Henry and Catherine were kneeling by the prone form of Peter.

“Are you hurt, Professor?” Catherine asked him.

“I’m fine… Just tired… Go rescue the prisoner.”

He did put up one hell of a fight, I’m not surprised he’s exhausted. We’d have had no chance without him. He looks a lot worse than I would have expected though, like he’s aged ten years in the blink of an eye.

Peter handed his book, that was glowing once more to Catherine, and motioned to the stairs.

“Go.”

Catherine hesitated, clearly reluctant to leave Peter given his rough state. Henry rested a hand on her shoulder.

“Come on, let’s go,” he encourage.

They made their way down the stairs using the light of the book to guide them. Inside the room where the demons had been they saw the fire, still smouldering dimly. The room they were in, was clearly a holding cell. There were many doors with dinner plate sized square holes in the upper centre, and the fire had been lit right up against the thick metal door of one of the rooms. Henry finished off the fire with his boot, before moving closer to the door. He peered through the gap, trying to get a look at the person trapped within.

I can’t see anything in there. Did Peter really see someone in here?

“Hello? Please don’t be afraid, we’ve come to help you,” Catherine called over his shoulder.

Trying the heavy door that sat between them and the unknown prisoners, Henry wasn’t surprised to find it locked.

“I’ll go look for a key,” Catherine said.

Unfortunately, the young woman’s departure left Henry in the dark. Peering into the cell hopelessly, Henry wondered about the fire the demon’s had placed, but struggled to reach a satisfying conclusion for its existence.

“… Help…”

Henry jumped as a faint voice came from within the cell. It’s origin seemed not far from the door, and it sounded cracked, weak and possibly masculine.

“Don’t worry, we’re going to get you out of there soon,” he called into the darkness of the cell.

He stood there listening for a reply, but hadn’t received one by the time Catherine finally returned with a bunch of keys in hand.

“I think it has to be one of these. They were in a desk in one of the other rooms, but there were no labels that I could see!”

“Damn, we best hurry. I think they're hurt,” he replied nodding towards the cell.

Fortunately, not all the keys Catherine had brought were of the right kind. After discarding those, they found the correct key fairly quickly, and swiftly opened the door. Catherine held the book in front of her as they entered the cell, and they soon found the prisoner, who was sitting on the floor, slumped against the back wall. It was a young man, that Henry assessed to be around Catherine’s age.

“Hey? Are you okay?” Catherine asked, as she stood over the injured young man. Her glowing book revealed the sorry state he was in, and the lack of response to her words. “He looks sick, let’s get him upstairs. Take his other arm, quick!”

“Alright!” Henry responded.

They each took an arm and carried the young man between them, with Henry taking some care not to knock his damaged arm as he did so. Catherine guided them with the light from Peter’s demonic book, and they reached the stairs with only some difficulty, then slowly climbed the stairs with a great deal more of it. Worryingly, the young man they carried, made no sound during the entire process. Emerging upstairs at last, they carefully lowered him into a sitting position against the wall.

“Hey.” Henry tried to wake him, shaking his shoulder gently. “Hey?”

“If he’s been in that cell the whole time, he must need water!” Catherine had pulled a bottle out of her pack, while Henry was trying to wake the young man.

Bottle in hand, Catherine rushed over and carefully started tipping some water into the young man’s mouth. The cold water splashing against his throat was enough to rouse him, and with a splutter and a cough, he awoke. Catherine pulled the bottle back as her efforts paid off, but the young man grabbed at it as soon as his eyes opened, before quickly drinking down the whole thing.

Henry breathed a sigh of relief, as his worries that they had failed to save the young man in time dissipated. Leaving him in Catherine’s care, he got up and went over to check on Peter, but found the older man fast asleep against the wall they’d left him resting against.

“Looks like we’re resting here for a bit,” he said to Catherine.

The young man they had rescued, seemed to have fallen asleep again after having his fill of water, and Catherine soon draped a blanket over him, before doing the same for Peter.

Henry and Catherine chatted for a time, keeping their voices low to avoid waking anyone, and to reduce the chance any passing demons might hear them. Talking about their lives before the invasion, it turned out Peter was an old friend of Catherine’s father, and they had known each other for many years. Catherine’s parents had lived in a medium size town to the south-west, a hundred kilometres or so away, and Catherine herself had moved to the city for her first year of university, to study biology. One of her classes was taught by Peter, hence why she called him professor.

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“Why don’t you get some rest? I’ll keep watch,” Henry suggested once their conversation had dwindled into silence.

“Sure, but wake me if you get too tired!”

“Of course. Hey, could I take a look at that book for a bit?” Henry pointed at Peter’s book, where it rested on the floor.

“Umm, I suppose it’s okay. Just don’t damage it! The professor would be so upset with me if you did.”

Henry smiled at her.

“It won’t leave my sight, don’t worry.”

