Later that night, after I went to sleep, I opened my eyes in the same field I was in last time Bob was staring right at me. "Who was the angel?" I asked after a long moment of us just looking at one another. "Her name was Esmeralda," he said, his voice fading in and out of earshot. Suddenly, like nails to the wrists of Jesus, everything set in perfectly. Esmeralda was one of the agents who died in the attack in Istanbul, sacrificing herself to save Bob's life, and turning into a Heal spirit in the process. That would explain why he was so overwhelmed with rage earlier. "Precisely" Bob muttered, now sounding clearer. I could hear a slight crack in his voice. He stepped to the side, showing me the glowing corpse of the former agent. He slowly kneeled over to her, blinking away tears, and pulled out a single bullet from one of her wings that was a bit too smashed in like it slammed into a hard stone. Maybe her wings were just that durable. It would certainly explain why there were so many bullets inside of her unless some sick freak just committed overkill and wanted to take joy in their murder. "Bone Bullets" Bob muttered. I was about to ask him what he meant when he gestured over to an area in the field, and a man exploded into existence. He was shirtless and carrying two giant swords. His muscles bulged and twitched and his sun-colored hair sparkled in the moonlight as he charged us. His very movements making the ground shudder and throwing me off my feet. A pistol materialized in Bob's hand as the man swung at me. I didn't have my magic or light speed reflexes and even if I did, I would be too shocked by this sudden attack. A tiny pop could be heard as Bob fired. The man blocked the bullet sending sparks and glints of metal showering his face. I could see a few cuts in his neck now. The swords cracked in half, as the bullet smoothly broke past, and released dozens of thin needles, connected to it by thin wires, that ripped into his chest and burrowed into his ribs. Then the bullet seemed to have gained speed and it flowed into his body and ripped out through his back, taking the needles with it, and them taking the ribs. The bullet, needles, and blood-soaked ribs flew out the man's body in a perfect spiral, the ribs themselves puncturing both of his lungs! The man blinked once-twice, then collapsed. The entire event was not only incredibly quick but very quiet and happened so fast there was hardly as much blood as expected. The bullets slammed into a nearby tree, and the needles and ribs cracked on it creating an ominous rattle burst "Jesus!" I said laying over by a tree. For some reason, I felt I was not as horrified as I should have been, but I ignored the thought. "She took 70 of these bullets It appears, and even though her feathers were thick enough to stop them from passing, you saw what they did to those golden swords," Bob said, and even though his voice was calm I could almost feel the anger and resentment he felt. He threw a bullet over to me. I caught it and could feel and hear rhythmic metallic tapping from inside it. "These bullets can't be legal," I said aloud. "They're not. They're used by assassins and monster hunters to take down powerful monsters and nature images, you know because of their regenerative abilities." I nodded even though I did not know. He walked over to the Esmeralda and bent down to her. "Please Esmeralda, can you show us your last thoughts when you were alive. There was a moment of silence, and then a brutal white light flooded the area. When it cleared me and Bob were in the same red room that had a ceiling showing an open sky. I could see small holes scattered around the area, forming a triangle, and in the middle of the said triangle was a man laying down, but only the legs and hands were visible, the rest of his body I just couldn't see, like my vision was being obstructed by something I couldn't see if that made sense. I tried walking over to the man only for myself to be launched backward by some invisible force. Bob grabbed me and pulled me to my feet before I hit the ground. "Don't try that again!" He rasped, "These fields are very fragile, if you damage these too much the whole thing will collapse and you'll be stuck In a loop of intensely vivid dreams over and over and when you wake up not only will you attract a Dream Demon, but it'd be gone forever." I nodded and hesitantly, looked on. Suddenly, I could hear a metallic whirring, followed by an electrical shock from inside whatever the man was lying in, and a scream stabbed the air like a knife plunging into a throat. The legs flailed and I could see bits of his fingers and toes melt off from the agonizing heat he was feeling. There was blood. There was blood everywhere. I wanted to look away but just couldn't. Suddenly, a loud crunch could be heard, like what the man was laying on, completely broke down. "Yes!" I heard a man shout. Suddenly, long, yellow, ropes rocketed out of the holes and formed the splatter they made on what the man was on, it was clearly