Saturday, October 17th, 2020
"I ASSUMED YOU WOULD KEEP A LOW PROFILE!" The brightly colored stand yelled, waving his staff frantically in the air. He then pointed it right in Emily's face. "Now you are a prime suspect in a possible terrorist investigation!"
Seeing the stand lose its normal composure unnerved her. Emily tried to back away from Mr. Sandman's face, but it was difficult as the medical casts on her legs carried over into her dreams. "On the bright side, at least we found one of your first stand users!" Emily put on a forced smile. She only received a glare in response.
The stand's menacing appearance diminished a bit as he rubbed his palm in his face. "If you all keep attracting attention like this, my master may begin to come under scrutiny. You don't want the Speedwagon Foundation here, do you?"
Emily tilted her head. "I don't know much about them. Are they like the FBI or something?"
"Worse." Sandman clenched his staff tighter. "You see, they don't take too kindly to rogue stand users. He picked up the staff and began to thump it in his hand, pacing around Emily. "Thankfully, no one can see stands recorded on TV or phone cameras, not even my master. So while we wait for your 'friend' to fall asleep, you need to tell me everything that happened here. Spare no detail, or it may cost you your life." He accented his words by placing his staff right under her chin.
Emily gulped.
…
"And you're certain that Naka told nothing compromising to the paramedics?" Sandman questioned. At this point, the two of them had already been teleported to a table on the second floor balcony of the stand's dream library, where Emily had recounted her story.
"Yes, sir. I've been in the hospital since then. That's when Naka tried to explain his... infatuation... with his stand." She groaned, and looked out over the balcony as she said this, gazing down at the planked wooden floorboards and their near flawless finish. I guess he can make this place as fancy as he wants if it's inside of a dream. She figured. Just then, a flash of light appeared from below and revealed a very confused Naka, who was still drowsy from falling asleep. Sandman noticed this as well, and snapped his fingers. This caused the two of them to teleport instantaneously down to the first floor where Naka presided.
"Naka Hamura, my first stand user. I have been waiting to see your face for a long time." He then gestured to Emily. "And thanks to your friend here, you have finally been brought to me. It was a stroke of luck that I was passing by the pol-sci building when all that action went down."
The transfer student took a defensive stance as he realized where he was. "So you're the blue guy Emily told me about." Naka said in an accusing tone, his jet black hair slightly covering his right eye. "You were the one who stabbed me all those weeks ago!"
"You have eluded me for too long. I assume Emily told you why I brought you here?" The stand crossed his arms, staff still clenched in his right hand.
Naka glared at him. "She did. And for your information, I have no intentions of becoming a slave to some Dr. Manhattan lookalike!" He announced, slamming his foot down.
Sandman only smirked at this. "You act as if you have a choice in the matter."
"Damn right I do." He retorted. "Taiho, turn him into swiss cheese!" Naka pointed triumphantly, waiting for his lover to appear. However, this did not happen and silence engulfed the library for a few seconds. Sandman's smirk turned into a raw, guttural laugh as Naka began looking around frantically.
"It seems your friend forgot to tell you something about me." Sandman boasted, resting both of his hands on the head of his staff outstretched in front of him. "Your warship can't help you in my dreams, Naka."
Naka turned his glare towards Emily. "You never told me I couldn't bring my stand in here!"
Emily avoided his gaze in embarrassment, but also stuck up for herself. "Well, they did kick you out when visiting hours ended. I couldn't tell you everything."
"So, Naka. Do you wish to reconsider your stance?" Sandman asked.
There's gotta be some way out of this. Naka thought. If I'm still technically asleep right now, I just need to find a way to wake up, right? He thought back to last week, when one night he had a rare nightmare about being beaten up by his old classmates back in high school. He'd apparently cried out in his sleep then, because it somehow woke Taiho up from inside of him instinctually. It only took a second for her to appear from his subconscious and shake him awake. She then "comforted" him for the rest of the night, but Naka ended the memory at that point to avoid thinking about the rest of the experience. Either way, he had an idea.
"Is it true that you can hurt me inside this place?" Naka prodded.
"Do you wish to find out?" The stand responded.
This time it was Naka's turn to crack a grin. "No thanks, I'll find out for myself." He then wound up his fist and punched himself in the gut as hard as possible. He cried out in pain from his own blow as Emily gave him a confused stare.
The stand brought its staff up in a rushed offensive stance, but he was still too slow as an orange firestorm flared around Naka, and he disappeared as the flames subsided. All that was left were the slightly charred floorboards beneath him.
