"You can never run out of questions. One time, I was doing an examination, and after the first question, there was the second until the fiftieth. When I finished, I had one more question to ask myself: How will I fair?"
---Dark room. Dim lights. Solitary chair in the middle. Everything else pushed aside. The spotlight upon that solitary chair in the middle. Someone was sitting on the chair, a dark figure of a male student. Two other people were in the room, the interrogation room. They were Rachel and Jeremy. Jeremy was sitting at the desk of the lecturer and Rachel was pacing in front of the figure. The stress was upon the both of them. The room was intense. But the interrogated was being rather calm.
"Hrm," hummed the interrogated, "So, what do you want to ask me?"
"You knew about everything, didn't you?" she asked him with her finger pointed at his face.
"I know enough," he replied.
"That's not an appropriate answer!"
"That's an answer," he said, emphasising on the word 'an', "And I'm telling the truth."
"Do you know who did it?" she asked.
"Did what? You have to be more specific than that."
"Fine," she grunted, "Do you know who killed Ashikin?"
"Yep," he replied calmly.
"Who?"
"Someone."
The reply from the interrogated made Rachel groan. Rachel pressed her feet harder on the floor as she paced. Her hand to her face with her fingers on the temples of her forehead.
"It's true."
Rachel turned her head back to him and quickly looked away. She closed her eyes. She inhaled deeply and exhaled loudly in a sigh. Jeremy was quiet the whole while, observing the boy under the spotlight. He could not seem to notice anything about him. Rachel, on the other hand, was frustrated; her face red with anger.
"Why don't you just tell us?" she asked, "Maybe you did it?"
"Hrm," he hummed with a grin, "Isn't it much more fun like this?"
"A life was taken, a person was knocked out and another got into a car accident," she pressed at the interrogated.
"They have names you know," he said.
"Don't you feel a single bit of guilt?"
"Guilt?" he repeated quizzically, "What's been done have been done. I guess I sympathise, but guilt? Are you accusing me of wrongdoings?"
Soft footsteps could be heard from Rachel's pacing and the sound of tapping was more frequent. Jeremy was hitting his forefinger on the grey wooden desk.
"And they have names," added the interrogated, "I did say that right? That they have names."
"Will you even tell us anything?"
"Yes," he stopped. His smile vanished into an emotionless emotion. His eyes were more focus, looking directly at Rachel with seriousness. His hands came together; fingers folded into each other.
"Right now, as you toy with me, which will lead you nowhere, something big is in progress. So, as you waste your time here, someone else might die, someone else might faint and someone else might get into an accident."
All with seriousness.
---A week before finals made the corridor buzzing with people.
---The interrogation room was filled with intensity.
---Joshua was sitting on the benches talking to a tall girl by the name of Kim along the Wi-Fi area. Joe was glancing at Ben's laptop as he finished his work.
---"What do you mean by something big is in progress?" asked the confused Rachel, looking at the interrogated in the eye.
---Joe plugged his thumb drive into Ben's laptop and copied a file into the thumb drive. Hurriedly, Joe rushed off to the computer laboratory. Jian came out from class, headed for the Wi-Fi area and hooked up his laptop to the power a table away from Ben.
---"Have you heard about the Rube Goldberg machine?" was the interrogated question back.
---On the way to the Wi-Fi area, Jian bumped into Joe who exchanged greetings. Both heads of two different media meet. Ben noticed a suspicious looking file on his laptop and decided to eradicate it. Kim left and Joshua took out his laptop to find it in sleep mode, draining battery.
---Rachel shook.
"It's a complicated machine which will complete a simple task in a chain of actions," he explained.
---Joe plugged in his thumb drive into one of the ports of the computer. Ben's scan was completed and he decided to boot up a game he just installed. Jian flipped open the laptop and booted it up with a single button. Joshua took out the power adapter for his laptop.
---The interrogated stood up and lightly took the wire of the floor stand lamp into his hands. It was the main source of light in the room, the spotlight. The florescent ceiling lights were just dim. The wire lay on his palm as he smoothly followed it to the switch. He turned switched it off. Light vanished. Rachel and Jeremy got to their feet but it was dark. It was too dark.
---Simultaneously, Ben's game completed the loading sequence, Joe hit the mouse to print his report, Jian's computer finally booted up and Joshua connected the power adapter to his laptop to a power socket. Coincidentally, all of those actions or events were completed at the exact moment.
---Rachel and Jeremy's eyes settled in the darkness and adapted to it. They could see the figure of the interrogated much clearly. She headed for the switch which the interrogated had let go off.
"I would not do that if I were you," he advised but she did not care. She took the switch in her hand and flipped it. The light of the lamp came on for a moment, flooding the room with a yellowish tint before the bulb blew right above the interrogated's head. Everything went dark, even the dim florescent lights went off. Rachel groped around and managed to find the door. The sound of the creaking door could be heard but nothing could be seen. It was pitch-black in the underground corridors. It was like nothingness.
---The Wi-Fi area was a pretty sight. The whole corridor was luminescent with the screens of multiple of laptops. The walls glowed with mostly white, but some blue, green and other various colours.
Heads turned in surprise. Joshua's laptop died on him. Ben quickly shut off his game and put his laptop to sleep. Joe was stressing out seeing he had to pass up his work later. Jian shut down his laptop and took out his writing pad. Someone from the other end of the corridor let out a high pitched scream.
---A high pitched scream shot past. By the time Rachel heard it, it was no longer a scream but the echoes of it. Her eyes was slowly adapting to the darkness. She was able to see dark shades of objects around her, but not enough for her to navigate. Light came from one side of the bend of the corridor. She stood out of the classroom, curiously looking at where the source of the light was coming but it quickly disappeared. Once it was darkness again, she felt a draft blew by her. Immediately, she closed the door and asked Jeremy to make sure the interrogated was still seated. The door slammed shut but Jeremy dare not move around in the room. He groped on the walls, finding his way out of the desk and towards to centre of the room.
Rachel, using as much resources and the available light sources around her, tried to make her way to the Wi-Fi area. However, as she was about to, the light flickered on. She dashed back to the room to find the interrogated and Jeremy still there.
"You expected me to run?" said the interrogated who laughed, "I'm a bit lame, don't you think?"
---Halloween was on the thirty-first of October. It was about a month ago. The HMC student council was supposed to have a joint event project the A-Levels student council, the student council of the rival department of the same level as theirs. Their student council, Jason, approached
Halloween was on the thirty-first of October. Carmen was just released from the hospital and it was a relief to her. She was waiting for this day. Party and food, she could not resist it. She also had to help out with the ticketing during the day. The event was held in the community hall on the first floor of the hostel where Carmen stayed. She was there quite early. She wore a white tank top with a dark blue pair of jeans. The rest of them were setting up the area. She took her seat at the ticket counter next to Jess who was another student council committee. The deejay was setting up his turntables while the others were putting up the decorations.
Marcus came early with some equipment in his four-wheeler. He heaved it out from the back and carried it to the hall. His mobile phone rang on the way up to the hall but he had his hands full. He headed for hall and picked it up.
Ashikin arrived with Dila a few minutes before busy
Marcus rushed back into the hall, looking for a long metallic object. He saw
"Wait," interrupted Rachel, "Why are you giving us a detailed story of the Halloween party?"
"I don't know," replied the interrogated, "I can stop if you want me to."
"No, you can go on."
"Actually, I'm just about done," said the interrogated who stood up. He limped towards the desk and grabbed the metal cane laid on the desk. He walked towards the door, but turned back and added, "If you'll excuse me, I have class now and I don't want to be late for it.
To Be Continued
No comments:
Post a Comment