It was around midnight when Daniel and Melos reached the outer perimeter of the hospital. There was almost no wind, which meant there’d be little noise covering his entry, so Daniel had to be cautious about this next part. He hid behind some trees that were just outside of the property and set down his duffel bag. Already, he felt a little weary. In order to avoid witnesses or security cameras, he had walked out into the countryside and gone around half of the city before approaching the hospital from behind. It had been a longer hike than he’d realized, but he refused to use what little essence he had left to ease the burden. Besides, he'd burned most of it already, extending Melos’s tether out to scout the hospital earlier in the day. What remained would be used to get inside and to keep Melos around to watch his back.

“Go check out ahead while I prepare,” said Daniel.

Melos rolled his eyes. “It’s not like there’s going to be roaming patrols with snarling dogs. It’s a hospital. Not a prison.”

“Just do it.”

Melos sighed and moved past the trees.

Daniel unzipped the duffel bag and was about to get changed when he felt a sharp, painful vibration pass through him.

He cursed. “No. Not now.”

He could feel the vibration starting to grow, starting to pull him to another world. Daniel clamped down harshly on the feeling. His whole body tensed up as he fought to stay on Earth. It was a battle of willpower, not unlike trying to cycle essence slowly.

After a minute, the vibrations stopped and reluctantly receded. Daniel gasped. He’d been holding his breath for the duration and his heart was thudding in his ears. Daniel had succeeded for the moment, but he knew the sensation would come back even stronger than before. He had to hurry.

Daniel changed into fresh dark clothes and put on his ski mask. An important part of the plan was to get inside without the authorities being alerted, hence the dark clothes. The ski mask was for when he was inside. Melos had looked, but he couldn’t figure out a way to shut down the power to the hospital, which meant that he’d be on the security cameras. Luckily, there was no one actively watching the interior monitors. He assumed they were just there for insurance purposes or to help prosecute crimes after the fact.

Along with the clothes, there were several other items in the bag which he hooked onto his belt that he hoped that he wouldn’t need to use. A can of mace, a fish bat, and restraints in the form of zip ties and a roll of duct tape. Finally, he took out the small section of carpet and lay it to one side for the moment.

Daniel had done what he could to ensure his identity was concealed, and that he had a non-lethal means of dealing with the hospitals security but if he had to burn the last of his essence using Army of One to break Caspian free, then he would.

The last item that he’d grabbed just before leaving the apartment was a bottle of bleach. He was leaving the duffel bag and his old clothes behind, but he couldn’t guarantee that he’d be able to escape the same way he’d come in. In fact, plan A was to just touch Caspian and then teleport away. If that didn’t work, then a conventional escape was the alternative. Either way, he didn’t want to leave a trace of himself behind. Daniel dumped the entire bottle of bleach into the bag and his old clothes to remove any DNA evidence. If the bag and clothes had to be left behind, then so be it. They’d get nothing from it.

Melos returned and said, “There’s a guard stationed next to the entrance, sat in that little kiosk by the road barrier, but other than that it looks clear. I’ve also disabled the two closest security cameras by pulling out the wires. If you need me to do anything else physical, then I’ll need more essence.”

Daniel nodded, and he moved quickly with the carpet over his shoulder. It wasn’t an overly large piece. Just six feet long and three feet wide, but Daniel thought that it was thick enough to do the job. He sprinted across the field to the fence, all the while feeling exposed due to the floodlights that shone down around the perimeter. Daniel prayed that nobody was looking out of a nearby window.

He reached the fence and used a little essence to scale it. This was the only part of the plan that required him using essence himself and so he’d been saving some back just for this part. When he got close to the top where the razor wire was, he threw the section of carpet over it and pressed down. The carpet blocked the wire completely and allowed him to climb over the fence.

Melos stood on the ground and simply ghosted through the metal before telling him to hurry up.

Daniel ignored the demon, knowing that he was just trying to get a rise out of him and that Daniel wouldn’t be speaking unless absolutely necessary.

Once back on the ground, the pair rushed to the building and clung to the walls where the shadows were deepest. They made their way around the building to the front and waited. This was another part of the plan that was risky. In jail, Daniel had briefly entertained notions of sneaking in the back, but he had no idea what the layout was like and Melos hadn’t gotten that far into the hospital. So instead, they were going through the front entrance, where they knew what to expect.

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The front door worked by mechanical lock only, which meant that only a key or a demonic ghost could manually unlock it. Daniel was about to tell Melos to do just that when he heard a man cough and froze. He gestured to Melos, who went ahead to check it out.

“It’s a security guard. He’s taking a smoke break,” said Melos. “What do you want to do?”

Daniel thought about it. It was a risky proposition. If Daniel attacked the guard here, then he might make a noise that raises the alarm to the security at the kiosk. On the other hand, that guard would have the keycard that gave him access to the building, and Daniel needed one of those cards if he wanted to rescue Caspian.

He chose to wait for the man to finish and go back inside.

“Now!” said Melos.

