The next few minutes were something of a blur as I tried to make sense of what I'd just seen. I'm not sure when exactly when Lynne and the others arrived, but by the time I started to recover my senses she was already receiving a tongue lashing from her two mentors.
"What were you thiiiiinking?" hollered Loose & Lanky. "Lynne, you were ordered to stay put till we got there. You had no way of knowing if this was a trap or something!"
"I'm sorry sir," Lynne said. "It's just we've been hitting so many brick walls on this case…."
"There is noooo excuse!"
"Listen Lynne," the Good Detective said sternly. "Just because we're friends – well, really, because we are your friends – we simply can't let you off for this." He hung his head. "Cabanela and I know all too well what can go wrong when a cop acts on green impulsion."
I knew exactly what the Good Detective was referring to, and I could tell from the look on Loose & Lanky's face that he did too. "What you did was stupid, baby," he said, shaking his head. "And in the end, what good did you reeeally do?"
Lynne looked as if she was about to cry. Then, a light seemed to off in her head, and she turned to the Good Detective. "Jowd, I spoke with Sissel. He said to ask you something about cores?"
The Good Detective looked up. "Have a little brush with death, did we?"
"Yeah… guess that's my fault too though, huh?"
"Are you saying we have a liiive witness?"
Lynne looked at the Good Detective with unease. "Uh, does he know about…?"
"'Fraid not."
"What do we tell him? I don't wanna end up looking like a fruitcake. Again…"
"Um baby, I'm still standing here."
My mind was still spinning with fear and revulsion. I didn't really care about the communication problems our team was experiencing at that moment, I just wanted to get away from that empty husk of a body, to get somewhere safe. At that moment, that safe place was Lynne's core. "Lynne."
"Sissel!" she looked towards the dead body half-strapped to the table. "You can do what you did for me, right?"
"No, I-I can't. I wish I could but..." my mind was still foggy with shock and I was having trouble projecting my thoughts across. "He took it, Lynne…"
"Sissel, what are you talking about?"
"He ate it…"
"Calm down. Who took what? Who ate what?"
"He had Temsik radiation…"
When I didn't reply, Lynne turned back to the Good Detective. "Sissel's here, but there's something wrong. It's like he's delirious, he's babbling about something being eaten, then he mentioned Temsik Park and radiation."
"Can he save him?" the Good Detective gestured towards the man on the table.
"He says he can't."
Loose & Lanky was staring to lose patience. "Care to fiiiill me in on your little secret?"
The Good Detective sighed and looked Loose & Lanky in the eye "I suppose it isn't fair to keep you out of the loop, Cabanela. Plus there are a few things Lynne doesn't understand."
"I don't understand?" Lynne look confused. "Like what?"
"Like why my cat is able to reverse time and talk to the dead."
"Well now that you mention it, I was so caught up in the thrill of the chase…"
"Waaaait a second, Jowd," Loose & Lanky cut in. "What did you just say about your cat?"
"It's not something we can really talk about here," the Good Detective gestured towards the other police officers. "When we're done here, I'd like you two to meet me at the forensics unit. I'll bring Sissel with me."
Lynne nodded in agreement, but Lean & Lanky looked unconvinced. Hopefully that would change when he saw just what was kept at forensics.
Lynne, Loose & Lanky and I went straight to the forensics unit, but we had to wait a while for the Good Detective who had to stop by at home to pick up my body. As we were waiting in the lobby, Lynne was approached by an older woman in a motorised wheelchair.
"E-excuse me…"
Lynne turned to greet the woman, "May I help you, ma'am?"
"I'm here… I-I'm here to see my son…" her hands were trembling. "They say you were first on the scene…"
Loose & Lanky sighed and cast his gaze towards the floor, while Lynne bit her lip and guided the woman's chair towards the direction of the morgue. I was still attached to Lynne's notebook, so naturally I came along with her.
The person that the woman in the wheelchair had come to see was none other than the Twister's latest victim. As the coroner lifted the white cloth and revealed his pale, lifeless face, the woman burst in to tears. I could see that Lynne was fighting back her own.
