HUMAN

Chapter 28 - The Gamble

Frank dragged his fingers in between wall panels and under the desk. He took apart the globe that dangled above us and inspected it inside before moving on to checking the stationeries and even sniffing the air.

Pennie, Leo, and I were confused by Frank's odd behavior. On the contrary to Sol, however, this was normal.

With one more swift swipe of his fingers and inspecting the dust he'd gathered, Frank was finally satisfied. There was an already awkward atmosphere looming within the room.

Seriously wants to make me leave. Why can't this be done less. . .terrifying?

"Looks like you're clear." Sol declared to the two confused museum employees.

It was initially daunting when I was about to tell Frank about what I did in the museum. But he expected me to do something like that sooner, which was odd. I'd finally accepted Pennie's request to meet her at the museum entrance but did not anticipate Frank and Sol to volunteer as my "friends who would like to come along."

Although Leo and Pennie were no more than just the average, normal-looking Anthros, Frank kept giving them the side eye to uncover some hidden dirt underneath those expressions they were hiding.

Now, here we are in the staff break room after Frank had "insisted" we discuss this matter inside. The bear and the lynx were initially reluctant, but Frank had established authority over them when he stepped out of the car to meet their faces.

"I just did a quick background search on your profile, Leo and Pennie," Sol said as he scanned through his laptop. "No records of criminal evidence, no affiliations to the SIU directly, graduated and received good grades in school. . ." he paused. . ." and no one that will necessarily look for you two if you went missing." Sol's expression darkened.

Leo and Pennie grit their teeth and go pale. The overly bubbly raccoon surprised the three of us with the sudden mood change. "My goodness, guys! Cut it out already." I decided to ease things up as Pennie was on the verge of tears.

"They would've done something already and told someone about my blood by now, and so far nothing has come up these past few days." There was a final stare down from Frank towards the two Anthros, who were practically interrogated, before he sighed. "Didn't find any hidden listening or recording devices, so they're in the clear for me, I guess." He said before relaxing his stance and leaning on a cabinet file to light up a cigarette.

"Oh, good! Good!" Sol was once back again. "Now, since that's the case, Max, would you mind catching me up to speed on what happened before all this again?"

I looked over towards Pennie, whose lips were subtly quivering, and Leo who was rapidly tapping his fingers on his leg. "Well, Pennie here found out about my heightened strength. She linked that to my blood, which was written in legends from the past and has incredible healing properties. She wants to take a closer look at it, study it and whatnot, to confirm if that is true and believes that it could help others." I said. "I asked her to give me a few days to think about it before she releases the video she took of me swinging Athiro's sword around like a toddler finding a cool stick on the sidewalk." Sol nodded.

"Now we're here," I added. "I-I-I uhhhh. . .also wanted to invite him for. . .tea." She quivered. "Seriously, guys cut it out," I told Sol and Frank. They nodded before swiping aside the death stares they shot toward the two Anthros.

"That's good to know. We apologize for our previous behavior earlier. We just need to double-check if things are alright." Sol reassured them. "Now that we've got the messy stuff out of the way. We're here to make a deal. You get Max's blood now. . ." Leo and Pennie's eyes glimmered.