Permafrost

Permafrost is the fifteenth chapter of Season One. It marks the chapter where Dane returns, the reveal of Walden's true nature, and the death of Ashton Butch. It is the only chapter to this date where Ezra travels to another country.

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Ezra went home that night knowing the person holding Dane hostage is likely to be using voice changer, he didn’t think it, he knew it, he had that gut feeling!

That night Ezra couldn’t sleep, he spent the whole night pondering and waiting for a call, before everything got all blurry.

Ezra woke up at 6am to the discomfort of his desk, he woke up feeling hopeless, depressed, like living will only cause more harm. It was a Saturday and he felt so terrible. For the entire morning he just sat in his room, doing nothing. He just felt angry at himself, he hated himself. He broke into tears, he couldn’t live with himself, he just wanted to end his life. He went to his bag and got his dad’s gun. It was loaded with several bullets left.

Ezra sat down on his bed, and pointed the gun at himself, suddenly his life flashed back before his eyes, he remembered his childhood days, meeting Dane, living happily with his family, he was about to pull the trigger, the trigger was half way from being pulled. Suddenly his phone rang to his now annoying Harry Potter ringtone, he dropped the gun to answer his phone, “What!?” he yapped at the person calling as he answered the phone. “Hello Ezra White, a prisoner from Anacortes Federal Prison requests a meeting, do you accept or decline?” said an unknown voice, which sounded like a receptionist’s voice. “What prisoner!?” yapped Ezra again. “His name is Muhammad Praveen.” Ezra thought, what the hell! and just said, “I’ll be there tomorrow.” Ezra decided that he wanted to know what Muhammad has to tell him, despite having to travel to the far north of America. Ezra walked downstairs to see his mum and dad on the couch, and Lois Young sleeping. He went up to his father, “dad, I know it sounds big, but I need to travel to the San Juan Islands to visit the prison, Muhammad wants to speak with me.” His father looked shocked and confused, “so wait, you want to travel to the far north of the Washington state to speak with Muhammad, is this some kind of joke?” His mother spoke instantly, “if you are going to travel to the San Juan Islands, you’ll need to take the plane to Victoria City on the Vancouver Island, that’s in Canada sweetie!” Ezra frowned, “I think I’m old enough to make my own decisions mum! And he might know something about Dane.” (Lois mumbled Dane’s name at the sound of it) His parents looked at each other, before his dad said, “alright, but I’m coming with you!” Ezra gave a faint smile, before saying, “thanks” to his parents. Ezra went to his room to pack his things.

Late in the afternoon, Ezra and Damon left to the Seattle Airport, where they will fly to Victoria. It took them 20 minutes to get to the airport via taxi. He and his dad departed on the plane after buying two tickets. It took them half an hour to travel to the Vancouver Island. When they got off, it was as ice as cold, like a permafrost. That evening, they departed on the prison ferry to travel to the San Juan Islands, which were just over the border, in the United States. Ezra and his father got off the ferry after a long 2 hour trip, they were back in America, but it was still as ice as cold.

Ezra soon arrived in the prison, which looked pretty average, but the living conditions must’ve been terrible! The guards escorted Ezra, while his father waited at the entrance. They escorted him to a communication area where you speak on a telephone to the person behind glass. Ezra was, for once, glad to see Muhammad. But he was in poor state, he had a growing beard, his hair was really short, and he looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks, he basically looked like a dried fruit. Ezra sat himself on the chair, finding himself opposite to his old enemy. He picked up the phone to begin speaking.

Muhammad spoke first in his central Asian accent, “hello Ezra, I am glad you came, I was so happy when I found out you were coming!” “Did you kill the French detective? you were threatening to kill him so it would only make sense,” Ezra said confidently. “I didn’t kill him, although I had previous encounters with him before his unfortunate death. Look, I had nothing to do with his murder, it was… someone else…” said Muhammad. Ezra felt eager to speak again, before excitedly asking, “who!?” Muhammad looked away for a second, before speaking into the phone again, “uh! How do I put this? Let’s just say it was someone that I used to work with, before I quit his team and they then tried to bring me down, this might sound straight forward, but it was…-” Muhammad couldn’t finish his sentence due the ringing of Ezra’s phone. Ezra answered immediately, ignoring Muhammad, “hello?” The person that replied was a familiar voice, it was Ben. “Hey Ezra, good news! Dane has been found! He was amongst a bunch of rubble in an alleyway. But he can’t remember anything, he’s suffering from amnesia.” Ezra felt excited and absolutely happy, “that’s great, I’ll be right there, I’m assuming he’s in the hospital?” “Yes”, answered Ben. Ezra spoke again, “Okay, I’ll be there ASAP, bye!” He ran off without even glancing at Muhammad, who actually felt disappointed, because he was about to reveal Giles’ killer.

