When Erika and Jeremy went back to the precinct, they brushed through someone wearing a grey trench coat.
“Guys, you’re back.” the officer at the front desk greeted them with an insinuating smile: “This time it’s longer than usual, what happened?”
“Thank you Lorene. The sushi place was just very full. ” Jeremy shrugged: “And we had friends with us. So we spent some time catching up and chatting.”
“Your friends, meaning the two civilian consultants we have here about the occult stuff?” the officer at the front desk asked: “Geez, captain was not happy about having them here. I overheard him complaining about not finding a forensic scientist and yet we have paranormal consultants like a Hollywood movie set.”
“Well, interesting story. I just learned that they are actual paranormal consultants on a movie.” Erika laughed.
“Well, don’t let the captain know that!” the officer at the front desk also laughed, “Have a good one y’all. They just delivered a new bucket of cold brew. Fresh and chill.”
“Thanks Lorene. I’ll not miss it this time.” Jeremy’s tiny bit of frustration was relieved by a little, “What’s one more late night when we have cold brew nitro, huh?”
“That’s the spirit.”
When Erika and Jeremy got back into the precinct and got their coffee, the first place they went to was the morgue - apparently a body of a young woman was found somewhere near the precinct and the officers sent it in for further examination.
“Hmm… take a look here.” Erika gently raised the hair from the body’s neck, revealing two round puncture wounds: “We have seen this before, haven’t we?”
“Let me see...” Jeremy came over and examined the wounds a little bit: “Hmmm, interesting. Yes we have, and this is where the feds took over last time. ”
“Have we heard back from them?”
“Not that I remember. I remember Dr. Nguyen made an inquiry to follow up. But I am not sure if she had heard anything back.” Jeremy took his notes and snapped a picture of the wound with his phone: “Now this time I’m gonna back up the picture on my drive - ain’t no one’s gonna take it from me this time...”
“What do you think caused this? I remember last time the feds said this is some sort of drug injection wound - some bullshit about this new kind of street drug with a new kind of injector.” Erika gently squeezed the wound and felt the texture of the tissues around the wound: “This is definitely not an injector wound. Whatever caused this wound nipped the artery, can’t imagine someone stupid enough to do that.”
Just when Erika and Jeremy were further examining the body and the wound on the neck, a group of people barged into the precinct.
“Commissioner, I’m sorry, but they just started examining the body...” Lorene followed the four people into the morgue.
“What are you doing here?” the police commissioner of the SFPD barged into the morgue with 3 strong-looking men in dark clothes behind her.
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“Commissioner Wolfe! We are ... forensic technicians here.” Jeremy looked up and was surprised: “What are you doing here?”
“Okay. I don’t care. Just get out of our way! We need to move this body.” Commissioner Wolfe looked at the operating table on the side with a piece of white cloth on top covering something that was laying on it, snapped her finger and pointed to the door.
“But, Commissioner Wolfe, we can’t move it until the captain gives the order.” Erika hesitated and said: “We’d have to call the captain first. And he ordered that it can’t be moved until next week.”
“Too bad. I am the commissioner.” Commissioner Wolfe said and turned to the three men behind her: “Take it.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, commissioner.” Lorene took out her phone: “If possible, could you wait a bit, let me get the captain on the line and ask him first...”
Before Lorene can finish, one of the men behind Commissioner Wolfe whipped out a long katana from his back and swung the silvery red blade across Lorene’s hand and throat.
Lorene’s hand flew off from her wrist along with her phone still in her palm. Her facial expression indicated she wanted to scream, but the blood gushing out of her throat completely muffled her voice. All she could do was choke on her own blood while trying to not suffocate.
Erika and Jeremy almost screamed but Commissioner Wolfe just extended her hand and an invisible force locked them in their places, pushed them down on their knees and bent their head down. Erika started crying, but she could not make a noise and her tear drops just rolled all over her face.
“Get rid of the others and lock the place down.” Commissioner Wolfe’s voice changed into a different woman: “I’ll finish the circle.”
Two of the three men went out of the morgue and to other places of the precinct. The force that locked Erika and Jeremy in their places loosened, which allowed them to move their heads up and see what’s going on - the woman wearing Commissioner Wolfe’s clothes was someone they don’t know, and now she was hanging Lorene’s body in the air with her magical power, while the man was also using some kind of power to control Lorene’s blood to draw some kind of circle around the operating table that was covered with white cloth.
Erika and Jeremy looked at each other, all they could read from each other’s face was despair, dread and fear. They tried to speak, but they felt like the air inside their lungs froze and their throat, tongue and mouth were numbed. Erika and Jeremy tried their hardest to attempt to break free, but the invisible force still locked their movements in almost every angle, as if their whole bodies were put into a block of cement.
Gunshots were fired from the other rooms but the sound died down as quickly as they emerged. In less than three or four minutes, the two men that went out came back, with blood on their clothes.
“What about them?” one of the men pointed at Erika and Jeremy.
“It may take a couple of tries.” the woman answered, without even a hint of remorse or any emotion at all: “Just be quick. She’s gonna notice it and come for us.”
“Alright, quick.” the man who drew the circle around the desk ripped the white cloth away from the operating table unveiling the mummified corpse in chains underneath, then he and the rest of those who stood around the table extended their hand forward, revealing some special symbols tattooed on their palms: “Stand ready. Three, two, one...”
The air and the ground shook and the table banged, a smell of burnt flesh came off from around the table - for a brief moment Erika saw the blood circle light up in bright red light but then it instantly died down and started smoking.
“No. Not strong enough.” the woman shook her head: “This sealing spell is much stronger than expected - how could she...”
“Again.” the man with the silvery red katana walked towards Erica.
“Nonono, him.” the woman pointed at Jeremy, “The virgin.”
Erika tried to yell and scream and beg them to stop, her tears seeped into her closed mouth and her nose as she tried. But the swing of the katana was just as fast as the time it ended Lorene - blood jetted from Jeremy’s throat while his eyes opened wide in fear and helplessness. And just like what happened to Lorene, his blood was collected onto the circle on the ground.
Another more powerful shock shook the whole morgue. Erika could hear the sounds of things broken: wood, metal, flesh and bones. She closed her eyes and dreaded what might be about to come. But things went quiet, and none of the four murderous individuals said or did anything. After a while, Erika opened her eyes, wondering what happened.
This time, it was four individuals around the operating table that were locked in their places. And inside the circle, the chains on the corpse were all broken and their pieces were scattered on the ground and on the table. A small piece of the wooden coin was laying right in front of Erika, and its inside was tainted black by something unknown.
Two completely dark hands, looking completely covered in black tar like liquid reached out from the center crack of the corpse and pushed the two halves of the corpse sideways, as if they were pushing open a door. And in the next moment two halves of human heads emerged from the corpse that was open from the middle, dark and dripping dark liquid just like the hands.
Two eyes, one blood red and one grey, looked around the room but did not stop for a moment. Then the two half a heads spoke simultaneously, in different but similarly hoarse, cold and echoey voices:
“Beverly… how you tortured us so...”