My Sisters Brother

The interrogation room was bright, cold, and bare. It was barely a ten-by-ten room with a desk, three chairs, and a mirror. The two detectives, John, an older tall overweight man, and Lisa, a young, pretty fresh-out-of-the-academy woman, had Jean pushed back into the corner. John took the lead, inching his chair closer and closer to Jean, crowding him, deliberately intimidating him. Jean was an extraordinarily thin young man in his mid-twenties.

“Tell us again how you know this girl.” The big burly man inched closer.

“The truth will set you free Jean,” said the young detective.

“I told you when I walked in here that you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Tell us again, Jean. You were walking down her street - you followed her down her

Street-”.

“No -”

John shifted his weight back, then thrust his head forward.

“Jean, we know you know more. How do you know the when and the where if you were not there.”

“I told you, I woke up screaming.”

“You woke up screaming. Where were you when you did that?”

“I was home in my bed. I saw her - in my dream. She got off the bus and he grabbed her and put her in his van. It felt like a dream but I knew it was real so I dialed 911 and I tried to tell you guys. If you had acted when I told you she might still be alive.”

“How do you know she is dead, Jean,” said Lisa.

“I can’t hear her anymore. She went quiet.”

“So you dreamed all this. We know about the van, we know about the bus, we know when and where but what we don’t know is how you know.” John’s fist slammed into the desk. This was not part of the plan.

“Maybe we should take a break, John,” said Lisa.

For a moment Lisa thought John was going to legitimately lose it but John turned and walked out the door leaving Lisa to follow him.

“You should come clean Jean,” she said as she left. He hasn’t got a lot of patience for child killers.”

The two detectives conferred over a coffee behind the one-way mirror, now a window. Lisa was handed some paperwork from the sergeant and was the first to speak.

“His alibi checks out. The 911 call traces back to his room. He lives alone with his cat but a neighbour saw him rush out the door after he made the call. He was on foot though and could never have made it to the abduction site in time and he does not own a van - or a vehicle of any sort. He survives on a disability cheque.”

“And that leaves us where” He is telling the truth? He dreamt about the abduction? Come on - that has to be bullshit. He must know more than he is saying.”

“I know. It doesn’t make sense to me neither,” said Lisa as she watched Jean through the glass. “But we have held him here for over twelve hours now. I am exhausted. You are exhausted - he is sleeping. We are all exhausted. And we have nothing to arrest him on. We have to release him and take a fresh look at this in the morning. Look at him. Sleeping like a baby. Maybe if we ease up he will have another dream and maybe an epiphany, and he’ll tell us more - in the morning.”

Lisa leaned her back against the window, while John absorbed her words. She already knew what his decision would be but found it best to wait for him to announce it. It was his call. John freshened his coffee, more to delay the moment when he had to acknowledge his duty to the law. He felt there was more to this man than he was letting on but the law tied his hands. He missed the good old days when he had more freedom in the interrogation room.

Then - a crash followed by a pounding on the window that startled Lisa. Jean was awake and excited.

“She is alive. I know where she is. I just saw her - in my dream. She is alive.”

The two detectives rushed into the room. Lisa circled left, John approached directly.

“You need to calm down, okay? We will sit down and talk this out but you need to calm down,” said John.

Jean took two steps towards John. “She is alive. You have to believe me.”

John, with a quick deft movement that belied his size, placed Jean in a wrist lock and then aided by Lisa managed to handcuff Jean and place him in his chair. Jean became passive, accepting his fate while chanting ‘She is alive’ several times.

John and Lisa exchanged a glance—equal parts frustration and intrigue. They had nothing to hold Jean on, yet his insistence gnawed at them.

Lisa knelt beside him, speaking softly. “Jean, if you really saw her, tell us where.”

Jean’s breath was ragged, his eyes distant. “An old mine. She’s unconscious, but she’s alive. He left her there, in a locked room. And he just woke up as well. There is not much time.”

John scoffed, but Lisa was already pulling out her phone, searching records for abandoned mills. “There’s one five miles from the abduction site.”

They had no warrant, no suspect, and nothing but the word of a man who dreamed too much. But Lisa was already reaching for her keys.

John sighed. “If this is a waste of time—”

“Then it’s a waste,” Lisa cut in. “But if it isn’t?”

Jean met her gaze. “You’ll find her.”

They uncuffed him as they rushed out the door. They radioed for backup en route.

The old mine was not really that old. It had been recently abandoned but was still serviceable as a residence. When Jean and his entourage arrived it was early morning. The sun had barely risen over the horizon. The van fitting the description was quickly located but empty.

“Where is she?” Lisa asked Jean.

“She is in a basement, or underground,” said Jean.

“Show us,” said John.

Jean moved forward cautiously flanked by Lisa and John. He moved to the van, opened the side door, and then followed an overgrown, mostly obscured path to a side entrance, a hatch, that led to the stairs that went into the basement of the building. The two detectives entered the dimly lit basement as per protocol, guns drawn. They called out the girl's name.

“Nicky - are you here? It is the police,” said Lisa.

“You are going to be all right,” said John.

And then a voice.

“I am here. Just keep walking straight till you reach a door,” said the voice.

“Are you alone?” asked Lisa.

“I am. Please hurry. I am so afraid.”

“Just sit tight honey, we will be there in just a minute,” said Lisa. The voice was thin, too calm. It felt rehearsed, but she continued to follow John’s lead down the hallway.

“No!” said Jean. “Something is wrong. This is not the way that I saw. He took her that way. Up the stairs.”

“Are you sure,” asked John.

