Prologue
It was 1:04 PM on a hot Saturday afternoon when the police arrived at Nicholas Grey’s house. Their knocks were short and precise, almost as sharp and wounding as the news their tongues held.
Nicholas was home alone and having had partied too late the previous night, he’d slept in. Weary with a heavy headache that hammered his brain without restraint, he forced himself to walk down the long stairs and open the door.
He hissed instantly when the sunlight grazed his feeble eyes. Through his arm that he used to shield his eyes, he recognized the blue uniform and hastily straightened up, the headache forgotten for the time being. “Officers, may I help you?” He asked with his raspy voice. Despite what many thought, he was a respectful guy.
The officer with the sunglasses sitting on his bald head gave him a short smile that gave nothing away and shook his head. “Mr. Grey, I’m going to need you to come to the station with us.”
Utterly and absolutely astounded, Nicholas couldn’t help the step he took back. “What did I do wrong?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
The other officer sighed, his features unable to decide whether to look remorseful or angry. “That’s to be discussed at the police station. You’re not being arrested. We just need you in for questioning.”
Nicholas was having none of it. He knew something serious was going on; he could feel it creeping into his home, invading his privacy and now, possibly his freedom. “Please just tell me what’s going on and I’ll go with you willingly. I promise.”
Reluctant, the officers looked at each other. They seemed to be conversing through their eyes. It took them seconds to agree on how tired they both were and thus, they agreed to tell the scared boy his fate. “You have five girls accusing you of rape, Mr. Grey.”
In that instant, the world froze and his spirit broke. His mind filtered through the stored memory available as quickly as it could, trying to find an instance where he made the mistake of forcing himself on a girl in any way. However, it came up short. There were no blackouts, no memories of such event, let alone events. He quickly shook his head. “What? No. That’s impossible.”
“Look, like I said before, nothing has been proven yet and we are not here to arrest you. You’re needed for questioning, so please, just do this in a pleasant manner. We don’t need trouble,” one of the officers tried to plead with him.
Nicholas pushed his fingers through his hair. His body was on fire and his heart nowhere to be found. He was absolutely lost as he stared at two men in uniform who were waiting for him to control himself. He knew if he didn’t go with them, it would just make the situation worse and make him look even more susceptible. As he shook his head and gave them an obliging answer, a question wrapped around his focus, pulling his attention from all else: did he really do it or was he just going mad?
