PHILIP WOODS
"Enough with the secrets," Phil said the moment he walked back into Matthew’s study. "I want to know everything. Ava. And I mean.... Everything!"
He stared at her for a few seconds. For a moment, there was only anger in his eyes. Then there was sadness. And gentleness.
And before Ava could say another word, he pulled her into a tight hug. "I thought something happened. They refused to tell me what happened when you took Gabi. Those people... the ones who took Gabi are not humans. So..."
Ava froze. She didn’t know what to say — or do. She could only hug him back. And they stayed that way for a few minutes until Phil let her go.
"First... I want you to talk to one... of my mentor." Ava calmly said, there was a complicated look in her eyes.
"Mentor?" Phil uttered. He looked at the other people inside the room. There were five including him and Ava. The other was Matthew, an old man called Gaas and then there was a woman named Baba. She’s a witch and Phil knew that from the first time he saw her.
"Yes. Baba."
"Why?" Phil asked.
"She wants to confirm something, Phil."
"Confirm something? What something?"
"Just, please... I will explain everything to you. After she— "
"I will take over," Baba said. "This won’t be easy Mr. Woods. The moment I told Ava about this, she refused to have you checked. But there is no other way, is there?"
Phil took a step back. Baba was definitely smaller than him but there was something about that woman that intimidated him. She looked... fierce and confident. Don’t get him wrong, Baba was beautiful for her age. But there was something about her beauty that screamed... death. It felt like she had lived hundreds of lives. Maybe even thousands.
It was intimidating.
"Ava?"
"Phil, please..." Ava said. "I won’t harm you. I promise. I just want to make sure that you and Gabi are safe."
"What?" Phil took another step but before he could even ask them what was going on, he suddenly felt his gaze turning blurry. Then his body hit the floor.
...
AVA WOODS
"A hybrid?" she uttered for the umpteenth time. "How is that even possible?"
"We already have his blood tested. We cannot be sure until we get the lab results back." Matthew answered with a grave expression on his face. freeweɓnøvel~com
"Does this mean, he is going to turn into one of them, soon?"
"You know the blood that we found... on your car? It smelled the same." Matthew was talking about the time when Ava went to Amelia’s cabin. There was a note there that asked her to leave.
"You mean..."
"I knew it was a hybrid. But... there is a possibility."
Ava immediately shook her head. "That’s impossible. Phil would not try to harm me. It must be an impostor. That’s the only explanation."
"Or... someone else was using his body using magick." Baba chimed in. "That is another explanation."
"When I was with him. I didn’t smell any magick. I know magick when I see one and Phil... Phil didn’t have those."
Baba and Matthew looked at each other before Matthew let out a sigh.
"The hybrids... we just discovered that the ones whose experimenting... might just be giving them a tablet so they could transform. The tablet would act as a switch that would give them the ability to become a shifter. Though, their transformation differs from that of a normal shifter." Matthew said. He then nodded at Marko who was just standing just a few feet away from them.
In response, Marko gave Ava a tablet.
"We found out that... the particles that turn them into shifters... just disappear into their bodies. It’s going to be hard to trace them. Exactly after an hour of their death, the particles disappear. It was as if their bodies dissolve them." Matthew said.
"So, it’s consumable."
Matthew continued. "Exactly like that. We thought... it could be some vials of liquid. Until we found a tablet. A small one. Inside one of the man’s pockets. Did you know the people at Romeo’s place? When you were taken? One of them had a tablet."
"And you think he is taking tablets... and then does something... things that he can’t remember when the drug disappears?"
"Yes. That is the only explanation why the smell of a shifter is faint on him. It is like... the smell of a dead shifter except... he’s not dead and he’s not a shifter. He’s human. A soldier. Just like the others that we found in Romeo’s house."
"Did you happen to trace them?" Ava asked. In the past, she wasn’t too interested in this matter as she thought that it did not concern her. But everything changed when Baba called to tell her that her brother had the smell of a dead shifter or a lump of dead meat.
"Yes. Most of them were... AWOL. Some were admitted to facilities and just disappeared. Some were declared as missing by their families." Matthew answered.
"So, Phil does not fit the bill. He has a family. He is active in the community. He has friends. When would they get the time to experiment on him?" And most especially... why the hell would someone do this to Phil?
"That’s easy... we can just let him answer our questions." Baba turned towards Phil, who was now awake in the bed. "You heard us... didn’t you, Mr. Woods?"
Phil didn’t answer them. He was just staring at the ceiling, his hands clenched into two tight fists.
"We thought you are what we called... a hybrid of a human and shifters. You do know what shifters are, right?" Baba continued asking. But before she could ask any more questions, Ava moved towards Phil. She stood just next to her brother before turning towards Baba.
"Please leave us alone. I am going to talk to him... on my own."
Ava looked at Matthew. "Please. I want to talk to him. Alone."
Matthew’s lips thinned, but he nodded. Then he walked out of the room, leaving Ava and Phil alone.
...
I started a discord so we can discuss plot and everything! It’s still new so...
Discord: https://discord.gg/mR88WKrx
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