Case File 2017.10.05
Back in Chicago, even with as much as the supernatural tended to bleed into the mundane areas of life...there were still aspects from that way of life able to shed light on the unnatural. In Elena's case, it was going through hours of footage on tape of poor quality, with magic deteriorating it further, of the apartment building. Eventually she'd located a moment of tape of the suspected killer. Asher and Buddy were called in see her at the SI's precinct to go over the information she'd located on the case so far. Mainly that particular image from hours of video footage. To say that Asher was enthusiastic about bringing Buddy into the station with him would be far from the truth...refusing to carry the doll in by hand, he'd stuffed him in a backpack and didn't seem to take as much care with setting it on the ground when finally in Elena's office. Not that Buddy had been fully innocent in disappearing and reappearing from time to time in Asher's apartment to scare him until the call came to go to the precinct. The tension between the two did little for Elena's mood and received a warning look before turning to the business at hand on the case.
Buddy immediately recognized the image that had caught Elena's own attention when going through the hours of footage...it was Stevie. It was the last kid Buddy had been guardian for all grown up now as an adult. As a kid, Stevie had been under the thumb of his abusive step-dad...one day Buddy couldn't watch it happen anymore and broke one of the rules they had to follow as protectors. The doll had exposed his nature to the man and it had caused him to leave, not wanting to deal with the promise of pain from this living doll. To balance out that breech, the other side got to break the rules as well...they did-- tearing Stevie's mom apart. It left the child in the care of her ailing grandmother until she could no longer care for him or herself and putting the young kid into the system to be raised by the state. It'd left the young kid to spiral down into a life of petty theft and vandalism...and most trace had disappeared by around the age of 14 from the police databases between Chicago and the east coast. It didn't make sense at first but Buddy came to the realization that Stevie still believed...he knew what happened to his mother wasn't natural... But that belief from Stevie's childhood, perhaps twisted over the years into his adult life...it could provide power to kill guardians, just like Buddy. The kids had gone missing and found dead later in this case hadn't been found with even a scratch on them...they had just been found dead.
It didn't make sense to Asher and he questioned what the purpose there would be in taking the kids. The answer Buddy provided was a chilling and sobering thought-- he was draining them, feeding off the same raw power of a child's belief and innocence. The mistake of 20 years past coming to light...Stevie was looking for Buddy and would know he'd be coming to find him. Now that he knew what was going on...and who was tied up in this case. The place Buddy expected Stevie to be was The Children's Museum-- they'd look for Henry first, but Buddy wanted to deal with Stevie himself. That was something he needed to do on his own. The three gathered what was needed and headed out to Elena's car. Feeling some sympathy for the doll, Asher didn't stuff the little guy back in the bag and carried him out by hand this time. He knew he had to be there, even if he wasn't a cop or Wizard or such-- the sense of that need kept him along for the ride which didn't seem like it would be for much longer on this case.
