The Vendeleer Brothers Book 3: Nightmare on Holly
Chapter 3: The Illusionist

Ian wasn’t sure why he was so nervous for his first day on the job. He had had plenty of other jobs before, but then again, none of them had dealt with ghosts and spirits. Mostly he was used to just crunching numbers for hours on end.

Roderick was oblivious as always to Ian’s anxieties as the two of them pulled up to the still strange blocky building surrounded by a large brick wall.

After being cleared at the enturance, Ian felt his stomach churn at the thought of all the new people he would now probably have to interact with on a daily basis. He was usually fine if he knew something was going to be temporary, like with a case, but if he had to see someone he didn’t like everyday…

Like Cameron…

Ian scowled as he watched the blonde detective he had met in Serenity Hill stride into the building in front of them, dropping a cigarette on the ground as he walked in.

Ian hated litter.

“Well, let’s see what this new job has in store for us!” Roderick said with a smile, his arm still in a sling.

Despite feeling like he was going to throw up, Ian forced himself to smile as well. The two of them walked inside, where they were immediately ushered into a large room. The room was filled with people, and Ian felt himself tense up slightly.

Were all of these people going to be coworkers?!

He turned to Roderick to make some snide comment to make himself feel better, but at that moment, Chief Wilson Lenard walked up to them.

“Roderick-can I talk to you for a minute about that velociraptor you saw?”

“Of course!”

The younger brother left with the chief without another thought, leaving Ian alone in a room with a hundred strangers.

Great.

Now what?

He took in a deep breath and looked around to try and replace a seat, and then immediately felt relief flood through him when he saw Joey, Brian, and Jordyn.

So taking care not to bump into any sweaty people, he made his way over to them. He was still on the fence about calling them his friends, but at least acquaintances were better than strangers.

“It took you guys long enough.” Jordyn immediately berated. “Now where’s that brother of yours?”

“Oh he got pulled aside by Chief Lenard to talk about the velociraptor attack.”Ian told them simply. The three of them stared at him in disbelief.

“The-what?” Brian began.

Ian blinked, forgetting for a moment that he hadn’t told them yet.

“Oh yeah. Roderick was attacked by a dinosaur yesterday.”

There was a pause, and then Jordyn shook her head.

“I would say that I’ve dealt with weirder, but I haven’t. Dinosaurs are pretty up there on the weird scale.”

“I do have to say… That is fairly unusual… even for me.” Joey agreed.

The four of them grew silent ast the lights dimmed and everyone started to sit down. A screen popped up from a projector right as Roderick found them and sat down as well. A moment later, Chief Lenard stepped up.

“Let’s get right to business.” the asian said with a loud booming voice. “You each have your assignments, but since we all live here in Spectreville, I wanted to bring up a case here in town so you can keep an eye out.”

With that, he pressed a button on a clicker, and three pictures of people came up.

“This week, we have had two deaths and one attack with interesting circumstances. The first was of a Mr. Newman Brady, who drowned in his kitchen.”

The Chief clicked the button again, bringing up pictures of a wet bloated corpse on a table.

“The entire kitchen was dry and in working condition. No fingerprints were found other than from the victim and his wife.”

As the Chief was going through all of this, Ian quickly pulled out a notebook to write it all down.

“Next, we have Sarah Demayo, who was found petrified in her bedroom, which was still in its pristine condition. After further investigation, it was discovered that the cause of death was from a volcanic pyroclastic flow.”

Ian and Roderick glanced at each other, eyebrows raised. They certainly did not have to be volcanologists to know there was no way something like that could possibly happen in someone’s house in Missouri.

“And lastly, we have Bobby Macklevoy, who was attacked by a velociraptor in his mechanics shop.”

Ian looked up to see that the pictures Roderick had taken were up there, as well as pictures of the man’s wounds.

“Even though the creature was shot, it somehow disappeared before police and animal control arrived on the scene. HOwever, there were several other witnesses who saw it before then, including another mechanic, the EMT’s, and one of our own agents who just so happened to be on the scene. So far, this is the only information we have, so be on the lookout for anything as you go about your assignments. Dismissed.”

And with that, the lights came back on and everyone started to disperse.

“Well, that sure was straight to the point.” Brian commented, sneaking a jolly rancher into his mouth.

“Yep. That’s Chief Lenard for ya.” Jordyn smirked. “Now follow me guys. I’ve got our first assignment.”

The others exchanged glances of nervous excitement, and then followed her down a hall. Ian knew immediately that he would be needing to study a map of this place, but Jordyn traveled through the corridor with ease and confidence. He began to wonder how long she had been here and how she had started working for them.

Jordyn ended up leading them outside into a large courtyard with a couple of duplexes and apartments. There was a well trimmed garden and coy pond in the middle of it all, and a couple of oak trees swayed in the hot summer wind.

Ian observed it all with interest as they walked up to a door with several potted plants sitting outside. Did some of the detectives live here on site?

Before they even had a chance to knock, the door swung open, revealing a well dressed black man in his thirties smiling wide at them. The man adjusted his glasses and came out to meet them.

“Hey guys! I’ve heard so much about you already that it’s exciting to finally meet you!”

Ian couldn’t help but give a little grimace at the idea that someone already had information on him that he didn’t even know.

“This is Shaquim Muldrow.” Jordyn told them. “He’s been working for the PDU for a little while, and he’s going to help us with this assignment.”

“And… what exactly is our assignment?” Joey asked with interest.

Somehow, Shaquim’s smile grew even wider.

“Let’s go sit on the benches for this. Oh and I go by Shaq by the way. Only my mother calls me Shaquim when I’m in trouble.”

