The silence Was oppressive. The woods were Empty of the sound of birds, squirrels, and bugs alike. The pink Crystal covered the land in silence like snow.


    After the Booming whispers of the unicorn was gone.Neither one of them wanted to speak to break The overwhelming silence. Suddenly realized there was a One sound in the silence  The cars engine was still rumbling slowly. Kenza quickly turned it off.


    After The Unicorn left there was silence, and neither knew what to say, they turned back to the car and the dead body within. They had to move the body of Officer Clay to drive the car. The door to the driver seat was gone, the seat belt was cut open and the body of the officer was slumped over the steering wheel. The ground outside of the car was coated in blood. The thick coat of crystals on the ground was slippery, dangerous, and sharp. They thought about what they would do with the body.


    “Before we do anything, we need to move him. We need the car.” Kenza was forcing herself to look at her dead friend and mentor, her voice was tight to not let any emotion through. If she did she was not sure she could get through this and make the right decisions.


    “This is so fucked… I’ve never seen a dead body before. Is there always this much blood?” Purdy was running her mouth not thinking about how this was making Kenza feel. Purdy was freaking out, she had refused to see the pictures of her mother''s accident and it made her wonder if there had been this much blood as well.


    “Do you ever stop talking?” the question was low and dangerous, Kenza was staring at Purdy with murder in her eyes. Kenza was not in the mood for 20 questions Especially since she hadn''t seen that many dead bodies herself. She was fairly new to the force and she was not one who wanted innocent blood on her hands, itchy trigger fingers, and misunderstandings sometimes cause accidents that can never be taken back. She knew that it was a possibility and that eventually, She would have blood on her hands just by the nature of her job, guilty or innocent there was a chance of death if she didn’t do her job perfectly. She felt like she had found peace with what was going to be an eventuality. No one out-runs death and she was in a job that chased danger but she was not in a rush to find out if could handle it or if it would ruin her.


    “Sorry, I talk when I am nervous, it’s just a habit,” Purdy said, a little shaken by the Violence in Kenza''s voice. The silence was heavy and Purdy was afraid to move then Kenza said


    “You must but nervous all the time, because I have yet to see you be quiet for more than 5 minutes. You tend to run your mouth; To the detriment of us all. Why the hell did you talk to O’Brien like that? This is your fault!”  Kenza''s  stepped into Purdy space, she was taller than Purdy. She leaned down so that they were nose to nose. Her voice started low but ended in a yell.


    “How the hell was I to know, that he could rip a hole through the very fabric of reality! That creep has been taunting me all day!” Purdy yelled back, her fists were clenched and her arms were straight down and her chest forward. there was a fire in her eyes now. She knew her temper was getting ahead of her, the blood in her veins was hot. She knew her temper was not the answer but she was losing to it. She knew she had fucked up so many times today but she was not going to take the fall for some psycho!


    “How the hell was he ‘taunting’ you?” Kenza said with air quotes “You were bearly in the back seat more than 5 minutes before it all went to hell! And as much as I think he is guilty, you don’t know shit! You escalated and scared him causing him to do this whole mess!”  Kenza was not letting this go, she wanted someone to blame and this drunk was right there. She was so angry that her eyes lost focus again. She was not seeing red but she was close to it.


    The ghost of Clay was shaking his head, this was not how to make allies and Kenza needed allies at this moment. The living world was fuzzy to him but he could hear clear enough to know that Officer Murphy was close to making an enemy of her only ally.


    “The creepy bastard was staring and smiling at me in the cafeteria in the hospital when I was there vis-.” She was cut off by Kenza.


    “Staring and smiling is not a crime.” It was said with a sneer, that Kenza leaned back and looked at her with narrowed eyes.


    “Yeah, but it is creepy as hell! Are you really going to defend a cannibal?”


    “The only rules that we know that he has spoken is the laws of reality. There is a small possibility that he stole that car And that''s why he was running away.”


    “You can''t possibly believe that! Who rips a hole through the fabric of reality over a stolen car? The fact that we are here is a pretty good indication that he is guilty as hell!” Purdy’s voice was horse, the alcohol, the crying at Terra’s bed and yelling with Kenza had taken its toll. She was so very tired. She was moving on fumes of rage.


    The ghost of Officer Clay thought that Officer Murphy was trying so hard to be a good cop that she was not being a smart cop. Officer Murphy needed to be calm, that was the first step to de-escalation. If the person with a gun wasn’t calm how could anyone else be?


    “Enough! We have more important things to do.” She was avoiding answering the accusation. She would do anything then be wrong in this conversation.


