Chapter One

It was a Thursday afternoon in New York City, as John and Philippa walked through central park on their way home from school.

It had been almost a month since their last adventure which had taken them to the Amazon. Although John had his fair share of hardships, Philippa had quite a worst memory of South America. It was there she had watched one of her close friends, Dybbuk, split his good and bad sides into two separate beings. And it was there she watched the evil Dybbuk first kill his good side then turn on her, which she had narrowly escaped.

As they walked home Philippa jabbered on and on about how she had been blamed for talking when really it had been the girl in front of her. Normally John would have done his best to stay connected to his sister's conversation; however he continued wondering back to what he had heard on the news that morning. It had said that places all over the world have been being broken into and vandalized mostly just broken stuff, Of course he had conveniently forgotten to tell Philippa about this, and how he wondered if it had anything to do with Dybbuk.

"But really I think the teacher should really know who it is before he starts throwing blames towards others; I mean we are in 8th grade it seems like a lot of girls have a similar sounding voice to me, like they're not exactly the same…." Philippa had been stating when John interrupted her.

"Where do you think Dybbuk is?" he glanced up in time to see Philippa's face turn to a mixer of sadness, curiosity, and a little confusion.

"I don't know" Philippa's attitude had changed also. only a moment ago she had been talking excitedly and now she was much more quite and calm.

It made John sad to see his sister react like this. He didn't really know how he wanted her to react. Maybe he just wanted her to say something witty and brush the question off. He had forgotten the conversation was still touchy for her. In fact she still hadn't told anyone, even her diary which she seemed to tell a lot to (john knew because he had checked which he knew was an awful thing to do but he had to know what had happened). All John new was that something had happened and Dybbuk was officially evil.

"Sorry" that was all john could force out

"It's ok, I know it been hard for all of you to wait for me to tell you exactly what happened, it's just hard for me I'm still trying to figure it all out." Philippa said pulling her pink school bag further onto her shoulder.

"Nobody's trying to rush you," john didn't want to attack her with the whole thing, but then he quickly continued, "but whenever you want to talk about it, just know we are all listening"

"Thanks" Philippa half smiled. They continued the rest of the walk in mostly silence. John tried to start a couple of conversations here and there but Philippa never helped continue them. She just gave simple answers, nothing john could work with so soon he gave up.

Once they had finally reached the apartment. Philippa's mood had lightened a little she was actually laughing at something john had said as they walked through the front door.

"John? Philippa?" their mother Layla Gaunt called from the living room.

"Hi mom" John called throwing his backpack on the floor and kicking off his shoes

"Could you two come in here for a second?" she called in reply. The two walked through the arched doorway into the living room. As they entered they saw their Uncle Nimrod sitting in the armchair and their mother on the couch.

"Nimrod!" Philippa exclaimed. Nimrod stood and greeted the children by giving them each an affectionate hug.

"How have you two been?" Nimrod asked returning to his seat and watching the children take refuge on the couch by their mother.

"We've been fine," john commented

"How have you been?" Philippa questioned, continuing for her brother like always it seemed.

"Alright," Nimrod paused for a moment then continued, "To be honest we are having had some trouble with this whole Amazon Incident Philippa's had."

"Indeed we have." A voice from the corner came. This took Philippa and John by Surprise resulting in Philippa releasing a short, and very high pitched, scream. The twins both turned to see a man in a black suit with a white shirt and a blue tie standing next to the fire place which had been by the arched door way which Philippa guessed must have caused them to walk right past him without noticing. John however didn't have this though occur to him and simply wonder when the man must have entered the room. The man stood a few inches shorter that Nimrod and was a thin. He had dark brown hair which was nicely combed back out of his face. Indeed he looked very businesslike. Any thought John had of wondering if Nimrod had noticed the man enter was quickly demolished when Nimrod spoke next

"Children, this is Kihram Hilwarp He represents all good Djinn." Nimrod said introducing the still quite shocked twins to Mr. Hilwarp. "Now Philippa he was hoping he might be able to talk to you about exactly what happened in the Amazon." It was then that John snapped back into his normal behavior.

"No way!" John protested. "Can't you see it's hard enough for her already? She hasn't told anyone anything, and I'm her twin! What makes you think she would talk to him about it!" he gestured Towards Mr. Hilwarp.

"Now john calm down." Mrs. Gaunt tried to sooth her son. Who she knew very well could get very hot tempered whenever anyone did anything that could offend Philippa, unless of course it was himself, but other than that he was quite inflexible.

"Indeed John do relax I think you are being very immature about this," Nimrod said also trying to help Mr. Hilwarp's efforts, "besides I think you should at very least give Philippa the luxury of talking for herself. Now I'm sure Mr. Hilwarp wouldn't mind talking to Philippa privately if she is uncomfortable in sharing it with all of us."

