ɢʜᴏꜱᴛꜱ | ᴅ. ɢʀᴀʏꜱᴏɴ

chapter 9

09. blame

•—✽—✽—✽—•

twenty minutes later

"WHY DID YOU LEAVE HER HERE?" KORY asked after the three of them returned to the convent to see the damage that had been done. As they walked past the crowd of firefighters and paramedics helping the nuns, Paige looked up at the dark smoke coming out of the large hole in the side of the building.

Turning around, Dick gave her a pointed stare before responding. "In a convent full of nuns? Yeah, seemed real dangerous," he said, sarcasm lacing each word. "You know, you're the one who stole my car and drove off." Paige noticed how he looked between her and Kory accusingly.

"Yeah, we thought you could handle her for a few minutes, but I should've known better considering you ditched her in DC," the magenta-haired woman shot back.

"I didn't mean to ditch her, okay? I was trying to—"

"You just couldn't handle her, so you left her with your friends. It's pathetic."

Rolling her eyes, Paige decided to be the voice of reason between the two, "Ok, both of you, stop it. We have bigger problems right now. There's a girl running around who-knows-where with powers that she can't control. So you can continue this later, after we find Rachel." She started walking ahead before the two unwillingly followed behind.

"She's getting more powerful."

"Yeah, but she's still a kid. Alone and scared and on the run," Dick mentioned.

"Let's just go to the nearest police station and see if they've heard or seen anything that could help us find her," Paige said as they all climbed into Dick's car.

✄ ✄ ✄

Dick had decided that only he and Paige would go in for three reasons. Reason a) Kory's flashy outfit — a purple satin dress, thigh high boots, and a large fur coat — was not exactly going to help her blend in. Reason b) she was wanted by the police and a police station was definitely the last place she would want to be in. And his last and final reason, reason c) they had the badges, she didn't, so it would be easier for them to get information out of the police.

"You need to be nicer to her," Paige said after they got out of the car, "She's just trying to help."

"She's the reason we're in this mess right now. Did you not hear the part where she kidnapped her?"

"Oh yeah, I heard that part loud in clear. But what maybe you're not realizing is that if Kory hadn't been there, Rachel would've probably been killed." Opening the door to the station, the two walked in one after the other as they made their way towards the front desk. Putting her hand out in front of him, she turned to face Dick who had a confused look on his face, "Let me do the talking."

"Why?"

"Because you've been very confrontational recently. I don't think I've heard you have a civil conversation in the last couple of days. Not even, last couple of hours."

"I have not been confrontational."

"Yes, you have. It's just argument after argument—"