Danny felt the weight of his backpack and thought it wasn’t too bad as he opened the front gate leading out of the house. Inside it, he had a hammer with a handle long enough to just barely fit within for self-defense purposes should the need arise. He also had a first aid kit, enough food to last him 3 days, a flashlight and an at-home blood count test kit.
Now that he had to periodically bleed himself, as per arranged with the demon, Danny would have to pay constant attention to his blood count, thus he had bought many of those kits and generously divided them among locations.
Danny closed the door without locking and crossed the street walking towards the coffee shop. Danny went inside causing the bell by the door to ring, and after seeing that the place was mostly empty Danny nodded once feeling relieved.
He was unaware as to why he should be avoiding other people, but he was already taking a risk by ditching his prearranged measures, so the fewer elements that could pose a danger in the immediate future the better.
Danny sat in a leather couch in the corner of the shop. At his side there was a glass window stretching from the height of the table to the ceiling, and from one side of the shop to the other, until it stopped to give way to a light brown natural color wooden door.
“Hello what can I get you?”. A young clerk, no older than 18, quickly approached Danny after he sat down. His face was marred by acne and pockmarks, something many adolescents had to deal with, but Danny paid no attention to it.
“I am waiting for a few people to arrive, but you can get me a cappuccino in the meantime, thank you”.
The clerk expressed his understanding and went to the back of the counter to prepare his order.
The place wasn’t too big. There were only four rectangle shaped tables by the side of the window like Danny’s own, with leather couches on both sides facing each other allowing for six people to sit down together at most.
To Danny’s left, another row of smaller circular wooden tables, surrounded by four chairs each, was placed. Further away, after some small space that allowed for people to pass or queue up if they wanted to take out their orders, there was the long wooden counter.
There was an old couple of about sixty to seventy years old sitting in one of those round tables, quietly enjoying their evening. The woman held a book and a tea cup while the man was focusing on his crossword puzzle while his beverage got colder by his side, resting at the table completely ignored.
The clerk busily prepared Danny’s cappuccino behind the counter, where one could see many coffee-related machines, and an assortment of snacks and candy bars for sale.
Directly across from where Danny sat, after the counter entrance, there was a metal door that somehow broke from the aesthetics and quaint feeling of the place, leading undoubtedly to the kitchen and food storage.
The waiter delivered Danny’s order and left through the metal door to leave the customers enjoy the atmosphere in peace.
Danny would have probably appreciated the gesture and the ambient of the room if not by the growing anxiousness in his heart. His new wristwatch indicated it was already 06:30 pm.
The gadget was nothing fancy, just a digital timepiece made with plastic and rubber you could find anywhere. Danny bought it recently in between his batch purchases of supplies. Although it was water resistant, the wristwatch was not particularly durable and wouldn’t last long no doubt about it, but it suited Danny’s purposes nonetheless.
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Danny didn’t know whether Janice would arrive on time, or if his outing wouldn’t make a difference and he was just exposing himself for nothing. Danny only knew that something was supposed to happen that night after all, not the exact period of time. It could go from any second now to just before midnight.
“Thinking about it now, it could also be after midnight. I just assumed that when Tutu said ‘night’ it meant a Thursday night, but who is to say that a demon would base his words in human standards? He could also have meant any time period in between sundown and dawn of the next day”
Thankfully Danny did not have to fret for too long. After ten minutes since he had arrived, Danny spotted his colleagues walking towards his direction. He then promptly stood up and waved at them through the glass to draw their attention.
Very soon they were all sitting together and ordering their respective dishes from that very same waiter. It appeared that he was the only person working at the place at the moment.
“So, Danny, what happened to you? There are all kinds of rumors going about in our classroom”. Jane didn’t miss the chance to show a caring expression towards him. Danny’s period of absence only served to inflate her curiosity even more, and Jane was not someone who gave up easily.
“Yeah man, you have to hear some of the things people are saying. It’s hilarious! Someone told me yesterday that their cousin saw you being abducted by aliens. I think some people are starting to see this as some kind of competition to see who can come up with the most non-sensical theories. It is quite entertaining though”. Carl laughed out loud, making the old couple to throw reproachful glances towards the back of his head, a fact that went completely unnoticed by the loudmouth.
“Ouch!”. Carl cried in pain after Janice fiercely stepped on his feet.
Janice felt it was quite a tactless comment, since for all they knew, Danny might be facing some rough times, thus finding amusement in his situation was actually quite rude. She had started dating Carl last week after Danny went missing, so she took upon herself to ‘educate’ Carl on proper behavior. Unluckily for Carl, in Janice language that meant physical punishment.
Danny didn’t mind though; he wasn’t a petty person. Fairly speaking, Danny also had been quite rude by ghosting them until now, even though the four of them didn’t knew about that.
“Are you really fine Danny?”. Janice asked in a sincere tone, giving Danny a composed but welcoming gaze, indicating he could talk with her if he needed. He could borrow her shoulder anytime.
“Yeah, I’m okay. It wasn’t such a big deal to be honest, just that an irksome matter cropped up and I had to do something about it. It’s a long and boring story that I won’t bother you guys with”. Danny expertly deflected the issue without missing a beat, presenting a convincing act and sincere expression.
“Okay then, let’s start discussing what our research focus should be then”. Janice steered the conversation towards a more productive direction, before Jane could interject and try to dig more information from Danny.
Before the four had shown up, Danny had already decided he wouldn’t say anything about what the demon told him. How would he even go about telling them about what he knew? Danny also had misgivings on whether to believe Tutu. It was better to stall after all.
If anything happened while they were having their meeting, then nothing would need to be said to point the danger. The circumstances would be explained by themselves. At the time, it would be easier to have his opinions heard and direct everyone into acting the way he wished. If not, then Danny would keep creating excuses to make them stay close to him for as long as he possibly could.
Lastly, if nothing happened, and the demon had lied to him, then Danny would move on, pretending that he had no second intentions by calling them over and it was just a normal research project meeting with a slight deviation.
He would act as if nothing important happened those last few days, and he was indeed just taking care of some common but troublesome issues, entirely avoiding any sort of crazy talk that way.
To be honest, Danny didn’t quite know what he hoped would happen. He already went all in with his finances, believing what the demon said was true. Obviously, it was better if no civilization-ending event came to pass, but Danny couldn’t help but shudder at the implications of nothing happening and what it would mean for his personal safety.
However, they didn’t go to far into their debate before being interrupted by the shaking ground. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked around distressed as the quakes got stronger with every passing moment.
Glass started to shatter, cracks spread on the floors while screams could be heard in the distance, and soon, breaking noises and sounds of ruining buildings were also heard among the chaos.
In the end, Danny didn’t need to worry anymore, Tutu had spoken the truth.