but for some reason when her vision darkened a mind splitting headache threw her out of her concentration and she stumbled.

The pain wasn't too overwhelming, but she still groaned in pain. The music suddenly stopped, then begin again in a fast tone with slow undertones. It sounded concerned.

"Don't worry... I'm fine..." She said while taking deep breaths. It took her a bit of time to get back on her feet. Her head felt like she ran straight into a wall, which was actually probably a pretty good description of what happened.

"So this is what it feels like when my divination meets anti-divination... It sucks..."

She wasn't ready to give up yet though. Whoever this person was, she had a feeling that much more people will die before the Lawbringers would notice.

The music turned into another famous piece and she began dancing again, but this time she tried something else.

Closing her eyes she imagined an invisible barrier around her and tried making it have an increased divination property.

This idea didn't came on a whim, her heart was suggesting her to make it like this and since she didn't have a better plan, she might as well try it.

After repeating the question a few times her mind focused. She felt her barrier hit something solid, but she didn't let it break. Instead she concentrated at all the weaker parts, giving them all of her strength.

She stood in a standstill for god knows how long, but eventually the anti-divination barrier seemed to buckle. In a few more seconds she felt it break and when she opened her eyes a vision appeared out of nowhere.

Veronica wanted to jump in joy, but she didn't let her mind lose focus. Whatever would happen next it would give her a clue about the murderer.

...

The vision started at a strange angle.

She was currently sitting on the ground in a very disgusting alleyway. Sadly for her the vision gave a full experience, so she could not only see the vomit, filth and feces, but she smelt them too.

She didn't have control over the person who's vision she occupied, but she tasted the cheap alcohol on their tongue.

The individual was drunk and probably passed out in an alley, in the Dirt District.

Suddenly her eyes began looking around frantically and the person screamed.

It was a man and he sounded terrified. There was nothing around him, but he was frozen from fear.

Suddenly a demonic and maniacal laughter echoed through the alley, which caused the man to burry his head behind his hands.

Veronica felt his body tremble as the laughter came closer and closer. The footsteps sounded strange, large, very large and heavy. It stopped next to the man.

His eyes suddenly snapped up and before he died the only thing Veronica saw was a pair of void-like eyes.

For a moment there was darkness again, like when her vision ends, but it didn't end this time. Instead it showed one last image of a large and abandoned looking house that stood at the end of a dead-end street.

Before the picture finally ended she heard the same laughter coming from inside.

...

She woke up with a gasp looking around frantically. The music changed to the concerned tune again, but she felt way too tired to speak to the Theater.

Keeping that bubble of divination going was much more trying than her usual way, but it was worth it.

On Veronica's face a large smile spread and she laughed to herself. She actually managed to find a clue about the murderer and even knew something about its power.

In the morning she decided to tell Alex about it, with a grain of salt of course. She didn't want to reveal the existence of the Theater to anyone, even to her own kind of family.

It felt wrong to lie to them, but for some reason she knew it was the right choice.

She quickly told the Theater that she was alright and after a swift goodbye she was already back in her bed in deep sleep.

It seemed like that the best remedy for sleeplessness was tiring your mind until you became borderline unfunctional!

...

In the morning Veronica walked into the bathroom with barely open eyes. She had about 3 hours of sleep the whole night and she still had to go to that stupid shooting course.

While bathing she decided to just quickly make every shot at the shooting range, then come back and sleep some more. She still had to talk with Alex and they would probably go looking for the house later today.

After she got dressed and put on a bit of make-up, she went down into the basement since Suze told her that Alex was down there, already drinking.

As always she was correct. In fact he was literally the only person who was sitting at one of the tables. He had a bottle of mostly empty alcohol, which he drank straight out of.

With slow step she approached him, then sat in the chair on the opposite side of the table.

He didn't even look up as he spoke in a slurred voice...

"What is it?" Without skipping a beat Veronica told him the good news.

"Last night I managed to divine the location of the murderer. I only saw an abandoned building in a dead-end street, in the Dirt District, but it is better than nothing."

For a few very long moments Alex eyed Veronica thoughtfully. He didn't seem to want to believe what she said.

"That's really interesting. You see I tried to divine the same thing multiple times yesterday and even at night, but all my attempts were met with a wall of anti-divination... Just how did you manage to break through something like that?"

Veronica was already waiting for this question and with an innocent smile she took out the pink pocket watch, placing it in front of her.

"This watch had more powers than you divined. With its help I managed to see through the anti-divination long enough to get a clear picture. That's when I saw the house. We should probably look for it later today."

What she said was somewhat true and kind of believable, but Alex wasn't fully convinced just yet. After a few minutes and a few sips of alcohol, he finally relented.

"Fine... It's much better than my idea anyway... at least I don't have to talk to that whore Sierra again..." His last sentence was much angrier for understandable reasons, he then went back to his silent, self-deprecating drinking.

Veronica left him to it and got on a carriage heading to the shooting range.