1-3
Red

Molly was fuming, you could almost see the steam pouring from her ears as she stormed out of the building and up to the police cruiser parked in the driveway. She jumped in and slammed the car door shut before she angrily glared at the new police chief. The officer in question was an old gray wolf with shaggy fur and a face as hard as rock, and yet despite rapidly approaching his golden years he still had a body that commanded respect. For whatever reason, he didn't choose to wear his issued uniform, instead wearing a very old NYPD police uniform, badge and all.

"Moore! Now isn't the time!" The officer flinched as his companion berated him.

"I'm sorry Tiedemann," He timidly apologized, "but this is serious." He put the car into gear and pulled out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell as sirens wailed.

"Two of the Harley kids are missing." Molly spun her head around on a dime the moment the words left his lips.

"What? Who?!" She asked as her anger melted into worry.

"I just said, the- oh right, the cat and alligator. We found the bird buried in a bramble bush, thank god he was wearing protection. Stoddard is doing a search of the area right now but we needed backup, and Mendoza is busy so I had to call you." Moore explained. Molly grunted as she leaned forward and rubbed her forehead. "Fuck..." She muttered before quickly sitting back up.

"Where are they now?" She asked.

"Near the bridge leading into town, they were having a picnic when it happened." His partner nodded before she leaned back and mulled over the facts in her mind.

"I'm sorry I had to pull you away." The wolf apologized. The cruiser suddenly came to a stop right in front of the Snack Falcon.

"One moment." Molly watched the wolf jumped out of the car and rush inside as a bewildered expression formed on her face. Just moments later the wolf rocketed out of the store and dove back into the car.

"Hold this, will ya?" He threw the bag into the cat's lap. The startled cop nearly spilled its contents onto the floor.

"Now's not the time for candy!" She blurted out as he shut the door.

"It's for the third Harley, I'm going to be talking with him and I thought that some candy would loosen him up a little." He replied as he almost made the car do a wheelie from how hard he floored the accelerator. The candy nearly splashed into her face as she was slammed against the door.

"Jesus Christ! Slow down!" She yelped.

"Sorry!" It wasn't much longer before Moore's Florida levels of vehicular insanity brought them to the scene of the crime. A police cruiser and sedan were parked nearby an old park bench, where the triplets' father sat. The bear held his son tightly for dear life with his one arm as he used his other to talk with someone on the phone. The young bird wasn't doing much better either, his eyes were distant and glossed over, as if shell-shocked. If it weren't for the boy's long leather jacket and the bright red oversized football helmet on his head, the brambles would have torn him to shreds.

"Hey, we're back." Moore announced as he and Molly stepped out of the car and made their approach. The bear hung the phone up and placed his child down on the bench before meeting them half way.

"Thank you sir, thank you." He smiled at the police officer through teary eyes. "I was just calling my husband, he's going to be back tomorrow. You brought backup, right?

"No need to. And yes, this is my deputy, Tiedemann. She's not on duty right now but she's agreed to help us."

"Oh thank you!" The father thanked her as he approached and wrapped her into a hug. She awkwardly patted him on the back before stepping back.

"I'm going to go take a look around, call me if you need me OK?" With that she quickly rushed off, leaving the two men by themselves.

"Did he say anything while I was gone?" The dad shook his head.

"Okay then. I had an idea while I was out, I thought that some candy would loosen him up a little." He held up the bag of sweets he'd just acquired. "It always made my son a lot more talkative, so I thought it would work here." He chuckled.

"Oh, uhhh…" The bear trailed off.

"Something wrong?" The officer furrowed his brow.

"It's just that, well, he has a severe sugar intolerance, he can't have anything with sugar in it." He reluctantly explained. Moore nodded his head softly before giving him a strained smile.

"Alright, I'll be with him in a moment." He replied.

"Great! Thank you, Mr.…?" The father asked as he extended a hand to him.

"Just call me Alex." Alex accepted his hand as he gave him a polite smile and nod before he turned and left. He let his disappointed face reveal itself before he hid it once more and approached Molly, who was currently examining their car.

"Hey, are you alright?" He asked. She slowly looked up at him and responded with a small smile.

