The Mind Hunter

by Mir Quadri

  “Well, you say as if I am proud of that tag” said Will.

  “Aren’t you?” countered Ms White as she sat back in her chair. Will looked at her carefully as she grinned.

  “Well, Sarah, let’s start taking her pulse” said Evelyn. Sarah plugged in all the wires connected to the monitors onto Ms White.

  “Alright, let’s clear the room everyone” shouted Evelyn. She came closer to Will and said “all the best” and left the room along with everyone else. Ms White and Will were the only two left behind in the room. Will proceeded and placed himself right opposite to her.

  “Alright, Ms White. Looking at your excitement for this, I take you know a little about these sessions — from news papers and TV channels I presume. Tell me what do you think you know about a Hunting Session?” he asked.

  “All I know is I did not do anything wrong and you are the person who can prove that. Which is why I wanted you on this case specifically” she said.

  “Okay, so you asked for me?” asked Will.

  “Oh! She did not tell you, did she?” chuckled Ms White.

  “Who didn’t tell me what?” enquired Will.

  “Well, I have an arrangement with your boss lady and I requested only you on the case for something very valuable” she said.

  “Valuable? Like what?” asked Will.

  “Maybe you will find it yourself when you look in my memories, if you are as good as I heard you are” she said with an annoying smile on her face.

  After a brief pause, Will continued “Anyways, I am going to hold your hands and we will close our eyes together. It will be like you are lying on your bed and going to sleep. Just think of anything you like — and before you know, all this will be over and we will be back” he said as he took her hands into his.

  “Stay clam. There is nothing to worry” he declared.

  “I am not worried about me Mr Ross. I am worried about someone else in this Session” she said with a grin.

  “Alright, on the count of three, we both will close our eyes and start the Hunting Session” he said and continued “one…two and three.” They both closed their eyes.

  ***

  Will opened his eyes and saw that he was standing in the corridor, with almost infinite string of doors on both sides and white light illuminating from both corners. ‘Alright, I am here’ he said to himself as he walked straight to the first door on the left, which was the brightest of all the doors. He slowly opened the door, walked in and closed the door behind him.

  Will turned around and realized that he was standing inside a house right now. It was completely dark with very little visibility. He slowly walked towards the window on the right and peeked outside. He realized that it was quiet, dark night. ‘Okay, let me find Ms White now’ he thought as he walked through the first floor and into the kitchen. This was a beautiful kitchen with a huge cabinet filled with porcelain tableware arranged to perfection in a round circular fashion in the middle. The corners of the kitchen had all wooden compartments with a 60’ refrigerator to the extreme end. Shining white marble flooring was the only source of light in this dark house. As Will walked through the kitchen, he suddenly heard a door creaking sound.

  ‘That must have been from the second floor’ he thought as he rushed out of the kitchen and walked towards the stairs. As he glanced the stairs all the way to the second floor, a thought just crossed his mind - this place looked so familiar to him. The feeling was so strong, almost like any deja vu. He looked through the dark colored wood railing. He gently placed his right hand on the railing, caressing it and feeling it’s weirdness. The railing was covered with old wood in a weird zig zag fashion. ‘I have seen this railing before’ he thought.

  He slowly started climbing up the stairs looking at the entire structure of the house. This place looked so familiar to him!

  ‘What’s happening to me?’ has asked himself, as for the very first time within a session, things were looking so familiar to him - like he had been there before. As he reached to the top, he saw a large bedroom door, closed from inside. As Will walked straight to the door, the door opened and out came Ms White, in a black satin night charmeuse robe, trying to wake up by rubbing her eyes by her fingers. She looked straight through Will like he was invisible and walked through him to the restroom, which was right opposite to the bedroom door.

  ‘Alright, so far her story checks out’ he thought as he glanced at the wall beside the bedroom door. This wall was covered by some family pictures, beautifully arranged and hung. As he scanned through the pictures of Mr Zhu and Mrs White, their holiday in Thailand, Las vegas, the bank gate, he came across a smiling picture of Mr Zhu and another Asian guy, standing and hugging sideways.

