Paul came out of the slow state just as Madam A collapsed on the ground in tears. The others had just come to a stop near the front of the abandoned church.

“We didn’t get him in time,” madam a sobbed, “If we would have been a few minutes faster we could have saved him from this horrible fate.”

Madam A sat sobbing while the others exchanged looks of having missed all the action, again. Paul was still trying to wrap his head around what he had just witnessed. He had seen a man who was tortured beyond anything he even could have imagined. The tortured man was not the thing that stuck in his mind the most. The demon staring him as if seeing right into his soul is what stuck in pauls mind the most.

Paul was still trying to wrap his head around what he had just witnessed. He had seen a man who was tortured beyond anything he even could have imagined. The man was not the thing that stuck in his mind the most, the demon staring him as if seeing right into his soul is what stuck in pauls mind the most.

“Well, I will be the one to ask,” Hans said, “what happened?”

Madam A looked at paul and said, “You tell him, I just can’t do it.”

Paul explained to the others what had happened in the brief moments after exiting the truck. As Paul talked he noticed that Tosha seemed unsurprised by the fact that they hadn’t really been helping a man with a broken leg.

“So let me get a few things sorted out here,” Tosha said, “You are telling me that in the time it took me to run from the truck to the front of the church all that happened?”

Paul shrugged his should and nodded at her, “Yea, that’s pretty much what I am saying, I am still trying to sort it out too.”

Madam a stood seeming to have collected her emotions. She hardly even looked at anyone as they all walked back to the truck.

“Paul, you are doing great,” Agent 2 said from behind Paul, “Do not take Madam A’s emotion as a sign of failure.”

“I didn’t feel like she was upset with me for failing,” Paul said uncertainly, “We didn’t even have time to change how things happened.”

Agent 2 smiled at Paul, “Just making sure, Madam A gets a little emotional sometimes and I didn’t want you to take it personally.”

Paul stood for a few seconds trying to understand the sudden change of treatment from Agent 2. It was the first words that had been directed at Paul as a human instead of a prisoner. Paul jumped into the truck and sat in silence as they drove back to the gas station.

Upon arriving at the gas station, Tosha asked paul to meet her in the gas station for a minute. Paul looked at Madam A reluctant to go with her and Madam A nodded as if he was supposed to go ahead and go with her.

Paul followed Tosha at a distance trying to avoid standing at the door awkwardly as she unlocked it. Paul had arrived just in time to follow her into the small gas station.

Once they entered the gas station, they went through a small door at the back corner of the neatly organized shopping area.

After going through the door, Paul realized he was in a mechanics garage. In the middle of the garage sat what looked like a 30’s or 40’s car that was being restored. The entire garage was extremely organized, each tool hung in a spot with a white outline of its shape.

“Have a seat,” Tosha said sliding a chair towards Paul,” I want to show you something.” Tosha grabbed a newspaper off the bench and handed it to paul.

”Check out the headline, and then please tell me what you are doing out in the middle of nowhere hunting a man held captive by a demon.” Tosha almost shouted.

“We were not hunting that man, we were trying to save him,” Paul said as he a looked down at the newspaper.

Paul saw his own face and the face of the man they were trying to rescue plastered all over the front page of the paper. The article went into details on different theory’s as to what had happened to the two men who’s cars were crashed in an intersection, but they were nowhere to be found.

“That is you on the front of the paper,” Tosha said,”But you are far from the location of the crash and are traveling with a group of insane strangers.”

Paul was trying to figure out where he was going to start to explain the last day and a half to Tosha.

“I was taken from that wreck involuntarily, but now I am with them by choice.” Paul started, “After the mission they promised to take me back to my family.”

“The mission was to go save a man captured by demons in the old church?” Tosha asked with a large dose of sarcasm.

“Why do you say that as if nothing happened at the church?” Paul asked taken back by her sarcasm.

“Nothing happened out there, We got out of the truck, ran to the church, and Madam A had a meltdown.” Tosha said, “The only thing that is weird is how you and Madam A got to the church so fast.”

Paul could feel his heart beating extremely fast as he felt anger rising up in him. He tried to enter the slow state, and to his surprise, it came easily. He went to the tool wall and re-arranged all the tools. He allowed himself to come out of the slow state when he had found a place right behind Tosha.

“If you think it was all crazy talk and nothing happened, then how did I get behind you and rearrange your tools already,” Paul said.

Tosha spun around and let out a little yelp, “How did you get behind me?”

Paul noticed Tosha’s eyes dart to the tool board with tools all out of order.

“You still think that nothing happened at the church?” Paul said smugly.

“This is not possible…..”

That’s what I said,” Paul interrupted, “But let me save you the trouble, you are not dreaming and this is all really happening.”

Paul stood from the chair he was sitting in and started heading for the door.

“Wait, I have way more questions to discuss with you,” Tosh said frantically.

“Yup, so do I Tosha,” Paul said as he entered the gas station and headed towards the others outside.

“Madam A, I am ready to go see my family now,” Paul said

Madam A looked up from the seat she had found near the front of the gas station.

“We can not leave until Tosha has fixed the prop motor on the plane.” Madam A said as she dried up tears that seemed to still be flowing.

“I am not going to fix your plane until I get some straight answers from you,” Tosha said realizing she had some leverage.

“I will have a talk with you while paul and the other go to the diner to have some food,” Madam A said as a hint to Paul and the others.

