Xaviers!

Basil had been hitting the books quite heavily recently. With all the rigmarole and nonsense with his stupid genes, he hadn't actually been properly focusing on anything but showing up for his assigned shifts, and he needed to make sure his dawdling in his own menial, personal affairs hadn't screwed up his actual grades and get him kicked out of here.

Today the invisible boy was wearing actual clothes while at work and not his 'special suit'. People could actually receive help without calling out to him, IDing him by his empty wardrobe.

The library was going dead earlier and earlier in the day as the classes were dwindling, some of the better off students having the finances to return home for Thanksgiving and having already finished classes this semester or being giving the option to satellite in the last of their work.

That meant Basil having more time to himself, but lead to quite a bit of boredom.

Having collected a pile of textbooks that had been returned on his cart, he went about putting them back, singing a jaunty little 'ba ba bum' tune as he made his way to the proper section. By the time he made it there, it had evolved into full on song as he shelved them.

"Pretty women, fascinating, sipping coffee, dancing
Pretty women, are a wonder, pretty women
Sitting in the window or standing on the stair
Something in them chills the air
Pretty women, silhouetted, stay within you, glancing
Stay forever, breathing lightly...."

The last book had to go on the top shelf and he climbed the roll-ladder as he was instructed to for 'safety reasons'.

Thinking himself to be the only person in the library, Basil brought a lanky leg up and pushed off the side of the bookshelf to repel himself along the case as quickly as it would go> When it came to the end of the shelf with a loud clatter he started tittering in amusement.

And became fully visible.

(open)

An older man enters the library, looking around with some approval, before he moves to start perusing the shelves. He seems to be wandering aimlessly. He's certainly not one of the professors and he's too old to be one of the students.

After the giggle fit Basil got back to work, pushing the book trolley around a corner to notice the older man.

"Hello!" He beamed at him. "How may I help you today?" He asked in a congenial tone, abandoning the books to assist the elderly gentleman.

"I was wondering where you kept your... mythology collection," he says, with a slight nod of his head.

"I could certainly show you to them sir, but if you wish to tell me what topic you are hoping to read about I could also put a search into the library database for you and find out which books have that kind of specific information so you don't have to dig through them."

"Local legends and folktales in specific. I'm afraid I'm not as familiar with the area as I would like to be."

"Alright then! Let me show you where those are, and then I will work on a title list for you while you browse." Basil replied in his ever helpful manner.

"You're a student here?" The old man makes small talk as they move to the appropriate section.

"Ah! Yes sir. My apologies. " Basil replied, realizing he had forgotten his manners. He stopped briefly to offer a hand to shake.

"I'm Basil Benson, the library assistant. I'm taking classes here to become a full librarian however.

Are you visiting a relative?" He asked, not being familiar with the old man.

"No. A couple of the students here were kind enough to come to my aid in town," he says, "I am Youseff El-Amin."

"It's nice to meet you Mr.El-Amin.

We have a nasty habit of being exceptionally helpful." He chuckled politely as he went back to leading Yourself to the books he was looking for.

"Much better than some people in this world," he says. Once at the section in question, he begins browsing the books like a man who truly appreciates books.

Basil went to his little desk to draw up a list of titles for books pertaining to localized urban legends, tall tales, and mythical figures and creatures. He sorted his search out from the closest and most specific entries and then notated at what point on the list his search broadened to parts of England.

It took Basil awhile to compose the list for Youseff and so he was left to his own devices for a bit.

When he returned, Basil would have quite a few pages in his hands and a contemplative expression.

"Was there any specific figure you were trying to find?"

"No specific figure. Looking at covers, I would suspect. The sort of thing something or someone might readily use to hide themselves."

On his list were several things that fits that, admittedly strange, criteria. Plenty of supposedly haunted historic houses, a supposedly haunted asylum, and a wood that was rumored to be the hunting grounds of some large hairy beast.

"So the hits I found in closest proximity of here are A laundry list of both abandoned and currently occupied personal residences which are claimed to be haunted, As well as a an asylum building now being used as a government records office. Used to be known as 'King's Home for Wayward Youths', before being taken over by NHS and eventually being turned into an NHS records facility.

Lots of those public building sort of 'haunted' places are perfectly happy to have you look around the place... babysat of course, and for a fee.

And lastly, there's a forest rumoured to be inhabited by a ferocious wild animal.

Anything sound interest?"

"Most likely it's an abandoned residence, though the forest could be as well. Have you had an unusual murders or attacks around here recently? Aside from time-traveling nazis."