  Will’s eyes turned red as soon as he laid eyes on the person standing next to Mr Zhu.

  ‘I know this guy’ he said to himself. His hands started to shake and his body started trembling as he started sweating. ‘What’s happening to me?’ he said to himself and rubbed his face with his hands when he heard the window breaking sound from the first floor.

  ‘Alright, the killer is here’ he said to himself as he briskly moved into the bedroom. Still shocked thinking why that picture freaked him out, he slowly walked to the corner of the room. He then went straight to the closet on the right corner of the room, and pulled a small chair, and sat on it for the perfect vision — clear entry point in the entrance door and clear vision of the bed. He saw that Mr Zhu was covered in blanket from top to bottom, with only his eyes visible.

  ‘This is a perfect view to see everything’ he thought. As he waited with bated breath for the killer to come into the room, he realized that the bedroom window by the closet was open. He peeked outside through the window and saw that it had started raining heavily. He then turned around and looked straight at the clock hanging on the wall, with the shorter arm at 1 and the longer arm between 55 and 60.

  Suddenly he heard the bedroom door creaking sound. He turned around and saw a man entering the room, wearing a long leather trench coat, which was soaked in rain water, face covered by a black mask and dawning a black colored hat and black gloves. This ‘man in black’ moved straight to Mr Zhu as Will, kneeling behind, kept watching. He took out a sharp knife from his back pocket and proceeded towards Mr Zhu. As he came closer to Mr Zhu, he blocked Will’s vision as Will was sitting on a small chair. The ‘man in black’ raised his hand, holding the knife. In a split second, there was blood spilling over the bed and dripping from the man’s gloves.

  ‘I can’t see from here’ thought Will when suddenly the clock, which was hung on the wall right opposite to the ‘man in black’, started playing the merry viennese music to mark the hour. After a brief two seconds, the ‘man in black’ instantly turned around and looked straight at Will.

  The ‘man in black’ got off the bed and came closer to Will staring directly at him like he could see him.

  ‘What’s happening! Can he see me!’ gasped Will in his mind as the ‘man in black’ got closer and closer to Will, looking straight at him when his mobile phone started buzzing. The ‘man in black’ received the call as he raised his mobile phone up to his ears, still continuing to stare at Will.

  “Run, Will” screamed the lady on the phone.

  “What!” said Will, who was still sitting on the chair, shivering, and had just heard the lady call out his name on other man’s phone. The ‘man in black’ lowered the phone came even closer to Will, who at this point could literally breathe into him, and said “I know you’re there.”

  Will, flabbergasted, stared right back at the man with all his eyes as the ‘man in black’ proceeded slowly and took out his black mask.

  “What the…hell!” screamed Will as he saw the ‘man in black’, who had just removed his black mask, was Will himself.

  ***

  “MAN IN BLACK IS…”

  There were blue, then turned bright yellow and then turned bright red and then vanished. As one went missing, twenty more were born instantly.
Alongside these were the screams of people, noise to the ears, which had no pattern at all.

  ‘What are these shape shifting, color changing dots’ thought Will. In a brief couple of seconds a thought crossed his mind — ‘Eyes Floaters?’. The noise around him kept intensifying as he realized ‘I am getting conscious…holy shit, did I just come back directly without ‘Snapping out’ of the session?’ and then he opened his eyes.

  “I need a paramedic immediately. We need to rush her to the hospital” screamed Evelyn on the phone as he looked at her. Will turned around and found Ms White, mouth oozing with cuff, eyes rotated to just look at the ceiling and body shivering as if she were in a train, lying on the chair, helpless, almost dead. Kate was trying CPR on her and people were running around like headless chicken in a farm.

  “What the hell happened, Will?” asked Evelyn while trying to help Kate perform CPR on Ms White.

