Human vs. Phantom

Chapter- 8 Episode- 3 The red thing

Chapter- 8

Episode- 3

The red thing

“so, what is the police saying?” Jim asked Nikita in a calm but curious voice. She was trembling when she walked out of the police station, she was in cold sweats even in that freezing cold weather of December. It must be hard for her to see someone she loves so dearly being so vulnerable behind the bars.

“she was witnessed brutally assaulting and murdering the lady on the scene by many passing by. There is even video evidence of her doing it. But Stacy said she didn’t do it intentionally.” She answered him in a low shaky voice, her face was down watching the floor as if it may be the best view for her now big teardrops were falling on the floor.

Jim and Reeve were standing in front of her with interest and uninterest combined, Jim was worried for her while Reeve, what to say about him, he was forced to come along with his brother. He wasn’t feeling out of place, and like they were just wasting their time. He felt more like wasting their efforts on someone who was coldblooded and cruel enough to killed surrounded in useless rage. The time and efforts that can be used to save someone who is actually in trouble and needed to be saved.

“Jimmy, can I talk to you for a second?” Reeve said getting a confused look from his jimmy brother, dragging Jim away from the girl to have a chat with him.

“What is wrong with you, don’t you see how upset she was?” Jim asked him totally clueless of his brother’s intentions as he was being dragged away. He was almost shocked by his actions. His brother has never done anything as childish as this in front of him before.

“dude, what are you doing? What are we doing here?” Reeve question in frustration, trying to reason why his brother is here helping the sister of a cold-blooded killer. This is not what he would ever do even in most desperate times and he won't like his brother to do it either.

“what do you mean?” Jim asked confused. Weren’t they supposed to be helping others? That was something they always do, weren’t they? He was confused, he was just helping her when she needed it the most after all.

“I mean, that girl why are we here with her? Her sister killed someone and we are helping her? The police can manage it, we don’t need to be here. I mean today was supposed to be a fun, brother’s night, not a night that we will have to spend in and out of a police station, looking out for a murderer’s little sis. Don’t tell me you are in love with her already. I just asked you to have some fun, not to cause trouble.” Reeve said getting agitated, looking at where the girl was standing, his voice got low when she said the last sentence.

“How was I supposed to leave her there. I was going to spend time with her as you said, I can’t just leave when she needed someone’s help. And she didn’t seem that bad anyways.” Jim explained. He couldn’t see how disappointed Reeve was, he was not going to help a person who murdered someone with that brutality. He indeed helps others, but those people are innocents, not actual killers. He will never help someone like her and nothing can convince him in doing so.

“either leave with me right now, or I am leaving. I am not going be here anymore.”

“I don’t know why you hate her so much; you didn’t even talk to her.”

“I hate this situation that’s all. So, what do you want?”

“I can’t just leave her alone, at least until her family is here.”

“great, you do your thing then, I am out of here. I am not going to destroy my special night for anyone especially not her.” Reeve said raging from his brother’s naiveness. He doesn’t know when to stop being good to others. Maybe he is hard-wired like that.

“fine, go on, I won’t ask you to stop. You do your thing and I'll do mine.” Jim said disappointed and walked back.

- - - - - - - - - - -

“he never listens to his big brother. Whatever, I am gonna enjoy myself. Let him help the useless, he’ll come back running when he realizes how wrong he is.” Jim blabbered in frustration getting back in his car as he drove away.

- - - - - - - - - -

Beep* beep* beep* beep*

“ugh….” Reeve was in his car, adjusting his ‘taller than six feet’ body in his cramped car. His legs were stretched on the steering wheel, while his upper body was on the passenger seat, his neck crooked uncomfortably on the glass of the window and drool was visible on his cheeks. His hair was as always, a mess, a bird’s nest will be a similar reference to the mess. He woke up from the noise of the alarm, snoozing his phone he rested his legs down and stretched his body in the cramped space. He looked around clueless not remembering a thing of how he got here, which looked like the parking lot of someplace. like he was getting flashes from the night before in front of his eyes he remembered where he was.

