Nathan stares at the spot on the wall of the police station’s waiting room. From here it vaguely looks like a fallen tree. Or a dog being violently sick. He can’t tell. Nathan tries to rest comfortably in the plastic seat. His ass hurts, as does his shoulder and the room does not help his mood. The place is still mostly empty this early in the evening, as even the most desperate alcoholic has apparently not reached the wife beating stage yet, but the numberless multicolor leaflets, some of them showing children faces and “Have you seen this person?” are sad enough. The entire room is forlorn and smells of wary despair and bad coffee.

Nathan shudders.

Sarah turns her delicate face to him. Her voice, much lower than one would expect from such a tiny frame sounds forced

“I’m so happy I took a video, there is no way the cops would believe you chased down a stalker with that cute face of yours.”

Nathan stares at her with mock outrage. Sarah is, well, adorable, with elfin features, big brown eyes and a waterfall of wavy back hair, but she has basically shown more courage than him during the whole affair, since she had not actually lost her nerve.

Nathan wishes someone would call him handsome for once but it looks like this will not happen today. She is right, his face is more cute than virile and his build is that of a runner.

“Hey I can look dark and broody when I want”.

"Nah having dark eyes does not make a dark look."

Nathan lets the casual banter calm him down a bit but the questions remain. Did he dream that feeling? Where is that stalker/monster now? Why in the name of fuck did he not run when the thing was on the ground as the stun gun notice urged instead of staring at it like a brainless fuckwit, saving him the trouble of playing suburban parkour? When could he finally drive home and take a long shower?

After a few minutes they sit in front of an officer’s desk. Nathan lets Sarah describe the encounter from her perspective and she gradually relaxes. The officer, a tall pale guy with close cropped red hair and a tired face, listens with obvious attention. The man himself gives off a vibe of quiet competence despite his exhaustion. The fact that he looks attractive in a safe guy next door sort of way has a salutary effect on Sarah. When prompted, she transfers the video to his antiquated desk computer and he starts it in silence.

Nathan watches his reaction. The man has a good poker face but, reading people is Nathan’s job: he is shocked when he sees the stalker though he masks it well, even more interesting is his reaction to something that had escaped Nathan’s notice. After only a few seconds, he pauses the video and zooms on the monster’s collar. Despite the poor resolution Nathan is able to make out a tattoo out of the pixelated blur.

The officer resumes the video, looking thoughtful. As the show ends with Nathan’s ghostly face, he is pleased to notice that he just looks scared instead of just about to shit himself as he expected. Nathan feels vaguely comforted before realizing it means he cares that the police officer does not see him as a wimp.

"You know him?"

The officer, who according to the notice on his desk answers to Martin Henkel, raises his eyes to him and his hand to his mouth as if thoughtful. Nathan recognizes a defensive gesture. He evades by asking another question.

“And you are?”

“I am a friend of Sarah, we work at the same place. My name is Nathan Mordred Turner, please call me Nathan.”

“Your middle name is Mordred?”

Nathan gets that a lot so he gives him the usual answer.

“Yes my parents were into knights and Middle Ages stuff.”

“But why not Percival or Gawain?”

Now that is more unusual, not that many people are familiar with the Knights of the Round Table. Besides Lancelot.

“I guess you will have to ask them.”

He says that with a smile but the cop takes the hint.

The rest of the interview is uneventful. Officer Henkel asks her if she had met him before, she had once, and they talked about restraining orders and other legal recourse. Nathan does not pay much attention; he is more concerned about what he has seen. That Henkel had recognized the guy, or at least he had recognized the tattoo. Although he was increasingly certain that stalker had just been human, that his panic had been induced by the pressure of being in a genuinely dangerous confrontation for the first time ever, Nathan could not shake the feeling that something weird was going on.

In the end Sarah makes a legal complaint and has an officer drive her home, but not before profusely thanking Nathan and promising her very best homemade blintz. Nathan belatedly realizes she thinks he has saved her life, and maybe he has. Feeling like a manly hero and with the perspective of future gastronomical rewards, Nathan decides that today was a good day and heads home.