The six of them then walked over to a circle of benches with a small fountain in the center. Ian wasn’t sure why Jordyn looked so smug all of a sudden, but he decided it couldn’t be good.f Was something going to happen soon?

Shaq sat down almost nervously, trying to figure out where to start.

“Well, I guess I’ll start off by saying that...the PDU found me in Atlanta and hired me for my… unique abilities…”

“I know you probably want to break this easy to them Shaq, but the best way to do it would probably be to just show them. And don’t worry, I know they can handle it.”

At this point, Ian was now very concerned as the man nodded and took a deep breath. What kind of abilities did this guy have?? Was he an assassin or something?

He was expecting the guy to get up and show some complex fighting moves, but instead, Shaq simply sat there and began staring intensely at them.

Suddenly, Ian felt like he was sinking into the floor, and his surroundings started to change. The people beside him stayed the same, but the little courtyard started to melt as if someone had taken a hairdryer to a box of crayons. His ears also felt like they had cotton in them, and all of the sounds became muffled and unclear.

Ian blinked in surprise at all of this as his surroundings fully melted away into a dark void of nothingness. It looked like he was sitting on nothing, and he looked over to Roderick to see that he seemed just as surprised about all of this as he was. It looked like Brian was probably yelling something, but Ian couldn’t hear what it was with the weird muffling in his ears. The void then started to spiral into a psychedelic checkerboard, and Ian ended up losing his balance and falling to the ground. As soon as he hit the ground, everything came back in a rush-the sounds, the garden, and the courtyard. He also wasn’t the only one on the ground. In fact, they all were with the exception of Shaq and Jordyn.

“WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?” Brian yelled as if they all still had coton in their ears.

Ian hurriedly picked himself up and brushed off the dirt from his clothes as Jordyn snickered at him.

“Was-was that all coming from you?” Roderick asked in awe. Shaq nodded.

“Yes. I like to call myself an illusionist, but it is still unknown what these abilities are and where they come from. They keep changing and shifting, but after working with the PDU, I’m starting to be able to control certain aspects of it.”

Ian was still having a little bit of a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that there were now people out there who even had abilities like this.

“So… our assignment,” Jordyn began a litle hesitantly. “Is to do some research on other people with abilities, replace out more about it, and possibly even replace others like Shaq here.”

Despite the strangeness Ian had just experienced, he found himself quite pleased and even a little excited for this new assignment. There were no creepy ghosts, no serial killers, and no crazy twists. Just normal people with not so normal powers.

He could handle research.

“Well, is that all we know so far? Or can we go ahead and get started?” he asked, standing up. Roderick looked up at his older brother, looking extremely happy that he was so into this. Jordyn gave a grin.

“I propose we get started.”

“Can I run some scans on you Shaq?” Brian immediately asked, jumping up. “I promise they won’t cause cancer or anything.”

“I’m going to go replace a computer.” Ian told them, straightening his skinny blue tie. Joey simply stared at the ground, thinking deeply about something.

At that moment, Jordyn’s phone buzzed, and she read the message with interest.

“Well, before we do all that, it looks like we are needed up at the front for some reason…”

As they all started to follow Jordyn again, Roderick nudged his brother.

“Isn’t this exciting bro? And to think that we’re actually going to be paid to do stuff like this!”

“Yeah…”

Ian looked back at Joey, who was still deep in thought as she lagged behind. So as Roderick started chatting animatedly with Brian, Ian hung back to talk with her.

“Hey, what are you thinking about?” he asked.

“Mmm… Serenity Hill.”

“What about it?”

“Specifically Everett Simpkins.”

Ian strained to remember, even though the events of the last case were still fairly fresh in his mind.

“I… can’t recall who that is…”

“Oh you didn’t meet him. It was in your… happy faze.” she commented. “He runs a bookstore up there. But, anyway, he was the only person in that town that hadn’t been affected by the genie at all. Don’t you replace that a bit strange?”

Ian frowned a little.

“I guess so. But what made you think of that?”

Joey began twirling her necklace of feathers as she continued to think.

“Well, I think I might already have a theory of where abilities like Shaq’s might come from.”

Ian regarded her with surprise.

That sure was quick.

“You see,” she began. “I’ve encountered an ability kind of like that before, but from a type of spirit that I like to call a “prankster”. I think these abilities might be leaking in from the spirit dimension somehow or at least be connected in some way. That’s what made me think about the man that Roderick, Brian, and I met up in Serenity Hill. I think he could also be someone with abilities. Possibly someone who isn’t affected at all by spiritual happenings.”

After hearing all of this, Ian found himself quite impressed by all of her deductive reasoning.

He certainly was glad to be working with Joey.

“That all makes sense. So are you wanting to see if we can get Everett down here?” he asked.

“Ideally yes. But we shall see.”

Ian took a moment to write all of this down in his notebook so he wouldn’t forget. He wanted to be able to look back and read all of this when he was home and had a moment to process everything. He wondered how many people could be out there with different abilities…

His thoughts were interrupted however, as they reached the front gate, because there was an old lady yelling something.

“Beweare the Kishnu!! Beware the Kishnu!!”

“What in the world is all that racket?” Jordyn said with a scrunch of her nose. Ian peered over to the side to see an old woman with matted white hair and caramel skin banging a pot on the gate and holding a doll.

“More importantly, how does this old lady know about Kishnu?” Roderick asked with concern. Brian’s eyes grew wide.

“Wait a second!! I know this lady!!”

They all turned to him in surprise.

“You do?”

Brian put a hand to his head.

“Yeah. She’s freaking Ramona what’s-her-name from Pinnacle Gulch.”

The five of them all looked at each other.

Pinnacle Gulch?

Then what was she doing here?