After he left Jim out of the cop shop with that girl, he came to this bar, it was nice in there, a lot of people, dancing, chatting and drinking. Ideal place for him, where he can’t even hear his thoughts. He drank and drank there for hours, almost till the closing time. He wasn’t all that pathetic as it sounded, he flirted with girls too and danced with them, kissed a few too, and make-out with a few. but in the end, he was still not in the mood for a one-night stand. He slept in the parking lot, in his car the whole night.

He opens the door and walked out of it, stretching his whole body. Uh… his neck must hurt a lot. The wrinkles of pain on his forehead were visible, the hangover is gonna be pretty bad the whole day. And he had a long way to drive back to go to their motel. He spotted a café nearby, so he just opted to walk there to grab some possible magical hangover cure.

His car was not too far from the café, he can see it from the glass doors. He gets himself a creamy latte and a cheeseburger, the best hangover cure, ate it, and walked right back in his car. Feeling much better now, his body was less stiff from that caffeine.

Giving a kickstart to the car’s engine, he revived the long cold, dead car. Driving back to the motel room they rented.

- - - - - - - - - -

“When did you get back?” Reeve said, seeing his brother’s body stretched on the bed. he wasn’t sleeping, but he looked like he was almost drifting. He looked tired, swollen eyes and messy hair.

“I tried calling you like a hundred times, but you didn’t answer the phone. I got a bus here.” He answered in a low voice.

“Why aren’t you with that girl and her killer sister, I meant.” Reeve again said rudely.

“dude, seriously stop it. I am here for a reason.” Jim said.

“and what could that be? Don’t tell me that sister of her is not at all guilty of the murder.” Reeve added.

“look here.” He said passing him the laptop.

“what is it now?” Reeve said acting irritated.

“dude stop your act and get serious for a bit,” Jim said to him.

Reeve grabbed the laptop and start reading it when he heard his brother saying,

“these are some articles from last few days, all about the same town and all of them are suspicious.”

“a man died from overfeeding? What does that have anything to do with us?” Reeve asked Jim, confused.

“he was an athlete, training for the championship. He ate until he burst out, and I mean literally burst out. He was taken into emergency but couldn’t be saved. How can a professional athlete die from overeating? Isn’t the weird?” Jim said.

“it is actually. What is next?” Reeve said and read, “what, a teenager killed her mother?”

“yes, and that was just because her mother couldn’t afford to buy her as expensive presents as her friends,” Jim explained.

“I get it these things are weird but it ain't something that hasn’t had happened in the history. how can they be all connected? Those people are all too different from each other.” Reeve asked.

“I thought the same in the beginning, but then I saw this”, Jim said showing a photo to his brother from his phone.

“what is it? Is this the sister of that girl, uh… Stacy?” his brother asked.

“yes, she is Stacy. I saw this on her neck, and it looked like something I've seen before. So, I took this. See this”, Jim zoomed in the picture, to the neck of the woman in it. At first, it looked like a bug bite to a normal eye, it was red and swelled but with a close look, it no longer looked like bitten by a bug. It was rather something bigger and poisonous than a teeny-tiny bug.

“what is it?” Reeve spoke out.

“I was confused too at first but then I remembered this.” Jim went to the table and grabbed a book from it. He came back and showed a page in it to Reeve.

“This is the case that we worked on with uncle years back, isn’t it?” Reeve remembered.

“yes, that’s right. This is the same thing that killed those five people in our town ten years back.” Jim responded.

“but uncle couldn’t find the one behind the killings and the murders stopped so he stopped the investigation after not being able to find any more proofs,” Reeve said.

“yes, but there is something he missed though,” Jim replied.

“what are you saying?” Reeve didn’t remember what happened back then clearly, he was managing many things then and he was mostly working separately then his uncle on his own jobs and wasn’t much involved in that case either, while Jim has always been behind the scene of the cases that his uncle was working on. He did most of the research work on his own and sometimes even helped him in hunting. After their uncle passed away, Reeve banned him from doing any of those things, he thought that keep on hunting could be dangerous for Jim, and rather he worked his hardest to send him to college. He always tried to protect Jim, just like their parents would have done for them.