A Demon in Ghosts Clothing

Joshua sat down staring wistfully at the wall across his counter. He had a small shop, but it didn't make him much. Really,he has had to do a lot more work in scientific fields to supplement the income of his shop.

The shop sells many artifacts of occult nature, it also just sells some antiques. Mundane humans are his most frequent shoppers not ever knowing why their purchase was so expensive, or what it really was. He did, however, make sure that they did not take home anything that would put them into any risk should they accidentally activate the hidden potential. The other shoppers that he got were of a more eccentric stock. Often times bartering like a pawnshop with anything that they have related to the occult. Joshua has gotten many a grimoire this way. These people (and creatures) are magical in nature providing both information and companionship in the form of paying customers.

But alas, the money hasn't been enough to pay the bills for the building. In reaction Joshua has opened a private detective agency to service more occult related problems that the police and other P.I.s do not have the knowledge or heart to handle. He had always done stuff like the detective service he was now offering, it used to be just favors for friends or (most commonly) his own bad luck roping him into inter dimensional conflicts.

Joshua got up slowly one foot after another walking towards the door. He flipped the open sign to closed 'Unless you have Pertinent business requiring 'Paranormal Investigators' help' . Satisfied he sat in his chair swiveling in circles hoping for a client.

I'm bored. Lets kill something. Dark was at best grounded, he was gaining more control which in all honestly scared Marcus. Marcus narrowed his eyes and smirked as he played chess with Leo the old also known as a great chess player back in the day or at least thats what he told Mark. Marcus at first had some trouble but he easily moved into victory when he had made some moves which confused Leo. Gaining  a check mate with with his bishop and knight he shook Leo's hand and moved out the chess shop into the open street. Never knew you were good at that sort of thing.

I was chess champ back before you. Marcus thought back to him  as he crossed the street getting yelled at by a passing car.

And here I thought you had a bad memory. Dark answered back curiously

I may suck at directions and forget names but their are thing's I remember quite well. Marcus said back telepathically to Dark before crossing the street and saying good day to a person he passed. The street was quiet except for the roar of cars that passed by. He was about to sit down until he saw across the street he just came from a sign. This sign had a very particular word on it that came as paranormal and this made Marcus think he might have some knowledge. Marcus had learnt to shut Dark out so he could think alone and talk without Dark knowing and he did that just now so he could have a conversation.

Waiting for no cars to come he took a step to the road and started to walk, feeling the crunch of stone under his shoes and the leather breaking apart. He needed new shoes. Making it to the door he opened it and looked around. There were many items that were strange and normal looking and some gave off a dark energy that seemed to smooth Marcus. He walked to the counter that the owner of the store sat behide and placed both hands on the counter.  "So. You sell strange artifacts?" He asked in his own curious voice.

Joshua looked at the man before him. Mostly unremarkable, but there was sort of an aura about him that was easily recognizable. While the man before him seemed to be mundane, hidden within him was a more ancient presence. When the man asked a question he stood there for half a second looking dumb before answering in his dryly sarcastic tone of voice. "Yeah, I got everything from ancient Egyptian chairs to Renaissance Artwork. I also sell things that are rumored to be 'paranormal' but most of it is just bullshit. I do, however offer a paranormal investigation service if you think you are being harassed by something that isn't human. Mostly it is just raccoons or assholes, but I take care of the problem anyway if you hire me." Joshua's tone seemed almost bored like he was just running through the lines.

He looked around through his store for something his customer might be interested in. After a quick search with his eyes he came to believe that he should probably let the customer decide what he wanted instead of predicting his choice. "You can look around for something you want, but some of the items aren't that safe to mess around with." Joshua told him. "Just a heads up."

Marcus listened to his offer and his tone but was a bit sad to learn that most of the items were junk. "Tell me friend. Do you have anything that would keep a demon in control?" Marcus asked as his eyes for a second changed to a black colour before returning to his unnatural Hazel eyes that had a mind of their own. Changing from blue to green to both whenever they pleased. "As for ghost problems. I don't have any."

Marcus then turned his back to the man and looked through some of the items. He was right, some of these things dated back to when Dark was created and that was god know's how long. He never told Mark how or when he was created

"Well I guess you should be happy to know that I have some copies of Enoch's grimoire. It has all the demon controlling spells a man could ever ask for. Usually if a demon controlling item is made whoever commissioned it would generally keep it with him or his family, but recently I got this necklace." Joshua continued on with his bored sarcastic tone while pulling out a box. Opening it he revealed a pentacle necklace on a cord of rope. "This lets you control a demon when placed on his physical body, but it is a lot more expensive than the grimoire copies. They usually run about $30 if I have enough in stock, but this necklace will costs like $5,000 if you would prefer it."