“I am. Something feels really wrong that way.”

John hesitated. Lisa could see his indecision.

“He has been right every step of the way so far,” she said.

John made up his mind. “Just sit tight Nicky, okay.”

“Hurry, I am so hungry. Please just come and get me.”

John and Lisa fell behind Jean.

“Lead the way,” said John.

Jean led them up a spiral staircase to the main floor but not an area that was accessible in any other way. They came to a door.

“She is in there,” said Jean.

Lisa tried the handle. It was locked. She stepped back to the far side of the door.

“On three,” said John.

He placed himself before the door, counted to three and kicked it in. And there, unconscious but alive they found Nicky on a bed. Jean was the first to the bed. Lisa and John kept guard. Jean knelt beside the bed. Nicky awoke, was startled, then calmed. She reached out to touch Jean.

“You are real. You are really here.”

John got straight to business.

“Nicky, we need to know who is in the basement. Tell us everything you know.”

“It is not a who. It is a what. A man brought me here. They tried to perform some sort of ritual - to put something in me.”

“Oh my God Nicky,” said Lisa “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”

“Not like that. It felt like an energy. They wanted it to grow. Inside me. But every time they tried I would pass out and Jean would come and they went away. I tried to stay asleep as much as I could because that is when Jean would come.”

“I remember,” said Jean. There was a man, who abducted you and there was a woman, older and there was a creature, small but filled with hate and rage.”

Lisa had stepped into the room when Nicky awoke leaving the door unguarded. She did not see her assailant. But John did and with a single shot to the head put him down. He walked over to the body to make sure it was dead. He heard the enraged cry of a banshee before he felt the knife in his shoulder. A second shot from Lisa ended that encounter. A terrified man screamed from the basement. Several shots, a second male voice calling for his fallen friend. More shots. Another scream. And silence.

Jean pulled Nicky to her feet. She clung to him as he carried her out followed closely by Lisa and the wounded John. They made their way back into the cellar. They heard dragging sounds and guttural noises but made their way straight to the exit - almost. They stopped when they noticed fresh drag marks and blood on the ground.

That voice again.

“Jean, I am so hungry. Please come to me. I need you.”

It was different now. The voice of a small child, younger than Nickey.

“Please,” it pleaded.

Lisa screamed. Out of nowhere she was grabbed and dragged by her feet. She drew her gun and fired at - nothing and yet she could not break free of its grip.

“Take the girl,” said John. “Get out of here.”

John went after Lisa. Jean escaped with the girl. They made their way back to the police cruisers. Jean retrieved a shotgun from the trunk and radioed for help.

“Nicky, I need your help, okay? I need to know why you are alive. What is it that they want?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know. They kept performing this ritual. They brought this thing to life and tried to put it in me but then you would come and the thing would die again.”

“What thing? I never saw the thing.”

“It was small - kinda baby-like. Like a fetus.”

“The creature - did it have a name?”

“They called it ‘Betty’.”

“One last question, Nicky - just answer it honestly, please. Are you a virgin?”

“I am barely 18 - yes, I am a virgin.”

A police cruiser’s siren was close now.

“I need to get in there, Nickey. I need to get close to the creature. You will be fine. Tell the police not to follow me. Okay.”

Jean didn't wait for an answer. He re-entered mine. He followed the drag marks to the door where he found John nursing a terrified Lisa. Jean called out to them in a whisper.

“Shit, Jean - don’t ever do that. I almost shot you.”

“I don’t think your gun is the answer here. This is going to sound strange but I think I know what's going on here. How did Lisa get away?”

“I didn’t -get away. They called me a whore and threw me here.”

“Are you a virgin?”

“What - no”

“What kind of fucking question was that,” said John.

“It wants to be born - like Jesus but this is no Jesus. My parents told me the story. They made a pact with a demon in which they offered their unborn female child in exchange for untold power. The deal glitched when I was conceived at the same time - her twin. She died in utero, with the demon trapped inside.”

“How does that help us?”

“It wants to be born - to a virgin. I am not a man. I am a trans woman - Post-op. If I can trick it into my body it should die there. No womb, no room so to speak.”

“And how are you going to trick it into your body? This is nuts. You don’t even know if it will work.”

“When I sleep, I am inside the demon's head, my sister's head. I see through its eyes. I can feel its thoughts. It thinks I am my sister and it backs away. It won’t harm me. That’s how I protected Nicky - Do you have a better idea?”

Jean stepped forward toward the darkness, spreading his arms. “You’ve been looking for me, haven’t you?”

The darkness trembled. A shape emerged—small, twisted, barely human. Jean sensed a presence behind it. It tilted its head, sniffing the air.

“You’re the same,” it murmured. “But… not the same.”

Jean nodded. “I welcome you into my body. Come and be whole.”

For a moment, nothing happened. Then the creature surged forward, faster than thought. It slammed into Jean’s chest, and ice shot through his veins. His body locked up as tendrils of cold wrapped around his ribs, curling into his bones. The world blurred.

He barely registered Lisa shouting his name. John cursing. The distant wail of sirens. He only heard her voice, whispering in his skull.

Mine now.

Jean fell to his knees, gasping. But when he opened his eyes, he was still himself. He exhaled, slow and steady, forcing the panic down.

“No womb. No birth. No escape. You are my prisoner now.”

Lisa knelt beside him. “Jean?”

He managed a weak smile. “It’s over.”

She studied him, wary. Then, finally, she nodded.

But as they walked out into the morning light, Jean felt it stir inside him. A voice, thin as smoke, curled through his thoughts.

Together again, my sister. We can rule the world.