oval-shaped. It reminded me of a coffin, which seemed fitting since the man would die if not aided soon. The long ropes hit something on top of the machine, and I heard a loud hiss as something fell to the ground, and I heard a girl's voice sigh, as if the heaviest weight in the world, was lifted off her back. Then, all the imagery faded away, and we appeared to be in a bizarre white laboratory that looked like an upside-down diamond. The ceiling appeared to have slid apart, perhaps to let something from the outside in. The man was clearly in one of those machines, a PET scan I think it's called. The ropes struck something invisible on top of the pet scan, and it struck the ground like a stone pillar crumbling under its own weight, and dust bloomed everywhere. When the dust cleared, I saw Esmerelda, now visible, grabbing onto the machine to stand. It was then that I realized what the long yellow ropes were, Lethal Liquid. This was a trap. Esmeralda. Men in white lab coats ran into the room. Esmeralda quickly flew into the air attempting to get out, only for the ceiling to snap back into place like a lego, not that it really mattered, since by then the liquid caught up with her and she collapsed. Her feathers began falling out of her, and I guess it made sense. Lethal Liquid was dangerous to magical creatures after all. One of the men came to close and was slapped away with such force, his body twisted at a 70-degree angle in an instant. Suddenly, a bullet zipped through the air and slammed into Esmeralda's wings, only to be followed by another and another. Long strips of blood seeped down the wings as hundreds of bullets, appearing to be expertly placed, seeped into them. Each bullet seemed to be placed in where one of the bones met the other, and even though the bullets couldn't activate, they severed each individual bone. Even without the Lethal Liquid, Esmerelda would be dead. And finally, with 2 bullets in each kneecap, Esmeralda collapsed, her head facing me. She was not dead yet. She did not die until 4 or so minutes of twitching and gasps. But when she finally went still and her eyes glazed over, so did everything else, and it was just me and Bob standing in black emptiness. Bob looked completely and utterly flushed of any emotions except for grief. He turned to me. "Promise me Sared, you will find these people, and kill them! For me, for Esmeralda, for everyone who could have been murdered by these bastards" Bob spat. It took a while for me to answer, mostly because I was still worrying that what appeared to be one person was able to do that to someone so powerful, would definitely be able to kill me in the blink of an eye. Then something took over me and I said "You have my word Bob" it didn't sound like my voice though. It was my normal voice I wasn't possesed or anything, but thetthe words just flared out of my mouth, and they felt not like I was just talking to make him feel better, but more like what I was speaking was obvious. Like what I was saying was fact. I would kill whoever assasainated Esmeralda. It was fact, like it being dumb to shove a knife in an outlet. The portal fizzled into exsistence behind me and sucked me in like some voracious monster. I opened my eyes to see Snidely's feet dangling over the top bunk. I sat up and yawned. The TV was on and I could hear Snidely pressing buttons angrily. "What's wrong?" I asked getting up, almost slipping on the plastic. " I recorded the news from last night." He said, "I was curious how it would be covered. He turned up the volume and I listened. There was a white caption with red text reading " Breaking News: Horrible carjacking at 4:20 AM today." First, there was a reporter standing in central park, then the camera zoomed out to show the bus, its wheels were on fire and it pretty much resembled a toy bus put in a microwave for 3 minutes. The roof had melted in and in the far distance, I could see people being loaded into stretchers, their faces blurred. "Demon" an old man being carried away cried, "It was a demon that did this!" He began sobbing uncontrollably, his voice dying down as the ambulance doors closed and it sped away. Then the camera cut to Officer Dawson's face and he lightly tugged at his mustache. "Officer, can you tell us what exactly led to this crash?" The reporter asked off the screen. "Of course mam" Dawson began, the footage changing to a bird's eye view of the bus speeding through the streets, "originally I was doing a routine patrol before my shift ended, this bus allies out of nowhere and nearly hits me. I watched as the bus swerved down a street, and nearly crushed Dawson's car only for him to spin around the side, smoke billowing from his exhaust and immediately follow the vehicle. " The driver was one Alan Flynn, a poor man with schizophrenia, who had a long history of drug abuse, and it's currently being investigated if he had something in his system. Regardless Though he went into a fit of sudden rage and began speeding at about 200 miles an hour. If he hadn't stopped he