Rose made her way to the crappy part of town where the buildings were run down, half the shops were shuttered, homeless people were sleeping around every corner, and two drug dealers were openly trying to sell drugs in the middle of the day. Not a single policeman around to stop them.

  Carefully awarding the homeless and the drug dealers, she went to the only open shop in the area, a Chinese takeaway, and started chatting up the owner.

  Henderson had given her the task of mastering Storytelling magic, but he had said she needed to do it slowly and naturally.

  The first thing she needed to do was to come up with a convincing story. If it was a harmless story that didn't involve going against any one with psychic powers, then there would be no resistance to her.

  So she had come up with a simple story - one that had made Henderson chuckle. She had a crazy old uncle who was hiding some gold somewhere, but he had forgotten it. She wanted to hide a good and honest private detective, and she had heard that there was one in the area.

  “But how is this storytelling magic?” she had asked. “And not just me play-acting? After all, just pretending to be someone is something private detectives do anyway, right?”

  “The difference is subtle,” Henderson had replied. “You'll understand the details later. For now, just treat it as a game and go along with the flow.”

  And so she asked the Chinese take-away owner if there was a private detective nearby, as she needed to help find her uncle's gold. She leaned in and whispered, “Preferably someone honest, as I don't want the private detective stealing the gold.”

  “I know just the man! My friend, Royce. Very honest! And very good!” the Chinese takeaway owner had been keen to share.

  And here told her all the details about where he lived, how he worked, how he had been homeless and was still struggling with financial issues, but how he would be happy to help. Rose had noted all the details and got back to Henderson.

  “Good, because the next job is harder. I want you to infiltrate his office, pretending to be his secretary.”

  “That won't work. He's a psychic, right? Even Unit 7 says he is the most dangerous.”

  “True, but you're not attacking him or trying to harm him, and so the story magic will help you a little. Use elements of the truth. You told me how you had been to every private detective and how you found them sleazy and creepy, right? Use that. Tell him that you want to be trained as a private detective, but the other ones are too creepy for you, so you came to him and how you've heard good things about him.”

  Rose felt a bit apprehensive and silly. But Uncle Henderson convinced her to give it a try.

  “What about you? What did your source say,” she asked him.

  “Not good news. They discovered our swap almost immediately. There has been some debate on whether to kill us immediately or to keep an eye on us.”

  “That’s…great?” she said a bit scared.

  “Don't worry, my darling. If they come, I'm prepared for them. I've got a million potatoes in the backyard and 27 chickens just willing to go into a fight. They come at me, I'm gonna hit them with magic so dark they won't remember their own names. No, don't worry about them. For some reason, they didn't notice you. They only noticed me. So even if they come, they're coming after me, not you.”

  That made her feel a little relaxed. She guessed she still wasn't sure what the 27 chickens were for but didn't want to ask.

  “So why am I pretending to be this Royce guy's secretary again?”

  “So we can keep an eye on him. Is he one of the good guys or is he a villain? The fact that Unit 7 are after him shows that he might be good. But we can't be sure. Unit 7 were originally the good guys. They used to go after the crazy cultists trying to end the world. It's only recently that they have become more fanatical.”

  “Fanatical?”

  “Yes, they feel that psychics, people with magical powers like witches and wizards, are now a bigger threat than the cultists. There's a group within Unit 7 that wants to wipe out all magical-powered beings. They're a bunch of religious extremists, the way I see it, murdering anyone who doesn't fit their narrow view of what a human should be.”

  He took a deep breath.

  “Unit 7 has always been a bunch of bastards. They have always been extremists. But at least they were doing some good in the world. But recently, even that stopped. They have stopped going after the most dangerous cultists and are spending all their time going after low-level threats like vampires. Yes, vampires exist along with werewolves, but they are not really a threat. Unit 7 now sees people like us, who know a little bit of magic, as a more significant threat than a cultist wants to end the world and kill millions of people. That's why I call all of them traitors. They're bastards who have betrayed their oath to protect Britain from supernatural threats and have become more like witch hunters of the mediaeval age.”

  He took a deep breath to control his anger and clenched and unclenched his fists a few times. “But don't you worry about that. You worry about getting into Royce's office. Use all your magic to convince him that you're a good secretary and find out what he's about. Is he a friend or will we have to take him out? Seeing as Unit 7 is no longer doing their job, we have to do their job for them as well.”

  ***

  Rose went to the place where Royce used as his office/home office and found him passed out on the stairs. The Chinese takeaway owner was trying to help him, but he was too heavy to lift. Rose offered to help him.

  “Thank you, lady, you are being too kind,” he said, and she realised he hadn't recognised her. Was this the storytelling magic?

