Human vs. Phantom

Chapter-4 Episode-1 Hocus Pocus

Chapter-4

Episode-1

Hocus Pocus

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Somerville, Massachusetts

“hey, booger! rise and shine. it's seven am and we got work”. Said Reeve in his joyous tone. It was seven in the morning and Reeve was sitting in a chair, reading a local newspaper while sipping on a big cup of rich and aromatic café noir. And Jim, he was sleeping with his hands and legs stretched out like a starfish on the bed. the quilt was covering his body from head to toe. Looking at his sleeping figure from near the bed, he did resemble a starfish. From his brother’s call, big Jimmy woke up from his deep beauty sleep.

“Where are we?” Jimmy said in his half-asleep, unclear voice while his mouth was wide opened from the yawn. sitting up at his bed he brushed his hand from his hair which was a mess and drool can be seen on his lips flowing all the way to his cheeks.

“hmmm…?” came a muffled voice from Jimmy’s mouth as if he just realized something. He was brushing his hand through his hair again and again but there was something unfamiliar about it. the touch on his hands felt weird to him. His hand didn’t get the usual ‘good feel’ from the touch. He kept doing it again and again but still, nothing changed. He was in bewilderment and his brother; his head was completely drowned in sucking out information from that newspaper and wasn't even looking at him.

“What happened to you now?” Reeve asked as he heard his brother’s confused Humm but his head was still hidden behind the pages of the paper.

“Something feels strange, my hair, they feel like yours, short and gelled.” He said as an answer to his brother's question.

“What nonsense are you muttering? are you still dreaming? Do you think that made any sense? Now get up we have work to do.” Reeve said in his authoritative voice, but still, his head was hidden in the newspaper.

“Wait did I drooled?” Jim said to himself wiping it off with his fingers. Never in his whole life, he could remember drooling in his sleep.

“What is the big deal in that? I drool all the time. Besides it is a good thing, it means you slept well. Now stop being a lazy lad and freshen up.” Reeve again spell out.

“Wait a minute, Reeve are you reading a newspaper?” Jim said amazed.

“Yes, so what is the big deal in that?” Reeve replied.

“And what is this smell? is this black coffee? Are you drinking black coffee?” Jim questioned taking deep breaths from his nostrils, to inhale the smell of coffee.

“Yeah, I like a strong dose of caffeine in the morning! is that a problem for you?” replied Reeve in his busy tone.

“No, you don’t, you hate black coffee. You hate anything that tastes bitter." Jim said.

"Do I?" Reeve replied.

"You like caramel cappuccino and mocha frappe and creme latte, you like all super sweet and high in calories foods. You never drink black coffee ever. So what got into you today?” Said Jimmy both amazed and baffled at the same time.

“Did I? But I feel like drinking black coffee today, so I bought one.” Reeve said folding the newspaper and putting it on the table. Then he looked at Jimmy. As their eyes met, they were both astonished and shocked. Like thunder struck them both at the same time. They were looking at each other, their eyes were wide open with what their eyes were seeing.

“Are you seeing what I am seeing?” Jim spoke out.

“I don’t even know what I am seeing.” Replied reeve in a rather flat and speechless tone.

“What is going on? why I am seeing myself sitting at the table where you are sitting. are you too? or I am still dreaming?” Jim said still confused about what is happening.

“No, I am seeing myself sitting on the bed where you are sitting right now too.” Reeve again said in a flat tone.

They both looked into each other's eyes as if looking at themself. They both ran to the mirror in the shower room. They were looking at themselves and at each other baffled, still trying to figure out what actually was going on. They were making weird faces and looking in the mirror at themselves doing it. All that was happening was rather impossible but it has happened. And how and when it happened, it was still unknown to them.

“What is going on here?” Reeve said.

“I think our soles interchanged,” Jim suggested.

“How does this happen? Is this even possible?” Reeve again spoke out.

“I don’t know. I don’t even remember how we are in this room or when we get here. the last thing I could remember was that we were looking for some witch.” Jim replied.

“Same for me. I did feel a bit strange when I woke up but I thought I was just tired.” Reeve explained.

“So, what happened last night?” Jim questioned.

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48 hours to go,

“I got a case.” Reeve said to Jim who was researching something on his laptop while sitting on a chair in the motel room that they recently checked in to after solving the green moose lake. they didn't have a house to stay by, they can only stay at a hotel if they are not hunting or investigating.

“But you said before the last case that we’ll work on finding that Nephilim who killed our parents after the case is done. and I want to give my time on that right now.” Jim whined.

