"I.....I can't look at it. I'll throw up." Officer Best looked paler than his partner Officer Harris whose skin tone was normally a healthy cream complexion but at the moment both men would not look out of place in a mortuary lying in matching caskets.

They'd changed out of their uniforms and into casual clothing both ready to go home and recover from the injuries and stress they'd incurred from their run in with the arsonist the night before and everything that followed for most of the early morning. The splint on Best's nose as well as the welts and abrasions on their heads, shoulders and necks were the only visible signs of what had taken place a few hours before.

"It's not that bad.......we've done it before...." Harris started saying while looking away from the object in front of him.

Ali stood hands on her hips, her flannel pajamas now covered by a heavy leather coat gotten from the lost and found bin at the station. At least there was a pair of sneakers that snugly fit from a shoe box that was left in the train station months before.

"It's just a car. It's not going to bite you. For the last time. It's a bloody car."

Both men turn and made a dash for the closest bushes and threw up.

A few of the officers watching in the background exchange money.

Ali's hand ran down her face in fustration. "How about we leave the car and catch the bus?"

It was like she casted out a lifeline to drowning men, the sheer joy of walking to the bus stop brought some color back to both men's cheeks as they walked to the bus stop.

"Alright boys, your bus is up next, then mine right after. Lets you and me both get a good nights sleep and forget this day ever happened." Ali made sure to check the sign post by the bus stop for the timetable. "You both get in safe."

"Alright miss, you'll still need to check in with the station even though we have the video from the door camera still the owner might wanna talk. So good evening to you....so don't go tackling anymore dodgy blokes ok." Best said as way of a joke his voice still out of sorts from the past day's events.

"Bye miss." Harris just shook his head at his partners' bad joke and got on the bus happy not to be driving.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Ali watched their bus go, feeling better that they were now out of her hair.

The bus to take her to her farm came and went along its routine path. Ali watched it go, after the car ride with the two officers there was no chance of her getting in a vehicle other than the train.

So straightening herself and the new one size too big coat, she started walking home.

"It's already 01:20 in the evening, which means I spent all morning in the bloody station answering the same bloody questions, should have broke my leg in his bumn." Ali muttered after getting the time from an elderly lady sitting at the bus stop who was only too happy to help while talking about her single grandson. The picture she showed of him wasn't very flattering, he looked like a bobble head on a pencil.

'I remeber when walking from Hawks Tor to near Siblyback Lake use to take me four hours so from Launceston, this shouldn'tbe too bad.' Ali thought to herself as she relaxed, her mind normally seemed to step away and let her body move when she walked, like a zen state while still being able to wave and say hi as she walked. It also gave her a chance to go over things about work and her personal life.

Walking was easy for her in Cornwall especially outside of the urban areas, by the time she hit the countryside the different colors and hues of greenery were abundant.

The only outward sign of the cold was her breath in the air each time she exhaled.

Then the countryside blurred.

Ali stopped, the zen state her mind was in shattered just as she walked past the gate to a large country manor near one of the Tumulus mounds that marked certain parts of Cornwall's countryside, she only took a few steps not even fully passing the front of the manor, but the moment she turned to catch her bearings the manor was a fair distance behind her and almost out of sight.

Magic was real, so by extension mythical beings were real in some form or fashion. After six years of search and study Ali wasn't clueless just without clues on her own situation.

Which was getting more and more precarious as the day went.

For almost six years Ali had gathered contacts about the magical from various sources in the world, most of those people were either excentric, strange or just borderline mad but after spending time with them she just refered to them a "quirky". Cars passed at regular intervals as Ali got lost in thought. She stood at the side of the road and went over the list of people she could ask advice from without it costing more than she was willing to give.

"I'll make the calls as soon as I get in. First thing after dinner." Her walking speed increased as she focused on getting home and the meal that Mary Tipton would be cooking up.

Everything remained normal at least for her as she walked but her teeth began to hurt.

Then as she watched, a shadow in the treeline just ahead of her shifted.

She was less than a mile from her home on the side of the road, she looked at a shape in shadows under the tree before her.

"Ninestones' Orchard right? Your cider isn't bad but I knew I had seen your face before." The Arsonist they called 'firebomber' stepped out from the shadow of the tree just ahead of her.