Edited 4/14/2021

I don't own Digimon or the song "A Place for my Head," Linkin Park.

"Maybe someday I'll be just like you
And step on people like you do and
Run away the people I thought I knew
I remember back then who you were
You used to be calm, used to be strong
Used to be generous but you should've known
That you'd wear out your welcome
And now you see how quiet it is, all alone"

I was exhausted.

I had been sitting in an interrogation room for hours and I hadn't been asleep for almost an entire day at this point. We thought we were doing what was best for everyone when we called the police, but I don't think any of us expected them to turn it around and try to pin it on me.

4 HOURS EARLIER

I sat down behind Kari in the bathroom, the tile floor was cold and sobering. She jerked a bit, startled, as I placed my hand on her back and set a glass of water down next to her.

"I'm sorry," she said, in a shaky voice.

Everything that was happening to her, and again, she was sorry.

"Kar, you can't be sorry. Nothing is your fault. I need you to understand that," I pulled her back against my chest, and put my arms around her. "We have to call the police, okay?" She answered with a nod.

"Can you give me five minutes?" She asked quietly.

I obliged, helping her up off the floor. I left the bathroom, closed the door behind me, and immediately started pacing the room. I felt restless and angry. All I could think about was what I wanted to do to Michael once I found him. I knew he was an absolute prick, but I didn't realize how much of a sociopath he really was. I couldn't believe he was following us, but deep in her mind she knew this whole time, all her paranoia was understandable now.

"TK, open up!" Matt's shout, and frantic knocking, came from the other side of the door. I looked towards the bathroom but Kari didn't budge. I tried to quietly open the door, but Matt came barging in, he quickly closed the door behind me and pulled out his phone. Without a word, he held up his text screen with a message from a random number, "Your brother doesn't seem to understand boundaries. How about you have a conversation with him before I test some of yours." Under the text was one of the photos of Kari and Sora sleeping.

I looked up at my brother and he had just as much anger shining in his eyes as I did, but there was fear in them too. It was a fear I hadn't seen since we were children. I picked the letter up off the table and handed it to him, his eyes widened as he read the threatening words and saw the photos on the table.

"Holy shit," he said, dropping the letter from his hands.

"We agreed to call the police. I'm just waiting for her to come out," I motioned to the bathroom. "Does Sora know about the text?" I asked.

Matt shook his head, "No, not yet. How the hell could he be getting into the rooms TK? The pictures of you in public ... are easy enough but the ones of them sleeping? That's insane, Sora always locks the bolt, and there isn't a way to get in unless he's scaling the damn building."

He had a point, it didn't make any sense for someone to be breaking into their room at night. We heard the bathroom door click and Kari walked out, face washed clean and her hair pinned back. She was surprised to see Matt and gave me a fearful glance, stepping back a bit. I picked up his phone and showed her the text. There was no point in hiding anything from her.

"Shit," She put his phone down on the desk, her hands shaking as she did, "Matt, I'm so sorry you are involved in all of this, TK you too." Her eyes glazed over.

"You didn't put us into anything," I said, placing my hands on her shoulders. "They wanted you here. I wanted to be here. I want to be here." She nodded in understanding.

"He's right Kari, I mean, we knew he was a scum bag, but I don't think any of us knew he was certifiably insane," Matt said.

"Near the end, I had my thoughts that he might be some sort of megalomaniac, but he spent so much time gaslighting me that I honestly had trouble figuring out what wasn't normal. He had me convinced of how things were supposed to work in 'his' world like it was somehow different because he was famous. He always told me the rules weren't the same, but he's just making up his own rules. He's fucking sick." She turned back towards the desk, pushing the photos around, and looking closely at a few.

"But, how did he get in here?" She questioned, more to herself than to us, echoing our question from earlier.

It was the part that didn't add up. He was crazy but he wasn't some sort of super-spy. Suddenly her eyes got wide she started frantically looking around the room.

"Kari, what are you doing?" I asked, concerned. She ignored me, picking up a few of the photos of Sora and her asleep. She looked from them to the room before going over to where the TV was. She started feeling around the back of it, "Son of a bitch," she whispered. She pulled something harshly from the top of it and tossed it to Matt.

"You've got to be kidding me," He said, examining the small device in his hand. "He bugged the room," He said, amazed.

