Isaiah watched Elijah chewing his food without any expression on his face and felt a tinge of pity for his brother. The small little restaurant that Isaiah had found at the corner of River Street served delicious, all American meals. Isaiah found himself ordering Fish N Chips though he just had it two days ago. He missed Lynn’s company and she loved Fish N Chips- in a strange way, he wanted to connect to her via the plate of golden fillet. Elijah had Rosemary Chicken and a glass of water. He did not seemed to be enjoying his chicken which did look succulent to Isaiah.

After the visit to the crime scene which yielded no results, the two brothers paid a visit the local police investigator who was given the case before it was handed over to the two "FBI" agents. He was Jacob Stern, his surname a direct contradiction to his jolly face. Graying brown hair framed a friendly mien.

In Jacob’s summary, they learned more about the case than from the file that Grey had given them- a file that was rushed and too sketchy, giving only slightly more than the victims’ profiles.

Jacob had given them a copy of his report and the two messages. It was close to dinnertime and because they had missed lunch, Isaiah was extremely hungry and suggested having dinner together. Elijah nodded impassively in calculated agreement. For all his ‘gifts’, Isaiah could not fathom his brother’s mind.

" The notes were most cryptic huh?" Isaiah asked in a feigned relaxed tone in between bites. But his green eyes were narrowed as he remembered the two notes which were now in Elijah’s pocket. Elijah had not asked him if he wanted to keep the evidence. Elijah just took them.

"Hmm," Elijah mumbled, picking at his food, cutting it up into tiny pieces, chewing the morsels and swallowing- all done without tasting.

Isaiah was not giving up. A conversation was a conversation, no matter what it was about. Besides, he really wanted this case to be over and done with. He hated the evil he had sensed. He wanted it eradicated.

"The Stern’s report said the first victim was a male- a Jehovah’s Witness. He had incisions in his neck and his wrists were slashed. ‘The hated 5 million.’ Mean anything to you?" Isaiah took a sip of his lemonade after his question, his throat a little dry from being the one carrying on the one-sided conversation. Elijah showed an expression. One of someone in thoughts. The lips were compressed.

"Hmm."

"The second note. ‘The second most insidious parasite.’ Looking at you…I’m beginning to think you do know something."

Elijah stifled a yawn. It was then Isaiah noticed that Elijah did looked a little tired the whole day, even though his face was a piece of white paper. He felt like slapping his own forehead.

"Hmm."

Isaiah was almost bursting at the seams to scream at Elijah to have more words and an expression that was actually human. He wanted so much to just bang Elijah’s head against the wall and force him to reveal what he had done with Lijah. His Lijah.

Isaiah’s prayers were half-answered for Elijah stifled another yawn. The moment after the yawn, Elijah actually slumped back against the ebony-colored dining chair. Nonetheless, his eyes did not close or even catch a prolonged blink. Elijah was just as impassive; vacuous.

The dark-haired young man gestured to the plate of half-eaten food and stuck his tongue in his cheek in silent questioning. Then he was answered with silence. As he got used to his new partner, he got used to being the only spirited object- though at times he felt he could be a gloomy spirit.

"Never mind. Let’s talk about something else. I haven’t really got a chance to ask you…just…" Isaiah twirled his fork in his salad, entangling up strips of lettuce covered in olive oil "How are you?"

"Hmm…"

Isaiah set his fork down and irritation set on his face. He could be calm when he wanted to but Elijah’s severe taciturn was probably the most annoying and frustrating thing he had ever come across. A irrelevant thought came to Isaiah’s mind- he considered gagging and binding Elijah up and then sending him for speech therapy; after which he released a soft laughter at the crazy image that suddenly popped into his mind.

His laughter could be as loud as he wanted to for Elijah took no offense nor even seemed baffled as to why Isaiah would just suddenly break out in bitter hiliarity.

"Are you even listening to me?" Isaiah inquired softly, after the brief, poignant mirth was gone. Elijah looked blankly at Isaiah and nodded slightly. Isaiah shook his head and went back to attacking the poor dead fish covered in golden crumbs. Somehow, it did not taste as good as it had a few minutes ago.

***

It was nightfall. Eaeshore was still and hushed at nightfall. The two killings had probably frightened the people. The shops closed early and the streets were empty. Only a few drunks loitered in the alleyways. Most of them homeless and hopeless.