"Of course I wouldn't." Kihram Hilwarp pushed

"Well why do you need to know?" John said calming down in not the slightest bit. This question made Philippa look towards Nimrod.

"Now children the truth is unless we can give some evidence Dybbuk has actually Turned evil we can't actually determine whether or not to remove him from you Marid tribe permanently or not. We need an actual account of the events to understand what could have happened." Mr. Hilwarp informed John

"So, you're saying you don't believe Philippa?" John asked almost stunned glancing at Nimrod for support.

"Well, not exactly, you see we just want to make sure it wasn't some girl moment where just because the boy was being mean to her it translated in her mind that he must be evil. Do you sort of get what I'm saying?" Kihram Hilwarp asked. At this Philippa finally spoke up.

"I saw him become evil, I saw him murder the only good in himself." Philippa said in a voice that sounded almost close to tears.

"Well now when you say you saw him murder himself you really just mean…" Mr. Hilwarp began before he was cut-off.

"What I mean iswhat I say. He split apart into two, one his entire good side, and one his entire evil side and the evil side killed the good side," Philippa paused for a long time before she continued, "And then he tried to kill me." She almost whispered everyone stared at her extremely focused on what she was saying. Except Mr. Hilwarp who was trying to figure it all out.

"Now what do you mean he tried to kill you?" Mr. Hilwarp questioned. By now John was questioning himself about whether it would be wrong to give Mr. Hilwarp a nice blow to the head.

"She means he tried to kill her. What's so confusing about that?" John almost shouted.

"Now John please I'm just trying to understand better. " Mr. Hilwarp insisted

"Kihram," Nimrod said calling him by his first name, "perhaps that's enough for today." Kihram was about to object when he saw the sigh of relief wipe across both the twins face. Now its true Mr. Hilwarp could be a little pushy sometimes, but he did have a soft spot. However had he known this would be the last chance he had to question Philippa he would have never given up so easily.

"Alright," he finally sighed, "I suppose I will be in touch then, Nimrod" he said putting a black coat on.

"That's fine Kihram, "Nimrod said standing up to walk him to the door.

"Good bye," Layla said standing and shaking Mr. Hilwarp's hand, "perhaps next time we meet will be on more pleasant terms."

"I certainly hope so," Mr. Hilwarp said kindly, "good bye John and Philippa it was nice to meet the two of you."

"I'm sure it was." John said sarcastically earning a kick in the foot by his mother.

"It was nice to meet you too," Philippa said covering for her brother. Mr. Hilwarp smiled and left the room along with Nimrod. As soon as they were out of hearing range Layla started in on john.

"Goodness John could you have been a bit more rude to the poor man?" Layla scolded

"Yes actually I could have, would you like me to call him back here so you can see?" John snapped, "I don't appreciate some idiot coming here and bugging Philippa about such sensitive stuff like he didn't even care about her personal feelings!"

"John I appreciate your concern really I do," Philippa insisted making John turn towards her, "But I can handle myself, and I was ready to tell him if he got too personal." It was then that Nimrod returned to the room.

"Well that didn't go as well as I had hoped." Nimrod said placing a fat cigar in his mouth and then lighting it.

"Thanks for the warning," John shot at Nimrod.

"Now John what has gotten into you?" Layla protested to her sons complaints

"I don't know! But why am I the only one who cares about Philippa's needs right now?"

"John, we all care immensely about Philippa and I think you know that," Nimrod said leaning against the mantle above the fireplace, "however as unfortunate as it is we can't get the entire good Djinn tribes to feel the same way about Philippa as we do. And they need to know what has happened. However Philippa is the only one with that knowledge making her our only resource however hard it is for us. Do you understand?"

"Well yes but…," John trailed off, "But why right now can't they wait a bit until Philippa is ready to talk about it?"

"Don't you see John?" Philippa cut in, "They have waited, they've waited almost a month now. It's been very inconsiderate of me to make them wait this long. I knew sooner or later I would have to recall the incident I just wanted to postpone it as long as possible"

"You should be able to postpone it as long as you feel like it." John protested.

"How is that fair?" Philippa shot back

"They're not being fair!"

"Well me not being fair would get us absolutely nowhere!" Philippa replied. Layla was about to stop them when Nimrod motioned for her to just let them go. Forcing Layla to hesitantly step down.

"So let's just stay where we are." John continued neither of the twins noticing the unspoken language between their mother and uncle

"But then we're back at the beginning!"

"Progress is overrated!"

"Unfairness is overrated!"

"Why are you arguing with me, I'm trying to help you?"

"Because you…. I don't know," Philippa trailed off, "I'm sorry; I really do appreciate your concern."

