Five weeks later

Daniel hurried to get everything ready. The center of his apartment's living room floor was dominated by several large, heavy boxes all packed together. His flip-flops slapped against the ground as he paced around to check and make sure he had everything. A knock at the door interrupted his mental checklist, but not his mood. He smiled. It must be the delivery of his last order.

Daniel opened the door, only to find Detective Burrows standing there. A serious man of average height and weight in his mid-forties who favored old-fashioned suits and sweater vests. That, along with his desire to pause to collect his thoughts and clean his glasses, reminded Daniel of a schoolteacher or an accountant. Beneath the surface, however, lay a shrewd investigative mind that was put to good use as a detective for the Metropolitan police in London. Seeing him here concerned Daniel, since he should have gone back to them weeks ago.

Daniel and Burrows had had run-ins in the past when the detective suspected Daniel of being involved in the murder of a mechanic and the theft of an ambulance. He was the only police officer who’d gotten close to the truth. So, in order to end his investigation, Daniel had confided in him about what had really happened. He told Burrows about John Smith kidnapping him, falling through portals to other worlds, and gaining magic powers which the detective had witnessed firsthand as proof. Burrows seemed to take it in stride at first, but ever since Daniel had killed the gangsters at the warehouse, the detective seemed more wary of him and hadn’t responded to any of Daniel’s attempts at communication.

Burrows frowned at the sight of him. “Why are you dressed like that?”

He was referring to the fact that in addition to the flip-flops, Daniel was also wearing swim shorts, an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt, and sunglasses. It had been raining all day, and the sky was an angry shade of gray that suggested the rain wasn’t going to let up any time soon.

Daniel grinned and shrugged. “Has to be sunny somewhere.”

Burrows looked over Daniel’s shoulder and noted all of the boxes on his floor.

“Just doing some cleaning up,” Daniel assured him. “What can I do for you?”

“I’m here to talk about Adam Wells. Is he here?”

“No, he’s staying with friends.”

“That’s interesting because everyone related to him, be they, friend, partner, or family, haven’t heard from him in five weeks. In fact, his ex-girlfriend said he appeared quite troubled just before he disappeared.”

“Disappeared is a strong statement,” Daniel said, his smile never slipping.

“Is it? None of his bank or email accounts have been touched. There’s no social media activity on his profiles and he hasn’t used his phone once in the last five weeks. What kind of twenty-five year old stops using their phone for that long? I checked the local hospitals and there’s nobody fitting his description that fell into a coma, so he’s either dead or in hiding. Was he involved in what happened at the warehouse?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but Adam is staying with friends in the countryside. He wanted to get away from technology for a while, which is why he left his phone behind.”

Burrows’s frown deepened. “You understand how you having his phone and him being missing makes you look guilty of his murder, right?”

Daniel didn’t miss a beat when he responded with, “and do you understand how it will look if you charge me with his murder and then Adam walks into the station to exonerate me and corroborate my story?”

Burrows sighed. “If he is alive, then have him surface and talk to his family. He should know better than to just ghost everybody for this length of time. It would worry anyone.”

“Why are you still here?” asked Daniel, changing the subject. “Surely, the case with the ambulance has gone cold by now.”

“Evidence was found at the warehouse massacre linking the two cases, so I’ve been given an extension down here.”

“What evidence?”

“An oxy-acetylene torch was found recently used and dumped near the warehouse. The police believe that was the murder weapon in the case of the ambulance mechanic, and they suspect it was used to start the warehouse fire.”

“Which is absurd.”

In reality, the mechanic had taken a fireball to the chest

“There was also a finger print on it matching the one pulled from the ambulance parking lot where the murderer pushed a button to open the front gate before driving out. You want to explain how that’s possible if the guy died before the warehouse went up?”

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Daniel could only think of one explanation. “The evidence was planted. Before you spoke of a rogue element within the police department that was unofficially surveilling you and perhaps running their own secret investigation. I think they’re still active and that they used false evidence to link the two cases, though for what purpose I couldn’t say.”

Burrows mulled it over. “If someone higher up like the chief constable, is secretly supporting them, then it stops the case from growing cold and keeps that support flowing. It also keeps me here longer if they still suspect me of being involved. Has anyone been following you?”

Daniel grimaced. “It’s hard to say. Most of my days here have been playing poker at casinos of an evening. Those places tend to draw crowds. It would be easy for someone to watch me there without attracting attention.”

“Yes, I hear you’ve been making quite the name for yourself and quite a bit of money, too.”

Daniel shrugged. “It beats making minimum wage in a call center, but then most white-collar jobs do. Now, if that’s all, then I have to get going. I’m nearly late for an appointment. I’ll keep my eyes open and contact you if I see any signs of being followed. Oh, and I’ll make sure Adam talks to his family and friends in person.”

