Prisoners

Jake swam towards the shore and pulled himself up. He caught his breathe and started whimpering.

"Hey, Bill!" What the hell was that?"

"Don't know," Bill answered.

"What?" Jake kept panting, "Was that a demon or human?"

"My best guess is demon," Bill answered, "I've never seen human do that."

"Great," Jake said, "Where the hell are we?" he looked around. It was a canal under a bridge. He came up on the highway and saw the sign NYPD over the street.

"Holy shit! We've already arrived!" Jake exclaimed, "He teleported us 30 miles in a second."

"That's what worries me," Bill spoke, "This demon's power, also he was mentioning the term Deal a lot, I'm guessing that this one has a lot more backstory…"

"Oh, so you do have some meetings among yourselves after all," Jake commented, "Anyway, let's just pay them a visit."

He walked inside like he'd come to meet some old friend. The prisoners looked at him with murderous looks. Their stares made his stomach rumble.

"Hey, kid!" the warden asked him, "Whaddya need?"

"Oh, um…I've come to…talk to my old friend."

"You got a friend who's already here?" the warden frowned, "Your age?"

"Uh, no…I mean, he IS an old man," Jake corrected him.

"Oh, but…" warden replied, "There are no old man in our custody. How old is your man?"

"Really? He's supposed to be here," Jake was surprised, "He's between 50 and 60."

"Jake, Jake!" Bill called him, "Look at the clock."

Jake saw the time.

"Only ten minutes have passed since they arrested the old chap," Bill warned him, "We've teleported here. Mind your actions."

Jake understood what he needed to do, "Uh, sorry warden, he's uh…WAS arrested only a while ago. I was just uh, roaming… at a book shop. Then I just received the call, and just came here."

"And uh, where does your old…"

"Father."

"Father?" warden looked at him with doubt, "okay, father…live?"

"It's uh…Los Angeles…"

"And what are you exactly doing this far from there?"

"I'm uh…" Jake had to make up another lie, "Studying here."

"Oh," the warden was still suspicious. Maybe he wanted to ask him some more questions, but he seemed to soften a bit, "Well, you can just sit over there and have a nap. When your daddy arrives, you can just say goodbye and tell mama that he'll be a lot late for dinner."

"Thanks a lot!" Jake sighed in relief and sat on the waiting bench.

He tried to have a nap, but he couldn't. Bad thoughts were swarming his mind, thinking what will happen to Hans if he's left here, in this shit-hole.

"Hey, kiddo!" Jake looked at a cell, finding a red-nosed and one eyed European.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Lost you' way up'ere?"

"Nope, waiting for my pa."

"Ow…you'pa?" he laughed, "Ha! Ha! 'ow sweet!"

Jake didn't reply. But that guy continued laughing, "What a bond! Ye know…I once'ad a brat like ya!"

"What'd he do?" Jake smiled, "Had dollar bills instead of brain like you?"

"I used to go round'da bars once in a while, ya know…get boozed a bit. For a while, I don' remain ma'self. One day, I caught a bit quarrel with ma' wife. I don' know what 'appened later, but ma' son just came and stabbed me in the eye with a bloody fo'k. I got so mad, that I threw him off the flat!"

Jake got shivers in his backbone hearing the horrible description, "You must have done something pretty nasty, which aroused your son to kick your ass."

"Ha! Like I dunno…I just had some champagne, tequila, er…the usial stuff. But that brat, they found cocaine, and othe' stuff in 'is blood. Ye know how terrible that is? He's already ruined. He was gonna kill anyway fo' money. 'cause he's done that before. They got record. Good riddance, I banished the devil! 'cause they'd hang' im fo'sure!"

Jake couldn't listen to it anymore. He covered his ears. All these chittering, all the stories of sufferings and pains of these prisoners, they're sickening him. What type of world are they living in? He kept his head down and tried to run away from all these noises.

"Jake!" someone was calling his name from so far away.

"Jake! Jake!" suddenly he opened his eyes and saw Hans, behind the bars. He must have dozed off a bit.

"Oh, hey Hans!" he rubbed his eyes, "When did you arrive?"

"A bit ago! But how did you arrive so quickly?"

"Well, that's a long story."

"Give me a bit more than that."

"Long story short," Jake started, "That guy, Frank, whatever…he turned out to be a demon, a pretty nasty lying one, according to Bill. Then, he revealed that HE was the one who called the police. I don't know why. But there's something real fishy about that guy. Then, he suddenly teleported us here."

"Wow," he exclaimed, "Anything more?"

"Oh, I forgot…" Jake said, "Bill was talking about the deals he made, he was doubting something…"

"Deals, right…" Hans closed his eyes, "About them, I also had suspicion. If I'm right, then he could be Mephistopheles, the deceiver of deals."

"Great," Bill spoke after a long time, "Glad to see someone is on the same page with me."

"I heard a folk tale about Mephisto messing up some deal" Hans remembered, "But anyway, come over here QUICK!"

"What is it?" Jake stood up and walked over to him.

"They still haven't changed my clothes, so I still have got these," Hans showed his amulets, "Quick, take these!" he picked up one, "But DO NOT use this one, NEVER!"

"But why?"

"Don't ask," Hans stuffed them in his hand, "Anyway, all I know is that you'll put them into a better use than me."

"Alright, but what about your friend?" Jake took them and tied them in his belt.