would have crashed into the docks and well, that would be even worse than this scenario" "Interesting Officer and how exactly did he crash?" The footage was now showing the bus rocket down the hill and for about 2 frames, I could see me and Snidely in the back before it zoomed in more to the bus. "Mr. Flynn had apparently planned out this attack god knows how long in advance. There were match bombs fitted into the bottom of the truck and he appeared to have managed to bring a concealed double-barrel sawed-off shotgun with him." The camera zoomed in further and I could actually see Allen holding the gun. "This is unbelievable" I cried. "He was more than dead, the knife was plunged into his back by that...that thing!" Snidely shushed me with a slap via teleportation. The broadcast continued, "Allen tried to kill one of the passengers but it appeared his gun was faulty as it exploded in his face. I watched confusedly as the gun exploded, making Allen crumple over in the position he was in when I saw him, only the dagger was missing, and some bits of the metal from the gun appeared to smash through the glass at around the same time I actually went onto the bus. I could see the entire thing with my enhanced vision but not very well unless I focused intently, due to the low resolution. The camera zoomed out and Snidely paused. "I've been combing through this specific frame for a bit, " Snidely said, Teleporting over to the cabinet, "I'm trying to figure out what happened to that weird creature." He walked over to the screen and put a finger over to the creature and I could barely make out its shape from the long fingers, but that just as easily could have been from the crappy resolution. Then with the click from him pressing the button, the footage resumed. The bus swerved through traffic and cars likes it did last time, the bus went off the road into the park, again just like last time only strangely there was no footage of time rewinding, instead, only Dawson drifting over to the bus and exploding its wheels, though that couldn't be seen with the footage, no matter how many times we went over. Snidely kept his finger on the creature the whole time until the bus crashed into the park, where it disappeared. Snidely cursed and rewound the footage again, and started from scratch. Again, nothing. We kept searching over the footage for about half an hour before being called to breakfast by Tyler. I gave up and began looking for a bathroom to change, only to realize how much my leg was still hurting from yesterday. Using my bunk as leverage, I slowly walked around to a door opposite of the bunk. I noticed a tiny strip of hair in the doorknob from the reflection of the plastic and opened it. The bathroom was strange, to put it bluntly, the angles seemed...off. There was a glass shower. And a wooden basket containing fine soaps and lotions on one side, and twigs hollowed out and peppermint on the other. I had a nice warm shower that day, well it was warm for me it kind of melted off the paint a bit. The chip was probably waterproof since it was fine when Snidely and I were on the Island, but just to be safe I put my neck against the glass, facing the sink. The peppermint was very soothing. It felt like happiness in my mouth. When I eventually left the bathroom, steam swirling around my black shirt and baggy jeans. I felt like a badass....and then immediately didn't when I swallowed the peppermint and fell to the ground? Snidely ran over to me and teleported the peppermint over to the cabinet instantly. I coughed violently as he pulled me to my feet. "Thanks...Snidely" I said through wet coughs. "It's not like I wanted to, it's just the damn magic." He said, though there was a small crack in his tone that betrayed his words. I walked to the kitchen smelling numerous sweet aromas and fruits. Tyler sat at the table, dipping his pancakes in a jar of honey while Luna drank that same green liquid from last night and simultaneously, cut the slab of meat on her plate into the shape of the continents. These were some strange kids. I walked over to the stovetop and saw some sizzling boiled eggs. I was about to grab them, only to realize that that be stupid and then realized that that was stupid since I had fire resistance. How pathetic would it be to handle those demons at the island only to get screwed over by some hot eggs? I noticed in the reflection of the oven Tyler threw a spoon right at me like a skilled knife-thrower. In the span of time, it took one of the bubbles in the pan to pop, I dived to the side. The spoon slammed into the timer making it crack, and bounced off and struck my forehead. I stumbled briefly, before tripping over the spoon as it clattered to the floor and falling into the sink. "In case you forgot, newbies need to earn their food." Tyler reminded, or said something like that. I was too busy seeing flashing yellow lights in my vision to fully pay attention. Tyler gestured over to the table where I saw two bowls of chicken soup. I began eating my soup only