Papers were stacked haphazardly all around the desk, a faint warm breeze wafted upward from a dusty floor vent, and a muffled radiohost spoke incoherently in the background.

  Zain swayed back and forth on his swivel chair, intently watching the front door waiting for someone to cut through the monotony.

  On a couch, lazily sleeping the day away was Navin; after teaching Zain to check people in, he immediately shirked his duties to take a nap.

  It was hardly fair, Zain was just as sleep deprived, but sleeping on the job didn’t sit right with him. Despite his own morals and convictions, however, sleep beckoned him every passing second. The comfort of his chair and the warmth of vents didn’t help in the slightest, as it just added to the heaviness of his eye lids.

  I shouldn’t have snuck out…

  What did he accomplish in the end? He had no leads and now he was stuck with the worst person. Plus, all of the effort he put into his reputation was up in smoke; after this little incident, he wasn’t sure any of the boys would talk to him.

  I wonder what Brayden is gonna say…

  It was just a temporary thing, but Brayden looked at him with confusion and worry before. Zain wasn’t sure how he would answer his questions when they saw each other again.

  The door behind him opened, revealing a familiar face of a spectacled boy. The older boy looked at him with his normal stoic glare, not even giving a greeting in passing. Rather rude, but Zain said nothing, mainly because he wasn’t supposed to be there.

  The boy passed him and went straight to the couch, where Navin snored the day away. Then, without warning, he kicked the couch, shaking the unsuspecting Navin awake.

  “THE FUCK-” Navin began to fume until he realized who had kicked him awake. Still with displeasure, but with much less antagony than initially raised, he greeted the older boy. “Hello - Kaden. What do you need?”

  From where Zain sat, he really couldn’t see Kaden’s face because he was turned away from him, but he wouldn’t be surprised if he was angry because Navin looked to be having trouble keeping eye contact.

  “In the adjoining room.” Kaden commanded in a plain, cold voice which was normal for him.

  Without a word of protest, Navin got up and followed the older boy out of the room. Both of them didn’t even acknowledge Zain as they closed the door behind him.

  Then, for the rest of the day, Zain was by himself.

  Lunch and dinner had been unbearable. During both, he was blatantly avoided by everyone.

  Brayden (who did seem like he wanted to sit with him) was led away by a group of boys; everyone looked at Zain with extreme skepticism and distrust, and the resulting oppressive atmosphere was almost too much for him to handle.

  All he could do was eat quickly then go quickly back to work.

  When it was finally time to punch out and go home, Zain was dreading going back to his room. Maybe his ostracization would extend to the room and Brayden would ignore him too now…

  With a sinking pit of anxiety weighing in his stomach, Zain opened the door. There, Brayden was waiting for him, with a look of annoyance.

  “What the hell man?! What have you been up to?!” Cutting to the chase, Brayden questioned him immediately.

  He wasn’t giving a look of hatred or anything, it looked to be more of a look of concern.

  For the past few weeks, it felt as if Zain had been keeping nothing but secrets: Secrets about his meeting with Devante, secrets about the investigation, and secrets about his hangout with Navin.

  All of this pressure was gathering, festering, and now, exploding. He didn’t want to keep secrets anymore, he didn’t want to be alone.

  Zain fell to his knees and faceplanted on the floor. “I DIDN’T MEAN TO!”, then like a petulant child, flailed his limbs as if he was tantruming. “I WAS JUST INVESTIGATING!”

  Most of his problems right now were the result of his own stupidity, so he had no one to blame but himself. Even so, all the weight on his shoulders was too much.

  Brayden heaved a deep, troubled sigh, “Yeah, I figured as much. So, you mean to say that you didn’t mean to befriend Navin?”

  “No! Dude’s an asshole! Why would I do that on purpose?!” Zain answered immediately.

  Zain gave a brief rundown of how he tried to investigate places by himself during the night, his logic behind this decision, and the unfortunate result of his actions.

  After his explanation, Brayden paused, and thought for a good minute. “It is true that everything we have seen so far hasn’t amounted to anything, so I can’t really blame you for trying something new. But I still wish you told me, dude. I would have helped you.” He adjusted his glasses and rubbed his eyes in slight exasperation. Zain was relieved that he wasn’t too mad. “But it is what it is. We’ll have to run with things now.”

  That last statement caught Zain slightly off guard as he stretched his mouth into a thin line, “Pardon?”

  Brayden gave another sigh, “I actually think you had the right idea. There are a few areas that might be better to investigate at night when no one is around. Not only that, but I think Navin is the key to finding out more.”

  “Bwuuuhhhh?” Zain slightly murmured, stupified by the direction of this conversation. After his little groans of surprise, he reluctantly questioned Brayden. “Wh-what do you mean? How do you know?”