"That weaseling little…" Mr. Sandman trailed off his curses before quickly pivoting to Emily. "You will find him, and you will make him come back here."
"How can I?" Emily raised an eyebrow, pointing down at her injured legs.
Another angry grunt greeted her. "Still, keep in mind that you all will not be as lucky as him if you choose to betray me. No one eludes my gaze forever." Following that with more muttering, Sandman thumped the floor twice with his staff as the world faded around them.
…
"For the last time, officer, we were having an argument and I was teasing him. That's all that happened. As soon as the explosions began, I tried running to the exits. Since they were blocked by fire, I had to break out of the window." Emily recounted for the police officer who was standing over her bed. He'd been questioning her for the past half an hour, and she couldn't do much to avoid him in her bedridden state. As soon as my medigun refuels itself, I'm getting out of this hellhole. She thought.
The officer cleared his throat. "Are you confident that the argument had nothing to do with the fire?" As he said this, the muted TV screen in the hospital room displayed clips of the initial explosions from various angles taken by several students' phone cameras. The shaky footage had been looping on the news channel for the past fifteen minutes or so, but Emily found it strange that most footage ended after the first few fires began. Emily figured people would want to submit any footage they could to get clout on TV, so it surprised her that the clips stopped where they did. At that point, she assumed that everyone stopped recording in order to run away. Although many closeby entrances were blocked, there were still other emergency exits further down hallways, and no one had died in the fire. Either way, Emily hoped that there wasn't any film the news hadn't yet shown as she replied to the cop.
"Yes, I'm sure. I don't know if it vas a gas explosion or what, but I vas just trying to survive in there. I don't remember much after the adrenaline wore off."
"What about the dialogue of the argument?" He asked. "We have audio of you referring to Mr. Hamura about wearing a dress? And on that matter, do you know anything about a…" He stopped to look down at some notes on his phone, his face contorting as he attempted to pronounce a word. "About a… 'Thai-hoe' character?"
Emily raced her mind for a response. "We've been friends for a while, and I, um, tend to tease him sometimes. We have some inside jokes that are hard to explain. As for that name, I'm not sure. He talks about a lot of people's usernames on social media, but I hadn't heard that one before." She lied.
"I see. Now, how come you don't have cuts from the glass window if you broke it?" The officer questioned.
"I threw a chair at it first."
"And your leg injuries?"
"I got thrown back by the explosion near the treeline of the tailgate lawn." Emily replied, recalling what Naka said to the paramedics.
"Did you hear any gunfire?"
"Gunfire?" Emily wondered before remembering the guns of the fighter planes. She didn't know if anyone else heard it since it was attached to a stand, so she took the safe approach. "I heard a lot of things during that fire, but I'm not sure if I heard shots or not. I guess it's possible."
"Did you see anyone... float?" The officer stared confused at his notes again. "Who the hell reported someone 'floating while tied up and slumped over'?" He asked himself. The sight of Taiho carrying Naka's constricted body was still fresh in Emily's mind as she chuckled in forced laughter.
"I never saw anything like that. Must've been someone messing with the investigation for fun." She lied again.
"You're probably right about that one." The officer shook his head before taking a short break to look back up at the TV, where another clip was looping. This time, it was pointing at Emily, who ducked behind the lobby's couch shortly before it exploded in a hail of feathers and fire. The cop's eyes widened as he pointed from Emily to the screen.
"What happened there? You ducked before anything happened? Were you threatened? Did someone have a weapon?" He fired off in rapid succession.
"Umm… well…" She trailed off as her phone buzzed a text notification beside her. She picked it up, and saw the text was from Naka:
Some cops showed up to question me, they think I'm into cross dressing or some shit. Make sure not to answer any questions and ask for a lawyer. Stay safe.
"Are you gonna answer me or-"
"Wait a minute, I claim the 5th! I refuse to say anything else until I get an attorney." Emily blurted out.
"Look, there's no need for that now." The officer argued.
"I shouldn't have said anything, let alone even more now. Please leave my room sir. My injuries are making it hard to focus"
The cop sighed in defeat as he walked towards the door. "Very well, Miss Weimann. When it closed behind him, another man in a different uniform approached the officer..
"Any luck, officer?" The man asked.
"No, she pleaded the 5th before I could get anything significant out of her."
"Very well. If we stay patient, the truth will reveal itself. Just let us handle this investigation from now on." The man replied, eliciting a grunt of agreement from the cop. The officer walked back down the hall, and the other man stared at the door to Emily's room before turning around and heading in the opposite direction, towards the elevators. As the elevator door closed, he adjusted his hat. The embroidered yellow "S" rubbed against his finger as he did so.