The police arrived at the scene and quickly went to work. The teaching faculty provided them with a classroom so that they could start taking the students' testimonies about the events that had occurred. Although none of them had outright been able to tell that it had been Billy Bruntin, the police were confident that it was him based on the few details they had received.

The only thing they couldn’t really figure out was who this hooded stranger was that had arrived and apparently saved both Innu and Austin.

“You should have seen his entrance, it was right out of a movie! He came running in, pushed Innu out of the way and rolled to safety like a millisecond before that monster slammed the table down! He was like a hero who came at just the right moment! I swear if he had been a moment later, Innu would have ended up as a pancake!” One of the students reported in excitement.

“That guy’s crazy I tell you! I mean seriously, who would shove their own hand into the mouth of such a monster? That fat bastard was even worse! It looked like he planned to eat the smaller guy! Blood was spilling everywhere, just like in a splatter! We tried helping, everyone did, but we didn’t want to get close after we saw what he did.” Another student told his version of things that had happened.

The two police officers that were talking with the students were none other than Chief of Police Anton Millstun, as well as his younger male assistant Roo Game. As crazy as it sounded, by now both men had accepted that the students weren’t pulling their legs. The students had been called in one after the other and unless they all had collectively decided on a story beforehand, their testimonies matched, though some seemed more exaggerated than others.

Initially they had been far more sceptical. The first person they had interviewed had been Innu, as he had been the one who had fought Billy the longest and also been the one closest to their target. They had hoped that he might be able to tell him why their suspected killer might have so publicly attacked their class in the first place, or at least who that other mysterious person was.

Unfortunately for them, Innu had retrieved his phone from the broken table, read Gary’s message and just to be safe also deleted it afterwards. As such, he had pretended to not know either one of them. The two police officers had noticed his slight change in attitude when asked about Gary, but without any further evidence linking the two they had let him go, questioning the rest of his class.

The last person on their list was Austin Foster, since he was a student from a different class, yet he had entered after Gary. The high schooler entered the room with his hands in his pocket as calm as ever, and the questioning had begun. They asked whether he knew Billy or had at least seen him before.

Austin just shrugged telling them that his face seemed familiar and that he might have seen him in passing somewhere. When they held up Billy’s picture, Austin gasped in surprise.

“That’s him! Only the dude was like a head bigger. Who is he?” Austin asked genuinely.

By this point the two officers weren’t surprised anymore. Barely any of the students had recognised him, but they couldn’t fault them just because none of them had bothered to read or watch the news, making them clueless that they had a run in with a suspected killer. Like the others Roo just told Austin that he was a suspect in another case, without going into further details.

“Your fellow students reported that they saw you come in shortly after the hooded guy. Do you know him? If not, could you at least make out what he looked like?” Roo asked.

Austin sat there for a while, making it seem like he was trying to remember something. The truth was he had seen what Gary looked like after punching him, quite clearly at that. If he were to tell them about the other’s hair colour it would most likely help them immensely… yet he didn’t.

“Nah, I’ve never seen him before today.” He answered truthfully. “That guy came out of nowhere, so I started chasing him thinking he was an intruder in our school. He wore a hood but it was a no brand, so all I can say is that it was dark. Then I saw that Billy guy, so my attention was more on that giant pig bastard than someone who helped me. He was gone before I could even thank him.”

After a few more questions were asked, Austin was free to go, but Anton didn’t feel like he had made much progress at all, until he received a text from his phone.

“They… match.” Anton murmured.

“What matches, sir?” Roo asked.

“The blood in that classroom from our mysterious stranger is the same as the blood from the guy who attacked that deceased high schooler and the one that was found at the construction site. They all match! I don’t know how yet, but he seems to be also connected to this Bruntin case!” Anton looked to be over the moon, almost jumping out from his seat as he spoke.

“I knew that these cases had to be linked, but what…what is going on? According to the students he came up, saved some ‘strangers’ and went to chase after the killer?”

Anton thought back to what he had seen in the alleyway. Could it be that the killer was actually this mysterious person they were chasing after, and Billy was just trying to find out the truth? No, that didn’t seem right to Anton either, especially given that Bruntin had undoubtedly been the aggressor.

In all of the cases involving Billy, his blood hadn’t been found at the scene. In all the other situations involving this stranger, the circumstances just seemed more life threatening, as if they were fighting for their life. It was hard to make out the full picture without all puzzle pieces, but at least there seemed to be a connection. Catching one of them might allow them to catch the other...

A little down the hallway, Innu was waiting for Austin to get out.

“Did you say anything?” Innu asked in a quiet tone after making sure that nobody was around.

“I'm no snitch. Since he was running away from them, I’m sure he had his reasons.” Austin shrugged it off and continued to walk down the hall.

“Thanks.” Innu called out.

“I didn’t do it for you.” Austin replied. “I did it because that guy saved me from getting bitten.”

He took a few steps, stopped and turned around. “Hey, he’s your friend, right? Who is he?”

“Why… you want to thank him in person?” Innu asked cautiously.

“Nah, he was just…”

Austin thought back to the roof. When he threw his punch out, Gary suddenly did a strange spin avoiding the hit, it seemed slow but the timing was perfect. Austin had been ready to try to kick him, but he could see in that moment that Gary wasn’t aiming at him, his gaze at something else entirely.

He stopped his leg and saw a punch come out from Gary himself, which slammed into the metal door behind them. The door hinge snapped right open and the green haired boy continued running on forward, fixing his hood. Austin wasn’t sure what to make of it, choosing to believe that Gary was just trying to run away, but when he looked at the metal door, it had dented slightly.

That wasn’t a strength of an ordinary person and he shuddered to think what would have happened if he had fought him seriously.

“... he was just really strong.” Austin finished his sentence.

This came as a surprise to Innu. Although Gary had undoubtedly saved both of them, he hadn’t exactly fared that much better against Billy. If anything, Innu would have used ‘brave’ if he wanted to compliment Gary, though it was bordering ‘idiotic’ and ‘suicidal’. Nevertheless, it was obvious that their school’s official top dog was interested in him.

‘Did something happen between those two or something?’ Innu wondered, especially since they had both entered around the same time.

“You don’t have to tell me, just… if he ever needs some backup, let me know.” Austin requested, continuing his walk back to his classroom.

It was then that Innu realised that he had already accepted Gary for who he was, if he hadn’t come today, what would have happened to him? So if someone asked him who he was to him, he shouldn’t shy away and tell the truth.

“Hey!” Innu called out. “About your question… that guy, is my leader!”

*****

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