The Aurors: Threads

WHAT: Closer/Stinger for Case Sierra Alpha 95
WHERE: Salem mostly
RATING: PG

After it was all said and done, there was nothing left to do but go back to New York City.

Brigid Playfer had casually strolled out of the Federal Building and quickly made it out of Salem. There was no trail to follow. Although the aurors continued to work around the clock for the next twenty-four hours. Alongside the vetted local authorities, they scoured all crime scenes, tracing any bits of magic they could find, and still found nothing. The trail wasn’t just cold, it was frigid.

Playfer’s house had nothing of value. The abandoned building Frank the Pirate used was nothing more than a den for a bored twenty year old. Not even Alistair Sterling could find trace of Brigid.

Twenty-five hours after Ariel had used stupefy to kill an innocent witch, the media descended. What had happened quickly became public knowledge - the double murder, the laced beers getting into no-maj hands, the recurrent violations of the Statute of Wizarding Secrecy and especially the event on October 21, rumors of a new powerful and dangerous spell, not to mention the vast failings of the department to not apprehend the criminal Brigid Playfer, but how they had been manipulated so easily and one of their own killed an innocent woman while in auror custody.

The one small kernel of hope came thirty-eight hours later when Bobby Dedworth finally woke up.

Dedworth confessed to his dalliances with the beer and his presence at the Adler apartment the night of the murder. He had broke down in tears at that part in the story. “I was just so far in over my head. All I wanted was to let people have a good time.”

And then, one-by-one, the aurors made their ways back to NYC, heads hung low. There would be no celebrations or revels, just more work to be done and further fall out to mitigate.

WHO: Cate Adler and Kent Brightstar
WHAT: Kent is leaving, Cate is a little freaked, and there are emotions
WHERE: Kent's apartment
WHEN: 12:55 am, Thursday, October 26, 2017
RATING: Language
STATUS: Complete

( Cate couldn't help but wonder. )

WHO: Open to everyone eventually
WHAT: Things are about to get bad, like real bad
WHERE: Old Burying Point Cemetery
WHEN: Tuesday, October 24, 9:12 PM
WHY: Because it's what's been building toward and no one figured out to stop it
STATUS: Complete

Salem was a bustling hub in the week leading up to Halloween. The streets were full of families, kids stuffed with candy and not enough sleep, non-magical folk dressed as witches, and a fair smattering of magical folk just going around their business.There were easily a half dozen events happening around the town tonight, which was impressive for a Tuesday. The biggest draw was the Old Burying Point Cemetery and the well marketed "Graveyard Conjure."

The no-maj, Edgar Smith, a claimed descendent of Judge Hathorne, hosted the event every year. He would call on the spirits of the dead, showing those who bought their tickets how to tap into the awesome power of the graveyard dirt. Ryan Sewall not so privately thought he was a full on fraud and often held his own smaller events in a similar vein. Sewall wasn't out tonight, he kept his distance from Smith. Sewall did his best to flirt with, but never violate the statue of secrecy. For all that Smith was a no-maj he came awfully close to revealing the magical world to dozens of tourists regularly. Not that the no-majs were any wiser, but it put the local magical community on watch.

The Old Burying Point Cemetery was the second oldest cemetery in the United States. To local history buffs it was the final resting place of many involved in the Salem Witch Trials. However, many had believed the dirt to be sacred, imbued with fantastic magical power and they weren't wrong. The issue was in knowing how to use it and many lacked the skill.

That was until someone opened a valve and the whole town lit up as a beacon of untapped potential.

Through out the evening the cemetery seemed charged in a way that had everyone enthralled and into the spirit of the night. Those in attendance to the early tours would later say it was the best tour of their lives. As the night went on, that shifted into seeing something move out of the corner of your eye, or that feeling of someone watching, lingering just a hair too close.

It was shortly after nine, only two tour groups in the cemetery then, when the ground seemed to rumble. At first it could have been simply a truck driving past.

Then a few minutes later it happened again, and there were no trucks to be seen.

And again. But this time with the trees by the Salem Witch Trials Memorial swaying as if boats on the ocean.

WHO: Cate Adler and Ben McMullen
WHAT: Ben has some questions, and Cate does her best to answer
WHERE: Hawthorne Hotel
WHEN: 2:45 pm, Sunday, October 22, 2017
RATING: Probably pretty tame?
STATUS: Complete

( oh my god Ben McMullen is visiting me in a hotel room )

WHO: Cate Adler and Kent Brightstar
WHAT: Date night, sort of, and things go sideways (because of course they do)
WHERE: Kent's apartment, then Spirits of the Gables performance
WHEN: 8 pm, Friday, October 20, 2017
RATING: Who knows?
STATUS: Incomplete

( Things had still been a little tense. )

WHO: Cate Adler, Kent Brightstar, Ben McMullen, Ariel Singleton, Melinda Mendoza-Rivera, others?
WHAT: Grace Adler's funeral + lost Lego = chaos
WHERE: Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, MA
WHEN: Thursday, October 19, 2017 - 9:15 am
RATING: Presumably PG-13
STATUS: Complete

( The priest had kept things short. )

WHO: Ben McMullen & ET O'Brian, and later Cate Adler
WHAT: ET & Ben were assigned media duty, they have something better in mind - find Cate Adler.
WHERE: Cafe in the wizarding section, then off to Salem State
WHEN: Late morning, Monday October 16
RATING: PG-13 most likely
STATUS: ongoing

( Get our big damn hero on. )