“Nine one one, what is your emergency?” 

“I heard a couple people with guns talking about how they planned to rob the convenience store on Bark Avenue. They planned to be wearing plague doctor masks I think.” 

“Ok sir, do you know when they plan to do this?”

I looked down at my phone checking the time, it was eleven o six. “Yeah, they said it was supposed to happen around eleven thirty I think.” 

“Ok sir, we’ll send a couple squad cars down to investigate. Could I have your name for the record?” 

“Ummmmmm” I stuttered, not realizing I would have to give my name when I made the call.

 “Sir, your name?”

“I'm just gonna hang up now.” 

“Sir I need to know your name for the rec–”CLICK. 

“Smoooooth.” A voice called out behind me. I turned around towards Brad. 

“Oh, shut up, you didn't think about it either.” 

“I mean you could have given a fake name or something.” 

“I panicked.” I said defensively. 

“Really, I couldn't tell.” 

“Oh, be quiet, did you find a spot with no cameras?” 

“Yep, it's in the park we can just sit down and hope Antonio, Guams and Tyrone don't spot us.”

“Ok, then let's go.” I said as we started to go towards a bench with Hachiko trailing behind us. Brad came up with a pretty good idea, even if we wanted to try and fight them, it wouldn't go well since only two of us could use magic and one of us was a dog. So, Brad came up with the idea of calling the cops since they had guns and would probably be equal in strength. And even if the cop plan didn’t work, he could still take videos of the fight so he could make a new plan. Apparently, he’s had the idea for a couple days now, but he's never had enough information to do it, until now that is.

We sat down at a park bench that gave us a clear view of the convenience store while still being somewhat hidden by various trees and bushes. Hachiko caught up and sat in front of me, tongue out, tail wagging. 

“I'm not trying to sound mean but if you're gonna bring him everywhere, you really should get a leash.” Brad suggested in a way that was more of a lecture than anything.

“Yeah, I know, people have told me.” I groaned.

“Really, who?” 

“Oh, some ass, when I was walking around in the middle of night decided he wanted to start a fight with me because my dog didn't have a leash when he clearly can't hurt anyone.” 

“Ink, I don't know how to say this, but you were in the complete wrong. No matter what breed of dog it is, you should absolutely be putting it on a leash.” 

“Really?” 

“Yeah dude, no matter what, especially if it's late at night.” 

“Well dang, any idea of where I can get one?” 

“Why would I know, I’m deathly allergic, you know this Ink!” Truthfully, I had forgotten but I wasn’t about to tell him that. “Oh yeah, I've been meaning to ask for a while. We haven't talked since the Cataclysm. How have things been going for you?” 

“Almost all bad. I spent the first two months just wallowing in my own misery. I was probably going to stay like that for a while, maybe forever until... well... I don't know exactly why but after one of the worst nights I just woke up, decided to stop feeling sorry for myself. I was filled with a weird energy that made me want to just get up and move. I got up and decided to try and recreate the sculpture, so I did that for about a month and still do to this day. Unfortunately, and it's something I didn't realize until a couple days ago, my obsession was actively causing me harm. I started to lose sleep, forget to eat, and even shower sometimes.” 

“Gross,” Brad said in disgust. 

“I know, I know but it's not all bad, a couple good things have happened to me recently. My mom gave me the book which led to me to create this little guy," as I scratched Hachiko’s behind his ears. “And even though it led to me getting caught up with all of this,” Waving my arms gesturing to the convenience store, “creating him was one of the first few times I actually had fun in months and really I have to thank my mom for it all.”

“And the second?” his interest clearly piqued. 

“Well, you know Tulip, the really quiet Spanish girl in math class?” 

“Yeah?” He said, raising one of his eyebrows in curiosity.

“Well, the day of the textbook fire when we all got to go home early, we ended up walking home together. It was just a nice conversation and honestly the first time anyone has talked to me in months aside from my mom or teachers. And it was the first time I laughed in a long while.” 

“Look Ink, I know it doesn't make up for what happened bu—”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Hey Ink.” we turned our heads to see the topic of discussion herself Tulip standing a couple feet away from us and next to her was Alex. Alex was an Irish girl with black eyes, and frizzy ginger hair (that I was sure she dyed). She was taller than Tulip but not by much. I didn't know a lot about her but based on a couple of the t-shirts and clubs I've seen her in, I could guess she's into engineering and robotics. She and Antonio were always competing for the top marks on every test.

“Hey, Tulip,” I waved. “How's it going?” I said desperately hoping that she wouldn't stay for long as her witnessing the fight brought to many issues like what if she saw the fight or what if she saw us record it.

“Things are good.” she said coming closer to the bench. “We saw you and Brad and wanted to come over and say hi.” 

“Ink, I didn't know you had a dog,” Alex said enthusiastically. 

“Oh yeah …I got him… recently.” I said half-heartedly, the crappy liar that I was. 

“Nice, what's his name?”

“Hachiko.” 

“Oh, is he named after someone you knew back in Korea?”

“Pfft!” Brad blurted out trying not to laugh, I instinctively elbowed him in the gut. Tulip gave me a look that, as dense as I tend to be, I could tell meant “should I tell her?”

I shook my head and spoke. “Sure, let's go with that,” not wanting to have to explain the rather vindictive choice behind his name when Brad was sitting right next to me, and the fact I'm from China not Korea. 

