The Thirteenth Witch ~Chapter Fourteen~

Chapter Fourteen

The ride to the police station was a blur. Everything seeped out of Raven's memory and she never did remember it properly for the rest of her life. Nick had been shot in the shoulder and was taken to a hospital, as was Adam who had broken his wrist.
"Why didn't you ever tell us what happened?" Diana asked quietly as the rest of the group sat in the waiting area while the Outsiders were questioned.
Raven sighed and leaned back in her chair.
"I had nightmares every night...didn't want the memories screwing up my days, too," she muttered. "Doug knew, too, sort of. And AJ. "He's the only other one who knew."
"I'm sorry," Cassie said sympathetically.
Raven snorted. "I'm not."
"Raven DuLaurrier?" a desk sergeant called out. Raven heaved herself up and allowed herself to be guided into a questioning room. She was exhausted and hadn't had any sleep. It was now officially Christmas at three o'clock in the morning but this was a big case for the police and a lot of paperwork was being done.
Bureaucracy, she thought as she sank down into the chair.
The detective at the other end looked just as tired as she felt, but he seemed determined to do business.
"All right, young lady, we're having a lot of trouble pulling up anything on you. Is Raven DuLaurrier even your real name?" he demanded. "It's only on legal documents dating earliest seven years."
"It's my legal name now, but I was born Dove Cameron," she said, rubbing her eyes.
The detective noted that down on his yellow pad of paper.
"And you're in this Club that allegedly killed all their parents?"
Raven eyed him."What's your name, or would you rather I referred to you as the guy in the suit?"
"I'm detective Curtis," he said. "Now answer the question.
"I wasn't in the Club until the four nights ago," she answered. I was just their friend while Faye was alive."
"And you witnessed her death?"
Raven nodded.
"How did you know where the group was holding the rest of your friends?" He looked up at her, eyebrows arched.
"We have a...connection," Raven said, choosing her words carefully.
" 'Connection'?" the detective echoed.
Raven nodded and yawned.
"Why don't you explain how this happened from the beginning?" Detective Curtis suggested, flicking on a tape-recorder.
"Don't I get a lawyer or something? I mean, I'm still a minor," Raven said.
Detective Curtis flicked through his notes. "Oh, I see, you're still seventeen. Do you have a lawyer?"
"Yeah, there's a family lawyer," she answered.
"Ring him up," Curtis yelled to his partners who were obviously outside.
A rookie officer opened the door slightly and poked his head into the room.
"Curtis, sir, there's a George Ralph on line one. He seems very -- uh -- perturbed," he said timidly.
"That would be my lawyer," Raven said.
The door was thrown open wide and a huge figure loomed in the doorway behind the rookie. He scooted away quickly and ran.
"What's going on here?" he boomed. "Why wasn't I notified as soon as my client was brought here?" He somehow turned his huge shoulders and managed to get his monstrous frame through the doorway. He dragged up a chair -- with a loud metal grinding to go with it -- and plunked down on it beside Raven. In the light he looked less monstrous and more like a large, stern father.
"It's illegal to interrogate a minor out of the presence of their legal guardian," he said. "All information extracted from my client until this point isn't viable in a court of law."
Curtis looked irritated. Obviously he didn't like lawyers. His eyes were dark and narrowed; pupils contracted to tiny angry dots, his jaw working as he stewed in silence.
Finally, when he spoke, it was in a grating voice that set Raven's teeth on edge.
"If you advise your client not to say anything, I'll let you know that obstruction of justice is a federal -- "
"All right!" Raven cut in. "I'm here and I can talk for myself, you know. I don't need two angry old men shouting legal crap at each other in order to force or prevent me to speak the truth."
Both men stared at her, seeming to just notice her after having forgotten her presence. Raven was twirling her bracelet around one finger. Both men stared at it, the silvery shine off the black of the stone, glinting with almost unnatural brightness beneath the fluorescent lights overhead. Raven was looking Curtis in the eye, her voice even and measured as she spoke.