"He's probably got them in all the rooms, he must be having someone do it before we check-in." She looked almost relieved. I guess it was better then someone actually sneaking into the rooms at night.

"You think?" Matt questioned.

She looked between the two of us, uneasy, and unsure, "I found cameras in our room before I left him."

Her voice didn't leave room for questions, and I don't think either of us wanted to make her revisit what that may have meant.

"We need to tell the others and call the police. They can go look through the other rooms. Maybe, they can find something they can trace back to him," Matt grabbed his phone, ready to text everyone. It was late, but knowing them, it was likely they would all still be up. Kari nodded to him and he sent it out.

We spent the next twenty minutes explaining everything to everyone. Sora was horrified, she pointed out the fact that if he had photos of them sleeping, he obviously had photos of them changing as well. It was the thing none of us wanted to bring attention to. The guys were trying to stay calm for the girl's sake but John, more than anyone, looked like he was ready to punch a hole in the wall. He paced, mumbling to himself about what he was going to do when he saw Michael again. Colin sat quietly in the corner of the room, and Trevor was curiously attached to his phone. It was strange because he barely ever used the thing, but I wasn't going to call him out right now.

The police showed up shortly after we gathered everyone. They introduced themselves as Officer Carter, and Officer Evans. Everyone, except for Kari and I, was directed to leave the room and wait down in the lobby. They had asked me to leave too but, at her insistence, I was able to stay. We gave them a rundown of our night and showed them the letter, photos, and camera. We explained that we thought there might be more cameras in the rest of our rooms. They asked Kari the nature of her relationship with Michael, so she explained how long they had dated and that there was abuse in the relationship, she didn't get too specific at the time. We took them around to each room and unsurprisingly they found a camera in each one, they bagged them as evidence.

We thought that would be it for the night, so we were surprised when they asked Kari and me to go to the station with them so they could ask us some more questions.

"Can it wait until the morning? It's almost midnight and we could both use some sleep after all of this," I asked them, tiredly.

"I would think you would want us to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible?" Carter said accusingly.

I was caught off guard. "Of course," I responded.

Kari shot me a concerned glance. I tried to reassure her by taking her hand, but something felt off to me as well. Matt asked if they should come with us but the officers assured him that wouldn't be necessary.

We rode in their unmarked SUV to the station and once we got there we were immediately separated. They said it was protocol to get our full statements individually. I explained, that we gave our full statement back at the hotel, but they asked me to give it again in as much detail as possible. Then they asked for it again, and once more. I started to become agitated, I was worried about Kari, and it had been about an hour since we were separated.

"I feel like I've told you everything you could need to know, can I please see Kari?"

I was less polite than I typically would have been, but I had been up since seven in the morning, and it was edging on one in the morning at this point.

"What's the nature of your relationship with Kari?" Carter asked me, curiously.

"We've known each other since we were eight years old. I'm not sure what that has to do with any of this."

"Have you ever been jealous of her relationships with other men?" He continued.

"We just reconnected after not seeing each other in about four years, so no, not in recent memory," I was getting annoyed. I didn't understand where this line of questioning could possibly be coming from.

"And with Michael? You never felt, irritated, with their relationship?" Carter questioned.

"I'm sorry but why would I be jealous of someone who beat their girlfriend for almost a year?"

"Would you do anything you could to keep the two of them apart?" He leaned forward across the table, taunting me.

"What are you getting at?" I was done. This was ridiculous.

"We are just wondering what lengths you might go to convince her to stay away from her ex. boyfriend," Evans said casually, leaning against the wall near the door, before exiting and leaving me alone with Carter.

I opened my mouth to respond but closed it once I realized what was happening. They thought I did this, I was a suspect.

Evans came into the room and handed me a glass of water, "How are you holding up Miss Kamiya?" He spoke gently as he sat across from me. We were in, what I can only assume, was an interrogation room. It was a white-grey color with a metal table in the middle and four chairs. There was only one window in the room but it was tinted dark, so I couldn't see to the other side.

"I'm tired," I wasn't sure how else to explain how I felt. I was exhausted and needed sleep, but I was also tired of needing to look over my shoulder all the time. All of my paranoia had been solidified tonight.

"I understand, and I'll try to make this quick. Can you tell me everything again with as much detail as possible?"

