[orig] Haunted - Case 1: Body in the Water [1/2)
Words: 6,422
Case 01 : "Body in the Water"
Jake found Ren in a lake.
There's more to the story.
He was possessed, at the time, so it was okay.
Alright, back peddling to the beginning.
There had been a rash of unexplainable, supernatural happenings creating chaos up in Glenwood, Minnesota. People were going blind. In fact, half the town of Glenwood was blind. Any house off North Lake Shore Drive all the way across the train tracks.
Jake arrived on a Monday and was greeted with smiles by the locals. Jake had poked his nose into the hospitals and sniffed around for a day or two before he got a break.
What did all the folks have in common? Water.
It happened.
Jake remembered once that a witch had cast a spell on a water tower in Iowa - causing the entire town to have the hiccups for weeks on end. What linked the people of Glenwood Mn together was their lake.
Lake Minnewaska was huge, stuck between Glenwood and Starbuck and, Jake found out, that both the towns' occupants were suddenly having a problem seeing. In fact, the try state area was having a hard time seeing a clear cause to this problem.
On the first night back in Glenwood,
Jake found a boy.
"Hey!"
The moon was shining strongly, and Jake's gun was cold against his side. A second cold spot sat against his back - two guns for two different types of ammo. Silver and Holy Water. Silver for anything human, holy water for everything else. The boy's shoulders were round but bold. His toes were barley touching the water - and if it were two months ago, Jake wouldn't find the boy's lack of clothes anything but distressing - but Jakes breath was fogging in front of him and this other guy was wearing almost nothing.
"Hey!" Jake tried again, and it seemed like the entire lake rippled with his voice. The boy turned his head - hair dark and straggly - eyes pure black.
Jake prepared himself for...something. Anything. Possession - a demon, it had to be a demon. He - it - smiled at Jake and stepped onto the water. Jake had his gun - the one full of holy water - sighted onto it from the moment it moved, but the Demon didn't do anything but walk on water.
It was about half way to the center of the lake before Jake got over it walking on water. Then, simply, the demon dropped into the lake and disappeared.
Jake found Glenwood's library the next day.
He searched through the local ledges, old newspapers, everything. There wasn't a book anywhere that would help him with a Jesus-like demon.
There were three other people in the hospital that day. All three couldn't see, and all three had either bathed, showered, or consumed lake water the previous day.
Standing on the steps of the library, with straggly black hair and smoothly round shoulders was the demon itself.
Except, this time, the demon - this kid - had green eyes. Very confused, very angry green eyes, and a voice that cause all sorts of people to look at them.
Shaking off Jake's hand, the kid stepped back and said loudly. "Can I help you?!"
Jake, surprised, was mute. The kid's eyebrow cocked, his eyes turning darker with anger.
"What the hell are you looking at?"
"Derrick!" A new voice said, and everyone around them seamed to relax.
A woman - no older then Jake - with black hair and green eyes - grabbed onto the demon-boy's shoulder and glared at Jake, hard. She had to be his sister... "Can I help you?"
Jake, sorting out his thoughts, pulled a smile on his normally docile face. "No, I thought he was my little brother. My little squirt got away from me."
She smiled, and Jake grinned inwardly. He had guessed right. "They do that from time to time. Your new around here, aren't you? Traveling?"
Jake extended his hand, and she took it carefully, he grip relaxing on her brother. Sweet, he could get information out of this. "Jake Arbor. Me and my brother are passing through - cross-country thing. Stopped here for some R&R."
She smiled and tapped her brother on the shoulder once. "Shelly Ramos. Well, you picked a very good time to come, huh?"
He laughed. This would be very easy. "Yeah. I've been wondering what's going on here - I don't know if me and my brother should chill here or move on."
"Move on - " The kid - Derrick- said, his tone a lot more controlled then it had been. The kid had to be 16, maybe - small and almost underdeveloped. "- this place is falling apart."
"D, don't say that." Shelly elbowed her brother lightly, shaking her head. Derrick gave her a look over his shoulder and turned away. Shelly looked back at Jake, her hand going up to her necklace. "It's not falling apart. Actually, I'm not to sure anything's really going on...."
Jake raised his eyebrow. This woman knew something. "Really? So sudden blindness attacking half the town isn't strange?"
