—Collins Gem English Dictionary, 1985

Isaiah and Lynn crept inside the faded hostel block with not much attention given to them. It was a Sunday, some students who were actually from Eaeshore had went back home from the hostels. Most were simply out gallivanting. Though Isaiah was in his usual working suit, Lynn- in her jeans- would have blended in well with the student body- if there actually was one at that time.

The security guard for that block simply picked his nose and waved them on, not even bothering to check their identification or their claims for visiting the hostel. A customary question, "Why are you here?" with the answer from Lynn, "I’m enrolling next semester and would like to check out the accommodations," got them through. Isaiah wondered if that was why crimes in campus were pretty rampant.

The girl’s room was locked and so Isaiah had to pick it. Lynn tapped her feet the whole time he was doing it- not enjoying the wait. Isaiah had no idea why but he kept slipping and a simple job which should have taken seconds took him two minutes, like the forewarning of something powerful that was going to happen to him.

He threw the door opened finally and Lynn rushed in first, her hands already gloved. Glancing around the single room, she pouted at the neatness.

"Nothing happened here."

Isaiah was about to tell Lynn that even if nothing happened, they could seek some clues to the identity of the killer when nauseous washed over him. He staggered a little backwards and had to steady himself with an arm pressed against the wall. Lynn hurried over and very gently administered to him.

"You ok? Flash? Sense? Whatever is that you get?" Lynn asked him softly, tenderly. In moments like that, when she was so genuinely and deeply concerned over his well-being, he wanted to just ask her to marry him and stop their charade and play. Marry him. Have cute little babies. Build a loving, happy home.

He would make a wonderful daddy. He would love his children.

Above all, he would love his wife enormously.

He shook his head, not knowing what had hit him, only that the feeling seemed to border on profound sadness. Someone once told him sometimes the spirit would linger on for a while if it could not find rest.

Isaiah made his observations from what he had seen in the room. Trophies and medals of academic nature lined a bookshelf. Three books on Sociology and Political Science were stacked on her desk. Her plain bed sheets were colored bright orange. Two cute, cuddly medium sized bears acted as bodyguards for her as she slept.

He smiled weakly at Lynn who was frowning at him with worry in her eyes. She knew of his ‘gifts’ of course and had been fascinated by it. Sometimes, she would want to hear of it but he would shrug off her attempts to make it into a topic for banter. It was not that he wanted to keep it quiet, well, part of him wanted to. The main reason was he could not talk about something he had very vague understandings of. Lynn understood and accepted it as a trait of his; accepted it similar to how she would accept traits like laziness, optimism, quick-thinking, etc in people. Once, she even said something about how everyone had gifts, only his was rarer because not many were needed to use that particular ability.

That more people needed things like Wisdom, Patience and alike. He knew she was half-poking fun at herself because she did lack some wisdom and plenty of patience.

Lynn let go of him and he struggled to stand straight. Breathing in deeply, he half-staggered towards the girl’s bed and sat on it, nursing the throb that had kindly paid his left temple a visit.

"Maybe you can sift around, see if there’s anything that might link her to any Nazi or something." Isaiah suggested, trying to gain some sense of bearings but the floor was floating and making him felt even giddier. Lynn was faced back towards him and she gestured to a bunch of Political Science textbooks.

"Besides those? Oh well…lemme just take a look…"

"Isaiah? Isaiah…"

"Huh?" Isaiah was jolted to present time. The floor stopped spinning. Lynn was hovering around him, like a mother hen protecting her chick.

"I’ve been talking to you…but…you saw something?" Lynn knelt down and gazed into his eyes, her black ones shone with curiosity but her tone was casual, too casual that it actually emphasized her latent intrigue with his gift. "Seen anything that can help us?" She added, like how someone would ask another for another cup of coffee.

"Message board…Internet…" He stood up and walked over the workstation. It was probably still there because the officers doing the routine investigations, before he and Elijah took over, must had concluded that there was nothing interesting in the hard disk.

The computer was devoid of anything besides the usual programs and some files that would turn out to be her notes. Isaiah pulled up the Internet Explorer and the campus intranet dialogue box popped up. Keying in her password, he was connected immediately.

Lynn raised a brow. "You will make a very good hacker."

Isaiah laughed shortly. "Shh…we should keep this a secret…you don’t want to be out of a job do you?"

She chuckled and ruffled his hair easily. He turned around sharply and narrowed his eyes in playful fun. "Watch the hair missus." And pretended to touch the top of his ‘Armani’ spikes to make sure they were still there. Lynn shook her head and stood next to him.

Immediately, the webpage brought them to a message board. Isaiah recognized it as the one in his vision- the vision that seemed like a memory that floated behind, waiting for someone it could speak to.

