Oh no. Red alarms flared in my head. Big trouble. I was in big trouble! My heart started to hammer inside my chest as I just stared at the scene in front of me, fear flaring in my chest.

Caedmon sensed that the papers were upsetting me and he jumped off my shoulder into the pile of paper, snarling and scratching with his little claws, sending the paper into a crumpled mess.

“Caedmon!” I hissed and without thinking about it, I slapped him like he was a bad cat. I hit him a bit harder than I meant, though and he was sent reeling off the bed. I didn’t give him a second glance as I quickly gathered up the paper, straightening them the best I could. My heart was ramming against my rib cage like it wanted to be free of this doomed body. My sweaty fingers fumbled with the papers, shoving them in, and pushing the corners down that were sticking out. I inhaled shakily. What was I going to do?

I stopped and looked around the room wildly. Everyone was already asleep, and I could only see one pair of glowing eyes, they were silver, and by the way there was a silver shine on the wall, whoever it was was looking straight up. I self consciously shoved the folder under the blankets. Who could have done this?

Jonathan, the fire punk? But no, he wasn’t that smart. How about a metal head? Nah, they wouldn’t go through all this trouble just to frame me, would they?

Would they?

I exhaled shakily. I knew things weren’t so smooth with General Landin, but he would believe me right? I mean, if I just came out and told him what happened?

I slowly laid down in bed as Caedmon hopped back up on the bed, his eyes glowing a sad purple. He whined and nosed my shoulder, his tail not swishing for once.

“You better pray that we get out of this one,” I whispered to him as I scooped him up and pulled him close to myself, rolling over in bed with a huge sigh. “Or we’re in huge trouble.”

That whole night I couldn’t sleep, my stomach in knots and adrenaline slowly dying in my bloodstream. My mind was racing, thinking of every single suspect there possibly could be. Finally when I started suspecting the suspicious lunch lady I was knocked out.

Far too soon, I was woken up by the alarm and all my nervousness and adrenaline flooded back into my body. Caedmon woke and stretched, his front paws thrust in front of him and his butt high in the air, his tongue curling in a yawn. His tiny black wings spread like an umbrella, and I swore I could see hints of purple and green in the scales.  Any other day I would have smiled at this cute stretch, but today I wasn’t in the mood. I grabbed my change of clothes and Caedmon, smashing the pillow on top of the paperwork, and shoved my way quickly to the bathroom.

The sooner I got this done the better.

As I took the quickest shower ever, Caedmon just plopped on the tile by my feet and pawed at my skinny white legs, wanting to be picked up. His deer-like ears twitched and he let out a small whine.

“Not now, bud.” I said as I scrubbed my scalp, my fingers raking across my skin.

“Juzzin,” Caedmon huffed, poutily. He smacked the water, making a surprisingly loud sound.

I looked down to see he was glaring up at me. That adorable pouty face was starting to make me cave but I blinked hard and turned away, closing my eyes to get under the stream of water.

“Juzzin!” Caedmon growled as best as he could. “JUZZIN! JUZZIN!” Soon his voice became an all out wail when he found I wasn’t listening to him. I quickly swooped him up, embarrassed that probably everyone in the whole shower area had heard his squeaky cry for me. I gripped him so that his forearms were splayed and his back curved and hind paws pushed at my chest. He squeaked angrily and squiggled. “Juzzin,” he said again, sniffling when some water sprayed on him. His rib cage shivered in a sneeze.

“What?” I demanded, more than a little frazzled.

“D-de-de-k-ti-b,” He tried to say as hard as he could.

“What was that?” I sighed.

He almost went cross-eyed wit concentration.

Then, in my mind I heard.  Me, you. Detectives. He said before I saw a picture in my mind of Caedmon sniffing out the bad guy like Scooby Doo does. Then I would do a ninja kick and knock him out before sitting on him and farting. Then he would pass out and General Landin would give me a badge.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t fart that bad.”

He gave me another image of himself in bed next to me. Then there was a loud farting sound and Caedmon wheezed and gasped dramatically.

“Lies!” I poked his belly before sitting him back down on the floor, his tail making a wet slap. “Okay Scooby, go to the file and sniff it out. Maybe you can smell it out.”

He peeped and bobbed his head before ducking his head under the shower curtain and scurrying away.

I sighed, feeling bad for ignoring the little guy. I didn’t really have much hope that he would find it, but I did have some faith in him. He was a smart little thing. My shower turned off by itself, meaning I had run over my seven minute shower limit. I had to dry off some of the suds with my small white towel. Then I quickly dried off my lean body. I was a lot more in shape now, and I could see the startings of an epic six pack start to bulge. Or it could just be the tiny folds of skin when I bent over. But I’d like to think it was the former.