She gave him a look, her hand dropping from her necklace. Jake's eyes stayed on the small silver Star of David that hung around her neck while she spoke. "Well, yes, alright..."
"What could have caused it, do'ya think?" Jake pushed. "Anything happen before everything started?"
Derrick grinned and started. "Yeah, the synagogue got tra-"
.Shelly elbowed him, harder this time. She made a play of looking at her watch and grabbed onto her brothers arm. With a smile, Shelly started away from Jake. "I-I'm sorry - we have to go. Please stay a while longer - this should all stop soon enough. Have a nice day!"
Jake watched the two of them move away, the younger boy struggling against his older sister, then turned on his heal and headed back into the library.
Jake searched through recent papers of the town for another two hours before he gave up for the day. Nothing - Jake couldn't fine anything about a synagogue being burnt or trashed or whatever. If there was anything, the town was freaking quiet about it.
But now that he thought about it, Jake took one more trip through the town. The only synagogue he found sat near the lake, small and quiet and Jake tucked his cross in and hoped he looked more Jewish then he felt.
An hour and an half later, Jake walked out with no more faith then he had going in and more knowledge then before.
So, it seamed that almost three weeks ago, a couple of teens broke in to the Synagogue and trashed everything - everything. Nothing was left unturned, unruffled, or undisturbed. A big no-no in the faith, so he was told. You don't do something things because..you simply didn't. Also, that the majority of the people in Glenwood happened to be Christen.
Jake wondered briefly if he had checked over the 'Religious Orientation' part of the charts at the hospital. Jake saddle up and sped off toward the local hospital. He was losing daylight.
The next day landed three more christens in the hospital and Jake a lot further from answers then he wanted to be.
And, to top it off, some asshole had pulled out all of the myth and lore books, along with anything to do with the Jewish faith. 'He said he was working on his paper for college,' the librarian informed him, pointing toward a table in the back. 'He's over there, if you really need a book...'
It wouldn't be until later that that same asshole would become his partner.
The kid had long hair - at least, for Jake, it was long. Jake like to keep his hair short - easer to clean, less of a mess. The mop of brown hair was - what only could be conceded - disheveled, and not dashingly so. The kid had small shoulders, his wrists skinny and small. His hands were on the larger side though. Jake couldn't tell if he was tall - but he didn't care much. Mop-Head was maybe 170lbs, at most.
The most important part about this kid was the cross around his neck.
Jake liked crosses - it came with his job. Most people have designed crosses - for waving around in everyone face, to draw attention to their religion. But this kids cross was plane, solid silver, maybe the size of a piece of Trident gum. Teeny as hell - insent onto the metals was words, small, scrawling - Jake knew three other people with that same cross, and all three of them were hunters. That told Jake two things - this kid believed in something, and they had the same job.
"Hey," Jake made sure his tone was a little kinder. It was hard, but he did it. Mop-Head looked up, green eyes light but full. The kid raised his eyebrow.
"Yeah?"
"What'd you studying?" Jake took his jacket off and draped it over the chair across from the brunet. Mop-Head blinked at that, seriousness clouding his eyes.
"Folklore." He said simply, dropping his eyes back to the book in his hands. Jake ground his teeth together.
"Look," He leaned forward, face more serious - losing the kind, polite tone in his voice. Mop-Head didn't look up. "Can I look through some of these books, or are you hording them for you own pleasure?"
The kid gave a shrug, a small tug of his lips, and nodded toward the stack on his left. "Be my guest."
Jake closed his eyes and shook his head, grabbing the book on the top of the stack. "Thanks..."
Another hour later, they had both gone through four books each. Jake was getting the feeling that he wasn't the only one looking for this demon-thing. Halfway through 'Religion Through The Ages - A Guide To Your Soul', Jake saw the kid straighten. Sureness surged through Mop's body. The kid slammed the book shut and grabbed the jacket that was hanging on the chair behind him. He stood - Jake was right, he was on the short side - and turned to Jake.
"Don't worry about the books when you’re done - librarians will take care of it. Have a nice night."
And with that, Mop head was out the door. Jake waited a beat - to see if he would come back - then grabbed the book Mop had been going through and started flipping. Of course, the stupid ass kid wouldn't leave a marker for himself...
...unless this kid knew what he was doing.
