• THE LAWS

    PROLOGUE

    He was led into a brightly lit room, it was empty bar two chairs - separated by a cold metal desk - and a mirror on the wall. The officer indicated that he should sit down, Patrick took the chair facing the mirror. He looked pale, scared, weak. Clever mirror, he mused, plays mind tricks. His light brown hair stuck up on one side, and his eyes were still a little cloudy, but he felt wide awake, alert.
    "What was your relationship with Dawn Partridge?" Patrick looked up at the man standing before him, he looked exhausted, his uniform was crumpled, and very worn. His eyes were a deep blue, they calmed him.
    He licked his lips. why am I so nervous? He asked himself, I didn't do anything. It was an accident! You're feeling guilty, said a voice in his head, you shouldn't have left like that - shut up! He snapped at himself.
    "Nothing, really" His voice was hoarse, scared. Oh my God, stop shaking!
    "Nothing?" A crisp voice cut short his train of thought. A skinny man had entered the room, his eyes bore into his and Patrick felt his insides turn cold. Something sparked in the back of his brain, there's something about this man but I can't -
    "Well?" The voice seemed to slice through Patrick's mind like a knife, "are you telling me that you had never even heard of Dawn Partridge?!"
    "we - I... well yeah..." What's with this guy? "I mean, we never really - I mean, we went out once, but it wasn't really-"
    "So you do know of her?"
    "Calm down Keith" Warned the other officer. He turned his blue eyes to Patrick.
    "You went out once?"
    "Kind of, we met at a cafe in New York on holiday, talked for ages."
    "About?"
    "Anything, everything; work, food, pets - It was insane all the stuff we had in common, we had the exact same music taste, exact. We liked all the same tracks on the same CDs, even stuff we'd heard on the radio. I mean, we both liked Nickelbacks "Rockstar" even though it had been way over played." Patrick smiled faintly, remembering. "We met again on the train home and when we got off we went back to her place. We stayed until like 4 in the morning, then..." Patrick looked down at the table, he felt himself blushing.
    "Then?"
    "Then... she told me she wanted to show me something, and went into another room. I followed her and saw a bed, she was rummaging around a drawer. I must have got the wrong idea, I went over..."

    Dawn looked down at the metal table in front of her, she could feel herself blushing, and she was very aware that the two men were still looking at her. She glanced behind her, There could be anyone behind that mirror...
    "Then?"
    "Then... I told him I wanted to show him something. After we met in the cafe I bought a CD of Nickelback, I wanted to ask him if he liked "You remind me". We had so much else in common I wanted to see if he thought the same thing I did. I'd put it in a draw in my room. Next thing I know he's wrapped his arms around me and he's kissing my neck. I turn around and then he's feeling for my bra strap. I pushed him away and..."

    "... She turned around and tried to push me away but... she tripped..."
    Patrick looked down at the cold, grey metal beneath his shaking hands. In another reality, so does Dawn. In both reality's a skinny man speaks with an insulting indifference the truth of what happened in each of their worlds.
    "They hit the ground and the next you know you're looking at a dead body. What do you do? You run."
    Patrick and Dawn look up at the two police officers, and, with a voice that couldn't have moved water, reply,
    "yes" and begin to sob, silently.

    The moment Dawn and Patrick met, a Law was broken. Two realities collided. When they separated, they each carried with them a piece of that different reality. They were killed as an attempt to put the universe back. But it was too late, it was too late to stop the wave of consequences that, like a line of dominoes, had already started to fall.