  “I don’t know” said Will as he slowly started recollecting what actually had happened. Slowly he remembered that he just saw himself killing Mr Zhu.

  “How is that possible” he said as he brushed his head by his hands.

  “Why did you not ‘Snap out’ Will?” asked Evelyn when a bunch of paramedics entered the room and started working on Ms White.

  “She set me up” said Will and continued “she bloody set me up” in anger.

  “What? What are you talking about?” asked Evelyn while helping Ms White’s body into the stretcher.

  Will got up and fell down. He slowly got up again by holding the walls of the room and rushed outside. As he came outside, he puked in a trash can. He was breathing heavily, and still trying to recover from the shock of having watched himself kill Mr Zhu. Looking at the panic he has caused at the station, he started walking down the stairs and to the parking garage. While going down, he felt weak in his knees and fell through a flight of stairs and landed straight in the garage. He started bleeding from his head but somehow managed to get up and find his car. Dragging himself to the car, he opened the door, sat inside the car, turned the car on and drove away.

  Meanwhile, back in the office —“We need to rush her to the hospital ma'am. We do not have much time” announced one of the doctors.

  “Sure, please take her. We will follow you all in our cars” said Evelyn. The doctors took Ms White out of the room. Evelyn turned around and looked at Dan.

  “Follow them and keep me abreast of her condition” she said. “You got it ma'am” said Dan as he ran after them.

  Evelyn then turned around and realized that Will was gone. She then turned around to Kate and asked “Does Ms White have any family around?”

  “I am not sure, boss” answered Kate.

  “Find out. We need to inform somebody from her family” said Evelyn.

  “You got it, boss” said Kate and hurried out of the room.

  Evelyn now looked at Sarah, who was the only one remaining in the room and looked freaked out of her mind. “Sarah, how did her pulse go up so suddenly?” she asked.

  “I don’t know ma'am. I never saw anything like this before. Her pulse just went up in a split second” she said.

  “We should check the details log to see if there is any pattern. Maybe we can find something that can help the doctors save Ms White” she said.

  “Sure, ma'am” said Sarah and rushed out.

  Evelyn took out her phone and dialed Will.

  “Will. Where are you?” asked Evelyn.

  “She set me up, Evelyn” said Will, who was currently driving his car at full speed, rashly on the road.

  “Set you up how? What’s going on Will. What happened in the session?” asked Evelyn anxiously.

  “I have no clue what happened. She showed me things that weren’t true” he said.

  “What do you mean she showed you things ? Did you not see her memory?” she asked.

  “I don’t know what I saw.’ he said and continued “listen, I need to do some digging and find some answers myself. I can’t talk to you unless I do” he said.

  “What answers, Will?. Can you tell me what happened? Why did you not snap out?” she asked.

  “I freaked out, Evelyn” he said.

  “Freaked out? You? Will, what’s going on?” she asked.

  “I need to figure that out myself. I will call you as soon as I do. I need to go now” he said and hung up the call.

  “Will…Will..hello?” she screamed on the phone. She called him back and the phone went to his voicemail.

  “Damn!” she said as she put the phone back in her pocket and walked out of the ‘Hunting room,” into her office when she got interrupted by Kate.

  “Hey, boss” said Kate as she got into her office.

  “I just checked her records in the Social Security database. She has one brother, who is currently living in Los Angeles. His name is Matthew White. He is a freelance writer” said Kate.

  “Good. Did you try calling him?” asked Evelyn.

  “Yes, but the phone has been out of service for a while. There is no secondary number or next of kin listed in the records. There is an address which we can try” said Kate.

  “Good. Contact the Los Angeles Police Department and ask them to get in touch with him immediately” said Evelyn.

  “You got it, boss” she said and continued “by the way, did you speak to Will yet?”

  “Yes, briefly. He said he does not know what happened” Evelyn replied and continued “listen, I want you to do full background check on Mary White. Everything from the day she was born till today. Where she lived, what she did…, everything”

  “What are you thinking, boss?” asked Kate.

