Chill: Body Hoppin'

Today we delve into spoooooky fun. Here's last time.

Five of the envoys - Jax, Vicki, Blake, Zoe, and Melanie - are standing outside the so-called "Chop Chop House" as the sixth, Willa, drives away in one of their vehicles. They aren't quite sure what just happened, but they're sure it's not good news. They decide that Zoe, Melanie, and Jax will try and follow her, while Blake and Vicki will call Detective Jackson.

They explain to Jackson what's happening - there's a body in the basement of the Murder House. They also explain how they got there (that is, Elle is missing, they went to the house because they knew she'd been there, they saw blood), so that he knows what he's walking into. He heads over. 

Meanwhile, the others head down the road, and find Willa. She's in the parking lot of a Taco Time in front of a garbage can. They pull in and discuss the best way to approach her - is it safe? As they approach, Willa turns around and asks what's going on. She doesn't remember anything past trying to use Voice of the Dead at the house. 

The envoys decide to leave the car she was driving here and go back to the ranch. Blake and Vicki are going to be at the Murder House for a while, so they can take a Lyft back to this car when they're ready. 

And speaking of them, Jackson arrives, checks the house, and then makes the call. Cops, ambulance, CSI all show up and start doing their thing while Blake and Vicki have a seat on the lawn and wait to give a statement. In a bit, Jackson tells them that the dead guy in the basement is James Howell, the legal owner of the house. He was beaten to the death with a blunt instrument (the wine bottle that they found in the living room, in all likelihood), dragged to the top of the basement stairs, and shoved down. Jackson takes their statements, but slips them Howell's home address. He can keep that site clear for a few hours if they want to check it out, but they should get a move on. And wear gloves.

They catch a ride back to the SUV at the Taco Time and get back in, whereupon Vicki asks to swing through the drive-thru. She gets a tray of tacos (Blake texts the others and asks if they want anything, and gets a resounding "ew, no" back), and then asks Blake to go back to the Murder House - she claims she left her purse on the lawn. Blake opines that it's probably been logged into evidence, and Vicki seems briefly not to understand. Blake drives her back over and she gets out with the tacos and walks around towards the back of the house to look for her purse.

Jackson walks over and asks what they're doing back here. Vicki rejoins them and suddenly seems to reawaken - last she remembers they were getting into the SUV at Taco Time. She has no memory of asking for tacos ("ew, I hate that place") and she doesn't carry a purse. Blake realizes that she was possessed, and the two of them talk to Jackson about what's going on. Blake asks about the tacos, and Vicki uses the Clairvoyance discipline to find them - they're sitting on a bird feeder in the back yard of the house. Weird.

Jackson goes over to their car, opens the door, and rummages around a bit, and then gets out with a small brown paper bag in his hand. He starts jogging toward the back of the house, and Vicki and Blake both call out to him, but he ignores them. Blake runs back, trying to beat him to the tacos, but he's already got them and tells two of the officers on duty to escort this guy out. Blake tries to tell them that he bought the tacos, but the cops believe the cop (of course), and Blake is led unceremoniously out.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Willa has Darnell check her out for any lingering physical weirdness, but nothing's apparent. Zoe does a bit of digging into the Murder House, and finds that the details of the grisly murder and dismemberment of Preston Murr. Jax does some searching as well, and learns a few details about Murr (his criminal record, where he's buried), but figures that if he is a ghost, the envoys need to learn a little more about him to figure out what he wants.

Zoe contacts some of the ghost-hunting weirdos she knows, and learns that the "Chop Chop House" shows up on lists of haunted places in Idaho, but that the legends tend to be conflations with other stories or embellishments on what actually happened. However, she learns that in 2002, while the house was being rented to some university students, a co-ed named Carrie Monk disappeared from a bedroom and was missing for two days, but then reappeared exactly where she left. A guy who lived in the house, one Steven Lee, was questioned but never charged. Carrie now lives in Twin Falls, and Zoe makes a note that they might want to speak to her. She also finds the paper that her student, Edward Price (who lived in the house as a child) wrote - he got lost in the house's basement for a couple of hours when he was five or six. Zoe gets the feeling there's more to that story, and sends Price an email asking him to contact her.

