It was the year 1912 in Williamsburg Brooklyn, and there was a man named John. John was your average aspiring journalist who had a big dream of becoming a detective one day. But for now, he was focusing on his latest scoop. He got an anonymous call about the “Meteidal family” and how they were secretly practicing the dark arts. He would most likely have to step into an unfamiliar region of his job if he wanted to make this story huge. John felt like this could be a big break for him to actually get his name out there publicly. He was going to do whatever it took to make this story pop. 

John wanted to get on top of this as quickly as he could, he put on his tan trenchcoat and rushed out into the streets of Williamsburg. He didn't quite know what he was looking for, but the Meteidal family was known by many for starting a pastry shop that was called Popinos that was located nearby his journaling office; he figured he would start there. He had been to the pastry shop many times before, it is a small well organized shop with various baked goods. He surveyed the shop, specifically trying to see who was working at that time and saw a new hire. He had never seen her before but she looked like a very nice young lady, She had long golden hair and nice glasses that complimented her face. John picked up a loaf of fresh baked bread and asked the young lady

“How much do I owe ya?”

She briefly glances at him, then to the bread 

“That'll be 7 cents sir” she said in an upbeat voice

John hands over the coins and decides to be bold and ask

“How do you like working for the Metidal family?”

“Its okay” she says in a little more of a depressing tone

Before he could even string together another question to ask the lady she interrupts his thoughts and says

“Have a good day sir, I have to go”

John, confused, simply says “Sure thing, have a good day ma'am”

John was not sure what to make of this, so he hung around outside the bakery waiting to see what happened. He notices her go to the back of the store and exit from the back door. He was starting to get suspicious. He slowly and quietly walks around the side of the building to try and see what she may be doing. He gets to the corner and stops to listen. He hears her talking frantically with someone. Things seem to be escalating and she is getting louder and angrier. John slowly peeks around the corner and sees something he wasn't expecting. He sees her scolding a small brown puppy, who had gotten into the dumpster out back. John decided that she had absolutely no part to play in the Metidal family's secret. John needed something else to go on, he was desperate so he decided that he may need to break the law just a bit. He was already walking that direction even before he had the thought. He was going to their house. When he approached the very large house, he was starting to doubt if this was really worth it. But he remembered when he was there, it was to eventually become a detective. He convinced himself that it would all be worth it in the end. He saw no cars parked outside anywhere, so he went to check if anyone was home. He approached the front door and knocked. He waited still for a moment. There was no answer and he was about to turn away and walk off, but he heard the door open and he turned back around quickly. He saw a young girl with matted hair holding a small plush cat, she asked him

“Hi, are you a policeman?”

John was a little taken aback

“Hello there, no, I am not a police officer. I am a journalist and I'm doing a story on your parents' bakery shop. Are they home by chance?”

She looked a little disappointed that he wasn't a policeman but talked a little more she said

“No, they're not home right now. You can come in though, they will be here shortly”

For a child, she was speaking very intelligently and John was very skeptical at the look of things. He decided to take her up on her offer

“Sure, i'll come in for a bit here then”

They enter the house and the child says “My name is Anna, what's yours?”

John says to the child “You can call me John”

As John enters the house he notices just how decrepit it is on the inside. The wallpaper is peeling at the edges, and there is trash everywhere. John was thinking things over and put together that she may have asked him if he was a policeman because she was worried about a policeman finding out what was going on at the house. He notes this and takes caution in what he was doing. After a little bit of odd random chatter between the two, Anna says

“You know, my parents don't like policemen”

“How come?” John asks curiously

“Mama thinks they will judge her” says Anna

“Now, why would they think that?” John asks

“Because” Anna says sinking deeper into her couch “She's a witch”

“A witch?” John says

“Yes, yes, mama knows how to use magic!” Anna takes John by the hand and leads him somewhere in the house. He asks

“Where are we going?”

“Downstairs!” she says enthusiastically while leading John

The first thing John noticed was the gut wrenching odor coming from the basement. She lets go of John's hand and runs down the rest of the stairs without him and disappears into the basement. John makes it to the bottom of the stairs and sees what is making the foul odor. There is a wall full of what he thought were wigs on the wall. When John took a better look, he noticed they were not wigs, it was real hair. This wall had many hooks on it, and on the hooks were scalps that still had hair on them displayed in their basement. John knew right away that he was in way over his head. John had lost sight of Anna, at this point he didn't care anymore, so he ran back up the stairs as fast as he could. Running through the kitchen and main room to get to the front door. He swings open the front door and practically jumps down the few stairs there leading up to the porch. John does not stop running until he gets to the nearest police station. More out of breath than he had ever been, he tries to explain what had happened to him. His words spilled out of his mouth so fast they were being thrown out together. He got the point across of what had happened and the police looked at him like he was crazy. And just like that, his dream of becoming a detective was absolutely crushed.