Catherine pulled a thick jacket out of her pack, and draped it over herself as a blanket, then laid down using her pack as a headrest.

Alright, you mysterious book, what secrets do you hold?

Henry carefully turned the book this way and that, examining every side. The book had first caught his eye back at the newsagent’s, when he had noticed the ridges all over its surface. Up close he could make out the variety of dark brown and red hues that had blended together into a single colour at a distance. Strangely, it felt slightly warm to the touch.

Likely some residual heat from its time spent as a lantern. Or so I hope. Damned creepy otherwise.

Henry was just about to take a look inside the book. When a large yellow eye burst into existence on the cover of the book, looking directly at him.

“Woah!” Henry cried, dropping the book, which landed with a meaty thud on the ground.

“Henry? Are you okay?” Catherine called.

“Yes, I’m fine, sorry. Just, er, a splinter.”

He reached down to pick up the book. The eye he had seen before, was no longer visible.

Okay… pretty sure I didn’t imagine that. I have been under a lot stress recently though… Wait, do people actually experience hallucinations due to stress? ... Anyway, a warm to the touch book that can sprout eyes... I think, I’m going to put this down next to Peter and leave it the hell alone. With the way things have been going lately, I’d rather not tempt fate. For all I know, these books might eat the followers of other demon lords.

Henry went and placed the book next to Peter, trying his best to be quiet about it. Despite his decision, his gaze lingered longingly on it for a time. Pulling himself away, Henry moved back to his previous position and settled in for a boring session of watching for demons.

It was a few hours later when his boredom was interrupted by the waking of Peter. The sun had gone down, leaving the room quite dark, even with the light of the moon – which was also tinged lightly red. Peter questioned Henry about the state of the rescued man, then took over the watch, while offering his blanket for Henry to sleep within.

----------------------------------------

It was light outside when Henry next awoke. Peter and Catherine were sitting a ways away, chatting quietly, but the rescued young man was still sleeping quietly. Rising form his bed, Henry walked over to join them.

“Morning, has he woken up yet?” he asked.

“Good morning! He was up a few hours ago, during my watch. I offered him some food and water, and we spoke a bit. He didn’t say much, but he did tell me his name: Brook,” Catherine responded.

“Ah, that’s good news. Sounds like he’s recovering then.”

“Indeed, though it will likely be a while before he recovers fully. Now, can I offer you some breakfast?” said Peter, waving a pack of biscuits under his nose.

Henry was indeed hungry. While he ate, Peter had decided to give an impromptu lecture on a rare type of cat. Peter’s enthusiastic presentation style made the otherwise mildly interesting topic, quite enjoyable. It seemed that Peter was trying to provide some form of continued education for Catherine, now that the university was no longer doing so. Or perhaps it was an exercise to keep his own mind sharp.

After Peter had finished his talk, the conversation switched to a more serious topic.

“So lad, did you decide if you were coming with us on our journey west?”

Henry had spent some time during his watch considering the issue at length, but ultimately he reached the same conclusion: He needed to obtain Amanda’s book, and could think of no way of explaining the situation to Peter and Catherine that wouldn’t end badly.

“I have thought about it a great deal, and unfortunately, I can’t come with you.”

Both Peter and Catherine gave him sad looks.

“Oh, that is unfortunate news. We’ve really grown accustomed to your company, you know,” Peter complained.

“Why can’t you come with us? It’s much safer if we stick together!” Catherine added.

“Now now, I’m sure he has his reasons. No sense prying.”

“No, it’s okay, I don’t mind telling you. You mentioned you met a survivor named Barry the other day. Well I think I might know him, and I really want to see if I can find him and discover if it’s him or not.”

“Ahh, a quest for a lost friend, how wonderful. Well lad, I completely understand. We’ll be sad to see you go, but if you must, then you must. Just promise us you’ll be careful,” Peter replied.

“We’ll miss you! Hopefully we will bump into you again!” Catherine said, smiling at him.

Damn, I could get get used to having a cheery girl like her around… Ah, well, just another thing to blame Gyxr for.

Keeping up appearances, Henry asked Peter and Catherine for all the details they could remember about Barry. They gave him a rough description of the man, as well as an idea of where they had met him and where he was headed.

It actually does sound like him. Weird. Maybe I should head in the direction he went, once I have my book?

“Right, I’ll head off. It was really great meeting you both. Please tell Brook I said hello when he wakes, and I hope to see you again in the future.”

“It was our pleasure. Take care now,” responded Peter.

“We won’t be leaving for a bit yet, if you change your mind, we’ll still be here!” Catherine hastily added.

Henry nodded at their kind words, picked up his pack, and started towards the entrance. Peter and Catherine followed him there to see him off, and at the entrance, they said one final goodbye before Henry started on his way back to the office in search of the demonic book that belonged to Gyxr’s fallen champion.