Five days had passed in the jail cell. Five long arduous days where Daniel only had cycling training and Melos to keep him from going insane. When Detective Burrows returned to announce that Daniel was being released and all the charges had been dropped, Daniel was sat on the floor with his legs crossed. His eyes were closed, and he was moving essence through his body slower than he ever had before. When Burrows spoke, his concentration slipped and the essence he was holding fell back into his core.

His eyes snapped open and as soon as the door opened, he got to his feet and brushed past the Detective. There was much that needed doing and he couldn’t afford to wait any longer. He had already felt the minor vibrations of his World Walking ability urging him to teleport. Thus far, he’d been able to suppress it. But he knew it was only a matter of time before it overwhelmed him and took the decision out of his hands.

Burrows followed him through the police station and out into the parking lot.

“Here, we can take my car,” he said before handing Daniel back his phone and wallet that had been confiscated. Daniel was reluctant to take them. He assumed both had been tampered with in some way and that they were watching him, even now. In the end, he accepted them and got into Burrows’s car. It was better to keep up appearances for the moment.

“Where to first?” asked Burrows.

“The hospital.”

He nodded and started the car.

Daniel only held a vague recollection of driving past the place a few times and now he needed to see it with his own eyes. He mentally went through the items in his head that he’d likely need while Burrows spoke.

“I tried multiple times to get in to see him but they refused without a court order and since I wasn’t the one that arrested him, that was a no go. Getting you out proved tougher as well. Apparently, the forensics technician had gone sick for a few days, which is why I wasn’t able to get you out sooner.”

He cast a nervous glance at Daniel before putting his eyes back on the road.

“You seem nervous,” said Daniel.

“What are you going to do?”

“Whatever I have to,” he replied, keeping things vague incase his phone was bugged.

Part of his original plan was still there. Once he’d gotten Caspian out of the hospital, the two of them would disappear for a while. It was his least violent option and one that was less likely to brand him as a criminal and a fugitive. The answer didn’t seem to satisfy Burrows, though, whose grip tightened on the steering wheel until they arrived.

A high chain-link fence topped with razor wire surrounded the perimeter, followed by a well-cut lawn. A squat four story building sat in the center made of drab grey stone. Burrows drove up to the visitor’s entrance, where a security guard armed with a truncheon and pepper spray sat. Evidently, you needed an appointment just to enter the visiting area, which luckily Burrows had.

They were waved on through, and Daniel brought Melos out to help get a look at the surroundings. The two of them had gone over the plan many times over the past few days, and now they were soaking in the details of the real place they’d spent so much time thinking about.

Burrows parked and Daniel left the phone and wallet behind in the car as they went inside.

Two more security guards stood inside with a metal detector. Daniel noted that in addition to carrying a truncheon and pepper spray, they also each carried a yellow taser that shot out prongs to incapacitate the target. When the metal detector didn’t sound the alarm, the guards waved them through to a desk where a female receptionist sat. The Detective asked all the usual questions one might expect in order to see a patient without the official paperwork. The woman behind the desk hemmed and hawed until Burrows smiled and complimented her nails. The woman brightened up immediately, but was still unsure of whether she could help.

Daniel left them to it and directed Melos to fan out while he too explored the area. He went down a hallway until he was stopped by a locked door that required a key card to unlock. Daniel turned and almost smacked into another security guard.

“What are you doing?” the guard asked.

He was young, fit, with two full tattoo sleeves on display from the shirt he’d rolled up. It didn’t seem like the regulation way to wear the uniform, but then Daniel figured maybe he was the hospital administrator's nephew or something and could get away with such things.

“I got lost looking for the bathroom,” said Daniel.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

He felt the tether strain and pushed more essence into it. Daniel didn’t know if he had enough to let Melos cover the entire building, but he needed the demon’s intelligence more than he needed the essence right now.

“It’s this way,” Sleeves said while never taking one hand off of his belt that held the truncheon.

Daniel felt that he seemed disappointed by Daniel’s answer and wondered how much use those weapons he carried actually got. It didn’t alter his plan one bit, but it was worth keeping in mind.

He was led back to the reception area where the bathrooms were. The large signs above the doors were unmistakable, which made Sleeves frown. Daniel merely gave him an embarrassed shrug before heading into the men’s room.

He waited for Melos to come back and then asked, “did you find him?”

Melos nodded. “He’s on the end of the third floor.”

“How was he?”

“Not great.”

Daniel scowled at the vague answer. “Will he be able to walk out of here?”

Melos said that he could, though he might not be able to run far. That was okay, though. Daniel had worried about what kind of physical state he’d find Caspian in. As long as he could walk then the plan was still solid.

