Of course they didn’t take me home, but instead dragged me to the nearest police station. The officer who had approached me, Detective Sullivan, carefully cleaned and treated my hands before escorting me to the station. She kept insisting I call her Sarah, instead of Detective Sullivan. It was probably some sort of technique for gaining the trust of younger people, but it made me feel awkward.

  Even though she never put me in cuffs, or even once implied that I was in trouble, I still felt like a criminal as Detective Sullivan escorted me back through the bullpen to one of the private meeting rooms. It was pretty bare, plain white walls, a small meeting table with half a dozen chairs, a ratty grey couch, and a fern in the corner. I made an immediate B-Line for the couch, sinking down against the armrest farthest from the door. The detective waited until I was comfortable before crouching down in front of me.

  “I want to assure you, you’re not in trouble. Unfortunately, the Bureau of Empowered Investigations needs to interview everyone involved in a breach event, including yourself. A couple agents will be by after investigating the scene. Do you have the contact information for either your mom, or dad?” she asked.

  “It’s just me, and my mom,” I replied blankly before digging through my pocket and pulling out an old crumpled post it note. “This is her cell phone number, it’s for emergencies only.”

  “Well, I think this qualifies,” Detective Sullivan replied quietly before gently taking the note from my hand and smoothing it out. “I need to step out and give her a call, do you want anything when I come back? Hot chocolate? Tea?”

  “Chocolate would be nice,” I mumbled, as I pulled my knees into my chest.

  The detective nodded, then leaned over and grabbed a blanket that was folded beside the couch and draped it over my shoulders. “I’ll be back in a couple minutes.”

  As the detective left, Angelica floated over and wrapped me in a tight hug. “I know you were scared back there, but you did well. You survived, which is all that matters.”

  I fought back the tears as I threw my arms around the imaginary jellyfish. It didn’t matter if someone walked in on me, I needed the comfort. “I can’t believe that happened. Once was bad enough, but twice? What are the chances?”

  “One in a billion,” Tyberius rumbled from the corner above the door. “You can count the number of ruptures that have occurred outside of the enclaves, in the last five years, on a single hand.”

  “Tyberius… I know that’s supposed to be comforting, but all it does is emphasize that I have lottery winning levels of bad luck,” I grumbled, before letting go of Angelica and pulling the blanket over my head.

  “It’s a good thing we were there to protect you,” Hairy declared proudly.

  I slowly turned and stared at the bull, as he hovered by the door like some sort of giant red bodyguard. “How the hell did you do that anyways? You’ve never been able to interact with anything before! I didn’t think it was possible! I thought you always said shit like that as some sort of massive ongoing joke.”

  “I donno,” The ox shrugged. “I swung at the bugs, and crushed them. Simple as that.”

  Glancing over at Tiberius and Angelica, the pair just mirrored Hairy.

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  “Sorry sweetie, this is the first time for us too. I just felt like I could damage them, so I did,” Angelica whispered.

  “Wonderful. I’m glad there weren’t any bodies left over, because I’d have one hell of a hard time explaining the damage to the police,” I whispered into the blanket.

  The others didn’t have anything to say about that, so I sunk into my head for a minute, replaying the entire situation until Detective Sullivan re-entered the room. The lanky police woman carefully placed a cup of hot chocolate on the table next to me, before crouching down again.

  “Your mom is on the way, but it sounds like she’s going to take a while. Apparently she needs to take the bus to get here…” the detective said quietly.

  “We don’t have a car,” I confirmed, locking eyes with the detective. “She’s on the blacklist, so she can’t find a good enough job to afford one.”

  The detective tensed up, her voice got quiet, and I saw a little bit of compassion leave her eyes. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  I dropped my head down, and hid my face behind my knees. Her reaction was actually pretty tame compared to most people, but she was probably just a little more practiced at managing her reaction than most. “How long until my mom arrives?”

  “About twenty minutes,” the detective replied quietly. “The BEI agents are expected to arrive around the same time. You just need to stick around until then, answer a few questions, then you should be free to leave.”

  “That’s fine, it’s not like I’m going anywhere,” I mumbled into my knees.

  The detective nodded, pushed herself to her feet, and took a seat at the table. I guess she wasn’t planning on leaving me alone again. My friends all stared at her angrily, but didn’t say anything. After so many years together they knew talking to me with someone else in the room would only increase the chances of me replying, and looking crazy, so standard operating procedure was pretending they weren’t there.

  The whole lot of us just sat there, in an uncomfortable silence, for nearly twenty minutes until my mother burst in. She looked around the room, frantically, before launching herself across the room to sweep me up in a massive hug. “Tammy I was so worried when I heard what happened? Are you okay? Are you injured at all?”

  “I cut up my hands pretty badly defending myself, but I’m fine otherwise,” I whispered, presenting my hands to my mother. “It wouldn’t have been necessary if that asshole Cooper hadn’t blocked the fire exit.”

  “He did what?” my mother hissed, which attracted the attention of the detective.

  “Locked up the back door with fucking chains. I probably would have been able to escape if it had been clear,” my eyes were starting to sting, but I ignored the sensation and pulled my mother closer. “I survived though, which is more than I can say for Cooper.”

  My mother nodded wordlessly, and pulled me into another hug.

  “Did you say the shop owner blocked the fire exit?” detective Sullivan asked once we separated again.

  “I also said it didn’t matter anymore, since the beetles fucking ate Cooper,” I growled at her.

  “It’s still something we need to investigate. It might explain why the intruders didn’t manage to spread very far.”

  “Yeah, lucky for the surrounding people, terrifying for me,” I grumbled. “I thought you said the BEI agents were coming to ask me questions. What happened? They get caught in traffic or something?”

  Sullivan looked over at me tiredly. “It’s usually better to give the victims of assaults time to collect their thoughts, and have time with their loved ones, but if you feel you’re ready I can go check for them.”

  “I just want to go home. I don’t think there’s any point in putting this off any longer than necessary,” I replied quietly. My mother studied my face for a moment before gently taking one of my hands and sitting next to me on the couch.

  “There’s no point in arguing with her. Once Tamara gets something into her head there’s no arguing with her,” she said softly. “You might as well go see if you can find the agents.”

  Detective Sullivan nodded, and quickly headed out of the room, leaving my mother, friends and I alone in the room. “Are you sure you’re okay? I’ve never seen you so shaken up before. I’m sure the agents would be willing to wait if you needed more time.”

  “No, I just want to get this over with,” I replied. I didn’t feel like smiling, but I managed to give her a small reassuring one before the door swung open again.

  I didn’t recognize the two people that stepped through the door, but they were both wearing black government issue jackets with the letters BEI in yellow above the right breast. The woman, who entered first, was tiny. She couldn’t be more than 5 feet tall, but carried herself with a sense of authority. Her sandy hair was tied back into a tight ponytail, and she had a huge pair of aviators on her head.

  The man that followed her in was her complete opposite. He was huge, a muscular goliath who was carrying a massive dufflebag around with one hand. Glancing around nervously, rubbing his brown buzz cut head with one hand, he quickly slipped behind the woman after she sat at the table.

  Sitting up straight, the woman laced her fingers together and looked directly at me. “Good Evening Ladies, my name is Agent Pamula Lawson of the BEI. I have a few questions about the incident that happened at Coopers Grocery earlier today, if you don’t mind.”

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