“Is this it?”

“Must be,” Said Jake as we pulled up outside a large and rather extravagant set of gates.

It was a huge sprawling estate that Felix called home, you could barely make out his massive house from the roadside, with only a few glimmering lights set off in the distance.

The font fence line was quite fortified too, sitting high with razor wire lined along the top.

“Shit. We have no idea of what’s waiting for us inside,” I said as I put the car into gear and pulled up onto a dark patch of road just ahead of us. It was still dark outside but the sun was due to rise within a couple of hours.

Our escort van pulled in behind us and parked up, so I decided to jump out and see what use they were besides some muscle. I wasn’t even sure that I could classify them as muscle, they seemed more like observers just reporting back to Tai and the HQ team.

‘Bang bang bang,’ my knocks met with a whoosh of the side door of the van.

“Can you guys—“

“No,” said one of the guys inside the van as he slammed the door shut before I could even get a request in.

“You fucks,” I shouted, “what are you even doing here then?”

I closed my eyes and could sense they were all having a laugh in there. Throwing out happy vibes. I formed connections with them one by one, and jolted them with some good old panic and pain. A necessary friendly fire moment that I had hoped would sway their decision making in the future.

Pissed off and in a ‘fuck it’ kind of mood, I jumped back in our car and slammed it into gear. The wheels started to spin and revs reaching max as rocks pelted the support van behind us as I spun us back onto the road, picking up speed back to the gate.

“Woah what the fuck are you doing Reed,” shouted Jake as I lined the car up with the gate, our speed still increasing.

“We’re going in hot,” I said as we slammed into the gate.

Sparks flew with some light whiplash as we broke through the gate. The car was in an absolute state but still drivable as we sped down the long driveway toward the house.

Flashes appeared in the distance. Our vehicle was getting peppered by bullets, making me swerve erratically like we were getting chased by a wild animal — zig zagging it up.

“Well Felix must be here then,” joked Jake. It caught me by surprise that he was relatively calm for the situation I had just put us in.

We were gaining on the house and not one stray bullet had hit us yet, but they were getting too close for comfort, forcing me to bring us to a screeching halt within a hundred metres or so of the house.

It was just close enough to start getting a sense of what we were up against.

“I think they’re enforcers Jake, we can’t let them get strong connections on us.”

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“How the fuck does this guy have enforcers protecting his house?” Blasted Jake.

“Money and power. I hope you still have some of those handy little gadgets on you.”

Jake reached into his jacket and pulled out the few last remaining metallic contraptions he used back at our apartment during our dashed escape.

“Wait, wait. Okay throw one now,” I said.

I was able to gauge their proximity by the strength of my reads on them and on my word Jake charged up one of his prisms and lobbed it over the car we were still using for cover. By the sounds of it he took out a couple of them, made apparent by the groans and scratching of gravel from the enforcers trying to subdue the pain.

We both agreed we couldn’t stay pinned down so decided to make a run for the house and handle any enforcers along the way.

Jumping to our feet we bolted around either side of the car, the adrenaline making us quick on our toes as we dashed toward the house. I could feel slight panic from the remaining enforcers as we began closing in on them. My guess is that this was the least expected strategy they thought we’d come up with as it caught them off guard, taking too long to get us in their sites before we were right on them.

Facing a split second decision, I went for the enforcer that was raising his weapon and managed to relax him a little with empath before throwing one of the wildest (self-proclaimed) haymaker punches known to man, and knocking him out cold.

I hadn’t even had a moment to celebrate the knockout until I felt my knees buckle and the wind knocked out of me as I hit the ground flat on my back. Each gasp of air was met with a punch or the butt of a rifle from the enforcer, I was started to get one of the worst beat downs of my life.

He finally let up for a moment, barely enough time to get that breath I’d been gasping for until I was met with the barrel of his rifle.

My hands sprung up and grabbed the barrel, pulling it down towards the ground while I tried to sweep his legs from underneath him. He fired off several shots hitting the ground next to me before I got him down next to me and pried the rifle from his hands, and allowing me the dreaded reality of taking a life for the first time.

I hopped up and frantically scanned around for Jake, spotting him closer to the entrance of the house. He was tumbling around with the last enforcer in the most comical and frustrating way. Both of them were gassed and hurling abuse at each other, taking turns and trying to strangle each other to death. It looked how fights happen in dreams, so frustrating and so bad.

“C’mon man,” I shouted over to Jake.

The embarrassment of it all finally made him realise he could push through, I was grappling my own mental shit so I left him to finish the enforcer on on his own.

“Finally, he’s probably run away by now,” I said.

My senses were blank, the only person I was picking up on was Jake as we smashed through the front door and made our way through the huge house.

The inside was sleek and minimal,clean white walls with dark wooden trim, black accented appliances, and huge massive windows that were starting to let in the dawn light.The whole place was indicative of a wealthy bachelor which was a relief. It would have made this so much harder if a family was involved.

“Dammit, he’s gone” shouted Jake as we finished searching the upper level of the house.

Just as Jake raged out, he spooked Felix who had been hiding somewhere close by, given away by the descending thuds of his steps down the stairs.

Somehow he was able to cloak himself when he hid as I could only sense him when he started to run away. He was panicked and filled with adrenaline, there was no way that I’d miss that.

We both ran after him down the stairs, catching up to him at what appeared to be a basement door near the kitchen.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” he said as he fumbled with a small set of keys, right before Jake spear tackled him and slid with him across the polished wooden floors.

—

“Got any cereal in this palace of yours Felix?” Asked Jake.

We had tied Felix to one of his ritzy kitchen chairs and so far hadn’t made much progress in getting anything from him.

“W—what?” Stammered Felix as the morning light shined across his face.

I could feel his adrenaline starting to surge. Full flight or fight mode, one of the most unpredictable states of a person. Even for empaths like me, I could never gauge what they might do next.

“Fucking cereal Felix, It’s morning and I need some breakfast,” shouted Jake.

He must of still been in a mood from his embarrassing wrestle match earlier, I was all for it though if it got the whole process moving quicker.

“Uh try over there,” said Felix, obviously confused on the importance of Jake’s cereal.

The banging of cupboards and drawers grew louder as Jake began to rummage around the kitchen in a fit of rage until he finally found it.

“Breakfast is ready,” sung Jake, rolling the ‘r’ like an opera singer as he lined up three bowls and poured cereal and milk into them.

Holy fuck, I think Jake’s broken already, I thought as he even started to make me feel uneasy.

“You alright?” I asked as I took a seat and he pushed Felix against the table.

Felix was absolutely distraught, made worse by me amplifying it through empath.

We sat and ate in silence, the crunches filling the room — almost like an ordinary morning for Jake and I that it was actually kind of comforting.

For Felix though, you could tell it was the most uncomfortable he had ever been in his life. So far.