When Erin saw Andrew for the first time in more than a month, Andrew was staring blankly in space. The anesthesia had stopped working after five minutes, the scientists had taken it as an excuse to test Andrew’s pain threshold.

“Are you ok?” Asked Erin, moving slowly to Andrew. “Andrew, look at me, please.”

Andrew’s eyes snapped open and found Erin’s gray ones. He shuddered. Suddenly, Adam’s words that he should have run sounded like something he couldn’t stop thinking about. But, if he ran, then Erin would die. And he loved Erin. They were going to get married, and they were going to be happy.

And then, between cases, he was going to be dragged to sterile rooms that would be decorated in his blood and guts within minutes. He bends over and began to dry heave. Erin was by his side and holding him and whispering calming sweet nothing's in his ears, but all he could hear were the never-ending stream of questions that the scientists bombarded him with as they cut into him.

Does it hurt?

No, he was screaming himself hoarse for the fun of it!

How can you breathe with no lungs?

He didn’t bloody knew. But, hey, he got a new set of lungs by the time the darn bastard finished the sentence.

How much more acid can you drink?

Andrew gave out a violent shudder at the memory of the last one. They were fascinated with acid, the bastards. They made him bathe in it, they made him drink it. Furthermore, they thought that he would develop a poisonous bite. But, all it did was given him indigestion that made him curl up on the bed and scream.

Screaming. He did a lot of that these days. Had it really been just three days? Or, had they lied to him about the passage of time? When the pain was too much, he had always gone back to his mind. To spend some time with his memories.

But, his mind didn’t look like it used to. The clouds above were stormy, the paint on the house was peeling. The windows were shattered glass on the floor. Francesco had told him that it was a reflection of his state of being.

“We need to go,” said Andrew, taking a hold of Erin’s arm.

“What? Where? You just woke up,” but Andrew was already leading him across the room and to the door. Andrew tried it, it was locked. With a burst of magic, he forced it open.

Alarms blazed, and the corridor was bathed in red light. Andrew didn’t care. The place was warded, but maybe the outside was not. He rushed, Erin trailing behind him.

A squad of agents blocked their path, and Andrew made them explode with a thought.

“Andrew, what?” Erin sounded fearful now, but Andrew had no time to explain. He was rushing down the corridor. He found a staircase and went down it. What he found were holding cells, not the outside.

Andrew cursed and looked around. All kinds of monsters were with human faces in the cages. Andrew went to the unlocking mechanism and overcharged it with magic. The doors all opened.

“Come on, they have experimented on us enough,” yelled Andrew and then, lacking anything else to do, he blasted a hole in the wall. Fortunately, he saw the swamp outside.

They all waded through the water and found the parking lot. Andrew tugged Erin, who was quiet now, to the car the agency had given them. When they got in, Erin finally spoke.

“They experimented on you?” He asked, voice dangerously low.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” said Andrew. He didn’t have motion sickness pills with him. This ride was going to be a nightmare.

“But you will?” Erin got in the driver’s seat and took off. They could hear screams from the distance. Just as they were driving alongside the entrance of the facility, they saw the non-humans going back inside. Andrew smiled. It served those retches of the agency right.

Erin didn’t take them back to their little town. He took them to New Orleans, instead. A quick stop at a bank later, and they had all their money. Andrew had tried to call Daphne, but she hadn’t answered. He worried, but knew that she was in less danger.

She was, after all, still a human. They wouldn’t experiment on her. They could throw her behind bars, but, apart from that, nothing else.

“Where are we going?” Asked Andrew when they left the car and took their suitcases with the money. Erin seemed to be taking them somewhere, but Andrew didn’t know where.

“To the airport. We are going oversees,” said Erin. Andrew dug in his heels.

“We can’t run,” he said, and Erin turned back to look at him.

“Why not? Do you want more people to die?” Andrew realized that in the middle of a street, even one that was deserted like this one, was not the place to discuss such things.

“I want to end the Office of Supernatural Affairs. To find the central and level it to the ground. To disband the agency entirely. Only then we will be safe,” snapped Andrew. Why couldn’t Erin see things his way? Why did he have to be so naïve?

“You do realize that hundreds will die?” Erin was searching Andrew’s face for any signs of remorse, but, he wasn’t finding any.

“I don’t care,” said Andrew. “Think on what we did, Erin. Yes, Frederik deserved to be behind bars, but Mark was an agent before he became a murderer. The agency hunted him like an animal, regardless!”

“And Mary? Are you going to excuse what she did too?” Snapped Erin. “What about Francesco? His kill count is ten thousand in a week, Andrew!”

Andrew paled. It was easy to forget that Francesco had committed genocide. He was so calm and collected.

“The agency needs to go,” Andrew was standing by his choice. Erin looked pained. “If you are not with me, Erin, then you are against me.”