Half delirious from exertion and pain, Kael had no idea what was happening around him. Then he felt a large hand on his shoulder, squeezing it. His concentration on the spell was interrupted, and he snapped out of his haze and looked around. Sirens threatened to deafen his ears while everything was tinted in a swirling tint of blue and red. Police officers easily identifiable by their uniforms ran left and right, putting up barricades, lights, and helping Andrea onto a stretcher. Behind them, Kael saw an ambulance, it's personal trying their hardest to save the poor girl that had been attacked.

He found himself sitting in the passenger side seat of a police car just a few minutes later. The EMTs had checked up on him, quickly bandaging his already closing wound to keep it from getting infected, or at least that's what Kael thought they said. His excessive use of mana still made his head hurt, making thought difficult. Andrea and Martin had survived. He knew that much, thankfully. It had taken him a while to attract the attention of one of the officers and even longer to get the man to tell him what he wanted to know. Regulations, apparently. Feeling it pointless to try and get more answers out of the young officer, he turned his eyes towards the area of their fight. There were so many questions that needed answering. Chief among them was what had happened to the creature? They had managed to hold it back, but Martin had been sure that he was not actually hurting the thing. There was nobody in the alley, so did it escape? But the officers here did not appear to be in a rush.

Minutes later, when a perimeter was finally established, one of the young uniformed officers came to him. The questioning began. Most of them were simple to answer, really. What is your name? How old are you? Where do you live? Basic stuff. Kael then gave a rundown of his evening, leaving out all details until they heard the first scream. He explained how Andrea had run to offer assistance, urging them to run away, only for them to decide to help her instead, bringing them here. Kael tried to answer all questions truthfully, he had nothing to hide this time, after all, but there were problems. Why did you run after your friend? Well, officer, my friend is a magical healer, oh but don't tell anyone, it's a secret. The interview got... more intense from that point forward. There was just too much he could not answer. Half an hour. That was how long he had to refuse to answer for. By the end of it, he was sure that the officer wanted to arrest him on the spot, regardless of if he had committed a crime or not. Kael just wanted to get some sleep and rest. Sometime later, he was brought to a different police car that rumbled and began to move with a pair of police officers driving. At least he wasn't handcuffed...

Exhaustion caught up to him in the car again. The steady hum of the engine and occasional chatter on the radio did little to keep him awake. He would just rest his eyes for a second. The next thing he knew, a hand was carefully but insistently shaking him awake. ´Shuffling out of the car´, he blinked his eyes, trying to get them to focus again. Bright, drab corridors followed. Ultimately his journey culminated in a small box of a room. Four chairs, a table, and a huge mirror. The officers that brought him here said something before they left the room again, but he was still too out of it to understand much, struggling to remain awake with the light hurting his eyes and his battered body and mind that screamed for rest. Time passed. Kael tried his absolute hardest to stay awake, but he was drifting in and out of consciousness. Then the questioning began again.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

After the interview ended, Kael did not remember much of the proceedings. He thought he had kept his mouth shut, but there were chunks of memories missing from his recollection, so who knew. He then got brought into a cell. Thank god, he thought, there is a bed. Kael collapsed on the bunk-bed, sleep coming almost before his head had hit the pillow.

Sleep was anything but restful that night. Visions of the lanky… think haunted his dreams. He saw himself standing on a graveyard, clothed in an orange jumpsuit, shackled like he had seen on tv as a kid once. Two graves loomed, impossibly large, over him. Martin and Andrea. They had died that night, and he was responsible. His inaction, incompetence, the reason for their suffering, for the pain and anguish of their friends and relatives. Indistinct, shapeless shadows gathered around, asking, screaming, whispering at him, accusing him, begging him to take one of his friend's places. Then he was back in the alley, confronting the thing. He ran at it, ready to redeem himself. His fists found their mark, impacting the monster's face left and right. Bang, bang, bang! He hit and hit until his hand bled, and he still continued unloading his emotions. Rage drove him ever forward. Only when he was so spent that he could not lift his arms anymore did he calm down and inspected his work, his redemption. The small bit of relief from his grief the beating had given him vanished in an instant, as instead of the lanky, gray, loose visage of his nightmare, he looked at the bloody face of Martin, a small smile still visible on his lips. He broke down screaming, cursing the world, cursing himself for his incompetence. The dream changed a few more times, always showing the consequences of his inability. He saw his little sister crying in his arms again. They had just been told of their parent's disappearance, and it broke his heart. Andrea was beaten and bloody, the restaurant burning to the ground and Barbara fighting some shadowy enemy before succumbing to their power.

The morning found him uncontrollably angry, sad, and helpless. Screaming into his pillow while tears streamed down his face and his hands, forming a tight first, slammed into the wall ineffectually. No one bothered him in his distress. Minutes, maybe hours, later, his emotions finally cooled down. What was the point? Martin and Andrea still lived, and the monster was gone, no thanks to him. Never again! Living on the street had shown him before. How could he have forgotten that danger lurks around every corner in this city? FUCK! There was a reason for the training weapons and the arena below the restaurant, but he had just taken it easy. Indulging in the good food and friends, spending far too little time training with either his magic or his body. What had Martin said? He was a physical talent? “This ends, now.” Kael quietly said to himself. “But first. How do I get out of here?”