Jake grunted at himself for the thought and continued to dig.
Twenty minutes later, Jake found it.
'...Hebrew demons were workers of harm. To them were ascribed the various diseases, particularly such as affect the brain and the inner parts. Hence there was a fear of "Shabriri" (lit. "dazzling glare"), the demon of blindness, who rests on uncovered water at night and strikes those with blindness who drink of it (Pesachim 112a; Avodah Zarah 12b); also mentioned were the spirit of catalepsy and the spirit of headache, the demon of epilepsy, and the spirit of nightmare...'
Jake slammed the book closed - grabbed his jacked - and went to the lake.
The next day, three more people lost their sight, and Derrick Ramos was found dead in the cold water at 8:35 AM.
Jake never liked funereal.
Apparently, he didn't like Shivas either.
Jake made sure his hair was in some sort of place, that his jacket and pants didn't have any blood spots or dirt patches on them. The Ramos home was quiet - on the corner of 6th Ave and some other street. It was white, with hedges, and Jake almost felt improper walking into this woman's home. He did anyway, ducking through the living room, nodding at relatives with a sad sort of frown on his face and a almost-knowing look in his eyes - finding Shelly and her parents in the kitchen.
Shelly recognized him instantly. She hugged him - Jake going stiff, but letting his arms go around her as well - and nodded at his sympathy.
"The day I met you was the last day we saw him. He went missing that night..." She explained with her head down. Jake hated seeing peoples grief so out in the open. It made him itchy with his own.
"If you don't mind me asking, what happened exactly?" Jake tried to makes his voice kinder. It worked.
She sniffled and shook her head slightly. "We had a fight. He got on his bike and left. He seemed so different - defiant and nasty. He was saying things that were so...hurtful...I know he didn't mean it - I know - but something must have gone wrong that day. He was just so...not himself."
Jake nodded and rubbed her back as she started to cry again.
"Shelly?" A voice said, and low and behold, Mop-Head stood in a suit, looking equally as surprised to see Jake as Jake was to see him. Shelly picked her head up immediately, relief washing over her face.
"Oh Ren." She all but launched herself into his arms. Mop-Head - or Ren, Jake guessed - hugged her back, his eyes on Jake.
"I'm so sorry Shelly..." He mumbled, and Jake stood. Ren's eyes moved with him, and when Shelly moved back, Ren took her hand. "...can I talk to you for a second?"
Shelly nodded and turned, giving Jake a small kiss on his cheek and saying goodbye. Jake put a smile on and nodded, watching the two move out of the kitchen. Jake waited a moment, then followed them through the living room and down a flight of stairs. To the immediate left was a room, it's door slightly closed. Jake pushed himself against the wall and turned just a little to pear into the room. Sure enough, Shelly's back was to the door.
."-what it is? Can you do anything? Ren, God, we need to tell somebody!"
Ren's voice had humor in it. "Tell them what? That a demon is polluting the water. They'll check us into a mental hospital before we can say Sha....Shabree...shit, what the hell was that thing called?"
"Shabriri." Jake pushed the door open with his toe and leaned against the door frame. Shelly jumped into Ren - who didn't look surprised to see Jake at all. Shelly's eyes were wide.
"H-how did-"
"He was at the library last night." Ren said to her, then spoke to Jake. "You found it in that book, right?"
"Not my strong point - vengeful religious demons n'all." Jake said casually. Ren - who maybe wasn't as young as Jake thought - had a frown on his face.
"Tact doesn't seem to be to high on that list either."
Jake's eyebrows must have hit his hair line. So the Mop had teeth...
"I want to help." Jake said, crossing his arms. "I've had run-ins with demons before. Vengeful religion based demons tend to be a little difficult - considering how wide spread it's territory is and simply the vast amount of them that there are. I know how to-"
"I don't need your help." Ren smirked.
Jake grit his teeth and counted to ten.
Three minutes later, Jake was out of the house and down the block. The sun was starting to set, and Jake needed to get to the lake. His car sat - black and ominous - at the corner.
"You know how to kill it?"
Jake turned, is hand reaching behind him already - toward his gun. Ren was standing there, looking impossibly determined and sure. Jake let his hand fall, relaxing - but something in his brain made him want to hold that gun, just to be safe.
