Nebulous Emperor

Nave stood outside the door, leaning on it casually.

'I wonder what the big guy is doing in there.' he thought.

Looking at his nails casually, he recalls what happened previously.

'I got out of the room pretty well; I just hope everything else goes well.'

When Sergei barged into the room, Nave hid right next to the door. In the pitch-black darkness, there was almost no chance of him being seen. Just to be safe, he hid behind Harry's side desk and chair, which he arranged right next to the door.

When he heard Harry start walking forward and trip, he snuck out of the room, taking the golden pickaxe with him, closing it quietly as he left.

Now he was waiting for the rest of his plan to take place.

While he was waiting against the door, he suddenly felt something push against it.

'Hmmm, he's made it back.' Nave thought.

He didn't panic, though. His head turned toward the door handle. He saw a gold pickaxe pinned underneath it. Preventing it from opening. But just to make sure, he planted his feet and put his body weight against the door.

Feeling continuous banging against the door, he didn't worry much at all. Until it got much more aggressive.

'Damn, this guy is strong.' Leaning all of his bodyweight against the door.

Just as he saw the pickaxe start to move out of its wedged position, he saw light start to come from the main entrance of the cave.

'Finally!' Nave thought.

"Enforcer Thomas here!" A masculine voice said as he approached.

'Yes, yes, yes. Everything's going perfectly.' Nave thought excitedly.

"Mr. Harry! Are you here? I was dispatched to make sure you were okay after receiving your signal!" Thomas yelled.

As Nave saw the light get closer, he began retreating from his position near the door. As he saw the light get closer, he waited until the last second before taking the pickaxe with him.

He quickly sprinted to a nearby corner just as the light was about to reach him.

A man with a device in his hand that emitted a beam of light and had a piece of pyr sticking out of the end of it neared the door.

"Mr. Harry, are you in there!?" He yelled once he got to it.

Nave stood in his corner and had a clear view of the man and the door.

Enforcer Thomas was a young man with dark skin and a solid build. He had on a uniform indicating his position as an officer in the enforcer corps.

Soon after reaching the door, it burst open. A man who looked like he had looked death in the eyes fell out of the room, landing on his stomach.

Officer Thomas saw the man and quickly said, "Are you okay, sir?" and began to near him.

As he cast his light on the man, he stopped in his tracks. He saw a dark red liquid coating his hands.

His face immediately became serious; he sternly said, "Stay where you are!"

His right hand was nearing his waist, a baton resting on his utility belt.

Sergei didn't listen. He continued crawling away from the room.

"I said stay where you are!" He yelled toward Sergei while gripping his baton.

Snapping out of his fearful and dazed state, Sergei stopped moving. Thomas' grip loosened slightly as he confirmed that Sergei had stopped. His light moved away from Sergei and toward the door. It was wide open, so he had a clear view of a portion of the room.

As his light spread, he saw a room with things scattered all over it. The only thing that looked like it belonged was a desk.

'Where is Harry?' Thomas thought. He knew this man wasn't Harry, being familiar with him since his parents worked for the man many years ago.

Just as his light was about to move from the room back to Sergei, something caught his eye.

'What is that?' He thought while taking a small step closer, careful of not getting too close to Sergei.

He was just barely able to make out something peeking out from underneath the desk.

A pool of blood.

He quickly reached his hand to his waist and pressed a button on a device not too dissimilar to the device Nave had pressed to call the man here.

Nave watched all of this carefully and realized that everything had, fortunately, gone just as he desired. Wishing he had a snack to eat while watching. But he realized something.

'Everything is going just as planned!' he thought in a panic.

The problem was, he was still there.

He wasn't able to see the man press the button due to the lack of light, but he had a feeling that he called backup in some way.

The officers light was still trained on Sergei, leaving the rest of the cave dark enough for him to escape, but just to make sure he readied the gold pickaxe and got into position to run.

He threw the golden pickaxe far toward the officers right, in the opposite direction of the entrance. As soon as it left his hands, he began moving.

CLANG

"What was that?!" Enforcer Thomas quickly pointed his light at the noise and saw a golden pickaxe with blood on it's tip coming to rest not far from him.

Extremely unsettled by everything in his environment, he began moving his light around erratically, looking for whoever threw the object.

"Whoever threw that, come out right now!" the fear present in his voice.

Remembering that he had a man with blood on his hands on the ground before him, he put the light back on him.

"Stay right where you are!" He stated, unaware of his conflicting commands.

Nave was already plenty far through the cave system by this point.

'Holy, they got here fast!' he thought while retreating into another cave. He spotted two other officers running through the mine.

He hid and waited for them to pass before continuing to run. Eventually reaching the entrance of the cave, taking a peek before sprinting out.

The darkness of night was present all around him.

He took multiple alternate routes and didn't stop running until he reached his home. He constantly checked his surrounding environment until he got in the door. He leaned his back against the closed door and exhaled a deep breath.

He took a second before a huge smile bloomed on his face.

"I DID IT!" He yelled loudly.

Not caring who heard him.

Realizing that his hard work and planning paid off, he couldn't hold in his excitement.

Calming down, he thought, 'This is just the beginning. I still have more that needs to be done.'

Nave went into the kitchen and quickly prepared himself a meal. Using the food and the time eating to allow himself to recuperate and think of the rest of his plan.

He finished eating and laid on the floor; he refused to sleep in the bed, at least not until he changed the sheets on it.

Before his eyes closed, he had one thought: 'This is for you, mom.'

...

Waking up as early in the morning as he could, he left the house quickly. The light of the sun hadn't even shone on the world yet, and he was already headed to the mine. But he wasn't going there to work.

He entered the cave system, turned the flashlight he took on, and made his way to Harry's office, knowing no one would be there yet.

Once he neared, he slowed down and approached the scene.

'The pickaxe is gone.'

Reaching the room, he saw yellow lines going across the areas warning people not to enter.

Not that it was necessary since the mine would obviously be closed today.

Harry went under the rope and entered the room, closing the door behind him. The room was almost the same as he had left it before he cut the lights off, besides one thing. He walked around the desk to find that the body was gone.

A white mark was left instead of the corpse.

'Not surprising.'

Multiple items had been taken from the room: 'Evidence collected by the enforcers.'

His light shone on the red box behind the desk; he walked to it and opened it. He saw the wire that connected to the switch for the lights was repaired. He flipped it, and the lights turned back on.

He looked at the room and was satisfied with what took place. He sat down on the chair and put his legs on the desk. Resting and waiting for someone to come into his office.