"I'm fine." She politely answered. Despite what she said her eyes gave away her true feelings: overwhelming stress and sorrow.

"Alright, just wanna make sure you're OK." He let out a tired sigh before he continued. "I saw that kid y'know, can't even imagine why someone would-"

"I'm fine." She interrupted the man in an annoyed tone. The awkward silence to follow brought a rift between the 2 officers, Molly's face now becoming an artificial parody of a true smile.

"I'll see you around then." The wolf was about to leave before he stopped and looked down at the plastic bag that was still in his hand, then back at her.

"Hey, do you want some candy?" The cat looked back at him with an agitated look.

"No!" She exasperatedly shot back. Alex shrugged before he turned and approached the park bench at which Hartley and his father sat. The man spotted him and told his son something before he rushed over to the wolf and placed his hands onto his shoulders.

"Bring my babies home safe, please." He begged. Alex gave him a simple nod as he walked passed him. He took in a deep breath and sat down next to the traumatized child. He was as white as a sheet, with eyes that were cloudier than the sky above and a body that was as still as a rock. His cartoonishly oversized football helmet still lay on top of his little head, almost like protection.

"Hey there big guy," Moore kindly greeted the boy, "are you feeling alright?" The child stayed quiet as he softly brushed his shoulder.

"Why don't we take this thing off?" He asked as he delicately rested his hands on the sides of the helmet, but the boy quickly brought his own onto it and forced it back down, his gaze remaining simultaneously transfixed and unfocused.

"Alright then, we'll keep it on." He smiled and let his hands fall to his side. "So me and your dad are trying to find your brother and sister, but we can't find them anywhere. Do you know where they might be?" He bent over a little to get on the little bird's level. The bird shook his head back and forth, still avoiding eye contact.

"Do you want to tell me what happened to them?" Once again he shook his head no. That's when Alex got another idea, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small notebook and pen

"How about you draw it for me?" He said as he handed them to the boy. The little bird examined them for a moment before he opened the notebook up to a blank page and began to draw something. A feeling of pride in his idea beamed down from the heavens and into Alex's heart. Soon the boy was done drawing, and handed the notebook back to its owner.

Inside the notebook was a set of 4 crude stick-figure drawings. The first was of the 3 Hartleys playing together with a fox in a magician's outfit nearby. Well, they seemed to be a fox, but the crude drawing made it unclear. The next panel showed the magician reaching his malformed stick arms out to touch the tops of the cat and alligator Hartleys' heads, as the bird stood by and watched. The third panel was identical to the last, but the magician and the other children had disappeared, a whistle onomatopoeia marking where they stood just moments before. The fourth and final panel was of the magician standing behind the final Hartley, having appeared behind him with the same whistle sound as before. Alex gulped hard as he looked back down at the little bird.

"Is this what happened?" He asked with a concerned tone. Hartley simply nodded his head, this time choosing to look him in the eyes, the clouds that had once inhabited them now clear.

"It looks like he teleported, is that what happened?" The little bird's head stood still, instead giving him a confused look.

"Magically disappear and then reappear somewhere else really fast." Putting it into layman's terms helped the boy, and he nodded vigorously before reaching out for the notebook once again. The wolf obliged and let the child continue his work, and this time he took longer, his drawing now more elaborate than the first. The picture he handed back was of Hartley's path through the woods, marked by a light dotted line. Every time the line tried to exit the page the magician would be there to stop him, his teleportation around the page marked by arrows pointing where he would move next, along with the whistling sounds from before. This went on until the line stopped at a drawing of the little bird hiding in the bramble bush they had found him in, with the magician walking off the page.

"Is this correct?" Once again the little bird nodded his head. The wolf looked back down at the drawing then back at the boy. 'Just what the hell happened to him?' He thought. 'There was no way this actually happened, right?' Something else was nagging at him, the identity of the magician.

"Can you draw the magician's face for me?" He handed his things back to the bird and he began to draw once more. Once the boy had finished he handed it back to the officer who proceeded to looked it over. Hartleys' attempt to draw the man's face was admirable but ultimately useless, as he seemed to struggle to actually draw it in the first place. Its snout seemed to be an otherworldly amalgamation of a bear and fox's snouts.