  “This woman was indeed strange. I want to see if she really knew anything about Will’s family murder, or was just trying to play that card to get him involved in the case” said Evelyn.

  “But why would she want him to get involved in the case?” asked Kate.

  “I don’t know. I assumed she wanted to prove her innocence and based on the circumstantial evidence we had around her, she probably thought being Hunted was her best way out. Atleast, that is what I assumed then” explained Evelyn.

  “So you’re thinking there is some foul play here?” asked Kate.

  “I don’t know, Kate. That is what we need to find out” said Evelyn.

  “Sure boss, I will let you know as soon as I find something” said Kate.

  “Thanks Kate’ said Evelyn and continued “also, send a few officers to the hospital to watch over Ms White until we arrange for her brother to get here.”

  “You got it, boss” said Kate and left the room.

  Evelyn then took her phone out and called Dan.

  “Dan, what’s going on?” she asked.

  “Ma'am, they have taken her into the Intensive Care Unit. She is currently in a critical state of coma and the doctors are working on her. Any news about her family yet?” asked Dan on the phone.

  “Yes, Dan. Kate was able to locate her brother in LA. She is trying to get him here” said Evelyn.

  “Okay great. Do you want me to wait here till he shows up” asked Dan.

  “Yes, Dan. Once her brother arrives, I want you to come back and channel your energies at Stephen Zhu. Let’s find out everything about him, his family and his company. We have preliminary information about them already, but I think we should get into the details now. We have been heavily reliant on these Hunting Sessions lately. It’s time to do some good police work” said Evelyn

  ‘Sure ma'am. I will get right on it” said Dan.

  “Thanks Dan. Keep me posted” said Evelyn and hung up the call as she sat down in her chair by her desk.‘This has been a long day’ she thought. She slowly looked through some case files scattered across her desk when she got interrupted by a thick voice “long day?”

  She turned around and looked at Harry, who was standing at her door. “Yeah, its been quite a day!” said Evelyn.

  “I know you and your team have been through a lot today, Evelyn. I just came in to
check and see how you are holding up. Just heard about the incident during the Hunting Session. How’s she doing?” asked Harry with a genuine concern.

  “I just spoke to Dan. She is in coma and is critical” said Evelyn.

  “And where is Will” asked Harry.

  “I am not sure, sir. I called him but he did not answer” said Evelyn, while trying to avoid eye contact with Harry.

  “Excuse me, ma'am” interrupted Sarah, standing at the door.

  “What’s up Sarah, come on in” said Evelyn.

  “These are the detail logs you wanted to see” said Sarah and handed over the bundle of papers to Evelyn.

  “Any interesting pattern here?” asked Evelyn.

  “As we know, there was a sudden increase in her pulse ” said Sarah showing her the graph in the print out.

  “The first 15 minutes, she was at 75 and then suddenly she went up to 110, 140, 160 and then 190, all in a span of about a 30 to 45 seconds, increasing at 15-20 beats every 5 seconds’ she said.

  “Interesting. Something happened in that minute” she said and continued “thanks Sarah. Let’s keep digging”.

  ‘Sure, ma'am” she said and walked out of the door.

  “So everything happened in just one minute, huh?” asked Harry as he pulled the chair on the other side of the Evelyn’s desk and sat down, comfortably, folding his legs.

  “Yes, we did not see it coming at all. Generally, a Hunting Session is very quiet. Will and the suspect are just quietly sitting till the time Will says ‘Snap out’ and we know that they are coming back” she said.

  “And did he exit the session as he was suppose to, today?” asked Harry.

  “No. He just came out of the session” answered Evelyn.

  “Is that the reason why Ms White is in a coma?” he asked.

  “Sir, I am sure there is more to it than what meets the eye. I don’t think we should make any assumptions. My team is trying to figure out more as we speak. We really don’t know what happened in the session and why Will reacted the way he did” she said.