"My poor, sweet baby," sobbed the woman. "He was such a good boy. He gave up going to college just so he could come and take care of me…"
The cloth went back over the victim's face, and Lynne helped the woman find her way back to the lobby. "We'll catch who did this to you son, ma'am," Lynne said softly. "We're doing everything we can."
"I know you are, Officer. He was such a good boy. I'm sure the Gods have saved a place for him in heaven."
I was so grateful that she couldn't possibly know the truth.
The Good Detective finally arrived, with the carry case containing my body, and he had brought the Professor and his little pigeon with along him.
"So," said the Professor, adjusting his glasses, "the cat's out of the bag, so to speak."
"They still haven't been told about the meteorite," said the Detective.
The Professor gave a grunt, and signalled for the others to follow him. Lynne gave Loose & Lanky a confused look, but he just shrugged and strutted after the Good Detective and the Professor. Lynne hurried after him.
After walking down a few hallways and taking a few elevators, we finally arrived at a thick metal door with a number pad set in the middle. The others watched on as the Professor typed out a code and the metal door with an ominous hiss. The Good Detective and I had been before, but that was over a year ago.
I think we were all a little nervous as we entered the room, a big empty space with a single pedestal in the in the centre, upon which sat an intimidating steel box. The Head-Nesting Pigeon took out a plastic card out of the Professor's pocket and handed it to him, and he swiped it through a lock on the box, causing it to pop open and reveal within it an eerie, shimmering blue crystal – the Temsik meteorite.
"Lynne, Cabanela," said the Good Detective. "You both remember a certain incident ten years ago?"
Loose & Lanky shifted uneasily and stayed silent, but Lynne gave a cheery grin.
"Of course I remember." she said. "That's the day I got kidnapped, and you saved me!"
"That's not quite the whole story," the Good Detective picked up a small shard from the meteorite and showed it to Lynne. "To put it more accurately, this is what saved you – when it fell from the sky and knocked the Temsik Park mascot from its perch."
"Well yeah, but you chased him down and caught him."
"Can we just get to the point?" grumbled the Professor. "I was supposed to be working on some Evel Knievel wannabe before you dragged me back down here."
"Very well," the Good Detective put my carry case down on the floor and opened the door, and out flopped my empty, unconscious body.
Loose & Lanky and Lynne stood in silent shock for a while.
"Oh Sissel," Lynne said finally. "I'm so sorry."
"No, its ok," I told her, "I'm not dead – well, I am dead, technically speaking, but it's easier if I just show you."
I left Lynne's notebook and re-entered my body, allowing myself to feel as my energy spread itself into the tip of my nose, travelling into my paws and along my spine towards my tail. Lynne gave a slight gasp of surprise as I got up, but Loose & Lanky was unimpressed.
"Greaaat," he groaned. "A narcoleptic cat. And this helps us hoooow?"
The Professor turned to the Good Detective, "Time for a little demo, I think."
The Good Detective's face went pale, "Oh… Oh c'mon, is that really necessary?"
"Yes, if you want them to understand what the Temsik meteorite really is. It was the only way you were able to convince me."
"Yes, b-but… well, it's just that…"
"Oh, just shut up and shoot the darn cat already."
Lynne and Loose & Lanky were unsurprisingly horrified by this suggestion, and were very vocal in their objections. While the Good Detective tried to reassure the pair that he wouldn't shoot me, the Professor just rolled his eyes and looked towards me.
"You," he said to me. "Stand still."
For me, a gunshot was a minor inconvenience. I stood over at the other side of the room as the Professor took out a small pistol from a drawer in the central pedestal and took aim at me. Lynne and the others realised what was happening and rushed to stop the Professor, but the gun gave a loud pop and I felt the bullet tear through my body. It didn't hurt, but the force was enough to knock me off my feet.
Lynne screamed and Loose & Lanky's jaw was hanging open, the Good Detective looked embarrassed while the Professor calmly made his way towards me.
"Oh, be quiet," he grumbled. "He's not dead – see?"
I got back up on my feet, and gave a quick mew to let them know I was fine.
"Oh my gosh," Lynne looked as if she was going to faint. "Sissel… how on earth…?"
I walked over to her, rubbing my body against her legs to calm her. "Remember the day of the incident?" I told her. "After your rescue, you found a little black kitten."
