Human vs. Phantom

Chapter- 8 Episode- 5 What Scares Us the Most?

Chapter – 8

Episode – 5

What Scares Us the Most?

“here he is detective,” the medical examiner said to the giant standing next to her petite self, pulling the body out of the deep freezer in the morgue with a big chunk of her strength.

“that’s pretty nasty”, Jim blurted out uneasy, almost gagging, seeing the horrendous state of the body that was lying in front of him. The giant dark brown stitch marks with red flesh falling out of them all over the body, it will be more than a dozen at least at he spotted at the first glance. The body was blueish and pale but the marks were still newly stitched, and extremely horrendous to see; close to impossible to see without gagging your own puke.

“um-hmm,” the examiner said. “we barely sewed him back together to be at least recognizable, his body was flooding with so much food, it was almost impossible for humans to do so. She explained.”

“you know what could have caused such a thing to happen?” Jim questioned.

“I haven’t determined that just yet.” She answered undecided.

“come on doc, there must be a few guesses you could have make.” Jim said looking at the body. “off the record.” He added at last.

“off the record, way way off the record”,

“sure”

“I would say undoubtedly something really very nasty, nothing like this has ever happened that I knew of. It can’t be any kind of psychological problem, or at least not that I ever heard of, that’s for sure.” She responded.

“what will be your best guess?” Jim quired again.

“I would say some kind of animal bite, like rabies or something. Or maybe some kind of gas or chemical deposition, like the legend of the Russian sleep experiment. That drove him to do something like this, something so crazy.”, she said, it sounded crazy in itself coming out of the mouth of a person like her.

“Take a look here,” She picked a scalpel from the tray from a table close by and turned the head of the body to the left. Showing me the familiar red bite mark on the neck of the swimmer.

“maybe something bit him here, or worse someone might’ve intentionally injected him here with something fatal. Look how red it is, still so much long after his death.” She pointed.

“but still, I can’t say this in the report, can I? I love my job.” She said with a deep sigh hugging herself.

“Yeah, you sure do.”

- - - - - - - - - - -

“hey Nikita, what going on. Are you okay? You were sobbing on the phone. I came here as fast as I could.” Jim said sympathetic seeing the lifeless girl in immense crying with all her strength that was left in her.

“what happened?” Jim said again rubbing his hand gently on her back.

“I got a call from Jack, Stacy’s husband just now…” she said in a trembling sorrowful voice, and without completing the sentence she stated sobbing badly, her whole body was shaking like a dried leaf. She was so pitiful to look at, Jim hugged her and she started sobbing on his shoulder.

“what happened?” Jim asked again softly, scared of hurting her.

“he said…. He said Stacy… she died. My sister died in that rotten cell she was locked up in.” she said breaking into tears and sobbing even harder. Jim gasped hearing her.

“don’t you wanna see her?” Jim asked composing himself from the news.

“I can’t, I can’t face her. I promised her that I would protect her this time, like how she protected me our whole lives. But I couldn’t keep it. I couldn’t save her. I can’t face her like this ever.” She said barely controlling her sobs. She covered her face with her palms and hide her face in his broad shoulder. He caressed her head gently with his warm hands.

“you should see her, you know. She was the only family you have.” Jim empathized.

“had; no, I can’t, she won’t forgive me for not saving her.” She said heartbroken.

“you know she will never think about you like that.” Jim said to her. “you should see her.” He added.

- - - - - - - - - -

“where were you the whole day? I called you but you didn’t answer.” Reeve said seeing his brother walking in the room.

“what’s wrong?” he asked again seeing the condition his brother was in. he looked like a wreck.

“Stacy died in the jail.” Jim blurted out as he sat on the bed.

“what? When? How?” Reeve asked, confusing Jim with his sudden concern.

“in the afternoon.” Jim answered. “hey Reeve why do you suddenly so concerned about her? You hated just yesterday.” Jim said arrogantly.

“That was because I didn’t know she was innocent then, or at least that something supernatural happened with her. Why are you suddenly so bitter? Is there something wrong?” Reeve said bewildered.

“We have got nothing solid in our hands-on who is doing all this and Stacy was the fourth person to die in this town,” Jim said dismayed.

“you know the way Nikita cried on my shoulder today, the pain she had from her sister’s death, it was so painful to think of her situation. They were not much different from us Reeve. They live alone life too like us, without the loved of parents like an orphan, they just had each other their whole life live we do. I can’t even think about the immense, piercing pain that was scorning in her heart. I can’t bear if anything like that would’ve happened to you.” Jim said sorrowfully with quivering lips.

“hey, I am here. And I will be for a long long time. Don’t worry about me.” Reeve consoled his little brother. Jim is not an easy person when it comes to emotions. He can’t handle them well especially when it is about his brother.

“don’t worry so much about the thing that hasn’t happened yet. Ninety percent of the thing you worry about won’t even happen. Just go to sleep, you look like you’re freakin’ hit by a truckful of useless thoughts. Just sleep for today, don’t think about anything else.” Reeve added.

Tugging his brother in the warm quilt he went back to his work.

- - - - - - - - - -

“wakey wakey sleepy head, I've got you your black poison,” Reeve said putting a warm cup of coffee over his sleepy head, like literally. Jim woke from the hotness of the paper cup and sat on the bed.

Rubbing his eyes and cleaning the booger from it he said in a low sleep yawning voice, “how long did I sleep for?”

“uhh… about fourteen hours,” Reeve answered casually.

“what? What time is it now?” Jim said jolting out of his sleepy state.

“eight a.m.” Reeve quietly responded.

“you should have woken me earlier,” Jim complained standing on his feet.

“you looked so cute drooling like a baby, like how you slept when you were a kid.” Reeve blurted out.

“what are you doing?” Jim asked looking at him surrounded by papers.

“taking over your employment.” Reeve responded sarcastically. “wash you drool first and then we’ll talk.” Reeve added and Jim wiped his thumb over his lower lip walking to the bathroom.

“did you get something?” Jim asked walking out.

“Actually yes! I investigated through the police records and got something.” Reeve told him.

“When did you learned how to hack into their system?” Jim said somehow surprised. He was the brain in their jobs.

“you need to be a little more thankful to me, that I could do so much on my own,” Reeve said straddling the chair and leaning back on it.

“huh, well that’s good to know,” Jim responded.

“In 1999, the same thing happened a few towns over. Five locals died suspiciously and look here,” Reeve said clearing his throat, and continued in his husky voice, “I searched for their photos from the police department after their bodies were recovered and they all have similar marks on their bodies. The marks that you showed to me.” suddenly his brother intervened, “really, show me the photos”. “yeah, here, some of them had the mark on their necks as Stacy had, but some have them in different body parts. See the first one, it was on the back and this one had that mark on the right arm.” Jim was juggling through the photos he had in his hands from the cases. “The doctors and police got no leads on the murderers and so the investigation was closed” Reeve continued telling him.

“doesn’t it mean that there is a pattern behind the killings or the killers?” Jim said sitting on the chair and leaning back.

“yes, I think exactly that,” Reeve answered. “Whatever this thing is, it comes back every decade and kill exactly five people, the towns are different but the pattern is similar.” He explained. “But what I don’t know is their pattern to choose the victims.”

“maybe the vics have known each other or have something similar they share but there is nothing in the records.” Jim again.

“uh… I don’t think so, the police back then couldn’t find any common basis on the vics, nor could uncle Charles.” Reeve answered.

“Four is dead already, and we barely have a day or two days to find the hole poking fucker.”