Daniel went back to Burrows, who told him he’d had no luck. Daniel shrugged as if to say what else was there and asked to be dropped off in the center of town. The Detective was suspicious, but he kept those feeling to himself. Evidently, he was concerned about what Daniel might do, but after the killings at the warehouse, Daniel couldn’t blame him.

“Be careful,” were Burrows’s last words to him before driving off.

Daniel appreciated the concern, but careful wouldn’t save Caspian. He dumped his phone into the trash, emptied the cards from his wallet into his pocket and then threw that away too. He’d seen a spy movie once where somebody has sewn a tiny tracking device into a person’s wallet, and while he found it unlikely to have happened here, he didn’t want to take any chances.

He then visited several stores and purchased the items he needed in cash before catching a ride back to the apartment. It was dark at this point and Daniel only had a few hours left to prepare. He opened the apartment door to find music blaring and a large group of people milling about with drinks in hand.

He… he threw a party? Daniel almost couldn’t comprehend it.

As he stepped inside carrying his shopping, he saw Adam leaning against the kitchen counter and loudly talking over the music to regale some guests with a story. Daniel stomped over to him, grabbed his arm, and dragged Adam towards his bedroom.

“Hey! I was in the middle of something,” Adam protested, trying to break free of his grip.

Daniel used a sliver of essence to ensure that didn’t happen as he took him into the bedroom that, thankfully, had not been disturbed.

“What the hell, man!” shouted Adam.

“Really? You’re angry? I just spent the last five days in jail!”

Adam blinked. “Wait, what?”

“Yeah. Where did you think I was?”

“The other… place.”

“And Caspian?”

“The police said that you came and took him away. I did try calling you, but there was no answer.”

“And you believed them?” Daniel shook his head. “It doesn’t matter now. What happened to you and Caspian that day I left?”

Adam sat down in a chair and sighed. “Things got out of hand, but I swear, I was trying to do what you said. Everything just kind of spiraled out of control. After you were gone, communication was difficult with the language barrier and I think he got bored because he started summoning this knife made of shadows. He would spin it around and throw it up and down. I was suitably impressed and somehow one of us got the idea of throwing fruit up and having Caspian hit it in mid-air.”

“Which is how the picture frames got destroyed,” Daniel guessed.

Adam nodded. “A few of the knives missed, but we stopped after the second one got smashed.”

“How mature of you,” Daniel said dryly, before urging him to continue.

“After that I tried to settle things down by putting on the TV which worked for a while, but then a low-flying helicopter flew overhead. Caspian rushed to the window to watch it and before I could stop him, he just hopped out of the window. We’re several floors up, but he landed like it was nothing and ran down the street. I left the apartment and caught up with him in the street. He was standing out in the road and there’d been some kind of car crash. Before I could do anything, ambulance and police cars showed up from out of nowhere. They took the drivers away and tried to question Caspian, who gestured that he didn’t understand them.”

“Did you explain to them that he didn’t speak English?”

“I did, but then they asked what he did speak and I didn’t know what to say.”

“So what happened next?”

“The cops got angry. They thought Caspian was faking it. One of them shoved him, and so Caspian shoved back. That’s when they got out those extendable batons to hit him with. I tried to make them stop, but they threatened to hit me if I didn’t back away. Caspian held them off, but when he cut one of them with a shadow knife, the officer screamed and his partner shot him in the back with a taser. Caspian hit the ground, and they handcuffed him and hauled into the back of a police van. One of them arrested me as well and put me in a separate car.”

I guess that explains how mundane cops were able to capture him. A taser, if it lands correctly, paralyzes the body. He wouldn’t have even known what it was or what to look out for. Damn it, I never should have left him alone.

“The cops put me in a room and interviewed me, but they barely asked anything about the car accident. They just kept asking questions about you or Caspian. Stuff like ‘how long have I known you?’ and ‘where were you on the night of the warehouse massacre?’ I swear I didn’t give them anything.”

Adam looked up at Daniel, his eyes pleading. He wanted to trust Adam, but throwing a party while Caspian was rotting away in a padded room left a bad taste in his mouth. Daniel couldn’t also help but wonder how hard had Adam really tried to get to him. In the end, he told Adam that he believed him and said that he shouldn’t expect to see him again anytime soon. That he and Caspian were going away for a while. Adam looked disappointed but said that he understood.

Daniel loaded up a duffel bag with the items he’d bought that included a change of clothes and boots, a ski mask, duct tape, a small section of carpet, zip-ties, a fish bat, and a can of mace. He had the equipment and the plan, while Melos knew the layout. In a few hours time, he’d break into the maximum-security psychiatric hospital and rescue Caspian.