Chapter 41 - Isabo and Sabio: Part III
8:20pm - Lisa's Room
Bo panted, and the Valkyrie stroked her back gently.
"What do you mean your father was in Lab 539 that day?" Teresa asked after a few seconds of shock.
"He was there. He was in that room right before Lisa passed out," Bo answered as the scene vividly came to her. The man turned to her a little with a look on his face. A look that she'd never forget It was like he was about to smile but his eyes were just stone cold.
When realizing that both women were anxiously waiting for her to tell them more about that day, Bo continued,"he was in that play room. All the kids, and the researchers were there too."
"And you said that it was right before the fire started? Your father was in that playroom right before the fire?"
Bo nodded, and Teresa frowned hard.
"Hmmm...I don't remember we had any visiting parent that day. And also...if he was there, how come his body wasn't discovered?"
Bo swallowed hard. "Maybe because..he didn't die that day?" She said,"I saw him wearing a labcoat just like all the other researchers. He even had a name badge, just like those visiting researchers."
"You mean your father pretended to be a visiting professor?" Tamsin asked.
"Yeah," Bo nodded again. "And not only that, he was also wearing a light green uniform, the same uniform those delivery guys wore when unloading things in the back of the building that day. It's like...he had pretended to be a delivery guy, and then...a researcher."
It only took Tamsin a second or two to realize what Bo was talking about. "So you think he dressed like that on purpose so he could entered the building and...to be in the playroom?"
Bo nodded. She was about to say something, but Teresa's surprised voice interrupted her.
"Why would he have done that? If he wanted to see your brother, he could have just dropped by and filled out a visitor form."
Bo paused and bit her bottom lip hard. "What if...he didn't go to Lab 539 just too see my brother? What if he-"
"-has set the fire and taken him away," Tamsin completed her sentence.
Bo nodded quietly. She knew she didn't have any proof, but how else could she possibly explain the things she had seen?
She heard Teresa and Tamsin discussing the possibility of her father setting the fire, but her mind was elsewhere.
In the dark, tiny closet, her brother's calm voice filled the air, telling her to remember that moment.
There was a hint of nervousness in his voice, just a subtle shiver, like he was suddenly afraid that she wouldn't listen to her. She still remembered the moment when he told her one of them is not like the others. His voice was so serious, maybe even a little desperate.
One of them is not like the others...He must be referring to him. He tried to tell Lisa that my father was there. He was telling her to remember him. Was that because he knew what would happen next? Was that because he knew that those people there would be dead soon?
"I don't think this makes any sense," Teresa's voice came to Bo, dragging her out from her thoughts. "I've met your father, several times actually. He is definitely not a killer."
"Wooo...never say never," Tamsin murmured.
Teresa huffed out a smile and turned to Bo. "I mean...when he sent your brother to Lab 539, I was the one who admitted him. I had a long conversation with him that day. He was desperate. He was feeling hopeless. He was angry. He was sad. He was a lot of things, but he wasn't a killer."
"What if...the entire, and the only, purpose of setting the fire was to...take my brother away?" Bo asked.
Teresa furrowed her eyebrows. "He's the father. He could take him home at any time. Besides, he sent him over after he had exhausted everything. Lab 539 was his last hope. Why would he want to take him home all of a sudden?"
"But, my brother circled that day out on his calendar, and he was packing. Obviously he knew that someone would take him away that day. And that wire saw...it must be from someone outside the lab. Probably this person also told him to wait in the closet of the playroom, and to saw his helmet off."
"Yeah," Tamsin agreed. "He knew he was leaving that day for sure. What I don't get is...why did he even tell Lisa to remember that moment? I mean, he definitely was telling her to remember your father, but why? Why would he tell Lisa that and then hypnotized her, forcing her to be trapped in her REM cycle for the past 22 years?"
Bo pondered that question. And after a while, Teresa opened her mouth.