"No, but I'll find out."
Ren smiled - a smirk that seemed so uncharacteristic, something Jake felt didn't belong on that face, so angry and knowing. But what the hell did he know? - He had seen the kid one other time and only talked to him for a overall 4 minutes. Ren turned on his heal and went back to the house.
The next morning, six more good Christian people were in the hospital.
Jake found Ren at the library, mop-head bent low over a different book. Jake pulled up a chair and sat across from him.
The library smelled like dust and old, way to light and to open for Jake to like all that much. Ren pulled his head up first, his eyes finishing a sentence. "Yeah?"
"How do you kill it?" Jake hated it when he had to ask for help. He hated not knowing what to do or how to do it. He worked alone - he should know everything.
Ren, for his own part, looked more alive today - more so then he did last night. It must have been the death of that little kid - today his eyes seamed clearer. Ren raise his eyebrow, a smirk on his face. "I thought you said you'll be fine out yourself."
"Yeah, well...I'm not exactly the old Hebrew demon buff that I once was..."
Ren laughed, shaking his head. "Well, can you at least speak Hebrew?"
As it turned out, Jake could not. Ren, on the other hand, proved more useful. He had a note book with all sorts of incantations in them - in at least 12 languages.
"You can read all of these?" Jake said, flipping over to one he was sure was written in Turkish. Ren shook his head and flipped through another notebook.
"No - well, yes. I can read them and I know what they do, but I could be asking for my sister to beat me with a ladle then to go screw my father for all I know."
Jake shook his head and flipped the page. He had to bite the inside of his cheek not to smile.
"That's the one. The one that looks like it's written backwards." Ren nodded toward the book Jake had, then touched a sketch on his own pad. "And I found the talismanic we needed. It's a simple quarts crystal-"
"Those I have." Jake leaned forward, ripping out a piece of paper from the back of the book and rewriting the incantation. "When are we doing this?"
Ren checked his watch and scratched the back of his fuzzy head with his other hand. "Let’s meat at 11 Halwood Rode branches off toward the lake - there are trees between it and the rode. It's easer to get the lake there - privet too. One will see."
Jake nodded, cracked his neck and left.
To Part 2
Case 01 : "Body in the Water"
Jake found Ren in a lake.
There's more to the story.
He was possessed, at the time, so it was okay.
Alright, back peddling to the beginning.
There had been a rash of unexplainable, supernatural happenings creating chaos up in Glenwood, Minnesota. People were going blind. In fact, half the town of Glenwood was blind. Any house off North Lake Shore Drive all the way across the train tracks.
Jake arrived on a Monday and was greeted with smiles by the locals. Jake had poked his nose into the hospitals and sniffed around for a day or two before he got a break.
What did all the folks have in common? Water.
It happened.
Jake remembered once that a witch had cast a spell on a water tower in Iowa - causing the entire town to have the hiccups for weeks on end. What linked the people of Glenwood Mn together was their lake.
Lake Minnewaska was huge, stuck between Glenwood and Starbuck and, Jake found out, that both the towns' occupants were suddenly having a problem seeing. In fact, the try state area was having a hard time seeing a clear cause to this problem.
On the first night back in Glenwood,
Jake found a boy.
"Hey!"
The moon was shining strongly, and Jake's gun was cold against his side. A second cold spot sat against his back - two guns for two different types of ammo. Silver and Holy Water. Silver for anything human, holy water for everything else. The boy's shoulders were round but bold. His toes were barley touching the water - and if it were two months ago, Jake wouldn't find the boy's lack of clothes anything but distressing - but Jakes breath was fogging in front of him and this other guy was wearing almost nothing.
"Hey!" Jake tried again, and it seemed like the entire lake rippled with his voice. The boy turned his head - hair dark and straggly - eyes pure black.
Jake prepared himself for...something. Anything. Possession - a demon, it had to be a demon. He - it - smiled at Jake and stepped onto the water. Jake had his gun - the one full of holy water - sighted onto it from the moment it moved, but the Demon didn't do anything but walk on water.
It was about half way to the center of the lake before Jake got over it walking on water. Then, simply, the demon dropped into the lake and disappeared.
Jake found Glenwood's library the next day.
He searched through the local ledges, old newspapers, everything. There wasn't a book anywhere that would help him with a Jesus-like demon.