The others headed for diner and paul followed without hesitation, he didn’t remember the last time he had eaten.

The diner was uneventful, and for that, Paul was very thankful. He and the others ate mostly in silence before heading back to the gas station.

Tosha was already working on the plane when they arrived and Madam A was nowhere to be found.

“Where did Madam A go?” Paul asked Tosha.

“She said something about going to talk to the messenger of Phótenos,” Tosha said, “We should be ready to go in about an hour I would say. There was just some sand sucked into the motor during landing.”

Agent 2 looked agitated and said, “You mean we will be ready, not you?”

“Madam A invited me to Join your group,” Tosha said, “I love this place but it is time for me to move on and be a part of something bigger than this town.”

Agent 2 looked flustered and went up the metal stairs disappearing into the plane. Everyone but Paul entered into the plane having a similar reaction to Tosha joining Phótenos.

“What is their issue with me?” Tosha said flustered by the reaction.

“I am not sure, this is all new to me too, although Agent 2 was not friendly to me to start with either. The first time I met him, he put a gun in my face and forced me to go with him…He also shot me with a tranquilizer dart,” Paul tried to assure Tosha.

Tosha was true to her word and had the plane ready to go in an hour. She also ran to the few close friends she had and said her goodbyes. She left her gas station to a man who had helped her run it for years.

Madam A told Paul that it would be a couple days to get him back to his hometown. They would have to fly back to the barn in Montana and take him back by car. She said they would develop a plan so that he was not just getting out of a random car in front of his house. Paul decided he would not call his family before showing up so that he did not have to explain the wild and crazy events of the past couple days over the phone.

The next few hours of the plane ride were quiet as everyone slept while Cromwell and Madam A took turns flying the plane to their destination in eastern Montana.

When Paul woke the next morning, he was the only one still on the plane. From the lack of roaring engines, he figured they were back in Montana.

Paul was right, he exited the plane in the barn he remembered so well. The last time he had been in this barn, he still felt as though he were a prisoner.

“Good Morning,” Came Han’s voice, “You were so sound asleep when we landed early this morning, that we just let you sleep right where you had plopped down.”

Paul spotted Han’s leaning against a doorway on the back wall of the barn.

Hans smiled, ” There is breakfast right through here, follow me.”

Paul followed and was surprised to find a good sized living space beyond the door. At one side of the space sat a giant oval table with everyone around it.

“Glad you could join us for breakfast,” Tosha said with a smile on her face.

“Ya, I guess I am too,” Paul said.

Paul found a seat at the table and loaded up a plate of eggs, bacon, and an odd looking fruit he had never seen before.

“That fruit is is called Jabuticaba, it is very healthy and similar to a grape.” Madam A said having noticed Pauls uneasy look at the fruit he had taken.

Madam A reached for a remote and turned the news on a tv mounted to the wall across the room.

“There has been another tragic event in Northern Colorado today,” The female reporter said with a gloomy look on her face, “There was a house fire that ended the lives of three people inside. We are told that this fire was arson, and the person responsible has not apprehended at his time.”

The news turned to a live feed of the burned wreckage of a once beautiful house. Paul’s heart stopped as he realized that the home on the TV was his home.

“We are told that this was the home and family of one of the missing men from a few days ago.” The reporter finished the story with a sigh.

Paul felt like he was drowning in emotion that he did not know how to feel or process. He just learned that the family he so desperately longed to return to was gone forever.

Paul’s heart was beating fast and the world around him seemed like voices underwater; he did not know how to process the stream of emotions that were flooding through him.

“Paul, we are going to have to work through this together,” Madam A’s voice cut through the fog a little, “You have entered the slow state.”

Paul looked up and realized he had indeed entered into the slow state, but did not even remember it happening.

“I know this is unfathomably hard for you right now,” Madam A continued, “But you are going to have to force yourself to calm down. You can get stuck in the slow state for too long, it will start to make you go crazy.”

Paul just looked at Madam A with tear stained eyes; he started to resent her for taking him from his family.

“You took me from my family,” Paul yelled, “I could have saved them; they wouldn’t have had to die.”

“Paul, you have to stop going there in your mind,” Madam A said calmly, “I was stuck in the slow state for three days of normal time when my friend died. I was angry at myself, angry at everyone who could have stopped us from going to the event we were at. It felt like years of time had passed before I came out of the slow state. When I did come out of it, I almost died of exhaustion and it took me months to mentally reconnect to the world. Do not play the blame game; it will keep you as a prisoner in this state until you either move past the anger or die of exhaustion.”

“Maybe I want to die, everything I love is gone,” Paul sobbed, “I have nothing to go back to, my family is gone, my home is gone, and I have no reason to go on in this world.”

“That is a lie!” Madam A said, “The world needs you Paul, there is an uprising that is happening in the Shedim. I have talked with Michael and he told me to start gearing up for an uprising like the world has not seen in many years.”

“I do not care about any of this,” Paul shot at Madam A, “I just want to go bury my family and try to move on in life somehow.”

Paul got up and headed for the door, but Madam A stood and tried to stop him.

“Paul, can you give me one more chance to convince you of your importance to Photenós?” Madam A pleaded.

Paul paused in the doorway and nodded his head, “You can try your best, but there is nothing that is going to change my mind. I am done with trying to figure out what is going on in this crazy group you call Phontinós.”

“Follow me, we are going to go see Michael the archangel,” Madam A said with a visible sparkle in her eye.

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