"He was trying to record that moment," the woman said. "He turned Lisa into a...tape, and the recording on it was that piece of memory. He wanted someone to hear that recording. He wanted someone to figure out the answer to 'one of them is not like the others'. He wanted someone to solve his-"
"-puzzle. Solve the puzzle," Bo blurted. "Right before Lisa passed out, my brother told her not to wake up until...solves...puzzle. He told her not to wake up until someone solves the puzzle!"
Teresa frowned harder, and when she noticed that Bo and Tamsin were both concerned, she explained, "not to wake up until something happens, it is a common way to end the influence of someone's hypnotic power on the subject. It sounds like he's giving Lisa an order. If someone solves his puzzle, she needs to wake up."
"He can do that? Giving someone instructions like that?" Bo asked in surprise.
Teresa nodded. "Back then, a group of us believed that we could fix him. However, we knew that we would never be able to take away his power, so we decided to give him lesson on the basics of hypnosis. The purpose was for him to realize that his power could be fatal, and that wasn't something other people would like. "
"Wouldn't it be handing the nuclear launch kit to the terrorists?" Tamsin asked sarcastically.
Teresa shook her head and smiled bitterly. "I believed that he wanted to belong. I believed that he could eventually understand what's right and what's wrong, but...I don't know."
"How does this even work?" Bo asked, "if we figure out the answer to the puzzle, Lisa would wake up?"
Teresa nodded.
"We've already figured out that my father was the one who was not like the others, right? Why isn't she waking up?"
"I don't know," Teresa said. "He just started learning the concepts of inductions and the suggestion in hypnosis, a few days before the fire. Maybe he didn't do it right, or his power has faded over the past 22 years. Or...maybe she has been in her REM cycle for too long, and her brain was permanently damaged...without further examinations and analysis, I can't say."
Bo sighed as she glanced at the girl lying in the bed.
Tamsin gave the brunette a light kiss on her hair, before she said, "or...maybe solving puzzle means not only we need to figure out who he is, we need to find him as well?"
10:15pm - Outside the Facility
"How the hell are we gonna find my father?" Bo grunted as she fastened the seat belt.
"Well, we can talk to your mom again, I guess?"
"Yeah, sure, if we can find her. Apparently she left her mansion and her lovers a couple of weeks ago, and vanished again."
Tamsin rolled her eyes. "Succubi bitches...What about that Dola who sent you to meet your daddy? Maybe we could hire her to make it happen again or something."
"Yeah, that sounds like a plan."
Tamsin nodded. She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel for a while, before she asked, "are you really sure that it was your father? Could he be someone who looked like him?"
"Yeah, someone who looked exactly like my father took my brother away," Bo murmured. "It's totally...possible."
"I know, but...it's a piece of memory from 22 years ago," Tamsin reminded her. "Maybe the images are distorted?"
"No, it was as clear as something that happened five minutes ago. It was the same face I had seen in that hospital when I first met him."
"Okay, since you remember his face, do you want to let our new sketch artist draw him? That way we could at least have something to search for in the database."
"Well, why not?"
11:05pm - Police Station
"Aaaand here's the one last touch..." The sketch artist singsonged as she quickly blurred some edges on her sketch with her pinky finger. Then she handed it to Bo and said, "done."
Leaning back in her chair while twirling her pencil between her fingers, she gave Bo a confidence smile.
"Thanks," Bo smiled back, almost kissing her on her cheek, because her purple hair and the way she talked reminded her a lot of Kenzi.
The girl squinted her right eye at her while chewing her gum.
Bo smiled again. Then she looked at the sketch. She examined it for a while, before she said, "emmm...this isn't right..."
"Edges too soft? Contrast too sharp? Prefer it in another color?" The artist asked as she rested her chin in her palm and looked into Bo's eyes.
"No, no," Bo said, shaking her head. "I just...I don't think he has a scar above his right eyebrow."
"Huh," the girl raised her eyebrows, "but that's what I saw in your mind, precious. I drew what I saw, not a single hair less, not a single hair more."
Bo hesitated, not wanting to be rude but not wanting to let the scar slide either. Before she came up with something, Tamsin came into the room with some snacks she got from a vending machine.
"Are you saying that she didn't draw it right?" The blonde asked softly as she pulled Bo up and took Bo's chair.
