ARCANE

012

"I don't think Erik is coming," Percy rolls her eyes, hoping Jamie will get the ball rolling and get this meeting over with. Beside her, June munches on a few finger foods that Jamie put out for the group and Percy can't help but purse her lips in disgust. She isn't a stranger to eating this late at night, but she isn't chowing down on home-made samosas when there might be a killer on the loose.

Jamie shakes his head, looking at the empty chair. Or chairs, he guesses. His apartment isn't big enough to comfortably fit eight people, so while he has pushed the table against the wall and put the chairs and the couch in more of an oval than a circle, people still aren't all sitting. Percy stands behind her chair, and Erik's is empty.

"Okay, well, who should start?" Jamie asks, trying to keep his cool. "Like, should it be me because I called the meeting? I called the meeting because of Wes and Hope, and Cara also. And also, me, but I think I should probably go last because what I am going to say sounds crazy, trust me."

Nobody fills the silence which follows Jamie's words, and the boy curses himself. Everybody here is way too introverted to get anything done, after all.

"I think we should start with the FBI," Eden offers, eyeing Jamie up. He isn't used to nervous rambling, just nervous silence. Looking around the room, he decides he is the biggest and strongest, which probably should make him the leader (that is, if he asked the football boys). "That's our biggest threat right now."

"They were bothering me at my job," Wesley pulls out the card from the officer, flashing it in front of their faces. "They had just come into the truck stop. I figured they were investigating the power outages."

"They asked me to come in for questioning tomorrow," Cara finally speaks up. The skin on her hands is dry from wringing them over and over and walking aimlessly for hours last night through the bitter cold as she tried, unsuccessfully, to clear her head. "I don't know if it's because they think I had something to do with Thea, or they figured out that the power outage came from the park, but there isn't much use wondering. Eden is my alibi. I told them I spent the night at his. If anybody asks, I've never met any of you."

"Shouldn't the cameras be an issue?" Wesley asks, leaning forward towards Cara. He is familiar enough with the police to know that lying is going to cause a problem. "That's how I got sent to juvie."

Cara ignores his comment. Now is not the time to worry about Wesley and violence, even though the thought crosses the back of her mind. She remembers her foster days, and she feels lucky she was adopted otherwise she might have gone to juvie too, at some point or another. She wonders if Wesley was a foster kid too. Regardless, she presses forward. "I doubt the cameras were recording, given the power outage."

"They might have footage of you entering the park," Wesley insists. His eyes scan the group, trying to find someone who has reacted to the juvie comment. As always, his eyes land on Jamie. The boy is averting Wes's eyes.

"The police have nothing," Hope says.

Cara turns to face her, her brows furrowed.

"My Dad's the prosecutor for this area," she tells the others as they look at her. "He left his files out last night."

Cara huffs a sigh of relief. She leans to the side, her body pressing against Eden on the tiny couch. While the gesture isn't supposed to invigorate him, he can't help the jolt he feels wherever her skin touches his.

Beside him, June leans forward and high-fives Wesley. "So, does this mean we are off the hook?"

"They are still going to interrogate me and Lee," Percy notes, looking down at the ginger. "It isn't over yet."