Danny looked at the now empty room with growing unease. Danny never felt so composed after one of the demon’s ‘nightly visits’. That wasn’t surprising though, since today was the first time Danny did not have to struggle to remain untouched by the demon.

Of the three goals Danny set for himself before meeting the demon that night, there were some successes and some failures. He wanted to find a path for himself, find out more about the events that were going to happen soon, and reduce the demon’s influence over him.

With this new arrangement, Danny managed to find a way out for himself. Without the fear that the demon might show up at any time and wreck his plans, Danny could now go out at night worry-free for once. If before he could only steel his resolve and prepare himself for the dark nights, Danny had a whole new world opened up before him right now.

In fact, if the demon really kept to his word, for the first time, Danny had a real shot at controlling his life, perhaps even letting people in and developing real and meaningful relationships.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t find any joy in the progress the change represented. The happiness he should be feeling right now was sadly spoiled by the fact that his future would be tougher instead of brighter.

Also, he didn’t get much information from the demon, he still had no clue what he was preparing against, but what he did manage to find out was worrying. Danny knew now that the clock was ticking, and there wasn’t much time until the foreshadowed doom.

Danny also could not reduce the demon’s influence over him, but in the end, he wasn’t actually bothered by it. After their conversation tonight, Danny’s impression on many things changed.

He already did not have much expectations towards this goal for starters. ‘Seeing’ the disparity between the two of them only showed him how much harder that objective actually was from what he initially believed.

Danny previously thought that Tutu was mindless before he was approached by the demon yesterday. After years of back and forth between the two without any successful communication, Danny assumed the demon was no different than a beast. Danny knew now that wasn’t the case. Tutu simply never bothered to respond.

If Danny had found out that information years before, that would probably affect the way he resisted the demon’s attacks and how he felt about his circumstances. Being hunted by a mindless creature and being hunted for entertainment were very different things after all.

He knew from long ago that he was not being chased for feeding purposes, because if that was the case, Danny would have found out clues about other people with similar experiences as his own. He couldn’t possibly the only one being pursued if the demon ate people for lunch, right?

But none of that mattered right now. After Danny shared a connection with the demon, he realized that wanting to reduce the demon’s influence over him was but a pipe dream.

He didn’t fully comprehend what such ‘vastness of being’ meant in practical terms, but he knew that the demon had to be powerful. Though how powerful he actually was, Danny did not have the faintest idea.

Tutu had already shown magical abilities before from the way he could shapeshift and control darkness to an extent, but now Danny thought he could do much much more.

The mere chalice still resting on the floor implied that Tutu access to magical objects that defied science and logic. If he made it himself or got it somewhere else was also something worth pondering about.

What exactly were the extent of the demon’s powers and how he did those things were things that Danny would want to eventually to find out now that he could ask the demon some questions. But that was something for the distant future, he had more pressing issues right now and he doubted the demon would easily sell such information.

Danny could only discard his idealistic expectations about freeing himself from Tutu’s clutches for the foreseeable future and move on, focusing on what he could actually do to improve his situation.

Realistically speaking, things were not looking good. Although his relationship with the demon vastly improved from before, the overall picture was way worse.

Danny only had six days to prepare for something he didn’t really know too much about. That wasn’t an awful lot of time, but it wasn’t too short either.

Going from what he managed to dig out the demon’s mouth, Danny had to gather supplies and prepare for society’s collapse. But what supplies should he gather was the most important question.

Food and water were a no brainer, but what else? And where should he keep everything until shit went down? How would civilization’s end come to pass? Would he still have access to somethings for a while at least or would everything shut down immediately?

Running water, heating systems, electricity were all things that would make a whole lot of difference to have available, even if just for a brief period.

Danny could not help himself but to stop and think about what the demon said about humankind’s excessive reliance on luxuries.

Danny did not agree that by relying on those things people were weaker or decadent, but he did wonder how many times we ever stopped to think about those essential elements of modern life and truly appreciate them without taking them for granted.

“Sigh. There is so much to think about, it’s hard to concentrate on anything for more than a minute before something else pops out into my head. It’s already late, I should probably go to sleep to reset my mind. I have much to do tomorrow”. Danny said his thoughts out loud before tidying his bed.

He gave one last look to the magical chalice the demon left behind before grabbing it and putting it in his shadow without too much thought.

Soon after, Danny laid in his bed and not long after his head touched the pillow, Danny descended into a deep sleep.

He had been felling mentally fatigued all along from all the worrying and planning. He also hadn’t rested the day before so he felt very tired, even though he did manage to get some shut-eye in the afternoon before meeting the demon.

The next day he would have to start his preparations for an apocalypse.

Danny woke up at 05:00 AM the next morning, feeling refreshed after his very much needed rest. It was Saturday, which meant he had a little bit more than five days to get everything he needed.

Danny went about his usual routine while thinking about his next course of action.

“Okay. The first thing I need to do is probably check how much money I have to spend before deciding the best way to use it. I still have some leftovers from what my father left for me and Mom”.

“The house was rented for a year and I could try to get some of the deposit back if I cancelled the contract, but that would take some time and I am not sure I would get anything out of it so its probably best if I leave that aside”.

“Besides I haven’t thought where to place everything I’ll get yet, or if I should just leave everything in here. Anyway, it’s probably best if I keep the place after all. At least I already control the place and there won’t be any last-minute problems if I don’t raise any issues myself”.

“Besides, I don’t want to draw the landlady’s attention to the place while I am busy organizing everything. Explaining the modifications I did in the basement would also be a pain, so It’s probably better to give up on the deposit”.

“I also have made some investments that I can cash in early. By withdrawing them ahead of time I will lose some money, but that does not really matter. Whatever I leave behind will probably lose all worth a week from now anyway”.

Danny finished his morning exercise routine and took a quick shower before leaving his place. Just because he was pressed for time, Danny would not neglect his daily training. It was already second nature to him going through the movements, and he felt that maintaining his body in top shape might be even more important now than it ever was before.

The first place he visited was his bank agency. Danny liked to always do everything he needed in person, so he always went there if he needed to make some payment, invest into anything or just move money around really.

Danny was really old fashioned in some ways, which was probably the result of his upbringing.

Even though he spent some years living in an orphanage in Brazil, the manager of the place knew of his condition, so to protect the other kids, Danny was isolated and most of the people he interacted there were the older folks that helped around or worked there.

He was later transferred to another Christian-run orphanage in England, but it pretty much worked the same way there as well.

He approached the clerk working there that day but did not recognize him. He explained what he wanted to do, and very quickly he had withdrawn all his previous investments, against the advice of his helper.

Danny also asked for an increase in his credit limit, and after some persuasion, the clerk increased it by a few thousand.

He thought about applying for a loan as well, but he discarded the idea in the end. Danny had already decided to spend all of his savings going forward, but he had a very cautious nature.

Even though he made this mind, he was still guarded against the demon. Although he felt that the chances of it all being a trick, and that the demon had lied to him were slim, if Tutu really was doing something underhanded and trusting his words Danny spent all his money and indebted himself by taking a loan, then a week from now he would be utterly screwed.

By arranging things like this, and limiting his expenses to his own savings added a little bit by his credit limit, his prospects would still be terrible. But he would at least be able to turn the situation around with a lot of effort and hard work.

Danny did not spend too much time fretting over the possibility though. It was true he was cautious, but once he decided on his course of action, he would go through with it without hesitation.