《Silver Nightmare》


 Prologue

    Curiosity was an amazing feeling. It motivated people to keep moving forward and drove them to achieve their goals and desires. It drove them to do things that others might consider crazy.


    That was how adventures began. Someone found something interesting and against all reason they followed the mystery to it''s natural conclusion. Despite the danger that they would find themselves in they could just not stop themselves.


    That was how it began for me. I had just been minding my business walking down the street without a care in the world. The sun was shining, the sky had no clouds, and people were just walking around going in and out of stores with bags in one hand and cellphones in the other.


    With a green apple in my hand because the distinction was important I was at peace. Bored out of my mind but at peace. I mean don''t get me wrong I enjoyed peacful times like this but I would admit that this was incredibly boring.


    That was why I was so happy when I saw police cars driving by moving at an increasing speed with their sirens flashing. I saw them driving by and turning a couple blocks up the street.


    I wondered what was so important this early in the morning for so many cops to be needed and so I decided to find out.


    Dropping my apple to the floor I began to follow them by foot. I began to run regardless if I had to move around, shove, and straight up barrel through all the other people in my way.


    Of course for the people I was moving through they didn''t take it so well. There were more than a few shouting and cursing at me. I payed them no mind and continued to move forward.


    Listening to people''s problems wasn''t much of a concern of mine. I felt no dnager from them. There was also the fact that if they had time to be angry and shout at me they were more thab likely okay.


    Besides something interesting was happening and that trumped everything else I could focus on.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    When I saw all the parked police cars and the crime scene tape blocking off the alley between the corner store and the laundromat I knew I had reached my destination.


    While running towards the scene I had countless scenarios running through my mind.


    Maybe it was a hostage situation, or a high speed chase, or a bank robbery. I will admit that these things weren''t really things that I should hope for but to be honest I needed to do something where I got to hit something.


    As I looked at all the police at the scene just standing around I thought I might have been too late. That was when I saw the body and the blood splashed along the walls and on the ground.


    "Take us inside." One of the detectives in charge said. He had a hard face with short black hair and brown eyes. He was average in height but he stood tall and demanded attention. There were two others around him but they both looked to be younger than him.


    The detective on his left was also a guy but he had a softer face. He looked nervous like it was his first day as a detective. He was wearing a blue buttoned up shirt under a black jacket with dark blue jeans.


    While the detective on his right was female and was wearing a green jacket over a red shirt. She was wearing dark jeans as well. She had long hair that was tied into a ponytail.


    She had a pretty face and while I would usually love to get to know her there was something more important to pay attention to.


    Dead bodies are something I sometimes have to deal with in my line of work but this one was more strange than I was used to. The main reason being that it was cut in half. Suggesting it happened while he was alive.


    The victim no doubt saw it coming given the horrified expression on his face. I had to wonder how someone could walk up to a person with a weapon with clear intentions of murder cut them in half and walk away leaving a corpse and an area coated in blood without a care.


    "Alright this way." The man who could probably be either the manager or the owner said opening the door of the corner store for the detectives. He was in his late thirties if I had to say and was a bit out of shape with dark hair and green eyes. I could see the police covering the body and waiting for the medical examiner.


    Seeing as everything out here was wrapping up there was only one thing I could do now and that was to follow the detectives. Obviously I couldn''t walk inside the building with them but luckily I had magic to deal with that problem.


    Pushing mana to the necklace I was wearing I turned invisible. This was the effect of the magic neckalce: Chameleon''s shroud. With this activated unless I was completely stupid and obvious I wouldn''t get noticed.


    As I walked in front of the younger guy detective I had a grin on my face. Something was finally happening.

 Chapter One

    <blockquote class="messageText SelectQuoteContainer ugc baseHtml">Now that I was inside the building I took a look around the building. It looked like an ordinary store. The food were on the aisles and in the back there were the milk, soda, and juice in a fridge.


    That however wasn''t important. What was important was the door that the man who at this point I was guessing was the manager opened.


    The door was brown and by the back and looked pretty simple but if the detectives were interested in it then I probably should also take a look. I was invisible so I could walk in without a care. I only had to be in front of one of the detectives and make sure I didn''t bump into anyone.


    I so didn''t get why my brother didn''t trust me with enchanted objects.


