While the two creatures are on their way, I look around my cell. It has a bench where my cell buddy is happily sleeping, a toilet, and a sink - nothing special.
At least it is spacious, probably 8 by 10 feet, so there is enough room for a rough encounter...
Since I don't know what will happen next, I gently place my cell buddy in the corner at the back of the cell, so he doesn't accidentally get caught in the crossfire.
Then I sit down on the bench, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the unknown creatures.
After a few minutes, the small window on the door opens, and the male creature says, "We're coming inside. Don't move or do anything stupid, because we know how to knock you out."
Oh, they do? Interesting... but to create such dreams you probably need to have the ability to read minds.
To calm their nerves, I stand up, raise my hands, and only then do they enter with another sleepy inmate in tow.
The female creature has a water bottle with something that smells and looks like gasoline inside in her hand for some reason...
Without their glowing eyes, they appear quite ordinary. The female is a pretty woman, approximately thirty years old, standing around 5'3'' tall, with long brown hair tied into a ponytail.
Meanwhile, the male creature is around my height, with short black hair.
They drop the inmate inside and the male creature starts pointing his pistol at my head while saying, "Take off your clothes slowly and don't try anything."
"Taking my clothes off already? Without a date or a drink? Aren't you guys a little too fast? I don't even know what you are..."
"They call us Djinns, and what are you?" responded the female Djinn. As she spoke, tattoos appeared on both their faces and hands, while their eyes started glowing blue in unison...
It seems that they have been waiting for that moment their whole life to show that off...
Suppressing the urge to laugh at their show, I point at myself and say, "Me? I'm simply a curious guy who's about to be imprisoned."
"Just a curious guy? I saw it in your head. You're old... very old. I didn't even have enough time to look through a portion of your memories before you woke up," the female Djinn said, sounding somewhat fearful.
"It's not nice to look into someone's memories without asking, but let's not cry about spilled milk... and tell me, why all this? Are you guys getting turned on by giving people these dreams, or is there something else?" I asked for a friend.
"Isn't it clear? Of course, it's for the delicious blood, and the dreams make it even better," replies the male Djinn, his mouth nearly drooling, while I am shocked.
That's it? They are simply some poor copy of vampires who give you good dreams before sucking on you?
"Blood? Come on, that's lame... Don't steal your cousins' food. Be more original!" I say, disappointed, while shaking my head.
I expected more...
"What? Shut up! You know nothing about the delicious taste of blood," the male Djinn snaps, now truly drooling. Then he walks closer, but the female Djinn stops him.
"Calm down, dear. He's just trying to provoke us to get the upper hand," she advises him.
Oh, no! My master plan failed... such a shame.
Then she continues, "Listen here, we'll give you two options. If you come with us willingly, we'll set you free and use you as a food source for a millennium or two, while granting you a peaceful life with your loved ones."
"Oh? That sounds good. And the second option?" I ask, impressed by her generous offer. After all, who doesn't want to be a blood bank for a while...?
---
"The second option is this: you don't surrender, and we shoot you in the head before taking you away. Afterwards, we feed on you while subjecting you to nightmares beyond your wildest imagination. The choice is yours."
She doesn't know the nightmares I can imagine...
I put my finger to my mouth and start biting my fingernail, as if I'm pondering intensely. Then I say, "Hmm, both options sound intriguing. What should I do...?"
*Clack*
I bite down on my finger hard, causing blood to pour out. The male Djinn freezes in front of me, hypnotized by the sight of the delicious juice.
"No! Shoot him!" screamed the female Djinn, reaching for her pistol. However, I swiftly rip away the male Djinn's pistol, throwing it aside. Then, I kick the female Djinn away as she tries to raise her pistol.
Next swing around and strike the male Djinn on the head with my elbow making him fall to the ground.
In the meantime, the female Djinn crashed against the cell door and dropped her pistol in the process, so I kicked it away too.
"You! Let me show you why you shouldn't mess with a Djinn," says the male Djinn, while standing up and blue flames materialize on his right hand. Then he dashes forward to grab me.
