Dust to Dust (A UK Youtuber Story)

Chapter 1 - Catalyst

"Incident on the outskirts of London, near Watford, units please respond" said the woman operating police dispatch.

"Officer Bloom responding, I'm in the area, I'll go and check it out" responded Mara tentatively, she was hoping for a quiet night.

"Acknowledged PC Bloom, backup will follow shortly" responded dispatch.

Mara soon had the address and sped off sirens blazing. She shortly reached the house, a large complex and it took a considerable amount of time to even get her vehicle up to the property. She saw lots of decorations and spilled plastic cups when surveying the estate. Mara concluded that a large party had obviously quietened down. It was only 1 am so she presumed the party must have ended due to the incident. She radioed for confirmation on backup and was going to wait until she heard a scream from inside and her instinct as well as adrenaline kicked in, knocking heavily and quickly on the front door, wondering why no one had heard her sirens. The door swung open and a young man of a slightly stocky build answered the door.

"I'm PC Bloom, I've heard there's been an incident?" she questioned intently

"Hello officer, there's been a fight and it's over, but one of our friends is injured badly! Follow me!" replied the young man, obviously slightly shaken and worried.

"Name sir?" inquired Mara.

"Ethan Payne officer" said the young man.

"Tell me Ethan, why did I hear a scream when I was walking up to the house?" asked Mara, slightly confused as she walked quickly with Ethan through the vast home.

"Oh that's my girlfriend Emily! She's really drunk and just spilled her drink all over her new dress" replied Ethan, chuckling lightly, obviously trying to use his girlfriend's drunken distress to dispel memories of the fight.

"Hmm" mumbled Mara, not particularly impressed.

They eventually reached a tall slender man surrounded by multiple people with a black eye as well as cuts and bruises in addition to blood running down from his nose, he was in a sorry state. He had obviously been given some amateurish first aid treatment from friends at the party but Mara thought it best to radio for an ambulance.

"Police are here!" yelled Ethan.

"I'm officer Bloom. Can I ask those who witnessed the event to step to the side and those who didn't to disperse from the scene please? I'll take it from here." exclaimed Mara in a strong and commanding manner.

Most of the party goers left the scene and a few officers then joined Mara on the scene. It was time to take some witness statements.

Mara was the senior officer on the property and therefore she approached the man who seemed to be the victim of the attack, notebook at the ready.

"Hello, I'm PC Bloom, how are you holding up?" She asked the tall and slender man.

"Not particularly great, as you can see" replied the man in a morose tone.

"I'm sorry this happened to you. Can I ask you your name please?"

"Simon Minter"

"Well Simon, I'm going to have to ask you some questions about the incident if that's ok?"

"Sure." said Simon, a melancholic expression plastered across his face.

"Firstly, how did the incident start?"

"I was talking with the person in question and things got a bit heated so I turned away to get some air outside when he then jumped me, hitting me repeatedly. I'm a mate of his so I didn't fight back, not that I had chance but then we had a bit of a screaming match and that was that, he was escorted out by some of the others."

"The person in question?" replied Mara quizzically.

"So you know who this person is Simon but you're not going to give me his name?"

"No, he's my mate. It's over now anyway, we'll make up."

Mara was shocked by this blase reaction from Simon.

"We'll make up? Simon you were physically assaulted, do you not want our help or not? This is a serious issue." said Mara sternly.

"I don't want it to escalate further, I'm not giving his name, I can sort this out" he replied somewhat aggravated.

"Thanks for your time, I'll let you know how we get on." said Mara eager not to upset him further.

Simon responded to this comment with fear evident in his facial expression. Mara was not going to just let this slide. She was a police officer and her job was to enforce the law, yes there may have been more serious crimes being committed in and around London but something inside her told her that there was something more to this. She then questioned other people on the scene, much of them providing the same account as Simon, not willing to give a great deal of information away to law enforcement. This proved to be the case until Mara came to question a young man of Indian origin name Vikram Barn. He gave the same account but then provided her with more information than she had anticipated.

"Can you tell me Vik, what was the catalyst for this incident?" asked Mara inquisitively.

"Erm, well... it was an argument over their jobs" replied Vik. Nervousness evident in his voice but eager for the truth to come out.

"Go on..." replied Mara intrigued.

"They were arguing over their success and social media presence as well as their abilitiy and well, I think they were both trying to joke with each other initially but them some insults were hurled and it escalated from there."

"Thank you for that Vik" replied Mara noting it down. Now she really zoomed in on Vik.

"Can you please tell me who the other man, who started the fight is?"

Vik squirmed, obviously uncomfortable with revealing the man's identity.

"You know I can charge you for perverting the course of justice right?" said Mara firmly, she couldn't, but she was eager to get this information out.

Vik sighed and relented.

"His name's Will. Will Lenney."

A/N: Hi! It's been a while! Well guys I've decided to try and start a new story as I have some time on my hands now and I want to get back into writing. I can't promise consistent uploads but I hope to do it in relatively short spaces of time. Please let me know what you think and thanks for reading! - Riak64 :)