I looked around. He was not in his room, not in his friends’ rooms, not in the bathroom. I went into my room and found Eric hiding behind the bed, hugging his legs.

“Eric…”, I said quietly and sat down in front of him. “Please talk to me.”

“I’m not leaving you”, he whispered. “Don’t let them take me!”

“Eric, it’s going to get worse if you don’t do it. You can come home again, I promise. I’m sure none of you did it. You’re good boys.”

He held out his arms and I hugged him tightly. His arms held me against him as he took in my scent form the crook of my neck. His tail snuck around my waist to secure me even more. I noticed how he started rubbing his cheek against my shoulder. He wanted to scent me badly. He wanted his scent to last long in case another hybrid would come close while they were gone.

“Don’t let them take me”, he whispered, resting his head into my neck. “Please.”

“I don’t want to let you go either, but it’s going to get worse if we don’t cooperate.”

“I don’t want to! I want to stay with you!”

“I want to stay with you too, Eric, but you’ll get hurt if you don’t do it. Listen, I know that you’re innocent and as soon as the police understand that too, you’re going to come home again. You’ll come home earlier if you just cooperate.”

I started crying because I didn’t want to leave them. I wasn’t okay yet after the murder of my parents and I was so used to having them around. They were so scared of the police and that made me so sad. I didn’t want them to be afraid. I didn’t want them to go somewhere without me.

“Y/N, please don’t cry, you’ll make me cry too.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

He kissed my wet cheek and hugged me again.

“Come with me, Eric. Let’s go down to the cops, okay?” I said.

“I don’t want to.”

“Please…”

“I will miss you too much.”

“I’ll miss you too. I’ll miss you all so much.”

I stood up and helped him stand as well. He held my hand as we walked downstairs. The cop stood there, waiting.

“Please take good care of them”, I said, hiding Eric behind me slightly.

“We will, miss”, the cop said.

I signaled for Eric to go to the police. Before he did, he turned to me and hugged me tightly. I saw how he got taken away in handcuffs, still struggling against the cop. As soon as they all disappeared from my yard in police cars, I started crying.

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