Terrible Friend

7

Beverly pulled up in front of the gallery, threw the car in park and jumped out before Albert realized they had even stopped.  She rushed to the gallery door and slid the key into the lock.  "Come on!  We don't have much time!" 

Albert maneuvered his large frame out of the front seat and sauntered to the door. 

"We need to figure out what was taken now!" The urgency in Beverly's voice made Albert feel a little uneasy. He followed her inside anyway. 

She led him straight to the door of the back room. When they got there, he stepped in front of her. "I'll go first. Just tell me where the light switch is?"  

She reached around the corner beside him and flipped a switch and the room flooded with light. After a moment of blindness, his eyes adjusted and he could see into the room in all it's cluttered glory.

There were rows of tall metal racks along one wall that filled most of the room. A row of folding tables along the other. He took a few steps into the room, searching for a door out in the back somewhere.

"What are you looking for?" 

"A door.  When Kovach came in he said there was no one here. If no one came out before me, and there was no one in here after I left, there has to be a door."  

"There's no door." 

"There's no door? Then how did they get out?" 

"Teleportation spell." Beverly said. 

Albert wasn't amused. The look on Beverly's face was all serious. "As a heart attack." 

"You can't be serious.  A spell? Do you really expect me to believe that?" 

"I don't know what I expect you to believe, but I believe it.  There was no other way for them to get in here.  Even then, with the wards I have on this place, I don't know how they got in at all.  I need to figure out who they were and what they took." 

Albert's blood boiled. "I don't think this is funny at all.  You ask me for my help, bring me back here, and then tell me the bad guys got in and out using a spell.  I thought I was the crazy one."  His anger reached a fever pitch.  "I'm out of here."  Albert turned and headed out of the room.

"Wait. Then how do you explain the shadow ninja monks?" 

Jax laughed out loud. Hearing the words shadow ninja monks roll out of her mouth was hilarious. The boisterous sound rumbled around in Albert's head. 

"What? What did I say?" 

Albert was too angry to laugh. He growled instead and kept walking toward the gallery. "So, I imagine things sometimes." He grumbled under his breath. 

"Like the one you call Jax, hmm?"

 Albert shot her a glance. His response was cold and clinical.  "Jax, is the result of a chemical imbalance in my brain. The shadow ninja monks must have been also. I don't have any other explanation for it. You said you needed my help. Instead you just want to be an asshole and make fun of me." 

Beverly couldn't help laughing out loud. She stopped suddenly when she noticed the look on Albert's face. It was sad and down trodden."You're serious? You really believe that Jax is a chemical imbalance?" 

"What else would he be?" 

"A demon."  

Albert stormed out of the room and into the gallery toward the front door without another word. Beverly ran out after him.  "Albert wait!"