Young Writers Society

"Wonderful," said Jennifer. She was about to tap the communicator when she realized Kate was probably not far enough away to warrant that. Instead she turned in the general direction of the palace.

"KATE!!" she yelled. "LITTLE HELP OVER HERE!"

It was only three seconds later that she heard the flapping of wings. Kate Hardy was diving out of the air not a second after that as she made a honest to goodness superhero landing.

Getting to her feet, she folded her wings and took in the scene.

"Hey Susie, I'm guessing Daph and Jess went to the sulfur lakes again huh?" she asked.

"Yeah," said Susan, giving her a smile.

"You should drop by the palace next time. It gets so boring sometimes over there too. I mean Ben is just the..."

Kate was cut off by Jennifer. "I can't believe I'm the one saying this." She grimaced like it was physically paining her. "But umm can we skip the chit chat and get to business. There's a gentlemen here who needs to return to his own reality."

"Really now?" said Kate, turning to Skull with renewed interest, after giving Susan who looked to be struck speechless again an apologetic smile. "Well hello. Who might you be?"

"Skull," I offered. I wasn't sure what to make of this Kate girl. She had to be a princess if Jennifer was, but the landing didn't exactly seem dignified. "I'm a ghost."

I paused.

"...Was a ghost," I corrected. "I need to get back to the world I ended up on after I died. Someone stabbed me with a weird knife there, and I found myself here instead. I know I'm not dead again, but I can't find my body. We think it's back on my world."

I was getting tired of telling this story over and over again, but I hoped this would be the last time I needed to tell it.

"Well that's a fun Tuesday," said Kate with a chuckle. "Well its pretty obvious you did in fact jump an entire reality. Soo...no point doing the usual scan. As for getting you back, usually its a lot safer to play it..well safe. Okay, do you think the knife is why you're here or would it have more to do with who did the actual stabbing? And trust me the difference is important. We don't want a repeat of...the popcorn incident."

...That was a new question.

"The knife," I decided after a pause. "I just saw the guy use vines right before he stabbed me, and most people only have a single power. Something like teleporting people across realities wouldn't be the usual kind of extra power."

"Ohh, just the one power," said Kate, "I might been to that universe. Maybe. Umm...okay, so knife. If you're assumption is correction, your deduction should be. So...next question. Do you think the knife was used to send you somewhere on purpose, or did the person wielding it have no idea. I don't think I have to tell you quite how important intent is in these types of matters."

Now we were getting somewhere.

"As far as I know, I wasn't." I glanced down at where I had been stabbed. I couldn't feel the wound, of course, but I knew it was there even when it wasn't all that visible. "The guy who did it didn't even know me. I think he was actually after my..."

I faltered. Nathaniel was my friend and we both knew it, but I wasn't going to admit it.

"...acquaintance," I finished. I had just been in the way during the attack. It was as simple as that.

"Now that is...interesting," said Kate. "This might not be quite so simple after all. Well for starters, that doesn't fully answer my question, even if this attacker of yours was after someone else, I still need to know if this attacker meant to said that person to another reality or not. Unfortunately it might not be that simple if you're tale here is correct I mean. It's entirely possible this knife was never meant to do what it ended up doing, if it was going to stab a normal living person, but since it stabbed you specifically, it may have malfunctioned in some way, given you seem to have a rather illustrious career with death."

Kate took a second to breath. She closed her eyes for a second and took a breath.

"Okay...I think what we first need to confirm is if what you think is true. What causes you to say that this person was after this acquaintance of yours? Or...actually...before that
given this is turning into to something of a inter reality murder investigation, would you rather maybe sit down? We can let these other people who all have things they should be doing get back to those things."

I shrugged.

"I'm good with standing," I said. It wasn't like I had all that many comforts when traveling around, and I certainly hadn't had that many during my time in the jar. It wasn't like this could take that long to explain. "And it wasn't really a murder. I'm still technically alive back on my world, and it was more like a fight than a crime."

"Suit yourself," said Kate, turning to the others. "Kait, I assume you have things to do?" The demon nodded.

"Yeah, I should probably get back to my patrol," she said. "Have fun." She gave a cheery wave as she departed.

"Jen you want to take Susie somewhere else or if you guys are both bored, this isn't that dangerous to sit around and listen to," said Kate.

"I'd like to listen to it," said Susan, voice a little quiet but confident.

"Wonderful," said Kate. She waved her hand a very comfortable looking armchair materialized behind them. "Come along then." Kate sat towards the left, patting the center seat for Susan who quickly sat down, Jennifer on the other side.

Kate turned back to Skull, leaning back comfortably on the sofa and bringing her hands together.

"Right, well we do have to sort of consider it a murder," said Kate, "but it hardly matters anyway in the long run. First things first, how sure are you that you were not the knife's intended target?"

If I had known that she was going to materialize furniture, I would have said I wanted to sit. But since I had already said I was comfortable standing, I wasn't going to demand a seat now.

"It was a fight," I said. I shoved my hands into my pockets and got as comfortable as I could standing up. "The guy just wanted to use it on whoever was closest to him. He tried getting Natty boy right before he got me."

I shrugged again.

"He probably just saw the knife somewhere and took it without knowing what it could actually do," I guessed. It was a convenient stabbing weapon. That was it.

"So...what that makes me thing is perhaps he was after both of you," said Kate, "ignoring the origin of the knife for a moment, if he fought both of you and just kept stabbing until someone was hit, it can't be a singular target. In the case of a singular an attacker would usually focus on them no matter who else is around them. At least in my experience. Do you think that might be more likely, or do you still believe it was focused on this Natty boy you speak of?"

That was a good point, but she didn't know our usual batch of attackers like I did. Natty boy and Asmira had a long list of enemies. Since I had spent most of my original afterlife as a ghost haunting my own skull, I hadn't really had a chance to make any.

"Nathaniel was definitely the main target," I said, trying not to smirk at hearing her call him Natty boy like I always did. "He made his fair share of enemies when he was alive, and we usually get attacked by his. If they went after me, it was just because I was helping him fight back against them."

"Sounds like a charming person," said Kate. "Wonderful. Fine, I suppose we can't prove it better than that without going back to your reality, and if we could go back to prove it, well we wouldn't be trying to prove anything. Moving on. You said the knife was a weapon of convenience rather than intentionally used?"

I nodded—both in agreement to the Nathaniel comment, and to the one about the knife. Weirdly enough, Nathaniel could be charming when he wanted to be. It was always weird seeing him switch from himself to some kind of politician persona.

"If it was intentionally used," I said, "it was only intentionally used for stabbing. Any side effects were unintended."

"Well I suppose there is really no way to know anything beyond that without actually going there, so I'll take your word for it at the moment," said Kate. "Now the next question, was there anything about the knife that indicated it would have a side effect, like before it stabbed you. Any glowing or shimmering or flashing colors, or words?"