to notice it tasted really cold. I tried heating it up in the microwave but no luck. No matter how many times I spammed the reheat button the soup was always cold. I could hear someone giggling at me from behind as they walked into the kitchen. Strangely enough, when I turned around I saw nothing but a cup full of water. It looked like someone had already drunk out of it so I just plopped the cup on the table. Snidely waltzed in with a white buttoned-up shirt and some khakis. Then he took a sip of his soup, spat it out, noticed my bowl was hot, dipped his finger in my soup, before recoiling back and rubbing his hands for warmth. "How do we even earn to eat food that's actually good?" Snidely asked. "Either helping Rexid with his experiments or showing visible improvement at one of the tasks in his trial run." "Trial run?" I asked. "Despite his frame and occupation, the man is surprisingly active. The trial list among other things we do here should be in your cabinet. Snidely stirred sensually, locking eyes with Tyler. They seemed to be sizing each other up, I could almost hear them assessing one another, like robots. Eventually, Snidely backed off and headed to the room. Tyler gave a small smirk and walked over to the water bottle. He flipped it not once not twice but several times one after another. Each flip landed perfectly on the same spot; the top left corner of the table, no matter where he stood. Luna facepalmed, her nails slicing into her forehead a bit. Then, fast foot-fleets echoed from outside. And everyone stopped what they were doing. Five unfathomably lanky men with baby-like faces waltzed in. They seemed to notice me, or rather that I was new. " Leave!" One of them said firmly, "Come back in the afternoon." Before I could even ask why the men pushed me and everyone else, out with almost no difficulty, almost because when they grabbed Snidely he pummeled one with a spoon before being thrown into the hallway. Before the spoon-face closed the door I noticed his cheek was bleeding. The cut was too deep for a butter knife let alone a spoon. I noticed there were four other children, all of which freaked me out. Why? They were bleeding. Heavily. I could see weird scars and fresh wounds on their scalps and legs, that looked like they had been eaten into, like termites plowing into drywall or like a tree burrowing into some rock with roots. And not just that, they looked like they weren't in pain at all. Everyone carried bandages and hydrogen peroxide as if they would be injured at any moment. "What happened to you guys?" I asked one of the children. "Botflies." Tyler said, from behind, "We went on a hiking vacation last summer, to Cuba and they weren't very careful and fell down a hill and the bitches stuck to them, like virgins to anime. "Something you clearly know about judging from your search history," Juniper said, taking the water from Tyler.He glared at her and opened his mouth like he was going to counter, but didn't say a damn thing. It was almost like he was intimidated. After we were escorted from the building and everyone else scattered, Snidely and I walked around for someplace to eat. There was a bakery but it was closed, a Starbucks but it appeared to be on fire, and a hot dog stand but the vendor was missing. We met back at the Angel Arm's building, starving. Snidely pulled out one of the bowls from earlier from his pocket. It was half full. "Why'd you keep that?" I asked. Snidely snorted at me and poured his bowl into an open sewer grate. I watched as a dozen or so disgusting rats popped out their heads from the sewer great and devoured the soup like it was some serious gourmet shit. My apologies for that dated joke Snidely made me put it in.Snidely showed the bottom of the bowl to me. At first, I didn't know what I was supposed to be looking at, then I saw it. There was a faint line of ice over the base or rather inside the base, almost like it was sewn in. It reminded me of something I had seen earlier, but what? I couldn't remember. After a few more seconds of starving, We went back to the hot dog stand. I realized it was next to a closed pawnshop. The vendor was still gone. I waited until no one was looking at us and began whittling away the top with my magic like I was opening a tin can. Nothing was going to stop me from getting some food. Suddenly, something hard slammed into my cheek, making everything spin as I writhed in pain on the ground. After the pain faded, I looked to see Snidely facing me with a frown. He had a clenched fist that was beet red. And gestured over to the alleyway.I didn't see anything other than a sign screwed onto the brick wall next to a dumpster with the words: "All pedestrians must use the footpath" that appeared to be falling off at the hinges with its 3 rusty screws. It was only hanging on by a single clean screw packed in tightly. "What's wrong Snidely," I asked getting up, "Its just a sign." Snidely face-palmed. "Obviously, one of the screws is a camera, Luke." I tried my hardest to hold back but