(A/N):
Drop a meme here that you find funny. Or reflects your mood.
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....
Jenny had been watching the ice cream van for another minute when she finally decided that they had seen enough.
Whatever the driver was feeding those children, it was clearly not ordinary food, and the fact that he continued serving it despite knowing that some of them could see through his disguise made her increasingly uncomfortable.
She pulled out her phone, searched for Jojo's number and called him, keeping her eyes on the van while Kang and the others remained inside their vehicles.
Jojo answered after a few rings.
"Jenny? What's happened? You don't usually call me in the middle of an investigation unless you've found something worth disturbing my evening over."
"I'm afraid this is worth disturbing your evening,"
Jenny replied, her voice serious enough to make the humour disappear from Jojo's tone.
She quickly explained how they had finished investigating the haunted house in Baylean Bay and were preparing to return to Forks when Cole noticed an ice cream van whose driver had looked distinctly unnatural to him.
She described how the two Quileute tribesmen had detected a foul smell coming from the vehicle, how they had decided to follow it, and how the van had stopped at several locations to sell ice cream to children.
The real problem had become apparent only later, when all of them could finally see through the disguise and discovered that the children were happily eating something that looked utterly disgusting to anyone with their supernatural sight.
Jojo's expression gradually changed as he listened.
He had been sitting in the mansion with Freya and Inadu nearby, discussing the strange contract offered by the servant of Death, but by the time Jenny finished explaining what they had witnessed, he had put the contract aside and was concentrating entirely on her report.
"Wait a minute," he said, frowning.
"You're telling me that this man is driving around selling something that looks like contaminated biological material to children, but the children themselves seem perfectly happy eating it?"
"That's exactly what we're seeing," Jenny confirmed.
"We don't know whether it's an illusion, some kind of supernatural food or something that's actually infecting them. The driver also seems to know that we can see through his disguise. He looked straight at us and smiled, as though he was expecting us to follow him."
Jojo leaned back slightly, thinking through the possibilities before turning toward Freya and Inadu.
Both women had noticed the change in his expression and were already paying attention to the conversation.
He put the call on speaker and briefly explained what Jenny had told him, leaving out none of the details about the rotting appearance of the van, the foul smell or the strange substance being given to the children.
Freya's expression became thoughtful, while Inadu's eyes narrowed as she considered the description.
They exchanged a glance before Freya finally spoke.
"It could be voodoo," she said.
"Or, more precisely, some form of dark ritualistic magic that uses a physical substance as its medium."
"Certain practitioners can conceal the true nature of an object, influence how people perceive it, or use food and other ordinary things to carry a spell. If that substance really looks the way Jenny describes it, then I wouldn't rule out something designed to affect the people who consume it."
Inadu nodded, although she seemed less convinced that ordinary illusion magic could explain everything.
"The fact that the children are eating it willingly is particularly concerning. If their senses are being manipulated, then the spell may extend beyond the van itself. But we shouldn't assume it's voodoo simply because the appearance is grotesque."
"It could be a curse, a parasitic entity using magic to disguise itself, or something that has nothing to do with human practitioners at all."
Jojo listened carefully, his frown deepening as he considered their explanations.
"So we have a driver who may be using dark magic to disguise whatever he's selling, children consuming an unknown substance, and a vehicle that appears rotten to anyone who can see through its disguise. Wonderful. Exactly the sort of thing I wanted to deal with today."
Freya gave him a pointed look.
"Sarcasm won't tell us what that substance is."
"No, but it does help me cope with the fact that people apparently can't sell ordinary ice cream anymore."
Inadu ignored his remark and stepped closer to the phone.
"Jenny, listen carefully. Don't let anyone eat any more of that substance, and don't touch it yourselves until we know what it is. If the children have already consumed it, keep an eye on them, but don't frighten them unnecessarily."
"We don't yet know whether separating them from the substance or disturbing whatever spell is affecting them could cause a reaction."
Jenny immediately relayed the instructions to Kang and the others, who had already begun discussing how they could approach the children without causing panic.
"Understood. We'll keep watching the driver, but what should we do about the children who have already eaten it?"
"Don't attempt anything drastic until Jojo arrives," Freya answered.
"If this is a ritual involving food, the substance itself may be only one part of the process. We need to understand what the spell is doing before we interfere with it."
Jojo took the phone back into his hand.
"Jenny, stay where you are for now, but make sure nobody follows the van if it starts moving again. If the driver decides to leave, don't try to stop him yourselves unless there's an immediate threat to someone's life. I'll be there shortly."
"Are you sure? We don't know what we're dealing with."
"That's precisely why I'm coming."
Jojo glanced toward the window, mentally calculating the distance to Baylean Bay.
"You're close enough that I shouldn't need long to reach you. Just keep your distance and don't give the driver a reason to become aggressive."
Jenny agreed and ended the call, immediately passing Jojo's instructions to the others.
Inside the mansion, Jojo stood up and began gathering what he needed for the investigation, while Freya and Inadu exchanged another concerned look.
"You think it's really voodoo?"
Jojo asked as he checked his equipment.
"It's one possibility," Freya replied.
"But until we examine the substance and determine whether the children have been affected, anything more would be speculation."
Jojo nodded, though the thought of an unknown substance being distributed to children had already put him on edge.
He had encountered enough curses and supernatural infections to know that the harmless appearance of a threat often made it far more dangerous, especially when its victims had no idea they were being targeted.
"Fine. We'll find out when we get there."
He picked up his phone and headed toward the door.
"And if that driver is deliberately feeding something dangerous to children, I sincerely hope he has a very good explanation ready."
With that, Jojo left the room, while Freya and Inadu prepared to follow him.
Somewhere in Baylean Bay, an ice cream van continued playing its cheerful tune, and children continued lining up at its window, completely unaware that the people watching from nearby vehicles had begun to suspect that their afternoon treat was something far more sinister.
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(Author's POV)
(A/N):
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