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The Case of The Wrathful Warehouse Demon
Rain pattered lightly against the window of the agency as Edwin mulled over yet another case file. It was late in the afternoon, the first of January, and he and Charles had been quite busy during the New Year's celebration, assigned to help a wayward spirit who sought to bring despair to the residents of Soho. It was quite an interesting case, Edwin had to admit, though since then Charles had been acting a bit restless. Itching to get on with another case, it seemed. Edwin flipped the page he was leering at, before the sudden slam of their office door startled him. Looking up, a short woman approached the desk with quickness, a worried look upon her face.
"Hello, madam," Edwin greeted.
"Are you the, er, Dead Boy Detectives?" She continued to look about, as though she was worried she was being watched.
"That we are," Charles confirmed. "What can we do for you?"
"Well, you see, I stay at this abandoned warehouse down near Canary Wharf, helping lots of lost souls who wander in. There are quite a few, some have decided to stay and live there-"
"Ah, a case of too many residents, I take it?"
"Oh, no, no! I have no trouble with the other spirits. I find the place a sort of refuge for them, until they're able to move on. But, right before Christmas, a couple of mischievous teenagers decided to summon a demon in the warehouse. Nothing happened to them, but once they saw the demon, they fled. Since then, the demon has been stuck in the summoning circle, terrorizing all of the ghosts who live there."
"Surely you can just break the circle, can't you?" Edwin asked.
"Oh, we've all tried!" she exclaimed. "Each time we get close to the circle, though, the demon hisses at us and the other ghosts are afraid they themselves might get trapped inside of it with him. They don't want to risk anything."
"Makes sense." Charles looked thoughtful. "I wouldn't wanna be 'round him neither if he's been terrorizing everyone."
Edwin nodded. "What do you say, Charles? Shall we take a gander at the devilish thing?"
"I say we shall." Charles grinned towards the warehouse ghost. "So, should we talk about payment?"
Edwin raised a hand. "Ah, ah, Charles. We shall do this case pro bono. It doesn't seem that difficult and I for one would rather there not be any sort of demon anywhere near here. Who knows what kind of trouble it could get into if we do not dispel it as soon as possible."
"That's great!" The woman beamed. "I'll take you to the warehouse promptly!" She made to walk away, but Edwin stopped her.
"Wait a tick." He strode over to their shelf of books and pulled out one of his favourite demonology ones. It would be a helpful guide, though he doubted that this demon would be particularly difficult to deal with. "Alright, we can go now."
The ghost nodded then, as swiftly as she'd arrived, she was back out the door again. Edwin and Charles exchanged a glance, with the latter letting out a small chuckle.
"I still think we should've charged her."
˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗
Once they'd arrived at the warehouse, the rain had only gotten worse, and it was much darker than when their client had first arrived at the agency. She'd insisted to enter the warehouse herself first, to clear out the other ghosts inside so they could do their work. It was quiet here, the abandoned building was nestled in a less frequented section of the Wharf. Edwin stood examining his book, while Charles took a look around their location from the outside.
"Man, this place is brills." He looked at a crumbling part of the building. "Seems the kind of place I'd hang out at, if I were alive."
Edwin sniffed. "It's a bit too grimy for my taste." He thumbed through another page. "Certainly not the most hospitable environment to spend an afterlife in."
"Well, we got lucky, didn't we, mate? Havin' a whole office, in a nice building?" Edwin only nodded in agreement, still engrossed in his book. "Whatcha' reading?"
"It's a demonology book," Edwin huffed. "I'm trying to discern what kind of entity we might be dealing with, though I doubt it'll be of any use to us until we get a proper look at it." He glanced up from the page. "What ever is keeping the demon encased must be a powerful spell."
"Wonder what's keeping her," Charles murmured, though as he spoke, the woman reappeared.