He was staring at the bracelet, fascinated.
"I know that both of you want to hear the story, so I might as well tell you, but no matter what I say, it's the truth," she said, as if she were talking to two little children. "You may not believe it, but trust me, you'll know it's the truth."

Raven sauntered out of the interrogation room, a vague smile playing on her lips. When she got back to the waiting room, all the others were asleep in the chairs. She sat down with a yawn and looked at her watch. She knew how the case was going to go. Jordan, Logan and their little friends were all going to prison: the Bainbridge two for life for murder, the rest for about twenty years for attempted murder.
Raven glanced at the others. She had no way of knowing how life was going to turn out for them. Chris and Doug, the little lost boys, curled up together in a chair. Deborah, her head turned into the shoulder of her biker jacket, half hidden by her dark curls. Melanie, looking prim and neat even in sleep, not a single hair out of place. Suzan, hugging herself to keep warm in the fashionable but impractical tank top, her strawberry hair pulled up in the latest style. Laurel, lying down on a pile of magazines, one hand clutched protectively around her pouch of herbs. Sean, annoying little Sean, with his slinky ferret eyes and slight, timid slouch, always standing in a corner wanting attention, curled up in a chair. Diana, as graceful as a princess, her light hair spilling down beside her, and Cassie, her 'adopted sister' tucked beside her, her brown hair swirling around her. Raven would never know what was going to happen to them. She looked around curiously, then remembered that Nick and Adam were at the hospital. Then she saw Trey and AJ sitting back to back, chins down to their chests, snoring softly.
Raven stood up and went to look out the window at a city that she had once called home. Detective Curtis came into the room, his eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep. Raven wondered vaguely about giving him some belladonna so that he could catch up on whatever sleep he had missed.
"Can I have your attention, please?" he asked in a loud voice.
Chris whimpered tiredly and said, "No Deb, gimme five more minutes."
Melanie snapped awake. "Yes, Detective?"
"We've talked to the DA and the judge, and he says to let you all go. You've been through enough," Curtis said.
Melanie nodded, but even though she was tired she noticed the oddness of the statement. She reached over to shake Laurel and Diana and Cassie. Deborah was up. She grabbed the Henderson brothers by the hair and knocked their heads together. They jerked awake, spitting and clawing like a couple of mad tomcats. Suzan sat up and stretched, yawning delicately.
AJ opened his eyes and shoved Trey away. "What's going on? Am I late for work?"
"It's eight o'clock Christmas morning," Curtis said. "All of you can go home.
Cassie looked alarmed. "No! I have to go to the hospital to see Adam!"
"Visiting hours are probably over," Melanie pointed out.
"It's Christmas, they'll let you in," Trey said. The group filed out of the police station and got into cabs headed for the hospital.
The ride was in total silence as most of them had nodded off to sleep again. Raven was almost asleep when Melanie nudged her.
"They wouldn't have ordinarily let us go like that. This is too strange. You were the last one in to see Curtis. What did you do?" she demanded in a low voice.
"Just a little truth charm," Raven answered tiredly.
"Truth charm?" Melanie echoed, her gray eyes piercing.
"An old one I learned that when you tell the truth it rings like a bell and if you lie your tongue burns," Raven said. "I don't use it very often."
Melanie looked vaguely disgusted, too tired to register much emotion. The cab pulled to a stop in front of the hospital, and they all tumbled out of the cab.
Raven, surprisingly, was awake even though she had been up all night telling her story to the detective. They went to a nurses' desk and stood in line behind all the people who were there to see relatives.
Raven knew that they must look like riffraff and let Melanie do the talking.
"Excuse me, we're here to see Adam Conant and Nick Armstrong," she said in a very responsible, polite voice.
"Rooms 841 and 842," the nurse answered. The group headed up to the eighth floor and drifted the halls until they found the room. Cassie headed to see Adam right off, but the rest of them peeked in to see Nick. He was sitting up, watching a TV with no sound.
