There were three small boxes of belongings. It was filled with books, little things, and a few more essentials. Daniel and Lian followed Mother Elaine up the stairs, heading back to the garage.
There was no space left in the trunk of Mother Elaine's Lincoln Navigator. Mother Elaine then headed to the passenger seat, finding room on the seat. She told the other two to place the boxes on top of each other. Afterward, she tightened them in place with a seatbelt.
"So, we're done, then," Daniel said.
Mother Elaine nodded. "Yeah, thank you, to both of you."
"We are leaving now, right?" Lian asked.
"Yes, open the garage for me." Mother Elaine headed into her SUV, and Daniel lifted the garage door open. He told Lian to get out as he was about to close the garage.
The two saw Mother Elaine speed her vehicle out of the driveway.
Lian grabbed Daniel's arm and flew briefly to the sky, landing next to his Ford Expedition. The two hopped into the SUV, and as Daniel did a U-turn on the street, the garage and the rest of Mother Elaine's house exploded.
“Holy shit!” Daniel reacted, pressing on the brakes.
"Why did you stop?"
"Can your magic remove all that smoke and debris quickly?"
Lian, who was sweating, looked at the ruined lot. "Everything?"
Daniel nodded. "Can it work?"
"Sure. Pure chaos isn't always a bad thing when you're in control," Lian said and rolled down the window. She summoned a hand-sized sigil. It transformed into a water mess like a muddy river, and Lian fired it at enraged flames. Daniel stared at the mud engulfing the lot, and the flames succumbed. Anger and heat faded away.
With deactivated streetlights within a block, the area was all dark. Lian rolled the window back up.
Daniel let his foot off the brake and pressed the gas pedal. They exited the neighborhood quickly and headed back on CH1, returning to the Northeast.
By the time he turned into his driveway, Mother Elaine's Lincoln Navigator was parked on the side. Daniel pressed a button on the touch screen, and three garage doors opened. From left to right, the first lifted and revealed a two-post lift. The middle was empty, and the last one was where he reversed the Ford Expedition. After he parked the SUV, Mother Elaine hopped out of her Lincoln.
"Nothing much changed," Mother Elaine commented.
Daniel unlocked his F-150 Raptor, climbing onto the driver's seat. He rolled down the window. "With you and Lian here, it's going to change sooner than ever." The truck engine revved, and the F-150 drove straight into the middle garage. Daniel exited the truck and departed from the garage, closing all three doors.
The three then strolled to the back of the Lincoln. Five new streetlights flared on.
"You did really take everything you could," Daniel said after he stared at the full trunk.
"I didn't blow the house for nothing, you know. Anyway, is that white room with a window of the city still vacant?"
Daniel looked at Lian briefly before turning to Mother Elaine. "Yes, and you're going to be Lian's neighbor."
"Oh, that's exciting."
Lian didn't break her neutral face, but she raised her fingers. All the contents in the trunk were highlighted in red. Daniel found it bizarre as it happened in real time, as if he were in a video game.
With one gesture, Lian made the front door unlock and open inward. She told Daniel and Mother Elaine to step back as the boxes smoothly glided out of the trunk and flew right into the house. "Ok, it's finished. Everything is inside."
Mother Elaine looked in her SUV and the passenger seat. "I'll be honest, that was cool. Damn, if I can do that one day, more free time," she said, then shut the driver's door and the trunk.
The three headed inside.
“Where are the boxes?” Mother Elaine asked, expecting it to be at the lobby.
“It's in your room. You mentioned a white room with a window, so I directed your boxes there.”
“Impressive…Thank you.”
Morning 7:20 AM
Quite an unfortunate morning to start with a relentless shriek that echoed beyond the walls in his bedroom, seeping through under the thin spaces of the door. Daniel vividly heard a violent storm rumbling and roaring through the hallway, and the decor hanging on the wall rattled. Somebody make this stop! Daniel grunted as he held both of his hands tight on his head, feeling he was going to lose control.
And he did.
Everything in his room started to shake. Vast amounts of energy jolted outward from his body like a shockwave. The room's entire wall was peeled. Any surviving books fell from the tumbling shelves. Furniture was trashed. At least the master bathroom was spared.
Blood spilled out of his ear in a yanking fashion.
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Mother Elaine and Lian strolled through the entryway. The door was trashed and wrecked. Everything in the room became a complete mess.
"God damn," the latter coughed, "should we call the fire fighters?"
Lian fired a spell, dispersing Daniel's inner troubles.
Daniel scratched the back of his head and saw the smoke escaping through the wide opening. "No, don't."
Lian fired a propulsive beam of cold water. The frame froze, and solid ice formed, replacing the former wall. "There, that should do it. We already had too much attention from the explosion at Mother Elaine's place."
"How often does this happen?" Daniel asked.
"Maybe once a day or every two days unless you start training," Lian said.
Daniel nodded. "I only took a brief nap and felt refreshed."
Mother Elaine said the same.
"You two are adapting our sleep cycles pretty quickly. At least that's one positive from all of this."
Daniel went to his phone, which was on the bed. He grabbed it and checked the time. "I'm going to get changed. We will be leaving in about ten minutes."
"Where?" Lian asked.