"Is this correct?" Alex asked, the confusion apparent in his voice. Hartley nodded yes, and the wolf looked down at the drawing once more.

"Are you sure?" Once more the bird nodded. The rather confused officer cocked his head slightly.

"What species is this supposed to be?" He queried. The boy thought about it for a moment before he poked the wolf in the chest then his football helmet.

"He's a fox!" His answer made Hartley energetically nod yes.

"Yes!" He cried out. "C'mere, gimmie 5!" He brought his hand up for a high five from the little boy, which he obliged.

"Yeah! That's it!" He cheered before looking down and smiling at the little avian.

"Thank you," He said, "this'll help us find your siblings. Before you know it they'll be back!"

"They won't be." The boy suddenly spoke, with confidence in it like he just knew it was a fact, like how the sky was blue and plants were green. His tone was neither sad nor happy, simply just... neutral. A shiver crawled down Alex's spine like a spider crawling down its web.

"P-positive thoughts, remember that. Keep it positive and your life will follow." He nervously chuckled and smiled. To say it threw him off balance would be an understatement. "Could you show me where you were playing?" Hartley shook his head vigorously as tears quickly began to well up in his eyes.

"Hey, hey, don't worry big guy. You don't have to go back there, you can just tell me, OK?" Alex said as he softly rested his hands on the little bird's shoulders. The boy snuffled before he softly nodded yes. He then pointed down the small hill they were perched on, which led to a small path into the underbrush.

"Thanks, big guy." Alex nodded as he softly grabbed the bird's hand. "Now, let's take you back to your dad." As soon as they reached the bear he immediately lifted his child into his arms and tightly wrapped him into a hug. They both spent a moment in silence before Alex spoke up.

"Good news, Hartley told me what happened. The bad news is he said some creep in a magician outfit took them." The dad gasped in horror before clutching his boy even tighter.

"Fortunately for us he wasn't wearing a mask, he said that they were a fox, so that'll cut down on the number of suspects. He also told me where it happened, so I'm going to check that out now."

"Oh thank you!" The bear thanked the officer, his eyes filled with tears.

"Just doing my job here, sir. Just keep your boy safe for now, alright? I'm going to go check it out." The dad nodded as Moore waved to them one last time before he entered the grove. The path he walked swam beneath a sea of towering trees and thick underbrush, all of which were tinted an autumn orange. He heard birds chirping and the scuffling of small animals around him, and for the first time that day his body relaxed and he let out a soft sigh. It had been a while sense he'd swam in Possum Spring's calming autumn weather, and truth be told he had missed it. 'How old was I when I was last here... 12?' He flashed back to the summer of '73, when he and his uncle built a treehouse deep in the woods. He only got to use it for another summer before his uncle passed, but the memories of that place felt endless.

'Man, I'll have to go visit there again, I should have when I first got here...' His nostalgia train was suddenly derailed when he tripped and nearly landed face first into a hole filled to the brim with mud, a crappy orange and green shovel sticking out of it. Looking back he saw a dirty toy car caked in thick layers of mud. Looking around, he quickly realized he had found the scene of the crime. There were several toys scattered around the place punctuated by several small holes with mud and twigs piled into them. Something was wrong however, the peaceful atmosphere that had once surrounded him had turned sour. No birds chirped, no bugs hummed, and the wind didn't dare so much as brush a leaf. Right beneath his feet however was a pair of footprints, just a little smaller than his shoe size. His attempts to follow them however were quickly neutered as he realized that they didn't start or stop anywhere, they simply were. In fact, as he looked around he noticed the same bizarre phenomena occurring several times around the clearing. The wolf pulled out his phone and started taking pictures, being sure not to muddle the evidence with his own footprints.

A feeling of unease began to mount on Moore's soul like weights being added one after another, tt grew to the point where he unconsciously unclipped his gun from his holster. It wasn't much longer before he had documented every single set of footprints, his intense feeling of disquietude made sure of it. As he stood up from taking his last photo he felt a pair of eyes start to shoot daggers into his right side. He stood still, not wanting to startle whatever it was, because he swore he saw the slightest hint of a black cape with a red inside just barely out of sight. Suddenly a loud rising whistle tore through the air and Alex immediately turned his body and pointed his gun in the direction of the figure.

