~~~~~~~~~Third Person POV~~~~~~~~~

The five teens began to look around the study. There was no denying that it was a beautiful room, and even though its owner had been gone for months, it had no sign of dust at all.

Iv, Lola, Victor, and Gia each took a wall to search through, and Noah search around the desk itself. There were books of everything in every shelf, even things that had never been heard of in the human world. It was truly an amazing sight, so much information was stored here!

Still, this wasn't the time to think about such things.

Lola took out a certain book, when a questioned popped into her head. "Wait, Noah, you're a Cipher too. Can't you just snap your fingers and make everyone appear again?"

He closed the cabinet he was searching, letting out a sigh. "You think I haven't tried that already? Something's blocking my magic from finding everyone. Whoever's doing this knows what they're doing."

Things were even more difficult when they didn't even know what to search for. They didn't know if whatever they were looking for was a something, it could be some abstract thing!

Maybe this wasn't the way to go through with things, maybe they should've just left it to the police..

Was it normal to have doubts at the start of an investigation?

Just as these thoughts started going through her head, a small shine caught Iv's eyes. She looked up at one of the corners, on the highest bookshelf; it was faint, barely visible, but definitely there.

"Victor, can you come here for a sec?"

Raising an eyebrow, he walked over. "What'd you find?"

"Not sure yet. I need a lift."

He gave a nod before kneeling down, letting her stand on his shoulders before standing back up. Now being able to reach the shelf, Iv began to move the books around, searching for whatever made that light.

After about a minute of searching, she pulled out a small charm from one of the books in the back. It was a tiny black top hat with a yellow line to resemble the ribbon that wrapped around him.

Why would this be hidden?

Hopping off Vic's shoulders and onto the ground, the others quickly walked over, Gia asking. "What is it?"

"It's some sort of charm, I think?"

"It's not a charm.." Noah took the tiny top hat and gave it a gentle tap, the charm becoming a normal hat. A familiar one, for that matter. "It's my dad's hat.. He's never without it, even at home, he keeps it in his pocket in the charm form.."

"Tilt it, there might be something inside."

At Iv's orders, he tilted the hat, and just like she said, something did fall out. It was some sort of dust, a dark blue color, sparkling brightly. There was barely any of it left, but enough to see with the human eye.

Lola was the first to ask. "What the hell is that..?!"

Crossing her arms, Iv glared at the dust that was scattered across the floor. "I'd say it's a lead."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Look familiar to anything? Some sort of drug, or explosion remains?" Victor asked as he leaned over Ben's shoulder, who they had called over since he was the one who knew the most about science among the group.

Ben held a small vial in his hands, which contained the tiny bit of dust they were able to collect, eyebrows bent in concentration. "Not really, I've never seen something like this.."

Gia sat beside him, fiddling with a strand of hair. "It had to have come from somewhere..!"

"I can take it home and do some experiments. I'll give you guys a call if I find anything."

They all gave a nod, Iv speaking. "Be careful."

"I will, good luck on the investigation." And with that, he left.

Lola walked over to the group, her phone showing the list of victims in her notes. "I think we should check on the next victim's home. If we find more of that dust, we can definitely say it has to do with the missing people."

Gia peeked over at the phone. "Who do we check for next?"

"What about Lidia's home?" Iv asked. "We checked out the first victim's home, let's see the difference between him and the last victim. Besides, I think we might wanna pay North a visit too."

Lola nodded in agreement. "Let's get going then."

Thanks for reading!!! 'Till next time!!!

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