"You didn't call her?"

"Uh, no…" Jake shook his head, "Didn't get the time. But Frank said that he'd call her."

"What?"

"Yes, he knew her."

"But…but how?"

"He said that they had met before," Jake said, "But I still can't trust him to call her."

"Then you must go and call her," Hans insisted, "The number is

"Alright!" Jake repeated the number.

"You got it! Now go!"

Jake went to the warden, trying to make a call, "Uh, hey warden! Could I…borrow your phone?"

"What for?" he looked back suspiciously.

"Uh…need to call my mom, "Jake made it up, "Gonna tell her…that dad's gonna be late for dinner."

"Oh," the warden seemed to believe that bluff, "Make it short!" he tossed the phone to Jake.

He caught it in mid-air, "Wow, Nokia!" then he saw that warden was giving him a ferocious look. He dialed up the number and pressed call.

"Ring! Ring!" the number was busy.

"Shit!" he thought and called again. This time the call was received. He said, "Hello!"

On the other end, a Japanese woman shot automatic gun in Japanese. Not understanding a bit, he said, "Uh…someone speak English? English?"

A moment of silence, then it said again, "Who is it?"

"Uh, it's Jacob…"

"Wrong number," the line was about to be cut.

"Wait! Wait!" Jake got an idea, "Hans is gonna be late for dinner."

The line was on holding for a few more moments. Then it disconnected.

Jake sighed in relief and returned it to the warden.

"Everything okay?" warden asked him, "Who was the Jacky Chan on the other side?"

"Uh, my mom is learning Japanese, tries to speak it all the time!" Jake laughed, suddenly the lights started blinking, "Uh…does this happen all the time?"

"Jake! Jake!" he heard Hans screaming out his name.

"Hey warden!" he looked at the warden, but he'd suddenly disappeared. He looked up, and all the lights had gone red.

"Hey, Hans!" he looked front and started running into the darkness. He could still hear Hans' voice calling out his name, but it was slowly fading away, farther into nowhere.

Walking into the dark, he could only follow the running water. The stench reminded him of the sewer. The SEWER!

Old memories flowed into his mind. After he…no, Bill, killed his mother, he'd fled into the sewers. He'd had difficulty staying below with the rats and insects. The BUGS! They really frightened him

Suddenly, he stumbled and fell on the water. His hand touched a concrete block. Yes, he remembered this block. This was the place where he passed nights after nights, alone, starving. And that's when the spiders came. The SPIDERS! Something tickled in his hand.

He took up the hand and placed it in front of his eyes. In the dimmed light, he couldn't see what was climbing his fingers, but the cold touch gave him the message. A TARANTULA! And a Black Widow! And lot more spiders!

He tried shaking them off. But they're a lot. He started screaming and started to tremble. Shit! Horrible little creatures. He could still hear Hams screaming, indistinctly. He needed to help him. But how could he? When he couldn't even help himself?

Wait, how did the demon behind this KNOW that he feared spiders? The only answer could be that it could infiltrate his mind. That means he's still trapped in some kind of trance. He needed to get out of this dream. But what could be the way? Spiders were covering up his whole body.

Suddenly he got an idea. If he died or got close to dying, he'd surely wake up, or so he had read somewhere.

Despite the spiders tickling, he managed to drag himself to the water crawling. Then he let go all his breathe out and pushed his face into the water.

One…two…three…he started counting. Before even one minute passed, he could feel dirty water entering his lungs. He felt like his intestines were coming out but suddenly a gash of wind brought a scent of woodroses from somewhere. He felt that his plan wasn't working. His instinct told him to instantly get up and breathe. Finally, he couldn't resist anymore. He lifted his head and howled for gasping breathe. Then he understood what he's done and banged his head on the floor in frustration.

Suddenly the darkness was gone from his vision. He looked around and saw that he was back in the prison. It worked!

He looked around and screamed, "Hey, Hans! It worked…" he stopped immediately as his eyes fell on Hans who was pushed on the wall, his feet one feet above the ground in the air, by a shadowy form.

"Hey, puppy-face!" the creature rotated its head as Jake screamed, but in the darkness he couldn't see it clearly, the light was on the other side. But it ignored him, like it was more curious with the prey on its hand.

"Eat this!" he grabbed that metal-demon's amulet in his left hand and slashed at the bars. The bars were cut off like chocolate sticks and the creature looked at him again, this time more annoyed. He rotated the scythe in his hand and pushed the other end of the scythe into the demon's chest, which turned out to morph into a spear-head. But at the last moment, the creature, still grabbing Hans by the neck, shoved him into the way of the spear's thrust.

Time slowed down, Jake's heart seemed to stop beating as he saw Hans' eyes blasted, blood flowing out of his mouth.

As to his surprise, the creature disappeared into a poodle of shadows. He quickly morphed the scythe into amulet form and grabbed Hans before he could fall on the ground. Everything seemed so silent to him, that he didn't seem to notice the flapping wings in front of him, the girlish laughter and the scent off woodrose fading out of the air.

"Don't blame…" Hans struggled and managed to pronounce those two words, as he touched his index finger on Jake's heart.

"It can't…" tears flooded out of his eyes.

"Holy shit!" the prison guards entered the cell and found him, covered in blood, guessing the only thing that came to their mind first, "He killed him!"

The last thing Jake remembered was a heavy stick bashing on his jaw and falling into darkness.