The Disappearance of Lily Ross

Prologue

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky.

Miss Lily Ross was admiring that sight like she always did on the rooftop of her apartment, but no one ever saw her coming down. She has been missing ever since.

Detectives spent weeks in her apartment with their grimoires, hoping to catch a foreign scent or a shard of memory not belonging to her but found none. She was a very reclusive person, only keeping in touch with her family in Bermuda and her friend Diane Mills.

The rooftop was a different scenario. Laden with memories, it took a long time for the forensics to piece together an image with the residues. All that image did was darken the mystery even farther as what it portrayed is unknown to public, because just when it developed it was taken from the Police by the Behemoths, a branch of the government that deals with unwelcomed visitors.

Many lawsuits had been filed by her family and friends, but the Justice system hasn't budged from their stance. Even the 1967 Freedom of magical information act was invoked but the image was not released.

The information that I am going present here may not be complete, and I might take an artistic brush over it every now and then to save myself from libel. Also why the narrative tone of this piece.

Miss Lily Ross was a lovely, kind woman who lived in the worst part of the Bronx. She was a high-school teacher, admired by her students and loved by her dog.

Her fiancé was the Edward J Durant, the owner of Durant pens and stationaries. They specialized in pens which identified any spells that were not allowed while in use, and thus barred students from cheating using memory spells and third party helps.

They met during his visit to her school, and according to the witnesses the sky blushed on the eve of their meeting. It was an honest love that sprang between them, and much to the relief of the Senior Durant, who was afraid that he might die without ever seeing a grandchild.

Their love was to be celebrated on April 1st, three weeks before the bride to be disappeared.

Foul play was considered, since Miss Ross was engaged to a rich and influential man like Edward but no motive could be found among any of his enemies. There was nothing to be gained from getting rid of her, only troubles. Neither had she any enemies of her own.

Jealous ex-lovers of Durant were interviewed and investigated, with witches going through their rooms and scouring for hair or signs of black magic. Such things were not uncommon in crimes of passion and always left big residues. However none was found in this case.

Well, the detectives couldn't even find what happened to her, or how she disappeared and where she could be. The department was at a loss, and the pressure was mounting from the Durant family, their daughter-in-law was missing, the pride of their family and bearer of the next generations of Durants. Something had to be done.

The case was thought to be done, to be shelved forever in the Unsolved cabinets until the duo of the dark practitioner Gregory Bryant and Private detective Arabi Khalique chased down one of the miscreants who was involved in the disappearance of Miss Lily Ross.

What followed after that was a concerted effort by the NYPD, with help from the duo and Behemoth, to rescue the missing bride. The chapters following will deal in details of those efforts and of the mysterious image that Behemoth still refuses to release.