Huh, he's only slightly slower than me, but still slower...
I seize his wrist with my left hand and his neck with my right, then lift him up and slam him to the ground.
While I was occupied with him, the female one tried to attack me from behind by engulfing both hands in flames and then grabbing me.
"Move, and he dies," I warn her, while raising his right hand and placing my foot on his neck ready to break it, simultaneously choking him with it.
"Do it! We can survive something like this easily!" she taunts, still approaching me. So I let her grab my hand, and she looks at me in shock after realizing her magic has no effect on me this time.
"Really? Can you survive even this?" I raise my foot and stomp with full force on his skull, turning his head into a gruesome mess of blood.
"No!!!" She lets go of my arm, and tries to grab my head with both hands. However, I release my grip on him and catch both of her hands.
"You claim you can give me nightmares I could never imagine, right? Let's see if you can surpass this."
I allow her to enter my mind while neutralizing the poison she attempts to send into my system and focus on the real nightmares I have endured over the past ten millennia.
The deaths of countless lovers, friends, and families... the experiences of raising countless children and witnessing their deaths.
Then there were the countless deaths I witnessed during wars for gods that didn't even exist... The lives I took... and the feeling of dying countless times myself.
In the end I showed her the moment I held the lifeless vessel of Cthylla as the world around me crumbled...
I stop thinking about those memories and watch the fire in her eyes disappear. Her hair turns white, and she collapses lifelessly to the ground.
---
As I witness her soul departing her body, I quickly snatch a pen and paper from her pocket and hastily write down her soul name, Balrochi on it.
Then carefully remove the male Djinn's clothes, to ensure that I don't stain the uniform with his blood. Once I free him from his pants and shirt, I undress too and slip into his uniform.
Afterwards, I take his weapon and secure it to his duty belt, which I took from him, before dressing him in my own clothes and carefully collecting his teeth.
To destroy more traces, I poured gasoline from the bottle onto their bodies, while paying particular attention to the hands of the male Djinn.
Next, I use their key to unlock my cell and cautiously peer outside. Finding no one in sight, I retrieve both my previous cellmate and my new one and place them outside the cell.
Lastly, I use a match I found in a pouch to ignite both corpses and close the door. This should hopefully confuse the police for a while and keep them away from me....
Before leaving the basement I place the two inmates in an unoccupied cell and walk to the exit. As I reach the staircase, I activate the fire alarm and move up towards the storage room.
As expected, normal panic ensues upon hearing the alarm. This prompts the police officers to take charge, escort people outside, and investigate the source of the alarm.
Taking advantage of the chaos, I simply walk to the storage room without drawing anyone's attention to me. Arriving there, I discover it's locked and requires a keypad code to open it...
So, I decided to put my witchcraft skills to the test and apply what I learned from the grimoire while reading it.
To cast a spell, you normally tap into your energy or channel an outside source somehow, and the easiest spell that you can perform without much preparation is telekinesis.
It seems that it is easier to use telekinesis on inanimate objects rather than living beings. As living beings possess a soul or essence that can make it more challenging to manipulate them, especially for inexperienced people.
Telekinesis is described as a form of spiritual magic, and most witches don't even need incantations to use it since they use their own energy for it and can shape it as they want.
The problem is, I can't feel my own aura or energy...
So I try to do the same thing I do with soul names and simply concentrate on the process of what I want to do. I chant "movet" which means move in Latin and imagine the lock bolt to move.
*Click* I hear a satisfied sound and press the door handle, opening the room.
Well, this was easier than I thought... at least much easier and without the tiredness that comes with soul names.
Stepping inside, I search and find a bag labeled "Aiden Cross." So I retrieve my wallet, watch, phone, and book, leaving only my belt behind.
After getting my stuff back, I have one last thing to do: go to the offices on the second floor and find the whereabouts of a woman named Anna Milton.
This is the name Cthylla told me before the dream world was shattered...