I believe in you, I can show you that

I can see right through all your empty lies

I won't stay long, in this world so wrong

Say goodbye, as we dance with the devil tonight

Don't you dare look at him in the eye

As we dance with the devil tonight

Dance With The Devil – Breaking Benjamin

The end of the corridor came into view, and one of the men let go of me. Instinctively I wanted to try and escape, but it seemed like they'd expected me to. The man compensated for the lack of restraints on my left by gripping onto my right upper arm extra tightly, and only after a few moments I felt my fingers tingle from a lack of blood flowing through them.

I attempted to pull my arm back a bit, which only resulted in the guy yanking it more towards him. Throwing him a red hot glare I stood still, not willing to give in but also not wanting to get hurt again.

"That's better, you're already learning..." The dude smirked, and I just tried to ignore him. The more I reacted to their teasing, the more they liked it, so I decided to try and shut them out. Keeping the eye contact a bit longer I moved my free hand through my hair, messily combing the strands out of my face.

The other guy had opened the very last door on the left, and signalled his colleague holding me. The dude started walking and I stumbled along, but just when they were about to get me inside a voice called one of their names from the other end of the hall. The man holding the door looked up and his colleague followed, and so I saw the man walking up to us as well.

The man standing by the door behind me spoke up first. "Hey Thomas, what's the ma-... Whoa, is that blood?"

As the man came closer I noticed the blood on his face too, staining his mouth and chin. What happened to him that got him in such a state?

"That is blood, you saw that right..." He said, clearly having a hard time talking. "Motherfucker punched me in the jaw... I tell ya, don't go near that bird-like bitch's cage, because that thing can be nasty!"

Did... Did Mark do that to him? It had to be, who else could he be talking about? Though, I never imagined him being that violent... I turned away a bit, looking at the wall besides me, and muttered under my breath.

"...Probably deserved it..."  I spoke to myself, almost inaudibly, but of course the man holding my arm still heard me. He rapidly raised his hand and with it my arm as well, until I could only barely stay upright on just my toes. Struggling in his grasp I wanted my feet back on the ground, but the guy was tall enough to hold me where I was for a bit longer.

"As far as I know, nobody asked you for an opinion, creature." He hissed close to my ear. "You might want to shut your trap before we make you."

I was seriously considering talking back or throwing him a witty insult, but the injured employee cleared his throat, getting his colleague's attention again. The guy lowered me until I had my heels back on the floor, tightening the grip he had on me to remind me of my place here.

After a quick glance at me the dishevelled man in front of us started talking again. "Well, anyway, I was on my way to Dina to get this checked, what are you up to with this green bean?"

"Oh, we're putting it away here, we just caught it in the park a while ago..." The guy by the door explained proudly, and I rolled my eyes.

I didn't know how exactly they'd found out I wasn't an ordinary man, since I was sure I'd hidden my hair and eyes well enough... They must've gotten some help, and still here they were, boasting about how they were the ones to capture me. Douchebags...

"Speaking of which, let's just get this over with, I'm getting tired of dragging this around." The man continued, and after a single nod to his colleague they pushed me in the room and slammed the door shut immediately.

"F-Fuck!"

Surprised by the sudden actions I stumbled and tripped over my own feet, but managed to catch myself on my hands before I fell face first onto the stone floor, only slightly scraping my palms. I quickly turned and sat up, listening quietly for anything else the men might say.

"Okay, that's done. I'll go tell Killjoy we put the creature away, and you can go back into the park, I guess..." One of them spoke.

"That's fine by me, man, I'll see ya later." The other guy replied, before turning to the third employee. "And good luck with that jaw of yours, but you know Dina, she'll get you all fixed up again."

"Yeah, thanks, I better go see her now." That was definitely that third guy, his laboured talking gave him away.

Different sets of footsteps sounded from behind the door and slowly died out, leaving me in silence. I pushed myself off the ground and took a glance around the room I was in.

It wasn't that big, but still fairly sized, definitely bigger than the office we'd been in. There were no windows, only a couple of holes in the wall near the ceiling. They were rather small, and let a bit of light and some fresh air inside. A worn-out mattress laid on the floor against the back wall, and that was literally the only thing in the whole cell. Guess my room tour ends here, then...

I walked up to the smelly thing and sat down, pulling my legs onto it and crossing them so I got off the floor completely. At least I have this, so I won't have to sleep on the cold stone... It sounded stupid, but I could really use some optimism, it's pretty much the only thing I had.

I sighed deeply. How could this have gone so wrong? Everything had been more or less planned out, and I wasn't drawing anyone's attention. At least, that was the case before the dudes jumped me... The consequences of that event were enormous though. I never even got close to helping Mark, Myrna had to watch me breaking my promise and now I was stuck here, where they can do god-knows-what to me...

Let's just hope I can get out of here before too long and find Mark, I still had a whole lot of explaining to do after all. He has to know who I actually am, and then we can figure out what we're gonna do to escape this place for good. But first, I might take a rest. If I want to come up with a decent plan I should have enough energy, and by now I just feel drained, tired of fighting and being surrounded by people who only see me as some kind of weird creature.

Slowly I stretched my legs out to one side of the mattress and laid down, slightly curled up with my back to the door. Even sooner than I'd expected I felt myself drift off, and I fell asleep.

====================

My eyes were still locked on the dusty path that passed by our cages, the sun's rays barely reaching over the treetops anymore. I didn't want to admit it and I stayed on the lookout, but deep down I knew it for a while already.

Jack's not coming.

The last visitors passed us by ages ago, and by now the park would probably be closing up, asking the last people to leave so the gates can be locked. If he'd been in the park, he would've reached us way earlier. The tiny voice had been right, he broke his promise...