I took a breath and walked him through our entire night again. It seemed so excessive after we told them everything at the hotel, but I thought maybe we needed to be here in person for it to be official.

"Can I ask how long you dated Michael for?"

"A little over three and a half years."

"You said he was violent with you?" He scribbled in his notebook as he spoke.

"Yes, for most of the last year that we dated." It was hard to say everything out loud to a stranger but at the same time, it felt good, liberating. I should have done this months ago.

"And before that your relationship was good?"

I paused for a moment and tried to think of a time when things were good. In the beginning, he showered me with gifts and compliments, but at the same time, he was constantly trying to change me. First, it was my hair, then my makeup, my friends, my weight, and how I was dressing. He was insanely jealous, and at first, I'll admit he made it seem charming as if I was so special that he was always afraid of losing me. He tore me apart so slowly that by the time I realized what kind of situation I was in I didn't know how to get out of it.

"I mean, he seemed good in the beginning, but looking back he was always trying to break me down in some way or another," I said, honestly.

"Why didn't you leave, if your relationship wasn't good, or you felt threatened?" He was looking down at his pad waiting to write my answer, but my mouth was hanging open. He looked up at me expectantly.

"I, I mean, he essentially had me believing he was the only one who would ever care about me. In the beginning, I felt special that someone like him would choose someone like me, but he degraded me, verbally abused me, and then found a way to blame it all on me. I was convinced that he was mean because of the things I did. Once he started hitting me, then the threats came, and I was afraid of what would happen if I left until I was eventually afraid of what would happen if I stayed any longer." I fiddled with the glass of water sitting in front of me. I was becoming uncomfortable with the line of questioning, and I wished TK or Sora were here with me.

He changed the subject from Michael, "What's the nature of your relationship with Mr. Takaishi?"

"We've been friends since we were kids?" I questioned, curiously.

"Have the two of you ever been intimate?" He asked evenly.

"Excuse me?" I was caught off guard. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Because I think it's relevant to the situation so please answer my question." He persisted.

"We dated at the end of high school, but broke up before college," I tried to give as little detail as possible.

"And now?" He continued.

"And now we are friends," I said stubbornly.

"You were on a date tonight were you not?"

"Once again, I'm not sure what the nature of our relationship has to do with my lunatic ex. boyfriend stalking my friends, and me." My head was starting to pound, and I started to get this empty, painful, feeling in my chest.

"Would you say Mr. Takaishi would go to great lengths to keep you away from your ex.?" He pushed.

"TK doesn't have to go to great lengths because I want to keep away from him," I said, firmly.

"That doesn't answer my question. Would TK go out of his way to keep you away from Michael?" He said, placing his pen down for the first time, and looked up at me.

I was about to speak but stopped myself. This wasn't right.

"What are you trying to get at?" I asked.

"Kari, It is much more likely that someone close to you is doing this and not someone, busy on the set of a television show, thousands of miles away. No offense, but why does he need to stalk his old girlfriend when he could probably have his choice of girls. Whereas, it seems like Mr. Takaishi would have his own personal reasons to make you more frightened of Michael. We've seen this kind of thing before, someone creates a situation where they can be the hero-"

I cut him off, "I'm sorry, but this is insane. TK isn't trying to be a hero, and no one could make me anymore afraid of Michael, then Michael himself. He beat the shit out of me, multiple times. He put me in the hospital. He threatened me repeatedly." My rant was cut short when his partner came into the room with us.

"It seems like he's cracking," Carter said to Evans.

"Cracking from what? He didn't do anything?" I spit the words out.

"If your relationship was as bad as you say with Michael then how are we to be sure that it's any better with TK? Who's to say your judgment isn't clouded?" Evans questioned, almost mockingly.

The empty feeling continued to grow, my chest was getting tighter, and I felt myself start to panic. It was everything I ever feared about going to the police. I felt like I was being blamed for being with Michael, and now TK was becoming a scapegoat. This couldn't be happening. I had been so tired a few minutes ago, but I suddenly felt wide awake. It hit me at that moment that this couldn't possibly be happening, not because it wasn't actually happening, but because there was no way that this was how the line of questioning could normally go.

I took a deep breath, calming myself as much as possible. "How much did Michael pay you?"

