Danny soon left the bank with a couple of hundred bills in his pocket. Even though he was old-fashioned, he was not a barbarian, he had a credit card and so there was no need to carry all his money on himself.

He went back to his place and started taking notes on what he would need and what were the more likely scenarios he would face.

From what he got from the hints Tutu dropped, Danny expected that he would face more monsters or demons soon. Danny was ill prepared for this challenge even if he knew it was coming.

For once, he did not know many things about demonkind. It took him years of continuous struggle against Tutu to come up with the measures he used today, and they were barely effective at best. Hell, Danny learned that the demon was capable of talking with him just two days ago!

Where would he even go to learn more about it? Danny had already spent many years doing research on the subject with very little to show off. Any material he could find was of very dubious reliability at best.

Even if given a whole year, Danny would not feel confident in any defenses he could muster against something like Tutu attacking him with the intention to kill. If all the creatures that were about to arrive were as powerful as the demon, he knew than it would be probably better to just hide and hope for the best.

Therefore, Danny would focus instead on survivability. Danny went to his room to retrieve his bag and from within, he took out his laptop before going back to the kitchen.

Danny placed both the laptop, the documents he retrieved from the bank and also the pieces of paper he had been scribbling his notes earlier. He turned on his computer and went to make himself a cup of coffee while he waited the machine to start up.

After everything was ready, Danny sat down and started studying items, prices, delivery dates and other relevant stuff on the internet.

As the minutes turned into hours, Danny’s kept thinking of new ideas while the beginnings of a plan begun to form.

Days quickly passed like this. Danny did not show up at the University again after talking with Janice. Even if he went there what would be the point? After deciding to believe in the demon’s ominous words, Danny discarded any thoughts of going back.

He did not notify anyone about missing his classes, so caught up he was in his own little world. Danny hadn’t even thought about calling someone to inform them of his absence.

All kinds of speculations were going around the classroom about Danny’s absence. Danny was in good terms with pretty much everyone, even if somewhat distant, thus his absence was immediately noticed. Some thought he was just sick, some said he had family issues, a few even believed he died!

However, even if Danny knew about all the gossip created by his actions, he wouldn’t care. Time was running out fast, and the decisive day was fast approaching.

In the blink of an eye, Thursday had come. Danny went through his checklist for the hundredth time, trying to spot anything he missed or if there was any last-minute effort that could make a difference, but he was confident he already did all he could.

Danny only had a few dollars to his name now, so even if he really did find out something he could have done better, it was probably too late already.

The basement in Danny’s house was filled with all kinds of stuff, however not everything he bought was stored in this house.

Danny thought that placing everything in one place was too much of a risk, what if he had to run? What if the place he chose to stay at got compromised and he could not come back?

Thinking about the possible worst-case scenarios, Danny decided to make 3 stashes in different places, where he placed pretty much all of the things he bought in those past few days.

One stash was located in the basement he had been living during his stay in Lakeview. He decided to leave some things here most out of convenience. When he started sorting out his plan, he didn’t want to risk not being able to receive his purchases in time so he left the address he was already staying at as the delivery location.

Therefore, most things he placed in this house were stuff he bought during the earlier days of planning.

Another stash, the biggest one, was placed in a warehouse he had rented in the outer parts of town. Given that there was almost no traffic near the area, Danny felt confident that, after whatever the demon had foretold transpired, he would be able to enter the place without drawing too much trouble or attention.

He still hadn’t figure out why Tutu indicated that he should avoid crowded locations tonight. Danny’s first reaction would be quite the opposite in fact, as there was no doubt strength in numbers.

Even not knowing why, Danny still felt prudent to heed the demon’s advice. That’s why he placed most of his things there. As a matter of fact, Danny managed to buy a few power generators in time, just in case the city’s energy supply got cut, and placed all of them in the warehouse.

For the other spots, Danny felt that leaving spare batteries was enough. The only thing in those places that would need to be recharged periodically were the laptops and tablets. Danny placed one new notebook and tablet in each location, storing information in them that he felt could be useful later on, like maps, guides and knowledge books in general.

The rest of the stuff he bought was spread among the three locations he set up. Generally speaking, there was nothing too special to write home about, Danny wasn’t rich after all. The only reason Danny could enroll in such a prestigious college, was because he earned a scholarship.

Those stashes mainly contained cans of non-perishable foodstuffs, water, gas masks, tools, clothes, fuel and other stuff one would expect to find in a bunker or emergency shelter. The only difference in content between those three places was the amount allocated to each one, besides the generators of course, which could only be found in the warehouse.

The last place, the one with the lowest number of supplies was the place Danny had decided to stay during the turmoil.

Danny thought a lot about what the demon said about where he should be that night. He knew Tutu wanted him to find a more secluded place, but he still couldn’t figure out what the demon meant when he said to be close to the ‘important things in life’.

There were way too many ways to interpret that. What was important to one person was not necessarily important to another. Some people treasured life, some people treasured love, some cared about money while others didn’t.

It was hard to think that the Demon was hinting at Danny’s personal preferences.

Danny didn’t hold many things dear. He loved his mother, and treasured her memory and the promise he made her. Danny also didn’t have any family remaining neither he had many friends. He didn’t care about his father on one hand and, in the other hand, the few friends he did care about lived in other countries.

Speaking about friendship, Danny did call a couple of people that he considered close to him and also knew about his curse to warn them about the upcoming difficulties, but never mind that. He doubted that whatever the demon was alluding to had anything to do with his personal values.

Even if Tutu understood Danny well, people’s hearts were hard to fathom. An advice based on such notions would be unreliable at best and straight wrong at worst. Thus, Danny believed that whatever the demon was trying to convey had a bigger chance to be related to more common and universal things.

After pondering for days and scouring the city map for anything that would grab his attention and make the mystery clear, Danny invertedly found a promising spot, though he still was in the dark about what the demon wanted him to do.

Not too far from his rented warehouse, in an area in the outer reaches of town, but closer to its center, he found a place that had a gun shop, a mini supermarket and a medical clinic all within one block of distance.

There was also a nice house for rent at the spot, which had brick walls surrounding the property and a steel gate for accessing both the main entrance pathway and the garage exit.

He didn’t know what help the walls could give if creatures like Tutu decided to come inside, but he felt it was better to have some protection then no protection at all. The place he had been renting so far paled in comparison, since it was both smaller and had no fences surrounding the property.

The place was obviously more expensive than his current one, but he didn’t care since he wouldn’t be paying for it long enough for it to become an issue anyway. He also would have to pay the owners a bit more if he wanted to move in immediately, but he still chose to do it.

Danny doubted that the demon meant for him to come to this exact area, but since he couldn’t uncover whatever Tutu was trying to convey, he felt that he might as well settle for this place given that Danny suspected he wouldn’t be able to find a better spot with the time he had left.

After quickly settling every detail with the property owners, Danny moved everything he needed inside in a rush. He had already checked everything about the house and was satisfied with what he saw.

Danny finished his preparations early that Thursday morning, so he ordered food for lunch from his favorite restaurant, for what would probably be the last time, and patiently waited for the sun to set.