There were three other people in the hospital that day. All three couldn't see, and all three had either bathed, showered, or consumed lake water the previous day.
Standing on the steps of the library, with straggly black hair and smoothly round shoulders was the demon itself.
Except, this time, the demon - this kid - had green eyes. Very confused, very angry green eyes, and a voice that cause all sorts of people to look at them.
Shaking off Jake's hand, the kid stepped back and said loudly. "Can I help you?!"
Jake, surprised, was mute. The kid's eyebrow cocked, his eyes turning darker with anger.
"What the hell are you looking at?"
"Derrick!" A new voice said, and everyone around them seamed to relax.
A woman - no older then Jake - with black hair and green eyes - grabbed onto the demon-boy's shoulder and glared at Jake, hard. She had to be his sister... "Can I help you?"
Jake, sorting out his thoughts, pulled a smile on his normally docile face. "No, I thought he was my little brother. My little squirt got away from me."
She smiled, and Jake grinned inwardly. He had guessed right. "They do that from time to time. Your new around here, aren't you? Traveling?"
Jake extended his hand, and she took it carefully, he grip relaxing on her brother. Sweet, he could get information out of this. "Jake Arbor. Me and my brother are passing through - cross-country thing. Stopped here for some R&R."
She smiled and tapped her brother on the shoulder once. "Shelly Ramos. Well, you picked a very good time to come, huh?"
He laughed. This would be very easy. "Yeah. I've been wondering what's going on here - I don't know if me and my brother should chill here or move on."
"Move on - " The kid - Derrick- said, his tone a lot more controlled then it had been. The kid had to be 16, maybe - small and almost underdeveloped. "- this place is falling apart."
"D, don't say that." Shelly elbowed her brother lightly, shaking her head. Derrick gave her a look over his shoulder and turned away. Shelly looked back at Jake, her hand going up to her necklace. "It's not falling apart. Actually, I'm not to sure anything's really going on...."
Jake raised his eyebrow. This woman knew something. "Really? So sudden blindness attacking half the town isn't strange?"
She gave him a look, her hand dropping from her necklace. Jake's eyes stayed on the small silver Star of David that hung around her neck while she spoke. "Well, yes, alright..."
"What could have caused it, do'ya think?" Jake pushed. "Anything happen before everything started?"
Derrick grinned and started. "Yeah, the synagogue got tra-"
.Shelly elbowed him, harder this time. She made a play of looking at her watch and grabbed onto her brothers arm. With a smile, Shelly started away from Jake. "I-I'm sorry - we have to go. Please stay a while longer - this should all stop soon enough. Have a nice day!"
Jake watched the two of them move away, the younger boy struggling against his older sister, then turned on his heal and headed back into the library.
Jake searched through recent papers of the town for another two hours before he gave up for the day. Nothing - Jake couldn't fine anything about a synagogue being burnt or trashed or whatever. If there was anything, the town was freaking quiet about it.
But now that he thought about it, Jake took one more trip through the town. The only synagogue he found sat near the lake, small and quiet and Jake tucked his cross in and hoped he looked more Jewish then he felt.
An hour and an half later, Jake walked out with no more faith then he had going in and more knowledge then before.
So, it seamed that almost three weeks ago, a couple of teens broke in to the Synagogue and trashed everything - everything. Nothing was left unturned, unruffled, or undisturbed. A big no-no in the faith, so he was told. You don't do something things because..you simply didn't. Also, that the majority of the people in Glenwood happened to be Christen.
Jake wondered briefly if he had checked over the 'Religious Orientation' part of the charts at the hospital. Jake saddle up and sped off toward the local hospital. He was losing daylight.
The next day landed three more christens in the hospital and Jake a lot further from answers then he wanted to be.
And, to top it off, some asshole had pulled out all of the myth and lore books, along with anything to do with the Jewish faith. 'He said he was working on his paper for college,' the librarian informed him, pointing toward a table in the back. 'He's over there, if you really need a book...'
It wouldn't be until later that that same asshole would become his partner.
The kid had long hair - at least, for Jake, it was long. Jake like to keep his hair short - easer to clean, less of a mess. The mop of brown hair was - what only could be conceded - disheveled, and not dashingly so. The kid had small shoulders, his wrists skinny and small. His hands were on the larger side though. Jake couldn't tell if he was tall - but he didn't care much. Mop-Head was maybe 170lbs, at most.
