Post by StoryGirl83 on Sept 18, 2009 22:17:11 GMT -5
Chapter Eleven – Explanations and Decisions
Chris had somehow managed to tape gauze on his side under his torn shirt. Then he had cleaned up the area around the wound. He knew technically he was supposed to clean it first, but he figured it didn’t matter, since the gauze was basically a disguise. Or more accurately, a lie, but he kept trying to ignore that. He didn’t know Ty that well, but he had the impression that if this guy was told his secret, he wasn’t going to take it well.
He surveyed the blood spilled on the ground, his blood, and sighed. Personal gain. Personal gain. No magical cleanup. He heaved in a sigh and went looking for the mop.
He had cleaned up most of the blood when the door swung open and in walked Emily. “You okay?”
Chris looked up surprised. “I thought I told Ty to keep everyone else out.”
Emily shrugged. “Becky has him occupied. She is more than a little worried. I sneaked back. I wanted to see how you were.” She looked at the blood still on his shirt. “How’d you get cut up?”
“A knife.”
“Accident?”
Chris shook his head. “Look, I’d rather not talk about it,” he told her when she opened her mouth to ask. He stared at her for several seconds. “Since your back here, want to help me clean up.”
“If this wasn’t an accident, then assuming you aren’t suicidal, someone did this. Doesn’t that make this a crime scene?”
Doesn’t just about every time my family fights a demon, warlock, or whatever mean they have disturbed a crime scene? Chris sighed. On the other hand since we are fighting against the magical, don’t we kind of qualify as the magical police? So doesn’t that make this my crime scene? He looked over at Emily. Her bright eyes looking back to him where rather unnerving. “I’m the only one hurt. I will fine. Don’t press it.” Probably doesn’t make it my crime scene, but none of it is anything I can explain to her.
She frowned and looked around. “And how do I know that?”
“What?” Chris looked at her confused.
“How do I know that you were the only one hurt?”
Chris scowled. “Look, I was attacked. I was sliced at with a knife that was intended not to injure me, but to end me. I’m not saying I didn’t fight back. I . . . Look, nothing I did to the intruder is going to cause lasting harm.”
“And what did you do?”
Chris heaved in a deep breath, then another. “I hit the intruder with a pan.”
Emily blinked and looked at him, surprise in her eyes. “You did what?”
“It was the only thing I could get my hands on,” he informed her, indignant.
“Those things can cause a lot of damage.”
“So can knives.”
She looked at him and looked around. “You really should let the police handle this.”
Chris shook his head. “If you are going to argue with me, then you are going to need to leave.”
“The intruder could come back, and you don’t know what they were after,” she argued worried. “If they were trying to steal something.”
“She was after me,” Chris snapped without thinking. Realizing what he said, his eyes widened.
Emily stared at him for several long seconds. “But why? Why would someone want you dead?”
Chris didn’t say anything.
“Chris, answer me.”
Still he said nothing.
“Chris, answer me. Why doesn’t someone want you dead?”
“I don’t know,” he finally insisted. “It makes no sense.” I’m just me. I’m not mom or one of her sisters. I’m not Wy. I’m just me. I’m insignificant.
“You don’t know?” After he shook his head, she added, “You have to go to the police.”
“No, I don’t,” Chris informed her. “I won’t. And neither will you.”
“Why not?”
“You saw nothing, and anything you say will be hearsay unless I back you up. I won’t.”
She stared at him, a little stunned. It was almost a minute before anyone said anything. They both knew whoever spoke next lost.
“All right.”
“What?”
“Let’s get this place cleaned up.”
Chris starred at her, stunned. “I don’t understand.”
“I’m helping you.” She paused, considering her next words carefully. “I don’t know why, but something says I should, so you’d better be in the right here.”
Without waiting for his response Emily went off in search of cleaning supplies.