Word spread faster than I expected.Two weeks after Dr. Marsh's visit, someone knocked on the bookshop door after closing. A woman in her thirties, clutching her purse like a lifeline, eyes darting nervously."I'm sorry," she said when I opened the door. "I know you're closed. But I read your statement online. About your family and what happened. And I think... I think something similar is happening to me."Mrs. Patterson appeared behind me. "Victoria, do you want me to stay?"I looked at the woman's desperate face. Recognized the exhaustion, the fear, the weight of carrying something impossible alone."No, it's okay. I'll handle this."Mrs. Patterson left reluctantly. I invited the woman inside and locked the door behind us."My name is Claire," she said. We sat in the reading nook, surrounded by books. "Three months ago, my husband died. Heart attack, the doctors said. But Claire, I know what I saw. There was something in the room with him. Something dark. And ever since, I've been

Six months into training, Dr. Marsh introduced me to the others."They're gathering in London for our annual meeting," she explained. "The four practitioners I've trained over the years. They need to meet you. Evaluate you. Decide if you're ready to join the network officially.""Evaluate me?" Anxiety spiked. "What if they don't think I'm good enough?""Then you keep training until you are. But Victoria, you've progressed faster than anyone I've taught. Your sensitivity to supernatural forces, combined with your lived experience, gives you advantages the others didn't have. You'll be fine."The meeting was held in a private room at a London club. Old wood paneling, leather chairs, the smell of expensive cigars. It felt like stepping back in time.The four practitioners were already there when we arrived.First was James Chen, no relation to Detective Chen. He was in his forties, Chinese-British, with kind eyes and an air of quiet competence. "Manchester," he said when Dr. Marsh introd

Word spread quickly through the network.Within a week, I had three more requests for help. A woman in Gloucester seeing her dead husband's ghost. A teenager in Reading experiencing night terrors that left physical marks. A family in Milton Keynes whose house had become violently haunted after renovations."You're in demand," Dr. Marsh said when I showed her the messages. "Success breeds reputation. But Victoria, pace yourself. You've been training for six months. You're not ready for multiple complex cases simultaneously.""Then what do I do? Tell them no? Let them suffer because I'm not experienced enough?""You refer them to other practitioners. James can handle the Gloucester case. Anya specializes in night terror entities. Marcus has decades of experience with house hauntings. You don't have to solve everything yourself."I knew she was right. But part of me felt like refusing help was abandoning people the way I'd abandoned Elias."That's trauma talking," Iris said during our ne

The call was two weeks from the anniversary.Detective Chen, her voice formal with something I couldn't quite identify. "Victoria, I want you to go to London. Immediately. There has been an occurrence.""What kind of occurrence?""The kind that involves your field of expertise. And the kind that will kill you emotionally if I don't forewarn you first. So I'm forewarning you. Can you leave today?"I caught the next train. Texted Dr. Marsh and explained that I had an emergency. She replied immediately: *Be careful. Call if you need backup.*Detective Chen met me at the station. Her expression was stern. "Before we go to the scene, I need to tell you what we found.""Just tell me.""A family. Mother, father, teenage girl. All deceased. The father and mother both exhibit signs of burning, similar to your family members. The girl died from apparent smoke inhalation. But Victoria, the staging is the same as we found at your manor. The bodies, the position, all of it."My stomach dropped. "S

The first alert came at three in the morning. My phone screamed with a notification from the monitoring system we'd built. A post on an occult forum, someone asking detailed questions about the Ashbourne ritual. Username: DesperateInBristol. I was awake instantly. Pulled up the full thread on my laptop. *I've lost everything. Business bankrupt, house in foreclosure, family falling apart. Read about the Ashbourne case. If it worked for them for twenty years, maybe I can make it work. Does anyone know the exact ritual? The news articles don't give specifics.* Responses were already appearing. Some calling the poster crazy. Others sharing fragments of information they'd pieced together from various sources. One person even linked to a P*F of ritual instructions that made my blood run cold. I traced the IP address using tools Dr. Marsh had taught me. Bristol, as the username suggested. Narrowed it down to a specific neighborhood. I called Detective Chen. "I need police resources. Som