“Look sam. we have been working on that for many weeks but we still got nothing in our hands. and I know that you and I both need something to keep ourselves working. we need to be on the field before we drive ourselves nuts. So here is the case in Somerville, Massachusetts, three locals, two women, and a man were found dead. And see how it says they died, one had her melon all jellied up, another bitten by a snake, found dead in her penthouse and the last one burned in his house sitting on a wooden chair, and guess what the chair had no burns and no signs of anything flammable that could cause the fire. What do you think it is? What must have been going on in this town?” Reeve questioned.

“What did the cops say?” Jim asked interested.

“For the brain jellied one, they said it was a brain hemorrhage and for the one who burned spontaneous combustion,” Reeve answered.

“What the hell is going on there?” Jim spoke out.

“One way to find out!” said Reeve and they went on their trip to Somerville, Massachusetts.

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29 hours to go,

02:00 pm

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“Oh baby, baby

Oh baby, baby

Oh baby, baby, how was I supposed to know

That something wasn't right here?

Oh baby, baby, I shouldn't have let you go

And now you're out of sight, yeah

Show me how to want it to be

Tell me, baby, 'cause I need to know now, oh because

My loneliness is killing me (and I)

I must confess I still believe (still believe)

When I'm not with you I lose my mind

Give me a sign

Hit me, baby, one more time

Oh baby, baby

The reason I breathe is you

Boy, you got me blinded

Oh, pretty baby

There's nothing that I wouldn't do

It's not the way I planned it

Show me how you want it to be

Tell me, baby, 'Cause I need to know now, oh because”

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“No seriously Reeve, let’s just stay in the motel for the night call it a day, and start from tomorrow. It's better and how will you meet this mother Ann at this time in the night?” Jim was trying to convince his brother who was driving the car for hours without any rest and still all hyped up to start the investigation for their case, that they should rest and wait till morning broke before starting to work on the case.

“I said I am not tired. And this, this case is more important. and you wanted to go back to our search for the Nephilim fast, so I am tryna do that” Replied reeve in his irritated tone.

“No, let’s just stop for a while. We will start working in the morning. You should know that exhausting yourself is not gonna help you. And there are just a few hours till the dawn” Jim still tried to convince him.

“Okay, just for a few hours.”

They located a nearby motel on the GPS and checked into the motel. The room that they checked in wasn’t that big, it was a cheap motel room after all. But it had two separate beds for them to sleep on at least and the room was clean. They were starving after the long drive, so for the dinner, they ordered Chinese takeout. After filling up their appetite they straight went to sleep.

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As the dawn broke Jim got up from the bed and readied himself for the day. It was about six in the morning, still early to wake Reeve up, he was really tired last night. So instead he went to grab two coffees, an espresso for himself, and a latte with extra cream for the big bro. He also bought a daily newspaper from the shop nearby while on his way back. When he was back in the room, Reeve was still asleep. so he went ahead to ake him up.

“Wake up Reeve it's almost seven,” Jim called out to his brother in a loud tone to wake him up.

“Huh? Where are we?” clicking his tongue, this was the first thing he said opening his eyes, he turned his body on his back, and get sited on the bed. Wiping his droll from his mouth he said,

“You got me coffee?”

“Yeah! Freshen up, we got work to do.”

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Jim and reeve were in the car, on the way to the laboratory where the bodies were kept of the two victims out of the three which was just ashes now for autopsy.

Jim was researching about the three victims on his tablet while on their way about who died, their profession, their family, and everything he could find. Jim had a software in it that he developed himself, he uses it to hack into the police security system to get any information about anyone without being detected on the system. It makes their jobs much easier and efficient.

“So, the first victim died two days ago, Patience Moon. She worked at a hospital as a nurse, she was forty-five-year-old, lived alone with her daughter, died from a 'brain hemorrhage' as the doctors explained, but still, the autopsy had an inconclusive report. Second, Oliver Winkel, a high-profile lawyer, was thirty-five, lived with her teenage daughter and husband, died from a snake bite one day ago. The last one was a high school teacher, Josh Brannon, he was Fifty, single dad, died yesterday from spontaneous combustion as the police said the cause is, still there is no hard proof of it.” Jim spoke out the profile of each victim from his table to reeve.

“You think they were somehow all connected? There must be some reason behind their deaths,” Jim said again.

“I don’t think that they will know each other, I mean their professions were all very distant from one another.” Reeve answered. “maybe they did know each other, I can’t say if they did or not.” he said again sighing.

“let’s see what we can get about them from the lab,” Reeve said as he sped off to the lab.

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