Class Of 96': 1994 (BxB Mystery)

Chapter LV - The Officer

 They found Ollie's arm beneath the leaves.

I sat lifeless on the ambulance's trunk as police lights flashed and commotion buzzed.

Everything muted out. I stared at the floor with . . . a feeling I couldn't understand.

I found Ollie unconscious on the ground, missing an arm. His eyes were open and one was bigger than the other.

I . . . I thought he was dead.

"Steph Dragus?"

I weakly looked up and saw Officer Vegas.

He reached for his radio and spoke something. I didn't hear it. I was just so . . . numb.

"Hello?" He repeated.

I blinked.

He slides his radio back on his belt. "Here's a tip, kid. Don't zone out in front of an officer."

" . . . "

I heard a policeman somewhere murmur to his partner. "His eyes look empty. Is he even with us?"

"Zip it. He found the boy's body."

I softly gasped as Vegas snapped her fingers in my face. "Focus."

I stared up at him. My emotions lay static within my chest, buried beneath layers of numbness and nothing.

He sighed. "You're gonna need a lot of that for the past few days."

" . . . "

"You're coming with me to the station. I'll just ask you a few questions and drop you off. Come on."

***

The drive to the station was quiet.

I silently sat at the back as he drove past the street where Ollie and I ran through the rain.

Officer Vegas led me to the cold, steel investigation room and settled down with a grunt.

He started recording the conversation.

"Okay. Can you state your name to the microphone?"

I slowly opened my mouth. Yet nothing came out. If I spoke, I . . . I might have broken. " . . . S-Stephan Dragus."

"Now, I want you to know if you're not comfortable, you can leave. You're not being held prisoner, Steph."

I weakly nodded.

He tilted his head. "What was your relationship with the victim?"

The victim. Ollie was so much more than that. "We . . . He's a close friend."

"And how did you find him?"

I winced, closing my eyes. The image of someone I loved, laying motionless, bloody, staring into the sky.

I didn't open my eyes. I couldn't. "In the forest."

Vegas paused. "Okay . . . ? How did you find him?"

"I . . . He was missing from class." I tried remembering the events that happened just a few hours ago, but only Ollie's haunted body came. "So I went to the . . . last place I saw him."

"Which was the forest?"

"Yes."

I heard him shuffle in his chair. "At what time?"

'Crap, Ollie, It's eight. I need to go soon' "Eight P.M."

"And?"

" . . . " How do I answer that? "We were . . . uhm, we were just . . . we were talking."