Back at the house, Blake and Vicki call the others and explain what's happening. They're all very worried about the cops still at the house - can this entity just hop from body to body? Why did it make Willa drive to a taco place and make Vicki buy tacos? Is it planning to poison someone? Blake gets a phone call from Jackson shortly thereafter, and Jackson is just as confused as they are. He doesn't know where the tacos ended up, and doesn't remember a brown paper bag, nor did anyone remark on it to him. Piecing together the timeline, they figure that Willa might have put something under the seat while she was possessed. Jackson suggests she check her bank to see if she bought anything, and indeed, there's a charge for nearly $200 to a pawn shop near the Taco Time. 

Willa calls the pawn shop and claims that there was an unauthorized charge. The person at the pawn shop, though, says it was definitely her - they always get ID for firearms. Yep, she bought a 9mm handgun. "Twin sister," says Willa, and hangs up. Blake tells Jackson to check his service pistol. It's still there, but the magazine is empty. And of course, he uses a 9mm.

Everyone's rattled, and they decide that someone with some ghost expertise needs to go to the house. Blake and Vicki decide to head out to Howell's house, and Jax leaves to join them. Melanie, Zoe, and Willa head back to the Murder House, since Willa is a pretty expert in ghost detection.

Howell's house is well kept; clearly Howell enjoyed gardening. Blake uses Skeleton Key to get them in, and they search the house (and they do remember to wear gloves). They find that Howell lived alone and apparently had never married, but he's a skilled metalworker and carpenter - he has a workbench in his garage. Based on the scraps around, he's just completed something using metal strips. Jax, who himself is expert in hauntings and paranormal intrusion, notes that the remnants of the work are slapdash and amateurish. Howell may have been possessed while he did this. 

Jax touches the workbench and uses Postcognition, and sees Howell making something - a metal mesh screen, about three feet by two feet. He's not wearing eye or hand protection, and burns himself on the torch but doesn't register it. Obviously possessed. Jax describes the thing he's making to the others, but isn't sure what it's for. Too small to cover a door or a gate - crawlspace, maybe? Blake texts Willa to tell her to keep an eye out for something like that.

Speaking of Willa, she, Melanie, and Zoe meet Jackson back at the house. They talk about what they're looking for and what they've seen, and Willa points out that she doesn't think whatever this entity is has access to a victim's mind while it possesses them. As such, a code word could be a handy way to tell if someone is possessed (they pick "orangutan"). 

They walk around the back of the house and then enter, Jackson explaining what the cops have found. He tells them the CSI guys are finishing up in the basement, but the rest of the house is clear. They check the upstairs and the attic - nothing. As they're headed downstairs, the CSIs leave, and Jackson waves them off (keeping the envoys out of sight). Time to check the basement.

In the basement, everything is processed and marked, but the envoys noticed a corner where the cobwebs are unbroken, as though no one checked it. Melanie shines her light in the corner, but sees nothing. Willa is skeptical; she grabs a broom handle, uses Astral Attack, and jabs at the corner. It hits something with a clank, and she feels something attack her, but manages to resist the effect. She warns the others, and the force strikes at her, but she knows a spectral attack when she feels one and steels herself. 

Something appears in the corner, covered in a sheet. Willa uses the broom handle to uncover it - it's a mirror, with a metal mesh lattice welded to it. And at this point, everything goes dead silent. A second later, the room is plunged into pitch darkness.

Melanie steps forward and puts a hand on Willa's shoulder, ready to disrupt any incoming Unknown things. Zoe backs up against a wall, panicked. Willa lashes out, but doesn't make contact, and after only a moment, sound and vision return. The mirror is gone, and so is Detective Jackson.

The envoys leave the house, and Zoe goes out on the lawn to catch her breath and babble about mirrors. Willa calls Vicki and explains what happened, and Blake calls Jackson's phone. To his surprise, someone answers. "What?"

 "Detective?"

"I ain't a detective. You know what I am. Stay out of my way. I don't want to hurt no one, but I will."

Blake asks what he wants, why he's holding Elle. He replies, "I don't know. I can't...someone has to be there. Me or her. And it's gonna be her." There's a crunch as he throws the phone away.

The envoys figure that maybe the mirror itself is the "there" that he referred to. Zoe notes that folklore is replete with stories of people being trapped inside reflections; perhaps Murr is keeping Elle a prisoner for his own freedom? Either way, they need to find him. The ghost is possessing a police detective and he's armed, and they still don't know what he wants.