Ezra and his dad travelled back to Seattle as quickly as they could. Ezra had a lot of things going through his mind, he was wondering why Dane would suddenly have been found, he thought that the person holding him may have released him at his own free will, he didn’t know, but the main thing travelling through his mind was seeing his best friend again!

Once he arrived in Seattle, it was midnight. The taxi drove him and his sleepy dad to the hospital. Once they arrived, Ezra raced into the hospital to see Dane. He had so many questions that needed answering and many mysteries that were far beyond discovering. Once he found the room (with his father dosing slowly behind him), he raced in to see Dane. He also saw Lois Young sleeping, while leaning on her son, who was in the hospital bed. Ezra slowly shook Dane’s shoulder, and Dane woke up, “Ezra is that you?” Ezra was so happy at the delight of seeing the face of his best friend, he was speechless! Once Dane sat up Ezra just began hugging him, before Ezra asked, “what happened?” Dane rolled his eyes and answered, “I don’t know I seriously cannot remember anything. Detectives have been asking me all night.” Ezra knew at this point, that he needed to get his memories back.

While Damon went home, Ezra spent the night at the hospital with his best friend, relieved and curious.

The next morning after leaving Dane, he went to the police station to thank another friend, Ben. Ezra walked into Ben’s office to see him typing on his computer, before he looked up and noticed Ezra, he said, “hi Ezra! How’s Dane?” Ezra smiled coolly, before saying, “he’s good, and I just wanted to thank you for finding him. But I must ask; how did you pull it off?” Ben smiled and said sarcastically, “well, after all I am the best of the best, of the best, of the best!” He winked before saying, “I was joking, I was just lucky I guess I err... well, basically, since all detectives in the city were searching for him, I was just the fortunate one to get the satisfaction of finding him! But the important thing is that he’s safe,” Ben said as he gave a warm smile. Ezra smiled before saying, “I am forever in your debt! Do you have any idea on who abducted him?” Ben instantly replied, “well, I believe it was someone in league with Muhammad, which whom I’m currently investigating, and err… that is what I was doing before you visited, so I better get back to it, and thanks for dropping by.” To conclude the conversation, Ben held out his hand to shake, which Ezra did immediately, but Ben’s mention of Muhammad made him suddenly remember what happened with Muhammad last night, but he thought that he’d go back to the hospital to be with his best friend.

Ben Walden wasn’t the one who found Dane, he was merely the one who set it up, and he is now travelling to Butch’s Gunshop to interrogate Ashton Butch about the three artefacts.

Ben Walden entered Butch’s Gunshop, to which there were no customers, he entered with a gun in his hand and screamed, “put your hands up!” Before Butch could get one of his guns for himself, Walden screamed again, “don’t even think about it, or I’ll shoot like I’ve done before!” Walden approached the shopkeeper, before hitting him hard with the other end of his gun, knocking him out.

Ezra woke up next to an awake, Dane; Ezra first noticed that Mrs. Young had left the hospital, before seeing Dane, who was looking around curiously and nervously, before he noticed that Ezra was awake, he said, “I remember things now…”

Ashton Butch woke up, tied to a chair in his basement, only to see Walden looking through his things, before he noticed that Butch was awake. Walden snapped, “where is it!” Butch instantly replied in his Texan accent, “where’s what?” A vein of anger appeared on Walden’s forehead before he yelled, “don’t play games with me, where is the artefact!” *BANG* Straight after Walden finished speaking he shot Butch in the leg, he screamed in pain. Before Walden asked calmly, “where… is… the artefact?” Butch, who was in pain, gasped, “there’s a safe, behind the pin board.” Walden walked over towards the pin board which was on the other side of the room and carelessly ripped it off. Before seeing the safe, “what’s the code?” asked Walden. Butch wouldn’t answer, instead, he kept on groaning in pain. *BANG* Walden shot another bullet into his other leg, which caused Butch to scream even louder, before croakily saying, “uhh... 5… 6, 1, 0… 9… 3…” Walden used the numbers to get through the safe, he opened it, and he saw a piece to a stone, and it was on top of a piece of paper, which appeared to be a map. Walden laughed in joy after seeing the thing that his master, the crime lord, most desires. Ben Walden gave a wide smile before saying to Butch, expect he spoke in a very creepy voice, it sounded like a high version of the man who kidnapped Dane, “before I kill you, I will answer the question that you asked in your head when I came strolling into your shop,” Walden now held his gun to Butch’s forehead, before saying, “the question was, ‘are you crazy?’ the answer is, ‘yes, I am crazy!’” *BANG*.

Characters

 * Ezra White
 * Dane Young
 * Ben Walden
 * Muhammad Praveen
 * Ashton Butch (death)
 * Damon White
 * Ursula White
 * Lois Young

Trivia

 * Ezra and Damon stop over at the Vancouver Island, in Canada, when he went to visit Muhammad in prison.