Chapter 3

Mindy:

"And then what did you do?" The police officer, Tomilson or 'Tom', Asked.

"I… It happened really fast, and he was trying to chock me too so I—."

"Could you demonstrate how he chocked you?" He blurted. So, here's the situation; we were on our way to Camp, when the bus driver put us all to sleep. Then, he killed a girl during that time that I found out was named, Margret Tiff, and he tried to kill me and Pam afterwards, and so… I kind of killed him myself. Which is a good thing, according to the officer, so far. But it wasn't too convincing.

"Um, sure." I replied. I felt a little bit uncomfortable talking to a big, tough, male police officer. But, once again, I did just kill someone. I stood up and locked my hands around his neck lightly. "Like this, but 50 times harder."

"Alright. Continue." He told me as he recorded what I did down. I sat back down in my seat.

"So, I saw my sister hitting him with some stick thing, which appeared to be the stick shift, and I just grabbed it, and stabbed."

"Were you aiming his heart?"

"I had no idea where it was going, I just needed a distraction. But of course, it ended worse." A few tear drops went down my checks.

"And is that the end of the story?"

"Basically… I just stood up, and felt proud that I just saved a dozen of people, but then that proud-ness ended quickly, and I just stared at the dead person I just killed, and then my sister, Pam, collapsed in my arms, and then the emergency people came."

"Okay." He wrote the rest of it down.

"Am… Am I going to jail?" I asked softly.

"No, no."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Will people hate me? Like, would it be hard to get a job in the future?" I asked.

"Hate? No way. Reward? Most likely." He replied. I smiled slightly.

"Do you have any information about Margret Tiff?"

He went through a few papers, "All I know is that, she was stabbed in the back, and died on the bus." I nodded. I was going to ask where she was know, but as I thought about it, I didn't want to know.

"Well, this interview is over. You may leave." He escorted me out the door where my dad was waiting.

"Everything okay?" He asked me.

"I think so."

"How do you feel?"

"Bad." I said. He turned to Tom.

"Thank you, sir." My dad said using manners.

"Your welcome. Tell your daughter not to worry. She's better than fine. She's a hero." He said. The word hero echoed in my head a hundred times before I woke back up. Officer Tomilson and Dad shook and manly handshake, and Tom left.

"Come on, lets go see your sister." He said, motioning me to follow him.

We stopped in the middle of the hallway when I bumped into Isabella.

"Oh. Hi Mindy." She said softly. Was she joking? Or was she actually being nice?

"Hi. I've never heard you speak so nicely before."

"It's just that, you saved us."

"Yeah?" I asked in amusement.

"If it hadn't been you, we could've all died. Do you know how easy he could kill us?"

"Yeah. How was your interview?"

"I'm still in waiting. I'm not that important in the scene you know, well, I gotta run, bye!" She took off.

"Who was that?" my dad asked.

"A girl I used to hate."

We walked in silence until we reached Pam's room. She was on her bed, wearing a pink hospital gown. Mom was comforting her.

She caught sight of me. "Mindy! Oh! I'm so glad to see you!"

"Glad to see you too, I guess." I replied.

"Are you going to court? What did the police say?" She asked anxiously.

"He said…" I lightened up. "He said I was a hero." I smiled at her. She smiled back. I turned around quickly when I heard a rumble of footsteps. A group of people in detailed black clothes… more police? Pam tugged on my shirt, I elbowed her softly in returned. My whole family was staring at them, including me. They approached me.

"Mindy Timmons?" The officer in the front asked me seriously.

I was scared, I took a deep breath, "Yes?" I stood up.

"Could you follow us?"

"Sure." I replied. My family looked worried. I walked with them,

"You guys too" He told my parents and Pam. We walked… and walked. Until we reached two doors that had a sign saying, Private and confidential, Do not enter unless given permission.

"Be good." The man told me. It seemed like he was the only talking to me. I'm probably about to step into a court room or something! But why would there be a court in a hospital? This hospital must be special! I sobbed inside. I heard a few snickers behind me, I looked back, and there was nothing but the police, my parents, and Pam.

He opened the door and a round of loud applause went on. I stepped inside and saw a very large room, with a stage at the top, and a whole bunch of people sitting on lined chairs. One section was for police, and one section was normal people. They looked back at me. I recognized faces. I saw my best friends, Rosalina, Alex, and Bennett; all with their parents and siblings. I also saw Isabella, and a few other campers in the crowd.

"Surprise." Someone whispered behind me. I turned around, all the police had their thumbs up, smiling widely.

"Is this for me?" I asked. They nodded. Pam looked around the room in amazement.

"Lucky..!"

"You too." A female officer told Pam. She jumped up and down.

"Front row seats, make your way, it's on the right side." They told me. I started walking down the isle, in between staring eyes of Police and Friends. It was a bit awkward. I sat down in my seat. My best friends were behind me, in the second row. I looked back at them.

"Hi Mindy, Hi Pam" Rosy giggled.

"Did you know about this…?" I asked suspiciously.

"You could say so." She replied. I smiled and turned around. The group of officers went up the stage.

"Hello." A female police went spoke through the microphone. "I'm here at the hero's assembly," She nodded her head at me and Pam. "I'm officer Camilla along with Officer Todd, Officer Mark, Officer Emily, and Chief Trist." She introduced with all the officers waving their hand when their name was called.