She let the brunette sit on her lap and continued, "don't even say that, because she can't draw wrong. Her Fae power allows her to see people's mind and draw exactly what she has seen. If she hadn't see that scar in there-", she playfully pressed her fingertip on Bo's forehead, "-she wouldn't have drawn that."
"That's right," the artist clicked her tongue at Bo, and then bumped her fist with Tamsin's.
"But...he doesn't have any scars on his face the first time I met him," Bo argued.
"A little Succubus who had just been hit by a car didn't notice a one inch scar on a stranger's face during a five minute encounter? Wow, that's just impossible!" Tamsin joked.
Bo smacked her on her shoulder. The blonde faked a painful cry, and the brunette smacked her harder.
"Oh you happy couple, burn in hell..." the girl grunted and rolled her eyes.
Bo chuckled at the Valkyrie who now placed a soft kiss on the back of her hand, before she turned back to the sketch artist. "So, the scar?"
The girl shrugged and took Bo's hand in hers. "Let me draw him as the one you saw the first time then. You'll see that there is a scar there."
"How could there be one, if I don't even remember one?"
The girl squinted her right eye at Bo again while tapping her finger on her purple hair. "We all remember everything we've seen, precious. We just don't know where they are for most of the time."
Bo nodded, and closed her eyes. She let the girl's power run through her body, and a few minutes later, the girl finished her second sketch.
The artist took a look at the picture, and frowned. "Hell, where is the scar?" She mumbled.
"Ha!" Bo exclaimed, snatching the drawing from her hand before showing both to Tamsin. "See what I've been saying?"
Tamsin compared the two drawings carefully. Even though the two faces were from different angles, and one of them looked a little younger than the other, she could easily conclude that they were of a same person. However, the first drawing did have a scar right above the man's right eyebrow, and the second one didn't. Also, the man in the first drawing had an indifferent look, but the one in the second one had a very warm and loving look.
"Hmmm..." Tamsin frowned at the two drawings. She looked up at the artist, and the girl just shrugged at her before she went back to her laptop.
"See? No scar," Bo told the blonde and she pointed at the second drawing, grinning.
"Well, scars aren't permanent. You can easily get one off by laser treatment or something," Tamsin explained. She took the two sketches and stood up. "Come on, let's run his face in the database and see if he's in there."
11:05pm - Police Station
The fact that the system found a match in only 15 minutes surprised Bo and Tamsin a lot, because they were expecting that it would never find one.
"Wow, looks like he's really in the system," Tamsin murmured as she clicked on the returned result. The moment the file opened, she froze.
"Holy shit, he is so in the system," the blonde murmured in a low voice as she stared at the page that she had just opened.
Bo leaned in and took a look at the title. "Who's Bible John?" She asked curiously.
"You don't know Bible John?" Tamsin asked, her voice raised.
"Am I supposed to? Is he a famous Bible salesman or something?" Bo asked, her voice getting lower and lower when she saw the Valkyrie roll her eyes.
"There was this case of three women being murdered in Scotland in the 60s. The killer has never been found, but there were a few witnesses who had seen him. They described him as well educated, well spoken, and good looking. One of the witnesses, who was also the sister of one of the victims, told the police that he had frequently quoted from the Bible. And that was why he was called Bible John."
"Why is my father linked to this then?"
Tamsin sighed and pointed at the suspect sketch on the page. "Does that face look familiar to you?"
The moment Bo laid her eyes on that sketch, she became so shocked that it took her a while to finally be able to speak again. "Oh my God, Tamsin!" She exclaimed. "That totally looked like my father!"
"Mhm," Tamsin hummed.
Bo swallowed hard. "That's...my father? My father is a serial killer?"
1:50am - Bo and Tamsin's apartment
Bo tossed her jacket into the couch. Then she threw herself in. She covered her eyes with her forearm in exhaustion, and let out a deep sigh.
"I don't get it!" She exclaimed as she grabbed a pillow and smacked it repeatedly at her own thighs. "How can my father be a serial killer?! How could he have raped and killed three women?! My father was a serial killer, can you believe that?"