“Do you mind if I pet him?” 

“Sure, he doesn't bite,” I hoped as she bent down and started to pet and scratch him behind his ears. 

“Oh, who's a good boy. You are, yes you are.”

 “Ink, I thought you said you and Brad don't talk anymore?” 

“Well, um, you see ummm.” 

“We made up, we were chatting online about how much it's gonna suck having to go back to school tomorrow.” 

“Yeah, that's gonna suck” Tulip groaned. 

“Yeah, but hey look on the bright side, we probably won't have to do math for a while until they are able to order new textbooks,” I said. 

“That's actually a really good point,” Brad commented. 

“I mean only if every math textbook is destroyed. Because if there is still one textbook, he can just take photos of the pages and post them online,” commented Alex. 

“Oh” we all said disappointedly. 

“What do you guys think caused the whole thing?” Asked Tulip. 

“We have no clue, we've talked about it a bit and we have no idea.” Brad answered for the both of us knowing if I answered our cover would be blown since I cannot lie to save my life. 

“Yeah, same here,” Tulip added.

“Ink. Tulip told me your family works at a carpentry shop.” 

“Yeah, that’s right, Yang's Family Carpentry Emporium has been here for four years.” I said my muscle memory kicking our slogan being engraved into the back of my mind. 

“Nice, I was wondering if you could tell me who your wood supplier is. I need a big piece of wood for something I'm working on.” 

“How big?” 

“About four by two meters.” My eyes go wide. 

“Does it matter what kind of wood?” I asked starting to get excited.

“No, I'll take anything.” 

“Then I have the perfect thing for you!” 

“Wait, Ink are you finally going to get rid of Rosy?” Brad questioned. 

“Hell yeah, Alex, come by our shop at any time I can hook you up with a magnificent piece of rose wood.” 

“Really! Wow, thank you so much!” 

“No problem, you're doing us a favor. We've been trying to get rid of that thing since we first opened.” 

“Really? For four years?” Tulip said in disbelief. 

“He complains about it constantly," Brad said with tiredness in his voice. 

“I don't talk about it that muc—” I was cut off by the wailing of police sirens getting closer. WE WOO, WE WOO!

We turned our heads to see three men in plague doctor masks each varying in height running out of a convenience store. With floating baskets made from floor tiles, containing money, Coca Cola and beef jerky hovered around them. Notably none of them had the book that caused them to radiate that massive glow back in the woods but instead each of them had an almost comical light orange outline around their bodies. Just as planned, me and Brad pulled out our phones and began to record the fight, Tulip and Alex did the same but more out of disbelief rather than our preparedness.

Two cop cars pulled to either side of the parking lot. Two officers came out of each of the cars and quickly ran behind their cars with their guns out. “Put your hands behind your head and lie face down on the ground!” One of the officers yelled. The plague doctor that I recognized as Antonio walked forward and as he slowly began to raise up his hands before speeding up the motion causing blades of water to shoot out of his forearms towards two of the cops, grazing the cheek of one and going through the chest of the other wounding him but not killing. 

Two cops who were unharmed, shot at Antonio. The bullets landed, one into his shoulder and another into his chest causing him to fall and scream in pain. 

The shortest doctor, who I knew was Tyrone, ran forward and grabbed some of his hair, ripping it out and throwing it at the other two cops. The strands of hair ignited and rapidly grew into the size of baseballs. One officer ducked out of the way while the other was hit the fire burned straight through the head leaving a massive gushing hole. “We said no killing!” Antionio screamed as Tyrone picked him up and started to yell at Guams. 

“WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!” As he yelled that, the two remaining cops shot at him but were quickly blocked by the one of the stone baskets. Guams slapped the wall of the convenience store which created a massive cloud of dust obscuring the area. 

“LET’S GO!” Guams yelled, as a dozen massive boulders made from concrete and sidewalk, came flying out into all directions. With one coming directly towards us. 

“Oh crap!” Alex screamed running away with the other two quickly following behind her. Frozen in fear I was barely able to get out the words. But as I was about to be turned into a meaty jelly, Hachiko grew to the size of a large wolf. He sprung in front of the boulder diving through it, shattering it into a hundred pieces. As I looked at the dust cloud, I could just barely make out the trio running away. 

“Hey Ink?” I turned my head towards Tulip. “What the HELL WAS THAT?” 

“What do you mean?” I said trying and failing to pass off what happened as nothing. 

“Your dog turned into a wolf and broke a boulder.” Alex cried, clearly not believing me. 

“Look, we can explain everything, but right now two cops just died, and I don't know if any more crazy stuff is gonna happen. So, we need to go like NOW!” Brad said, interrupting the oncoming bombardment of questions.

“Ok then, let's go to my house. It's like twenty minutes away from here.” Alex suggested hastily. 

“My house is ten minutes away and my parents are out of town.” Brad said.

“Ok, that works for me.” Tulip said. 

“Yeah, same here let's go.” Alex panickily said. 

“Ok let's go Hachiko go mini.” I panickily said and to my surprise my command, caused Hachiko to shrink into a ball of green light and fly into my hand, just like what happened whenever I would say “Revertere ad me eqyym meum.” I didn’t have time to question this however as the four of us started to run away from the blood fire and stone, towards Brad's house.