When the three of them had gotten half way through the cell block, the beast had begun howling and charging at the cage once more. Though somehow it was harsher this time. Ron scowled as he looked back to where the creature's 'enclosure' was. "We better pick up the pace. Hopefully, he'll calm down when we get outta here."

Charlie looked back to Adan, who'd fallen behind a bit. She was staggering as she scraped against the wall. "Ron, wait a minute," Charlie called as she hurried back over to her friend and slung the girl's arm around her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

She shook her head.

As they reached Ron, he took the phone and walked in front of them. Every now and then Charlie could see him looking at Adan through the corner of his eye. A scowl settling across his features. However, he never voiced his thoughts.

As they neared the door out of the cellblock, Ms. Cabot pulled the door open just as another scream echoed through the cell. Ron hurried out. Soon followed by Charlie and Adan, both of whom turned back only to see Ron and Ms. Cabot throwing their weight against the door.

The lights went red and the locks within the door instantly bolted shut. Even if they were the sturdiest locks in the world, there was no feeling of safety as the door shut. Not even for Ron and Sofia, who backed away as the light slowly returned to normal. "Emergency procedures initiated. Please stand by."

A small groan brought their attention away from the door. Ms. Cabot hurried to get a chair for the girl and then wandered towards a door between a pair of filing cabinets. She returned to them with a bottle of water in her hand. "Here, drink this."

Charlie found herself muttering out a small thanks as the woman tended to her young friend. In all her life she hadn't seen the girl become so sickly.

"That is quite strange. Do you not agree Charlotte?" She looked down to the feline as its grim voice entered her mind. Purple-ish eyes locked on the girl who was holding her head as if she was experiencing some intense migraine. "Young children are known to have Spirit Paths much like untethered individuals — twisted like disfigured tree branches. They experience intense pain when they first hear their daemon... "

"That makes almost no sense, though. It's nigh impossible for a non-tethered individual to hear a daemon. Why would it not speak to us instead?" Charlie brought her thumb up to her lips and nibbled on her nail for a moment as she let out a long breath from her nose.

The feline whacked the back of her leg as a rumbling growl rose up from her throat. "I do not know, but you must never assume that you know everything about an investigation. We know very little about the bond of daemon and Master. Remember that."

Charlie frowned. "Sometimes I wonder who the master is between us..."

The girl received another whack from the feline's club-like tail and inched away from the daemon. "Hey, will you stop that."

Adan cracked a small smile. "Thanks guys... I dunno what got into me back there."

Even though Adan seemed a bit chipper again, Charlie had some doubts that her friend was completely fine again. Yet, she didn't want to say anything right now. She'd ask a little bit later. Maybe she was just stressed from coming face to face with that creature... or maybe Raquel had a point.

Slowly, but surely, the room had become quiet as Ron was in the other room looked through the cameras. While Adan, Charlie, and Ms. Cabot sat in the room looking at the seemingly sturdy door. It felt like at any moment the daemon might get out. But, Charlie reasoned that it would be harder to get past a solid door.

She raked a hand through her blond hair as her mind went specifically to the daemon. Its speed was far too great for something that was — obviously — mortally wounded. It wasn't natural. And neither was the black mist oozing out of its wounds and rolling to the ground, where it initially pooled under its body. Daemons bled the same stuff humans did, or, so she believed.

Under normal circumstances, the creature would have been dead or at least very close to it. I suppose Raquel is right... I can't think I know everything about what's happening. I've got to keep my mind open or I'm no better than the religious fanatics in the other Daemonology Departments across the world.

Ron walked out of the room and sighed. "Well, he's still in the cell, but he did bend the bars pretty far... So, if he really wanted, he could probably get out, so we'll be keeping watch over him for a while." He sighed as he plopped down on the floor.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" It had struck her as strange that she and Adan had been called to the secondary station rather than the main one. "Who really called us here and why?"

Ms. Cabot sat up straight as a board. "What do you mean."

Ron leaned back against the filing cabinet and looked at the woman. "Come on Sofia, you gotta tell them sooner or later."

Ms. Cabot... Sofia, stood up from her spot and sighed. "Well, the mayor called you to order an investigation after we brought some things up to her." She sucked in a deep breath. "It had come to our knowledge that our father — the chief of police — had lied to us. He'd said the three daemons executions were approved by him and the Mayor, but when I spoke to the parents of one master, who's underage, they said that they'd never even spoken to either the mayor or our father."

She twiddled her fingers as she got quiet. "So we spoke to the other two masters. Then after arriving at the consensus that no one had bothered to speak with the masters or their guardians between capture and execution, we went straight to her..."

"Could the master have spoken with them?" Adan questioned.

Charlie looked down at her friend to see that she looked significantly better. "Actually," Charlie started off as her younger friend shifted to look up at her. "Should the affected master be a minor, the parents hold the power. So, should they go to the youth, they'd basically be breaking the law."

"Even if it wasn't... to kill a daemon is against the will of the Maker."

To say the least, she was more expecting Adan or maybe Sofia, to say something like that. But, it was Ron. Who'd have thought he'd be a follower of the Maker too. Well, at least he's not as bad as some people back in Montgomery.

Sofia sighed. "Yes. Which is strange to me... why wouldn't they look for an alternate way to deal with these daemons rather than death?" She rubbed her forehead as if she had been attempting to get the gears to churn out a new idea.

Adan looked to the door behind Sofia. "What about that daemon?"

"The big bad wolf-dog here... Well they tried to do the same to him too. From what our friend, Frank, said, the Harvell's had him locked away in the house while he was going through — whatever turned him into that monstrosity — and to keep him away from our dad. She'd been really jumpy ever since news of the executions got out." He sighed. "But, he got out and killed those people. Then we were called and no matter what we tried, nothing worked to take him down. Except the tranquilizers that is."

It didn't sit well with her at all. Even if she didn't know about this stuff, this mayor seems pretty shady. "What do you mean by that last part. Did you have specific orders to deal with the daemon on sight?"

All Sofia did was nod at the question. Yet, beyond that, neither seemed to want to go into further details of the incident or anything else really. For some reason, Charlie had a feeling that the information they were willing to give was proportional to the amount of trust they had in them. Not quite there yet, but not completely distrustful either. It was good in her opinion, they need some level of trust like this.

The question was: how were the townspeople themselves going to react to them?