As the ash begins to settle, Bala’s body keeps twitching. I know he’ll live, but he’ll never be the same man with the same memories, thinks Ken as he looks at his ash covered body. With blood on his hands and clothes Telum approaches Ken. Tears in his eyes, Ken looks at Telum. Where is Bala? Have you seen him? Ken slowly raises his arm to point at the floor. You are standing over him. Telum in shock takes a few steps back only for him to see the headless body. What happened? Ken looks at him as he punches the wall behind him. You. It was you who did this. Telum slowly approaches Ken with his palms wide open. What? No. I was out, helping others. I couldn’t be me. Ken looks at his hands pointing at them. The blood on your hand says otherwise. Telum leans forwards towards him to put a hand on his shoulder. Don’t touch me. He gets up and takes a step back. Fine. I’m sorry. But you have to believe me. It couldn’t be me. Ken with a fierce look in his eyes looks at Telum. LIAR! This was way too convenient. You left the building. The building exploded. Bala got his head crushed. You show up immediately after. If I wouldn’t know any better, I’d say you scripted all this. Telum takes a bottle of pills from his pocket and throws it at Ken. Get better, he says while picking up Bala and leaving.

I ran without thinking. Maybe I should have let myself get caught, I tell myself as I keep dragging myself deeper into the forest. This is either genius or I’m just setting a trap for myself. But, I can’t sit by the side of the road unable to move. My legs are still numb, glad the pills worked. All I need now is a hole where I can read and wait for my legs to start working again. I need to find an answer to this device, I need my books. On a loop in my head plays the moment I started running to jump out of the window. My heart starts to beat faster and faster. I really did that, huh? As I keep crawling I find a small hole that seems untouched. As I sit down and lean my back against the soil, I sigh. Someone must have known about Scorpian, Though they might’ve not done a good job, considering they targeted a cop. Which means that there might be a way to find them. They might have made some more mistakes. Speaking of which, I still have this baggie on me. Forgot to give it to Ken to take it to the forensics guys. Maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t. It should be safer with me. But then again, they know me. Wait… If they know me, they have to know who they are. Ken, Bala and Telum must be in danger too. I have to figure something out before it’s too late…

Ken, where are you going? We need your help here, man. Ken turns towards Telum and pushes him off. Don’t touch me. He turns and leaves the building. Telum, come. Where’s Ken? He looks at the officer. I don’t know. Let’s just get on with it. A handful of officers gather in the chief of police’s office. Are these all the available men right now? One of the captains takes a step forward. Yes, sir. The chief rubs his eyes with one hand. This is unprecedented, as you all well know. And this isn’t something we can keep under wraps no matter how hard we try. So, I have a proposal for all of you. Let’s get our facts straight, and if in 24 hours we don’t have any leads, I resign. I feel responsible for what happened here. Okay? Silence fills the room. Okay. We don’t have to spell it out, by now, I assume, we all know what happened here. So, lieutenant Telum, What did you find out? What brought this upon us? Telum stands tall above all in the room. If I was to guess, sir. It was us, being here. The chief puts his hands over his face. Why is that exactly? And why did you come here, knowing you might endanger your colleagues? Telum scratches his head. For your own good, you’re going to be put under arrest. I’ll see you later. And take Bala to an undisclosed location. Good, now let’s figure this out.

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