5
“Yeah, I’m okay,” I tell Tiffany, a crime scene photographer who often works along with me. We’ve gone out together, talk outside work, but she really knows nothing about me. “Thanks for calling.”
“I had to check for myself once Nick told us what happened. You can’t catch a break.”
I laugh and it’s so forced Gemma looks at me with raised eyebrows. “Right. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“I’m so glad you’re okay. It’s crazy what happened.”
“Yeah…crazy.” I haven’t looked at the paper, checked my phone, or turned on the news. I’m not sure how this has been explained to the general public. Those who were there, who saw the golem firsthand, will know. Though most people crave explanations and will believe a lie if it’s rational…even when they know it’s not the truth. “Is the station buzzing because of it?”
“Oh yeah. Everyone is looking for the guys.”
“Guys?” I swallow hard.
“Yeah, the three guys in the masks.”
“Right,” I say, feeling like I need to pretend to know what she’s talking about. I pull my phone away from my ear and open the internet on it, logging onto a local news channel’s website.
“I’ll let you go and rest. Be careful out there, Ace. If I didn’t know better, I’d say someone has it out for you.”
Someone does have it out for me.
“I’ll be fine. Take care,” I say, and end the call.
“Everything okay?” Gemma asks, leaning forward. I’m pretty sure she heard every word that was said, but being nosey, she has to ask.
“I think so.” I see the article about last night right away. “Well, wow.”
“What?”
“The attack last night is being blamed on three men in masks. It says they most likely were taking some new drug that I’ve never even heard of.”
“People are buying that shit?”
“What else are they going to believe? That monsters really exist?”
“How can they not believe it?”
I shake my head. “You’d be surprised at how many abnormal things people will try to pass off as normal. And I’m not even talking about paranormal. Suspicious activity, strange behavior…everyone wants to justify it as something they can process and handle over the truth.”
“People are weird.”
“They are.”
“It’s hard for you, isn’t it?” Gemma asks. “Having to lie about work.”
I set my phone down and nod. Having a friend I can spill my guts to is still a little strange to me. I want to trust her. I want to tell her everything and have no secrets between us. But there’s still a little voice in the back of my head that screams I shouldn’t trust her.
That I shouldn’t trust anyone.
I’ve spent my whole life believing that trusting people is a good way to get screwed over. I suppose expecting myself to just get over that in a few short months isn’t exactly realistic, now is it?
“Yeah, it is. I feel bad lying to the people who are risking their lives for this city, and I know my lies are far-fetched at best. I don’t like lying, but I don’t want to get caught either.”
“I never thought about it before, obviously.” She raises her eyebrows. “I didn’t think about a lot of this stuff before. The idea of having real magic and fighting demons sounded so exciting. But in reality…it’s messy. And scary. Very scary.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “It’s a lot messier than I expected too.”
