Suma and I parted ways for a few days while she traveled, but I told her to summon me immediately if she needs anything. She has called me at least once a day, via our telepathic connection, to fill me in on where she is and what’s happening. On her first day, she stopped by a small village, on the second, she and her traveling companions camped on a mountainside. She said it would probably be another two days before she arrived. Right now, I was out doing errands for Mum, who was feeling under the weather today and couldn’t do them herself. She had given me a list of things to do: get groceries, put gas in her car, take food donations to a local homeless shelter, and send off a package. I was about halfway done so far.

“Did you get the groceries?” Mum asked. We were talking on the phone after I called to check on her.

“Not yet, but I dropped off the food at the shelter and put gas in the car already.” I told her. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired. Could you stop and pick me up some Benadryl?”

“Sure, anything else?” I asked.

“No, that’s all. Thank you.” The Pharmacy wasn’t far, just around the corner, so I stopped there next. It was a small neighborhood pharmacy, so street parking was nonexistent. I walked five blocks from a nearby carpark before arriving. I got what I needed, then got some of her favorite sweets while I was at it, then started walking back to Mum’s car.

I wasn’t really watching where I was going, but out of the corner of my eye as I turned a corner, I noticed someone familiar. It was one of those detectives who put a warrant out for me last week; the female one, Detective Lin. Upon deciding I didn’t want to stop and catch up, I went out of my way to speed up my pace and even crossed the street to avoid her. I glanced back after a minute, and she was still there, matching my pace. She was wearing a hood, and trying to blend into a crowd, but I had already noticed her. After a minute, she crossed the street too. I started to panic, trying to work out if she was going to arrest me again. I stopped, deciding it would be better if she caught up with me. (Maybe she just has a few questions.) I reasoned in my head. And then she did something scary, she stopped too. She even ducked behind a corner. (Okay, she’s following me!) I thought.

With that, I picked up my walking pace again. Well, it was more of a sprint now. (Cops don’t follow you for good reasons. Why is she following me?) And then I had a very scary thought. (Does she know? I disappeared in that room, was someone watching? Crap!) I ducked into a back alley and hid behind two rubbish bins. I thanked my lucky stars they had already been emptied.

I thought about summoning Aegis, or Mori, or even destiny, but realized I didn’t want to get caught with illegal weapons by a police officer with a grudge. (Realistically, she probably isn’t going to try and hurt me, or else she would have done it by now. Who knows how long she was following me.) I thought. A moment later, I heard footsteps approaching, and then a voice.

“Dang. Did he see me?” She said. My heart was thumping in my ear, and sweat was pouring down my back. Instinctively, I clenched my hand tighter, half expecting there to be a hilt in it. I wasn’t holding my breath, but it felt like I was. For a second, I worried I might give myself away by breathing too hard. I heard a phone start to ring, and my body clenched in surprise. “Hello.” The detective said, answering the phone. “I’m just around the corner, I’ll be there in a few minutes... Okay, see you then.” After that, I heard the footsteps walking away. I stayed crouched behind those rubbish bins for another ten minutes, or at least that’s how long it felt like, before checking to see if the coast was clear.

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Just in case she was waiting outside the alley, I decided to take the fire-escape up the building, then went all the way to the top, and went around to the other side. I even had to summon what little mana I could muster to boost my strength and jump high enough to reach the fire-escape’s ladder. Once I was sure that I was safe, and safely back on the street. I called my Mum and told her to go stay with a friend tonight. When she asked why, I told her what happened, and she told me to call Robert and file a complaint with the police department. After I hung up with her, I started walking back to my car, and called Robert, my lawyer.

“Hello, this is Robert Watterson.” He answered.

“Robert, this is Jake Vandal.”

He sighed, “What happened this time?” A part of me cringed, because I knew I was probably his most troublesome client.

“I caught one of those detectives following me around.”

“What did they want?”

“I don’t know, but when I stopped to let her catch up with me, she ducked behind a corner. And when I crossed the street and started walking faster, she followed me again. She even followed me into an alleyway. I hid there until I was sure she was gone.”

“Okay, do you have any proof?”

“I… no. I don’t.” I shook my head. By now, I was about to arrive at my car.

“Without proof, we can’t do much. The best we can do is file a complaint with the police for harassment. We may have a case for that, considering what happened with the warrant.”

“Okay, how do we do that?”

“Tomorrow at about noon, come to my office, and we will drive there together to file the complaint.”

“Okay, I’ll be there. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome, but Jake… if this is going to stick, we’ll need proof.”

With that, I got into my Mum’s car, and hung up. I drove home, gave Mum her medicine, apologized for not picking up the groceries or shipping the package, and then drove her to a friend’s house for the night. I slept at the friend’s house too, on the couch. I didn’t sleep well that night; I was too preoccupied thinking about what happened, what will happen, and what might happen. I think I only got about five hours of sleep, so I was pretty tired. I even locked myself in the bathroom and asked Suma to summon me just so that I could get my energy back. The summoning process heals wounds, and restores energy, so it helped me out a lot. Suma was in some forest somewhere, which was too bad, because I kinda wanted to see another Neame town that wasn’t an army camp or base.

Noon rolled around, and Mum, who was feeling better, dropped me off at home to get my own car. I drove to Robert’s office. “Jake, glad you’re here. Ready to go?” Robert asked when I walked into his office.

“Yup.” I nodded. We got into Robert’s car, a black sedan, and drove to the police station together. It took about ten minutes to get there, and while we drove, he explained what would most likely happen.

“They will question you, filing complaints against a police officer is no small thing, so we will be there for at least an hour or maybe even two.” He explained.

“Okay.”

“And we probably won’t get a chance to meet with the detective in question. You said it was Lin, right?”

“Yes.”

“We’re almost there, are you ready?” The police station was in sight now.

“As I’ll ever be.” I told him.