A Tense Return

Inky snapped his fingers, and I went from standing in the empty office to being right around the corner from the house, right near a bus stop. I was obscured by several hedges, so nobody would see me appear from nowhere.

"I need to start working on more defensive and offensive enchanted items," I mused to myself as I walked up to the Finch-Fletchley's gate, ringing the doorbell.

"Mister Rose?!" one of the servants gasped when they answered.

"Hey, hi, just thought I'd let you all know I'm back," I said, giving a cheeky wave.

"Oh, thank goodness! Mister Warner saw you get snatched right off the streets!" the servant babbled, dragging me into the house.

I was brought into a parlor room where Mrs. Finch-Fletchley, Justin, and, to my surprise, Delilah as well, were sitting down, looking fretful.

"Mr. Rose!" Justin exclaimed gleefully when he saw me, jumping up from his seat and running over to my side. He wasn't the only one, as Delilah also bounded over to my side, grabbing my hands and looking me over closely.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" Delilah asked, checking me for injuries.

"Delilah?" I uttered, perplexed. "What are you doing here?"

"I came here as soon as I heard you'd been kidnapped!" she declared, face red in embarrassment. Or maybe anger? I couldn't tell.

"I'm fine," I assured her. "Couple of goons couldn't do anything to me."

She looked me in the eyes, and I winced at the pain I saw in hers. "Don't scare me like that," she pleaded.

"I promise I won't get kidnapped again," I told her.

"Idiot!" she scolded me, though I could hear a faint laugh in her voice.

A cough interrupted us, and I looked over at an amused Mr. Finch-Fletchley and a couple of police officers who walked in from another room.

"As heartwarming as this reunion is, and as glad as we are to see you safe and sound, we do have some questions for you, Mr. Rose," a bobby informed me.

"Of course, officer, I'll be glad to help however I can," I told him, tamping down on the annoyance I felt at being interrupted.

"First off, can you explain what happened, exactly?"

"Well, I had just finished tutoring Justin here, and was leaving to go back home, when this black car with tinted windows zoomed up right to me…" I began to explain.

The next half-hour was boring, as I carefully gave an edited retelling of what had occurred earlier. I made sure to leave out anything about magic, and simply said that I had slipped out when they were distracted.

I was pretty sure the police officers didn't believe me at all, but they couldn't call me out on it, not with the Finch-Fletchley's nearby. Eventually, they left, claiming they would look into who was responsible, but I wasn't going to hold my breath. Odds were they weren't gonna find out anything useful.

'I'll have to do my own investigations,' I thought to myself.

"So, what really happened?" Delilah asked me when the bobbies had left.

"Pretty much what I said, although I escaped by knocking out my kidnappers with Stunner Ofuda and Inky's help," I said.

"Whoa! So they really worked!" Justin exclaimed.

"They sure did. Definitely need to work on making some more. Just in case," I said.

"I will make some discreet inquiries myself," Mr. Finch-Fletchley said, sipping at some tea to hide the dark scowl on his face. A kidnapping right on his doorstep? A massive insult a man like him could not let pass. "They likely won't try anything for a while, though. Still, I hope you will try and stay safe."

"I doubt they will be able to do anything while I'm in France. I'll be sure to pick up a couple magical defenses in the markets over there. They're a lot looser with restrictions when it comes to self-defense. A couple hexes to discourage ne'er do wells sounds like a wise investment," I said. I then blinked and turned to my girlfriend.

"Oh, and speaking of which, wanna come visit France with me and my friends?" I asked Delilah.

"Really? You're asking that now?" she asked, a hysterical laugh bubbling out of her.

"No time like the present. We leave in a couple days, on the 17th," I informed Delilah, who gave me a flat look.

"You know that's not what I meant," she grumbled, and I chuckled.

"Yeah, I know, sorry about that, just having fun," I replied. I then turned serious. "However… do you want to go?"

"I think that would be lovely," she replied softly. She then tilted her head to the side. "Is there going to be magic there?" she asked in a very soft whisper.

"Yeah, probably," I said, and she nodded.

"Okay. I want to learn more about magic. Will you teach me?"

"I'd be happy to teach you," I told her.

"Great," she said with a grin.

And seeing her smile, I felt that everything was going to be alright.

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