There were some muffled cries of protest in the doorway before she came busting into the interrogation cell.

“Hey! You can’t just rush into here without an appointment!”

A hand fell onto her shoulder and she flung it aside, continuing to come into the ward.

There are more guards now, a collection of officers trying to stop her from coming into the cell. In the midst of struggling, a hand reached her collar and something flew out, landing on the floor with a meek thud.

“Stop!”

There was a flurry of movement at the door and she got rid of the last hand yanking onto her, and all the officers turned to look at Benjamin.

He was a tall character, Benjamin, tall and intimidating. And most importantly of all, he commanded the police forces in Kelt. It was probably because of that that the officers stopped struggling with her at the doorway.

“She’s here for the autopsy.”

Benjamin picked up the red streak that fell from the girl’s neck. A lanyard, the red, silky kind, was attached to a card that reads: Pathologist.

It was then that he started to register in his mind the female figure that had come bursting through his cell door.

The mess of hair that resided on her head almost covered her entire face, her glasses, although intact, has a certain lopsided-ness to it, and the coat she was wearing was obviously too big for her size. To put it in short, she doesn’t look like she could amount to much.

He gave her an unassuming look and was surprised that she returned it with a friendly wave.

As if they had known each other for a long time, the girl walked up to him and waved another time. He returned a blank expression and she pouted.

“What’s up with you?”

There was no response from him.

“Don’t you remember me?”

He squinted and rubbed his eyes again.

“No.”

She stepped back and endeavored in a cheerful voice:

“Where’s humbert humbert?”

“Excuse me, what?”

She continued staring at him.

“This better be joke.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I’m Dolores!

Dolores Hazenfield!”

Throwing her hands up, Dolores gave an exasperated sigh.

A blank look on his face.

“Your classmate?”

Dolores offered.

The blank look persisted on his face.

“He has amnesia.”

Benjamin’s tone was filled with impatience.

“Oh.”

A tinge of sadness in Dolores’ voice.

“I don’t want to spoil this reunion of yours here, but if your talk here is over, could you please start the autopsy for Lindsey Totten?”

An even further degree of impatience flooded the atmosphere around Benjamin.

“I would like to continue my interrogation of August Dupin.”

That seemed to peak the interest of Dolores.

“August?

What did he do?”

“He’s suspected of killing Lindsey Totten.”

A look of disbelief crossed Dolores’ face.

“He wouldn’t.”

“He doesn’t even want to admit having known his classmate, who knows what else he would do.”

A smirk crept up Dolores’ face and she pointed at her lanyard that Benjamin still held in his hand.

“According to the law, I hold a higher position than you.”

A glance at her lanyard revealed her rank: six stars, just three stars short of the highest rank in the police force.

Benjamin took out his tag: a measly four stars, and he glared at Dolores.

“That makes me have the highest position in this village, doesn’t it?”

A nod from Benjamin’s mass of greying hair.

“Then I’ll be relieving August Dupin from his detention.”

And with that, she grabbed the keys of his handcuffs from Benjamin, unlocked him, and dragged him by the hand out of the police station.

.

His tongue fell upon her face and she slapped it away.

“S-stop! What’re ya doing?”

“I l-love you, L-lindsey.”

Again with the tongue.

Lindsey was pinned down to the ground, with Castasia on top of her. The meek, shy, and stammering Castasia that the group of seven graders gotten used to ignoring was gone. His eyes were dark- so dark that it shows no signs of ever having brightness return into them again.

This is bad.

Castasia’s hand crept up the top of her blouse.

It’s just like that time.

She closed her eyes, tears streaming from its borders.

His fingers found the first button of her blouse and started undoing it.

That time when-

Her arms shot up to resist but were smacked down by Castasia.

Castastia banged his head against Lindsey and she gave a cry of protest.

His head was so close to hers she could feel his breath on her cheeks.

That time when-

Lindsey closed her eyes and started blindly slapping Castasia in the face.

Castasia, clearly affected, howled a cry of agony and Lindsey quickly slid away from him. The ground sprayed dust at her as her palms thudded the ground, lifting her up and allowing her to run.

A grip on her feet.

A turn around and she fell on the floor, and Castasia was upon her once again.

He did not speak, he did not tell her what he intended to do, but she already knew. His pants came more and more frantically, and his movements became more erratic.

When he-

Another slap met Catasia’s face but he did not flinch this time. Instead, he willed himself even closer to Lindsey, and his hands were soon upon her second button.

When he-

He was laughing now. Laughing with an air of giddy excitement. It was as if he was obsessed over Lindsey. His hands found the third button and yanked it open.

Lindsey shut her eyes tight.

When he

raped

me.

She could feel Castasia deliriously yanking on her pants. Sooner or later he would-

A strangled cry.

First, she opened her right eye. Seeing no one on top of her, she opened her left one. Then, she saw him.

Slumped on the ground and with a hole through his heart, him.

Her classmate who seconds ago was attempting to rape her.

Dead.

She did not know whether she felt happy or sad.

Then, a rustle to the side and she looked up, at it.

At the creature who put a hole through her classmate’s heart.

At the lusus naturae, smiling in its distorted sort of way.