Daniel moved quickly and quietly around the corner. The guard’s back was turned as he opened the door and went inside. As the door was swinging shut, Daniel slipped inside.

Unfortunately, Daniel’s boots squeaked on the linoleum floor. The noise alerted the guard, who turned, but he was too slow. Daniel already had the mace in one hand and the fish bat in the other. He sprayed the guard in the face and then hit him in the stomach with the bat. The man cried out in pain. While blinded and stunned, Daniel shoved him onto the ground and put his hands behind his back. He applied a zip tie to the man’s wrists and ankles before putting a stretch of duct tape over the man’s mouth.

Knocking people unconscious doesn’t work like it does in the movies. In real life, if you knock somebody out, they stay out for a few seconds to a minute or so. It wouldn’t have been near enough time for Daniel to do what he needed to. The other reason was that knocking somebody out, especially an older gentleman like the one currently moaning on the ground, could be life threatening. Daniel didn’t want that. These guys were just doing their job by protecting a hospital and while his method had still been violent, the security guard would recover from this with only a couple of bruises and a story to tell.

Daniel dragged the guard across the floor and into the women’s bathroom, where he was less likely to be discovered by another guard on the rotation. He took the guard’s keycard and manual set of keys before leaving him. The man moaned in pain and Daniel glanced back and regretted it. The man’s face was bright red and his eyes were scrunched up. It looked like the mace was the most painful part of it.

Daniel went back over to the sink.

“What are you doing?” asked Melos. “We don’t have time for this.”

Taking pity on the guard, Daniel ran the tap and threw some water onto the man’s face. He wasn’t sure how much it would help, but he figured it was better than nothing before leaving.

Melos chose not to argue further when Daniel asked, “where to?”

“Caspian is in room 307. Use the keycard to get through the first door and then take the stairs up to the third floor.”

Daniel nodded, rushing down the hallway before reaching the door he’d been caught snooping around at earlier in the day. He swiped the keycard through. The light on the box turned green, and there was a quiet buzz. As Daniel opened the door, more voices could be heard down the next hall.

“That must be the night shift team. Quickly, hurry!” urged Melos.

Daniel went through, but stopped when he heard the voices get louder. They were coming this way.

“The door on the left!” said Melos.

Daniel took it and found himself in the stairwell. The voices in the hallway were getting closer. He was about to head up the stairs when a door above him opened and people started coming down the stairs. Daniel nearly cursed. He was trapped unless he wanted to fight a group at once.

A man and a woman’s voice bounced off of the stone walls as they took the stairs slowly, taking their time.

Not feeling confident in his takedown odds, Daniel did the only thing he could do, which was to crouch down and hide in the little alcove under the stairs. It was small, cramped, and there was enough light in the stairwell to immediately identify him if someone else decided to enter the stairwell. But there was nowhere else and Daniel was desperate. He just prayed that no one else came in or turned around at the door.

“I still don’t get what the big deal is,” said a guy as he moved down the stairs.

“We work together,” said a woman walking alongside him. “It’d be weird.”

“Not if we like each other,” he replied.

“Oh god, spare me this nonsense,” moaned Melos.

“And what if we break up?” asked the woman. “We’d then have to see each other every day and work together. No, it's too much.”

“I saw the way you looked at me earlier,” said the man. “You going to tell me that I was just seeing things?”

They stopped moving and looked into each other's eyes. A moment later, they were kissing right above Daniel, who was trying to ignore a cramp in his leg. Once the kiss had ended, the woman said, “we should go before Donovan catches us. We’re not exactly following regulations right now.”

The man nodded, and the woman went down the last flight of stairs and out the door without looking back, while the man went back up to the second level hallway.

“Okay, you can come out now. Unless, of course, you want to stay for the next workplace romance?” asked Melos.

Daniel scowled as he got up and stretched his legs before heading up the stairs.

“What? It could be fun,” suggested Melos. “Hospitals are full of drama. At least that’s what the TV taught me.”

Another vibration hit and Daniel almost missed the next step and slipped. He grit his teeth and crushed the feeling down before resuming his climb to the third floor. Melos went first to check for any doctors or guards.

“It’s clear,” said Melos.

Daniel moved out into the hallway. There were patient rooms on each side, all marked with a number, but no windows. That was the one thing that Daniel had thought might have been true. But it didn’t matter. He went to the door marked 307 but there was no slot for a keycard, which meant he had to use the set of the keys he’d taken off of the guard. Keys that just had a letter a color on them.

He tried the first key. Nope, didn’t turn. The second was a dud too. He had another twenty keys to try when he heard a door close and more footsteps coming from around the corner. Daniel hurried to try the third. No. He kept trying, moving faster as the footsteps grew nearer and each key failed.

Daniel was about to be discovered when he tried the final key and he felt it turn. Success.

Daniel went inside and closed the door. He heard the footsteps get closer and then pass by the door. He let out a sigh of relief and turned around. Daniel was ready to wake Caspian up and teleport him back to safety. There was just one problem.

The room was empty.

Daniel only had a second to grasp this before a loud alarm started blaring throughout the hospital.

Make that two problems.