Young Writers Society

Jeanine rushed inside. "Hey guys!" she shouts. "We have a lead!"

James's head flipped around as Jeanie ran into the hall, though he kept and eye on Alex in the corner of his eye.

"Leads?" Alex asked, giving James a strange look. "What, are you a detective now? Tired of being a janitor, now, are we? Finally moving up in the world?"

"Shut up, Alex," James snapped back at him. "No one has seen you all day since you clocked out, you should be happy someone had a heart to check on you."

"Mm, yes, because you always talk to me." Alex retorted with sarcasm. He gestured to Hades, snapping his fingers at him and pointing. "You think this guy's trustworthy?" He asked, pointing over to James accusingly and laughing. "Well that's rich."

James simply closed his eyes and sighed before waving at Jeanie. "That's wonderful, but we'll discuss this later. I'm talking to my colleague here."

"Yeah just a casual conversation." Alex said with a snide smile. "Though I feel I'm about to be accused of something I didn't do. If I'm one of your other 'leads' or something."

"No, Cornyx and I think we know the thing that's causing all this!" Jeanine shouts, excited. "Though I don't like you, you a**," she says to Alex. "My little birdie told me that your name is Alex, correct? Sucky name. And you have a sucky life, I can see that."

((Shots fired))

Alex scoffs, his mouth spreading into an entertained smile. "You don't have to tell me that. Of that I'm fully aware, screaming girl."

James turned away from Alex, ignoring him for the moment and turning to Jeanine. "You... know what's causing all of this? The power outage you mean?"

"Yeah. We think it's a dragon demon or something," Jeanine says. "And don't make me show you the thing I was screaming about. You will scream too. Like a little girl. I should know, since you have the maturity of one."

Cornyx saunters in behind her. "I don't suppose we could be a bit more civil, Jeanine?"

Alex gave a respectful nod to the newcomer. "No - the fault is all mine. I only intend to antagonize James, nobody else. My deepest apologoes for directing my negative energies elsewhere."

James was still mulling over what Jeanine had said. A dragon demon? What did that even mean? How would he deal with that? Was it someone here or did such a thing come because it was attracted to the hyper supernatural activity here?

((Jeanine))

"I don't like 'em, I roast 'em," Jeanine snaps. "I don't know what it is... maybe Cornyx can help you with that?"

A dragon demon?

Demons were something he was vaguely familiar with. For the past hundred years or so, the royalty in charge of the Demon Kingdom had been allied with his troublesome brother, Zeus. He had only caught glimpses of them before when they had come to Olympus to discuss secret matters that had never seen the light of the day, but not a single one of them had looked remotely like a dragon. In fact, they were more humanoid in appearance.

So did that mean that there was another type of demon out there? One from a place that Hades couldn't even begin to imagine?

He turned his attention back to the matter at hand. They were supposed to be interrogating Alex. Well, they had been before Cornyx and Jeanine had walked in. He crossed his arms in irritation. They had been getting somewhere - he was sure of it!

And even though they said that they had found a lead, something still felt off about Alex. He was sure that the man was hiding something, but what could it possibly be? A strange thought hit him as he mulled over it, and he quickly decided to act on it.

"Alex," Hades suddenly said, "what do you think about the existence of magic?"

Maybe - just maybe - Alex was in league with the dragon demon. And if he could get the man to slip up and say something that a normal human wouldn't know, he would be one step closer to revealing him as the culprit of the crime.

Jeanine sensed that she knew what Hades was doing. She walked up to him and whispered in his ear: "I know all forms of supernatural magic. I can help you scan him."

Alex raised a brow, letting out a short laugh. "Magic? Unless you mean the ghosts and stuff I don't know what you're talking about. You think... I'm one of these dragon demon things? Hah!"

"He's bluffing," Jeanine mumbles to herself. "I can tell."

Alex half-rolled his eyes and put his hands in his pockets, assuming a relaxed posture. "Ooooh quite the charmer this one is. Always wanted to meet a human lie detector."

James rubbed his brows with his thumb and forefinger, shaking his head. "Alex, just answer the question."

Alex sent James an un-amused glare, "Mm, yes quite. Fine then." He shrugs, giving a small smile. "I know everything there is to know about magic. Just pop me a question and I'll have an answer."

James gave a long sigh, and looked at the other three gathered there. "Maybe I should just talk to him alone. He's always like this."

Alex sent the others a sly wink, "Yeah, James loves to do some good old fashioned interrogating. You lot are quite the sleuthing crew."

"If it is a demon, it does not give off the normal demonic aura," Cornyx purrs. "It was some sort of fire that the rain did not harm, and by the looks of it, whatever was being used to cut the tree - which severed the wires, by the way - was red-hot, which indicates magic."

"Well that's above my pay grade." Alex commented sarcastically, though he meant it.

James simply gave Cornyx a loose look of weariness. A fire demon. How the hell would he get rid of something like that? With the amount of things Cornyx, Jeanine, and Hades seemed to be knowledgeable of in regards to all this he felt rather useless, really. "I don't suppose you'd know how to stop one from screwing with the hotel again, would you?"