Under Fire

They fingerprinted me first. Ink cold against my skin, press, roll, blot. Over and over until I wasn't a girl with a name--I was a pattern in a system. A file in notion.

Nobody looked at me like I was dangerous. Not exactly, just as something they didn't want to touch with their bare hands. They took my rings, my jacket, the necklace Ryan returned to me--bagged and labeled like evidence of who I use to be.

The holding cell was concrete and silence. I didn't cry. I counted the tiles in the corner where the wall met the floor. I held still like the world was trying to remember how to break me properly.

A woman in dark gray slacks came in just before they called my name.

"Hello, Andrea Green," she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, "Cassandra Hart, you can call me Cass."

I tried to read her--her tone, her posture--but she was good. Neutral like paper, maybe that's what I needed. "They're moving fast," she said quietly, "arrangement, in less than an hour, I'll be with you the whole time okay?"

"Okay," I murmured.

Cass sat beside me, pulling files from her briefcase. "They're charging you with aggravated assault and obstruction. No mention of supernatural tomes, portals, or pyrokinetic collapse."

I huffed. "Disappointing."

She glanced sideways and, just for a second, she smiled. "You're scared," she said. It wasn't a question. I just nodded.

"You should be, but scared doesn't mean broken, and it doesn't mean wrong."

I didn't answer. Just watched as two guards unlocked the door and led us down a hallway that smelled like paperwork and bleach. Outside the courtroom, Cass looked at me one last time before the doors swung open.

"Today you show them you're still human," she whispered.

The chains around my wrist rattled as I walked inside. But I kept my head up.

Cass flipped open the folder between us, pages rustling like something brittle. "Here's the official breakdown," she said, pointing to the first page. "Charge one: Obstruction of Justice, for failing to comply with officers responding to the Granton Library incident, fleeing the scene, and hindering the investigation."

I bit the inside of my cheek. "Because I didn't wait around to get cuffed."

"Because you didn't trust the system to protect you," she corrected, "and maybe you had reason not too, that's the part of what I'll argue."

She turned the page. "Charge two: aggravated assault. This is the one with sharp teeth.” Her fingers hovered over the report. “They’re saying you used excessive force on Taylor Harrow, causing blunt force trauma and secondary burns during what witnesses described as a ‘violent outburst.’”

“I wasn’t trying to hurt her,” I said quietly. “She was going to hurt Lily. I was just trying to stop it.”

Cass nodded. “I know. According to your statement, Taylor backed Lily against the railing after she grabbed the journal. You intercepted, pushed Taylor away, and that’s when things escalated.”

“I didn’t know it would trigger the journal again,” I whispered. “I didn’t mean for it to...”

“You’re not on trial for the supernatural,” she said. “You’re on trial for being a teenage girl in a building trying to protect your sister from being murdered.”

She closed the file.

“The reports admit you attempted to de-escalate. That you got between Lily and Taylor. Even the responding officer notes Lily was ‘visibly distressed and clinging to you’ when found.”

I swallowed hard.

“But the problem is Taylor nearly died. And this town has a hard time believing its golden girl isn’t so golden underneath.”

Cass leaned in a little closer. “The truth matters. But so does the story you tell when you step into that courtroom. Make them remember why you ran—not because you were guilty. Because you were afraid of what would happen if no one believed you.”

I nodded. My wrists still ached from the cuffs.

But maybe this time, I didn’t have to fight with fire.

Maybe just the truth. Even if it scorched a little.

Cass flipped through the folder slowly, like each page held something sharp.

“They’ve built the case around two moments,” she said. “The fight at the school, and the confrontation at the library. But everything traces back to what happened with your sister.”

I clenched my jaw feeling frustrated, that I have repeat my side for the second time in the row. “She was going to kill Lily. That’s why I stepped in.”

“And the school’s footage confirms Taylor cornered her first. That’ll help. But when you pushed Taylor—that’s where it got messy.”

“I didn’t intend for things to spiral out of control.”

“Intent matters,” Cass said. “But so does perception. To them, Taylor’s the girl who ended up almost being killed.”

I looked down at my hands—empty now, ringless.

“I wasn’t trying to be the hero,” I said. “I just… couldn’t let Lily be next. Not like Andrew. Not again.”

Cass nodded slowly. “That’s the story we tell.”

“And what if no one believes me?”

“Then we make them feel it.”