Aprisonofwhite were the words that came to Mira as she sat on the interrogation chair facing the only way out of the room, a thick steel door. In between her and that door was a table, a simple metal table, and two empty chairs.
She felt isolated there, but she supposed that was the point. To make a person feel...alone. A feeling she had to endure till the door was finally opened. A man and a woman stepped in, both dressed in suits, both with badges stuck to their chests.
Giving her small smiles they pulled the chairs back and sat down, bulky folders in hand.
The woman, lean and straight, with pride in her shoulders, was the first to speak, "Mira Smith, right?"
Mira nodded, falling back into her chair, "Yeah."
"First things first. Have you been read your constitutional rights?" She began as they both unfolded their files and set papers in front of her.
"Not to my knowledge," Mira answered, her words drawing a raised brow on the woman.
"Knowledge?" Her tone was calm, peaceful and decent as it could be.
"I was dazed for most of the day," Mira kept her eyes level with the woman, her red eyes caught the brown ones.
"Name's Kayla. I will be reading your rights, then," She said as she pulled out a paper from underneath her pile.
It took a minute, a long one but Mira listened carefully, it was a good chance to learn something new.
And when she was done, the other guy stepped in, "So, know why you are here?"
Mira took a second to take him in, his eyes were as dark as his hair and he looked like the type to work out. A lot. "I killed three people."
The bluntness made the duo pause but they brushed it aside.
"Okay. We had officers bring you down here for what you did. We are here to get to the bottom of everything, you understand that?" He was calm, his voice just as even as Kayla's. They would knock her out at the slightest provocation but here, they were behaving as if nothing had happened.
"Yes," Mira sighed before she pressed her lips thin, trying to sell that she felt something for doing all this, "Clear."
"Well, don't worry, you're not guilty yet. We are just here to get the story. The full story. If it was self-defence then please tell us everything so you can be proven innocent." He contributed, as he put down a bottle of water on the table. It was sealed, newly bought.
"Yeah," Mira nodded again.
"We'll be taking it slow," Kayla interjected, as she took out a notebook. "We are in no rush, and at any time you feel as if you need something tell us okay?"
"Before we properly begin, let us get some general information from you, okay?" The man said as he unfolded his file fully and pulled out a pen.
"Name is?" Kayla asked as she uncapped her pen.
"Mira Smith, M.I.R.A, S.M.I.T.H."
"Date of birth?"
Mira paused, her lips slightly open, "...I don't know."
"What?" The man looked up, his lips a straight line.
"Do you have access to my medical records?" Mira asked as she made a helpless smile. Her plan was simple, just tell the truth. She had done jackshit wrong and so, she was going to go full Gandhi.
Kayla gave her a questioning look, "Anything we should know?"
"Six months ago, I was abducted by aliens—" She was cut off, "An VY case?" Kayla's tone was in flux, somewhat caught off guard. That made Mira wonder if they didn't have access to her records, a thought that she quickly dismissed as impossible.
Ignoring the woman she contributed, "I was abducted by aliens and used as a battery. I got amnesia somewhere along the way. I don't remember my D.O.B. Looked it up in the intervening time but I can't, for the life of me remember right now."
The pair nodded. "That's certainly putting a downer on things then," The man said as he sat a bit straighter in his chair, "Can you tell us who all live with you?"
"Before all this, I was with my mum and dad in the cabin," She said pulling the water bottle to herself, unscrewing the cap and taking a shot.
"Right then," As Kayla penned it all down, Mira caught a hint of her lettering—they were noting down everything she was saying. "Let's hear your side of the story then," She said.
She let out a deep breath and bit her lips, her eyes pulled away from the duo. A show of guilt, they read. A sham it was. A sham that lasted for half an hour as she told her side of the story.
"So you stabbed him with your knife? You managed to get through bone and all?" The man asked his hand brows raised high.
"Machete," She said. Machete, not a knife, she killed him with a machete and if the pictures were anything to go by, she wasn't gentle with it.
"And the last two with their rifles?" He pressed. She nodded, sheepish, her lips had turned to frowns a long time ago and now they were working overtime. He put it down in his notes. "Felt anything afterwards?" He asked.
She pulled back for a moment, thinking of what to say, he let her, "I might have felt it, I don't know." Her eyes refused to meet theirs.
"Right then," His words were neutral still, not a care for what he had been told. Mira wondered if he felt nothing too, but no, they weren't her, they were better people. Well, not better, she decided, more socially acceptable. Not a high bar but still.
"I think that is enough for a preliminary check," Kayla said. "True enough," The man agreed.
"Can I go then?" Mira asked, her hands together on the table, her eyes holding a plea.
The man looked at Kayla as if he was waiting for her lead, and she led, "Don't skip town, you will be defending yourself in court soon enough. But for now, yes."
"For now," Mira repeated as if tasting the words. Then she stood. She was done with them. As they were with her.
Not with her grandparents though. Then she was sat in the waiting room by the officers as they processed the pair.
A waste of time, she thought as she felt the cold of the steel frame ripple through her clothes. Even blind men would see that they held none of the blame. And really, why was their interrogation taking more time than hers? She was the one with blood on her hands, not them.
"You okay kid?" A voice called out to her. She snapped to it. Hartway, she read his name tag.
"Yes."
"A lie," He said with a conviction he didn't feel. She looked fine to him. But that's not how you treat kids. He breathed through his teeth and crouched in front of her, "So, how do you feel?"
She breathed deeply, her hands rubbing together, "What do you want?"
He chuckled at that, "Nothing."
His eyes turned to level with her. And he could breathe no more. The eyes. The eyes were a deep burning red, devoid of any warmth or compassion, they were twin vortexes of embers raging around a cold void. Worse was the calm. The calm unmoving centrifuge assessed his very existence and decided it insignificant. There was no hate, no rage, no panic—just a chilling indifference that had decreed that his life and death were not even worth a decision.
She blinked. Suddenly he felt free—chains broken. Yet, his heart boomed in his ears and he lurched back, almost flailing on his back. Almost.
"You okay?" Her voice caught him and he looked back. Nothing. He saw nothing. Just two red eyes that were reflecting his. What the fuck?
"Ye-Yeah," He managed. Mira looked up at him like any child would, and he was stammering like an idiot. He pulled a hand to his collar and loosened it, marking his excuse, "Just a bit down, the weather's been killer for me."
"Weather?" She didn't buy it, he could tell but she let it go, "I suppose it's different for different people."
"True enough." He put up a smile, "Well then—"
"Mira," A voice called out to her and she turned. Her grandparents were coming. He could see the pair. More importantly, she could see them, her attention was on them and not him—he was out of sight, so, he fled. He fled with the demeanour of someone who needed to be somewhere right the fuck now.
But Mira didn't care.
She never did.
Hartway, felt from her the way he always felt when he was near danger—a sixth sense of sorts that had always saved his life.
Today, that sense was screeching.