Lynne looked thoughtful. "Yeah, I do remember something like that. Didn't Jowd…?" a light went off in her eyes. "No way, that was you?"
Loose & Lanky finally found his tongue, "OK, just what the heeeeell is going on here?"
"This meteorite," the Professor took the fragment from the Good Detective. "Or 'Rock of the Gods', as the ignorant have taken to calling it, fell from the heavens ten years ago, and a shard of it hit our little friend here," the Professor gestured to me.
"Wait, sir," Lynne turned to Jowd. "I thought that rock hit you in the leg?"
The Good Detective shook his head, "It did, but it was a through-and-through. It then lodged itself into Sissel."
"But wouldn't that have killed him?"
"As I was saying!" the Professor huffed impatiently. "A shard of this meteorite hit our feline friend here and got itself stuck inside him. Now, this rock has certain special properties have somehow gifted him certain special abilities. First off," the Pigeon handed him a stethoscope, "I would like you to take a quick listen."
Loose & Lanky was the first to make the vain attempt of finding my heartbeat, he even gave a quick shake to make sure it wasn't broken. Lynne simply shook her head in astonishment when her turn came.
"His vital functions have ceased, but the Temsik has 'preserved' him, so to speak," the Professor continued. "He's just as he was the exact moment before he perished, and as you've just seen with the gun you could throw just about anything at him and it would have no effect. He's effectively immortal, neither dead nor alive. What's more, Sissel here is able to detach his own consciousness from his body and travel through inanimate objects at will, even able to manipulate them." He placed the pistol on the pedestal. "Would you care to demonstrate for us?"
Once again I let my body flop to the floor, and I took possession of the gun. When I was sure that everyone was out of firing range, I set it off. Only Loose & Lanky hadn't observed my powers this time around, but the crack of the gun going off was enough to make everyone jump in shock.
"And of course," said the Professor, as I returned to my body and he returned the gun to its drawer, "our little friend is able to speak to others who have been deceased for less than twenty-four hours, and reverse time back to four minutes before they died. That's an ability, however, that I'm yet to see for myself, although Jowd assures me it exists, and from what he tells me, you have recently seen this in action yourself, Officer Lynne."
"Yeah," Lynne nodded, "I did."
"It was Jowd who came to me and suggested the Temsik meteorite be taken from the Park and be placed here, about a year ago," said the Professor. "He came to me with his cat and gave me a similar demonstration as you were just shown…"
"Oh Jowd," Loose & Lanky was mortified. "You shot your own caaaat?"
"Not my proudest moment," muttered the Good Detective.
"A-HEM!" the Professor shot everyone a quick glare before he went on. "The reason the meteorite was shut here was not just because of its obvious effect on the cat. It has another effect. It seems when anyone dies close enough to this 'Rock of the Gods', their bodies perish normally, but their consciousness is preserved. They become 'wandering spirits', so to speak, with abilities not to dissimilar to what was demonstrated by little Sissel here when he separated his consciousness from his body. Obviously, with Temsik Park being open to the public, the prospect of having an army of undead troublemakers isn't one to be taken lightly." The Professor took off his glasses and gave them a quick wipe. "Feel free to jabber away now, I'm done explaining."
"So you died and Sissel saved you?" Lynne asked, turning to the Good Detective. "That's how you know all this about the meteorite."
"It's more complex than that," said the Good Detective. "You see, there was another version of those events ten years ago. In that version, yes, at one point I did die. But that 'past' was effectively erased, and now it's like I've never been dead, meaning that Sissel can't communicate with me like he can with you, Lynne." He sighed, and looked Lynne straight in the eye. "A fact that makes you very important to this case."
"As miiiind blowing as this whole thing has been," said Loose & Lanky, "what does this have to do with the Twister case?"
The Good Detective was silent for a moment. "The very fact that a cat with the power to speak to the dead," he said finally, "has taken an interest in this case is very significant in itself, wouldn't you say?"
I knew the Good Detective had left out mentioning Yomiel's involvement on purpose. Like me, he felt it was unfair to drag him into this. I decided it would be for the best to go along with this minor deception. Loose & Lanky seemed to buy it, and he asked no more questions.
