Chereads / Microscopic Leviathan / Chapter 3 - Amulets out on face

Chapter 3 - Amulets out on face

She took the stairs, knocked on the door and the host, Emma, opened the door. There were only 4 people there, Emma's parents are not home, so it was only Emma, Heid, Leoni, and Ilse welcoming her; there are pizza rolls, a large jelly, some sushi, and appetisers.

Emma smelled some odd scent when Jolande entered, "Jolande, very clean, she smells like fruits now, I don't know what rituals she does, but I admire her". For the sleepover, Emma prepared two light blankets for each girl, that's all she had, but Jolande had no problem with it since she wouldn't feel the night breeze given her current state.

Jolande and her friends pass time talking, having fun and playing DOOM, Half-life, Street fighter 3rd strike, RuneScape and many other games. Leoni has an iPAQ as well, and Emma had a Nintendo Game Boy, a Nintendo DS with a couple of games on it. They took turns, they talked, played, played physically and later at 19 o'clock, the group prepared for bed. Jolande had a different routine, so she did it alone and the rest admired.

All the girls sleep deeply and heavily, while Jolande was still on guard, she still didn't sleep because she sleeps only at 23 o'clock. She was kind of bored, and her iPAQ was low on battery, she isn't feeling the cold 14 degrees outside and the moon was waxing gibbous, 60% luminating, shining through the window.

A very nice reflection off a golden object that seemed almost alien, mysteriously sitting there next to the bag of Leoni, the girl with blue eyes and blonde hair… Jolande went to inspect this object, the size of a hand. She saw what's inside it out of curiosity. She hesitated, but she grabbed it and headed to the bathroom. Jolande isn't the type of person to steal, but something in her mind was strongly attracted to it and constantly telling her to grab it...

In this mysterious amulet, there is a small picture, a flash memory and a small microscope slide... Jolande investigated what mystery the flash memory is holding; she plugged it into her iPAQ and waited for it to load... After a few seconds, she can see a few folders.

Jolande read, "First one is 'Leviathan' it's contents say: neural leviathans? What is that?" she double-clicked, "Oh it says here, Dr. Helga Sauer, former genetic engineer, worked at private lab and started ex...." -LOW BATTERY, TURNING OFF- "OH NO!" reacted Jolande abnormally mad, could this really be the reason she has lost sense of temperature?

She didn't have the charger with her, so she had to get back to the room and get the charger immediately without anyone noticing. Leoni suddenly woke up, she was caught short, and went to the toilet when suddenly she bumped with Jolande on her way causing her to drop the amulet! Light was very dim and sound was very faint because it fell on a carpet, and Leoni didn't get the chance to analyse what that object is, so they both apologize and continued on walking.

Jolande put her iPAQ next to her, it was so hot, but she didn't feel it, making it slower and loose battery faster due to resistance. If she plugs it into the charger it will heat up more, but Jolande didn't know because she didn't feel the heat radiated off the iPAQ, but she knew she had to put it to cool down on the window.

"I'm not sure if it's hot or not, I will just put it on the window just in case for roughly 10 minutes" She thought to herself. Jolande had to wait till Leoni left the bathroom and goes back to sleep, in the meantime, Jolande prepared her iPAQ charger with her, pretending to be asleep till Leoni comes back to sleep.

Finally, Leoni was back from the bathroom, it took seven minutes! "An average pee doesn't exceed a minute in time! What was she doing?" Jolande thought to herself. Leoni was in the room and her iPAQ in her hand seemingly out of battery, so she was looking for a charger to charge overnight. Leoni started mumbling "I'll borrow Jolande's charger, she told me earlier" and starts looking for the charger that Jolande holds. Jolande immediately hides it under her back. Leoni comes and gently wakes Jolande and asks her:

Leoni: Psst, Jolande! Where's your iPAQ charger?

Jolande faking being tired: Sorry, what?

Leoni whispering: Your iPAQ charger, mine is running low on battery, can you give me yours?

Jolande: Umm, check my bag, I'm sure it's somewhere there

Leoni: Okay, goodnight JoJo!

Jolande: Goodnight

Jolande doesn't know what to do; Leoni was looking for the iPAQ charger and Jolande is hoping she doesn't notice that the amulet is gone and there is no charger in the bag. Leoni suddenly picked up a cable on top of her bag, how? Didn't Jolande take the cable? Leoni was mumbling, "Ah there it is, on the desk!". The stress shook Jolande raising her blood pressure and her heart rate elevated.

Leoni sensed this, she looks into Jolande, and thinks, "JoJo ate lots of pizza rolls, this causes nightmares and a rise in blood pressure, it's visible that she's breathing faster" then headed to her bed and slept immediately. Jolande waited to make sure she's asleep and took this opportunity quickly heading to the bathroom with her iPAQ and the charger...

She quickly searched for a plug, she found only one that's high up and there is no way she can stay hanged to charge, but she had to in order to find out what's all this about without no one noticing. All she could was wait till it's at least 25% battery, waiting 15 minutes at least. She got bored and there's nothing to do in the bathroom, so the curiosity hit, and she wanted to look inside the storage, but she wasn't willing to clutter anything, she just wanted to see what Emma keeps in there.