"Well, it's not like we can choose our parents. Sometimes you just get parents who do horrible shit," Tamsin said as she opened the fridge. She took out a box of ice cream and started to scoop some out to a bowl.
"What, you parents killed people too?"
"No, but they sold me to a slave trader for 2 silver coins when I was 7," Tamsin said, sprinkling some caramel sauce on the ice cream.
"What?! That's horrible! They sold you to a slave trader? They sold their own daughter?"
Tamsin shrugged before she picked out her favorite spoon from a drawer of spoons. "Hey, heavy taxation, plague and drought, not much choice for them, I guess. Either that or them cooking me for dinner."
"And you never told me that."
"Probably cuz I really don't want to see your oh-come-here-and-let-me-hug-you-and-kiss-you eyes?" Tamsin teased.
"So...the slave trader sold you to the Valkyrie squad?"
"Right, the leader of Asgard, Freyja just goes shopping in the slave market and buys kids," Tamsin mumbled. She put the ice cream back into the fridge. "When the slave trader crossed the desert with all the kids, there was this huge sand storm, and everyone else died but me. I thought I'd die too, but Acacia went by and save me. She said that I looked like a good Valkyrie material, so she took me to Asgard and trained me."
"Wait, Valkyries are not born to be, but trained?"
"Well...first you have to have the genes of a Valkyrie. Then a lot of training, which a little soft marshmallow like you wouldn't be able to go through. Then, there's a ceremony where Freyja acknowledges you as a Valkyrie."
"Wow, promise me you'll tell me that story again, with details, someday."
"Sure," Tamsin replied as she sat down on the couch beside the brunette. She ate some ice cream and licked her spoon. "This whole thing about your father just doesn't make much sense."
"Yeah, I know. I mean, if he set the fire and took my brother away, why would he even give us the clue that lead us to Lab 539?"
"I don't know, a part of his game I assume?"
"And the man I met in the hospital. He was so...the way he looked at me, like I was the most precious thing in his life. Like...he really wanted me to be in his life again, if he ever could. How could someone looking at me like that have done such horrible things?"
"Well, he could be a serial killer and still love you as his daughter."
"Then how would you explain the purpose of him taking my brother away from Lab 539? Why would he have send him there in the first place? He could have just taken him away without setting the fire."
"When we catch him, we'll figure out," Tamsin said as she fed Bo some ice cream.
Bo pushed the cold, creamy sweetness around in her mouth with her tongue till it melted. Then she continued with a big frown, "it's just…there's this loving, caring man, and then there's this cold, merciless man. How can they be the same person? Could he be...maybe it's that multiple personality thing?"
"Well, that would explain everything, I guess."
Bo nodded. Then she immediately shook her head. "No, not everything. It still doesn't explain that scar."
"Hey, maybe he drank Dr. Jekyll's potion or something. The serial killer is the evil inside him and the killer has a scar. The loving father doesn't have one," Tamsin teased, and the brunette shot her a cold stare.
Biting the spoon, the blonde slurred, "is the scar thing really bothering you, or you just couldn't accept that your father is...well, at this point I guess I could say, might be, a serial killer?"
"Both," Bo replied honestly. "I just can't believe the man I met is a serial killer, Tamsin."
Tamsin nodded. "Alright, then let me ask you this, how would you explain that scar thing, no laser treatment or anything like that?"
"Unless they are different persons, but how is that even possible? Someone who looked exactly like my father is involved in the fire and the disappearance of my brother? That's insane. That's impossible."
"No, it's actually very possible," Tamsin said as something suddenly came to her. "The existence of someone who looks like your father, but isn't your father."
"You mean that theory which says that there are at least 6 people in the world who look like you?"
"No, I'm not talking that. I'm talking about twins. Identical twin."
Bo opened her mouth as she finally realized what Tamsin had been suggesting. "You mean, my father has a twin?"
"It is possible, and it would actually explain everything, including the scar. His brother has one, but he doesn't."