    Kenza knew that there was an emergency blanket in the trunk. “I’m going to need your help with this” Her face was pinched holding back tears. the shock of the evening started to fade away and the aches of her body from the crash had come back in force. Purdy was not feeling much better as she was in the back seat with no seat belt. Her face was cut where she had hit the metal grating that separated the front from the back seat. Her wrist was cut by the handcuffs, but worse of all was the throbbing of the unicorn''s horn mark.


    “Yeah, I’ll help” She had known the man for maybe 20 minutes but she was still saddened but his death, it did not look like a fun way to go. Long since sober from the events she moved with all the grace that she could muster, which wasn’t much. She helped move the man who was slippery with his blood.


    It was a tight fit with the two of them, Purdy was trying to get his feet out of the foot well, she was crouching in the blood trying not to slip on the bloody crystals, a few crystals were judding upward threatening to slice up her knees. Pulling out the big black booted feet one at a time, After she had put her hand on her calves she found the dark green slacks were sticky and she found the lack of warmth disturbing. She tried to keep her hand only on the heel of his boots. That way she could pretend she was not handing a corpse.


    Kenza had a harder job, she could not pretend that he was alive, she was staring at his vacate eyes, his busted nose, his lax jaw, blood from his nose and throat coating his face. Her eyes darted down but found no relief. The torn and bloody clothing and the stump where his arm used to be. There were three long gashes along his ribs. She couldn’t tell how deep they went but as she looked to the side over Purdy’s head, the deep lines through the side of the car, she was sure that they were deep, most likely puncturing his lung. It almost made her feel better, even if they had been able to tourniquet his arm fast enough, he would not have been able to survive with his ribs sliced open in the middle of the wood with no doctor in sight.


    Clay was not a particularly tall man But he was heavily corded with muscles. Even then he had a little pouch of fat on his stomach.  Kenza never asked how heavy he was.


    She grabbed his large shoulders, the blood making her grip impossible, she settled by grabbing the back of his uniform, as it was honestly the driest place on him. As she hauled him up and out of the car, the force of her yank caused her to start to slip on the crystal. Purdy in a quick motion grabbed her legs to steady her. Kenza bit off a shriek as the combination of falling and being unexpectedly held was throwing her for a loop. Once she was steady Purdy let go of her and focused on the dangling legs in front of her. Clay’s body had fallen back into the car and his upper torso was laid out over the passenger seat.


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    She panted three times and then took one deep breath, “Okay, okay, I can do this, he is twice my size but there are two of us, we can do this.” Kenza said, not wanting any answers but needing the pep talk. Purdy was wise enough not to say anything this time. Then Kenza kneeled and was handed the leg closest to her. She turned her head to Purdy and Purdy nodded her head, the plan was set and they slowly started to put the heavy body out of the car, they had to fight to stay upright as the slippery crystal threatened to introduce them to a concussion. When Clay was half out of the car and threatening to flop to the floor Kenza handed Purdy the leg she was holding and moved up to his torso, slipping a hand between his stump and shoulder, with a mighty heave she managed to get her other arm behind his back and under his other armpit.


    With a mighty heave, the body of clay was in the air. Their legs shook under the weight. Purdy’s Dainty shoes were slippery as the splashes of blood soaked through her socks but her hold on Clay’s legs was firm, one on either side of her hips. Kenza was having a harder time holding the very wet upper half of Clay, she had the heavier side of him but her combat boots did not slip as easily.


    They managed not to drop him though there were close calls once or twice. They didn’t go far just a few feet, just to get out of the blood puddle.


    They laid him on the emergency blanket. As Purdy went to lay the edges over his face Kenza told her to wait “Wait, I need to say some word first” Then she was silent for a long time.


    ` “Arnold Clay, I don’t know if you can hear me but I’m going to say it anyway. Here lies Arnold Clay; an honorable man. You always told me to be the best I can be. To always follow the law and always act concerning those under my power. You didn’t talk much but you always made what you said matter. Your respect for life was great, I’m happy that you were my mentor. I am a better person for knowing you, I… I” She had no other words as she burst into tears. Her sobs were loud and uncontrolled. She rolled in on herself mumbling “I don’t even know where your arm is…” Purdy sat down next to the crying woman and put an arm on her shoulder, it was shrugged off and she was given a nasty look before her face crumpled and she started to cry more. Purdy knew that Kenza didn’t want comfort but that she needed it. She had failed her best friend and there was nothing she could do about that but she could help this woman in front of her. ‘You don’t have to like someone to show compassion’ was something that Terra would say when Purdy’s temper would get the better of her. Purdy put her hand on her shoulder and this time there were no complaints as she rubbed her back with small motions.


