The front doors to the local hospital opened, as the short police officer stamped out and walked casually towards the duo’s police cruiser, his motion never ceasing.

  The keys for the car softly jingling in his hand, his hand strangely trembling as he stared straight ahead at the car.

  The professional female police officer followed closely behind him, her steps light and faint as she carefully stayed close but far enough away to keep her personal space.

  While walking through the parking lot, they also noted that the witness's family car was already long gone.

  Before long the duo got to their car, the man making loud grumbling noises while he begrudgingly opened all the car doors and hopped inside.

  Followed by his fellow cop who opened her door and took her seat in the back. Once they were both in the police car, they closed their doors behind them.

  The cars' tinted windows blur their forms from the outside and provide a good place to take a moment to rest and take stock. As once the doors closed behind them, immediately their entire demeanors shifted as they no longer needed to keep the charade going.

  The woman behind him dropped the act, sitting up straighter and lightly stretching, her cold timid professional persona slightly melting away to find a more proactive and dominating presence, sweeping her red hair out of her face as she pulled out a folder to look through.

  While the man deflated in his seat, gripping the wheel like a lifeline, resting his face against the window, enjoying the cool glass.

  Especially after having to pretend to be a sloppy and aggressive cop for reasons he couldn't begin to fathom.

  “So um Madam Madelin, was it really fine that we essentially ruined the interrogation on purpose?” Tentatively asking, seeking a bit of assurance from one of his commanding officers, having done an operation of this kind before.

  Normally it was a bit bad taste to speak in a parking lot, where anyone could be overhearing their conversation. But with all the windows closed, and excellent quality glass for their cop car, he felt comfortable letting out his confusion to his direct superior. Even if he was aware that she could just silence him if she felt like it, that was just part of being in a command structure.

  “It’s fine Lorwent, the higher up’s have already informed us that the family aren't suspects, rather this was just to see if the girl had any additional insights while the situation was still fresh in her memory.” But she wasn't expecting anything out of her, A piece of her words she left unsaid.

  Madeline might have had higher expectations if she had ordered this charge herself, but she was given this assignment by someone else higher up the chain, and even she had her own questions on why the operation was set like this. But orders were orders, they fulfilled the letter of the operation regardless, even if there was one thing that still itched at her.

  “Though I did find her reactions to the questions puzzling, I felt like I was watching someone inured to death a little. ” She stated, her hands moving a mile a minute while she flipped through the papers, skimming for information once again.

  “Huh, what gives you that impression? I thought she was a little weird but otherwise just seemed like a kid with a bad case of brain trauma.

  Hell, she seemed pretty out of it to me, constantly switching between slouching and picture perfect posture, a bit weird but that's just how kids are.” Lorwent dismissed Mary in his mind as he got the car running.

  “Weird isn't a word I would use for the girl Lorwent. Regardless, you may be right that her odd behavior is just her injuries talking and I am just too used to looking into murderers.” She suggested in turn, a bit relieved she got one of the more peaceful subordinates to work with her on this, Kale or Rem would have ran with this suspicion for the full nine yards.

  Closing the soldiers in her hands, and putting them away, deciding to trust Lorwent that her gut feeling is mistaken. The girl's file shows her injuries are genuine, she has lived her entire life being a pretty standard library girl, nothing extreme. This is just her jumping the gun and more, all these sorts of reasons flowing through Madeline’s mind.

  Unaware of how her gut feeling was closer than she was thinking. As Lorwent gets the car started and they drive off, ready to file their report back at the station.

  ~ ~ ~

  The house was more beautiful than they had last seen and worse than they had expected, at least in Karla’s viewpoint.

  Though Mary couldn't see the house herself, she was still so happy that they were finally home again. Soon to be back in their room and back to her books, their comfortable bed and soft room lights. She didn't know she could hate hospital lights until her stay at one.

  Karla, who was in control of the body, spent a moment looking over their home, seeing its vintage wood peaking out from beneath modern paint that slathered large sections of the house.

  She could also see the signs of repairs and replacements, like new electrical fuse boxes on the outside of the house, to new sections of the sidewalk, of concrete poured within the last year.

  The grass was unkempt, but that was fine with Karla, she rather the grass grow however it wanted to grow, she wasn't interested in gardening.

