Jenny hadn't had time to work out a story with the others, but they'd given her a quick crash course on how the police worked in modern America. In some ways a lot less powerful than the city guards she was used to, and in some ways a lot more. But she wasn't here to compare modern and ancient methods of law enforcement, she was there to “give a statement.” Which was a fancy way of saying she was supposed to tell the police what happened.

Leaving out stuff about monsters and magic, because that was still all a secret.

The woman in the blue uniform listening to her story seemed nice enough. The uniform didn't look like very good armor, but again she wasn't here to learn about law enforcement.

“...and when he started shooting we ran away,” Jenny finished up. “Kyle stayed behind, to protect us.”

“Did Kyle think he could fight someone with a gun?” the policewoman asked.

“Kyle knew Danny was after him,” Jenny said. “He knew the danger would be wherever he was.”

“Kyle sounds like quite a guy,” the policewoman muttered as she wrote in her notebook.

“Yeah,” Jenny said. “He is!”

Something in her voice made the policewoman smile.

“I think we've got what we need here,” the policewoman said. “You can probably go home soon, miss Ragbah. There's going to be some paperwork, but what happened here seems pretty obvious.”

“Is everyone else okay?” Jenny asked nervously. “The healers...the ambulance people, I mean...they said Tanya was going to be okay, but...”

“Well your one friend is still unconscious,” the policewoman said. “The other girl is getting patched up. They're both in the hospital. Everyone else is fine. They're giving their own statements.”

“...so I grabbed everyone else and we got out of there,” Trevor finished. “Well except Kyle and Tanya. Then there were all these bangs and explosions.”

“Why did Tanya stay behind?” the officer taking his statement asked.

“You'd have to ask her,” Trevor shrugged. “I don't understand half the stuff she does. Less than half, lately.”

Trevor was very proud of himself. That was an awful lot of not quite lying. Trevor had never liked lying, but the world was the world. He'd gotten pretty good at this part.

“Danny has always been a bully,” Betty said intensely, adjusting her glasses. “But he's never been quite so viciously violent before. And he has never used a weapon. I must admit, despite the fact that my life was in immediate danger I am fascinated by what could have prompted him to take such sudden and drastic action. Admittedly, his recent setbacks at Kyle's hands are an obvious motive, but the violence certainly seems sharp and sudden, doesn't it? But perhaps he was always like that, below the surface, boiling away until something triggered and eruption. And that trigger happened to by Kyle. I wonder if...”

“Miss Peltzer...” the officer said desperately.

“...someone else defying him would be enough? Evan, for example. He has also bullied Evan, to a lesser degree, over the course of most of their lives. Would Evan suddenly refusing to be bullied have the same effect? Although I expect the arrival of Jenny into the situation has had a great deal to do with Danny's reaction. I have always ascribed bullying, and indeed a great many male behaviors, to competition for mating rights left over from our days as wild animals. Of course, the same could probably be said for...”

“Miss Peltzer!” the officer shouted frantically. “It's over! We're done here! You can go! You can stop talking now!”

“So soon?” Betty blinked. “Oh, it seems to have gotten late. You're right, officer, I should be going.”

“Yes go,” the officer sighed, looking down at his pages and pages of notes. “Please.”

“Just like pwing!” Evan said, leaping up in his chair, his arms waving in the air. “Kapwoosh! And then like BAM! And I then I ran back and Kyle was kinda down, so I tried to get the monster off him, and--”

“Right,” the officer said, rubbing his forehead like he had a headache. “Got it. If you could please sit down? I suppose it's not surprising you think of him as a monster...”

“Oh right,” Evan said. “Yeah Danny, that is one hundred percent definitely what I mean. So anyway, then it was like gakow! And...”

“...and that's when you guys rolled up,” Kyle said. He'd kept the details vague, just like they'd agreed in hurried whispers while they were being taken in. Danny showed up with the gun, fight, things got more dangerous, everyone ran, Kyle and Tanya stayed behind, fight, explosion. Why the explosion? Couldn't say officer. It was a wonderful sneaky phrase, couldn't say. Because one of the reasons you couldn't say might be that you'd get in trouble if you did say. A chance to wave away the worst of transgressions without having to lie.