  “That's okay,” she replied. “I'm his secretary, and it is my job to help him. I'm just starting today.”

  The man was a little surprised but didn't say anything. They put Royce in his bedroom, and Rose was about to make a cup of tea when an angry man walked in.

  “I’m the police! Here to arrest this fraud psychic Royce. Where is he? Tell me now.”

  Rose had to use all her charm to calm him down and convinced him to sit in another empty room while Royce woke up. Luckily, the Chinese take away owner stayed to help her and made some tea with her.

  That's when Royce woke up and entered the room. He looked at her with extreme suspicion. “Who the hell are you?” he asked.

  She almost blurted out “I'm Rose” before realising that there was no such person as Rose.

  “Eve. My name is Eve. And I’m your new secretary.”

  ***

  She gave a status about him to Henderson every day. And they discussed his case. “Looks like he's a good guy,” said Henderson, “trying to help people. And clearly he is very smart. He's the sort of person Unit 7 should be hiring to lead their investigative divisions. So why is he on their shit list?”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Rose shrugged. “I still don't know if I’m sure about him. I've heard him mumbling about how he talks to dead people and how that dead homeless woman gave him the case. Is it true, or is he also insane like the Unit 7 file said?”

  Henderson burst out laughing. “That same file says I'm insane as well. No, Rose, you'll have to open your mind up a little bit. In the last few months, you have found out that werewolves, vampires, demons, chaotic gods from other dimensions, magic are all real. So why do you draw the line at ghosts? Sure, I can’t see them. But the world is a big place. Let's take this Royce fellow at his word. If he says he talks to dead people, that means he is telling the truth. Have you been able to help him?”

  Rose took a sip from the cold coconut water she had bought from the grocery store where she had just met Royce a few minutes ago. The truth was she had been following him secretly. He was giving to her what he thought were very difficult assignments, but with the magic Henderson was teaching her, she found them very easy.

  “Yeah, he wanted to find out where this fake detective Tobias lived and what his story was. I used Storytelling magic, like you told me, and pretended I was a scared college girl who needed to find out everything about this man for my homework, or my schoolteacher would be very angry. Like you said, the very first door I knocked on was an old lady who was more than happy to tell me everything I needed. She even gave me the social media sites of the two suspects. I know Royce will ask me to get their photos and social media details later on, but I already have them. I feel a bit bad about lying to him though. Why don't I just tell him the truth?”

  Henderson took a deep breath and thought about it. “I don't know, because I'm still not 100% convinced about him. Give me a few more days. I have suspicion that a cult is trying to do some demonic magic. We need to find out where they are and stop them first.”

  ***

  A few days passed and Rose was starting to get anxious. Henderson still wasn't back, and she was desperate enough to try something, anything. Luckily Henderson came back before she made a desperate move.

  “We are in so much trouble,” he said. “The cultists have been carrying out hundreds and hundreds of human sacrifices to open the portal to hell, but there is some sort of technology stopping them. I can't understand why or how.”

  “Maybe it's Unit 7?” said Rose.

  “No, certainly not. My contact in Unit 7 says they have no idea about it. They're not even trying to stop the cultists anymore. Unit 7 is obsessed with a local nightclub run by a vampire and have sent their best agents to try to shut it down. The sad thing is the vampire isn't even dangerous and actually helps Unit 7 by enforcing the Masquerade in his area.”

  “So who built the technology that's stopping the portals from opening?”

  “That's what worries me. My contact says she might have an answer. There's a new file that came in that has information about a new portal technology that someone built. But Unit 7 is smart; they know that we can hack into their computers. So the file is only stored on paper in the middle of their top-secret lab.”

  Rose felt a little excited. “Please tell me we're going to break into the lab. Please say so. Even if you say no, I'm still going to do it. I'm bored, bored of sitting here and doing nothing. Even Royce won't talk to me anymore. He vanished a few days ago, and I haven't seen him in the office.”

  Anderson gave her the biggest smile ever, “Oh yeah, we're going to break into the top secret Unit 7 lab and this time we won't even pretend to be subtle about it.”

  Rose clapped and jumped up like a little girl. “Cool. What do I do? Give me a role.”

  “I'll let you figure out how to do it this time. You create the story magic that will allow us to break into the lab. I will provide an excuse to distract the guards, but you must be the one to infiltrate and extract that file. I'm afraid Unit 7 has some advanced magic to stop me in particular, so I cannot enter the offices; but they think you are harmless, so you can.”

  “Why do they think I'm harmless?”

  Henderson looked a little sad as he said it. “Oh dear, because you're a girl and a pretty one at that. They think you're a harmless bimbo who poses no threat to them.”

  Rose wasn't offended. “Is that so? In which case, I'm going to play the harmless bimbo in the next magic trick I do.”

