Metanoia , HOUSE OF THE DRAGON

Chapter Thirteen

Daemon took notice how Max was deep in her own world as her eyes never met his nor anyone's at in the room. How she fiddled with her fingers nonstop as her mind raced: there were a lot of things she wanted to say. Her eyes displayed that plainly.

In truth, Max wanted to ask Jake a question of importance: to transfer her into another school.

The girl was tired. Exhausted of being made a public spectacle, of teacher's asking unnecessary questions and sticking their noses where they didn't belong. She wanted a new start, away from everything.

She felt her throat run dry as the words fail to make themselves known. A knock resurfaced her mind from drowning in her endless thoughts.

"Mr Lockley," it was a man's voice on the other side of the door.

"Shit!" Max shot up almost immediately making Bondita and Millie flinched at her sudden action.

"Bad word." Bondita scolded.

"What is it?" Daemon tilted his head, staring at the door then back at the girl.

"It's the local sheriff."

"Shit, shit, shit!"

"Max, what did you do?" Rebuked Jake, furrowing his brows together.

"I-I vandalized a toilet, I didn't mean it," Max stuttered.

"What!" Millie's doe eyes widened, surprised to hear she was behind the vandalization in the school's bathroom.

"I was not in the right state of mind! The voices, they were overwhelming me!" Max stepped backwards, heel hitting again the foot of the coffee table.

"Fuck," Jake pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a breath before deciding. "Alright, calm down. I'll take care of it."

"Mr Lockley?"

"Yes, come in." His lips twitched in a forced smile and it almost faltered.

"Do you happen to have a daughter, about hay-high with red hair? She goes at a school, nine minutes from here if I'm not mistaken."

"Yes, I do."

"Mind telling me what she's been up to, that the teachers or principal couldn't have just contact me, Sheriff?" He raised a questionable brow.

"Ah, there she is. Small world, ain't it?" His eyes landed on the familiar faces of the two sisters.

"Maxine Lockley, right?"

"You're accountable for vandalizing school property. Care to share why that happened?" Rolling his shoulders back, he asked.

"And who are you to stroll in here with pompous pride just to interrogate my daughter?" Daemon spat, narrowing his jewel-like eyes at the man.

"Sheriff David Corbett, sir." He introduced himself.

"Now if you don't mind, your daughter has some questions to answer to."

"No..no!" Max's panic exhilarated.

"She didn't mean it!" Bondita cried, arms wrapped around Millie's waist who also pleaded in a whisper. "Please."

"You lay your hands on her-"

"I'm sorry, was that meant to be a threat?" David raised a brow, retort dripping with arrogance.

"It's the law. Even you and I, don't exist above law, buddy. Just let me do my job and get this night over with."

"The girl was not in the right state of mind." Jake proclaimed, wincing at how the officer held onto Max's arm.

"Run and fetch Dark Sister." Daemon whispered to Bondita who nodded, slipping away from the scene and into the darkness of his room.

"Right state of mind?" He repeated. "She showed animalistic behaviour in the footage, there's nothing to say that's gonna back you up, Mercenary."

"Is that we're doing now?" The two men were caught in a battle of their own, the officer slowly letting go of Max's arm. "calling each other names?"

"Don't think of me as a fool. We know about your exploits in Alexandria and Egypt. So, without further ado," reaching for the metal handcuffs hanging idle on his beltline, he turns the man around whilst resiting. "Jake Larance, you are arrested for alleged murder, stealing and exploiting priceless museum artifacts , and many other devilish crimes you partook in with your company."

The little girl emerged with a longsword, trailing behind her frame as she drags the heavy sword to it's owner. Daemon kept it out of the policeman's line of sight as his attention was shifted onto Jake.

"Jake!" Bondita's tears pooled her eyes, flowing into her cheeks freely.

"Do you have proof?" Jake clenched his teeth.

"Save for the judge, you Brooklyn rat." David grumbled, putting the man in cuffs.

His partner intruded their apartment, arresting the young girl who's tears fell onto the floors, only a matter of moments before she crumbled to a shell of nothingness.

"Max!" Bondita followed after them as they were led out the hallway, trying to grasp her sister's hand before being taken to whatever dark place they intended to take her.

"No, don't take her, please!" She begged to no avail.

"Bondita," at her name being called, she turned.

"Do not cry, both you of you." He tells them.

"They'll not get away with it, not while I'm still here." Daemon promised, bringing the sobbing girls in an embrace.

-

"Well, well, well," Officer Clarkson clicked her tongue, finding something of amusement in the notes she went through on her tablet. "Look what we have here David: a criminal at fifteen."

David beckoned with equal enthusiasm. "Tell me."

"Not only vandalism, she's also accountable for starting a school fire in her recent school about two years ago. Twelve students recorded to be brutally burnt: ages ranging from fourteen and upwards."

"That's dark." The man comments in a low voice, watching the girl in the backseat stop struggling under the metal cuffs.

Max sunk on the leather seat, a sob rattles away in her chest but she pushed it down as best as her lost energy could allow. She remembered that dreadful event.

How could she when that day haunted her every night she went to sleep?

It was not her fault. They framed her but got in the middle of their crossfire and now their voices burned inside her head with every taunt and mockery, every snide remark to let her down each time she picks herself up.

"I didn't mean it," she whispers, tears pouring down her rosebud tainted cheeks. "I was not in the right state of mind."

"Of course you didn't, Max." The officer scoffed. Her tone shifted into mockery, "Nobody ever suspects the butterfly. That's what your peers keep repeating, ain't it?"

The young girl squeezed her eyes shut, battling more on-coming tears as she bit down her bottom lip hard enough to taste blood. "Now don't start those crocodile tears in my car, save it for the judge."

Her unknown future to come seemed misty at her point of view but that was not what crossed her mind in such a dire situation. It was the well-being and future of her little sister.

What will happen to her? Would Daemon take care of her, how would she fare without her? Max felt her being tainted. The role model she set to display for her younger sister had disappeared, leaving a shadow looming over the child of only her misdeads than good-will deeds.