The Jinns Amongst Us

Chapter 62

Within a few minutes of ringing, the door opens up with the doctor himself opening without having the doorknob turned since it was already unlocked.

"Uhm.. you must be Dr Prameel, hi I'm.." said Afreen before getting interrupted by Dr Prameel. "They told me it was a boy, huh.. anyway, come, we have work to do." said Dr Prameel as he steps back inside, leading Afreen with her. "Doctor, wait, there is something..." said Afreen before getting interrupted by Dr Prameel.

"Whatever it is, it can wait, right now, I want you to head to the basement and grab some photographs inside, I'll be in my lab here." said Dr. Prameel. "Uhm.. okay?" said Afreen with confusion. "What are you waiting for? You need a camera?" asked Dr Prameel.

"No, I got one, thanks (shows her phone) I wanted to know, which way is the basement, yes, the basement, where is it?" asked Afreen. "At the end of the corridor, it's a dark place, mind your step when going on, carry a flashlight too, if you don't want to slip." said Dr Prameel.

"Yup, got that one covered too (shows her phone's flashlight) thanks." said Afreen as she heads off towards the corridor. As she reaches the end of it, where the door await, an uneasy feeling catches her as she reaches towards it, feeling a presence of a malevolent energy, emerging from the basement.

She opens the door and heads off into the dark stairs with the flashlight on, not knowing what to expect or to face, but given her newfound abilities, she seems confident on what to face.

"Wow, this is a really long stairs." said Afreen as she finishes towards her last step, landing onto the basement itself with one step as a weird and unusual scream is heard further in the distance, which sounded almost like someone is moaning.

"Creepy, definitely creepy." said Afreen who then turns back to go, but reflecting on what Khayun spoke to her earlier about not having to run from her demons, considering she is one herself now, she turns back off to head further into the basement itself, thinking the moaning was caused by some logical explanation.

"Hello? anyone here? of course anyone isn't here, why on earth would they be?" asked Afreen towards herself as she walks further towards this unusual noise which she keeps hearing.

She reaches onto a point where she hears the noise at a close distance, but still faced with a doubt whether it could be some monster who will latch onto her, or it will be something rational which will ease her tension.

"Okay, I'm a Jinn, I'm a Jinn, there's nothing that I should be scared of.." said Afreen within her mind as she immediately sights her phone's flashlight towards the point, only to see a age old broken water plumbing system, which is still operational, but with no water to plumb through, a weirdly noise is given out when air moves through.

"See? rational, there is nothing to be.." said Afreen when a second passed as a laughter is heard from above her to which she immediately turns, frightened by the amount of closeness she felt.

"Anyone there?" asked Afreen as she turns over the light towards the place, only to find no unusual sighting. "What the heck is this place?" asked Afreen. "Home." said a whisper towards her ear to which she immediately turns, but reaches thin air, having seen or heard no presence. "I think I should be outta here." said Afreen as she takes in a few photographs immediately and heads out towards the stairs when it suddenly shuts itself from above to which she stops.

"Leave? why leave, you've only just come." said the whisper again, this time coming from the water tunnels. "Let me go, you have no idea what I am." said Afreen. "Still she speaks, not begs, why I wonder?" asked the voice.

"I'll show you exactly why." said Afreen as she numbs herself from the fear and almost goes to tap towards her power when suddenly the lights come back on, to which she immediately withdraws as she sees, just a average group of people dressed in ghost costumes, within one transmitting his voice through the water tunnels.

"There, I found the light switch." yelled Dr Prameel from above to which she turns and finds herself confused. "Dad, you had to ruin it, didn't you?" asked the person transmitting his voice.

"Ruin what?" asked Dr Prameel.

"The prank, we were pranking the new kid, we've almost pulled it through, until you.." said the person. "I see, then continue, and bring me the photographs, it's important." said Dr Prameel as he departs.

"What is going on here?" asked Afreen as one of them, a girl dressed in badly costume as a ghost approaches with a smile. "Hi, you must be Tim, sorry about that, it's our initiation ritual, a prank, then we sorta.." said the girl as another person interrupts, silencing her.