  She kept observing the lawn, the plants, and the stone walls that marked the boundary of their land, taking in every detail to make up strategies for defense later on. As during her deep introspection something wooshes by her head, landing with a fwap! On the ground beyond her, was a newspaper, along with a bundle of mail.

  “It ain't my fault if you're not paying attention!” The snippy mailman remarked, who couldn't be bothered to place any of the letters in the mailbox, especially not after calling for the girl a few times.

  The mailman continues to grumble about calling out to the girl, as he then speeds off in his mailvan, completely missing Marilla’s presence who was walking around the car.

  Karla quickly suppressed it before Mary or their mother noticed, but she could almost feel a strange bubble of loathing rise up, almost dousing her mood, for not noticing that newspaper toss.

  Breathing in and out, she unsteadily walks towards the house on the sidewalk, keeping their body facing forward as she decides to figure out what that was later.

  Their mom made a complex expression at the scene, both a tad amused but frustrated at the mailman. Before following her daughter, she breathes deeply before shaking her head and following inside.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Entering their home, as Mary and Karla stared at the living room, a place where they would have a family friend over whenever her mother was present at the house, however few those meetings were as of late.

  Before Mary, now in possession of their body, could speak or run off to their room to take a well deserved rest, their mother entered behind them and spoke.

  “Oh to finally mention something, you won’t be going to school for two weeks. I managed to convince the principal that you needed a bit more time to acclimate to physical interaction again and he agreed.

  Though this isn't an excuse to just lay around, I have documents from the hospital of exercises and activities you are supposed to do everyday to get back into shape. ”

  She takes a step forward, ready to lock the door behind herself and help mary get up the stairs to her room. At least until a piercing ringtone crackles through the air as she recognizes it as her device.

  Pulling out her phone and answering the call, listening to the person on the other end, going “Mhmm”, “I see?” and “no one else?”

  After a few minutes, she ends the call and frowns, softly patting them on the head as she speaks once more.

  “It appears they need my help on my day off, sweetie. They’re begging for my direction with an overflow of customers, and this is part of the job. Food is already prepared in the fridge, have some if you get hungry, I have to go handle this situation.” Their mother’s face flashed through a variety of emotions, the most dominant being apologetic as she spun on her heel.

  “Try to stay safe and stick close to the house- In fact, try not to go outside unless necessary.

  You need the rest, make sure you get the rest when you can, mom loves you.” Soft smile given, as she opened the door once more and closed it behind her, trusting Mary to lock the door as she headed to the family car.

  Seamlessly entering, and waving bye to them through the window, she turned on the vehicle, and began to get out of the park and before long driving into the street, away from the house.

  Karla watched her drive away, the car getting smaller and smaller in her view, as at some point she took a turn and was out of sight of Karla, while she silently debated.

  Try to relax and not make their mother’s fear less devastating, or try to explore their nose and take it just a little slow?

  Karla knew before she even spoke to Mary in their mind what her plan was going to be, as she carefully turned back around and began looking over the living room, having a decent look earlier, but a second should be fine.

  The living room really put on display an old but beautiful house that stood the test of time, with their memories filling them on the big stuff.

  Most of the furniture in the living room had been there when they had moved in, with other additions since then being furniture her mother had found being dumped out by their owners.

  Like that chair in the corner that was found by mother missing a leg, so she had a carpenter friend roughly merge a new one into place using leftover wood. It really used to bother them, but it had grown on them. Most of the pieces in this ramshackled living room did.

  But because of that, it wasn’t hard for Karla to dig through their memories and notice a few oddities immediately upon entering their home, as she mentally prodded Mary in their mindspace.

  “Appears the Police really did take every measure required. I see signs of their work even in the living room, Mary.” Karla remarked, looking beneath couches and at slightly askew rugs.

  “Really? I thought they only did the basic investigation kind, as far as mom talked about it.” Mary quipped, examining the old amusement fair tables in the clearing, tilting her head as she wonders if they always looked so new?

  “The rugs looked like they were moved across the floor to be checked underneath, and hastily set back up afterwards, and at first glance it looks like a normal search under the sofa’s, I can tell that it was extensive with none of the dust left underneath the couch now.”

  “I wonder why, wasn't the death of that…guy in the hallway?” Confusion drenching her words as Karla opened the living room door.

  “I don’t know, but we can’t do anything about it, so lets set it aside for now and continue our walk around.”