    The room was pretty bare. All that was in it was a simple chair and a bunch of computer screens. So they were going to check the tape to get clues.


    "Simmons play the video." The older detective said and the younger guy that I now knew was Simmons sat down and turned the screens on.


    "Todd go out and interview all the people working before the call was sent out." The older one said and the woman I now knew as Todd and the possible manager went out of the room.


    I let out a sigh of relief as now there was more room for me to move around in as before I was stuck to one corner.


    Now the three of us watched as the tape began to play.


    The images weren''t high definition and that was to be expected given that this was a small store and there was no volume but the images were clear enough. The pictures were from the day before and from all the sides of the building except the back.


    "There." The guy in charge said pointing at the screen that was focused on the alley where the victim was found. The video began to play and the guy at the chair began to speed up the video a couple hours at a time.


    It kept going on for like ten minutes. I wondered how much footage was on there. This was so boring. Algebra classes were more fun and I hated math when I was in school.


    "Stop." Boss detective said which brought me back into the moment.


    Looking at the screen I could see that we had reached the point with the body cut in half. I really hoped that I hadn''t missed my reason for coming.


    "Back it up about ten minutes." Boss guy said and Simmons nodded and complied. Well luckily it seems like I wasn''t the only one who had stopped paying attention.


    The screen showed that the murder had happened in the hours between the night ending and the morning beginning. I would guess around two or three in the morning given the dull sky and how there were barely any people that walked by or any sounds from the street.


    The murder victim was jogging right by in his grey hoodie and sweat pants. Without a worry in the world that he would soon lose weight but not as he had intended.


    As I looked at the video I couldn''t help but be reminded of why I hated exercise. It was so dangerous. You start running to lose weight and the next thing you know you are dragged in an alley.


    That is why I preferred using magic to lose weight.


    The would be murderer was covered completely. He had a black mask that covered his head and from there to his feet the trend continued. The killer was wrapped like a ninja so no part of him was visible to the camera.


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    However what was most shocking about him wasn''t the way he was dressed but it was the murder weapon.


    In the killer''s hand was a sword. Yes a sword and given by the look it was based on Western design. I was definitely interested now. A man dressed like a ninja with a sword straight out of Western history if not fantasy. There was no way I could walk away now.


    The only thing left to do now was to get my brother on board for this case and given from what I sensed on the scene there was no way he would turn me down.


    The door opened and so I returned to the corner. I hoped that I didn''t get back problems from all of this. Magic could fix it but still I wanted to avoid that problem altogether.


    "Detective Turner, I was sent here by detective Todd she said she was finished interviewing the others and that the body was taken by the medical examiner." The manager Sid finally giving me the name of their boss.


    He left leaving the door wide open and I took that as my current to leave. I had a case to solve after all.


    Stretching my arms as I left that surveillance room and the store I looked to the sky but immediately bring my head down and cover my face. It looks like I spent enough time in that building to have the sun come up in the sky.


    With no clouds in the sky I was immediately hit with the sun''s bright light.


    Pulling out my phone I called the top number in my speed dial which was my brother. I mean as twins who have magic we obviously have twin telepathy but we each have had our minds shielded against that unless it was needed when we were working.


    "What do you want?" He asked after having picked up as soon as I rang. I was so glad I had such a responsible younger brother.


    "I found us a case." I said with a grin on my face as I walked down the street completely visible now that I no longer needed to hide.


    "What how?" He questioned being all suspicious and cautious like usual. I would have to be careful how I answered while trying not be too suspicious.


    "Come meet me and I''ll tell you." I said twisting around the other people who were walking down the street. People could see me on the phone but wouldn''t move out of the way.


    They were so rude nowadays couldn''t they see I was having an important conversation.


    "Why don''t you come to me?" He countered but I refuse to give up on it being the location I picked. I swear if it wasn''t for me I don''t think Jake would ever leave his library.


    "Fine Michael but this better be worth it." He said and I gave a fist pump in the air. I knew he would give in eventually. I just had to keep pushing until he got frustrated with me. This tactic has never failed on him.


    I was certain that once he learned about the case he would agree. Once I told him how the area where the corpse was left was radiating magic he would be hooked.


    After all we were given the title of "Protector" of the city and that meant we kept the natural and supernatural world separate and in this case those were clearly mixing.


