We arrive at the police station after a short walk. Before entering the building, Daisy takes my hand while still staring ahead. I look down at our joined hands and smile as I squeeze her hand, maybe a bit too tightly. I look up at her, and she gives me a sweet smile right before her fingernails start to dig into my palm as she squeezes the living crap out of my hand. That’s gonna leave some marks.

“Daisy...Daisy, are you still mad? Please stop killing my hand.”

She ignores me, so I do the only rational thing. I lean over and kiss her on the cheek. She freezes up for a second, then slowly turns to look at me, and with murder in her eyes punches me in the stomach.

“Ouch! You do realize we’re outside a police station, right?” I look up at her from my crouched position, clutching my stomach while tearing up.

She grins and says “Yeah, I don’t think they care that much. Look.” She points to the window of the building, and I see a police officer stuffing his face not with donuts, but sushi. Honestly, I’d probably do the same. It’s not like anything’s ever happened down here, until now.

“Dang, seems like everyone wants sushi today. Maybe we can ask them for a piece?” Haha, yeah, right. We head inside, and the receptionist looks up with a tired expression.

He smiles weakly and greets us by saying, “How can I help you?” We smile back, and I hold up the severed thumb. The expression of horror he shows us is almost worth the commotion immediately following. We’re instantly surrounded by police officers, all of whom are either pointing tasers at us or holding bats. I’m guessing the receptionist pressed a panic button under the desk.

Daisy speaks up first. “We found this. We just wanted to pass everything we know along before it gets to be too much for us to handle.”

A police officer behind us asks, “And what is the situation?”

“There’s a crazed killer on the loose. Have you tried contacting the police from lower layers recently? Because I doubt the ones from layer one will respond now.” At this point, they all share the same suspicious look, but the chief officer nods at the receptionist to make the call. After it goes unanswered for a couple minutes the police officers exchange glances, then the chief takes us into a back room. Inside is a table, at which he sits down. He motions to the two chairs opposite him, and we also take a seat. After a very intense staring contest between him and Daisy, he gets up and heads back out the door, only to return a moment later with a couple plastic water bottles, handing each of us one.

“Here’s some water, since you’re going to be talking back here for quite a while.” He sits down opposite us, then leans onto his forearms and continues, “I need to hear the whole story. Right from the start, and nothing skipped.” After he leans back neither Daisy or I speak, and he raises an eyebrow and prompts, “Well? I’m waiting.”