Chapter 10: Evil plans

Frowning by his mistake, Takumi sighed, wondering if he should say something. And if so, what would it be? He could feel the tension between Kathleen towards the two men in front of her. Apparently, Tomoya and Samantha also had a tragic past but the thing between them still remains a mystery and even Takumi, being Tomoya's closest friend and cousin, didn't have any idea.

Time ticked 4 AM.

They waited patiently for Tomoya to finish studying MaTet's profile while Takumi is quietly absorbing the new bit of information Kathleen told him about the two.

Clapping his hands, Tomoya leaned on the couch. "Got it!" He snapped. "This person sure is a master of technology for hiding its information too well, more like a deep web. Anyways, I can now easily access this account. Just give me about two to three days, but doing so, we'll be invading someone's privacy and you know I'm against that matter, niisan," his lips pooched. "Unless you tell me what is this for exactly?"

Kathleen shot Takumi a glare and he couldn't help but blaming himself for making things a little bit more complicated since they can't get a lot of people involved.

"It's really confidential and it'll be safe if you don't know."

Tomoya sighed. "You may not know this but I actually dated Shane for eight months."

"You courted her for right months. Don't be so full of yourself," Kathleen corrected and pointed Scott. "That cold-hearted piece of shit over there is the only lucky guy who have dated her," her eyes rolled and landed at Takumi when he tapped a finger against the table.

"This is mainly all about her, isn't it? No need to lie. I already know and you..." Tomoya looked at Scott who only raised a brow. He's sitting on the couch next to him. "Scott, right? You've been with her for six months?" He then glanced over Takumi. "You've been working with her for five years and you..." he turned to look at Kathleen. "You've been her best friend for as long as I know."

"And your point?" Kathleen narrowed her eyes.

"All of us here are aware Shane ain't just a normal person, am I right? Or am I correct?"

Kathleen eyed Scott. He doesn't seem to look surprised at all. He must already have an idea, but to what extent? A mental smack brought her wandering mind on the business at hand when Scott spoke.

"Why'd things end between you two?"

Takumi and Kathleen exchanged looks and glanced over Tomoya who seems to be fascinated by the sudden question.

"Because I messed up," he smirked. "She forgave me but all of the sudden, she changed. I have no way of knowing her real reason why. It's just that I woke up one day, and she's already gone—I mean, she started avoiding me. What about you two?"

Scott swallowed. His mouth had gone dry and wasn't able to say anything.

Tomoya chuckled faintly. "I guess you also messed up, ah?"

"Big time!" Kathleen hissed. "How much do you know?! Just spit it out already."

As Kathleen groaned, Tomoya rose, walked towards the bookshelf behind him and took a book in a size of an encyclopedia, bound in silk darkened with times of handling. He sat back down and twisted the darkly patented cover to a full, wide spread.

"That's her penmanship!" Kathleen scowled, attempting to snatch the book from him when he pulled it away in an even faster pace.

"It's very old, for hell's sake! You could have torn it into two."

Kathleen ignored Tomoya's reaction, hand still aiming for the book.

"Where did you get that?"

"In her library upstairs."

"She had a library?" Kathleen's eyes transferred towards Takumi.

"The last room we tried to enter was a library," Takumi's voice sounded a little bit desperate.

"So, you went in?"

"Yeah."

"When?"

"About a year and a half ago?"

"What did you see?"

"Nothing special. Just a plain library. I already sensed something's odd going on about her, so I sneaked upstairs out of curiosity and took this at least."

Takumi held his chin. It's either those marks weren't there before or Tomoya can't see them at all with his plain vision.

"So, what's with that book then?" Scott asked, pointing the book with his lips.

"It's a grimoire, containing Shane's family secrets. At least that's what I've understood, so far," Tomoya placed the book on the center table and opened it to the first page to where an inverted pentagram is drawn with droplets of blood covering the topmost part of it.

"What in the world is this?" Kathleen muttered.

"This sign is demonic," Tomoya sounded different. "You see, Shane don't really belong in the human realm to begin with."

