Retaliation

Natural

Ruiz walked into the hospital and immediately went to the front desk. A nurse looked at him.

"Can I help you?" She asked, looking at him as if he were the most boring being she had ever seen.

"I'm here to see a patient."

"What is the patient's name?" She asked, moving towards a computer.

"Blaze Crook."

"Are you the guardian of the patient?"

"No, I'm an officer." Ruiz states, holding up his badge.

The nurse looked at him, her eyes widening slightly. "Oh, he's in room 310; would you like someone to bring you there?"

"No, thank you." Ruiz puts away his badge and walks away from the desk.

Someone reported that a student was rushed to the hospital after some students found him on the bathroom floor. Blood was coming from his mouth, but what was weird was that there were no visible wounds.

He ended up finding out that Blaze was the student, but he still didn't have a good feeling about him. Ruiz ended up finding the room and knocking. There was a muffled response, and he walked in. Lying on the bed was Blaze, with an IV stuck in his arm.

Beside him was a man and woman most likely his parents, the mother looked worried and her eyes seemed to be red, a tissue clutched to her chest. The father just stood still, his face serious. Blaze didn't look at him; he seemed to be looking out the window.

"Who are you?" The father asked, seeming annoyed.

"I'm officer Ruiz; I'm the one who's in charge of finding a missing student." Ruiz responded coolly, holding up his badge once again.

"Oh, you mean Zack."

"Yes, that's his name."

"So what are you doing here..?" His mother had spoken up, her eyes looking worried.

"I need to talk to Blaze about what happened at school."

"B-But why? I mean, he's done nothing wrong." Her eyes flitted from Blaze to Ruiz.

"Ma'am, your son is not a suspect, nor am I saying he did anything wrong." I just need to talk to him is all. "It's just protocol, and who knows? Maybe he can help with the current investigation."

Ruiz indeed suspected Blaze; there was no doubt that he was hiding something, but he couldn't tell the parents that without more evidence. The only thing they did was look all over for Zack, trying to figure out where he could've gone.

"I see... honey, maybe we should go and let him do his job." The woman looked at her husband, who just grunted while walking towards the door.

The woman followed him after patting Blaze on the head. They walked out the door, closing it quietly behind them. Ruiz moved over to where the woman had been sitting and looked at Blaze.

"Hey Blaze, as I told your parents, this is just protocol. Can you tell me what happened?"

Blaze didn't respond; he just looked at him, and now that he was closer, he could see that Blaze had dark circles under his eyes. Most likely from a lack of sleep, this felt more suspicious.

"It looks like you haven't been sleeping well." Ruiz commented.

"Shut up man, I just fainted at school I don't know why everyone and there mother is making a big fucking deal." Blaze looked annoyed.

"Calm down, no one is making a big deal except you. Plus, you didn't just faint, I heard that when some other students found you, you were slumped over on the floor with blood coming from your mouth." Ruiz sat back in the chair, staring at him.