"Hey man, how's it going?" Doug asked.
Nick turned, surprised, then nodded and shrugged. He winced, but covered it quickly.
"It's all right. I never really did like hospitals," he answered.
"How's your arm, cousin?" Deborah asked.
Nick shrugged with one shoulder. "Still sore."
"Are you going to be all right?" Laurel asked anxiously. "I can bring you some crystal tea --"
"No!" Nick said, a little too quickly. The Henderson brothers were making gagging motions behind Laurel's back, and even Melanie was shaking her head warningly. Deborah scowled, going a little green as if remembering what the tea tasted like.
"Oh, all right." Laurel didn't notice the pantomimes of dying from choking just over her shoulder.
"Hope you get better," Suzan said.
Chris and Doug fluttered their eyelids and imitated valley-girl cheerleaders.
"Yeah, like, we could, like, give each other, like makeovers!" they said and gave high-pitched giggles.
Suzan glared at them.
"Well, hope you get better," Sean said.
"By the way, we're not going to court or anything," Melanie said.
"We're goin' to see our happy soulmate couple,' Chris said, and Nick's eyes darkened. Chris didn't notice until he got a heel in his shin.
The group stood around chatting casually. Nick was beginning to get irritated.
"Can I be alone for a while?" he asked finally.
Raven was the first to scoot out the door with the others behind her when Nick called after her.
"Wait! You, stay."
The whole group turned to look at him.
Nick glared, and they understood.
"Come on," Deborah said, taking a Henderson brother each by an ear and dragging them across the hallway to Adam's room.
Raven lingered near the door, avoiding Nick's gaze.
"I've been meaning to talk to you," Nick said.
Raven's lips curved up in a faint smile. She wanted to hear what he had to say, but she didn't want it to be what it was going to be.
"Oh you have, have you?"
There was a tense silence in the room, and then Nick lifted his gaze to meet hers.
"I want to know what's going to happen between you and I. I want to know if there's anything. I mean, I know there is, but I wast to know if we're going to do anything about it. He was gazing at her, his eyes open and not hiding anything. Raven's stomach suddenly felt hollow. Her crystal was burning at her throat once more, and it was hurting. She reached up and lifted it away from her skin, avoiding his gaze while she thought. She wanted to love him so much, but she was terrified of being so open and exposed...When you love someone you give them your heart. When they cut your heart out, you die. Tell me that isn't ironic, she thought to herself, and then steeled herself to meet his gaze.
She looked up and her words vanished from her mind. She'd never seen Nick like this. His eyes were full of all the pain he'd been living through for the past few days, and they were shiny with brimming tears. He wasn't that cold, stony face with no feelings, he wasn't the iguana that Suzan always said he was, but he wasn't as tough as Cassie had always said he'd been with her. Raven had no idea what to say. Only a heartless person would say no to someone with those eyes. Maybe she was heartless after all.
"I think we should just be friends," she said clearly, and Nick flinched like he'd been hit.
"All right," he said quietly, and the hurt look vanished completely. Slipped away like water as if it had never been there.
Raven pushed the murderous guilt aside and smiled. "Great! So now we're buds again." She gave him the same old friendly grin she'd always given him even though he'd never return it, then went to see Adam. She didn't want to look back or she would have seen Nick turn away and fight back the tears that had been threatening as soon as they'd been alone.
"So, what's up with you two?" Cassie asked.
"Nothing's up," Raven answered. "We're just friends."
Cassie nodded, but Diana gave her a worried look. Raven reached up to tuck her crystal back into her shirt and flinched as it burned her fingertips. She dropped it and went to stand by the bed and talk to Adam for a while.
He didn't bring up the subject of Nick at all, and Raven was relieved. But Adam was the only one that saw Nick staring blankly into the distance, blinking rapidly to keep the tears back.

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws