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“Kane, buddy, where are you?” Eli called as he stepped carefully through the open doorway with Val half a step behind him. A cold drop of sweat trickled down his spine, a sense of dread pulling at him. He pressed the talk button on his radio, “Have you guys got eyes on Kane?”
“Not yet,” Hedy’s voice crackled in response.
It had been 15 minutes since he had disappeared, separating from Hedy and Lucas as they worked in two teams. Their team has been searching the floor below him while he and Val took the floor above.
The aberration they were hunting used shadows to move around and could attach itself to a host, literally becoming their shadow. Once it did that, according ot the reports, it would start to affect its host, encouraging them to violently act on long-held grudges. Once it was satisfied, the aberration would take a new host, leaving the past host with little memory of what had occurred.
From what intel they had gathered, the aberration fed off the fear of the host's victims ritualistically, and after three attacks, it would become dormant for the next 10 years. Two attacks had already occurred in the span of two months in the office building they were in, which meant they had one chance before it disappeared again.
And now there was a strong chance that Jacob had been selected as its new host.
Eli and Val reached the end of their sweep, just arriving at the stairwell where they heard footsteps echoing below them, and a few seconds later, Kane appeared.
“Oh, hey guys-” “Where the hell have you been?” interrupted Val.
Jacob’s eyes shifted between the two of them before pointing a thumb over his shoulder, seemingly confused, “I went looking for a bathroom.”
“And you didn’t think to tell anyone?” She asked, throwing her hands up incredulously.
“Yeah, dude, you were radio silent for like 15 minutes,” Eli added.
“I told Lucas when I left, but maybe he didn’t hear me,” he responded before he pulled out his radio, pressing the talk button a few times with resulting silence, “and my radio’s busted. Just another piece of our equipment that's falling apart.”
Val looked to Eli and murmured, “QRS check?”
Eli nodded in agreement, keeping his eyes on Jacob as he radioed the others to join them by the stairwell. From what he could see, Jacob didn’t seem to be acting differently, but that could mean nothing; they had no idea how long the aberration took to act when it picked a new host. The only way to know for sure was to scan for anomalies with the QRS.
A few minutes later, Hedy and Lucas appear in the stairwell carrying all the QRS equipment, including the containment unit. Hedy busied herself setting the dials and frequencies that they had learned from the last bout of attacks. As soon as the charging tones could be heard, it was as if a switch had been flipped. Jacob charged at him, taking them both down to the hard concrete. “Ooft” was all the sound Eli got out as they landed.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Jacob produced a knife and a small part in the back of his mind, Eli was glad that he rarely carried a gun as he fended off the attack, catching Jacob’s forearm with his own as it moved in a forward stroke towards his neck with more strength than he expected.
Jacob snarled, “This is for all the lies.” Before Val and Lucas joined the fight, overpowering Jacob enough to release the blade and pin him on his back underneath Eli’s weight, straddling his hips and pressing down on his shoulders. He thrashed beneath Eli, kicking out his legs and straining against Val and Lucas, who were holding his arms down.
“Run the QRS!” Eli yelled through the noise, “Do it now!”
“But we don’t know what it’ll do to Kane!” Hedy called back over the din, hesitating with her finger on the switch.
Val shouted back, “Just do it.”
The tone of the QRS rang out, and a dark shape appeared to be sucked directly from Jacob’s shadow into the containment unit attached to the QRS. And as suddenly as he attacked, like a puppet with its strings cut, Jacob went limp, eyes closed.
Eli let up some pressure on his shoulders and tapped him on the cheek, “Kane? Buddy? Come on, wake up.”
Val quickly reached over and touched a finger to his neck, and looked up at him, shaking her head. In disbelief, he did the same and felt his body go completely cold.
No pulse.
Dead.
Jacob was dead.
Without even moving from where he was, he started compressions, “No, no, no, you can’t do this to me. I’ve already lost your brother, I can’t lose you too.”
That’s all that could be heard for the next few minutes, his harsh breaths as he pressed again and again on his best friend’s chest. The rhythm the only thing keeping him from falling apart. Before long, Val pushed him out of the way and took over, going hard and fast.
Eli moved to his head instead, a hand pressed to his cheek, “Come on, Jacob, just please breathe for me,” he pleaded, talking to himself in panic more than anything.
For what felt like an eternity but in reality was only a few more minutes, a small groan was uttered from Jacob’s lips, almost imperceptible but enough to stop Val in her efforts, and cause Eli to press another finger to Jacob’s neck.
He could have cried in relief.
There it was.
A strong heartbeat.
He didn’t fail Jordan.
He didn’t lose another friend, another brother.
It took another minute before Jacob groaned a little louder, croaking out a small “ow,” as he curled his arms around his chest protectively.
Eli tapped him on the cheek as his other hand squeezed his shoulder from his position at his head, and said with semi-regained composure, “Kane, can you hear me?”
Jacob nodded slowly before squinting one eye open, looking up at him. He must have seen something in Eli’s face because he put his hand over the one on his shoulder.
“I’m okay,” he rasped.
Eli shook his head, “You were dead,” his voice cracked, the emotions of everything catching up to him despite himself.
“I’m okay now,” Jacob amended and screwed his eyes shut against the pain in his chest, “What happened?”
“What do you remember?”
“Bathroom, then nothing. Waking up here.” He said stilted.
“You got possessed,” Val summarised matter-of-factly, “Attacked Reyes.”
“I did?”
“Yeah, but we stopped you before you did anything and got the aberration,” Lucas added.
“Yep,” said Hedy, tapping the box beside her, “it’s sitting pretty in the containment unit.”
“That’s good,” he looked again to Eli, “And I died?”
Eli nodded, “Your heart stopped, we got you back.”
“Thanks,” Jacob sighed, letting his eyes fall shut, “Glad to be not dead.”
“Don’t mention it,” Eli cracked a smile seeing that Jacob’s small bit of energy was dipping and tapped his shoulder, “Come on, let’s get you checked out.”
Jacob was resting a few hours later in the medbay after being given all the medical checks and clearances. Meanwhile, Eli sat at his side studying the rise and fall of his chest, still fearing that it would stop at any moment. He replayed the events over and over in his head, feeling as though he would never forget the all-consuming fear that he felt trying to revive his best friend.
And that was when he remembered.
He started pacing, “Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. Frick. I can’t believe I said that.”
Jacob, who was only resting his eyes, laughed as he propped himself up on his elbow, “Hey now, language. What’s wrong?”
“No, shoot, you don’t understand-I said your name, Jacob.” Eli said, running his fingers through his hair in agitation, “Not Kane or Jordan, but Jacob.”
Jacob’s smile slipped from his face, “Shit. Did anyone hear you?”
“I don’t know, maybe? Val and Lucas were closest…”
“Maybe we can play it off as- I don’t know- a nickname? It could be my middle name?”
“Jordan Jacob Kane, yeah, that totally sounds believable,” Eli fired back sharply.
“Okay- well, maybe they didn’t hear you?”
“God I-” that’s as far as he got because that was when the others rejoined them. a hurriedly handmade get-well-soon card in Lucas’s hand.
They stopped dead when they saw the panicked expressions across both men’s faces and exchanged a look between the three of them. Val nodded to herself and turned back to the door, appearing to check that the hallway was clear before closing it and turning back to the others.
“All clear.”
There was a pregnant pause, neither group wanting to address the elephant in the room.
Eventually Eli did, feigning ignorance, “-what’s going on, guys?”
Hedy and Val exchanged another look, and Val wordlessly indicated that Hedy should take the lead.
She looked between the two men again and sighed before finally saying, “We know.”
Jacob looked to Eli, then back to Hedy, “… you know what?”
“We know that you’re not Jordan, Jacob,” she replied, “We’ve known for a while.”
How long?” asked Eli quietly.
“Since the watermelons.”
Jacob released a held breath, “That was months ago, and you haven’t said anything? Why?”
Val shrugged, “We figured there was a plan, that you’d tell us when it was need to know.”
Eli started pacing, once again agitated, calculating damage control and thinking up exit strategies, “Does anyone else know?”
“Just us.”
He stopped pacing and smoothed his hair back, in a self-soothing gesture, “Okay…Okay. That’s good.”
“Is there a plan?” Asked Lucas hesitantly after a moment.
Eli looked to Jacob. They really hadn’t discussed what the endgame was to this whole charade.
Jacob looked away, “Yeah, find out why the Curtain wanted my brother dead.”
Lucas shuddered, “So he really is …dead? He's not on a secret mission?”
Jacob looked back at him with tired but angry eyes, “Yeah, he’s dead, and those two psychos Victor and Cross were the ones that did it.”
An awkward pause followed until Hedy broke the silence again, “We’re sorry about Jordan, he was a good guy.”
“Thanks.”
She took a hesitant step forward, “We want to help you.”
Jacob shook his head, “You really don’t have to. I can’t ask you to.”
Val stepped up to stand next to Hedy, “You’re part of the team, aren’t you? If you have a problem, then we all have a problem.”
“And now we can cover for you properly; it doesn’t have to just be on you and Reyes,” added Lucas.
Jacob smiled at the three of them, “Thanks, you guys, honestly.”
“You would do the same for us. We’ve got your back.”