I woke to find…well nothing.

No Molly, no Toot, no nothing. By the textures of the walls I can tell I'm in some sort of the parking lot but not much else. I took a deep breath of the dank, misty air and examined my surroundings. As my eyes adjusted to the dark I cold see the faint outlines of a few spread out cars and the remaining slag of the dumpster but besides that nothing.

I raised myself up on one elbow despite my aching bodies reservations and felt something slide off my chest. It was a small scrap of paper with some faint markings scribbled over it. I got up on my feet and walked out of the parking lot into the cool Chicago night.

I walked out passed the few blocky buildings around me until I reached one of the corner streetlights around the town. The fuzzy yellow light coming from within was enough for me to make out the few words on the paper.

Meet me in the coffee shop down the street

"Not the slightest bit weird" I muttered as I walked toward the only coffee shop near the parking lot.

I walked, well more accurately limped, into the brightened shop. As soon as the smell of coffee hit my nose my gut felt as if it were being smacked with a bowling ball. I looked over toward the counter in a mission to get some of that sweet nectar but a hand grabbed my sweatshirt unfortunately stopped me short. I turned as if ready to kill but cooled off as I saw Molly, in some better shape than before, holding a coffee cup out towards me.

I snatched up the cup and took a quick sip. My tongue singed with pain that was well worth it. I turned back to Molly and she motioned me to sit down.

"Not that I don't like the coffee but why the hell didn't you just talk to me out in the parking lot?" I asked while savoring my treat.

"Other than that you were out cold and if anybody found me standing over your unconscious body in a half destroyed parking lot would be out of their minds to not call the cops, who would then waste my precious time for questioning?" She replied sarcastically.

"Good point." I muttered from the other side of the table. "So why did dumb and dumber back there have you all tied up? How for the matter? I'm not an expert but screwing with a wizard is just a-bit bad for chumps like those."

"Basterds got me from behind. Got those damned ropes around me so fast I didn't get a single spell out. Next thing I knew I was being thrown around like a rag doll and you were chopping on the sleeping ropes."

"Ah. So you got no idea what these freaks are planning? They've got Marci too and busted up Harry's boat. Looked like they were doing some sort of spell with blood markings and symbols and all."

"Marci is the little wolf girl in your posse right?"

"Yeah."

"I got no clue about your friend but if I got a good look at those symbols I could probably figure something out at what they were going for. Before we do go tell me all that's gone on."

I then went over all the crap that's gone down from when I first got jumped until my meeting with Toot. Molly listened carefully and asked a-few questions about certain details I hadn't thought mattered before. I tried to help best I could but my head had been beat down so much that things were still a-little fuzzy.

By the end Molly got up and picked up her jacket. She walked outside the building with me and we walked back to the parking lot. Oddly enough we found Toot there with the rest of the little people he brought.

He turned as we walked up and made a small salute. I repeated the motion and said, "Thanks for the help Toot. Me and Molly were wondering if you could help just a bit further?"

"How can we assist you in this matter?" He asked.

I was about to answer when the cell phone that I had thought at home rung out in my pocket. I dug it out and flipped it open.

A rugged voice that I recognized as Thomas's spoke out in anger, "Get to the Water Beatle as fast as you can. They took her God dammit. They took Justine."