Past nine o'clock, Soren’s van approached through the narrow streets of a very wealthy neighborhood. Many luxurious mansions stood on each side of the hill, each with a magnificent and private view of the city’s skyline.

  After checking the address on the loose paper with those marked on the street, Soren finally stopped the van in front of a modern-looking gate, one that led right inside of a manor.

  “It seems that the bastard who hired you is extremely wealthy,” said the demon, sitting unamused in the passenger’s seat, seatbelt totally off.

  In the meantime, Soren couldn’t help but think about how he was driving a demon in his uncle’s car.

  “Why do you say he’s a bastard? We don’t even know these people,” he reasoned, to which the demon could only laugh.

  “There is no person in this world that became rich without doing anything wrong. One’s fortune is always won on another's misfortune.”

  “Why are you giving me moral lectures all of a sudden?”

  The more he thought about his situation, the less sense things started to make.

  “You don’t understand at all. What I am trying to say is that nothing bad would happen if we were to steal all the money from this bastard, you know what I mean?”

  “Shut up instead,” Soren cut him short. “They could have cameras with audio here at the entrance.”

  The demon twisted his eyes and crossed his arms before sinking into the seat. Soren finally rolled down the window and announced his arrival. Not long after, the gates opened right away, inviting him inside.

  He drove the car through well-maintained gardens and fountains until finally parking in a small roundabout.

  “So, you are just going to leave me here?” the demon complained from the car window, wanting to get out.

  “Actually, I was thinking you could come with me.”

  His acceptance made the demon smile with an evil grin. Soon enough, they both stood right in front of the mansion’s main door. However, despite knocking a couple of times, nobody seemed to answer.

  “It’s me! You told me to come here after dinnertime, right? Why are you trying to fuck with me now?” he yelled at the tall, cold door.

  Then, Soren recognized the voice of the old man from behind the door. He sounded extremely anxious, almost perplexed.

  “What is that thing doing right next to you?!”

  Soren raised his head and looked toward the security camera surveilling them. “It is a demon, as you can see, but he is not here to do any harm, only to help!” he assured, only to be met with some resistance.

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “If you want to make sure so badly, you can establish a contract with him. Demons can’t break their contracts as much as they want to.”

  Soren then turned to Argos, expectantly, only for him to look away with reluctance.

  “Let’s make the deal then. I promise not to kill or hurt anyone or anything in exchange for you letting me into your house,” he recited, gritting his teeth.

  Of course, demons were not used to making contracts that benefit both sides equally. However, Argos still had to follow Soren’s wishes.

  “You heard that, old man. Is that enough?”

  After a couple of seconds of deliberation, the main door of the house finally opened, revealing the man dressed in a tux.

  “Please pardon my insistence. You are free to come in.”

  Soren crossed without any problem, while Argos stopped for a couple of seconds, getting ever closer to the man—only to divert at the last second.

  He’s only doing that to look intimidating... Soren sighed.

  As he entered, the boy observed many paintings and sculptures that decorated the place. In all his years of living, he had never experienced such a level of luxury before. The man soon took the initiative and suggested for Soren to sit in a very expensive living room.

  Soren sat on the sofa, immediately noticing the quality of the material as well as the comfort of the cushions. Argos followed his motion, sitting unamused and just leaning back.

  “Allow me to introduce myself properly,” said the man as he stood right in front of the boy. “I am the butler of this mansion.”

  Just the butler?

  “Soren O’Connors. Freelance demon hunter,” he said while stretching his hand, only to be politely declined by the man.

  “The one conducting business with you is one of the masters of the house… Please wait until I get his presence.”

  Soon enough, the butler went upstairs to the second story, leaving the human-demon pair on their own.

  “Needless to say... just stay seated, okay?” Soren insisted to his demonic companion.

  So the guy sent his butler to make sure. It makes sense to send someone dispensable to do shady business, but he’s still close to the one we’re going to make business with. He either has a lot of confidence or...

  Finally, the sound of steps descending through the modern-looking staircase brought their attention. The mansion’s butler arrived in the company of what seemed to be a teenage boy, about thirteen or fourteen years old.

  The young boy had gotten himself ready to speak, but startled at Argos’ intense look staring him down.

  “Hello... I am the one who wanted to talk with you. My name is Julian Borbon,” he said in perfect English, very much to Soren’s relief.

  Soren repeated his presentation, this time finalizing the handshake with the somewhat insecure child.

