The next day, Desmond woke up later than he usually did. Sleep was hard to come by after his conversation with Ryan in the parking lot of their apartment complex. Despite the fact that the pair had a normal night hanging out together after the fact, Desmond wasn’t able to stop thinking about what he said. Thoughts and worry of Mykel and how he was doing in The Echo plagued his mind. The only thing he knew was that time would go by faster there, he had no way of knowing how long it had been since they parted ways in The Echo. That fact only worried him more.
The Dark Ones had become more active and aggressive the last time he was there. After learning that they only came around whenever there was a new potential Keeper was even more concerning. It meant that they would be lurking around The Echo looking for him, and Mykel couldn’t completely defeat them on his own. Desmond felt pressed to return to The Echo, but at the same time he had to keep up some appearance of normalcy.