"POLICE!" He screamed at the figure. But the figure had vanished gone, now replaced with a very agitated fox who was waist deep in a bramble bush.

"It's me you dickhead!" Stoddard lambasted. As per usual, the fox was a mess. He was missing his tie and hat, and his shirt was partially untucked. 'If I had a nickel for every time that kid didn't wear his uniform correctly,' He thought, 'I'd be living in Monaco.'

"Sorry Stoddard, you startled me." The wolf apologized as he quickly holstered his gun.

"Yeah, just don't point that thing at me and we'll be aight." He said through his thick New York accent as he trudged through the underbrush to get to the chief. His hands were still raw and bloody from rescuing Hartley of the brambles, and he was starting to spread it onto his shirt.

"Do you need some bandages? Your hands are still raw, not to mention you're getting your shirt all bloody." Stoddard looked down at his torn up hands and bloodied shirt and shrugged.

"Yeah they're fucked up but not enough to stop me from doing my job, and my shirt getting fucked doesn't really matter." He replied as Moore let out a frustrated groan and shook his head.

"Hey Ben, did you hear a whistling sound?" Alex asked the fox.

"Thought it was just a bird." He answered. "What? You seeing ghosts out here or something?" He raised an eyebrow at the wolf.

"No it's just… nevermind." He shook his head. A look of bewilderment was abruptly splashed onto Ben's face as he looked around.

"Hey, where the fuck did it go?" He asked in a befuddled tone.

"Where did what go?" Alex confronted his partner as he approached a large collection of trees in front of them.

"The fucking, ahhhhhh, what do you call it?" He started to snap his fingers as he searched his miniscule brain for the word. "God center?" He pointed back at the chief

"You mean a church?" Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, one of those, it was right here. Creepy fuckin thing, had big black doors." The wolf sighed as he got behind his partner and placed a hand onto his shoulder.

"Are you sure it was here?" Ben immediately shot an angry look at the condescending wolf; he hated being talked down to more than anything else.

"Yeah I'm pretty fuckin sure it was here aight? It had all these fuckin toys and shit in front of it to." He said as he frustrated kicked one of the toys that was scattered at their feet.

"You sure?" The wolf gave him a sarcastic look.

"Hey get your fuckin hands off me!" Ben threw the wolf's hand off his shoulder and confronted him head on.

"You bet your ass I'm sure! It was right there!" Alex looked to where the very annoyed officer was waving at, and despite his claims the church still hadn't reappeared. The wolf rolled his eyes, with them almost rolling into the back of his head from how hard he was doing it.

'I wouldn't want to be with this guy either'. Alex thought to himself. "Yeah, sure. Can you do me a favor? Go grab Tiedemann, I wanna conduct a search of the area. The more the merrier, right?" The fox let out an annoyed sigh in reply.

"Whatever you say boss." Ben said in a condescending manner as he traipsed through the grove, Alex remained still however. The clearing was filled with life now, birds sang, bugs rushed beneath the undergrowth and the wind shook the leaves above and sent them raining down. Despite this he decided to leave with him, he'd rather not spend another moment alone in that place, even if he was with Ben.

Alex and Molly slammed their cruiser's doors shut before both sighing in unison. They had spent the entire day on a wild goose chase, not even a hair off their magician's head was found, and the evidence they did have was still being processed. Molly had subjected herself to caring for e children's father as he slowly realized that he might just not find his children, less out of obligation to him and more because she knew damn well that Ben was too much of a jackass to console someone, and Alex was too busy. The wolf was always impressed by her fortitude, in all his years he'd never met someone with such high tolerance for other people's shit. They both sat in silence, just taking a moment to breathe before jumping back into the fray.

"You kept Mendoza off the case for a reason, didn't you?" She asked in an exhausted voice. Her partner let out a dry laugh.

"Of course I did, otherwise we would have spent half the day trying to top him from arresting the guy for being a fag!" He chuckled to himself before turning the car on and put it into gear, driving back into town.