I quickly shoved on my clothes and hopped into my boots on the way out, my hair dripping little droplets onto my jacket. I saw a few more glances than usual being cast my way and I frowned, thinking maybe I had a bubble on my forehead or something in my teeth. I went on my tiptoes to look at the mirror. Nothing except for some dark circles under my bright violet eyes. I frowned and shouldered up to the mirror to grab the toothbrush and start brushing my teeth as hard and fast as I could and spit in the sink before rushing back to see if Caedmon found anything.

Caedmon sure did find someone.

“Get him off me!” Rihanna yelled, smacking at a cat sized black dragon that hissed and had his body curved around the back of her head. His paws were planted firmly over her eyes and he nodded to me with the coolness of James Bond.

I was surprised I could only stare for a moment. This was not happening.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?” General Landin’s bullhorn voice made everyone in the room jump.

Caedmon started squeaking a whole bunch of jibberish, pulling a paw off her eye to pat her head vigorously, trying to show she was the suspect. His reward for it was Rihanna jerking him off her head with a feral growl.

“Oh I was just about to tell you,” I said, walking up to him quickly. But his gaze wasn’t intent on me. It was on my bed.

“Uh.. huh.. yeah I mean, Caedmon was just trying to help me find the culprit and I guess he was just getting a little too…” I had been basically at his side the whole time trying to distract him from the bed but I was too late. He snagged the corner of it and pulled it out with one easy tug.

There was a moment of absolute silence. I swore my heart stopped pumping.

Then it started headbanging in my chest. “Uh.. that’s just what I was about to tell you,” my words started to slur together as I ran my sweaty palms in circles over my front pockets. “I swear I didn’t take it but last night I just found it on my bed.” I said quickly, realizing how crazy that sounded.

“And I suppose you didn’t look through the files when you saw them… lying… on your bed,” he said in his dangerous voice. I stared at his knuckles, waiting for a snikt to announce Wolverine claws snapping into existence.

I took a step back. “N-no sir.”

He slowly opened the file. Then his brows furrowed, pinching over his swirling yellow eyes and creating deep rifts on his forehead. “Some of the papers are torn, bitten into by tiny.. shadow dragon teeth. Definitely handled by  the little bugger.”

Everyone in the room had their eyes pinned on me. I could feel them boring into my skin and I felt like all I wanted to do was shrink into the floor and become a shadow and then go to the underworld and never ever come back. Caedmon crawled over onto my shoe and hissed at General Landin. He spread his wings in a vivid display, the new scales that had grown in slowly flashing a bright purple and green in his face, like he was trying to scare General Landin away.

The General said nothing but started fast walking to the door, his boots clomping against the floor.

My jaw dropped in shock before I ventured a halfway smile. Was I off fre-ee-oh crap I felt my neck burn and my shoulders scrunched up as a glowing hand clamped on my shoulder, small talons digging in roughly. “Hey! Easy there!” I complained before I saw Mardu swoop down to pick up Caedmon roughly. Caedmon squeaked angrily, biting at his fingers and crying as Mardu’s touch burned him.

“Stop it! You’re hurting him!” I yelled as I was pushed to the door.

The other kids stared, wide-eyed as an invisible force pushed me out the door and Caedmon hovered in the air, kicking and squeaking.

We were both dragged to the office before the door was slammed behind us.

General Landin had his back to me as he set up a screen on the wall via a projector directly overhead. After pressing a few buttons, a clear scene was painted onto the white wallpaper behind him. He turned so half the screen was projected onto his skin and face. His forehead held the desk and the chair, which was a little destracting as he started to speak. “You had two days, Justin. Two days to tell us the truth.”

“Well two days hasn’t passed yet has it?” I asked a bit hotly as I snatched Caedmon from Mardu. Caedmon snuggled in my jacket, away from the light. I pulled the jacket over him protectively.

He leaned over the desk, a little too much into my personal space than I would have liked. “You just won’t give it up, will you Justin? Blame it on everyone but yourself. Coward.” He snapped. “Now I want to know why you did this. Were you working for someone? Or was it just for spite?” He spat.

I paled. “I’m not working for anyone I swear,” I said, before blinking hard. “Because I didn’t do it in the first place!” I sputtered, realizing he was starting to get to me.

“Fess up or I swear you won’t spend another week on this facility!” General Landin demanded, smacking table.

“Someone framed me-I don’t know who yet- but someone did!” I sputtered, feeling a cold swet drip down my forehead. He wasn’t buying this!

He sighed. “We have you on video.” He lowere a brow before he pressed play on his remote and stepped aside.

I leaned forewords in my seat, peering at the screen. For a second, nothing happened. Then I saw a strange shadow rise up and start inching for the filing cabinet. It was so dark there must have been only the horseshoe lamp in the corner on, creating a large shadow by the cabinet where the shadow was heading… the shadow formed into a male. Black hair, a devilish smirk. And then the guy reached right into the filing cabinet like it was butter, retrieving the file. He pulled it to his chest and smirked right into the camera and I recognized the face.

My face.

With one last wink of those purple eyes the guy walked right into the shadows again.