Chereads / Fairytale: Hunter Headquarters (2) / Chapter 4 - -Investigation-

Chapter 4 - -Investigation-

Suspect number one, Cassidy. Sage had never seen her before and suddenly this year she switched schools, coincidence? Probably. Suspect number two, Rachel, she's been at this school for a year now but no one dared to talk to her, they thought she was scary and would put a curse on them. Suspect number three, Jackson. Sage did have to admit, despite not wanting anything to do with this guy, he did see him levitate a pencil, and didn't really say or do much about it. Sage's eyes darted between the three pieces of paper taped to his wall, he told himself it would help him think to write down the names of the people he found most suspicious, but really he just wanted to connect them with red string and gasp as he figured it out. Each paper came complete with a drawing of each of them, Sage didn't have any photos and he needed something to connect the red string to. Today, he was going to find time to question all of them, subtlety of course.

On his walk to the bus stop he noticed leaves turning red, yellow and orange, it was fall already. Summer was supposed to be fun, what use was spending it with all these dumb responsibilities. He stepped into the bus and sat by the window, again, again. While on the bus he felt his pocket to make sure his crystals were still there, still there to help him. He wasn't necessarily sure they could help him, but he accepted any help he could get, he was being followed after all.

...

Rachel was in his first class, scribbling away in her notebook, sitting in the very back corner of the class. Sage wondered what he could even ask her that would reveal whether she was a fairy or not. Sage kept glancing back at her when he noticed she was raising her hand, "Yes?" His teacher asked, "Can I go to the washroom?" She asked, "Quickly." His teacher responded. Sage saw this as an opportunity, he stood up and casually walked to the bin of pencils his teacher kept on his desk, pretending he forgot to being one. He picked up a pencil, and walked behind all the desks before he reached Rachel's empty desk, he grabbed her notebook as he walked past. When he sat back down at his desk Sage flipped through her drawings, usually he would never even consider invading someone's privacy like this, but this was a life or death situation, he needed to figure out which one of these students was a dark fairy or he'd get killed for sure. Rachel's drawings weren't suspicious at all, he saw lots of wolves, anatomy sketches, eyes, shaded circles, everything you'd expect from a beginner artist. Nothing suspicious, Sage's notebooks were filled with drawings of him as a fairy, his village, the fairies that lived in it, but he found no traces of anything similar in this book. After he skimmed all the pages, Sage had to return the notebook to Rachel's desk, this would be the hard part. Sage couldn't find another excuse to leave his seat, and he didn't want his teacher to grow suspicious either. So, he simply slid the notebook on the floor towards Rachel's desk, when she saw it there, she would probably think it had fallen. Sage then opened his own notebook, he crossed out Rachel's name on his suspect list. Sure, she could have just been only drawing non-suspicious things in her school notebook, but this list was just people Sage was going to inspect today, and for now he was leaving Rachel alone. He knew Jackson was in his last class of the day but he would have to wait until lunch to find out anything about Cassidy, he didn't think she was in any of his classes.

...

At lunch, Sage walked straight past his usual spot and thought of places he could look for Cassidy. She could be in the cafeteria, she could be outside, she could be in a stairwell, he was just hoping she wasn't in a club, because that would make this a lot more difficult. Sage passes the cafeteria and took a peek inside...he didn't see her, but he went inside to make sure. Lots of tables, lots of people, no Cassidy. Sage walked around all the tables, thoroughly checking before giving up and leaving the cafeteria. However on his way out, he saw her in the lineup to get food prepared by the school. Once he spotted her, Sage figured he should wait for her to get her lunch instead of cutting in front of someone in line.