But there'd been no hiding the weariness, and he finished his story with his head hanging in his hands.

“I just don't get it,” Kyle mumbled. “He was crazy. I mean he's always been a bully. No surprise there. I just never thought he'd go this far. Because I fought back a couple of times?”

“Couldn't speak to that sir,” the policewoman said, writing something down in her notebook. The official version of “couldn't say.” She probably wasn't supposed to commiserate too much with witnesses. But something broke, and the look she gave Kyle was pure sympathy. “Listen, you and your friends did alright, in a situation like that. Maybe you should have run with your friends, but I get what you were thinking. And calling us as soon as things started was smart. As for the rest of it, I can't help you. But you got to the other side and you're okay. You understand?”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Yeah,” Kyle said, with a small sad smile. “I understand. I just wish I understood, that's all.”

“Sometimes it can be hard to understand people,” the officer nodded. “Impossible, even.”

Danny sat in the tiny little room, waiting for his lawyer.

He didn't know if he had a lawyer. He probably did, or at least his dad could get one. He wondered if he was going to jail. But the thought was distant. Unimportant. He would go, or he wouldn't. What would Jail mean anyway? Not doing the things he usually did? The normal things didn't seem to matter anymore.

It was like when Kyle Anderman punched him the world had turned to ash in his fingers. Like with that one piece of the universe out of place, with Kyle Anderman capable of fighting back, everything else was ruined. Every time he tried to explain it the anger welled up inside him again. Why did there need to be a reason? It was wrong, that's all. It was just wrong. He couldn't even say he'd never thought he would react this way, because until it happened he'd never considered a world where it could happen.

And that, of course, was the problem with Danny O'Brien. Danny O'Brien was, unfortunately, not complicated. Danny O'Brien had spent his entire life hammering the world into a shape his mind was comfortable with. A mind that was damaged—or maybe better to say defective, since as previously mentioned this had come about through no particular trauma—and required that forced environment to remain stable. Maybe it could be described as a form of obsessive compulsive disorder, like those people who have to have their carpet threads exactly straight or all the pictures on their walls arranged in descending order of size. Kyle Anderman was a picture out of place, and Danny couldn't handle it.

You're pretty messed up huh kid? Said the voice from his closet. Yeah, I picked the right guy.

“Shut up,” Danny grumbled. The monster's burning, bleeding face had appeared in the reflections of the metal table Danny sat behind. “You knew the gun wouldn't work.”

I was pretty sure yeah. You needed to learn how outgunned you are.

“And the fire monster. That was you.”

Placed the spell on you when you grabbed the gun. A portal to the realm of fire, whenever your blood touched the ground and completed the spell. It won't work again, of course.

“It didn't work this time,” Danny pointed out. “That thing didn't get Kyle.”

I've got bigger plans than killing Kyle. Although that's on the list. Think of it like a sample. That's a little trick I know. You wanna really get strong enough to beat that kid?

Danny glared at the reflected monster.

Well?

Before he could answer the door open. A man he didn't recognize stood in the doorway holding a briefcase. The man reached the table in a few quick steps and sat down, placing the briefcase on the table.

“Danny,” the man in the suit said. “My name is Thomas Crowell, I've been hired as your defense attorney. How have they treated you?”

“Told me what I was charged with and left me in here,” Danny said. “he list was pretty fucking long. And most of it's bullshit. I didn't have any kind of bomb.”

“We'll discuss our response to the specific charges at a later time,” Crowell said with a deep breath. “First, I'm afraid I have to deliver some bad news. It connects to why your father isn't with me today.”

“Now what?” Danny snorted.

“Danny...I'm afraid your mother was killed this afternoon,” Crowell said. Dany started, and shot up in the chair. “There was a fire. The rest of your family is alright, but your mother was right at the center of it when it started. In your-”

“Bedroom closet,” Danny finished without thinking. The lawyer gave him a sharp look.

