Water spirits are lingering souls that kill through their connection with water. They were difficult to track and extremely complex to eliminate.
The simplest way is to erase their spiritual mark, but Jonathan believed the better method was to find the spirit's body and perform a ceremony similar to an exorcism.
"We've identified the victim." Wednesday placed the victim's information in front of Jonathan, who was having dinner after sixteen hours of work.
"Emily Cooper?" Jonathan looked at the photograph in his hands — the cheerful-faced girl seemed to be anything but someone who caused trouble.
Gazing at the lake, now empty of people by his own request, Jonathan stared at the silent water as ducks moved from one place to another.
He had assumed all this time that it was a simple evil spirit, but that wouldn't make sense — otherwise, he wouldn't be here trying to solve this case.
The Order, which currently handled all problems related to non-corporeal dark entities, wouldn't have sent him on this mission, given that he was a field agent specialized in eliminating and investigating physical dark entities.
Besides, deeper investigations had already been conducted on this lake — observation rituals, signal detection equipment, everything to determine if it was a non-corporeal dark entity — so it was impossible that something harmful was here causing damage to people.
"If it's not a non-corporeal dark entity, then it must be a corporeal one. That means the thing should be in the lake right now, so as a last resort, I'll have to investigate the lake itself," Jonathan thought as he checked the time. Before acting, he decided to upload all the gathered information to the cloud, just in case something went wrong.
"You think that because it couldn't be found before?" Wednesday considered it possible.
Dark entities were very mysterious, so knowing he was a field agent, he needed to investigate all these things carefully before making any decision that might involve the intervention of others.
Time nowadays was very valuable; no one could afford to waste it on unnecessary matters, so an agent had to be certain before requesting reinforcements. And much less could an agent waste an entire squad's time over mere speculation.
"Evidence, I need evidence…" Jonathan made a somewhat risky decision, but it was his last chance before abandoning the case for lack of proof. If this wasn't a dark entity that killed its victims directly or caused massacres, the Order wouldn't care about a case involving a harmless floating head.
The deaths had been suicides; no murders had been discovered that a human couldn't have committed, so this case would be dismissed if Jonathan and Wednesday didn't find conclusive evidence tonight.
Jonathan took his phone and dialed Support. "This is Jonathan Belmont, currently on an active mission… My confirmation code is U27-IA00-UE28."
"Zz… What are your orders?"
Jonathan looked at the lake for a few seconds before replying, "I'm preparing for a deeper and riskier investigation. I'll need a support team on standby — they should be ready before midnight."
"Zz… Do you have the distress button with you?"
"I do," Jonathan said, looking at his watch — which wasn't really a watch.
"Zz… Understood, sir. Good luck."
After hanging up, Jonathan immediately uploaded all the information he had so far and patiently waited for the hours to pass.
By nine o'clock that night, police officers had cleared the park to ensure no civilians were around before Jonathan began his deeper investigation, as protocol dictated.
Since it was a bit dangerous, Jonathan put on a light bulletproof vest — enough to offer more protection than nothing at all — and then got into a boat.
Wednesday remained on the shore, monitoring with a simple tracking setup.
Starting the engine, Jonathan moved into the lake. He didn't stop until he reached the middle of that dark, silent place. Using only a flashlight, he looked around before turning off the boat's motor.
"Good or evil? Emily Cooper, if you still remember that name, you should listen to me." Jonathan looked around, keeping his pistol tucked under his belt.
"You were murdered here. According to old police records, your head was almost severed with a dull knife, and somehow your body was thrown into the lake with bags of rocks tied to you so you'd sink."
Jonathan paused, then continued, "You're not a spirit or a demon, so you must be a supernatural entity that began to evolve after your death. They say your body disappeared, but that was covered up by the police. Who would care about someone with no family?"
"But we care. We want to help you."
Splash!
At that moment, the lake's surface rippled violently, and a few seconds later, everything went silent — even the crickets. Jonathan, who stood in the middle of the boat, turned around and saw a completely pale face. Unlike what the reports described, this female face resembled that of a fish, with scales covering her skin.
Jonathan aimed his weapon as soon as he saw the creature and said, "Sorry for being late, but you don't need to keep punishing those you think are guilty."
"Your scent!"
As soon as those words were uttered, Jonathan's eyes widened — the monster in the water lunged at him with incredible force, and without waiting for any kind of embrace, he opened fire continuously without pause.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of gunfire echoed across the lake and through part of the park, alarming the police officers whose only task had been to keep civilians away from the water.
In that instant, Jonathan, dragged down, fell into the lake. When the bullets from his pistol seemed never-ending, he was suddenly pulled into a kind of illusion — his entire world turned black.
"What the hell?"
Wednesday recorded the entire scene and murmured, "I hope he knows how to swim…"