Psychic Company: Case 02 - Seraph Pt.1
"It's just some screenshots—did you print these out? Why didn't you use the color printer?" Jules criticized. "I printed it at home," Willoughby admitted, a little embarrassed.
Outside was hot and dry—a stark difference from the coolness their RV's air conditioning provided. The couple's son stuck his head out a side window, unperturbed by the dusty breeze and instead completely engrossed in how the sun cast a seemingly golden glow on the arid landscape. His mother, a portly woman with curly medium-length brown hair, sat in the passenger seat and laughed at something her husband said. She briefly glanced back at their son and said, "Don't stick your head out too far. You'll get a rock in your eye."
Suddenly, as if called forth by her warning, a strange energy filled the air and uneasiness overcame them. A faint whisper carried with the wind as if the world itself were speaking to them. The boy squinted at something in the distance, a swirling vortex of dust emerging from nothing in the empty expanse. It danced and twirled, growing in size with each passing second. Within the growing dust devil, the son thought he glimpsed something—someone—within. "Mom..." the child said.
Nervous, his mother said, "You okay, sweetie?"
"There's someone... in the tornado."
"Tornado?" the father yelled and the car swerved. "Where?"
"Calm down. It's just a dust devil. Over there, see?" The mother pointed off to the right of the RV and her husband pulled over to observe for himself. For a moment, all three individuals were captivated by the dust devil's movements.
Just as suddenly as it appeared, it quickly blossomed into a full blown sandstorm, coloring the sky dark orange. Within the blink of an eye, it overtook the RV, ramming it violently off the road.
Summer came early in Vancouver. Enough so that as Emily and Oliver enjoyed their early morning coffee date, they felt like the sun was shining down exclusively for them. They headed into the office together, where Jules waited for them alone at his desk. "Did you get me one or are only date-goers allowed a coffee?" he said.
Oliver blushed. "Maybe if someone actually came back to the dorms last night, they'd get a coffee too."
"Should I make you some tea?" Emily asked.
Jules swatted his hand. "I'll get Willoughby to make some when he comes in. He does it better than you, anyway."
"That's not very nice," Oliver said.
"It's true," Jules replied.
"It's okay," Emily said. "He is right."
Oliver sighed. He didn't have it in him to argue. He simply wanted to bask in the afterglow of their cute date, as short as it was. "Where is Willoughby, anyway?" He checked his phone. "It's five past nine and he usually isn't late. Didn't he have something for us?"
"I'm here, I'm here," Willoughby said in a sing-song voice as he stormed into the office space.
"Well, speak of the devil," Jules said. "Your email sounded urgent."
Willoughby handed out a sheet of paper to each of them before placing his own copy on his desk. "Please review this. The data was just sent to us this morning."
"It's just some screenshots—did you print these out? Why didn't you use the color printer?" Jules criticized.
"I printed it at home," Willoughby admitted, a little embarrassed.
"I can't see anything," Emily said, bringing the printout closer to her face and trying to examine it more thoroughly.
Willoughby sighed. "Unfortunately, that screenshot was all I received. I requested the source video, but apparently there's a backlog at Office 4 right now and we have to wait. It's supposed to arrive by ten."
"What is it?" Oliver asked.
"A lead on our missing otherworlders. Look closely. Can you tell what it is?" Willoughby said.
Emily furrowed her brow. "Is that a... foot? And a wing?"
"Precisely."
Oliver shot Willoughby a concerned look. "The seraph?"
Willoughby nodded with pursed lips.
Oliver slumped back in his seat. "That's worrying. We're going to need help again."
In his restlessness, Willoughby walked over to the kitchenette and began making tea. "Spiegel has already agreed to connect us with some associates. They think it has to do with the mysterious dust storm cruising across the southwest the moment."
"What's different about it?" Emily asked.
Jules' face blanked. "Oh, that."
Oliver whipped his head around. "You know about it?"
"That's why I stayed here last night. Got sent a scrub order yesterday on everything related to that weird dust storm."
"What can you tell us?" Emily asked.
"You think I look at that shit before I scrub it?"
"Of course you do," Oliver said flatly.
Jules mimed getting shot in the chest. "To think my own brother thinks I lack professionalism!"
"I know you look before you scrub—you can't resist"
Willoughby furrowed his brow, concerned. "If you have knowledge about this case, I ask you to indulge us."
"Look at that, it's a case already!" Jules sighed. He rubbed his face thoroughly and then peeked at his coworkers through his fingers. "You didn't hear it from me."
"Quit playing around," Oliver said.
Jules turned to his PC and brought up an animated diagram. "Come look," he said and the others crowded behind him. "This is where the sightings started, northeast of Reno. It then grew, massively, and started heading south. But, within a few hours, it suddenly turned ninety degrees and headed east. Overnight, it slowly went back to its original southern direction. That's his gentle curve here, see? It's avoided all residential areas so, seraph or not, it's intelligent."
"Let me see some more angles," Willoughby said and Jules flipped through a few personally saved images. "It's quite large. And look at the trail it's leaving. Is it searching... for something?"
"There's no way something like this exists in nature, right?" Oliver asked.
"No," Willoughby replied, shaking his head. "The pathing is too deliberate."
An alert popped up on Jules' PC. "Oh, the video is here."
"Play it," Willoughby said and Jules did exactly that.
The clip was rather short, just a few minutes long, and shaky. Arid landscape, a quaint RV, a woman with curly brown hair, the landscape again. The mood shifted drastically at the appearance of the dust devil in the distance. Within a matter of minutes, it grew into a massive dust storm and crashed into the RV, knocking the phone out of the hands of who they now realised was a child. Emily gasped when the video was cut short, frozen in place at the sight of the insides of an upturned RV.
"Are they okay?" she asked.
"One sec." Jules opened up the accompanying document and forwarded it to her. She accessed it immediately, reading through it at lightning speed, and then sighed.
"They're all right?" Willoughby asked.
"The parents are sedated, but they're out of the woods. Their son is already moving around."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. "That's great," Oliver said.
Emily looked Willoughby straight in the eyes, suddenly filled with determination. "So, when do we start? Can you introduce me to these associates?"