"That's really a stretch, Tamsin," Bo said. "There is no way to confirm it. We can't even ask my father about it. He could just tell us that he does have one, and watch us looking for someone who never existed."
"Actually, there is a way to confirm it. If the sleeping beauty wakes up after she hears this, we'll know that it's true," Tamsin said as she grabbed her car keys. "Come on, Succulette."
4:00am - Lisa's Room
The moment Bo whispered "it was my father's twin brother" into Lisa's ear, the girl inhaled deeply and opened her eyes.
Bo felt that the heavy weight on her heart disappeared. She finally let out a relieved smile, and the Valkyrie smiled back at her.
Then, they turned back to Lisa.
"Ms. Teresa...?" The girl murmured as she looked at Teresa. Then, she looked at the room she was in. She frowned a little and Tamsin and Bo, but didn't say anything.
Leaning to Teresa, Lisa whispered, "I was in the closet with Johnny. He...he took off his helmet!"
"Shhh..." Teresa said, taking the girl into her arms. She stroked her hair gently and continued, "we will talk about him later, okay?"
Lisa nodded and lay back in bed. When she saw her own hands, she frowned and jerked up a little, unable to believe that they were so big. Then she looked down at herself in shock. "Ms. Teresa, I...I…."
The elder women smiled at her with tears in her eyes. "We will talk about that later too."
A Couple of Weeks Later - Teresa's House
"So, you took sleeping beauty home, huh?" Tamsin asked as she glanced at Lisa who was sitting in the corner of the living room and reading a story book.
"She needs a family," Teresa said in a low voice.
Tamsin shrugged, and Bo nodded.
"So..." Bo started hesitantly, "did Lisa say anything about my brother?"
"Nothing really related to his whereabouts, or your brother's twin's whereabouts, but she talked a lot about your brother," Teresa said. "She said that they were friends."
"Is he even capable of making friends?" Tamsin asked, less sarcastic, more curious.
Teresa sighed. "I don't know. Either they formed some sort of friendship, or he was manipulating her and made her believe that there was a real bond."
"What did she say exactly?"
"She mumbles different things, like how she would go to his dorm, things like that." She paused, and pick up a drawing from a bunch of drawings on the coffee table. She handed it to Bo and said, "I asked her to draw the drawing of you and your brother she saw in his dorm that day, and this was what she drew."
Bo nodded and took a look at the picture. There were much less dark strokes in Lisa's picture, and the colors were softer, but everything else was more or less the same. It was her and her brother holding hands on top of a tower that was about to collapse, and the darkness was about to devour everything. Their names were both written on there. Isabo and Sabio.
"So...is Sabio his name?" Bo asked Teresa.
"No," Teresa answered, shaking her head. "Your father told us that his name was John. I didn't know if that was his real name, or a name your father picked on the way to Lab 539 because he didn't want us to know his real name. We called him John in there, John, Johnny."
"Well, he told Lisa that his name is Sabio. And he called her Isabo," Bo said.
Teresa sucked her lips and looked at the picture. "He might have considered her as a substitute of you, or she might just reminded him of you since the names Elizabeth and Isabeau are of the same origin. He spelled your name as Isabo. Sabio is just an anagram of it."
"Why would he call himself a name that was an anagram of mine?"
"You meant something to him.," Teresa explained. "He must have thought that there is a special bond between you two, but whether it was of evil purpose, or good cause, I have no idea."
Bo nodded again and stared at the drawing.
In there, her brother and her were holding hands on top of the tower.
Was he trying to say that they'd both fall into the darkness? Or that he was dragging her down? Or that she was the one who was dragging him back and preventing him from falling? Or that they had this unbreakable bond between them, just like the dark, messy lines he drew as their hands? Was he trying to tell her something, through Lisa, through the puzzle, through the picture? Was he seeking help, or was he playing his wicked game with her again?
"We'll find him," Bo said in a low voice, as she held Tamsin's hand tight. "Whether his name is John, or Sabio, or whatever shit he has come up with, we will find him."
A/N: busy lately, had to meet a deadline of a paper submission so it took me a while to update this fic. I hope everyone likes the plot twist :)
