Bureau of Collections || ONC2021

Lucky

Colin sat in the back of an ambulance, head pounding, an itchy woolen blanket wrapped around his shoulders and an icepack held up to the nasty bump on his head. He didn't even remember getting hit, but the paramedics said they had found him out cold by the kitchen and yet somehow he knew exactly what had happened to Shiva and Wendy, if it wasn't half obvious by the disco of red and blue around him and the sudden arrival of a crime scene investigation unit.

"Mr Baxter?" he turned his head, eyebrow raised as a man in a cheap black suit and purple tie strode forward, dark hair slicked back and a large phone in hand as he flashed it toward him. "Detective Hurley from Homicide. Do you mind if I get a statement from you about what happened here tonight?"

"Uh." Colin grimaced. "Sure."

"Sorry. Looks like you took quite a hit." Detective Hurley winced as he took a seat next to Colin, the suspension sagging a little by the added weight.

"You could say that," he replied dryly.

"Do you mind if I record this?" the detective asked as he opened his phone to a recording app and set it down in the space between them.

Colin nodded. He just wanted to get this over with and go home and see his family.

"Are you aware of the situation inside?"

"Somewhat." he responded reluctantly. "What do you want to know?"

"Let's just start from why you were here this late?" he offered kindly. "You are an employee here, yes?"

"System admin for IT. I was doing firewall upgrades. I have to do them after hours when the business isn't running. You can check with security, I'm often here at night into the small hours."

"Okay. Do you want to start with retracing your steps to how you received that injury?"

Colin let out a bitter chuckle. "I don't actually know how I got this." he confessed as he tenderly repositioned the icepack on his skull. "But, I guess it started when I thought Wendy was coming to check in on the systems upgrade. Saw someone at the door through the window."

"Does she usually do this when you are there late?"

He shrugged, "Sometimes. They think they will get help quicker if they drop in. Anyway, I guess it was weird because when I went to go see, no one was there."

"Did you suspect anything out of the ordinary at this point?"

"Not at this point. I went to go make a coffee while the systems did a final reboot."

"The paramedics informed me they found you in the kitchen unconscious. Was that where you were attacked."

Colin opened his mouth to speak but stopped to think. Things got hazy from that point on. "I um. I made a coffee, was going to go back and check on the reboot, and that dark figure appeared again. Scared the shit out of me. Scalded my hand." He held it up to show the red marks as proof.

"So this figure then attacked you and knocked you out?"

Colin frowned and shook his head. "No. He vanished again. I was trying to clean up when I heard screaming coming from the call centre."

The detective seemed troubled, "go on, how did you react to that?"

"Well, I did what any respectable person would. I went to see what was going on."

"And then what?"

Colin tried to think. "I uh, I think I got a fire hydrant, you know something to defend myself with."

"So you knew they were in danger?"

Colin frowned, "No one screams like that, that isn't in trouble."

The detective nodded, "What happened next?"