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As the door swung shut, Jon was met with silence. No more book, no more Tommy. No more Mr. Spider. Just silence, the sound of his shallow breathing, and his heart beating out of his chest.
His first thought was to try opening the door again. He half expected Mr. Spider to lock the door, but it swung open easily, and Jon tried to run inside, only to slip and fall in a puddle.
“Owww…” Jon said, as righted himself up, only for the water on his hands to catch in the light as he moved to stand. Red. Not the red like when his classmate tried to pour her own paint in art class, and it splattered on the floor. This red was darker, and thinner than paint but thicker than water. It had to be blood.
Jon ran out of the building as quickly as he entered. What was he thinking, he shouldn’t fight Mr. Spider! He can’t even fight Tommy, and Tommy didn’t fare against the giant spider. What was he to do now?
The police! The nice police at the station always helped him get home when he wandered too far and got lost! They can help now!
If he can find them.
Jon wandered around a little, until he saw the police station.
“Excuse me, I need to speak with the police.” He said to the nice lady at the desk who gave him candy the times he’s had to wait at the station.
“Jon! You can’t keep getting lost like… Jesus Christ!” She cried out, upon looking over her desk and seeing Jon.
“Jon, sweetie, are you okay?”
“I need a police officer!” He cried out, “Tommy got ate by a spider!”
She jotted something down and picked up the phone.
From there, he stood still as police officers use swabs to clean the blood off him. It seemed like an inefficient way to clean it off. They also took pictures of him, and asked extensively if he’s hurt in any manner. He at most had a scratch or two. One told him that his grandmother was on the way, it was the nice man he’d ridden in the car with and he’d been allowed to turn on the sirens, before immediately regretting it with just how loud the sirens were.
His grandmother arrived, and shortly afterwards, a woman that Jon had never met before walked in.
“Hey buddy, let’s get all that off you, okay?” She said, crouched down to his level, “Your grandma brought a change of clothes and some shower supplies. Can you handle getting yourself cleaned up?”
Jon nodded, “I can, I can do it myself.”
“Great!” She smiled, “Now, I need you to do me a real big favor, and when you’re done, put your gross dirty clothes in this plastic bag.”
“It… it says evidence.” He frowned.
“Yep! We need to hang onto your old clothes for a little while.” She says. “I’ll make it up to you and get you a cool new outfit, how about that?”
“Am I… am I going to jail?” He whispered, trying and failing to hide his tears.
“Oh, kiddo, that’s not going to happen.” She said, “We just want to know what’s happened. You’ve been through something scary and we want to understand it.”
After getting as much of the gross and sticky blood off as he could, Jon learned that apparently he’d been called out of school for a while. So, every day, he’d get dressed and be driven to the station where he’d talk with the same lady. At some point she had introduced herself, but Jon had quickly forgotten the name.
“Alright, Jonathan.” She said, “Last time you were telling me about Tommy, right? Why don’t you talk to me about what he was like.”
“He’s mean and I don’t like him.” Jon said, “He calls me rude things. I think he’s jealous, he isn’t very smart.”
“What kind of things?”
“Little Einstein, or runt, or short stack…” Jon listed, “He likes to take my things too, or shove me around. He took my book.”
“Right, A Guest for Mr. Spider…” she said.
“He took my book and started walking away!” He frantically explained, “And then went to Mr. Spider’s house and got eaten!”
“Okay…” she said. “Can you describe Mr. Spider’s house? We’ll take a break right after.”
Jon nodded and gave as many details as he could.
It was around lunchtime, and Jon was sipping a juice box as the lady went to grab her own lunch. He felt like he’d been sitting too long and went to look around a little. Surely he’d be okay to wander a little around the station. He heard the lady’s voice around the hall, and paused.
“Oh, Nancy!” A guy said, “How’s your investigation going?” Jon remembered now. Her name was Miss Nancy.
“Same old, same old.” She sighed, “I take it that there’s no leads looking for anybody with spider tattoos.”
“Nope, anyone who does have anything like that in Bournemouth either hasn’t heard of the victim at all or has an airtight alibi.” He sighed, “Got any new leads from the kid?”
“Well, we’ve got a pretty good description of the location.” She said, “But we’re not having much luck for suspects. Maybe we could try looking for people in bowler hats?”
“I mean, there’s always the kid as a suspect.”
“Respectfully, there’s no fucking way it’s the kid.” She snapped.
“Hmmm, all the evidence so far has little Jonny as the chief suspect though.” The man hummed, “Word said that he was bullied by our victim, he showed up to the station covered in the victim’s blood, and witnesses from the park saw them leave together.”
“He’s a scared eight year old boy who witnessed a murder, Chris.” Miss Nancy said, “Have a little sympathy. Jesus Christ!”
“Right, sorry! Sorry!” ‘Chris’ said.
“Well, I’ve got my lunch, back to talking to him. He’s more respectful than you anyways.” She said sharply.
Jon rushed back to his seat at the desk. He did not want to get in trouble for wandering right now.
“I’m back! Sorry that took me so long.” She said, all smiles, “I leave my lunch in the car, and in the walk just from here to the parking lot, and like fifteen people try to talk to me.”
“You don’t believe me.” Jon said.
“Well, ummm… you see…” She said, floundering for a way to phrase what she wanted to say, “It’s under investigation.”
Jon glared. He wished he could project all his anger at them through his eyeballs alone.
“It was Mr. Spider.” Jon said. “He ate Tommy.”
Miss Nancy looked like she wanted to say something, but she stayed silent as Jon continued.
“He almost ate me first.” Jon described, “I… I shouldn’t have been a scaredy-cat and I should’ve gotten the book back! It’s- it’s my fault!”
“Hey, it’s okay, nobody’s blaming you.” She cut in, but let him continue afterwards.
“The book, I couldn’t stop reading it. I nearly got to the end… then Tommy took it and started reading.” Jon struggled to get the words out as he spoke, but he had to power through! He needed the police lady to believe him! “Then, he started walking, and I couldn’t get him to stop! And at the house, he knocked and Mr. Spider pulled him in, and he was gone! No more book. No more Tommy. Just me. Neither we’re there when I peeked inside either!”
She paused at Jon’s explanation and when Jon took a second to breathe, she interjected.
“Was there a bookplate in this book?” She asked, her voice more quiet than before.
“Y-yes?” Jon said, “From the library of… Yurigen Lighter?”
“Jurgen Leitner?” She asked, to which Jon nodded.
She jotted something down on the paperwork, and then left the room, and Jon thought he heard mutters of the number 31. Shortly after, he was put out in the waiting room as his Grandma drove over to pick him up. When Grandma arrived, Miss Nancy handed her a sticky note. Jon peeked over ant it, and read what it said. Jotted down was numerous phone numbers, as well as the address of something called the Magnus Institute.
He was back at school the next day. And he never got his clothes back from the police station.