Daegelus | Volume One: Subject 0333

Chapter Thirty-Eight | Wes

⊳⊱ ♕ ⊰⊲

Elijah sat in silence for hours, staring out the window, watching as the sky got darker. He stopped trying to keep himself from sinking into dismay, and all he could think about was whether or not he had a family out there, people who cared that he'd been taken. But everything he'd learned was beginning to make him feel like he didn't, like he was alone in this world...apart from Haru. Haru was all he had. Haru was all he needed.

He waited for midnight, keeping watch while both Jake and Zoe dozed off. The stewardess came by a few times and offered him food, but he wasn't hungry, and even if he was, he couldn't eat; the despair was constricting him, getting tighter and tighter as the hours passed. However, he wasn't far away from getting to Haru now. Soon, he'd wake up Zoe and Jake, and they'd go and meet August. Then, they'd be on their way to The Spear.

With a quiet sigh, he reached over to the table and took Zoe's phone. He checked the time, and when he saw that it was 11:20 p.m., he got up and shook Zoe's arm.

The girl murmured sleepily as she woke. "Huh?"

"Get up. We're leaving," Elijah said.

"Oh, right," she said with a nod, sitting up.

Elijah then kicked Jake's shin. "Get up."

The pardus woke with a snort and a confused stare.

"Come on," Zoe mumbled to him.

"What? Oh...time to go?" Jake questioned.

"Yeah," she said as she put her dog into her bag and her phone in her pocket. "I'm just gonna tell Jerry we're leaving." She headed to the cockpit and knocked on the door.

Jake got up and stretched with a loud, dragged-out groan.

Elijah rolled his eyes as he checked everything in his bag before zipping it up and throwing it over his shoulder. He zipped his leather jacket up, and then he headed for the exit.

"Thanks, Jerry," Zoe said to the pilot, and then she followed Elijah and Jake out onto the runway.

The demon didn't waste any time. He started leading the way towards the forest path; in the dark, he could see as if it were day, and the fact that both Jake and Zoe were keeping up without complaint made it clear that they could see just as well—or well enough.

"So, where's this Lorell's Hardware?" Jake asked.

"I looked it up earlier," Zoe said, following Elijah as she took her phone out of her pocket. "We need to get to Westford Lane, which isn't too far from here, actually. It's near one of the city exits." She showed Elijah her phone. "Just a twenty-minute walk."

Jake groaned as they left the airstrip and followed the forest road. "Twenty minutes? Can't we just order a ride or—"

"No," Elijah snarled.

The pardus pouted and went silent.

They trailed the tree-lined passage until they reached the city. When they stepped out onto an empty sidewalk, they turned right, following the map Zoe brought up on her phone.

There weren't many people or cars around, but those that did pass, Elijah eyed cautiously. They were getting close to where August had said to meet them, and he didn't want anything to get in their way now or when they took off. Everyone he saw, though, were either people on their way home to work or drunks slowly lagging along the road.

Once they reached Westford Lane, they turned left down a narrow alley. It took them into a part of the city hidden behind and below the massive, towering buildings, and the series of lanes and passageways formed a labyrinth. Zoe kept leading the way, staring down at her phone, but she started to look a little confused.