"So, what's our game plan right now?' Aletta stared at Stephen deeply as she munched on her sauce coated fries.
The trio were currently having breakfast together at the dining table.
"I just finished reading the testimonial of a victim who according to him survived the strange incident" Stephen replied as he patted the newspaper on the table.
"According to him, what ever happened, it happened so fast. One second he was looking behind him and the next, his room mate was a cold corpse with a half eaten heart besides him "
"Blergh!" Jason suddenly covered his mouth as he seemed to be on the verge of puking..
"Sorry Princess, is something wrong?" Stephen smirked.
"If you want to be a Mystique Hunter like us, forget gory talks, you'll see much worse" he added as he sipped from his glasses of milk.
"So, what do you think we are dealing with here? a Malevolent?" Aletta pursed her lips.
"There's only one way to find out"
.
.
"Sorry kiddos, but this is a crime scene. Only authorized personnels are allowed entry" James, Aletta and Stephen were about to charge into the cemetery grounds when a police officer blocked their path.
The whole cemetery ground was wrapped with restrictive perimeter tapes. The whole place was swarming with Police officers as well as CSI officials.
"Don't worry Alfred, they are investigative reporters" the Sheriff arrived before the police officer blocking the trio.
"Yeah. We've heard about the strings of murders happening in these parts so we are here to write an article about it" Aletta nodded as she showed the Officer a Journalist badge.
Inspecting and confirming its authenticity, the trio were allowed access. The Sheriff nodded at them before returning back to his police vehicle in the distance.
"Investigative journalist?" Jason gave the siblings a look.
"What? we can't just tell them we hunt Monsters for a living" Stephen snorted.
"Does that Sheriff know the truth about you guys?" Jason noticed that the Sheriff happened to be strangely cordial and cooperative.
"You can say he has some business dealings with the higher ups. People like him makes our job much more easier"
Approaching a particular tomb stone, the trio noticed a group of CSI officials inspecting the corpse of a teenage boy. There was a large gaping hole in the middle of the corpse chest and besides it was a half rough eaten heart.
"You can look away if you want" Aletta nudged at Jason when she noticed his cheeks turning green.
"Nah..I'm good" Jason forcibly swallowed the puke down his throat. His resilience was quite impressive.
"Hello, my name is Carol G, I am an Investigative Reporter for the Avalanche Forum. On the record can you tell me what you think of this corpse right here?" Aletta approached one of the CSI officials who happened to be an approachable lady.
Seeing her speaking so formally, Jason almost fell for the act.
"Judging by the clotting of the blood, this happened about ten to eleven hours ago.. whatever killed the victim, it moved very fast, judging by the way the victim offered zero sign of resistance. If not for the gory method the vic died, I might even say the victim knew the assailant " the female CSI replied with furrowed brows.
"Do you perhaps know what did this? a lion? a tiger? a monkey perhaps?" Aletta asked.
"Actually, my team noticed something peculiar and at the same time strange " the female CSI suddenly squatted, scooping up a handful of dirt.
"We noticed that there were two kinds of prints on the ground when we first arrived.. one belonged to human, and the other belonged to a cloven foot "
"You think a goat did this?" Aletta's brows rose up in disbelief.
"Don't be ridiculous. Judging from the faint prints, the speed of the assailant was fast.. I might guess a deer. However..."
"Judging by the eaten heart and how it was ripped out from the victim chest, I would say it was done by a row of sharp teeth. Have you ever heard of a deer with sharp teeth who feeds on the heart of humans?" the female CSI forced a laugh.
"Indeed. It is really strange " Aletta nodded in agreement, an unknown glint flashing past her eyes.
While she was discussing with this female CSI, Jason and Stephen were at another corner of the cemetery ground.
"What age you doing?" Jason creased his brows in confusion when he saw Stephen raising up a silver colored orb the size of a tennis ball, while walking around like he was looking for something.
"This is an ecto reactor. If it glows red, that means there had been an ectoplasmic activity " Stephen hesitated a bit before replying.
"Speaking of which, you killed a Malevolent right? what was your experience battling it?" he suddenly asked Jason with a crafty smirk.
"You still think I was lying when I said I killed that Malevolent? that ghost ash proves it!"
"I didn't say anything " Stephen shrugged his shoulder.
Staring at him deeply, Jason shrugged as well.
"I don't know, he had this strange ability that made him lift things up without touching them, kind of like telekinesis "
"That was ectoplasm"
"What?"
"Ecto.. it is the unique energy weilded by Ghosts. It is invisible to the naked eye and what keeps them invisible as well. By extending ecto into a domain, whatever is within that domain gets influenced by their telekinetic ability. Knights like me are weak when we go against Malevolents because of their ecto domain. It's a wonder how you managed to slay one "
Listening to Stephen's words, Jason recalled seeing a red miasma around the Malevolent he fought the previous day while he was wearing the Sprite Pupils. That must've been the ectoplasm Stephen was referring to.
After parading around the whole of the cemetery ground with the ecto reactor not glowing at all, Jason and Stephen regrouped with Aletta.
"This wasn't done by a Malevolent" Stephen shook his head as he informed Aletta.
"Like I thought" Aletta held her chin as she seemed to be contemplating deep about something.
"I think I have a guess regarding what monster we are hunting" she suddenly said after a while.
"However we would have to pay a visit to the sole survivor for me to confirm my guess" she added.
"That means we are paying Harry Stewart a visit... the room mate of the victim.. did you manage to get his address?" Stephen asked.
"What do you think?" Aletta smiled before turning towards Jason.
"Your face is more rosier compared to the first time we arrived here " she teased.
"Hmpfh. I don't break easy. Let's go meet this Harry guy and nab this evil monster " Jason balled his fist, his eyes literally spitting out flames of conviction.
"He sure is pumped up. I wonder if he's going to remain that way when he encounters the monster for real " Stephen folded his arms on his chest as he whispered to his sister.
"He killed a level two Malevolent without any prior Mystique Hunting training. He's a natural so I am sure he will do just fine.. however I hope he doesn't get too complacent and overestimate his abilities " Aletta muttered the last part.