"So, fire came down from the sky," repeated New Earth One's lead detective Lola LaLouf as she took my statement at the scene of what remained of Martha Ann and Dan's. She sounded pretty bitchy, not gonna lie.

"Yeah," I said back. That's what had happened.

"And then it stopped."

"Yeah, because the form flew off."

"Oh yes, 'the form'." She scribbled something but her tone was the same. "And what did you say it looked like again?"

"I mean," I scratched my head, "it's dark out here. It looked big. But it was, you know, just a form. Couldn't make out much more." I paused a minute. "I mean, it looked like it was heading into the settlement. Were there any other fires?"

Detective LaLouf shook her head. She and I arrived at Mars at roughly the same time all those years ago, but she had been on another of the rockets that left Earth that day. We both knew of one another, what with the number of humans around being limited, but we hadn't really interacted much before this interrogation. I wasn't exactly Mr. Social back then, what with my intentional near-hermit lifestyle.

"It's weird." I said.

"What is, Mr. Rapp?"

"It's Cole."

"It's weird that there weren't more fires or the form itself?"

"Both."

She stared at her notebook. "So, to clarify, you were the only eyewitness to this unexplained, horrific fire because you had just left the Earth Remembrance Day celebration before it all happened, but weren't too far away."

"Yeah. I'd gone out the bathroom window." Sure, probably shouldn'tve volunteered that. But keep in mind, I'd recently consumed three poorly mixed beers so my reasoning wasn't quite on par. And anyway, it was the truth.

Of course, Detective LaLouf didn't miss a beat. "You'd gone out the bathroom window? Why?"

"Cuz I'd locked myself in the bathroom and that was the only escape. Martha Ann was stirring up trouble and I didn't want to deal with her or face the rest of the crowd after all that."

Detective LaLouf paused. "What sort of trouble?"

"Oh, she was saying stuff. Figured that going out the window was a way to shut her up." Talking about it now, I do see how my responses maybe seemed like red flags. But at the time, I just figured I was being a realiable witness. Isn't that what cops like, reliability?

LaLouf closed her notepad, giving me a glare. "Fires shut people up too, don't they?"

"I told you," I reminded her, "the fire came from some form in the sky."

"That you can't describe."

"Maybe it was a Martian, I dunno."

Now Detective LaLouf was very serious in her demeanor. "You and I both know they are no Martians. That was researched well in depth before the first terraforming efforts were made. There were not signs of life on this planet prior to us."

I didn't answer. But I had seen something in the night sky for sure.

"What I do know, however, is people using extreme means to shut people up." She kept her eyes on me. "Tell me, Cole, how did you get the fire to burn so fast?"

"Me?" I was perplexed by the accusation. "I told you, it was a form-"

"-How many people were in there? Twenty? Thirty? You seem awful calm right now. Have you killed a group of people before, Cole? Is that why?"

I swallowed hard. She had no idea, but in consideration of the date, it made a chill rush over me. I was always a calm guy and I hadn't been close to most people at the event. But now wasn't the time to volunteer my apathy towards most of my neighbors. I already looked suspicious enough.

"Is that why, Cole?" She firmly pressed again.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Before I could respond, a voice from beside us suddenly spoke. "He's telling the truth," it said. I knew the voice well.

"Cleetus!" I exclaimed, as excited as I'd ever been to see someone. Like I mentioned, I'm not really a people person, but I'd seen Cleetus as my kind-of friend.

"He's telling the truth?" Detective LaLouf raised an eyebrow as she looked from me to Cleetus and back to me.

Cleetus nodded, though he didn't make eye contact. It was a bit odd- usually he kept eyes on me like a hawk. But I was more in awe that he had survived the inferno than anything else to really ponder what that meant.

"So, Cole here," said LaLouf dryly, "he indicated he left Martha Ann's and Dan's through a bathroom window. "

"He did," Cleetus replied, "Martha Ann had caused a scene and he fled to the bathroom. I could tell from the slight echoing of her banging at the men's room door that Cole had exited the premises so I too exited in search of him."

"You...you can hear that from banging echos?"

"I can. I have excellent ears."

"And then once outside, a form appeared in the sky and set fire to the bar?"

Again Cleetus nodded. "Yes, it was large and in the sky. Blocked out many stars."

"So...you saw it?"

"I did. I have excellent eyes." My bodyguard, he was a real godsend in that moment.

Detective LaLouf re-opened her notebook, ready to record. "What did the form look like?"

Cleetus paused. "Hard to say. It's dark out."

LaLouf let out an annoyed huff. "So you're not much better of a witness than Cole here is."

"I'm happy to tell you what I saw best I can."

"Well, I'd like to talk to you alone over here for a little bit, then," she shot a look at me, as if I were still her number one suspect. "I want your opinion to have no outside influences."

"Certainly," replied Cleetus, as monotone as ever, "but as it is my job to protect Cole Rapp, may I first check to make sure he's unharmed? I'll be right over."

The detective mulled over the request for a moment. "Fine, I'll be over here when ready. " she slowly started to walk away.

Cleetus turned to me, at last making eye contact. But there was a fire to his eyes, not unlike the embers that burned in the remains of Martha Ann and Dan's.

"I...I'm okay," I told him, assuming his look to be an odd sort of compassion.

"What Martha Ann was saying," Cleetus whispered with a hiss, "it made alot of sense."

"W-what?" I was caught off-guard. This was a side of Cleetus I had not seen before.

"It WAS you who blew up Earth. I can tell. I've been around you constantly for the past fifteen years. I know you like the back of my hand." He narrowed his brow. "Now, I'm going to tell the detective what I saw. I'm going to make sure she leaves convinced you had nothing to do with this fire. Convinced that there's no reason to ever look for you or speak to you again. Because when I'm done with her, I'm coming for you. No one else gets to lay a hand on you before I do. I will break every bone in your goddamn genocidal body and bury you so deep in the desert future archeologists won't know what to make of you. You destroyed Earth. You destroyed America. You are a cowardly piece of shit and I will have justice for humanity."

Then, as if turning on a light switch, Cleetus spun around, relaxed as could be. "Alright, detective. I've inspected Cole and he seems fine. What questions do you have for me?" Sure, I suppose he was still monotone but similar to before, a chill surged through my body.

Needless to say, as Cleetus walked over to meet with LaLouf, all I was thinking was how fucked I was.