When the bill for the food arrived, the two partners had paid separate. Elijah had very flatly informed the waitress for two bills after Isaiah took out his credit card with the intention to pay for both of them. Elijah used cash.

Isaiah had sent Elijah back to Tech Enterprise because Elijah had refused to respond when Isaiah asked for his address. From the rear-view mirror after Elijah had alighted, he saw that Elijah had flagged down a cab and was going his own way home. Isaiah felt a pinching of his heart.

Most people looked innocent in their sleep. Isaiah was hoping that in Elijah’s nap, which he had taken during the ride back, Lijah would suddenly just make an appearance and he could probably just touch the face that was his little brother’s and yet- a stranger’s. Elijah defied all the movies and books that Isaiah had watched and read respectively which always chose to show the human side of a criminal while the character slept to elicit some sympathy for a black heart.

Elijah in his sleep was as lifeless as Elijah when awoken.

Isaiah switched on the lights in his little nest and he could, finally in the privacy of his own house, take a drag without someone screaming down his throat or accuse him of being inconsiderate. It was a bad habit- smoking.

He knew the day would be tedious; would drain him mentally and physically. Just being with Elijah seemed to diffuse energy and patience away from his body and soul into nothingness to the air. When he was eighteen and had started to keep tabs on his brother through the PI who had charged him almost exorbitant rates- he knew Elijah had became a mystery. Now, he only hoped it was not too late to unravel the past.

Still, he took out the newspaper cuttings from a locked drawer in his living room that he had studied and memorized almost every single word of. The newspaper articles reiterated the event that he had taken as the trigger for Elijah’s personality change. Reading it again, he felt all the more unsettled.

Flipping it over, he read the follow-up article.

Isaiah eyes closed as he searched for a sequence in his mind, using the clues he had and using his acute sixth sense since visions and senses did not come to him. He tried to visualize in his mind what could have happened.

Isaiah woke from the surreal dream that he directed and walked across the hall to his exposed kitchen-which was meant for boiling water only and nothing else. He picked up the phone mounted on the wall there and dialed the number of the expensive but efficient PI.

"May I speak to Howard?"

"Yes?"

"Isaiah Raily here. Remember me?"

"Ah! The brother seeker. So, what do you want?"

"I need you to find three people for me. I’ll pay you well…."

***

Isaiah hung up the phone after giving the PI instructions. He could not concentrate on two cases, not when one was so urgent. But he could delegate out some duties to someone he trust who would do a good job.

Leaning back, he remembered the senses that had visited him. The feeling of evil.

The feeling of someone trying to scream but with no voice.

And the third sense that had came with the evil. He termed the familiar sense evil because it unnerved him, made him disgusted and appalled. It was a sense that followed quite a few violent crimes he had encountered. Sometimes he could feel sadness as well. The victims’ as well as the perpetrators’. Quite a few criminals who committed vile crimes had horrible pasts that made them inhuman because they could not heal properly as no one helped them.

This time he felt pure, unadulterated evil. And also hatred. Not the casual kind of hatred that one might feel sometimes because they were annoyed. That was probably a more intense form of irritation.

The accompanying feeling was a terrible malevolent force that chilled Isaiah.

***

Elijah had been tired in the car. Nonetheless, the moment he reached the plain, stark empty apartment of his, saved the necessities, he was wide awake from the nap he had taken and immediately set down to work on the case on his redwood desk.

The case itself could be considered exciting to most- a serial murderer. The victims though were the ones that kept him intrigued. Looking at their profiles which were one of the few useful information in the scanty file the Network gave him as well as the clues and report they obtained from Stern- he could already deduce a pattern.

He took out the file which he kept since Isaiah had not spoken a word to challenge the claim. Re-reading it, something struck his attention, though the effect was only in his mind.

Using his notebook, he connected himself to the internet. Doing a search for meaning of names, he confirmed what he was suspecting.

Then someone interrupted his thoughts. A little boy.

He picked up the serrated knife that was lying on his table. He was familiar with knives, having used many on himself. A serrated knife with its jagged edges would leave an ugly scar. Would rip off his skin in bits.

Pain was almost non-existence to him as he indifferently made a slash across his left forearm, just right next to the one he had made a few days ago. At that moment, his brains automatically switched off and he was detached. There was no judgment, no disgust, no thoughts on weaknesses or death. There was nothing, just an aloof silent thought.

Elijah watched Lijah bleed.