***

"To where?" Kim couldn't keep the confusion from her voice and looked at Junel who stood behind her.

"I don't know," Christian sighed. "She just left without telling me."

"Without telling you?" She repeated stupidly. "Didn't you ask her?"

Christian shrugged and turned to face Jade at the counter. "I'll just text you when she returns."

"Forget it," she thought to herself. "You won't do that anyway," Kim saw no reason not to believe him. Christian has always been the most honest person she met but the obvious fact that he didn't like what they've done recently, he can just easily shrug everything off. Scott and Kathleen were gone for three days now and none of them are answering their phones. Jess is having hard time by herself and Kaiser had business of his own.

"And why is this have to be my problem?"

Junel tried not to laugh. Kim looks furious but that he could deal with.

"It looks like you're going to collapse," he joked, backing up a step for her out-of-nowhere smack.

"My brain already did," Kim growled and stormed out the shop.

Junel waited for Kim's order and talked to Christian for a moment. Outside are tables of three with twelve chairs occupied by men all dressed in casual attire and were talking at once.

"I suppose demons had her already."

"Most likely. I wonder what the authorities will do about her case? The accident has been circulating the entire country; people are starting to give their opinions, pressuring the media, the cops and even the government themselves."

"What can they do against the devil anyway? If God permits, He can help the poor woman as this is far beyond any human could reach."

"Just as I thought, that woman really is destined to be taken away as well just like her twin sister," a voice rose from a man with a black hat on.

Kim paused to look at him. "Was that really possible?"

"Yeah, this world ain't just the world with living creatures, you know. There's also this something they call the other realm," the man said and spotted Kim staring at him. He nictated and smiled. "Hi there."

Kim sheepishly grinned and wondered how she could elegantly get away from such graceful approach.

"Let's go?"

She looked at Junel, full of hope, and quickly dragged him towards their car to where Shiela, one of their friends, is waiting for them together with their daughter and Shiela's son.

"So? Where is he?" Shiela asked the moment they entered. She's playing with the two kids at the back seat. Junel's fingers moved up and down the stirring wheel.

"He won't tell. Obviously, he's mad, and what's more obvious is that those two are together."

"I'm telling you, there's nothing natural about that woman," Shiela spat the words. "We know, at least I do."

Caught up with what she heard a while ago, Kim glanced over the men from afar.

"Look at this," Shiela scrubbed a hand through her face and leaned towards her purse. She took out a folded newspaper and handed it over to Junel without looking at him.

"An update. I brought it over just in case."

Junel only stared at the newspaper, took it, and tossed it over the back seat.

"H-hey! What's that for?" Shiela whined. He shrugged.

"I could say it's none of our business," Junel ain't the one to easily believe things but it might be the tone of his voice that made Kim feel anxious.

Shiela wet her lips as she drew a deep sigh. She doesn't really have any much choice but to lay low and shake the issue off.

"Okay," she said, disappointed with his response.

Junel didn't understand what had gone wrong with his cousin. He's actually guilty about what Scott had done as he's the one who introduced Samantha to him. He could almost wish he could turn back time and as much as he wanted to meddle with her case, something tells him not to or something really unpleasant will happen.

Kim forced a smile. "Let's go to Jess then. Kaiser will have some business in his calendar later."

"This is insane! I still can't believe this is actually happening," Scott glanced at the rest from the balcony. "It's been two days since we arrived here and that dumbass still hasn't located the person behind those articles yet."

"So, 'twas true," he finally muttered to no one in particular, puffing a breath of smoke and turned to look at the night sky. "Interesting," Scott ain't aware of what's really going on and just keeping up with them by pretending to have known something—or does he not? He's quite sure he's fooling Kathleen and that she's not probing.

He took his phone out when it rang, seeing Jess on the screen. He sighed and put it back in his pocket. Everything just can't seem to sink in yet and every time he sees Jess, he feels more anxious. He darted across the kitchen, taking glances at everyone who seem to look very serious of tracking down MaTet. Kathleen, on the other hand, was diligently reading the grimoire.