They didn't seem startled, but Evans's eyes shifted just enough that I knew I was right.

"I'm not sure you meant to just imply what you just did," Carter said.

"I meant exactly what I said. I know how he operates, this was all part of it wasn't it? This was all an attempt to cast doubt onto TK's character, but it's insane because what you are trying to imply would never be true. Michael is stalking me, or rather, he is paying someone to do it for him. That's the truth, and you can't sit here, and try to convince me differently." My voice was strong but I was scared. I knew I had to be firm though.

"It's getting late and you are both tired. As I said, I think he's going to crack, a tired man will confess a lot of things he wouldn't normally," Carter smiled at me and pulled Evans up to his feet. I didn't have a chance to respond before they exited the room leaving me locked in there alone.

I placed my head onto the table and held my eyes shut tight. I couldn't cry in here. I didn't want to break down, but I was faltering. The burst of energy I had left when they exited the room. I closed my eyes trying to think of how to get TK out of here.

I was jolted awake by something hitting the front of my head. I placed my hand to my forehead and realized they must have lifted the table to shake me awake. I looked up at the clock, it was just after four in the morning. I must have fallen asleep sometime after Carter left the room. He'd been trying to catch me in a lie before he left. Asking me the same questions over, and over, again waiting for my story to change. I couldn't believe this was happening to me. The last thing I said to him was to go ask Kari who was stalking her, and come back when he was clear. I didn't expect it to take more than five minutes, but it had clearly been a while.

Both officers were sitting in front of me now. Carter spoke up, "We spent a lot of time with Kari, and we are all in agreement, that you are just as much of a viable suspect as Michael." He spoke flatly.

It was bullshit and I knew it.

Kari would never think I would do something like this to her. "You and your buddy here can agree on all you like, but I know Kari, and she knows me. She would never blame me for this," I said, sternly.

Before he started to speak again I interrupted him, "Are you planning on charging me with something, because if not, I think it's time for you to let the both of us go. We reported a crime, and now your treating me like a criminal." They looked between themselves before Carter got up and exited the room.

"Why should we believe your story? You have the access to each hotel room, you have reason to keep her away from Michael, and you could easily get one of the other guys to take the photos. What better way to get a girl to fall into your lap, than convincing her you are the only one who can protect her?" Evans leaned back as he spoke, looking aloof, but at the same time, there was an uneasiness there.

"I'm not sure your story holds up. I'm the one who told her to call the police because I couldn't protect her from this. Everyone on this tour is like family, you are implying that her closest friends are betraying her, that she has no one she can trust. What the hell kind of officers are you?" I was practically shouting, which probably wasn't helping, but I was so far past respecting the man in front of me.

He looked at me angrily, and stood up, pulling handcuffs out of his back pocket. This was it, I was about to be arrested, and I was honestly too tired to fight it at this point. Before he could do anything though Carter came back into the room.

"Miss Kamiya is declining to press charges for the moment. Mr. Takaishi is free to go, for now." Carter said, placing a hand on Evan's arm.

I stood up but they continued to block the door.

"You should remember, that you are not a citizen of this country. You may want to tread lightly while traveling. It would be a shame if you were forcibly removed, and sent back to Japan," Carter threatened.

I was caught off guard, but I didn't have time to fully process it, as they shoved me out of the room and down the hallway towards the entrance. They opened the front doors and shoved me enough that I lost my balance, and fell onto my hands and knees. I stood slowly, turning back towards them. Evans had already walked back inside, but Carter was looking at me.

"Falsely reporting a crime is also a crime young man. it's a waste of our time, and resources, that could be used towards real cases, remember that next time you call us about bullshit," he turned and slammed the door behind him.

I stood there in disbelief for a moment but was shaken out of it when I heard my name. I turned and saw Kari coming up the steps towards me, my brother and Sora stood at the bottom of the steps. She crashed into my chest, and wrapped her arms around my waist, "I'm sorry TK, I'm so sorry. Michael had to have paid them off. It's all a damn game to him. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

I placed my hand gently on the back of her head, smoothing her hair down, trying to calm her, and wrapped my other arm around her back, "It's ok. You didn't do this."

I looked down towards my brother, he looked sympathetic and frustrated. Kari must have already told him about their conversation.

Wait.

"Wait, What do you mean he paid them off?"