I accepted magic to fight evil and it turned me into a girl, but I don’t think I really mind?

Jennifer Shannon

Chapter 2

I woke up with someone holding my eye open and shining a light into it. I pushed myself up and looked around to find myself and Daniel surrounded by police and paramedics. Daniel was sitting up in the back of an ambulance, talking to a cop while a paramedic checked him over. I was on a stretcher behind another ambulance with another paramedic helping me up, while yet another stood nearby watching the equipment I was attached to. The last paramedic was looking over the dead ogre with a couple of cops in uniform and one woman in a suit, whom I presumed to be a detective or the like. A number of other officers were holding people back beyond some yellow tape.

“How are you feeling?” asked the paramedic who helped me up.

“Ugh… sore, but I think I’m OK.”

The paramedic turned to her colleague examining some machinery.

“I can’t find anything wrong with him other than some bruises. How’s that look?”

“Looks good,” he replied. “I think we can let him go.” He started to disconnect me from the equipment.

“All right,” she replied. Then to me, she continued, “It looks like you just fainted, but if you have any trouble, don’t hesitate to call us. But for now, we’re going to let the police talk to you.”

They packed up and got into the nearby ambulance, while the cop that was talking to Daniel made his way over to me.

“Hello Mr. Corlett, I’m Sergeant Young. Can you tell me what happened?”

“It just missed me.”

“I’m sorry?”

“After it smashed the table and knocked out my friend, I ran, and when it swung at me, I fell, and it missed, falling into that machinery and getting electrocuted.”

“Was there anything else unusual?”

“You mean other than our attacker being an ogre or something? Nothing relevant.”

“Come on, I’ll decide that.”

“… All right. The only reason my friend and I didn’t get smashed with the table was a raven flew just over the table, between us at eye level, drawing our attention to the monster. Is that really important?” I was maybe not in the best mood, but having been attacked will do that to you.

“I admit, probably not,” he conceded. “Thank you. That lines up with what Mr. Leung told me. Please stick around while I report to the case lead.”

I was glad that was over. I always hated the formality of being called “Mr. Corlett”. After the sergeant left to talk to the detective, Daniel came over to talk to me.

“Hey. How are you doing?”

“I’m fine. Apparently, I just fainted. How about you?”

“I guess I have a concussion. But I’m lucky I’m living at home where someone can keep an eye on me. Otherwise, they’d want me in the hospital. What happened after I was knocked out?”

“I ran from the monster, and it accidentally electrocuted itself hitting that machinery after missing me.”

“Wow! I guess we’re both really lucky, then.”

“Yeah. I figure this is what happened at the school. I overheard them talking about a translation problem where it seemed a witness was talking about an ogre.”

“Huh. Yeah, I can see how that could be an ogre.”

I then noticed that the detective had come over.

“You don’t seriously believe in such things, do you? That’s obviously a costume.”

“A costume?! It was seven feet tall and smashed a picnic table!” Daniel interjected.

“Please don’t antagonize the authority figure, Dan,” I muttered.

“Do you actually want to be investigated? Since this is just a prank that went terribly wrong, you kids can go, and we won’t need this. Take it and get lost,” she said, and passed me an evidence bag holding a familiar bracelet.

“Thanks,” I replied. We then left, passing the press and the rest of the crowd while the police addressed them.

“Where are Amy and Lanelle?” I asked Daniel.

“I sent them to continue their date. Amy’s very sorry for dragging us here now.”

“Well, there’s no way she could have expected this.”

“That’s what I said. Anyway, I didn’t think they should have to stick around when they weren’t involved. I hope you don’t mind, but Amy wouldn’t go until I said I’d go straight home unless you could keep an eye on me. She doesn’t want me alone.”

“That makes sense. You do have a concussion. I’m OK with keeping an eye on you for a bit.”

“Thanks.” Then looking at the bag I was carrying, he added, “Where’d you get that bracelet anyway? I didn’t see it before the attack.”

“That raven gave it to me.”

“What?”

“I’ve heard that crows sometimes gift shiny objects to people they like. I guess ravens must do the same thing.”

I extracted the bracelet from the bag to examine it. It was bronze, with etching around the outside, and it looked ancient. Somehow, it felt like it had power, and also, it felt like it was meant for me in some way.

“I can believe that more than I can believe that it was somebody in a costume that attacked us, even though the alternative is to believe in monsters,” Daniel replied.

Suddenly the raven was back, and landed on my shoulder.

“You are correct, young man. It was not a costume,” the raven clearly said.