The Wizard and the Goddess Amulet (w/Chaos)

Her vision swam. She was in a desert. A river ran through it. It was blood red.

"What have we done?"

She looked around the bleak landscape to find the voice but her vision was clouded by sand and hot wind. Her mouth opened to speak but no sound came out. The hot desert sun beat down on her. Stumbling forward, she looked around desperately for shelter.

"We are doomed! Cursed! What have we done?!"

Beneath her foot she felt a crunch. When she stepped backwards, she saw a strange gold flower crumpled in the sand. Slowly it bloomed to reveal a vivid bloodshot eye.

"It is our fate! So many have died already, we can't escape it now!

Then she was falling. Or being dragged, pulled beneath the desert and the blood river. Then there was the room and the walls and the voices and the blood and the dancing and...

"CAN'T ESCAPE!"


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With a loud cry she landed on the floor of her apartment having thrashed herself right out of the couch where she had been sleeping. Groggily, she pushed herself up off the floor only to feel a sharp pain in her hand. When she examined it, she saw a thin line of blood sliding from a wound in her palm. Looking down she saw the culprit, her crushed wine glass from the night before. For a moment, she thought she heard laughing.

"That was different anyway..." she muttered and shuffled towards towards the sink to clean her wound. She decided she liked it better when her nightmares were predictable.

As she was settling in to her third cup of coffee and hoping that would cure her throbbing headache, she heard a faint knock at her door. Irritably, she shuffled over to her front door and threw it open.

"WHAT?"

To her surprise, it was her simpering neighbor. The mother she had spoken to are more like stared at last night. There were dark circles under her eyes and a tense panicked look on her face. Esmine also thought she could also detect the faint scent of liquor, or maybe that was her own breath?

"I'm sorry I just... have you seen my daughter?"

"Look, I don't even know your-"

"I know I know, " the woman interrupted, holding her hands out apologetically. "I just... I normally wait up for her...but I fell asleep... and I thought maybe she had gotten locked out and you heard. You're close to her age too. I thought you might know something about this?"

The woman held out a crumpled flyer. It looked like a poorly made rave poster, all drug symbols, bad graphics, and glowsticks. Then the copy went on to talk about expanding the mind, and connecting with the universe, and channeling your inner power.

It seemed familiar. Like words she had heard before. Esmine felt suddenly sick.

"You should...call the police. I don't know anything about this stuff," she said abruptly and slammed the door.

She told herself not to think about it. There were enough challenges to deal with without worrying about some teenager she didn't know.

Speaking of challenges, she decided it was time to check on her magical detective's progress. Assuming he hadn't jumped town with her money. Picking up the phone, she hastily dialed his number.

Samael hung up the phone with the cops, and looked around the room for a moment. He decided to eat something before he headed out, some toast, a yogurt, a hard boiled egg, and then he grabbed his blasting rod and a revolver, as well as a few other necessary things, and moved to leave his place one more.
Just as he was about to shut the door, he heard the phone ring, again. He paused, staring at it for a moment, and then let out a heavy sigh and a groan, before walking back in to answer the phone. "Samael, Problem Solver, what can I help you with?" He said with a slight annoyance in his voice. He hoped this wasn't a new case or anything. He would already be having too much on his plate as it was.

He sounded annoyed. Just as well, Esmine wasn't feeling too sunny either. Still, she tried her best to sound pleasant and professional. Magical practitioners were a temperamental lot - best not to aggravate him like she did last time. Though she still didn't fully understand what had gotten him so angry before. He wanted work didn't he?

"Mr. Samael... this is Esmine. I hope I'm not interrupting anything. I just was hoping you could give me an update on the case... and...." she glanced down at the crinkled flyer in her hand. No, this wasn't something to ask a wizard about. Just teenage nonsense that she really didn't want to bother with herself. "Yes... my amulet. Do you have any leads yet?"

"Oh, it's you. Good." He said, tension in his voice but he was relieved it was not a new case. "No, not at all. It may be a bit before I find anything of use. Odds are I will most likely have to visit the Council's Library." He paused for a moment, thinking, before continuing.
"Actually, I'm just headed out to deal with something new the cops have dumped in my lap. Apparently kids keep going missing at some rave that goes on frequently, although I don't know why that's such a shock. People OD a lot at these things. Damned Fools. Someone could just be dumping the bodies. Somewhere and not telling anyone." He said with a sigh. "Apparently though, something more is suspected to be going on, could be vampires keeping feeding pets, could be some evil wizard abducting people into his cult, maybe it's just a small gang issue, or possibly human trafficking. People go missing for all kinds of crazy reasons." He sighed, hesitating. "Anyway, I need to get going, if I find out anything new I'll let you know." He said, giving her a chance to ask anything else before he hung up.

As he prattled on about the possibilities of the new case, she stared at the flyer in her hand thoughtfully. She didn't even think to be skeptical of his what to her seemed to be fanciful suggestions of vampires. The more she stared at the crumpled neon colored paper, the more familiar it looked. Even when she was younger, she hadn't been one to party. Large crowds made her uncomfortable and she had her studies besides. Still, it seemed resonate with her. Something buzzing in back of her mind.

"They youth of this city need guidance. Its my greatest admonition to provide it..."

She couldn't recall the conversation, but she knew exactly who had said it. A creeping dread was crawling up her spine in regards to her missing neighbor and what Samael was saying. It seemed completely irrational to assume it was all connected and yet her intuition was screaming it was. Still, she didn't trust it. Mostly because she didn't want to.

"Ah... well.... good luck with the other case," she muttered. "But...the nightmares have been getting more intrusive" she added, recalling the incident from work yesterday. "That or I'm losing my mind.. haha..."

He was getting ready to say good bye when she mentioned the nightmares, and then laughed it off about her losing her mind. He started stare straight ahead, the gears turning fast. "The nightmares? They're getting more intrusive?" he asked, things started to come together. "Intrusive how?" he said quickly, his focus returning. "Do they happen when you are awake? Like day dreams?" He said, and worry started to fill his voice. It was possible that whatever was trapped inside the amulet was now having more and more reach outwards from inside it's prison, and that the deadline was getting much closer. And that other thing she said, that she was losing her mind. "I highly doubt you're going insane. Odds are whatever is in the amulet, is manipulating you, or taunting you, or contacting you in some way to tell you something. I need you to tell me everything you can about these nightmares. Everything." He glanced at the clock again. "Do you know where the diner is down near the old factory? Meet me there in two hours, I should be done with the cops by then." He said, and hung up the phone, hurrying out of the place and locked the door behind him before taking the steps, skipping as many as he could on the way down, things were definitely getting worse.