  “Well, while you were hanging out with Navin, I was talking to other boys. They thought it was weird you made friends with him considering how dangerous he is.” Brayden listed a series of concerning incidents the boy was involved in; most of them involved beating up other boys and picking fights and the like. They were too numerous to count, but all of the testimonies led Brayden to raise one question. “Why hasn’t he been let go yet? The only thing I can think of is that he has special privileges. Why else would he be kept around and be given a cushy job in the front office?”

  Hmmm…that kind of makes sense…

  Zain hadn’t really thought about it, but it was weird how such a troublemaker would still be on payroll. Plus, the front really didn’t require much work compared to everything else in the warehouse. Shit, Zain only checked in one person that whole day, as everything else relating to check in was just automated, so there was no reason for people to handle business in person.

  “S-so…are you saying I have to stay on Navin’s good side? I REALLY don’t want to…” Zain complained. Seriously, all this anxiety from sneaking out and stuff was going to burn a hole through his stomach.

  “You don’t necessarily need to befriend him, just don’t get on his bad side. You should probably still sneak out and investigate too. I have a few places I think you should look at while you’re out.” Brayden took out a piece of paper and scribbled a crude map of the warehouse, circling the areas of interest he wanted inspected. “Maybe looking at the places where the rumors talked about is a good idea. We already know we can’t investigate the warehouse, but I don’t think those areas would necessarily be off limits with magical barriers.”

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  The sewer grate underneath the small clock tower, the dumpster, and the medical office would need to be investigated. In all honesty, Zain just wanted to sleep his worries away, but they had less than a week to gather evidence, so time was of the essence. Just thinking about coming up empty handed to the Madam sent chills down his spine for some reason, so Zain would have to make up his sleep some other time.

  Brayden tapped on his ear, causing Zain to double tap his earpiece. After a few seconds, three taps came back through the earpiece, indicating that the message was received.

  In order to minimize the amount of mana needed to talk with the informant, they memorized a few non verbal communication commands. This was to ask if what they were planning was okay, and the response back was confirmation that it was.

  Zain nodded that they received permission, and removed his earpiece. Without needing much prompting, Brayden took the earpiece, then held it firmly, charging it for Zain to use.

  After the amount poured in was sufficient, he returned the earpiece.

  “Okay, I’m going to sleep for a bit then head out…I guess…” Zain was so tired, but there was no way around it. Right now, he was the only one that could investigate and not be ratted out. “That reminds me…is that guy here right now?”

  Brayden shook his head, “No. He hasn’t returned since he left in the morning. I double checked, too.”

  That was strange, considering Navin had left with Kaden so early that day. What was he up to?

  But, with everything wrapped up for the day, Zain just stomped to his room and flopped on his bed, somewhat hoping he would sleep through the night.

  A nightmare awoke Zain as he grasped at his throat; he had been dreaming about Devante’s wife finding him, and staring at him with her demonic eyes, her visage contorting into that of a monster. The overwhelming pressure he remembered threatened to choke him as she walked calmly towards him, stating that he failed his task.

  He woke up right as she was reaching her hands up for his throat, commenting that she would eliminate all loose ends.

  Fuckin scary!! She’s gonna kill me for sure!!

  Sweat clung to his clothes, the nightmare had been too vivid. The closer his deadline approached, the more dread piled onto his heart. The thought that maybe he was indeed under a curse was no longer far-fetched, and he tried hard not to think about what the end result of this would be.

  There was no use trying to fall back asleep, as he was wide awake.

  After pumping himself up again, he got out of bed and got ready to explore again. Taking most of the items he had last time, except adding the map Brayden had made for him, he headed out.

  When he got to the window, it wasn’t open already, meaning that Navin had not left yet. Or perhaps he did, but was already back? Whatever the case, he didn’t need to worry about meeting with him this time.

  Zain opened the door, and slithered out again, but this time hesitating a lot longer. Once he dropped, he landed slightly more gracefully, but the jump to the lamp post at the end still hurt a bit as he landed at an awkward angle.

  Still, he was a little quicker getting out, so maybe he would have no trouble getting out from now on.

  With a clearer objective in mind, he headed to the closest location, the small clock tower.

  Zain made sure to put up his hoodie, and tried to keep out of range of the cameras. Luckily, most of the cameras were near the walkways and buildings, and the clocktower wasn’t near the main sidewalk.

  Nearing the clocktower, Zain slowed and looked at the grates and storm drains; It was kind of a wonder why they had them here, if they were in a bubble, would it ever rain?

  There were water puddles along the street, so there had to be some way the water got there. Maybe he hadn’t been there long enough to witness the change of weather?

  Underneath the tower itself, there was a grate which presumably led directly below; Lacking a crowbar made it impossible for him to move, even after trying for a good ten minutes.

  After trying and failing, he tapped three times on his earpiece, summoning the small construct to conjure itself. It hovered in place, waiting for him to give it instructions.

