Henry was almost regretting his decision to strike it out alone.

Damn Gyxr. If he’d told me about that stupid book, I could have stayed with Peter and his attractive student! My chances of survival have gone way done without them… Fuck, I better hope I don’t run into anything before I get the book.

Henry’s thoughts went round in circles, always ending with the same result: Gyxr had screwed him over. Of course, he had also brought him back to life, and had made it pretty clear that he cared little for Henry’s continued existence, so there was no way he was actually going to seriously complain. But, that didn’t stop him griping about it inside his head.

He was heading back in the direction of his office building. It was difficult to judge the time correctly just by looking at the sky, and the constant red tinge since the invasion had began didn’t help matters either. But, based on the events of the day he decided it couldn’t be much more than a few hours past sunrise.

It was only about an hour and half’s journey – when travelling cautiously – to the office from the police station, but with only one usable arm and no backup, Henry was being extra cautious. About half way through his trek, he ducked into a small shop to stock up on food. With it being close to four days since calamity had struck, and since the electricity had failed, Henry was all too aware of what that meant for a great deal of the food items within the city and beyond. A realisation that was helped along by the breathtakingly potent smells his nose discovered as he entered the shop.

Unless I want to try living off biscuits and chocolate, I’m going to need to visit a supermarket soon. The few tinned foods they have here aren’t going to last me long.

Henry stocked up on other non perishables and continued his journey. He had not seen any demons so far, in fact he had not seen much of anything. The city was quiet and lifeless, a far stretch from what it had been just a few days prior. It didn’t help that he was alone once more, making it that much harder to avoid dwelling on the horror of the situation, including the number of dead, and the people he would likely never see again. His disturbed thoughts persisted all the way up until he reached his office building.

Still as ruined as I left it, that’s… good, I guess? Hah, being comforted by the sight of burning cars and piles of rubble, if that doesn’t show how fucked this all is, I don’t know what else could.

It didn’t take him long to scale the building and reach the floor where he’d left Amanda’s body. But, with how dark it was inside the shaft, Henry chose to go one floor up and open the doors there to let in at least a small amount of light.

The gruesome sight of Amanda’s bloody remains greeted him, but Henry did his best to ignore the sick feeling it, and the memories preluding her death brought up. With the elevator car still stuck between floors, Henry searched the building for something to use to safely reach her, and stumbled upon a foldable aluminium ladder before too long.

Returning to the elevator shaft, Henry lowered the ladder down into the semi darkness, and unfortunately, took note of the reason for Amanda’s death as he did. It wasn’t just the fall, but the radiator that he had intended to use as weapon against her, which had quite neatly decapitated her.

Descending down the ladder, while trying to suppress the increasing nausea he was experiencing, Henry began his search for the book.

There really aren’t too many places she could have hidden it. She didn’t have a bag with her… It’s either on her, or she’s stashed it somewhere… Hopefully the first of the those two options.

Henry stood there motionless for a time, staring at the deceased form of his co-worker. He knew what had to be done, but he was having trouble acting. It was a strange sensation. There was the body of the woman he had wilfully murdered in order to save his own life. Yet, something as comparatively innocuous as searching her dead body was giving him pause.

Come on, it’s a book! It’s only going to be stashed under her blouse, or hidden under her skirt… Just look and be done with it!

Gritting his teeth, Henry knelt down and got to work. Amanda’s body was still fairly well preserved after the day that had passed, which made things less unpleasant for him – just as long as he didn’t look past her chest. He patted down her blouse, but found nothing that shouldn’t be there, and quickly moved onto her skirt. The garment on her legs was tight enough, that there wasn’t really any place to hide it except the insides of the thighs. Henry paused again as he considered how unlikely a hiding place it probably was, but soon forced himself to look regardless. Snaking a hand between her cold legs, he found nothing.

No! Come on! It has to be here! Shit… it must just be on her back.

Henry started to turn over Amanda, but as he did so, the top of her torso that had been pinned under the radiator unleashed a mass of sickly fluid. The stench hit him in an instant, overwhelming his attempts to suppress his nausea, and before he could stop himself, he emptied the contents of his stomach, loudly and violently.

Ohh fuck!

In the enclosed space of the elevator shaft, there was no escape. The stench stung his eyes, while his throat burned from it’s recent acidic discharge.

Blegh, this is fucked up. Seriously, fucked up!

He reached his good hand down to finish turning her over, fighting back the urge to throw up once more. The continued movement caused more of the fluid to leak out over the elevator car roof, but Henry pushed on. However, Amanda’s back revealed nothing other than Gyxr’s mark.

For fuck’s sake! That fucking book isn’t here!

He vented his rage on the radiator. Unable to believe his cursed luck.

What more do I have to go through!? What more does that sick bastard want from me!? I murdered his damn champion, the least he could do is tell me where the fucking book is!

After venting his rage for a while longer, Henry eventually started to calm down. It helped that he still had another option to pursue.

Okay… Okay! Think! Where would she have put it? Somewhere close by, surely? What the hell else would she do with it? I can’t even understand why she would part with it in the first place! Ugh, first I need to get out of this cesspit…

Using the ladder he had brought with him, climbing out was easy enough. A strong desire to close the elevator doors, and shut off sight of the sickening scene forever struck him, but with only one arm it was nigh impossible. Fetching a drink of water, Henry took a seat to contemplate his next move.

So, what was she doing back then? I was on my floor when she found me… I think she came from upstairs? But, now that I know about the time loss, does that even mean anything? Maybe she took it somewhere else? Maybe she tossed it out a damn window for that matter… Ah, this isn’t helping. I’ll search the building and go from there.

Henry got to his feet and moved towards the stairs. Deciding to go with his first idea, he made his way up the several floors to reach the remains of the floor he knew so intimately, and from there he went up one more level before starting his search.

He spent a good hour searching. Digging through the rubble, emptying battered desks, even picking over the rotting remains of the dead office workers, but his search turned up nothing. Moving to the next floor up, he continued his efforts, yet as that floor and the next several floors turned out to be just as empty, Henry began to lose hope.

Five floors up from where he started his search, he finally found something. It was in one of the large meeting rooms located on that floor, and was quite a gruesome sight. It was a casual meeting room, usually possessing a circle of chairs for comfortable conversation. But, this room was different, as in the middle of the room, lay some human legs, with nothing else attached.

Extending out from the top of the legs along the floor to the wall, and then up it, was a wide trail of dried blood. Not just drops or short streaks, but one thick solid line. Henry was stunned by the bizarre sight, and stood gaping at it for several moments as he tried to comprehend what could have caused such an occurrence. But, his gawping was quickly forgotten about, as his eyes fell upon a small book, that was laying on the floor just a short distance away from the severed legs.

The book! That must be it! Oh, thank fuck for that!

Henry scooped up the book and clutched it to his chest like a lost child. With his eyes closed in pure relief, he missed the sudden shift in his surroundings, at least until a voice called out to him.

“Greetings, Human.”