"Sorry, lads!" She looked a bit unkempt now. "It took a lot of coaxing for me to get everyone out. Some ghosts are very set in their ways." Charles shot an amused glance at Edwin, who responded with a roll of his eyes. "Anyway, the demon is located in one of the wide vacant spaces, so all you have to do is go down the first corridor through the door, then down the hall to the left, and then he'll be in the room at the end."
"Alright! Let's get going, yeah?" Charles motioned to Edwin with his head while Edwin closed his book, tucking it safely into his suit jacket.
The pair made their leave from the ghost, who wished them luck. Edwin entered the warehouse first, with Charles following close behind him. The two walked down the dilapidated corridor, rats scurrying to and fro across the ground. It was eerily familiar to Edwin, in a way that made his no longer feeling skin crawl. He shook his head. No time to think of Hell, he had to focus on the task ahead of them. Following the direction of their client, the boys continued on their way until they reached the open room. Far across on the other side, they glimpsed a glowing ring which housed a giant, seemingly dormant, snake.
"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" Charles whispered, setting his backpack down.
"No, not quite," Edwin responded, reaching into his suit jacket and pulling his book back out. "I didn't see any pages about giant snakes in here, though I may have overlooked-" A loud hissing echoed around the room. The demon was awake. Startled, the boys took a defensive stance as the snake coiled menacingly. "I fear we may not have accessed this situation very well."
"You think?" Charles muttered. "She could've very well told us about the giant bloody snake!"
"Perhaps we can reason with him," Edwin gritted back. "The circle is what's keeping him in there, we could try to explain what we're doing."
"Brills, Edwin. Go on, try to reason with a snake!"
"I don't appreciate your sarcasm, Charles." Edwin rolled his eyes. "If we can just-" He moved closer to the circle, flipping through the demonology book as the demon continued to hiss at them. "-make him understand that we're not trying to hurt him.." He continued thumbing through the pages, but found nothing of substance. "Argh! This bloody book's got nothing about communicating with a snake!"
"We can always do what we know how to," Charles suggested. "Give 'im the ol' 1-2. You're great at exorcisms."
"That is true." Edwin put the book away once more. "I am afraid, however-"
"Woah, woah, woah! There's no need for that." The snake began to twist and form and decrease in size, shaping itself into a humanoid body. The demon was now standing, clad in a black suit, with burning red hair and glowing yellow eyes. "Honestly, really, there isn't."
"Did you just-?"
"How is that-?"
"It'd be rather, er, unfortunate for me to be exorcised. M'sorry about all the hissing, it's just all of those annoying spirits kept pestering me. I didn't ask to be summoned here."
"How are you a man now?"
"I'm not," the demon said simply. "But this is my favourite form to take."
"And you're definitely a demon, yeah?" Charles asked, tilting his head in confusion. "S'just a bit strange, innit Edwin?"
"Quite strange, yes," Edwin replied. "Probably not entirely out of the ordinary for demons, I suppose."
"Anyway, can we cut the chat? I'd really, really like to get outta here before Hell notices." The demon glanced around, warily. "I've been trapped here for weeks, I'm sure they've got some sort of, I don't know, eye on me or something."
"We can just brush the circle away." Charles moved towards the circle, attempting to sweep away the symbols with one foot. It didn't work. "That's weird."
"S'not going to work like that," the demon muttered, rolling his eyes. "You're a ghost, you'd need something non-supernatural to break it. Like a broom or something like that."
"Oh, got it." Charles moved back to where he'd set his backpack down, rummaging around inside.
While he searched for a broom, Edwin grew closer to the circle and inspected the drawing. It was a simple design, upon first inspection: the circle itself was a snake eating its own tail while two star shaped symbols sat on the edges of two ends of the snake. In the center, however, the circle was an array of what Edwin could only describe as neverending starshine.
"This is fascinating," he murmured in awe. "I've never seen one with this detail before."
"Glad you like it," the demon replied, a hiss tinged in his voice. "It's locked onto me. You can really appreciate the caster's attention to detail when you're outside of it, huh?"