He stretched and stood still for a moment thinking why she let him come with them. He just can't seem to believe why she still trusted him with something as crucial as the situation.

"Demons. Another realm. Curse," he muttered to himself, caressing his nape in frustration. "Interesting."

Yawning, he turned towards the fridge and took a can of beer he bought earlier at the nearby convenient store. They've been up for the past two days and only had two to three hours of sleep each day. Sipping, he sat at the counter and stared at his companions when the next yawn threatened to lock his jaw. As nothing much to do, he emptied the canned beer, jumped down and went to the vacant couch to rest.

"Any progress?" Takumi said almost in a whisper. He was just sitting beside Tomoya, trying to understand numbers of tabs that kept on popping on the computer screen. Tomoya closed his eyes and turned to see questions crossing through his cousin's face.

"Well..." he began when Kathleen stood behind him.

"So, who is it?!" Kathleen felt a muscle jump in her jaw with the effort of stopping her curiosity.

"This MaTet… well, she's the city mayor's daughter."

"I-I beg your p-pardon?" Takumi's voice, the voice of an educated man, had been stammered almost beyond understanding. Tomoya sighed and clicked the last tab, showing an unidentified button, leading to a public blog of Ma. Theresa Mula.

"Mary Theresa Mula," Kathleen repeated softly. The woman looks very familiar to her as she was the same person, she saw staring at their coffee shop that day.

"This doesn't make any sense. She doesn't even live here. Only a few have even seen her in this city. S-So how come?"

"Do you think any of what's going on makes sense?" Tomoya's lips curled. "This is so far the most sensible thing that I've encountered today."

"Good point."

"Where is she now?" Takumi settled more comfortably into his seat.

"Funny, because she's only a couple of blocks away from here," Tomoya stood. "Should we go now?"

"No!" Kathleen snorted. "I mean, Takumi, me, and that jerk over there..." she pointed at Scott on the couch. "We are the ones who will look for her. You stay here and stay out of this."

"But why? I helped you this far and you're telling me to stay out of this?"

"I'm sorry, but she's right," Takumi agreed.

"Of course, I'm always right."

"Y-Yeah," grimacing, Takumi stood. "It would be safe if you'd stay here."

"But, niisaaannn! You're always taking me with you before every time we go on places. Why not now? And besides, it's not like Shane is no one. I still care for her and can't lose her even just as a friend."

"That's too cheesy, I can actually smell it."

Tomoya glared at Kathleen who immediately looked away.

"Tomoya, this is different. You know how serious things are getting. You know about my curse and it was never easy, right?"

"I know that's why I can help. I was young back then but now; I can be of a use. I finished reading her grimoire. There are just things I still can't decipher yet; not everything has been written down but I can be of a big help in summoning her back."

Takumi glanced at Kathleen who only rolled her eyes and nodded. "Hmm... fine. Just promise us to never get in our way."

***

"Where the hell is he?" Kaiser reached up and helped Jess toward her bed. "Did he tell you?"

Jess glanced at the door and back to Kaiser. "No, but he must have really gone out to find that woman," bitter remarks left her lips.

"Or maybe not," Kaiser's tone argued the point even if his words didn't. "He must have been on his way back now."

"It's been days, Kaiser!" Jess slowly laid down, careful enough not to touch her belly. She always wanted something to eat but Scott is always not around to get her what she wants.

"I'll go back to sleep now."

Kaiser went out of her room and sat down the sofa. It was nearly 3 AM but he's still wide awake. He leaned back and stared at the newspaper left above the center table. Samantha's case had been wrapped up in the front page. Kaiser always thought that something wasn't right about her and Scott had every intention of finding out what it was as what had been planned.

"That heartless jerk," sighing, he took the newspaper to where Samantha's name has been printed in bolded Arial Black across the top. He's been planning to run secret searches on the case so he kept it. His smile was pale as he walks towards his room. His plan is invasion of privacy but he calls it as finding out a missing friend.