Basil's brow knitted for a moment, thinking intently about Youseff's question. He began tapping his left hand index finger against his clavicle as he looked over the list again, trying to put together anything that may have happened recently

"Not here in Maldon, though there was a body found behind a Tesco in Chelmsford which is only about a half an hour's drive from here, and the authorities thought the body had been left there, not murdered on the premises.

Oh!" He exclaimed, his face lighting up like Guy Fawkes night as something occurred to him.

"Recently, a police officer when missing here in Maldon. A body hasn't been found on that one yet, but if someone disappears for long enough, the chances go up that they're not around anymore."

Basil seemed quite pleased with himself for making a connection, then after a moment, horrified at his own observation.

Youseff strokes his bearded chin, "It does sound like something may be afoot. I'll have to see if the police will allow me to examine the body."

Basil's nauseous look subsided just slightly, overtaken by his sense of curiosity.

"Are you a detective?" He asked, based off his interest in this and the fact that he was plain clothed instead of uniformed.

"In a manner of speaking," he says, "I look into the strange and unusual. Though strange and unusual is becoming normal these days."

Basil felt it prudent not to pry more.

Not just yet.

"How about I pull you that urban legends book that contains the information about the forest and the haunted locations, and then I can try to find if there was any follow up information in the news about the police officer and the Tesco body... Does that sound alright?"

"That would be delightful. I appreciate your help."

The book Basil pulled about the haunted locations and the forest was one in the same ' Essex - A Paranormal History'. Though uninspired the title might be, it did seen to serve it's intended purpose; being full of information about monsters, fae folk, and other mythological creatures and legendary local figures.

He handed it to Youseff and then disappeared back to his desk to do a search to see if any new information about the Tesco victim or the missing Police Officer had come to light.

There were a couple of follow up news stories on each, but neither had much information beyond "police are still investigating." One quoted an anonymous source commenting that the Tesco body was more like a husk than an actual corpse.

"Hmmm...." Basil considered going back with just that information for Youseff, but he decided to take it just a step further.

Basil went to the Bureau of Missing Persons website to see if he could find out how many unidentified bodies had been reported to the Bureau close to either Maldon or Chelmsford.

There were only two unidentified bodies, making three in the area if you counted the Tesco body. One had been found washed up near the harbor and another had been found in the woods that Basil had found earlier.

Still not fully satisfied, Basil decided to simply Google the phrase 'Aldith Woods' with the words 'weird' 'strange' 'unusual' and 'missing'. He did not use the words supernatural or paranormal because the pair were already aware there was reports of that, and plus all of this seemed a load of silly nonsense.

Right?

He did find a short blurb on Aldith Woods that talked about strange sounds in the forest, but none of those reports were recent. There wasn't even a story on the unidentified body, which was odd as the papers usually reported on that sort of thing.

Basil frowned, unhappy with the lack of results. Maybe the spooky stories actually kept stupid teens out of the woods instead of attracting them?

Basil printed out all the information he found back to Youseff.

"So, the body behind Tesco must have been gutted or.. something. A bystander qualified it as a husk rather than a body." Basil's nose wrinkled as he said it, somewhat disgusted.

There's also two other unidentified bodies in the area as well. Not a lot of information on those.

The only thing that strikes me as odd is in on the Missing Persons website one of the bodies is listed as being found near Aldith Woods, but there's no story about the body being found at all."

"That sounds like it might have some potential," Youseff says, looking up from the book. "There's no report at all about the body?"

"no news articles, just the report on the missing body from the Bureau of Missing Persons, and an article about weird sounds that emanate from there sometimes." Basil stated, holding said short column out to him.

Youseff's frown deepens, "Then either the newspaper is covering this up out of politeness or they've been compromised."

Basil chuckled ruefully, the expression on his face changing from contemplative to a grimace.

"We're British. Politeness extends to noise in the trains and queuing up, but not to dead bodies. We're actually quite morbidly curious about our fellow man's misfortune. It makes for good water cooler talk."

"Then that leaves us with 'compromised'. Would you get me the address of the newspaper office?"

"Of course." Basil hesitated.

"You're not intending to confront them on your own, are you? Perhaps you should call for back up." He suggested, still under the idea that he was an officer.

"My organization is unfortunately short of manpower. There is no back up to call, everyone else is busy."

"You shouldn't go alone..." Basil warned, mostly because of his age. He didn't much like the idea of an old man being bullied.

For a moment, he considered suggesting he get a member of the X-Teams to help him, but then he realized that he'd heard they were quite tied up.with shapeshifters or aliens or some such nonsense.

"Would you like me to accompany you?"

"I couldn't ask you to do that. This is likely to be dangerous if I'm not careful."

"Exactly why you shouldn't go alone, right?"

"I appreciate the offer, but if something happens to me, I need someone who knows where I was going, so that they can follow up."