“Do not repeat that until we discuss your plea,” Crowell hissed at him. “the current theory is that she disturbed the material you used to make the bomb that charred up the alleyway the way it was. Your father and sister are at a hotel, and he's taking it...rather hard. He told me to handle everything in relation to this matter, and money was no object. But he did tell me to tell you he...it may be a while before he's ready to talk to you, Danny.”

“There was no damn bomb,” Danny insisted. “But there was...there was something in the closet, that could catch fire. But I didn't make any fucking bomb.”

“Whether there was or not my job is to defend you to the best of my ability,” Crowell said, opening his briefcase. “We're going to go over a few things. But the short version is you don't talk, you don't say anything, you answer no questions, you volunteer no information. We're in lockdown mode until things are a little more clear.”

Danny shrugged, his mind racing. His mother was dead. It didn't seem real. Oh he believed it, it just didn't feel solid somehow. Like he'd heard about it happening to someone else. Possibly even stranger, he couldn't exactly decide if he cared. Which even he had to admit was screwed up. Had he always been this screwed up? Close to it, probably. He must have been close to going insane his whole life.

Anderman. That's what had done it. That's what had broken him to the point where he didn't even care that his own mother died. If that little shit had just stayed in his fucking place this would all have been fine. And Danny had never been more sure that he was going to kill Kyle Andermann. On top of everything else, he couldn't let somebody get away with killing his mom could he? Even if he didn't give a shit.

He couldn't help himself, the thought made him start laughing. Crowell had been in the middle of a sentence, and he gave Danny the strangest look. Which just made Danny laugh more. And in the reflection on the metal table, he caught the eye of a grinning orange-red face and gave a small nod.

They'd talk later.

Kyle only had a little time to talk to everyone after their interviews were over. Worried parents wanted to take their children home. He'd met Betty's parents before. They were as pale and stone faced as their daughter, although where her father shared Betty's glossy black hair, combed over his bald spot with mechanical precision, her mother's hair was brown and always hung down wildly around her head.

“Are you alright?” Her father asked in a voice which did not change tone even once.

“We were worried sick,” her mother said, sounding like she was about to go to sleep.

“Mother.” Betty said, adjusting her glasses. “Father. I am perfectly alright. Kyle and Evan would not have let anything happen to me.”

“Yes of course,” Kyle's mother yawned. “You should know we don't blame you, Kyle. You've always been a good friend to Betty. Danny O'Brien isn't your fault.”

“Thanks,” Kyle said, a little uncomfortably. He'd been about to apologize for dragging their daughter into his mess.

“And you must be Jenny,” her father said. “I wish we could meet under better circumstances, and I hope we will. For today, we really should get Betty home.”

“Nice to meet you!” Jenny waved goodbye to them, a huge smile on her face.

“I think that's a little too perky for the situation,” Kyle pointed out.

“I know,” Jenny wilted. “I just don't know what to do now.”

“You're not alone,” Kyle muttered.

Evan came out next.

“Hey guys,” he said. “Listen, we got a lot to talk about but I am dog tired. Tomorrow?”

“Your dad's not coming?” Kyle asked.

“He's still in China,” Evan shrugged. “I'll be fine. That was freaking awesome today. Did you see me?”

“I didn't see you,” Jenny admitted. “But I'm sure you were super impressive!”

“Yeah I saw you,” Kyle couldn't help but smirk. Evan was just so enthusiastic about the magic powers. “I had him though.”

“Sure sure,” Kyle laughed, already walking away. “Heading home. I'll see you guys in the morning.”

“Well I guess we'd better head home too,” Kyle said.

“I could use nuggets,” Jenny sighed, leaning against Kyle's side. “We really can't go see Tanya in the hospital?”

“We'll go tomorrow,” Kyle shook his head. “Visiting hours are way over by now. I'm not positive she wants to see us anyway.”

They had just started away from the police station when a cab drove up and Kyle's grandfather burst from the door.

“There you kids are!” the old man shouted. “Are you alright?”

“We're fine,” Kyle said, glaring. “But I want to talk to you.”

“I'm sure you do,” the old man sighed. “Come on, get in the cab.”