"Thank you. I might have killed him otherwise." She groaned as she slumped in her seat, exhausted. The chief looked at his partner with a concerned look. Big dark circles had formed under her bloodshot eyes.

"Molly, are you OK?" The cat looked at him, her tired face bearing a blank expression.

"I'm OK." She whispered, her distant gaze not breaking for a second. Alex knew that she was lying to him, any fool could.

"I'm taking you home, you need rest." Molly slowly turned her head to look at her partner disapprovingly.

"No, I'm going to pick up Mae and Casey from Dr. Hank." Her voice was tired and gruff from her day's work.

"I'll do it for you, what I want you to do is go sleep. You haven't slept sense you found Casey and I don't want you to run yourself ragged. And besides, you're in no state to drive right now."

"Alex, drop me off at Dr. Hank's office." She commanded.

"I'm not asking anymore, that's an order. OK? You're off tomorrow as well, you need it." Molly gave the officer the stink eye, not only because he was stopping her from doing what she felt she needed to but because he was right.

"I'm not taking tomorrow off either, I have a job to do!" She spat.

"Your job?" Alex suddenly pulled the car over and faced her. "Your job is to do whatever the fuck I tell you to do! You got that?!" He screamed at her, his face contorted into a horrible rage. Molly instinctually tried her best to hide between the car door and the seat, her face contorted in an expression of sheer terror. A haunting silence fell over the cruiser as they both stared at each other., the realization of what had just happened dawning over both of them His face began to soften, and he slunk back into his seat in shame Molly crawled out of her corner. He thought through his next words very carefully.

"I know you need this, just look at yourself. I knew a cop who did this to himself, stayed up for 3 nights straight. You wanna know what happened to him the next day? He dropped dead of heart failure while he eating his lunch. I'm not going to let that happen to you, you're too good of a cop." They both

"OK." Her voice was quivering from the shock, she sharply exhaled as she reached into her pocket and dialed Mae's phone, hands shaking as her partner put the car back into gear.

"Hey, I'm not gonna be able to pick you up from Dr. Hank's office. The chief is going to be doing it, OK?" A brief word could be heard on the other end of the phone before the line went dead.

"I'm sorry for lashing out at you like that. I hate that part of me." Alex apologized; Molly simply nodded. The next 10 minutes of their lives were unbearable, both wanted to be anywhere but that car, anywhere. Alex turned the radio on but that didn't do much but distract them slightly. They did eventually arrive at the cat's house, and the cat opened the door and stepped outside.

"Hey Molly?" Alex asked as she exited the car. She turned her head to look at the chief.

"There's something I didn't mention, the kid drew that the magician guy… teleported." They both shared an awkward silence before the cat spoke up.

"OK." Alex was expecting something, anything from the cat, but what could he expect after scaring her like that?

"I would never hurt you." He suddenly blurted out. The cat looked down at him with tired eyes.

"I didn't know that." She responded. The wolf nodded his head somberly

"Do you still want me to pick the kids up?" He asked softly.

"You're right, I'm not in any state to drive. But If you hurt my babies I'll cut your fucking head off." She delivered the sentence in a flat tone that spoke volumes. Alex might have been the larger one physically, but in that moment the deputy genuinely scared him.

"Understood." Molly shut the car door, leaving the wolf alone with his thoughts. He put the cruiser into gear and drove into the inky blackness. The poor cat stood still like a pillar, her mind slathered in molasses from the past 48 hours of absolute chaos. She quietly turned around and trudged home, head hung low and keys in hand.

End

Boy oh boy was this week a mess. I had midterms, so a lot of time was dedicated to that, fortunately this chapter was mostly done. I also was on a 6 hour plane ride from one side of the country to the other, which gave me time to finish it up. It took me a week but I got this shit updated, so if you're re-reading this chapter then thank you for putting up with my BS. I introduced 2 OCs into this chapter as well: Alex and Ben, you'll be learning more about them soon. Shout out if you know where the surname "Stoddard" and "Mendoza" come from, hint: It's from a police video game. Hopefully they aren't too fanficion-y, I don't like writing stuff like that but I imagine that inevitably I will. Be sure to follow if you like the story, and if you don't then leave a review saying why! Have a great day/night!