"There's no need to get snippy," Charles called from across the room, pulling out a small broom from his bag. "Here it is!"
Edwin turned to look. "Perfect, Charles!" Charles rushed over, handing the broom to his partner. "Hopefully this will work, or we'll have to go back to the office to find something that will."
"Or we could exorcise him," Charles joked.
"Oi!" the demon growled. "I can actually hear you."
"Now, Charles, we don't want our friend here to get all hissy again, do we?" He looked playfully over at his friend, while the demon let out a hiss.
Edwin began to sweep the circle away and, to his surprise, it worked! As the circle disappeared, the demon seemed to relax. Once it had fully dissipated, he took a tentative step away from where he'd been trapped and let out a breath of relief. Edwin and Charles exchanged a look of triumph at their accomplishment, but a loud crash from behind them made them turn their heads. Standing in the entryway to the room was what seemed to be a middle-aged person, who appeared to be glowing with an ethereal light. Edwin could feel a sort of righteous anger ripple through the air, while Charles seemed to shy away from looking at the newcomer. At the sight of the demon, he hurriedly rushed over and began to anxiously examine the other.
"Oh, Crowley!" the newcomer exclaimed. "I was so worried! When you didn't appear for Christmas, I assumed you'd just overslept like you usually do, but when you missed New Year's, I had to ring you and when I did, you didn't answer, and then the Bentley appeared out front of the shop and-"
"Angel, I'm fine," the demon- Crowley reassured the newcomer, gently. "Really, I am."
"And are these-" The blonde whipped his head around. "-the hooligans who brought you here?" He stalked towards the pair slightly. "You know, it's quite rude to-"
"No, no, Aziraphale!" Crowley chuckled, grabbing the angel gently by the shoulder. "They're the ones who got me outta that thing." More quietly, he added, "And I'm not quite sure they're exactly alive enough to summon me."
"Oh," Aziraphale responded, sheepishly. "Well, er, my apologies and, uh, thank you for rescuing Crowley."
"It's no problem. Right, Edwin?" Charles turned to his friend with a grin. Edwin only stood there, staring widely at the two in utter confusion.
"Shall we be off then, my dear?"
"Yeah, I'm getting a bit tired of standing around a dingy ol' warehouse."
"Well, once we get back to the bookshop, I've got a nice glass of wine with your name on it and..." Their voices trailed off as they walked back through the warehouse, ignoring the stares of the two detectives.
"Well, that was peculiar," Edwin said, once the two had completely gone.
"You're telling me, mate," Charles murmured. "I thought for sure we were goners when I saw that Azirafella, or whatever, appear."
"I think that we ourselves should take our leave, don't you?"
"I'm starting to rethink how cool this place was, for sure."
"Right, then! Time to go home."
CASE CLOSED
The detectives informed their client and the warehouse residents of their dispelling of the demon, which they were all grateful for. Finding a mirror had been a bit tricky, though once they'd arrived back in their office, the pair set to work on what their next case would be. Edwin sorted through various cases brought to them, hoping to find one that wouldn't be as...odd...as this last one had been. He sat down at the desk, Charles sitting atop it, fiddling with the broom he had yet to put back into his bag.
"That was really weird though, wasn't it?" Charles asked, as Edwin thumbed through a potential case file. "Those two, I mean. The demon was one thing, but that other being... Something was off about 'em."
Edwin looked up from his read through. "All I can declare, Charles, is that if I never see a giant snake again, it will have been too soon." He looked down at the case file again, something about a library haunting.
Charles beamed down at his friend, peering over his shoulder. "What's that then?" he inquired. "Oh, that's brills! We've done plenty of those before."
"From the looks of it," Edwin responded, "there are no signs of a giant snake here. Shall we take the case?"
"It's easy enough, innit?" Charles grinned. "But, this time, let's make sure we get paid!"
THE END