  “Can you go down the drain and see if there’s anything down there? I can’t lift the grate…”

  The small fish flapped its tiny fins, then jetted across the air directly through the holes below. When fifteen minutes had passed, the fish finally returned.

  Its form looked a little less concrete as its outline warbled and warped as it presented itself to him.

  “What did you find?”

  “There were numerous pathways…after exploring…one had a door…there were some people there…”

  “Who was there?!”

  “Couldn’t see…barrier…but they were arguing…”

  So there was a barrier that extended downward, not to mention that there were suspicious people in the sewer passage ways.

  “Radius too small…but this warrants investigation…”

  “But I don’t have the tools to go down there…I guess I’ll have to look for something to help me get in there tomorrow.”

  “Investigate solo…recharging…”

  After a few gurgles of static, the construct dissipated then retracted back into his earpiece. Apparently he was going to have to go about the rest of his investigation alone.

  Zain’s eyes lingered on the grate below his feet, silently wondering how he would get the proper tools to open the grate. But that could come later, maybe Brayden could also offer some wisdom.

  His next stop was the dumpster and clinic. They were in close proximity to one another and could be done in quick succession.

  A quick jog through the small forest led him to his destination, where he was met with a small problem; there were a few cameras that were difficult to avoid.

  It was unavoidable, so he decided to keep his face as hidden as possible as he quickly looked at the places in question.

  The dumpster was a no go as it looked to be emptied out already. The trash collectors had probably collected earlier in the day, so there was no helping that.

  Swiftly, he darted along, trying his best to stay out of range of the cameras he could see, making his way to the final location.

  The smart hospital and clinic, which was a small building off to the side. Just peering into the windows, he could see that there was nothing happening inside. No blue light of any sort or any suspicious activity of any kind.

  Well, that was a bust…

  Not a total bust, but he kind of hoped to find something more interesting or tangible. Well, there wasn’t much time left anyway. Looking at the night sky, the outskirts of the night sky indicated the simulated transition to day; An artificial gradient of pink started to grace the sky, with the tints lightening to a brighter yellow as the artificial sun was soon to crest.

  That was Zain’s cue to retreat back to his room, and before it got too bright outside, he was able to make it back.

  There was only an hour before he had to clock into work, with him using that time to talk to Brayden about what he found. Both of them agreed to look for something to open the grate so he could look at it again. They weren’t sure how long it would take them to find something like that, or if they could take it without anyone noticing. It was worth a shot, though.

  Weirdly enough, Zain was still assigned to the front office. Considering that Navin was MIA the previous day, and also suspiciously enough the rest of the night (as Brayden stated that he didn’t witness him come in or out of the dorm), it was likely that they needed someone to cover for him again.

  The bad thing about this, however, was Zain was missing a good chunk of sleep. Fighting it was a losing battle, and he would catch himself dozing off every few minutes.

  “Wow, did you sneak out again? Two nights in a row? That’s pretty dumb, even I wouldn’t do that.” A familiar, irritating voice commented from behind.

  Zain didn’t even turn around, and just answered nonchalantly, “Heh, I never sleep ‘cause sleep is the cousin of death.”

  “Ooo, tough guy I see.” Navin sat next to him, taking a folding chair that was reserved for patrons.

  Before Zain could respond with his usual banter, he looked up to see that Navin had a few bruises and a black eye.

  “Whoa, what the fuck happened to you?!” He couldn’t really hide his surprise or concern.

  “Rude! No hello or anything first?” Navin tried to avoid the subject, making an effort to turn his face away slightly, feigning indignation. However, seeing that Zain’s concern did not vanish from his face, he rolled his eyes and gave an excuse, “I just got into a fight. I get into them all the time, don’t bother with me.”

  “A-are you okay, though?” Dude was an asshole, but Zain didn’t like to see other people hurt. Even though he had probably brought it upon himself, it didn’t sit right with him to not ask out of concern.

  Navin stared at him for a few seconds, with a severe scowl and frown, his discomfort apparent with this line of questioning, “Damn, dude! You ain’t my mom or anything! Fuck off!”

  Okay, if he was well enough to cuss him out, then he probably wasn’t too hurt. Zain relaxed a little, then rolled his eyes; it would seem his concern was wasted on the likes of him. “Why’d you leave me yesterday? What were you doing?”

  “Shhhh–shhhhhut the fuck up, listen. ” Navin shushed him, raising a bandaged finger in order to stop his questioning. “You don’t gotta worry about that. Since, I can see you ain’t got a lick of sleep, how about you sleep today?”

  That suggestion really startled Zain, as any sort of kindness from this kid seemed impossible. Zain must have given the stank eye as Navin looked irritated just looking at him.

  “Why? Don’t you want to sleep instead?”

  “I slept already, besides - “ Navin gave a mischievous grin as he leaned forward to whisper, “We’re sneaking out again, tonight!”