  “Borbon, like whiskey?” he said, in reference to America’s traditional drink.

  “More like past royalty, but the whiskey works too,” the boy with messy brown hair and large eyes said while scratching the back of his head.

  He’s obviously nervous and unsure about this... Just what are they going to ask from us?

  “Alright then, you sent your butler over there to meet up, but I am still unbeknownst to what you want me to do for you.”

  The servant tried to interfere, only to be stopped by the boy, who took the initiative on his own.

  “It’s a bit of a complicated story.”

  “Well, I’m all ears,” Soren said as he sat back in his seat.

  Understanding the situation, the old man got himself ready to serve some old wine in a very expensive piece of glassware and served it on the table in front of a very serious-looking Soren.

  Feeling the extravagance, he pretended to calmly take a sip, only to feel the ugly sour taste, doing his best to hide his irritated face.

  “Sorry, but before I start... is that an actual demon?” the young rich boy pointed out.

  “What else could it be? Somebody dressing up like a dog?” he asked jokingly.

  “That is... actually a possibility,” Julian responded, his manners preventing him from biting his nail.

  Argos suddenly rose his head from his exhausted pose and stared at the boy with intensity. “I am a millenary existence. I’ve walked amongst your kind even before you played around with sticks and stones. I am Argos! The great canine demon!” He introduced himself with mightiness.

  “And now he works for me,” Soren said while tucking him in the ribcage and interrupting his speech. “Let’s just get to the chase already,” he rushed everyone.

  “Well then... in that case, let me explain everything from the beginning. A couple of months ago, my father bought a couple of antique books from an auction house. He said that one of those tomes supposedly contained information on how to summon an ancient demon.”

  “A grimoire,” Argos interrupted. Despite his attention peaking, he still pretended to be uninterested in the matter.

  “A grimoire, yes... I believe the original writing was in ancient Babylonian, but there happened to be a Latin transcription right next to it. The thing did mention requirements and possible contracts to perform with a certain demonic entity.”

  Soren immediately pushed himself forward, putting both hands together before asking, “Where is that ‘grimoire’ right now?”

  “That’s very much the current problem... The other day, a friend from school and I sneaked into my father’s library to read through the book.”

  “Let me guess,” Argos interjected, “you summoned the demon and he killed both your parents and your friend,” he said, unamused.

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  “Uh... my parents are actually traveling right now. They don’t know about this,” he admitted with shame, the butler also turning his head toward the floor.

  Oh, so it’s not as bad as I thought?

  “In the beginning, he didn’t do anything besides going through it. We were both curious, but I didn’t want anything stupid to happen. However, I didn’t know he ended up taking the book with him that one time.”

  “Do you have any idea why he would have done that?”

  “I... kinda do... In our school, there are a couple of guys that pick on him regularly. I thought that they would back off if I intervened, but they also started to get involved with me as well. I believe my friend took the grimoire to finally deal with them,” he said while trying his best not to crack down. “That happened three days ago. My friend hasn’t been to school since.”

  “I see. It is most likely that your friend is dead,” Argos concluded without a filter. Soren also very much thought the same.

  “I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that way, but I received this message just yesterday...” he said while extending his phone to the pair.

  “‘Please, don’t come to school tomorrow...’” Soren read out loud, very uncomfortably. “So he is planning to do something very stupid in your school soon.”

  I understand... Truly, this would be the kind of case that would have been better handled by an authority like the Commission. However, if that were to happen, both the boy and his family would go to jail for interacting with the grimoire. That being said, this boy had no other option than to look for someone who could get his hands dirty and clean his mess.

  “Then, my petition is for you to find my friend and stop him before anything wrong happens,” he pleaded.

  Having processed all the relevant information, Soren finally stood from the sofa and positioned in front of the large glass pane window, whose views led to the nighttime city.

  “Before anything, let me make clear to you that I am no superhero. I am a demon killer. If your friend has been tricked or consumed by a demon, I’ll have no other choice but to kill him... That’s very much considering we can find him on time. Right now, it’s about to be ten o'clock, so we got at least ten hours before it happens. In the meantime, your friend has three days ahead of us... You understand what I’m saying?”

  Julian could only tighten his grip before finally nodding, resigned.

  “Now, what are you gonna offer in exchange for cleaning your mess?”

  Following a sign from the boy, the butler carried over a metallic briefcase and put it onto the tea table, showing all the bills in cash.