Burrows nodded and left. Daniel waited until he was certain that the man had driven away before grabbing a backpack filled with a collection of movies. He climbed onto the boxes and laid across them with his arms and legs spread out so that a part of him was touching every box.

He blinked and suddenly he and the boxes were teleported to a warm, sunny beach. Rock music was blaring out of a nearby speaker system that was hooked up to a generator. In the five weeks that Adam had been here, the two of them had created a camp of sorts on the beach. There were three personal tents for sleeping in. Melos had insisted on getting one for himself, despite never using it. A large marquee tent had been set up with a couch and chairs that also contained a TV and various other entertainment devices. A portable shower had also been set up, along with crates filled with several months' worth of water and rations.

It was easy to understand why Adam never wanted to leave. At first, he’d gone out of his mind with boredom and worry. But bit by bit, Daniel returned with more supplies and slowly the beach had turned into a remote paradise for him.

Daniel got off the boxes he’d teleported with him. More supplies and requests that Adam had made. He was currently floating in the water near the shore in an inflatable ring while drinking a beer. The ring was connected to a rope that was connected to the beach. The sea had always been gentle and calm but Daniel still liked to take precautions.

“You started without me,” Daniel said, before throwing off his shirt and sunglasses and diving into the water. There were two empty inflatable rings floating alongside Adam’s, and Daniel swam over to occupy one.

As soon as Adam had gotten enough food and water, the subject was broached about staying here but it wasn’t all kicking back in the sun. They both needed to know if the place was safe first. To that end, Daniel had taken water samples of the ocean to five different labs who all stated it was common sea water from the Pacific Ocean. Analysis of the white sand on the beach came back with reports that it must have originated from the Whitehaven beach in Australia. Other than being told that it was exceptionally soft, it was considered ordinary sand.

Daniel wasn’t satisfied yet, though. He ordered a long-range drone with a live feed camera and set it up to explore as much of the Hollow Shores as he could. Sending it out across both the ocean and the desert behind the beach. Every time, the drone would reach a certain point flying straight, disappear over the horizon and then come back towards Daniel without changing course. It was yet more spatial manipulation of this miniature world. But it also showed no signs of life anywhere.

Just to be safe, buoys had been set up at various points in the water that were fitted with sonar equipment. These buoys would send out a ping underwater. This acoustic signal would pulse out across the water and if any object got in the way of the ping, the sound would bounce off of the object and return to the sonar device. There was nothing in the water. It was as empty as the rest of the place. Still, they kept the system running would receive a very loud advanced warning if anything appeared.

Once everything was deemed safe, Adam set about converting it into his very own tropical paradise and had been living here fulltime ever since.

“Hey, you want a beer?” asked Adam, since his inflatable ring had two cup holders in it with a beer in each.

“Maybe later. Look, the police came by today. Well, Detective Burrows did. He says that some of your family members are concerned that you’ve gone missing. Which you basically have since you left everything behind. I need you to go back and spend a week or two on Earth. Talk to your family and your ex-girlfriend and come up with a cover story for where you’ve been.”

“What am I supposed to do for a week back there?” Adam moaned. “It’s not like I’ve got a job anymore.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“Come on, this place is so good. Can’t I stay for a little while longer?” he begged.

“Burrows suspects I might have killed you and disposed of your body, so no. I’m going back to Alarstardes for a few days and when I come back, I need you to be ready to leave for Earth.”

“Aw, but you just got here and you haven’t even brought Melos out!”

“That’s because I don’t want to get distracted. Besides, he’s a bad influence on you.”

“At least he thinks I might be able to learn magic one day,” he said, gesturing to the shiny metal ring on his finger with a small ruby on it. It was originally John Smith’s Spirit weapon, and it was capable of hurling fireballs. Daniel shuddered to think about what it would look like to give Adam that kind of power. While Caspian shared his laziness, at least he displayed enough martial aptitude to not potentially endanger those around him. Adam, meanwhile, had set his first personal tent on fire with his personal cooking stove. He claimed he was trying to make coffee but was too lazy to go outside the tent to do it.

Leaving the Spirit weapon with Adam hadn’t concerned Daniel too much at first. Adam had no core, so the ring couldn’t be activated. Melos, however, considered this a challenge and had concocted various experiments for Adam to try in order to awaken his core. All of them had failed and some of them, Daniel strongly suspected, were made simply for Melos’s own amusement.

In the end, Adam’s pleading convinced Daniel to stay for the day before heading to Alarstardes. He’d been hitting the casino circuit hard in the past few days and convinced himself he could use the break. Of course, that break nearly ended when Adam brought out a second portable stove and offered to cook. Only Daniel’s swift intervention prevented another fire from occurring.