Still... I didn't want to agree with it, I just couldn't believe Jack would actually abandon us to save his own skin, and certainly not after getting our hopes up. It's just... not like him. From where I was sitting on the floor I could tell Maitiu was thinking the same, a sombre expression similar to mine on his face and staring off into the distance, a head full of questions. I wanted to say something, lighten the heavy mood, but I couldn't think of anything that would cheer him up without having to make empty promises myself.

Sighing heavily I tore my gaze away from the path and looked over to my left, where the big building peeked over the trees and in between the bushes-

Oh yeah, I'd nearly forgotten about the flannel I hid in the bushes, at least that's still here... Longing for a bit of comfort I inched towards the side of my cage and pulled the red and black shirt out of the branches. I held it in my hands and just looked at it for a second, thinking about that night when he'd given me this.

Another sigh escaped as I put it on, crossing my arms and resting them on my knees after I got the shirt on properly. I really didn't know what to do, I just wanted to know what had gotten into him, where he went, why he didn't come to us... But there was no way of getting an answer if I couldn't ask him that question in person...

"Mark?"

I lifted my head and turned towards Maitiu, who was sitting near the bars of his enclosure.

"Yeah?"

"Jack isn't coming, is he?"

The way he said that, not like a question but as a statement, it broke my heart. I really wanted to tell him it would be fine, that everything would turn out to be as we hoped it would, but at this point there was no benefit in lying to him.

"No, he's not. I don't know why, but... I'm pretty sure we shouldn't expect him here anymore."

====================

Right when I'd sorted everything out on my desk there was a knock on my door, again. I rolled my eyes, couldn't I just have some peace and quiet here?

"Come in." I groaned and another employee walked in, I think his name was Gary, or at least something along those lines.

"Good evening, sir, I came to tell you about an... incident earlier today, involving the new attraction."

I lifted one eyebrow, slightly confused. "The winged creature? What about it?"

"Well, Thomas and I were inside its cage, to prove to the visitors that its wings were real. They couldn't see them properly because the thing was hiding them on purpose, so we went in to calm the visitors' complaining. When we were showing the people its wings, the thing's eyes turned all black and it suddenly attacked us! It went for Thomas first and punched him square in the jaw, then he grabbed me by the neck and tried to choke me."

Only now when he'd said that I noticed how hoarse he sounded, and that there were red marks on the man's throat, forming the distinct shape of fingers. So our winged friend really did a number on them...

"Is your colleague fine then? Where is he?"

"He went to get checked on by Dina, he's probably still there." He answered. "The thing had quite a strong punch..."

I set my hands on my desk and sat up more again, trying to get an idea of the whole scenario. Apparently, Lucy still doesn't know who to listen to, even after being punished already... Of course I didn't want it dead by the end of the week, that's why I'd given the order to bring it some water after almost two days without. Now, though...

I guess we'll have to teach the redhead another lesson, but the classic way doesn't seem to be that effective. We'd have to figure something out.

"Now, I suppose there was still something more you want to say?" I asked the man in front of my desk.

"Well, we would very much like a harsh punishment for the thing, it tried to kill us!" He replied angrily, though still somewhat polite towards me.

"That's what I was thinking too. The only problem is that our ordinary methods don't seem to work as they should... Maybe we sho-"

"Sir?"

I looked behind the employee and saw that there was standing someone in the doorway, and after another second I recognised the guy from before.

"You again? What is it now?"

"I just came to tell you that we put the creature in the cell at the end of the corridor, if you'd need to find it." The man replied.

"Ah, good... Thank you for letting me know. You may go now."

After a quick nod he stepped back and closed the door, leaving me with the other guy, and an idea. The green-haired thing was under our control now as well, and seemed to care a lot about our misbehaving fallen angel. I'd dare to bet on it that that feeling was mutual, and that Lucy might be more motivated to cooperate when we show him what we can do to his little friend...

I smirked, and looked back at the bruised man before me. "I think I have an idea for Lucifer... You don't have to worry about it, I'll make sure an incident like this won't ever happen again."

I sat back a little, pleased with the plan forming in my thoughts, and dismissed the employee after giving him his task. I'd decided that I would give the green-haired creature just a little time to recover, so I told the guy to bring Lucifer here in an hour or two. The man walked out and left me with my paperwork, scattered all over my desk.

Shuffling through the pages I found what I was looking for: the greenie's brand new list of characteristics. I loved writing these, thinking about what should be put on the information boards, making up names for the creatures... Smiling slightly I read over what I'd written for the newest addition to the park.

Dendron, the Forest Demon

This creature was found inhabiting the nearby forest, hidden in the trees. Its naturally green hair helps the thing blend in with its surroundings, which makes it quite difficult to spot. Like many kinds of demons, this typically Irish kind possesses the Evil Eye, the source of their dark powers. Known to be hostile towards people who come into 'his' woods, it's not afraid to attack unsuspecting travellers or hikers, regularly going as far as killing them in the process. We advise visitors to avoid looking directly into its eyes, as the gaze of the demon can be lethal.

I laid the page back down, the information ready to be written on a sign. Now all that was left to do in preparation was choosing a cage in the park where it would be put into. That is, after we're done with it... There was still time though, a whole week before the next opening day, so I didn't need to hurry.

What I did know already was that I wasn't going to put it near the fallen angel, I wasn't going to take any risks with those two. As I thought that, I shrugged to myself. There were enough empty cages near this building, we'd only have to choose one when we had the creature ready to go outside.

Leaning against the back of my chair I closed my eyes in contentment, just for a minute. This had been a good day.