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The past week had been odd. Not quite as odd as Danny's unplanned vacation last Thursday, but given that it seemed to be the flashpoint that had severed him from ordinary reality, he supposed he could count everything as one big oddity. He'd woken up Friday morning fully clothed, groggy, thirsty as hell, and almost late for class. He'd have believed the night prior really [i]was[/i] just a dream were he not wearing a bathing suit for some inexplicable reason. 

Okay, that wasn't too outlandish for him but the point stood.

After that, he was positively assaulted by what's-her-name who claimed she'd heard that he spent the night prior making out with some other girl. He, of course, denied such entirely false allegations, but she claimed some girl sent her video evidence, which was promptly shoved in his face. The girl in the video definitely sounded familiar in a way Daniel couldn't place, but she was also definitely not talking about him. His pleas that it wasn't the same Daniel fell on deaf ears, especially since he couldn't provide an alibi as to his location last night. Apparently some jackass ratted out that he stumbled into his dorm all disheveled in the middle of the night.

He felt bad for a few seconds, but then the giddiness took over. That was easier than he'd expected! Even better that he didn't even have to kiss anyone to be caught making out. The accidental little smirk he had on his face after she walked away apparently solidifed his reputation, given the disgusted noise he heard some nearby girl make. Hopefully his streak of luck would hold out and the real Daniel Kissylips would be too embarrassed to come forward. Danny spent a bit of time that evening prowling social media for the details of the alleged encounter, but too much of the gossip was hidden behind private accounts for him to actually piece together anything concrete.

After that, it was mostly back to business as usual. Once or twice he considered approaching his fellow islanders, but the desire to forget their shared fever dream ultimately won out in the end, lest he end up building a negative association with water in his head. Then he'd be fucked. Plus, imagine if they had no recollection of the entire event. That'd just convince him he was crazy, and he couldn't even afford an optometrist right now, let alone a psychiatrist along with it. So, instead, he threw himself in the pool. It was free.

Unfortunately, he didn't throw himself far enough. Danny came up for air one relatively uneventful afternoon, only to come face to face with two random teachers that he didn't recognize staring down at him from the side of the pool. They had that look on their faces like he was in trouble, but he was completely sure the pool was open. He hadn't even snuck in after hours! Yet.

"Daniel Burkley?" The elder of the duo asked, in that self-satisfied way that told him the man already knew the answer but wanted to hear it anyway.

[color=0099ff]"Uh. Yes, sir?"[/color]

"If you could step out of the pool and follow us, we'd like to ask you a few questions."

Danny wrinkled his nose distastefully. [color=0099ff]"What're you, a cop?"[/color] 

The younger man suddenly burst into action with an almost childlike enthusiasm, as if he'd been waiting a very long time for someone to ask him that. His hand shot into his pocket and then thrust itself forward toward Danny, presenting something that unfolded into a badge and an ID that boy couldn't read from this distance anyway.

"Actually, yes! Inspector Nathan Jones. Please step out of the pool."

Daniel's stomach dropped. Alright, he definitely didn't do something [i]illegal[/i]-illegal. How did these detectives even find him? He really needed to do some detective work of his own and figure out which of his dormmates was the fucking Karen - what's a male Karen called? Kieran? - that kept tabs on his every move. The situation was so out of left field that he didn't even protest, just climbed out of the water and solemnly followed the detectives to their makeshift interrogation chamber.

And so, here he was; seated in an empty room and draped in a towel, nervousness coaxing his leg into an incessant bounce that made his chair softly creak and would've earned him a lecture about bad habits from his mother ten times over. It annoyed him in the past, but honestly, he saw her point now. It definitely made him look guilty of... whatever he was being accused of.

Inspector Jones and his partner (Daniel could only assume he was the 'bad cop' here) entered after a short wait, taking their seats calmly as if he wasn't about to shit his pants over the whole situation.

"Do you know a student by the name of Sofia Wright?"

Oh no.

[color=0099ff]"Y-yeah, I know her. I wouldn't exactly call us friends, though."[/color] Just as he'd managed to tense his leg into stillness, the fidgeting returned with a vengeance.

"What about the night of the fifteenth," the older detective continued, "You wouldn't happen to have seen her around that time, would you?"

Again with that tone. This guy knew something. Maybe even more than Daniel did. After last week, he wasn't above believing that the government had a top secret supernatural investigation division that was going to whisk him away forever and cut his brain open to pull Kharon out and- Okay, they were probably only interested in Sofia.

[color=0099ff]"She was my orientation leader or something, and she invited us all to the docks for some dumb good luck thing where we were supposed to jump in the water and freeze our a- [i]butts[/i] off. Is- is that a crime?"[/color]

"Not quite, but no one has seen Miss Wright since. She's been reported missing."

Wait. She was missing?! Did they leave her on the island? Danny was sure she left with the others. Well, he hadn't actually [i]seen[/i] her, but didn't she fall in the water? He didn't have any of the answers these men were looking for, regardless. And he didn't know if he could even properly explain without being consigned to a mental institution. And his family certainly wouldn't like to hear about [i]that[/i] scar on their reputation. 

Either way, maybe this was another weird stroke of unfortunate luck; the earlier nervousness could've been excused as an anxious boy who didn't know why he'd been called for questioning, and the way his face sunk when they said she'd gone missing surely couldn't have been faked, given that, y'know, it wasn't. He knew more than he let on, sure, but Daniel could only hope he didn't betray that. Because then they'd think he fucking murdered her. And honestly? He might've.

[color=0099ff]"Missing...?"[/color] he repeated, stunned, [color=0099ff]"I- we- I just jumped in and left. I don't... know if I saw her afterward, but I didn't see anyone drowning or anything."[/color] Technically, that wasn't a lie. He just hoped it wasn't close enough to the truth to sound suspicious either, because he really [i]could not[/i] explain any of this. Talking less was generally a good policy when dealing with the law, but Danny didn't know what else he was supposed to do. He couldn't come clean, but he couldn't just leave Sofia on some magic island full of evil frogs! Not... that the cops could really solve that, but...

Thankfully, they seemed to let him off the hook. He was sure [i]Inspector Harris[/i], as the older cop had introduced himself after the fact, would be keeping tabs on him regardless, but Daniel certainly didn't intend to engage in any suspicious actions any time soon. Then again, if Sofia was still on the island somewhere and the only way he knew how to reach it was from the docks, and he was nearly the only one with a persona, and the cops were unlikely to figure out that there's a portal to Fiji in the Harbour Academy dockhouse, and they might not have a way to find Sofia even if they could get to the island... Danny's conscience might just have him returning to the scene of the crime like a terrible movie crook. And he didn't even commit a crime!

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