    Arnold was flatter that Kenza thought so highly of him. He sat near his body, he wanted to hug the young police officer.


    After about 15 minutes give or take the tears begin the fade. The was a grim determination in Kenza''s eyes, red-rimmed from the tears. “Are you ready?”


    (She zipped up the bag) and followed the unicorn’s advice with Purdy’s help they carried the heavy man to the trunk of the car. They removed all but the spare tire to the back seat and put him in the trunk.


    “If you think about it, it’s less disrespectful than digging him back up again if you buried him” Purdy said, all she got back was a nasty look and a sigh.


    The ghost of Mr. Clay was both touched and impatient, the words were sweet and all but the killer was getting away but he could do nothing as he was a ghost. He tried but he couldn’t move more than 50 feet if he was to guess, He wanted to yell at them but it was a wasted breath, ‘wait’ he thought ‘I have no breath to waste.’


    So he yelled for the hell of it, it was a waste but it made him feel better.


    Both women got in the car but did not know where to go, they were not awake when he had run away. Mr. Clay sat in the driver''s seat, trying to flip the turn signal to the right for the hell of it. On one of these tries it wiggled, he was on the right track as a new ghost, though it would not have worked on something that he did not know as well when he was alive.


    “Creepy, does that normally move on its own?” Purdy asked


    “No, no it''s never done that before,” Kenza said


    “Maybe that unicorn wasn''t full of shit,” Purdy said, unnerved that had ghost was so close.


    “Maybe we should not bad mouth things that have so much power, your mouth has already caused problems today, maybe you think a bit more than you speak.” Kenza sighed. This was gonna be a long adventure if this was her only company.


    “Isn’t that a nice way to tell me to shut up?” Purdy said With a shit-eating grin


    She was given a flat look “Just don’t piss off any eldritch horror.”


    “Just follow the hint,” Purdy said


    “Can I trust you?” Officer Kenza Murphy said


    “I’m a drunk, barely that but I’m not a bad person. And that guy really is a bad person” Purdy Moon said


    The crystals made it hard to drive. They were worrying the spikes would pop the tires. The crystal seemed to be embedded into the cars hood.


    “You’re under my protection now,” Kenza said, It was a bit of a non sequitur. They''ve been silent for a while now.


    “Wow, thanks.” Purdy said mockingly “Good to know I wasn’t before”


    “Don’t be an ass” Kenza scolded. What would have meant to be an olive branch was now bitter in her mouth.


    “I’ll try,” Purdy said “Ma’am,” She said as an afterthought


    “If you are going to act like that I would prefer ‘Officer’ I worked hard for the title”


    “So, do I get to know your first name then Officer Murphy?” Purdy said with a half smile.


    “It’s Kenza, it would be silly at this point to whole back my name.” She said begrudgingly.


    “Quite,” Purdy said


    “Why were you even drunk? It was 3 in the afternoon,” Kenza said


    “Do you even care?” Purdy said


    “I am curious,” Kenza said


    “I told you that my best friend’s kid was taken by O’Brien, what I didn’t say was that she tried to kill herself when the body was found, I found out today and then that Tyler was cheating on me because I’m been too depressed to fuck” Purdy said


    “Oh god,” Kenza said


    “We have been friends since the third grade, I guess that me alone wasn’t enough to live for. So yeah that''s why I was day drinking, I didn’t think that I would get so out of hand. I don’t have a lot of people in my life, my father''s gods know where. he was never really in my life and my mother is dead, she thought Valium and alcohol is a great idea, and one day she just didn’t wake up again. Max and Tini don’t live close, I was alone in my grief. So yeah I was drinking and it got out of hand.”


    The car was silent. Tension was thick, and Kenza was surprised with how calm Purdy was sounding. With the pain of their partner''s death, she could see herself drinking herself to oblivion but she didn’t want to validate her bad behavior either. She wasn’t as balanced in sympathy as Clay was. With the fresh hurt from her thought, she said “I’m sorry for your loss.” which wasn’t the right thing to say at the time.


    “Don’t say it unless you mean it, I can see it in your face. You want to lecture me, I know that I was out of line, fighting is not the answer.” Purdy was not having it, in her mind Kenza had failed her.


    “So what about you?” Purdy said


    “What about me?” was the sharp answer from Kenza.


    “How was your day?” Purdy wanted to bite her fool tongue off, “I, I mean before you met me…” The sheer awkwardness of her statement made her laugh nervously but that died quickly with the murderous glare that she got in return.


    They started to car and drove slowly as the crystals were anywhere about half a mile the crystals started to fade off.