Unfamiliar (Unfamiliar Series #1)

Chapter 31

I have Tessa and Astrid drop me off at the Salem police station, deciding that it'd be best if I spoke with Officer Marshall alone. In all honesty, I just wanted a little bit of space before I had to talk to her and not having the others fussing over me helps me focus. I shudder as I walk up the dark sidewalk, Tessa and Astrid's Uber reluctantly peeling away from the curb behind me as it starts back toward the academy.

I had told them as much as I could bear to on the ride over. Though I skimmed on my argument with Luke, I also didn't tell Astrid that he didn't trust her. I check my phone before I step through the doors of the police station, hoping against all else that maybe Tessa had texted him and that he would be worried about me.

No new messages.

It's a punch to the gut. My heart sinks and I push through the doors to head for the front desk. I try not to let it get to me, instead trying to focus on the task at hand. An older man is sitting and typing at a computer as I approach the desk, his dark eyes squinting as he pauses.

"I need to speak with-," I begin to say to the secretary, but a voice from behind interrupts me.

"Kara?"

I turn around to see that Officer Marshall is standing not too far away in the lobby like she was passing through, a sheaf of papers held in her hands. She's wearing a light blue, button up shirt and black pants. Her hair is slightly messy, a few strands sticking out and fanning away from her face. She looked tired, her expression drawn and almost pained as she curiously peers at me.

"Officer Marshall," I swallow as a rush of nerves sets me on edge.

"Please, call me Diana, are you all right?" her eyebrows tilt down as she steps over and puts out a hand to place on my shoulder as she guides me down the hallway.

I haven't realized that I've shaken my head until she spins me around and puts both hands on my shoulders. Her eyes are suddenly scanning me with a trained intensity that makes me shrink away from her. She focuses on my throat, her lips pressing into a thin line and doesn't say another word as she propels me further down the hall, a hand in the middle of my shoulder blades. There's no one else here as she gently pushes me around a corner into a small, break-room looking area.

"Tell me now. What happened?" she asks in a low voice with a dangerous edge to it.

I cringe at her tone, afraid that she's angry at me and her eyes soften as she takes a breath.

"Kara, I have to know," she asks in a gentler voice. "You look like you've been in a fight, do you need medical attention?" 

"I...I was at the fall festival in Topsfield and I was separated from my friends," I murmur as I look down at the tile floor beneath my shoes, not a complete lie, "I was over by the horse barns when I was grabbed from behind and someone tried to strangle me."

"Did you see what they looked like?" Officer Marshall demands, her eyes sparking like flint.

"No," I shake my head more than I need to. "It was a man, he sounded young and he said...," I clear my throat as the words stick to my tongue, "he said that I should have said that I was Finn's murderer, and that it would have made everyone's life a lot easier."

Officer Marshall's gaze hardens at this revelation and she looks past me for a long moment, like she's weighing her options as she chews the corner of her lip. She leans back against the wall as she scratches at her forehead with her thumb. Something flickers in her gaze as she takes a deep breath and speaks. 

"How did you get away?" she finally asks. "Did someone intervene?"

"No, I conjured my familiar and she attacked him and chased him off."