Her ID was ‘PolesApart’. It was remembered by the program. Her password remained as ‘Aurek’.

Just as they were examining through the message board to look for clues from her postings when someone came into the room. A short, light brown hair girl with a splash of freckles across her cheeks. She was the kind of girl who wore her clothes two sizes too big such that she seemed like a clothes hangar, lost in cloth. Apparently shocked to see them, she brandished a baseball bat that she was carrying menacingly at them.

"What are you two doing in Sandy’s room?" Her voice was shrill and very girlish. She was afraid but she did not waver. "Tell me before I scream bloody murder and rape."

Lynn raised her hands up as a show that she was not of any threat. Very cautiously, she approached, inch by inch towards the frightened girl. She let down one hand and reached into her jeans pocket and took out a card. The ‘FBI’ card.

"We are from the FBI. You can trust us. We mean no harm. We just want to find out what happened to Sandy. Are you her friend?"

The girl’s grey eyes silted and she studied the card. Isaiah wondered then if she knew how an FBI agent’s card looked like.

"Alright…but…don’t touch me…" She stepped inside the room and Lynn relaxed her other hand as well. Isaiah let out a sigh of relief. The girl immediately walked towards him and glance at the computer.

"What are you doing with her computer and using her identification?" She was hostile as she interrogated them.

"What’s your name little girl?" Isaiah asked her outright. A simple introduction would only be polite. He had enough of Elijah’s silent rudeness and now, this suspicious girl was getting on his nerves. Of course she had the right to be paranoid; her friend had just died. Isaiah very quickly chastised himself for his lack of understanding.

She glared at him. "Shelly!" She screamed into his face and he was taken aback. Lynn had to pick that opportune time to burst into laughter.

But her mirth was welcomed in the room that housed the pain of loss. Shelly’s face went red at her own outburst and she looked so ridiculously cute that Isaiah broke into soft chuckles as well.

"I’m Isaiah. That’s my partner Lynn…" He spoke as gently as he could to the mistrustful girl who looked away and pressed her lips together.

"Are you alright?"

Lynn walked in front of Shelly and placed her hands on the girl’s shoulders, looking down at her with hooded eyes that promised compassion. "We know how sad it can be…but we do need some help…"

"Sandy just passed away. Her parents are coming over to fetch her body back to Poland. She was my best friend…" Shelly pulled the armchair over to her side and plopped herself down on it. "She was always sad…and now she’s dead."

"Why was she always sad?" Lynn knelt down in front of the girl and ventured, soothingly almost. Isaiah saw her face. At that moment, she seemed like a seraphim, waiting to embrace the girl in her white, feathery wings- giving comfort, giving assurance. He saw that look and closed his eyes, trying to capture it in his mind- wanting to eternalize it into his memory.

Shelly’s lips curled and her eyes welled up. When she spoke next, her voice was small, like that of a child.

"Her parents went back to Poland three years ago. She’s so alone here. But she was not always sad. She had a boyfriend…" The girl swirled the chair around and Lynn quickly hopped a little behind or the chair would hit her surely.

Shelly did a search on the message board and brought them to a thread. The thread was still running and from what Isaiah could see, it had run for almost 100 pages. Shelly had brought them to the first thread. It was a call for help.

Need help with Holocaust, Hitler and WWII for thesis! If any other honors students doing the same topic wants have discussions with me, my email is PS1202@ecesc.edu.us . Thanks. J

"They met on this thread. She had provided him with information about Poland and how most Poles were persecuted, not only the Polish Jews. He found her fascinating and they met. Soon, they started dating. He died three months ago, insulin overdose or something. And she was depressed ever since."

Talking about her dead friend probably helped Shelly deal with some of her grief. She smiled sadly in remembrance and Isaiah’s heart went out to her. Lynn though was the one she looked to for that momentary comfort that a stranger can offer. Taking out a tissue from her pocket, Lynn, who was already standing up, gave it to the girl who took it gratefully.

Isaiah coughed because he was about to break them away from respecting and honoring the dead. "What’s her boyfriend’s name?"

"Alvin Skyner. I think I’ll repeat myself. He’s dead. The dead don’t talk anymore." The girl’s voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Sandy’s fine." He assured the girl who gave him a weird look.

"And how will you know?" She questioned him, looking at him with blatant reservations.

Isaiah looked at the computer screen. He could feel that even Lynn was looking at him. How did he know? Well, he just knew, despite the sorrows in this room- he had seen the girl. There was goodness on that face.

He shrugged wordlessly.