  “Fifty thousand euros. That’s as much as we could gather without raising the attention of the masters,” he explained.

  That’s a shit-ton of money... but a rich family like this must have even more.

  “If the job gets any more complicated, I will ask for an extra bit. Does that work for you?”

  By that point, they very much knew that there weren’t many options or time. Hence, the deal was carried out almost instantly.

  However, Soren decided to leave with Argos without taking any of the money upfront, very much to the surprise of the servant.

  “Wait, are you not gonna take part of the money?”

  “I’ll take it as soon as the job is done. It’s not like I don’t know where you live,” Soren said before leaving the house into the driveway, not without referring to the boy Julian first.

  “I need you to tell me where your friend lives. I also need to know everything about those bullies you mentioned.”

  *

  At some point, the moon hung high over the empty city, quietly signaling the approach of midnight.

  Soren parked the van right in front of a luxurious house—smaller than Julian’s, but still nothing short of extravagant. He noticed the lights on the first floor were still lit, most likely because the parents couldn't sleep after realizing their son had disappeared.

  “Okay, I’m gonna need you to help me sneak into the second floor,” Soren said as he unfastened his seatbelt.

  “Remind me… why exactly do I have to help you with everything now?” Argos grumbled, stepping out with clear reluctance.

  “Well… would you rather do all the work by yourself?” Soren joked, pointing the pistol at him lazily, moving it up and down like a conductor signaling him to hurry up.

  In the end, Argos gave in with a groan, boosting Soren up toward a window on the second floor—the one that led directly into the missing boy’s bedroom. Thanks to the demon’s physical prowess, the hunter climbed up with little effort.

  Even in the darkness, Soren could make out the chaos inside the room. The place had clearly been torn apart—probably by the police or the parents in a desperate search for clues. His priority now was to look for anything useful. A trace. Something that would lead them to the boy… and the grimoire.

  A few minutes later, Soren jumped back out the window straight into the demon’s arms.

  “Well?” Argos asked, catching him.

  “There wasn’t much... but I got this,” Soren said as he pulled out a pair of underpants from his jacket.

  Argos stared in disbelief for a few seconds before bursting into laughter—sharp, guttural, and way too loud for comfort. “And what exactly do you plan to do with that?”

  Soren stared back at him in silence. The realization hit Argos almost immediately.

  “You… you’re seriously—” His face twisted into a mix of horror and disgust. “The more humiliation I endure... the faster I’m gonna lose the last bits of my existential power.”

  “It is what it is,” Soren shrugged. “If it bothers you that much, I can just look the other way.”

  And without consulting his opinion, he actually just turned around and waited.

  One day... One day, I swear… the demon seethed internally.

  Once Soren turned back, he caught the underpants that were thrown back.

  “I’ve got the scent, but the trail’s pretty faint.”

  “We’ll search until we can’t anymore,” Soren replied.

  With that, they drove around different parts of the city. But no matter where they went, the trace refused to settle anywhere. It was as if the boy was constantly on the move.

  Several hours passed. By 3 a.m., Soren sighed, gripping the steering wheel. “There’s no point in driving around anymore.”

  “What’s the plan now?” Julian asked over the phone, his voice strained with exhaustion. He clearly hadn’t slept a minute.

  “We know where he’s going to show up in a few hours. So there’s only one thing left to do—prepare.”

  “Are you sure? I mean... there’s gonna be a lot of people and—”

  “Which is why I’m calling you,” Soren cut in. “I need you and the butler to follow my instructions perfectly. No mistakes.”

  Once all the details were discussed, Soren drove straight toward Julian’s school.

  “Exactly what I expected from a rich kids’ school... security everywhere,” he muttered, watching from outside the perimeter. “I’m gonna need a distraction.”

  Argos groaned. Why do I keep agreeing to this human’s nonsense? Maybe death and fading into nothingness wouldn’t be so bad after all...

  “C’mon, help me out. I swear I’ll make it up to you,” Soren insisted.

  “You better.”

  With a dramatic sigh, Argos approached the fence surrounding the property. A couple of security guards were patrolling with trained German shepherds.

  The moment the dogs caught the demon’s scent, their composure shattered. Barking, howling, growling—trying desperately to pull away from the handlers. A devilish grin spread across Argos’s face.

  As the guards struggled to control the frenzied dogs, Soren threw on a ski mask and sprinted toward the fence. He climbed over with practiced ease—wincing only slightly when he hit the ground on the other side.