"Alright I think that's quite enough," Layla said glad she could finally step in, "Perhaps you two get your mind on other things and we can talk about this later, perhaps you could run with Nimrod to retrieve Groanin from the airport." It was then that the twins noticed Groanin was nowhere to be seen

"Why is Groanin still at the airport?" Philippa wondered out loud.

"because I got the news about Mr. Hilwarp coming to talk to you only a short while before he arrived so I had to leave Groanin to finish the packing while I came here." Nimrod explained taking a huge puff in his cigar and blowing out the shape of a luggage bag.

"When is his plane landing?" John asked

"In precisely ten minutes," Nimrod said casually taking another deep inhale to his cigar and blowing out a clock saying four fifteen which was ten minutes away.

"You do realize it takes almost an hour to get there don't you?" Philippa reminded.

"Indeed, However Groanin really is the slowest at getting off planes by the time we arrive he will just barley be walking out the doors." Nimrod blew out a pair of automatic doors opening. By now Philippa wondered how much he was truly enjoying shaped clouds of smoke apart from normal ones.

"How could he be that slow?" John asked.

"Oh he finds a way," Layla added.

Indeed Nimrod was right in fact they had to wait so long the three of them finally opted to go look for Mr. Groanin. They walked up the stairs to the luggage station where luggage was being unloaded to find three baggage boys sorting through some suitcases obviously trying to find a certain few. With all the commotion going on it was hard to see much more than that however it was not hard to distinguished a particular voice through the crowed

"That's not it I say that's not it at all. I told you a red trunk is what I'm looking for I say red!" Groanin's Voice could be heard quite clearly, "look I can see it right there I say it's right there," There was a short pause before you heard Groanin again, "yes that red trunk because it's so hard to distinguish red from orange these days I say because it's so hard to distinguish red from orange." John couldn't help from smiling. Of course Philippa found it quite rude of Groanin to treat these Baggage Boys as if they were so incompetent and in fact the Orange Trunk did have a red tint to it in her mind.

"Well let's go get the man then," Nimrod said carefully stepping around a man who seemed to be on a business trip, "He will probably be exhausted."

"Ya he sounds like it," John commented sarcastically. Philippa smiled and then followed Nimrod through the crowed towards the angry butler.

"Groanin!" John called over the crowed waving his arms. Groanin turned around to see the three making their way toward them.

"Hello children I say hello!" Groanin said brightening up, "Sir I'm very sorry I have had a hard time finding your luggage I say a very hard time, have you been waiting since the plane landed?" He said turning his attention to Nimrod.

"No, he's not that incompetent," John joked.

"He knew to leave ten minutes before the plane landed and it takes almost an hour to get here so we didn't wait too long" Philippa added.

"Good it's nice to know not everyone is incompetent." Groanin sighed hauling Nimrods bag forward.

"Yes I'm sure it is," Nimrod said, "Now if you don't mind I told Layla we would be home by six thirty which will be a hard task at this point seeing its already five twenty and we still have to get out of this place," He said Pulling a vacant Luggage cart towards them and helping Groanin load their bags. They made their way back to the car where John told Philippa about a funny child he had seen in the air port while Nimrod and Groanin loaded the trunks in the back of the car Nimrod had rented which of course had been a Rolls Royce which Nimrod had temporarily changed the interior of to a nice shade of red.

"Alright and we're off." Nimrod said shutting the trunk and begging to walk to the driver's side of the car before Groanin stopped him.

" A… sir if you don't mind I think I would like to drive I think it might be nice after that long ride I say I think it might be nice," He said

"Certainly Groanin," Nimrod said handing him the keys. John opened the door and let Philippa slide in first and she walked by he quietly mimicked Groanin yelling at the Baggage boys. This made Philippa laugh as she was getting in the car. John was about to slide in next when he caught sight of something that made his blood turn to ice.

Across the road stood a boy about john's age. He wore black jeans accompanied by a black t-shirt with the name of a band that john strongly disliked written a crossed it and some motorcycle boots which all matched his black hair very well, and he was looking directly at John who was staring back at him when a bus pulled away from the airport crossing the line of sight between John and the boy. When it had passed Dybbuk Sachertorte was no longer standing in his former place. In fact he was not anywhere John could see

" John the idea of a car is to transport human being from one destination to another I say from one destination to another, However it doesn't work too well if you're not in I say not very well at all." Groanin complained. John quickly slid into the car pulling the door closed.

"Are you alright," Philippa asked, "You look pale."

"Didn't you see?" John asked.

"See what?" Philippa said raising her eyebrows.

"Oh uh… that uh… little kid almost got hit by that bus," John improvised. He didn't want to scare Philippa Perhaps it had just been a kid who looked like Dybbuk he thought.

"Oh," Philippa said only half convinced that's what John had actually seen, "well I'm glad he didn't get hit."

"Indeed, "Nimrod agreed as Groanin pulled the car away from the Airport.