The most important part about this kid was the cross around his neck.
Jake liked crosses - it came with his job. Most people have designed crosses - for waving around in everyone face, to draw attention to their religion. But this kids cross was plane, solid silver, maybe the size of a piece of Trident gum. Teeny as hell - insent onto the metals was words, small, scrawling - Jake knew three other people with that same cross, and all three of them were hunters. That told Jake two things - this kid believed in something, and they had the same job.
"Hey," Jake made sure his tone was a little kinder. It was hard, but he did it. Mop-Head looked up, green eyes light but full. The kid raised his eyebrow.
"Yeah?"
"What'd you studying?" Jake took his jacket off and draped it over the chair across from the brunet. Mop-Head blinked at that, seriousness clouding his eyes.
"Folklore." He said simply, dropping his eyes back to the book in his hands. Jake ground his teeth together.
"Look," He leaned forward, face more serious - losing the kind, polite tone in his voice. Mop-Head didn't look up. "Can I look through some of these books, or are you hording them for you own pleasure?"
The kid gave a shrug, a small tug of his lips, and nodded toward the stack on his left. "Be my guest."
Jake closed his eyes and shook his head, grabbing the book on the top of the stack. "Thanks..."
Another hour later, they had both gone through four books each. Jake was getting the feeling that he wasn't the only one looking for this demon-thing. Halfway through 'Religion Through The Ages - A Guide To Your Soul', Jake saw the kid straighten. Sureness surged through Mop's body. The kid slammed the book shut and grabbed the jacket that was hanging on the chair behind him. He stood - Jake was right, he was on the short side - and turned to Jake.
"Don't worry about the books when you’re done - librarians will take care of it. Have a nice night."
And with that, Mop head was out the door. Jake waited a beat - to see if he would come back - then grabbed the book Mop had been going through and started flipping. Of course, the stupid ass kid wouldn't leave a marker for himself...
...unless this kid knew what he was doing.
Jake grunted at himself for the thought and continued to dig.
Twenty minutes later, Jake found it.
'...Hebrew demons were workers of harm. To them were ascribed the various diseases, particularly such as affect the brain and the inner parts. Hence there was a fear of "Shabriri" (lit. "dazzling glare"), the demon of blindness, who rests on uncovered water at night and strikes those with blindness who drink of it (Pesachim 112a; Avodah Zarah 12b); also mentioned were the spirit of catalepsy and the spirit of headache, the demon of epilepsy, and the spirit of nightmare...'
Jake slammed the book closed - grabbed his jacked - and went to the lake.
The next day, three more people lost their sight, and Derrick Ramos was found dead in the cold water at 8:35 AM.
Jake never liked funereal.
Apparently, he didn't like Shivas either.
Jake made sure his hair was in some sort of place, that his jacket and pants didn't have any blood spots or dirt patches on them. The Ramos home was quiet - on the corner of 6th Ave and some other street. It was white, with hedges, and Jake almost felt improper walking into this woman's home. He did anyway, ducking through the living room, nodding at relatives with a sad sort of frown on his face and a almost-knowing look in his eyes - finding Shelly and her parents in the kitchen.
Shelly recognized him instantly. She hugged him - Jake going stiff, but letting his arms go around her as well - and nodded at his sympathy.
"The day I met you was the last day we saw him. He went missing that night..." She explained with her head down. Jake hated seeing peoples grief so out in the open. It made him itchy with his own.
"If you don't mind me asking, what happened exactly?" Jake tried to makes his voice kinder. It worked.
She sniffled and shook her head slightly. "We had a fight. He got on his bike and left. He seemed so different - defiant and nasty. He was saying things that were so...hurtful...I know he didn't mean it - I know - but something must have gone wrong that day. He was just so...not himself."
Jake nodded and rubbed her back as she started to cry again.
"Shelly?" A voice said, and low and behold, Mop-Head stood in a suit, looking equally as surprised to see Jake as Jake was to see him. Shelly picked her head up immediately, relief washing over her face.
"Oh Ren." She all but launched herself into his arms. Mop-Head - or Ren, Jake guessed - hugged her back, his eyes on Jake.