  Seconds later, Argos launched a duffel bag filled with supplies over the fence.

  With the guards fully distracted, Soren slipped into the school. He avoided cameras as best he could, even pulling out his silenced pistol to shoot out a few when necessary. With luck, security wouldn’t notice until it was far too late.

  Inside, an eerie silence filled the halls. The place, empty and dark, felt less like a school and more like the setup for a horror story.

  What distracted Soren the most, though, was the realization that he had never attended school properly. Back in Eureka, his education was limited to whatever Father Montgomery—the town’s priest—had been able to teach him. Mostly religious studies. Barely any math. No science.

  Even if I missed it... people always say school sucks anyway. Maybe I didn’t miss much after all, he reassured himself with a smirk.

  Walking through the hallways, he began hiding weapons anywhere he could—inside lockers, behind desks, even tucking a short-barreled shotgun into a janitor’s cleaning cart.

  Next stop: the chemistry lab. Inside the storage room, he gathered every bottle labeled with some dangerous chemical symbol and grouped them together.

  His preparation was meticulous. After his run-in with the alligator demon, Soren knew better than to underestimate anything—especially something summoned from a grimoire. The goal was simple: control the battleground, stack the odds in his favor.

  Once everything was set, he signaled Argos to hide elsewhere on the campus. Then, he wedged himself inside a janitor’s supply closet—silent, pistol aimed down toward the floor, waiting for dawn.

  At 8 a.m., the school opened.

  Julian arrived in the back seat of a luxury car, scanning the crowds with restless eyes, desperate to catch a glimpse of his missing friend. Meanwhile, the butler approached the main security gate, inspecting the mess that the dog incident had left behind.

  Then... a hand grabbed Julian’s shoulder.

  Turning around, he was met not by Santiago—but by the sneering faces of his bullies.

  “Well, well… What happened, Borbon? Still looking for your girlfriend?” one taunted.

  “You little—”

  “Oh! Look at that—he’s mad! What are you gonna do, huh?” another shoved him forward. “Your parents might have money, but so do ours. Even if you complained, the school’s gonna side with us. They wouldn’t dare piss off their biggest donors.”

  “Yeah, we don’t like that stuck-up attitude of yours. Maybe it’s time someone taught you a real lesson.”

  Julian backed away, fists clenched, but the odds were clearly against him—until a gruff, adult voice cut through the noise.

  “What the hell do you little shitters think you’re doing? Get lost. Back to your rat holes.”

  The bullies whipped around to see... the janitor. Or rather, Soren, dressed like one—mop in hand, eyes sharp.

  “Who do you think you’re talking to? Our parents—”

  “Don’t care.” Soren shut it down, shoving them aside like flies. Then he turned to Julian. “Did you tell the butler what he needs to do? And you remember your part too, right?”

  “Yeah... I remember.”

  “Good.” Soren patted him on the shoulder. For a brief moment, pity flickered in his eyes. The kid was way out of his depth. But then again... so was Soren once.

  Stepping away, he approached the clearly nervous butler, handing him a plastic bag.

  “Uh... what’s this for?” the butler asked.

  “My clothes. Just in case I don’t get the chance to change later.”

  The school bell rang, signaling the final warning for students to get to their classrooms. But that’s when Julian’s eyes widened—his friend was walking toward the entrance.

  Soren and the butler both caught sight of him too.

  Julian sprinted over, grabbing Santiago by the shoulders. His heart sank as he noticed the dark circles under his eyes, the pale, sickly complexion... like he hadn’t slept for days.

  “Santiago... your parents—everyone’s been looking for you,” Julian pleaded, his voice cracking.

  But Santiago barely moved. Barely even breathed.

  “Boy… he told you not to come,” he muttered.

  Julian froze, shocked. Soren adjusted his janitor’s cap with a quiet sigh.

  “What are you saying? Just... just stop. Don’t do anything stupid.”

  But Santiago didn’t answer. He simply turned and walked past them—straight into the building. Right alongside all the other students arriving late.

  So that’s how it’s gonna be...

  Inside, the teachers and staff immediately noticed the return of the missing boy. Calls were made to his parents. Questions buzzed like flies.

  But Soren... Soren just quietly mopped the floors, watching Santiago from the corner of his eye.

  A ticking time bomb... waiting to go off.

  And word spread fast. Even the bullies caught wind of it—narrowing their eyes, ready to cause trouble of their own.