章 2: Ex-girlfriend Olivia

The night was draped in an inky shroud, the air heavy with an expectant hush as a HedEx delivery van sat waiting in the heart of a silent neighborhood. It was, in fact, painted completely black, signifying that the van was a private vehicle.

Inside, two men exchanged barely audible words, their features partially obscured by the dim glow of the dashboard, and their eyes fixed on the quiet street outside.

"Are you sure that this is the girl who you suspect? I know she was your ex, but she has no connection to my sister's death. You should move on, Ben," one of the men said as he glanced at his laptop screen and then looked at the man he was talking to.

"It's just a hunch. I didn't show this to you before because you seemed a little unstable, but I did my own digging even though it can be considered illegal. The police aren't really reliable..." Ben said as he ran his hand over his shaved head before unlocking his phone and navigating through it like he was searching for something.

It took him a while, but the moment he found the message, he passed the phone to Sophia's brother.

Seth took the phone and looked at Ben, who nodded, "Yes, read it out for me, please."

"Alright..." Seth said and began reading the contents of the message, "Hello Benjamin, I know it's been a long time, but I hope you're doing well. I don't want to bring up the past since I don't know how you feel, but I want to tell you something really important. Call me on this number, and we can set up a place and time."

Seth paused for a second after reading the message and then looked at Ben while giving him a quizzical look, "So... what connection does this have to Sophia's death?"

"I got that message right before Sophia called me. I didn't notice it and had also forgotten about it for two entire years, but a few months ago, I saw the part where I got the message in one of my recurring nightmares. So... after confirming if my dream was just a dream or if it actually happened in the past, I dug for information about her."

"Wait, wait, stop. There are things that don't make sense here," Seth said as he rubbed his temples, "How did you know who to search for when you don't even know who this person is?"

"I just tracked the information connected to the phone number. You should be able to remember her... after all, she was in the same class as me until she suddenly decided to transfer schools. It's Olivia," Ben explained as he stuffed his phone into his pocket.

Seth said nothing, but even in the darkness, Ben could tell that he was nodding.

"Wait, let's get things straight here. Even if she did message you, how does it have a con..." he stopped midway and stared at the house where the door had just opened up.

Amidst the stillness, a figure emerged from inside the house, a vision of elegance gliding into the gentle wash of light cast by the doorway. The woman moved with purpose, her silhouette graceful and captivating as she made her way to her car, the sound of her heels tapping against the pavement like a delicate whisper in the night.

With a fluid motion, she turned on the engine, and her car hummed to life, the headlights piercing the darkness as she departed, leaving the two men in the van to exchange a silent, knowing look. Without a word, they started their own engine, falling in line behind her car stealthily while keeping their headlights off.

The neighborhood lay cloaked in an ethereal silence as the two vehicles wound their way through the labyrinth of roads, the only sound being the subdued thrum of their engines and the occasional rustle of leaves. Inside the van, the men kept an eye on the small screen that showed a green arrow and a red dot on a map.

"Back to the topic," Seth said as he looked at the map and then glanced at Ben, who was driving.

"What connection does—"

"She's supposed to be dead, Seth. She's supposed to be dead," Ben said, the calmness in his voice twisting to irritability.

Seth watched calmly while Ben clenched the steering wheel tightly as he took deep breaths. The car in front of them was gone from their direct view, but both of them knew that she wouldn't be able to shake them off unless she found the tracker or knew about it, which was almost impossible.

Letting out a long and heavy sigh, Ben continued, "She was confirmed dead, but she opened her eyes just one minute after they made that conclusion. I hacked into the hospital's server and from the records of her surgery, they found cardiac poison in her blood. I forgot the name of that specific poison, but you should already know what cardiac poisons do. After all, you have a PhD in Biochemistry."

"Well, yes."

Ben nodded even though he knew that Seth wasn't looking at him.

"Mhmm, so from what the news outlets said, two cars collided and the people in both cars died. You should know that Sophia's body did not come to us in great condition, and the poor taxi driver was completely mangled. But guess what? Olivia's body was completely unscathed. There are too many things that science cannot explain here so I decided to keep an eye on her for a while.

Almost eight months. That's the amount of time I spent observing her while I hoped to find something out of the norm, but I found nothing for a few weeks. That was until a full moon night..." he said, and felt his hair stand on end as he recalled what he had seen that night.

"She's not the Olivia I know, and she... she's not human, Seth. She's some kind of weird thing... ughhh it's so hard to explain and even if I did, you'll probably call me crazy. It's better for you to see it with your own eyes so just wait a bit more. We are quite close to her favorite spot."

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