Chapter 1: Furious Mop
Every morning, Cameron drives off to work with his bike. Employed as a despatch mail delivery agent, he has to wake up on time and get to work on time. His work is his major means of survival, he has a mate who is rich but since she doesn't count him as anything, he can't depend on her. He would never depend on a woman, he believes as a man, he has to be independent.
“I wish things could get better,” he would often say to himself being that he's just surviving. He hasn't arrived at his dream life yet. Only then would he be proud of himself and boldly call himself a man.
“I can't be living in my mate's house for long. If not for my granddad, I won't be in this situation.” He again says to himself as he drives his back on the busy road.
It's about 7:10 AM from his little watch and he has twenty minutes to reach his place of work. Just then he sees from a hidden corner a woman struggling with some men all dressed in black. People passing on the major road are too busy to observe.
“What could be going on over there?”
Being a sensitive man, he turns and drives towards that direction. On getting there, he stops.
His eyes widens when he sees one of the young men pulling out a knife and turning towards him. Looking at the woman, she has a baby bump.
“Gosh!” He growled, his eyes raging with fury. The men had tried to seize the woman's card. Few meters from there is an ATM machine.
“Do you guys attempt to rob a pregnant woman, don't you have a conscience?” He summons courage to challenge them.
The woman turns to check out who's talking but upon doing this, one of them snatches the card away in her less focused moment, signaling to his colleagues, they run away.
The woman turning around to see what had happened let out a yell. She grabs Cameron with tears forming in her eyes.
“Why do I think you all are together in this?” She cries out, hitting his chest. Cameron is dumbfounded and looks at the woman with horrific eyes. She shouts the more and before he realizes, people start to gather.
He can't believe it as he turned to notice this, those who seemed to be so busy were now closing in on him.
“What happened?” They ask the woman.
“I was struggling with some thieves here who tried to seize my card, then he came up and distracted my attention, giving his colleagues the chance to snatch my card. They ran away but I was able to hold on to him.” She cries further.
“Why should this happen to me when I was heading to the hospital for delivery? I'm due in two days.”
Hearing this, the people around are filled with rage and start to descend on Cameron. Fists, sticks and legs begin to hit on him from different directions, he tries to defend himself but no one seems to hear as the roar of the crowd overshadows his voice. They all tend to believe the pregnant woman with her condition and the tears filling her eyes.
With the way the crowd are beating him, she fears they will lynch him.
"No, I can't be the cause of a man being killed, just two days to my childbirth.” Being one that deeply believes in Karma, she doesn't want anything that would affect her baby.
She feels it's better for him to be tortured and released by the police than have him lynched by a furious mop.
“I'm calling the were cops. I'll let them know you and your colleagues tried to rob me. Unlucky you, you couldn't escape.” She voices out even though her voice isn't audible with the mop going on.
Quickly, she pulls out her phone and dials 911.
The werewolf cops, a group of five police officers, arrived in five minutes.
The mob hearing the siren immediately pull away from Cameron who's now panting and bleeding with bruises all over his body. He manages to rise but falls again. Two of the officers walk up to him, grabbing him and taking him to their car. His bike is impounded, taken alongside with them.
His world falls apart, he had wanted to reach his workplace on time but now he was going to spend his day in the were cops cell covered with bruises. Tears want to stream from his eyes but he fights them off.
"You're a man. Be strong!" He says to himself.
The drive to the station took barely ten minutes and when they arrived, the first thing done on him was documentation. Two of the officers who had arrested him take him to the registry where the details of suspects and criminals are input into the system.
A young and beautiful police officer with blonde hair tied into a bun is behind the desk typing into her computer without looking much at people.
"Write there....." The taller officer who is at his right says to her but then he remembers that he did not get his captive's name. Turning to Cameron, he asks. "What's your name?"
"Cameron Galchev." Cameron says rather fearfully.
This is a whole new environment he hasn't been to before. He wonders what will become of him once he gets into the cell.
"I wouldn't keep quiet and get in without saying anything, I will defend myself." So after the documentation, he is taken to the office of the Chief of the were cops, who is in charge of all criminal investigations for interrogations.
From the video retrieved from the camera on the street of the incident, they would be judging his percentage of guilt.
Inside of him, Cameron is praying to be set free, flashing his mind back to how it occurred. He doesn't see a single fault from his side. "We've got some questions to ask you!"
A sergeant, as his uniform rank says, makes the first statement after arriving here. Cameron is quite aware of the fact that questions come first, then the retrieved video is played to compare and contrast on what the suspect had said.
Videos always tell the truth. He wonders why they wouldn't just use the video to make their investigations and stop bothering him.
The investigation ends with Cameron only being eleven percent guilty, as from the video it seemed more like it was a planned robbery scene making use of a pregnant woman as bait.
He takes a deep sigh and pauses. Cameron is thrown into suspense. He knows quite well that the Superintendent hasn't finished his speech, he can't wait to hear the next thing he has to say.
"You have been asked to pay a sum of three hundred dollars as fine. But for the meantime, you would be in our custody, meaning you aren't free to leave this premises until you have paid the required amount.
Immediately the Superintendent finishes saying this, he disperses Cameron and the three were cops officers who had taken him here.
"Get the handcuff off him." He orders the officers. It's usual for those approved to be in custody under the fine section to be given a little bit of freedom, unlike those who are found to have committed hideous crimes.
As they are taking him away to show him to his cell room, one of the were cops officers leans into his ear and whispers.
"If you have someone, you should make a call. Make sure you don't delay payment of the fine till tomorrow." He speaks like there is some danger if it reaches.
After settling down in the room, Cameron starts to think of who to call for help. The first person that appears in his mind is his mate.
"Hello darling, please, it's urgent. I need your help." He says as soon as his mate, Mila picked the call.
"Yes, what's it?" She replies in a hoarse tone, the very nature of it discouraging him but he has to ask. He had no money on him, he was still waiting for his salary while feeding on what his mate and mother-in-law had to provide.
"A pregnant woman was about to be robbed this morning on my way to work and when I tried to help, the real robbers snatched her ATM card away from her and she turned to accuse me as being one of them. I was almost lynched as people gathered but then the police arrived and arrested me."
She scoffs.
"So what do you expect me to do now?" Her very tone detects sarcasm.
"Please can you just help me with three hundred dollars. I have an eleven percent guilty rate, and so the Superintendent detected a fine of three hundred dollars for me." He pauses, his heart beating heavily. "I'll be so grateful to receive your help. This is just the beginning of the month and I'm yet to receive my salary."
Mila laughs. Then he hears some other voice in the background, which he detects to be his mother-in-law.
"Who's that?" Paisley asks.
He hears her laugh in mockery at him upon Mila, her daughter, reporting what he was saying to her.
Then all of a sudden Mila stops and then returns back to Cameron.
"I'm sorry, I can't help you!" With this, she hangs up leaving him dumbfounded.