This gave him plenty of time to think of what to say to her, he had to keep in mind that he was trying to catch a dark fairy, not a normal one. Catching a normal fairy would be easy, all he'd have to do is say the word 'hunter' and see if they flinch or look over, it's the one thing all fairies have in common, it's the one thing they all fear, except for dark fairies. So, Sage had a different plan. He saw Cassidy leave the cafeteria with a small tray of poutine, and so he confidently stepped in front of her, making her stop in her tracks to avoid bumping into him. Once he had her attention, he stared at her with a dark expression before saying "Your wings are showing." Sage figured if she was a fairy, she would turn her head to make sure they weren't actually showing, or at least look panicked, but her expression only showed confusion. "What?" She said, this made Sage realize he went up to a random student and told her she had wings, he didn't plan what he was going to do if she wasn't a fairy. "Wait, are you Clara?" He asked, she looked even more confused, "No? I'm Cassidy." She said. "Oh, sorry, I thought you were from my drama class." Sage said, he turned to walk away before he was stopped by her saying "You're the kid from the fairy video!" This made Sage turn around and face her again. "There's a really reasonable explanation as to why I was with someone dressed as a fairy..." Sage started, but he really couldn't think of one. "Oh my God...you're STILL pretending to be a fairy, aren't you? That's why you said I had wings! Where's Martha? I have to tell her about this!" Cassidy said, her voice and laughter were carrying throughout the hallway, leading several eyes to be pointed in Sage's direction. Sage bolted from scene, heading back to the stairwell just as the warning bell rang. Sage strolled over to his locker and picked up his binder, he'd have to wait till last block to get anything out of Jackson. Oh man, he really didn't want to talk to Jackson, especially after that video of him went around, Jackson surely saw it. All throughout his third period class, all he could think about was how much he didn't want to do this...but wasn't it a little odd? The fact Jackson caught Sage using his magic and never told anyone about it? Maybe he's been hiding something this whole time.

...

When Sage walked in his last class of the day, he could see Jackson already laughing about something...great. This was going to terrible, wasn't it? Sage realized he couldn't use the same line on Jackson, he couldn't just walk up to him and tell him his wings were showing. He had to come up with something else, something he couldn't get made fun of for...but he couldn't think of anything. Then he had a thought...what if he didn't ask him anything? What if instead he followed him after school, to see if he would go to a normal house or to Hunter Headquarters. But no, Sage couldn't just follow someone home. ...What if he didn't follow him the whole way? What if he just waited to see what way he went? Yeah, that would be much better.

Sage looked up to the front of his class but his eyes were hardly even focused, not his fault his teacher's voice was like nails on a chalkboard. Plus, they wouldn't have a test until the end of the month, plenty of time for him to teach himself all this garbage at home. It must have been close to the end of the day because his teacher's annoying voice gradually faded out, and he found himself just waiting to leave. He took the time to cross out Cassidy's name from his notebook, there was no point in re-visiting her tomorrow either, if she was a fairy she would have at least had some kind of reaction to being told her wings were showing. He wasn't sure about Jackson yet, and he would re-visit Rachel tomorrow. Tomorrow, that's right, he had his doctor's appointment tomorrow. He shook his head and cursed himself for almost forgetting, he also had to find an excuse for being home so late to tell his parents. The bell snapped Sage right out of his thoughts, as he threw his notebook back into his binder and tucked his binder under his arm while leaving the class. He couldn't lose Jackson, he had to be quick about this, so he quickly opened his locker and gathered his things, looking to the door frantically to make sure Jackson hadn't left yet. When he had his bag with everything in it, Sage walked down the stairs and waited for Jackson outside. He stared down at his phone's completely black screen as he pretended to be preoccupied checking something. He caught a glimpse of Jackson leaving the building out of the corner of his eye, then he walked the same way he went everyday, with his head turned to watch where Jackson went. Jackson went with a crowd of his friends into one of the buses parked right beside the school. Well, Sage could obviously rule out Jackson now. Not only would a dark fairy be much more private about where they were going at the end of the day, but they would never step on a bus. Aqua hardly knew how to use a walk signal, no way any fairy knew how to use public transit. Well...of course he was an exception. And so Sage rolled his eyes and payed him no mind as he continued on his way to his bus station. After today he was beginning to be a little less confident he could catch the dark fairy that was following him. As Aqua said, it could be anyone. Maybe he was biting off more than he could chew by trying to deal with this by himself, maybe he should call Aqua. Sage leaned against the glass of the bus station and dialed Aqua's number. It rang...

It rang...

It rang...

It rang...

No one picked up.

That's weird, Aqua once scolded him for not answering his phone because 'you should always answer the phone' or 'It could've been an emergency' probably something like that. Weird for them not to answer...what if something bad happened? What if the video that hit the internet actually did end up in them being captured? No, no, Sage shook his head, Aqua was the smartest fairy he knew, they would easily outsmart a hunter. They're probably just busy, Aqua always is. The bus came to a stop and Sage stepped into it he gave one cautious glance behind him before the doors to the bus closed. Now he's really paranoid...