"We would like to give a big, warm welcome to a hero during a murder incident, Mindy-Selene Timmons!" She added. I didn't like when people say me whole name, but today was an exception. "And without this young lady, the take-down would have been longer, more dangerous, and the emergency unit wouldn't have been contacted that early. Give a hand for, Pam-Cecilia Timmons!" Pam Waved.

Officer Mark then took Officer Camilla's Spot.

"As you know; we had an incident on a bus ranging from 7 am to 1 pm." He said, looking far back into the audience. I followed his glazed and found him looking at a bunch of cameras! Oh no, we were being recorded. I nudged Pam.

"Don't do anything stupid. We're on camera." I whispered.

"ugh." She replied. Officer Mark explained the whole situation to, the cameras. And the audience clapped.

"I would like to pass this speech to Chief Trist." Chief Trist took his spot.

"We would now like to honor these awards and gifts, to the heroes." He said in a deep voice. A table with presents on top came rolling in.

"Mindy and Pam Timmons, we would like to invite you up the stage." He said while helping the lady pushing the table make the table stable. Another officer came to us and escorted us up the stage. I made sure not to fall, or trip, or step on gum; just because I was being recorded. I hate being recorded. We stood diagonal to the microphone.

"Mindy Timmons, please step up." He said, flipping a cue card over. I stepped up. He grabbed a big, colorful, glass, trophy up.

"We, the police committee, would like to congratulate you, in your success of saving witnesses on the bus, and getting rid of a murderer." He handed me the trophy. It weighed a ton!

"Would you like to say some words?" He asked me. My eyes widened. Words? In front of camera? Ugh.

"Sure." I stepped up to the microphone. "Hi. Um… I'm glad that I can be receiving this award given to me by a police Chief and.. I would like to thank my sister, Pam for being brave; my parents, for being supportive; my friends, for watching my back; My gym teacher, for getting me fit for all this and.. yeah. And the emergency unit for coming so fast. And.. the bus company for taking the call seriously." The audience clapped. I stepped back. They did the same thing for Pam. And she basically said the same speech, but quicker and less. Chief Trist took the mic.

"We will allow you to open your gifts now. They are from the friends around you, and the police." He said leaving the stage along with everyone else. I opened my first gift and Pam opened hers. It was a string thing. It was a whip! I took it out and showed it to the audience. They ouu-ed and ahh-ed. Then suddenly, the ouu-ing and ahh-ing stopped and was replaced with gasps and police racing towards the stage, which was about 100 feet away. I was confused until I heard Bennett yelled,

"BEHIND YOU!" I was about to turn around when something slit me in the arm, shooting pain up my arm. I gasped. I thought about it for a split second. I wasn't mad, or sad, or scared… I was prepared. I turned around, forgetting about my bleeding arm, finding the person who slit me, I found him making his way to Pam who was running towards the stairs, I sprinted towards him but couldn't catch up, the stage was big, I still had a few chances. I remembered my whip, It was dragging across the floor, I gripped it, and whipped the long whip like a baseball bat, hitting him in the neck. He turned around, furious. I shrugged my shoulder's, pain in my arm.

"Try me." I told him, deadly calm.

He raced at me, knife up. He was about a two meters away when I whipped his hand that was holding the knife and he yelped and rubbed it with his other hand. That was my chance. I sprinted towards him and high kicked his hand, making him release the knife. I don't know how I high-kicked, but I've always been a flexible person. The crowd gasped in horror. He punched me hard in the cheek, but I didn't care, I kicked him back in the stomach and ran back a bit. I turned around to find that he was holding another knife. Dang it. I took hold of the mic behind me and held it as an extra weapon. I took my knife and tried to hit his hand. I failed, he was still a distance away. The police was surrounding the stage, corner by corner, guns pointed. They didn't shoot, I could handle him. He was 5 meters away now. I ran at his direction and whipped him in the hand, hoping the knife would fall again. Not this time. He held it tight. He swung the knife; I jumped and swung my whip at his head and the microphone at his hand. He swerved to the right. Stumbling, he stood up. But he was too slow, the mic was already a centimeter away from his face, it hit him hard because I threw it like a javelin. He stumbled back, and was at the edge of the stage. Should I overthrow him?

"AH!" I ducked as a knife flew right over me, pulling some of my hair off.

"AND I WAS GONNA LET YOU OF THE HOOK!" I sprinted towards him,

*WHIP*

*WHACK*

*SPLIT*

*BOOM*

I whipped him in the face, on the side, and in his middle spot. He fell back onto the ground, falling a good 10 feet. The police ran to him and cuffed him. A group of doctors or paramedics raced to me. I felt weak and hurt, I half-collapsed and half-sat onto the ground, I was on top of a puddle of my own blood, disgusting. The crowd whistled, and clapped, and my family and friends ran towards the stage. I smiled weakly.

The world was started spinning, I was losing a lot of blood, I was sure my face was pale. Even though it was being treated with, I couldn't feel any improvement with it. The person dealing with my arm dabbed extremely hard on my arm with alcohol that sting more than 100 bees together, and I fainted on the hard stage floor.