She looked into the drawers, in the cabinet and said, "Uh, only soap of the worst brand, this literally causes eczema. Here are ordinary toilet paper and creams." She looked into the cabinet and said, "Oh, it's a themed towel! I like the colours in it!". Lastly, she looked on top of the cabinet to see a Game Boy sitting there.

She picked it up and turned it on, she heard the very nice tone that's too loud, hoping no one woke up because of it and immediately covers the speakers. She started playing one-handed, holding the iPAQ charging in the other hand.

Now that she finished charging and playing, she rapidly plugged the flash memory in and started looking into the files inside it. She said, "Okay, what was it? Let's see, 'Leviathan' then into Dr. Helga Sauer. Okay...". She reads the full text and understands it as "Helga Sauer is a genetic engineer who worked in a private lab, she made a brain eating organism and one slide has the organism, and it is provided in a slide inside the amulet".

But what's the relationship between Leoni and Helga? Jolande looked into the other folders and finds one with the name 'Family tree' and enters it, she doesn't find the name Leoni nor her family name, but Helga is there, and she appeared to be at the bottom of the tree, and she looks like a woman Jolande never saw before. She also noticed that her parents don't have a picture, but she seems to have a sibling without a picture either.

Jolande looked into the text file 'Biography of Helga Sauer' but this file is locked, it's password protected, Jolande's had enough, and now she heads back to the room, gently putting the amulet in her bag after she made a copy of all the folders inside.

The next day she woke up, at 5 o'clock, did her usual routine and waited for others to come. The girls continued the so-called party till 16 o'clock. When it was time, they hugged each other and continued on their own way. Jolande was back home after looking for a microscope in the stores to investigate what's inside the slide, but she never found one. The next day she went to her school lab and asked her teacher if she can use the microscopes in the school lab, the teacher gently accepts but also demanded to see what Jolande was inspecting.

Teacher: What is it, JoJo? What are you inspecting?

Jolande: It's a slide I found.

Teacher: Okay, I'll put the slide properly, can you please bring me a water dropper from the shelf there?

Jolande went to pick it up, and the teacher looked into the slide and thought, "Where did she get it from? I will end this", she suddenly grabbed Jolande from the neck and said "Come with me!" aggressively.

She took her to the storage room in the lab and locked her there. Jolande isn't trying to resist because she knows it's not worth wasting energy resisting when she is stressed. She had a high blood pressure and heart beat, so she started breathing deeply. The teacher looked into Jolande and slapped her, but Jolande dodged the slap and slapped the teacher instead. She asked, "What's the deal? HUH?". The slap was very intense that the teacher fell on her knees.

The teacher said angrily, "Where did you get the slide? What do you know about Helga?" but Jolande didn't have much to say, all of a sudden, she picked up a syringe from around her in the storage marked 'Effective Anaesthesia' and stabbed her teacher, she couldn't walk for a short period of time and Jolande had enough time, to pick the teacher's wallet and take a photo of items.

The teacher was defenceless, finally that Jolande took photos, she shut the door, leaving the teacher paralysed inside. Jolande had to retrieve the slide, she didn't only take the slide from the microscope, but the whole microscope and escaped. Her mum picked her up and inquired about the microscope, but Jolande smartly said that she asked to borrow it. Lisa was convinced and continued on driving.

Jolande read the news and saw the crime that woman did, she now understood what she ingested and what's happening to her. She looked for some leftover sushi and inspected it for white crystals, she wasn't able to find any, so she went to operate the microscope and prepare the slide, but she never operated one, and doesn't know what lens to use, so she is unable to know or identify the organism. She left the slide for later, and she established that she was in danger, the organism is damaging her neurons and will leave her dead over a short period of time. Furthermore, she was clueless...

Later that day, she looked for info about Helga Sauer on the internet, on Facebook pages, forums in Germany, and the crime records in Aachen, she finds this lady being wanted by the police, with the name Helga Sauer. She once committed a bank rob, assault, murder, killed the pets of people in front of owners, shared lots of misleading info on the media of famous channels, this woman is pure evil. Jolande was looking for pictures of her, but none of them look the same, "This woman isn't the same in every picture, how come?".

It's been recorded that anyone who had info about her is found dead in a river. "All articles about her are deleted, posted by deleted user, post deleted, or site not found" she read. She is so amazed how she doesn't leave any trace, but only knew her name from the papers she left after crimes. Dr. Helga is known for leaving papers with her name on and a 'Goodbye' with a smiley face, she'll shoot the victim immediately afterwards, the paper is just the final way of scaring the victims.

When Jolande inspected her pictures, she noticed in one of the pictures, the neat, red-wine coloured purse, "This purse is so unique, I've only seen this one woman hold it. I think I saw it another time on our trip to Barcelona in Spain, a woman who toured us there. These were the only two I ever saw!" she was saying, the purse unique, and seems like there are only two of them in the world, she also recognises that it was in the car of the woman she helped...

Before she continued searching, her mum broke into the room to inform her that a package arrived, Lisa said, "What are you reading? C'mon! A package arrived", Jolande replied, "No-nothing? I'm coming right now", she immediately closed all tabs on her iPAQ and went to receive package.

To Be Continued

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