"I'm so sorry Shelly..." He mumbled, and Jake stood. Ren's eyes moved with him, and when Shelly moved back, Ren took her hand. "...can I talk to you for a second?"
Shelly nodded and turned, giving Jake a small kiss on his cheek and saying goodbye. Jake put a smile on and nodded, watching the two move out of the kitchen. Jake waited a moment, then followed them through the living room and down a flight of stairs. To the immediate left was a room, it's door slightly closed. Jake pushed himself against the wall and turned just a little to pear into the room. Sure enough, Shelly's back was to the door.
."-what it is? Can you do anything? Ren, God, we need to tell somebody!"
Ren's voice had humor in it. "Tell them what? That a demon is polluting the water. They'll check us into a mental hospital before we can say Sha....Shabree...shit, what the hell was that thing called?"
"Shabriri." Jake pushed the door open with his toe and leaned against the door frame. Shelly jumped into Ren - who didn't look surprised to see Jake at all. Shelly's eyes were wide.
"H-how did-"
"He was at the library last night." Ren said to her, then spoke to Jake. "You found it in that book, right?"
"Not my strong point - vengeful religious demons n'all." Jake said casually. Ren - who maybe wasn't as young as Jake thought - had a frown on his face.
"Tact doesn't seem to be to high on that list either."
Jake's eyebrows must have hit his hair line. So the Mop had teeth...
"I want to help." Jake said, crossing his arms. "I've had run-ins with demons before. Vengeful religion based demons tend to be a little difficult - considering how wide spread it's territory is and simply the vast amount of them that there are. I know how to-"
"I don't need your help." Ren smirked.
Jake grit his teeth and counted to ten.
Three minutes later, Jake was out of the house and down the block. The sun was starting to set, and Jake needed to get to the lake. His car sat - black and ominous - at the corner.
"You know how to kill it?"
Jake turned, is hand reaching behind him already - toward his gun. Ren was standing there, looking impossibly determined and sure. Jake let his hand fall, relaxing - but something in his brain made him want to hold that gun, just to be safe.
"No, but I'll find out."
Ren smiled - a smirk that seemed so uncharacteristic, something Jake felt didn't belong on that face, so angry and knowing. But what the hell did he know? - He had seen the kid one other time and only talked to him for a overall 4 minutes. Ren turned on his heal and went back to the house.
The next morning, six more good Christian people were in the hospital.
Jake found Ren at the library, mop-head bent low over a different book. Jake pulled up a chair and sat across from him.
The library smelled like dust and old, way to light and to open for Jake to like all that much. Ren pulled his head up first, his eyes finishing a sentence. "Yeah?"
"How do you kill it?" Jake hated it when he had to ask for help. He hated not knowing what to do or how to do it. He worked alone - he should know everything.
Ren, for his own part, looked more alive today - more so then he did last night. It must have been the death of that little kid - today his eyes seamed clearer. Ren raise his eyebrow, a smirk on his face. "I thought you said you'll be fine out yourself."
"Yeah, well...I'm not exactly the old Hebrew demon buff that I once was..."
Ren laughed, shaking his head. "Well, can you at least speak Hebrew?"
As it turned out, Jake could not. Ren, on the other hand, proved more useful. He had a note book with all sorts of incantations in them - in at least 12 languages.
"You can read all of these?" Jake said, flipping over to one he was sure was written in Turkish. Ren shook his head and flipped through another notebook.
"No - well, yes. I can read them and I know what they do, but I could be asking for my sister to beat me with a ladle then to go screw my father for all I know."
Jake shook his head and flipped the page. He had to bite the inside of his cheek not to smile.
"That's the one. The one that looks like it's written backwards." Ren nodded toward the book Jake had, then touched a sketch on his own pad. "And I found the talismanic we needed. It's a simple quarts crystal-"
"Those I have." Jake leaned forward, ripping out a piece of paper from the back of the book and rewriting the incantation. "When are we doing this?"
Ren checked his watch and scratched the back of his fuzzy head with his other hand. "Let’s meat at 11 Halwood Rode branches off toward the lake - there are trees between it and the rode. It's easer to get the lake there - privet too. One will see."
Jake nodded, cracked his neck and left.
To Part 2