"Whatever man, it didn't work right? can I get out of this costume, it's making me feel sick." said another person within the group with another ghost costume. "Okay, fine, in fact, all of you go, get dressed back, jeez, can't even do a prank these days, it's a nightmare." said the person as he gets out of the transmitter he built which he attached himself to prior. "You are guys a weird.." said Afreen.

"Yeah, we are, it's kind of our thing." said the girl. "I said leave, and get dressed, not stay and smile, let me talk to the new kid." said the person as he detaches from the transmitter and proceeds towards Afreen.

"Okay, bye, here is my number." said the girl who shifts a note in her pocket and leaves along with the others. "Sorry about jeepers creepers, she's kind of like that." said the person. "Hey!" yelled the girl as she then departs. "You just staged a prank on me, now you're asking sorry for that girl's comment." said Afreen.

"I am really sorry about that, it's just, we've been here for so long, when we heard a new kid coming, we wanted to have some fun." said the person. "Having fun by scaring someone else is not fun, do you understand? since it was me, it's fine, but what if someone else got terrified of what you did." said Afreen. "We would have immediately broke out the prank, it's how we planned, the longer a person stays, the longer we will push, again I'm sorry, the doctor said it was a boy named Tim, didn't realize it was a girl." said the person.

"It's fine, thank god for Dr Prameel's intrusion or there might have been a really serious issue." whispered Afreen. "What?" asked the person. "Nothing, it's.. complicated, word of advice, don't ever stage something like this one me again, ever." said Afreen. "Okay, sure, we won't, it was a one time thing, anyway Tim, I'm Jason, come on, I'll introduce you to the others, hopefully they might have changed." said the person.

"I am.. not Tim, as in, I'm not Timothy." said Afreen. "You're not Tim, who are you then? what are you doing here?" asked Jason. "That's what I wanted to say, the real Tim, Timothy Blake, caught himself in a accident, he's okay now, but he wanted me to inform the doctor in person, which I did, until he sent me here." said Afreen. "Oh, that's bad.. and weird, anyways, good thing he didn't listen to you then." said Jason.

"What?" asked Afreen.

"The doctor, my dad, is a nasty piece of work, trust me, if he had known you weren't Tim, he would have fired the real one, cutting his salary off completely, he did it before with another guy too, only he didn't have accident." said Jason. "Oh, that's, inhumane, then, what should I do now?" asked Afreen. "Simple, you act as Tim, what's your real name again?" asked Jason.

"Afreen, and no, I'm not acting as Tim, I'm gonna tell him the truth, i just came here to tell him that, and that only." said Afreen. "Trust me, it's a bad idea, you don't know my dad, when it comes to money, he's like a shark, just, follow my instructions okay? just.. pretend to be Tim, once this is over, I'll inform him myself, and you can go back to being Afreen again, think about it, you're doing this for your friend." said Jason.

"Fine, okay, do I tell the others that I'm.." said Afreen. "Nope, definitely not, they'll post it on social media, right now, you're Tim, keep it in mind, come on." said Jason as he heads towards the stairs. "Wait, what about the photographs? did you take them?" asked Afreen. "Yeah, I took them earlier, come on now." said Jason as he departs.

"What did I get myself into?" said Afreen as she then follows Jason upstairs. As she arrives towards the hall, where the rest of them are still having their meals, still dressed in their costumes just as the doctor too joins and has his meals. "Guys, I told you to change." said Jason.

"No, it would take hours, I needed to get a shower and all, I couldn't wait, I'm hungry." said another girl besides the one whom Jason mentioned as Jeepers creepers earlier. "You know you can't take a bath immediately after eating right? you need to wait a little." said Dr Prameel.

"Yup, and we still don't care, we're hungry." said another boy. "Hey, look, Tim's here too, come, sit with us Tim, we'll introduce you to everyone." said the girl earlier mentioned as Jeepers creepers by Jason. "Leave that to me, Jenina, please sit." said Jason as he lends in a seat after they arrived washing their hands.

"Thanks." said Afreen.

"Here I thought I expected a boy, but the girl crowd keeps getting large." said the boy. "It's just the three of us now, three isn't a crowd, four is, not to mention with Dr Prameel it's five." said the other girl.