"Work. Obviously," Mother Elaine said. The two then left Daniel's room while he was taking his clothes off.
He stepped into the shower, washing off every lingering debris and dirt. A hair wash followed, and he walked out quickly and grabbed a towel. His prior clothes were dumped into the laundry basket. Daniel strolled into the closet, turning on the lights. Fortunate that the bathroom and the closet were spared.
Daniel was more simple on clothings. One side of his walk-in closet was all the formal attire. Multiple pairs of black suit jackets and a variety of dress shirts hang in the wardrobe. All his pants and jeans were in the large closet island. He went to the top drawer and grabbed his underwear and a pair of black jeans. The black socks were in the middle drawer.
Once his lower was equipped, he headed to the wardrobe and grabbed a suit jacket and a black dress shirt. A blue tie as the cherry on top. Daniel took a tactical belt this time, thanks to the parking lot incident.
Ava's Beretta 92 and Daniel's Glock 17, that was used yesterday, were stored in a hidden safe.
The closet had a tiny separate room for storage. Daniel headed inside and turned on the lights, revealing shelves filled with large black chests. Tight room with little walking space, but a very high ceiling. He climbed up the rolling ladder, reaching for the top. There was only one chest.
Daniel grabbed the chest and climbed down the ladder. He then went back out to the closet and placed it on the bench. His finger adjusted the dial on the padlock.
He then opened the lock and lifted the chest lid. Inside was a stash of firearms neatly placed on one side; the other side was ammo and loaded magazines. This time, two handguns. Both Desert Eagles, but one .50AE and 9mm. He set the two Desert Eagles and spare magazines into his tactical belt. He didn't forget about the spare Glock 19s in the chest. It was for Mother Elaine and Lian. The former already had one, but it was old, worn out, and hadn't been used. Daniel had it put into a workshop for parts.
The chest was square-shaped to fit in a large cubicle. He took note that it weighed much lighter than when he first received it. Thinking about it, he observed his arms and only noticed now that they were enlarged.
He almost got off track. Daniel put the chest away, exited the closet and his bedroom, and handed Lian and Mother Elaine their new Glock 19s. "Time to go."
He put on his suit jacket and concealed his weapons.
The three headed out to the garage; the third one opened, and they entered the F-150 Raptor.
The truck exited the garage and drove out of the driveway.
Morning 8:05 AM
3/23/2019
Standing in the elevator, the three were watching the indicator as it was heading up. For Daniel, this morning was a rarity.
"It's awfully quiet this morning."
Mother Elaine nodded. "It's already eight," she said, taking a sip of iced tea. "The hallways should've been busy by now."
"To be fair, this is not the weirdest thing I've seen in the past few days," Daniel said as the elevator stopped at floor fifteen. He walked out first for the two and headed to his office.
As he was about to pull his keycard out of his suit jacket's inner pocket, the door was unlocked. All of his staff were present. "When did you guys get here?"
"About seven," one answered.
"Is it because of last night?"
They nodded; Daniel went to his executive office desk. Mother Elaine and Lian took a self-tour of the wide open space.
When he sat down and opened his work computer, a few of his staff came out of their cubicles with stacks of paper. Weights slammed the desk and briefly vibrated. "I hope y'all didn't do all this overtime or off hours," Daniel said, not expecting the notes so soon.
"I was bored. Nothing I can do from there," Rebecca said with a shrug. The AC flicked her ribbon-length hair, partially revealing her dark-tinted strands of violet. "You requested our assistance last week, and we finished it in about five days."
Daniel glimpsed through the pile, flipping through the edges. His mind was piled with information after quickly going through eighty pages.
"Daniel? Are you ok? You look a little pale." Seth asked, standing to the left of Rebecca. He was in a loose T-Shirt and baggy pants.
"Had a long night," Daniel said, then took a cold water bottle from the mini fridge next to his executive desk. He splashed his face with water. "I'll be better by lunch."
"Did you not sleep?" Rebecca asked.
"Only a power nap."
Rebecca then leaned onto the pile of papers. "We had made a summary of the notes in advance for cases like this. And you need to rest."
"I appreciate the concern, but one of the bastards from the Police did something to the press, and I have to take care of it." Daniel pulled his phone out of his pocket, swiping to a new notification. It was an email on a topic from last night; he then put it on the table and opened it on the computer.
The first paragraph was bad news. The press had already published articles related to Mother Elaine's house explosion. About halfway through the email, it was related to the attack on him at the new venue's parking lot. Daniel glanced through the rest of the email. He then turned to Rebecca and Seth. "Today's going to be a field day."
Rebecca raised her eyebrows with a brief stare at Seth. They knew what he meant.
All the keyboard typing and activity in the open office a moment ago went silent.
"Damn it. We were so close to a year streak."
Daniel sighed, much to his frustration. "I know. Two weeks away. However, I might warn you that we will have more field days."
"Will it be overtime?" One familiar voice asked from behind a cubicle.
"I won't force you to stay over. That's up to you, but soon we can't be in the office," Daniel said while sipping water. "I think y'all will be at my house more often in the coming future."
A moment later, the entire crowd surrounded his desk. Mother Elaine and Lian joined in too and sat down on the spare chairs. A new plan emerged.
