Those fifteen minutes were the last ones I spent with Knell that day. He spent most of the time crying, while I stroked his hair and rubbed his back and told him it was okay even though it wasn’t. I don’t think I had ever really held him like that before. Like he was my own child.

At the 13-minute mark, I carried him to the elevator. As soon as the doors shut, Knell hurriedly wiped his face and looked me in the eye. “I’ll make him sorry for doing this to us,” he said darkly. “I’ll fight him at every turn, literally if I have to. I’ll make him wish he never even met me.”

As good as revenge sounded right then, I had to be realistic. “Knell, please don’t do that,” I replied. “You need to play it safe, and not just for my sake. If they’re bringing you up to a closed environment in space- where, if anything goes wrong, everyone there will die- rest assured that they have a way to kill you if you get out of control. They wouldn’t take that risk otherwise.”

I held his hand. “Don’t give them a reason to kill you. Not unless you’re 110% sure you’ll escape before they can try. Promise me that.”

Knell hung his head. “I promise,” he said as the doors opened.

After that, I could do nothing but watch as he was put in a car with the man who’d subtly threatened me with death just minutes earlier. I couldn’t see Knell through the tinted windows, but in case he was looking at me, I stood and stared after the car until it disappeared from view.

In the months that followed, I did what I always did when I was depressed: I threw myself into my work. No demon extermination was too large or too small for Clarion Cole. I was rarely ever at home.

From time to time, I tried contacting the numbers on the card Toll had given me. But every time I called, either no one answered, or someone did answer and then put me on hold for the next two hours, to no avail.

I knew it. They didn’t actually intend to let me speak to Knell or see him ever again. All I could do was hope that he was holding on, wherever he was, and try to put the anxiety out of my mind.

One day, after weeks of traveling, I came home to my usual empty house. I dropped my bag on the floor and stretched. I planned to rest for the night, then head out to my next job in the morning.

I was about to go up to bed, when I heard a faint noise coming from the kitchen.

I slowly drew my knife from my belt. Whatever was in there, I really hoped it wasn’t a person, because I was way too tired for a fight.

Quietly, I crept up to the door…and then threw it open.

A young girl with a mountain of curly hair was standing in front of my fridge. As soon as she saw my knife, she threw her hands in the air. “Hey, dude; I don’t want any trouble.” she said.

“Are you…eating my food??”

“Yeah, kinda…although; you ain’t got much. What’s your deal? Even a human couldn’t survive on this…”

“I haven’t been home for a while…” I said. “Anyway, I don’t have to explain myself to you! Get out of here!”

“Hey, chill out, man. I’m here to help you. You don’t wanna kick me out; trust me.”

“What could you possibly help me with??”

She flopped down on my couch and put her feet on my table. “I can help you get your little bud back.”

“…What are you talking about?”

“I saw you guys on the news before; I know what went down. That giant angel guy was drooling over the freak kid from the get-go, and now you’re hunting all alone. Connect the dots.”

“But I got some skills,” she said, leaning forward. “Skills that can bring your boy home.”

I sighed. “Please…just leave.”

“I’m serious!” she insisted, standing up. “Look, watch this.”

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and sank through the floor.

It was like she was a ghost. I slowly walked over to the spot where she’d disappeared.

“Neat, huh? I’m like a super-spy master.”

She reappeared behind me, climbing up through the floor. “Also, I got this number-sense now. I can keep time like…those quartz watch things. If anyone can go in somewhere and sneak somethin’ or someone out, it’s me.”

I stared at her. “Who…or what…are you?” I asked her. I felt a bit of déjà vu.

She stuck her hands into the pockets of her sweater. “Name’s Blare,” she replied. “I was born a human, but a couple months ago, I signed up to get turned into a half-demon.”

“I grew up in a dead-end town, with trashy parents and trashy friends. Everyone I knew was a nobody. That’s why the angels came to us. They wanted some nobodies that no one would miss to use as test subjects.

“I figured, “why not”? I could get some cool powers out of it, then maybe jump ship and live somewhere interesting for a change. I was the first volunteer; even before they started offering money for it. Bet my parents were pissed they didn’t get to sell me~.

“Anyway, we ended up at this creepy hospital place. They gave me some shots, and that’s when everything got weird. I was knocked out, and when I woke up, I suddenly had to count all the time. Like, seconds. I started this story 54.0399 seconds ago. See? I keep track like that that all the time, in the back of my head. To be honest, it’s kind of a lame power; it’d be useless if I wasn’t so creative.

“But a little while after that, I discovered I had a better power: that slipping-through-walls thing. ‘Course, I kept that a secret from the angels. As long as they didn’t know, I had the element of surprise.

“I tried pretending I was dying in my cell so I could figure out when they were actually watching me and when they weren’t. Turns out my camera was only being monitored every 6.285 minutes on average. I was pretty slow at the slipping-through-walls thing back then, so that would only be enough time to get me maybe halfway through the floor. I had to wait and practice.

“A week, 3 days, 14 hours, 8 minutes and 22 seconds after that, I was finally fast enough to make my escape. So I did. My getaway was so clean, I don’t think they sounded an alarm or anything. Before they even knew it, I was outta there~.”

She paused and scratched her head. “It took a lot of energy for me to travel through the ground like that, and when I finally came up I was starving. It’s been roughly 2 months since then…and still, all I’ve been doing is eating, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I can’t do nothin’ anymore but look for food.”

“So…you decided to raid my fridge?” I asked.

“Your fridge ain’t nothin’. I need you. I need a hunter. Even while I run around like this, I’m just slowly starving to death. It’s demon meat or bust, and I can’t get it myself.”

I remembered Knell’s voracious appetite. Literal tons of human food would never keep him alive, but just one good hunting trip could keep him satisfied for weeks. Apparently, this applied to all half-demons.

I sighed. “I take it you’re not a shapeshifter, then. If you need someone like me to kill demons for you.”

“Nah. My powers are only good for escaping, not for fighting. So, basically: feed me, and I’ll get your boy for ya.”

I considered it. Blare certainly had the right abilities for the job. And I had often thought about going up to the Satellite to rescue Knell…

…Still, I had just met this girl. And if her story was true, then she was definitely clever, patient and resourceful. How did I know she wouldn’t just use me and run off?

“We get Knell first. Then I feed you,” I told her.

“No can do. I don’t have the energy to go on a mission like that right now,” she replied. “My powers could give out at any minute.”

Damn. “Look, I need some kind of insurance from you,” I said. “I can’t just trust you with Knell’s life like this. I don’t even know you.”

“Dude, I got nothin’…But if it makes you feel better, I’ll only go back to starving again if I double-cross you and leave. So I got an incentive to stay on your good side.”

That was true. Reluctantly, I decided to take a chance.

“I’m going hunting tomorrow,” I said. “If you come along, you’ll get fed. After that, we can talk about Knell.”

“Works for me,” she said with a grin. “Although, you should know that I don’t know where he is or anything. I need info from you to go on.”

“You’ll get it. I already know where he’s being kept. And I might know someone who could tell us about the building’s interior,” I replied, thinking of Peal. I wondered where she was. Finding her had been on my to-do list for some time.

I yawned. “Anyway, I’m going to bed now. Hang out down here, or leave and come back; I don’t care. Just keep quiet.”

“Okay, Mr. Sunshine. Sweet dreams~.”