Hunting a Friend

'Is he waking? No, that's not possible. We need to change a few things.'

'It's alright, he'll fall out of the episode in a second.'

'The dream is fading.'

'Don't worry, it will hold.'

'This better be worth the cost of this damn thing.'

'It will work, I promise.'

Leo couldn't quite make out what was going on, but everything looked so shiny and clean for a second. He wasn't able to focus before his vision faded again.

Leo forced his eyes open in a startled wail. He glared across the dark room, returning to that image of jumbled cords and freshly spilled vomit on the floor. Red electricity burned him again, but he pushed through it. No more. No more.

'Poor guy.' Harvey's voice echoed from somewhere behind him. 'He looked more peaceful sleeping.'

'Maybe you should knock him out,' gargled the voice of that gross slug guy. Leo wasn't too partial to that idea, though his lovely dream unveiling his death was so rudely disturbed, somehow. He couldn't recall beyond the point of Hazel leaving, and that was frustrating like nothing else. Maybe he would find the knockout useful.

'I can't do that.' Harvey strolled into view. His shirt was off and his death tattoo smiled at Leo like it boasted some tantalising prize compared to this pain. 'He's still a frien–'

Leo spat saliva and bile on Harvey's shoe and let a growl leave his throat. He wanted to break free of the restraints suspending him. Oh, to give that man a cloud full of lightning to the head. Leo would burn this building down if he could.

'Animal,' Harvey muttered with a curled lip. He cocked that same boot and slammed into Leo's knees with the force of a moving car. Pain didn't strike Leo this time, but he heard the terrifying crack. The fear that he would go back to the way he was on Earth took him, feeling scarier than the likelihood of him dying here and having to reincarnate somewhere in Heaven or Hell. Death would be a vindication–a chance to come back stronger and with the fires of the entire afterlife behind him.

He would make them pay for this, and better yet, for keeping him from getting his wife back. In fact, Leo felt it might just be a better idea to storm Hell and take Hazel back that way. Raphael could bring him to the same spot, and he was far stronger than before. Why not? Who could stop him?

These thoughts and more took hold, and it took Leo too long to realise that something was fuelling them. Not only that, but he was changing. His body felt wrong, like it was taking on a life of its own.

Then, a door slammed open to reveal a familiar figure. Dressed in their usual battle clothing and floating above the floor with raw energy pulsing from them was Tiam. But Leo had already changed. His very mind had changed. He wasn't happy to see Tiam, but instead he wanted to tear them to ribbons.

Tiam laid on Leo's bed. It was honestly so much more comfortable than their own, why would one want to sleep elsewhere? It was not long before the terrible events in the lab that Tiam had already sensed something amiss. Honestly, they'd felt bad distancing themself from Leo, but it was for his own good. Leo was blinded by his old friendship with this Harvey guy to the point that he was letting terrible things slip. Harvey seemed like the kind of person to pick his friends and automatically decide the rest were enemies. This was the sort of person Tiam had dealt with enough of. They struggled with this type on Earth, and they were not getting mixed up with them again.

'Raph,' Tiam cooed. There was no response. They expected as much, considering Raphael said he wouldn't be back for hours. He was hoping to locate a sponsor of Harvey's to dig up any information on him that would help Leo see reason. Tiam agreed with the idea, but realised that they had no special plan to help. All they could do was sit around and wait for Leo to come back to his room. But it had been so long, that they couldn't help thinking it was time to do some snooping.

Tiam searched through the room for any sign of where Leo was, but nothing told them a single thing. Not spectacular in the slightest. There was, however, the clue of Leo's combat gear on the bed. Aside from his weapons which would be stored in his Key, Leo had left everything else here.

'Party time?' Tiam immediately went on a hunt through the residential area for any venues that would harbour partygoers. It didn't take Tiam long to find one, as they were quite the old expert in their time. Honestly, Tiam could smell the horniness and alcohol from half the district away. They entered a place called Half-a-Rebel and almost immediately saw Leo. Thank goodness for that.

Tiam ordered a pair of shots for themself and fit right into the scene. Their head pounded as the music seemed to get only louder, and they struggled to keep track of where Leo sat.

'Ready to go.' The lady who served the drinks winked at Tiam with a red slitted eye. They downed one glass then turned back to check on Leo, but he was already gone. They tottered forward a step and shook their head. He couldn't have moved that fast, could he? Tiam checked the front door, then scanned the crowd. What happened? Where in this pandemonium of grinding butts did Leo escape to? Tiam prayed that nobody had tried to take poor innocent Leo into the bathroom for a–

'You gonna finish that?' The woman–no, demon from the bar hissed. Tiam gave her a look up and down. Something about her body language told them this was not a good situation. They downed the shot and handed the glass over.

'Apologies, I lost a friend.' Tiam shrugged and hugged themself. Did the room get colder or did drinks have that kind of effect here?

'Was he a man dressed in black with a cute little face? Maybe a Spanish descent?'

Spectacular.

Tiam lifted off the floor, bending Ruh and summoning their larger blade to their hand. This was about to get far from spectacular.

'What the fuck did you do with my friend, demon?'