19th of July...Amsterdam...Holland

'You ok Case?', Zeke asked, pulling Casey up from the dirty floor. Blood was splattered on the tiles beneath him, and chunks of tentacle were piled throughout the room.

'Yeah, I'll be ok,' said Casey, nursing the wound in his left arm. 'Glad we got that over with.'
'Yeah, now let's scoot,' said Zeke, opening the door. It led into a cluttered alleyway, where their motorbikes stood waiting. They donned their helmets, and rode off.

31st of August...Herrington...Ohio...USA

'Casey! Where the hell are you?,' shouted Mr Connor.
'Hang on a minute!,' Casey shouted back. He ran down the stairs, four steps at a time, and ground to a halt infront of his dad.
'You 'friend' is outside,' said his dad, scornfully. He didn't like Zeke, his suspicions were not eased by his apparent new squeaky clean appearance. 'Don't be out for more than an hour!,' he said, shoving Casey out the front door, slamming it behind him. He ran to the living room window, and looked out. Casey sighed, he was almost 19, but his parents' conduct towards him hadn't changed in the least. He was on summer break from College, he was at Harvard, and he'd come home to Herrington. Zeke was waiting by his car outside the house, grinning at Casey. Casey walked over to him, grinning back. Zeke gave him a brief hug, and opened the car door for him. Casey hopped in, and they set off. Casey's dad frowned, and sat down to read the newspaper.

'I'm not allowed to be more than an hour apparently.'
'Right. Where's your mom?,' asked Zeke, excelerating as they left the street.
'Oh, she's away, on a vacation, apparently me and my dad at the same time are too much to handle nowadays'
'Do you fight all the time or something'
'No, not really, it can get pretty tense though. And we're both kind of high maintenance, in our own way. Dad always has to have everything his way, and the food has to be just right, and all that kind of stuff. And with me, well, I think she just worries loads. Can't be good for her. She kind of likes to think I'm forever ill. But she's away for now, having a good time at her cousins, probably bitching, they hate eachother really'.
'Haha, yeah, your mom mollycoddles you! How're things going with just you and your dad?'
'Dad's decided to take over the postition of cheif worrier, and he now worries about everything I do, he won't let me go out of the house after 10, stuff like that, but apart from that, everything's been ok so far.'
'So, has the wound healed yet?,' asked Zeke, hesitantly.
'Yeah, took a while, but yeah, it has. How about yours?'
'It still bleeds a bit when I go to bed, but other than that it's fine now'
'Ouch!,' said the cringing Casey. 'So, where are we off to? I'm guessing this isn't a social call'
'And why shouldn't it be?,' protested Zeke.
'You hate being seen with me'
'No I don't! Well, it wasn't a social call, there's been some activity along the other side of town, and I thought we better check it out'
'Ok, let's get to work.'