laughter crawled from my mouth like a fly from a web."I'm serious the shiny screw is a hidden camera I'm betting on it since literally, every other block has one. I looked across and sure enough, he was right. Pristine white cameras were peppered all over that place except for where we were."Also, it's near the dumpster when it should be out on the wall so people can see It easier. I didn't believe Snidely but I looked at the screw with my enhanced vision. I noticed a tiny blue light inside the screw in front of some reflective glass. It was actually a camera. I couldn't believe it. Snidely was right. We were actually being watched. It's a good thing he stopped me when he did. Otherwise, we could've been exposed. I wondered if it was planted by the magic police as I slowly walked out of the camera's view, and prepared to fire, only for Snidely to Jerk away my hand at the last moment, sending my sphere gliding through the air and exploding the glass window of the pawnshop near us, showering the sidewalk with flaming glass. I stumbled into the cart in shock. Before I could even ask Snidely why he stopped me he whipped out a pistol, aimed at the screw, and squeezed the trigger.The screw exploded and the sign clattered to the ground, broken apart. "Where you get that gun?" I asked. "It was under the cart. Maybe the vendor left it by accident. And before you asked why I stopped you whoever was on the other side of that camera could've bee with the magical police, and could've probably seen the lightning and they could track us here, but since it was shot and neither of us had guns when they captured it'd be more likely for them to think it was something else like the accidental discharge of some robber or a shooter, especially when you add in the shattered glass." I thought over what he said for a bit. It made sense but at the same time felt like he was making a bit of a stretch. Still, at least we weren't being spied oh anymore so I slowly sliced a hole in the cart and ripped it out, and the instant I did my nostrils were met with the tantalizing, majestic, wistfully brilliant smell of hotdogs made with pure love.I instantly grabbed one. It was warm, well to me anyway. It melted in my mouth like a meaty m&m. Snidely grabbed one but winced and threw it into the air, whining about it being too hot. Suddenly, with the grace of an Olympic high jumper, 3 rats launched out of the sewer and devoured the hotdog before even touching the ground! Then a swarm of malnourished rats swarmed the cart. They must've smelled the food. The cart shook violently as the rats began fighting to the death over the weiners. Deciding to not want to see any more rodent dismemberment, we ran. We ran until we couldn't hear the rats anymore, even when we saw the vendor running ou to us her arms coated in blood but not damaged.eventually, we stopped at a beautiful teal painted deli with illustrations of perfectly symmetrical realistic sandwiches. The faded text above the shop read "La Carne Magnifica" "Magnificent Meats" Snidely translated between deep breaths. He walked inside and closed the door in my face. I sighed and elbowed the door open. Inside were beautifully smoked meats and sizzling bread laying on trays like hot models waiting for photographers. We tried to ask the owner for some sandwiches, but he couldn't understand us. Luckily, Jacob walked in. He paused at the sight of us before translating what we said, ordering something, and walking over to a table in the far back. After half an hour a pale man in a motorcycle helmet came over with our sandwiches. Snidely took out a lest her book from his pocket and neatly fitted inside the spine were dozens of 20 dollar bills. After paying the waiter, we began to eat. Snidely ordered a salt beef sandwich and I ordered a Monte Cristo sandwich loaf.Taking a bite out of that sandwich made me feel all my problems fade away to the back of my mind. No longer did I have to deal with the injuries I had gained, My dying sister, the crash, Me and Snidely's close escape from the magic police, or even that Russian that was carrying the...I stopped. That was who our waiter was! The Russian. Snidely must've got the hint ages ago as he was already running to the kitchen. I followed him. Knocked out chefs and workers were all over us as we followed the Russian. Just when it looked like we were about to get him, he sprinted out of the backdoor and vanished into a gathering crowd as police cars sped down the street to the alley we were just at. Apparently, Snidely's plan worked as many people seemed to think there was an active burglar. "We lost him!" I yelled, kicking the door, "What if he's related to the egg. It can't have been a coincidence he kidnapped that employee right?" Snidely didn't respond and peered at the ground. Then he bent down and picked something up. At first, it looked like a gray brick but my eyes widened at the realization at what it was. "Well, it appears our Russian Kidnapper owns a Blackberry!" Snidely said, putting the phone in his pocket.