"So," Lynne knelt down beside me, "Sissel. You saw what happened back at the crime scene. You think you'll be able to tell me?"
I had significantly calmed down by this stage. So I told her – how I had followed them to the sixth crime scene, about cores of the dead and that the Twister's victims were lacking theirs, about that obnoxious Toon-Faced ghost and the remote chance that he might know something. I left out my meeting with Yomiel, of course. Then came the part I had been dreading. The meeting with the Twister, of the Temsik fragment within him, of his warped, ugly soul and that horrible power of his, the power that left his victims without a core, with no chance of recovering their stolen lives.
I will never forget the revulsion on Lynne's face. As I returned to my body, Lynne got up slowly, she was pale and trembling.
"Lynne?" Loose & Lanky was alarmed by the sudden change in her demeanour. "Lynne baby, what's wrong?"
"We have a problem," was the reply.
Even the normally unflappable Professor was horrified as Lynne repeated my story. "The Temsik meteorite has been locked up since last year," he said. "The security is impenetrable. That means the Twister has been active for longer than we first thought."
"There must be a reason he exposes the souls to the radiation before he eats them," reasoned the Good Detective. "He must gain some sort of benefit."
"But why go to aaaall that trouble with the torture?" said Loose & Lanky. "If he's just hungry, why doesn't he just eat them and run? Why put the bodies on display?"
"What about the ghost Sissel found?" asked Lynne. "If he's a victim of the Twister, how'd he avoid getting eaten?"
"He's probably just a red herring," said the Professor. "He could've easily dropped dead at the Park before the meteorite was removed."
"Sooooo, now we know all this," Loose & Lanky interjected. "What good does it do us? How do we fight a guy we can't kill?"
After that we left the containment room, the Good Detective carrying me in my little case. No one spoke as we headed back towards the lobby. The mood wasn't exactly jovial when we had arrived, but now it felt like we'd just been informed the world was about to end.
It was about to get worse. When we got to the lobby, the receptionist informed Loose & Lanky that he had an important phone call waiting for him. He spoke for a few minutes, and then turned to us as he put down the receiver.
"Weeell, ain't that grand," he groaned. "Some happy couple got a present in their mail."
"What kind of present?" asked Lynne, although the tone in her voice suggested to me she'd rather not know.
"A human head," said Loose & Lanky, "with kindest regards courtesy of the Twister."
The Professor groaned, "He certainly has creative flair, I'll give him that."
"Ok," said Lynne, "where're we headed?"
As Loose & Lanky repeated the address, I felt the fur on my back stand on end, and I watched the colour drain from the Good Detective's face. The address was for Yomiel's apartment!
Leaving my body behind in the Good Detective's car, I once again found myself attached to Lynne's pink notebook, once again found myself visiting him under less than desirable circumstances. I had hoped to keep him out of this nightmare, but it seemed to have followed him anyway. Why? The Twister hadn't known about my existence until that dreadful meeting at the warehouse docks. And even if he was watching the detectives involved on the case, for all intents and purposes the Good Detective had only come round to pick up a runaway cat. Could it really just be a terrible coincidence?
I didn't have time to think about this once we entered his apartment. A forensic team were swarming the place, while he and his Fiancée were huddled together on the couch, a warm blanket wrapped around her shoulders. When I had seen her first, she had been so lively and cheerful – now? Her eyes were red and puffy, she was choking on her own sobs and she was shaking so hard. He was calm, by comparison, but I could see the fear in his eyes, he was trying his best to calm her but it didn't seem to be working very well.
Loose & Lanky recognised Yomiel immediately and was about to say something, but the Good Detective shook his head silently, so Loose & Lankly just faked a cough.
Lynne was the first to step forward, "I'm Detective Lynne," she gestured to Loose & Lanky and the Good Detective. "And these are my associates, Inspector Cabanela and Detective Jowd." Well, Lynne didn't seem to recognise who Yomiel was, which was probably for the best.
Yomiel, however, knew perfectly well who Lynne was, and I caught a flicker of guilt on his face, "I-I'm Yomiel, and this is Sissel, my wife."
The Fiancée looked up towards Lynne and the others and smiled weakly, "Mister Jowd… you never told us you were a detective."
