As I stare out the taxi window, the passing scene is a ghost town. A once beautiful suburb stands completely abandoned. The lively homes are run down with rot. Driveways are hardly recognizable as mother nature has all but taken back what was hers. Graffiti, broken windows, and litter around old fire pits weave the tale of ruffians making their homes here for the weekend. It looks something from a horror film. Like a mist could roll out any second and ruin my otherwise okay day. An eerie feeling lingers and claws its way down my back at the thought. It took a fair bit of charisma and luck to get the driver to bring me here. Even after showing my detective badge, it took a call to the contact I'm meeting to finally get things going. So it wasn't any surprise to me when he stopped halfway through the suburb road. "This is as far as I dare go. I hope you know what you're doing. You sure I can't talk you into heading back? I'll even wave the entire trip charge. We'll call it a sight seeing trip and call it a day."

"Nah, I have a meeting to get to up here. Thanks though." I step out, opening my wallet to pay the man.

He shakes his head and puts a hand up, "No, no. The round trip will be paid for three times over when I get back." He glances around the area, suspicion reflecting in his eyes. "You seem a good man, just don't want anythin' else to happen. These parts are dangerous, lawless. People vanish, much unexplained happen here. Keep those eyes open. Trust no one." He looks around once more before sending the window up and turning to leave. The interaction is unnerving. Goosebumps force hair on end as I take a look around. The taxi dropped me a good three-hundred feet or more from the meet up place. In the distance I can make out the shape of a man standing by a line of barricades.

I can't help but carefully observe the surrounding scenery again, replaying the taxi driver's reaction as I walk. As I close in on the barricade, things begin to look more and more like ruins. Pavement that used to be road is scarred with large holes and cracks. Not created by machinery, weather, or even use. The edges look burned or melted as if lava fell from the sky but was swiftly removed from the pits. A silhouette of a younger man begins to take form as I close in. He couldn't be more than twenty, crew cut, and a holster on his side. His hand goes up, motioning hello and directing me forward. As expected, it's my contact. He takes one last quick drawl of a cigarette before flicking it away and reaching his hand toward me. "Ah, Amos. It's about time we officially met. Not many ask about this place or the cases involved with it." The hand shake is firm, enough force to bounce the detective badge hanging from his neck.

I flash him a courtesy smile, "Nice to finally meet you, John." I've spoken to this man many times through phone and instant message, but standing here now something feels off. The feeling of a predator waiting and watching prey lingers for a moment. Pushing the thought aside, I clear my throat. "This place looks worse than you let on. I can only imagine the actual site, it's down the road?" I point beyond the barrier.

He nods toward the site, "Yup. Just a bit down the road here, follow me."

"So, you said there were things about the case you only wanted to discuss in person?" That may be an understatement. He'd deliberately hidden most of the details about the case and refused to talk, even after we'd built a bit of a rapport through our many conversations. A man just as uneasy as me. I see him make more than the occasional glance around the area as if we're being watched.

"Yeah, so, you know this case has been open for four years. In that time, it's gone cold. I'm assigned only to oversee the case and log any new info. All who're assigned to this case disappear without a trace. The feds stepped in for a hot minute, but even they classified it as unsolved and sealed it."

The chills I'd only briefly had before came back in force, through every limb. The scenery unfolding as we walked wasn't helping either. Overgrowth had stopped a few feet back. What lay before us can only be described as desolation. Ground and pavement were completely gone, in it's place a very large crater. Some kind of explosion. One that stopped all life from growing over it in the four years since the incident. The ground is still stained black from the explosion. In awe, I study the area as we walk, "What happened here?"

He releases a deep breath, steadying himself. "No one knows exactly. They say reports from that day can't be verified and aren't credible. The truth is none of it can be explained so it was completely redacted and stamped unverified. It started with a call to dispatch about an explosion here. When we arrived, the smoke hadn't cleared yet. Four officers in two cars placed the barrier we just passed and stuck around waiting on hazmat, bomb squad, and the works. According to the official record, people cleared the area from the barriers down, but no one came from beyond that point and were considered incinerated by the blast. The redacted statements from two of the surviving officers tell a different tale though. They heard screams from beyond the cloud. Some were said to have been begging to be spared. It wasn't long before it went silent, and a shadow emerged from the cloud."

We reach the epicenter of the explosion as he finishes. "The two surviving officers had matching stories. A man emerged from the cloud. A man with horns on his head and large, long fangs in his mouth. Shock overtook them all, and they began to fire rounds at the perceived monster. The bullets pierced it, but it just looked down, then back at them. An evil smile crossing its face as the rounds fell to the ground and the holes healed instantly. It leaped into the air like nothing they'd ever seen and landed near them, feet melting the ground where it stood. The first officer to die was drained of all blood as if it were a vampire. The second was pierced by a protruding tentacle that fired out of its back. The man leaped high into the air again and smashed the officer into one of the cars over and over, then smacked both cars through a nearby home with the tentacle holding the officer. It just seemed to be having fun. The other two, frozen in terror, stayed low and ran. Last they saw, it leaped into the air and took off somewhere."

I stare at John, mouth agape. I've never crossed anyone who spoke of paranormal stories as casually as I do, yet he's retelling it as if it were fact. "Do we know what caused the explosion?"

"Not really, but we do know the home that originated it. That'd be ya boy Damien's house right there. Or at least what's left of it." He points dead center of the crater. "There was also a corpse found here at the center. It wasn't destroyed by the explosion but was calcified into a substance no one's ever seen. The feds took it when they took over the investigation but never gave it back. Rumor is, it's head was almost severed and hanging from one side. What's weirder, is the stone mummy was an identical match to the boys mom, who's been missing since that day."

With the blast cleaning the area and the feds finishing it, I have nothing to go on but the odd black ground. It appears to be a black crystal or stone of some kind. I bend down and examine it, "How about this scorched black earth? Know anything about it?"

"If you'd believe such a thing, it's brimstone. No one knows where it came from, but that's a sheet of blackened crystallized sulfur. Now I have a question for you, Amos. Why are you so curious about this case?"

I turn back to him and think I see a different face staring at me, what was the young man now wears a twisted smile for the briefest moment, the face almost sinister. With a quick blink it's gone as if it never were. Clearing my throat, I answer. "My family has a legend passed down verbally from parent to child and it's sorta my passion. We're the descendants of a very powerful line of witches who, together with other witch families, locked this world away from all other realms. I believe this is what keeps the paranormal as only stories in our world, but I think this Damien is somehow connected to it."

"Well, that's unfortunate, I really liked you Amos. I can't have people mucking up a good thing here, and, oh, it is such a good thing. I can feed all I want and no one will stop or question me. But I've not had a witch descendant before." The chills burn through me again and my heart picks up pace as John's face does change shape. A grotesque smiling face overlays his, as if he's possessed. The eyes and mouth are bright red. As if someone painted the whole area instead of staying within the lines. The rest of the face blackens, losing features. Becoming a simple silhouette of a demon. I turn and run to the only cover I can, the forest line. Glancing back, I can see he's not far behind. As we clear the open blast area vents of heat and steam of some kind bust forth around me. The rancid smell of sulfur burns my eyes and nose. As I leap through brush, I slam hard into a tree. It knocks the breath from my chest and my mouth stains the tree red. I look back to see him closing in, adrenaline floods my veins and I push off the tree into the shadowy woods. Nowhere to go, except away. Anywhere but here.