    I felt like I could hear the birds chirping in the sky and I knew today was a good day to be me because eventually his meant I was going to get to beat someone up at the least.


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 Chapter Two

    I was sitting on a park picnic table eating my awesome cheese fries when my brother arrived. I was hoping that he wouldn''t have arrived until after I finished eating.


    I rarely ate these and I wanted to take my time in eating them. It was important to enjoy the little moments in life. That was my philosophy.


    "Alright what is this case you are so interested in." My brother said from behind me and making me drop my fork in my box of cheese fries.


    "Can you try not giving me a heart attack." I told him. He in response only took a seat and stared at me.


    While he was staring and waiting for me to explain with all his usual passive aggressiveness I took a look at him and compared how different we looked even though as identical twins we should look the same.


    It was something I did often. It was like seeing a trick mirror. The same face but with everything else different.


    For example where he had short dark hair I had mine changed to white. His brown eyes were covered by glasses while I did not. He didn''t need them but wore them to see the flow of magic better.


    I was grateful for that as while I could sense magic that skill of mine wasn''t that good. I was better at magic that dealt with destruction and combat. My brother was better at the more subtle parts of magic.


    Even our clothes were different. While I wore a red shirt under a black hoodie with black jeans he wore a white button up shirt under a sweater vest with brown pants.


    "So you are sure magic was involved in this?" Jake questioned me after I told him what I had sensed.


    "Yes I am sure." I was honestly only sure about sixty percent due to my bias of hunting down the sword carrying ninja responsible for the murders.


    Honestly that was still a pretty cool thing in my opinion how many people can say that they caught a sword holding ninja murderer. And if there was a list it had to be pretty short.


    "How did you even learn how this guy died?" Jake questioned me as suspicious as I knew he would be.


    "Heard about it." I replied


    "From where?" He was not going to let this go and I knew that so I just decided to answer him truthfully.


    "The cops." I said as I began finishing my fries. I was going to miss these when they were gone. These were delicious.


    "The cops told you?" He asked even more suspicious as he knew very well that cops of the city weren''t fond of private detectives in fact I would say they ranked barely above news reporters and journalists.


    "I was in the room when they were told." I had not lied to him yet and as many people say technically correct was the best form of correct and so


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.By that logic I hadn''t lied yet.


    "Did they know that you were in the room with them?" Was the next question I was asked.


    "Don''t worry about the unimportant details. We have got a case." I said getting up and throwing the empty box that once held my cheese fries away.


    "Fine so what are we doing?" he asked once he knew I was serious about this and that he couldn''t talk me out of it. all that was left was to stay involved and make sure that I didn''t go and get myself killed. That was probably what he was thinking but honestly he just worried to much in my opinion. I was sure one day when his hair turned white it wouldn''t be from old age or because he had changed it personally and willingly like I had but because he worried so much.


    "We have two tasks right now. Finding out who the murdered guy is and calling a certain summoner." I listed the jobs that we would have to do to solve this case.


    "Alright so you are going to the morgue and I have to make a phone call?" He said nodding along. This wasn''t the first murder case we had worked on together and I doubted that it would be the last. The world was a violent place and that was ignoring all the supernatural creatures that preyed on humans as food. Getting up and heading to my car my brother and I went our separate ways. However in my opinion I had the easier job because the person that Jake would have to call was someone I wouldn''t want to deal with especially when things were finally becoming exciting. Before I arrived at the morgue however I had to make a stop which took about ten minutes.


    I was standing outside the morgue looking at the square building that towered above me. in my opinion it looked like a mausoleum which I found to be way too weird of a coincidence considering that they sent dead bodies here before giving them to others to bury them.


    Grabbing the necklace I once again turned invisible. It wasn''t truly needed but again I figured why not.


    Now invisible I walked right through the doors and down the halls. I knew exactly where I was heading so I didn''t need to pay that much attention. I remembered the first time I came here I got lost so many times it wasn''t funny.


    As I approached the door I had a grin on my face and opened it. Walking silently to the office of the medical examiner I began to sneak up on him. This was going to be so funny. As I crept up behind him holding my breath I was going to see how surprised he would be. Maybe see how high he jumped into the air.


    However as soon as I approached him he turned around grabbed my arm and held a knife against my neck. I was wondering only one thing right now. How had he seen me coming up behind him.