"I can't see that working out for me." Marcus said to him before turning to look at the necklace. It looked nice but he wasn't quite sure. "Tell me. Say a human and a demon shared a body to the point where they both shared blood. What would help then?" Marcus asked curiously. He wondered if this guy was just making it up but he seemed to bored to try.

"Well if you think about it your body 'is' the demons body so if you wear it theoretically it should work with the mortal in the body being able to give orders the demon must follow thus putting them in control, but It really matter for who puts it on. Say I jammed the necklace around your neck you would probably be under my control, and the cord is made of rope so someone cutting it off may be a problem. To counteract this you may think to replace the rope with something else, but replacing one part of it would make it less effective." Joshua sounded like he was reading from a manual in his head almost motioning to the item all throughout.

"But Dark would lose his humor then." Marcus said sadly to the man who was basically a demonic dictionary. "All I wanted was an Item that made dark weaker so he couldn't gain much control any more. Not make him a slave." Marcus said to the man without care of what he thought. If the man didn't have what Mark wanted then he would just leave. He gave the man one last stare and waited to see what he would say.

"Well if it is weaker without the rope. Then replacing in would probably weaken the effect enough for him to have some free will without overpowering you, but this is all conjecture until we try it out.... that is if you are up for it." Joshua panicked a little when the customer started to lose faith in the product. Hopefully his reasoning was right so he could get a payday.

Just when he had finished speaking a woman wearing very fine clothing walked in. She must not have been older than 27 by the looks of her. "I heard y'all could solve problems." She told Joshua with a Mississippi accent. Sobbing she told the two her problems. "I just moved up here and the house I moved into has been making strange noises like someone is in there."

Joshua handed her a tissue. "Don't worry I will do whatever it takes to stop whatever it is from hurting you. It must be really lonely living in that big house of yours."

The woman looked confused. "I never told you where I lived now dear."

Joshua just winked in a way that he must think is attractive. "I'm a detective honey it's my job." Joshua was annoyed by the way the woman didn't see the signs of her house on her, but he didn't show it. He then looked over to his customer. "If you help me out with this I will make the alterations that you need for what you describe the artifact needs to do for free." As he was talking he sensually rubbed the woman's back under the guise of comforting her like a creep.

"I can work with that." As Marcus said this, his mask appeared over his and gave him his demonic voice, he looked at the sobbing women and said "Boo." Like most people she freaked out. Moving to the door he turned back to his host. "So we going now or what." He asked in an impatient voice that sounded to dangerous to be real.

"Can you please not scare the client? I need this money." Joshua was obviously annoyed as they left. The woman cautiously moved around the demonic man as she got in her car beckoning them to follow. Joshua got in the seat next to her as she introduced herself as Sophia.

In the car she took off her hat revealing curly blonde locks. "That thing better not ruin my upholstery."

"Wake me when we get their." Marcus said as he climbed in the back of the car and closed the door gently. He rised his left hand and flicked it as a shadow like pillow appeared which Marcus rested his head on.

The journey was long and treacherous. That was a lie. It took about two hours to get up to the northern westside of chicago. The metropolitan area gave way as more and more countryside came through. Trees dotted the land, and the car zoomed through the horizon. The house was not so much a house as a mansion. Stained glass windows shone through that it was built during a time when there was building material scarcity. "Shit I forgot my equipment." Joshua thought aloud.

"Well dearie do you want to drive back and get it?" Sophia dangled the keys in front of Joshua.

Joshua looked down at the keys, but couldn't get his eyes off of her cleavage. "I, umm... we can work without it." Joshua got out of the car opening the back door for Marcus.

Marcus layed the shadow pillow on the door so when The store owner opened it the pillow just stayed their. Floating because thats what he told it to do but Dark was able to wake Marcus up by removing the pillow himself and Marcus fell to the ground seeing as he forgot his seatbelt. "Damit Dark." Was all he could say as he got of the ground and rubbed his hair. "I'm guessing we are here?"

"Yep the best mansion in chicago." Joshua told him as he let him out. "We just need to stay here a few nights and make sure there is no ghost." Joshua put his arm around the southern belle walking inside. The place looked a bit run down , but nothing that a few servants couldn't fix for the woman. Joshua sat down on a couch trying to focus his mana to his eyes.