  ***

  “Are you really serious,” said Rose. “Are you going to open a portal to hell right here in the middle of the street?”

  “Relax, dear” said Henderson. “It'll just be a small one, and I'll invite some of those stupid demons you met earlier into our world. Enough to distract Unit 7 but not enough to cause any real danger.”

  He started drawing strange symbols on the road with a chalk mark. With him he had bottles and bottles of what he claimed was cow blood, which he now poured onto the symbols and chanted a few spells in a strange foreign language.

  Pungent smell like burning human flesh started seeping through the air, and Rose knew the portal would be opening soon.

  “And what's your story?” asked Henderson.

  “I'm a clumsy secretary here for my job interview at Unit 7. I'm late because I didn't get up on time this morning and had to rush to the office. I'm playing the dumb bimbo with long blonde hair and a cleavage to kill for. My job interview coincidentally is with the head of the research section, the same office where this file is stored.”

  She thought about it. “Though that said, I don't know how I'll activate the magic. Last time you did this magic, you did this weird comical Italian accent in the strange comedy act. What do I do?”

  Henderson smiled. “My dear, when in doubt, go loud and go real hammy. Think you're a Shakespearean actor in the 16th century having to scream over drunk patrons who hate your play. That always helps. Now go. The portal is almost open and Unit 7's security guard will be rushing here soon.”

  She rushed towards the Unit 7 office headquarters, and surprisingly, the door opened just as she got there. A dozen armed men rush out. They were very distracted and didn't notice her stepping by them.

  Inside the main reception area was a man standing with a machine gun, and he did notice her. “YOU!” he shouted. “Stop!”

  It was now or never. Rose reached into the ether like Henderson had shown her, and activated the story magic. She rushed to the guard.

  “Please sir, I'm late. I knew my interview was half an hour ago, but I really, really need this job.”

  The guard was unconvinced. “There is no interview today,” he said.

  Rose leaned into the act, pushing her chest out at him. She started crying. “Oh please sir, I really need this job. It's been a hard month ever since my boyfriend left me for that hussy Jane, and my landlord wants to sleep with me because I cannot pay rent. Please sir, think of me as a poor woman with a big rent and a big,” she grabbed his hand and put it on her chest, “heart. How will I survive?”

  The guard stared down at a cleavage, that's when the magic activated. “Sure, sure,” he said, “go straight up to the interview.”

  The alarm started blaring and a voice came on the intercom asking all guards to go outside and deal with a supernatural threat. The guard standing close to her left.

  Rose took this chance to run up the stairs. Henderson had given a rough idea of where the file would be kept. His instructions had been very clear, and she was surprised at how he knew the layout of the office, seeing as he claimed he could never set foot in the building.

  The room she wanted to enter was locked, as she expected. But she had her lockpicks. Going down on her knees, she started picking the locks, hoping to hell nobody came by.

  It was one of the harder locks, and it took her almost three minutes to open it. But she had it open, and she was inside.

  That's when she got her first surprise.

  The room was empty; completely empty, except for one table and one chair.

  Had they been lied to? Henderson's contact had said that this room was full of files. Had she made a mistake, or had the contact lied to them and tricked them?

  She saw something lying on the table, an envelope. As she went closer to the table, her blood went cold. She was now 100% sure they had been tricked.

  The envelope had her name on it.

  Rose, open me

  It was clearly a trap, but she couldn't walk away now. Not when there was so much at stake. Henderson’s contact was clearly up to no good.

  So she opened the envelope and read the note inside.

  Rose, Henderson has been lying to you; or at least he hasn't told you the full truth. When you first met him and you told him how you had seen him at 7 years old, he was surprised, wasn't he? He couldn't remember a single thing you said to him. Why is that?

  The letter was correct. Henderson had seemed surprised and had forgotten all details of having met her and Eve. She kept reading.

  I can tell you what happened to your sister and why your mother was there at that dig. In fact, I can prove to you that I was there as well. When your mother first saw you, she confused you for Eve, didn't she? And she refused to believe you were Rose. You haven't told this to anyone, not even Henderson.

  That was correct as well. Was this person some sort of mind reader? How did they know this?

  I can give you the answers, but you must come see me alone, without Henderson. If Henderson appears, I will vanish. If you agree to my conditions, take this badge; it is the only way out of this building.

  In exactly two minutes, two armed men will come inside. Show them this badge, and they will show you the way out.

  Then, make your way to this address at exactly seven o'clock this evening and come alone. Or I won't be there, and you'll never find out what happened to your sister and mother.

  This note will now self-destruct.

  And even as she was standing there, the note burst into flames and vanished.

  Just then, the door was kicked open and she found herself staring at two guns.