Lynne turned towards the Good Detective, "You know them?"
"They were kind enough to look after Sissel when he went walkabout," explained the Good Detective, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Well, uh…" Yomiel got up from his seat. "Can we just get this over with? I'd like to get us out of here…" he looked anxiously at his wife, "We could really use some fresh air."
"Sure," said Loose & Lanky. "What happened, exactly?"
"I was at work – Sissel had just got home. Then she called me, hysterical, so I rushed home as fast as I could." He gestured towards an open box on the kitchen table. "She told me she had found it on the doorstep and brought it inside to open it…"
Lynne, Loose & Lanky, and the Good Detective tentatively made their way towards the table. The three of them slowly peered into the box, and I made my way onto the Good Detective's badge so I could see for myself.
It was a human head alright; its mouth open in a mute scream, and its eyes had been removed leaving only a pair of hollow red sockets. This grizzly display was only made worse by the fact that the head had been wrapped in fluffy red tissue paper and placed carefully inside a white gift box with a red love heart print, all tied up with a red ribbon which now lay discarded on the floor.
"Man, what a sicko," Lynne mumbled.
"Lookie here," Loose & Lanky picked a small card out of the box, "He left us a note."
I recognised the handwriting as being the same as on the notes left for Lynne and Scrawny:
tO mY fAIR aND lOVELY bRIDE
yOUR fRIEND, tHE tWISTER
"Chaaarming."
"None of the victims we've found were decapitated," said the Good Detective. "We've got a headless body out their somewhere."
"Correction – a headless, soulless body," muttered Lynne. "I'm really starting to hate this case…"
While Lynne stayed behind with Loose & Lanky to further examine the head, the Good Detective went back to Yomiel and his Fiancée to talk to them. I couldn't help but listen in.
"I don't understand," said Yomiel, his head in his hands, "who would want to do this to her?" I couldn't help but noticed that Yomiel used 'her' instead of 'us', suggesting perhaps he felt he was deserving of receiving a severed head. In other words, he was covertly asking, 'Is this my fault?'
I didn't think so, and neither did the Good Detective, "I'd say the person who owns that head is wondering the same thing."
Yomiel sighed, and went back to his wife. "Come on Sissel," he said as he took her by the hand, "How about a walk in the Park?"
"Y-yeah… Ok." She was a little tottery as she stood up, but she made her way to the door with Yomiel's help. I felt awful, seeing her in such dreadful state.
I suddenly got a flash of inspiration – I have heard it mentioned that humans keep pets for their soothing qualities, and my body was in the car. The Fiancée had been appreciative of my company before, so why not now? It was the least I could do for an old friend.
"Lynne," I said to her, "ask the couple if they would like to pet me."
"Pet you?" Lynne looked thoughtful. "Y'know, that's actually a pretty good idea."
She told Loose & Lanky and the Good Detective, who happily agreed, then she went up to Yomiel and the Fiancée.
"Jowd was on his way back from the vet when we got the call," Lynne fibbed. "His cat's still in the car – would you like to see him?"
The Fiancée looked questioningly towards her husband.
"That would be wonderful," said Yomiel. "Thanks."
Lynne made sure I was back in my body before she took me out of my carry case and handed me to the Fiancée. Once I was in her hands, I began purring and rubbing away, and sure enough I was rewarded with a smile.
"I really appreciate this," Yomiel said to Lynne. "This mess was the last thing we needed."
"We're gonna find who did this," replied Lynne. "No one deserves to be terrorised like that."
Once again I saw that look of guilt flash across his face.
The Fiancée was pretty much back to her old self by this stage, so she wrapped me in the blanket and handed me back to Lynne.
"Thank you, for everything," said the Fiancée. She took Yomiel's arm and smiled up at him. "Didn't you promise me a trip to the Park?"
"Yeah," Yomiel smiled back at her. "Let's get going, shall we?"
The two of them walked off hand-in-hand. Lynne put my body back in the carry case as I repossessed her notebook. She started her way back to the apartment, folding the blanket as we went.
"They seem like a nice couple, don't they, Sissel?" Lynne said to me.
"Yeah," I answered. "They do."