“How - how are you able to help then?” The man cleared his throat and asked, pointing at all the protective measures they placed in the room - the buddha statues on tables and mini altars, the talismans on the walls, and even windchimes on traditional knots made of red threads.

“I’m not gonna tell you if what you’re doing here is safe enough, because to be honest, I don’t know.” Marcus shrugged: “All I am saying is - I think you know this as well - that something is quite abnormal with what happened to your father. And though I really appreciate your trying to make things right at the last minute, it was not enough. Because - ”

“Because we just saw something - something supernatural and very dangerous.” Elvin came out from behind Marcus and said to the man and the two younger women: “That neighbor of ours. If it weren’t for my son here, he could have died. I know it is not entirely on you, or on your father. But he’s got dragged into this somehow. And we’re here to figure out why.”

“Dad - ” Marcus shook his head lightly - it was just too harsh.

“No - son,they need to hear it.” Elvin shook his head and looked at the man straight in his eyes: “And I understand your loss, believe me. But I think you know as well as I do, that what you want more right now, is to protect your family in all of this. So - please, we’re trying to figure out how this happened. And with everything clear we’d have a better idea on how to help you.”

The man looked Marcus in the eyes, then Elvin, then switched back to Marcus again, before telling the two younger women behind to make some tea.

“Please - please have a seat.” The man of the house pointed at an old sofa near the door, while he pulled out a foldable wooden chair from the corner of the living room. “May I know what you saw and - what you did?”

“I saw some kind of paranormal disturbance - ” Marcus weighed his words: “ - that resembled your father. Not entirely, but it resembled him. Don’t worry, I believe your father’s spirit is at peace now. Do you know if there’s anything between your father and that neighbor of ours?”

“I - I don’t really know.” The man shrugged: “My father, he’s not really open about his life to us, even though we live together. He had been living here for quite a while, and we only came back to stay with him recently. So - I really don’t - ”

The two younger women brought tea and placed them on the table beside the sofa, then stood behind the man, nervously listening to this conversation.

“How - how did you know that my father is not - you know - ” The man squirmed as he put out this question.

“Let’s just say I saw him walking into the next step in the cycle of life.” Marcus sighed, but did not touch the tea in front of him at all: “And I know that your father seemed to have suffered some physical trauma before he passed - something bad happened, right?”

The two women behind the man immediately started weeping, and the man’s eyes grew red and tear-filled.

“Yeah - yeah, and - I’m sorry - ” the man wiped the corner of his eyes as he answered: “ - we don’t know who did this. But we’ll be trying to find out. It - it could be dangerous, since you’re a cop - ”

“You’ll need to report to the nearest police station - we can’t look into potentially criminal offenses off the books.” Marcus gave the playbook answer: “But this - I happen to know a little. And there’s no limitation of jurisdiction, so - ”

“He hadn’t come home for a few days, so we just went out looking for him. We even had some flyers printed.” One of the young women behind the man broke her silence and spoke with a shaking voice: “But - just when we went out, they told us that someone found him on the side of the road and he’s already passed. Near - ”

“Wait, did you call the police?” Marcus frowned, for he had not heard about this, if they had reported it to police, this case would have been put into his precinct.

“No - no, we couldn’t.” The young woman shook his head: “He’s found over the border, and the community collective took over. They said since it’s their area, they’d handle it and forward to the city - it’s only been two days - ”

“There’s physical trauma. But - ” The man hesitated: “But there’s a terrified look on his face. Unnatural and disturbing. I don’t think that’s - that’s - ”

“That’s the doing of humans?” Marcus asked with a frown.

The three children of the old man almost recoiled at the same time. They stammered for a moment before they could answer: “Yes - yes, but - we don’t know. I know that the city don’t really like to handle things like this - and so since you’re a cop - ”

“I’m not looking into this because I’m a cop.” Marcus shook his head. Then after thinking for a while, he whispered to his father: “Dad, can you go back and get me a talisman from under that Budda statue?”

“You’re sure?” Elvin was slightly surprised..

“Yeah, I could ask for one more later.”

Elvin came back after about five minutes, bringing a folded talisman in a small yellow cloth pouch with him - one made with thick, darker brown paper and dark red ink. One that was much harder to make, not to mention obtain. Marcus examined this talisman, before handing it to the family.

The man hesitated before accepting the pouch with both hands. He did not ask much, though the two young women behind him seemed confused.

“Thank you very much - this is - I don’t know how we can repay you.” The man asked the two young women to place it under the altar of their house.

“Well - as of now, you need it more than us. And - I’m afraid I’m gonna ask you to go to a temple for help if you could.” Marcus sighed and stood up: “Now - if there’s anything you could remember - ”

The man stood up and extended his hands at the door, signaling them to head outside.

They found a relatively distant and discrete corner along the corridor, before the man spoke up: “I think there’s some other details you should know - but I do hope this stays between us. If you’re really gonna look into this.”

“... I can’t really promise you that.” Marcus sighed: “I CAN promise you though, that whatever you tell me will be treated with utmost discretion.”

The man raised his eyebrows, then nodded after a short pause: “Well, I appreciate the honesty. But - I guess it’s the same anyway. ” He looked around, then took a deep breath before continuing: “My father, like many old men of his age, likes to collect all kinds of resellable stuff from trash - empty bottles, cardboard boxes, scrap metal - things like that. And If you know about this - this habit, you’ll know that the border between ours and the South-Eastern District is a good place to collect them. Besides that, he likes to go to the docks area in the morning, both for food and for some quiet time.”

“And that’s why - ”

“He went missing during the night.” The man continued, the corners of his eyes twitching uncontrollably: “I was here. My younger sisters weren’t. And that night, I was working late. I came back not seeing him anywhere, so I assumed he was out for a drink. He used to do that. But - he did not comeback after - ”

Marcus sighed, as the man collapsed on the metal handrails on the corridor, finally having lost his composure and wept but still with a lowered voice.