***

"So, where are we heading for now? The first victim’s house?" Lynn enquired. They had left Sandy’s dormitory after getting Alvin Skyner’s address from Shelly. The three of them had left together but Shelly went back to her own room, just two stories above Sandy’s. The hostel was not as deserted as they had thought. Sandy told them curtly that someone had seen the both of them lurking around Sandy’s room and alerted Shelly and that was why she came to investigate. When security was lacking, the girls had adopted a ‘watchdog’ attitude to keep each other safe.

"Nope."

"Alvin Skyner?"

"Nope."

Lynn pouted and moved her squashed lips around. "There really isn’t any point in keeping the suspense. Where are we going?"

"I want to have a talk with Elijah. He said to inform him after we are done. We are done somewhat…so we are going to talk to him. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve SMS him. He should be arriving in anytime soon." Isaiah informed her almost proudly. "I did all the SMSing myself."

Lynn gave him a trying smile. "Good for you, mountain tortoise."

Isaiah found her direct translation from a Chinese Idiom, meaning ‘a hermit’ very funny and he laughed with much mirth, dispelling the senses and the chilling breeze his brother had left blowing in his heart. She laughed along with him- loud, merry and chirpy laughter.

They reached the small little café where Elijah and Isaiah had dinner in yesterday. It was close to four in the afternoon. Elijah had told him to wait there. He wondered how Elijah was going to make it there when he had no car. His thoughts were answered then as a rented car drove up to the car park behind the eatery. Elijah stepped out, all impassive- all sharp and sleek.

"You!" Lynn exclaimed. "I can’t believe…oh…so you’re Elijah. That explains it."

Isaiah was baffled. Lynn turned to him and enlightened him in low voice. "I’ve met him at the vending machine in the lobby of Tech. He hadn’t got change and I brought him coffee and he did not thank me. Then he went to my desk and put the change on it with a ‘thank you’ note. I will never have guessed he’s your brother. Both of you look so different."

Elijah overheard her because he had already approached them. "Thank you for the compliment."

His emotionless mockery gnawed at Isaiah’s soul. Lynn heard it too and scowled at him.

"You’re most disgusting." She defended Isaiah who was still stung by the remark.

"Thanks again. My gratitude is expressed and most sincere. What have the both of you found out?"

Lynn continued scowling at Elijah and Isaiah knew somehow, the two of them might not get along well. Not that he was surprise. He was a little tired of his brother himself and it had only been a little more than a day since he re-entered into Isaiah’s life. Isaiah knew he should be happy. Re-unification was all that he was yearning for, besides Lynn’s hand in marriage. Now that it had occurred, the dread was never more at home, especially with Lynn’s so tactless and straightforward assessment of his brother.

"Let’s talk over some food. I’m really hungry…guess we’ll be eating the same stuff Li...Elijah…" Isaiah tripped over the pet name for his brother yet again. If Elijah noticed, he did not show.

Elijah simply walked towards the front of the café, leaving Lynn and Isaiah behind. Lynn stared at Elijah’s retreating figure and shook her head. Isaiah sensed her thoughts and gave her humorless smile.

"You’re right when you told me he would be seriously skewed." He shoved his hands into his pocket and then let out a sigh. He looked down at the tip of his shoes, not wanting to move yet.

She was silent for a while before she spoke; probably trying to phrase her words properly, something she did when she was feeling sensitive enough. "I know he had an abusive childhood and I should sympathize. But it’s so difficult…just looking at him…it’s like looking into a blank piece of paper in the middle of Antarctica when you are dreaming of nice wooly blankets."

"I think Grey hates him too…trading silent derisions at each other ever since he joined us on Friday."

They walked together, hand-in-hand, to the entrance of the café. Lynn was quiet but she had a pensive look on her face. Her eyes flashed with something and her lips parted but she quickly clamped it shut. Isaiah noticed it. To see Lynn actually checking her words was a rarity among the rare.

"Go on…say it. It’s ok…"

"I was just thinking how different two brothers can be…one so full of love, one so…empty. And I just felt so lucky all of the sudden…that the right brother’s with me." Lynn mumbled. "It’s not a compliment. I don’t think you’ll like to receive compliments like that too."

"You’re right, I don’t but I understand perfectly…"

"When we see things so vastly different and perverse from what we are used to, we start to appreciate the little blessings in our lives." Lynn interrupted him, throwing him a guilty and yet terribly sweet smile which was returned with a weary one of his own.

Isaiah did not mind the interjection. He had no more words to speak then on the subject of his brother. But she was not entirely right to say what she did. He would not consider himself a blessing next to Elijah.

Because he knew Elijah did not ask for it. No one in their right mind would ask for a personality so screwed.

Isaiah thought of his father then and tasted something bitter in his mouth.

Something bitter like anger, disillusionment, aversion and anguish all churned together in a whirlpool that was bringing him closer and closer to hate.

***