Hale awoke sitting on a chair in a office-like room. "Where am I?" Hale wondered out loud as he looked around the room. A door behind him opened with a creak, "They really should oil the hinges." Epimetheus commented. He lumbered to a chair next to Hale's. "So Hale, anything wrong with your body?"
Hale struggled to find anything wrong, and simply shook his head. Epimetheus tilted his head slightly, "I am going to put this bluntly, but you were possessed by an evil spirit." He began, "This may seem fake, but I assure you that this is not a childish prank or anything of the sort."
"A spirit?" Hale began to wonder whether the CEO had a screw loose.
"Yes, it may seem loony to you, but such bizarre creatures do exist." Epimetheus confided. Hale concluded that his boss really had to visit a therapist. But Epimetheus seemed to sense Hale's doubt. He sighed, "You mudborns really just find it hard to believe in such things." Epimetheus grumbled, "It would be better for me to demonstrate." He held his left palm flat, grabbed a pen from his desk and placed it on his left palm, and clapped his hands together. He slowly lifted up his right hand, instead of a pen, there was a brown, furry, and rat-like creature, it was a squirrel.
Hale was utterly shocked, how could a single pen, turn into a squirrel? It just didn't make any sense scientifically. "Cool trick." Hale muttered, now confused on whether it was real. Epimetheus sighed, "Cool? Yes. Trick? No." Epimetheus took a deep breath, he stroked his chin.
"Why do you want to prove to me about this so badly? Sir." Hale asked,
"As the victim of this accident, I believe you should have the right to know what happened to you." Epimetheus implied, "That, and that I would like to apologise for not figuring out about this cruel spirit earlier." He admitted. Epimetheus beckoned Hale to come closer, "I will attempt to awaken your specialty, and if my sources are correct, it should not fail."
"Should?" Hale whimpered, Epimetheus simply smiled.
"I will be accessing your mind now, don't try to resist." Before Hale could question what was happening, Epimetheus placed both his hands on Hale's ears. Heat started to enter his ear from Epimetheus' palm. Epimetheus then quickly proceeded to place his left palm on Hale's chest. Hale blinked, he wasn't sitting in Epimetheus' office anymore. Instead, he was in an empty, white room with 3 objects in it. First, on the left side, was a crude, pitch-black door. Second, was a wooden table, with a box on it. Third, there was a clay statue of a bandage behind the table. Hale approached the table with the box, curious, he opened the box. First thing he noticed was that the box seemed to have a clay-like texture, the second thing he noticed, was that there were multiple jigsaw puzzle pieces in it which also seemed to be made out of clay. He blinked again, he was back in Epimetheus' office.
"Ah, good, it worked." Epimetheus smiled, "So, what did you see?" he questioned as Hale sat there, confused as to what had just happened. "I, er, saw a puzzle piece and I think it was a clay statue of a bandage?" Epimetheus tilted his head once again, pulled out a pocketknife and gestured for Hale's arm with the other. Hale naturally gave Epimetheus his arm, "What are you-" Before Hale could finish his sentence, Epimetheus slashed Hale's arm. "Ow!" He screeched, "Now picture the puzzle set in your mind." Epimetheus instructed as Hale tried to stop the bleeding. "I don't see how that helps." Hale whimpered.
"Just try it Hale." Epimetheus responded patiently, like an adult who was slowly teaching a child. Hale closed his eyes, he pictured the clay jigsaw puzzle in his mind as clearly as he could. "Got it?" Epimetheus asked, Hale nodded, deep in concentration. "Now try to put the pieces together." Hale imagined himself, with the clay puzzle floating in front of him, he pictured his hands reaching out to click the pieces together. When he was done, he opened his eyes. "Hmph, looks like you have got the power of healing, quite common." Epimetheus smirked. Hale looked at his injury, instead of a stripe of blood, there were no signs of the cut that had been made earlier. Hale kept poking at where the cut had been as Epimetheus nodded to himself with a satisfied expression.
Inside the crude and pitch-black door, laid a tied-up and gagged Hail. Things could have been worse for Hail, he could have been discovered by Epimetheus and got killed along with Hale. But Hail had somehow fooled his boss and survived. The reason Hail was tied-up, within the room behind the black door, in Hale's sub-conscious, was because after Epimetheus attempted to remove the 'evil spirit' Hail was hit with the side-effect that tied him up. Hail struggled against his bonds and gags but there wasn't much he could do, other than slightly loosen his bonds, every now and then by squirming around. But on the other hand, he now had plenty of time to plan, and figure out how he activated this speed ability of his.