  Passing through the hallway, they entered the kitchen next, as the first thing that drew Karla’s attention was the back door, and the damage to both the walls and the door.

  “Well, it appears that's where the rat came in.”

  Mary chimed in from their mindspace after Karla’s remark, confused about what she’s talking about. “Rat? Is the back door open or something? Did an animal try to get in while we were gone?”

  Karla realizes a moment later that Mary was in their mindspace, and couldn't see the door herself.

  “No, I was just making a poor joke. The kitchen door and the walls are damaged. Which I suspect means this was the door the man used to get inside our house, though it looks like mother or the police fixed it after their examination. Given the wear, it’s likely he wanted to avoid being seen from the streets at all cost.”

  “Huh, what makes you think that he wouldn't have just gone through a window if the door wasn't useful?” Curiosity flooded Mary’s tone, as she laid on a wooden table in their mindspace.

  “I noticed that none of the front windows showed any sign of damage when we were coming in. If he had tried the few side windows, he would have made a mess in the library, but that room was pristine. When I was looking at the other windows, none show any signs of forced entry either.

  But that isn't the case for the back door, where the wood on both the wall and the door have severe damage beneath the repairs.” Karla touted, as she softly rubbed her fingers against the chipped paint softly, crumbling it between her fingers.

  She walks back into the hallway once the leery feelings about the kitchen wore off, heading into the hallway as Karla notices the hallway nearly pristine.

  Blood washed off the walls, undoubtedly the result of those ‘police’ after they had snapped what images they could of the crime scene.

  But she could also feel something was…odd about the space but she couldn't tell what specifically was wrong with the hallway. Best she could articulate was the smokey smell in the air, but if her mother had cooked in the house while they were in the hospital, it wouldn’t be strange…whatever.

  They opened the storage closets and found nothing out of the ordinary there, so Karla just casually closed them without concern, as she moved onto her next fixation.

  They entered the Study room next and looked around, finding pristine windows that gave them a good view of both the right side of the house and the front yard.

  Before continuing one, they flopped onto a nearby couch for a few moments, taking the moment to relax on the couch, their legs aching softly from just exploring the first floor.

  “If this is going to be our life for a while, I am definitely not going to enjoy it. Gonna hope we get this resolved as soon as possible, I don't want to deal with another person throwing anything near my head again.”

  Mary idly quips back, as she begins to organize the chairs in their mindspace clearing, “That was wild. At least with the car stopping, mom wasn’t going to give us whiplash with a sudden stop.”

  “That's fair- wait, wait, wait.” Karla about to let the comment pass, before registering which event Mary was talking about,

  “Wait, how did you know that the car stopped, Mary? I am pretty sure at the time I was the one in the front row seat of the body. Unless you somehow switched while I wasn’t paying attention. You shouldn’t have been able to tell where the body was.”

  “...Honestly not sure, I just felt our body stop moving so I just thought, hey, maybe the car had finally parked. But now that you bring it up, I shouldn’t have noticed that at all…” Nervous confusion dripped into her words as she stopped organizing chairs.

  “Hmm…Let's shelf this for now, but I find that a bit curious.” Karla quipped, moving their body to sit up and get back on their shaky feet, striding out of the library and closing the door behind her.

  Striding through the uncanny hallway and making their way towards the staircase, climbing it one tiring step at a time, as their physical weakness was beginning to become intense, though Karla tried to power through, each step one after another.

  Mary mumbles “We should have just rested on the stairs…”

  Without missing a beat, Karla remarks back, “Hey, I am the one walking here, plus we aren't going to get better by just sitting around. The exercise will help get our body back into functional order. So just let the process work itself out,” Karla remarked with the ease of someone still trying to grasp what is different.

  Mary didn't really have a rebuttal, as she was fine with letting Karla keep using the body.

  She was just happy they were back home, and if Karla wanted to keep exploring, that's fine with her, she’s not the one moving the body.

  But they didn't get to do too much more exploration, as by the time they got up the stairs, and opened the door to their bedroom, exhaustion was practically dripping from their limbs, a far cry from Karla’s assumptions of their bodies quality.

  So when they suddenly switched with Mary in control of the body again, she had no reason to reject however sheepishly she felt now that she wasn't in the front seat.

  Simply sitting in their mindspace as Mary nestled messily into their blankets, and with mental exhaustion following along, they both followed suit into true slumber.