Terror Chronicles 1: Chapter 6

Chapter 6

I pulled a chair from one of the tables in Jaco's holdout, then spun it in front of his bleeding form, smirking to myself as it stopped perfectly, like the very clichinterrogation scenes in the movies.

Imagine my dismay and disappointment when I sat down on the chair, and realized I had nothing to interrogate him about. Awkward silence fell over the five of us, minus the unconscious thugs that spread out around the room. Jaco, with his slick black hair and tattooed face, laughed out loud, then immediately wheezed in pain, spitting blood out of his mouth.

"Ok, no, I'm sorry. Samantha, switch with me. I don't know what to say." I finally said, getting out of the chair with a shake of my head. Jaco grinned smugly, eying Samantha as she waltzed over into the darker corner of the room, before grunting in pain when she punched him hard in the eye. This time, it was Samantha's turn to laugh, taking her seat as the rightful interrogator. I took out my water bottle and took a sip as she set herself down.

Jaco continued to grin. "You people have no idea who you're dealin' with. The Hounds will find you and make you wish you were dead."

"Is that disassociation I hear? You're saying you're not with the Hounds, so we must've attacked the wrong fortress filled to the brim with weapons and kidnapped girls, right?" Samantha scooped up a gun on the floor to her right, holding it by the grip and dangling it in front of Jaco, before flinging it across the room, hitting an unconscious thug in the head. "Nah. I think we got the right guy."

I looked over to Daniel and Rose, who were watching the interrogation from behind Jaco's line of sight with wariness. They had decided that we, the younger generation, should be the ones to perform the interrogation, in case we ever needed the skills again in the future. Rose disagreed, naturally, but it was three versus one.

Truth be told, I didn't particularly liked what I was seeing. It wasn't that I hated beating up on guilty crime members, but that I had to continue beating them up after they had very obviously lost the battle. Seeing Jaco tied up on that chair, blood dripping off his body and the unconscious bodies around the floor made me shiver.

However, if Daniel thinks it's the right thing to do, then maybe it's alright.

Besides, these guys were the bad kind. We barged into the warehouse with Raixien guns and light tapped everyone with it, expecting everyone to be prepared and armed. To our surprise, we'd cleared out over half the warehouse before a single Earth-made gun was even lifted, and we'd easily made it all the way to Jaco's office to finish off the last of his people.

Jaco spat out a wad of coagulated blood, and I flinched in the background. Jaco noticed this, and he grinned savagely at me. "Afraid of a little blood, boy? I thought we were passin' a good time."

"Look, I'm only half sorry about doing this, but we want to get this over with." I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could, then flung my water bottle at his face, which bounced off rather harmlessly, save for a quiet groan that came from Jaco. I inched forward and grasped his right cheek, not bothering to go lightly on him, and coaxed my healing energy into him.

Go.

Jaco gasped as his wounds and bleeding orifices stopped bleeding. I let out a small breathe of air, then managed a reserved smile. "Now how did I do that? Do you see what we can do now? We can beat you over and over again, and I can simply heal you back to health. How's that for an interrogation." I said with obvious distaste, but to our luck, Jaco didn't seem to notice my hesitation. His eyes were instead focused on his peripheral, then narrowed.

"You wouldn't like what my friend here can do, eh? Well, then you really wouldn't like what I can do to you, buddy." Samantha swivelled her chair right in front of Jaco's face. He didn't move his head back. "All you have to do is answer my question within the first ten seconds, then we'll let you go: Have you seen this guy around here somewhere? And don't lie to my face, since I know you guys have. I want to know where."

Jaco looked up at her defiantly. "I don't know what you're talking about, cher. Maybe you really got the wrong guy."

Samantha sighed heavily, then flung her gun open and shot him once in the leg, not bothering to light tap the trigger for the stun ammunition. Jaco winced loudly in pain, and my eyes widened, surprised at the awful brutality that Samantha is showing. I pulled her out from her chair and behind Jaco, where Rose and Daniel resided, still watching us with calm and focused eyes.

"What the crap, Samantha? We don't shoot people with live rounds, not even when we're interrogating people!" I whispered angrily to her, but Samantha only frowned, still holding her gun by her index finger.

"Then how do you want to get answers from this scumbag? He won't surrender quietly, so we might as well just shoot him while we're at it." She aimed at his other leg behind him again, but I slapped her gun down just as the live round went off again. She growled at my interference, and scowled at me with narrowed eyes. "Why'd you do that? It's not like he was gonna die anyways! It was a leg shot, and you could heal him, like you said." She said pointedly, but I shook my head.

"That was just an idle threat, and you know it. I couldn't heal him forever without burning myself out first. Besides, what if you had missed and shot an artery or something? You suck at biology."

"Think again, dummy. I passed biology, but that's not the point. I know what I'm doing. I'm the interrogator, not you. So just get your ass back into your chair, and I'll get the answers out of him."

A quiet laughter erupted from Jaco's mouth, and all of us stopped talking. I could see him shaking his head in dismay, having overheard our conversation. "You don't have the stomach to hurt people, do you?" I said nothing, and Jaco pressed on, arching his head backwards in an attempt to look at me. "I'm talking to you, boy. You're not strong enough."

"I have the power to heal you."

"It don' madda'. Healing is easy for a freak like you, but hurting is an all different matter. You can't hurt people like I can. You're not strong enough." Jaco sneered, and I gritted my teeth, grinding them hard enough to make a screeching sound in my ears. This thug was getting on my nerve, and yet I couldn't find it in myself to strike him again. I told myself it was only my bruised fist, but maybe it was simply much simpler.

Samantha replied first by shooting Jaco's other leg, causing him to scream out in pain. I winced, but said nothing as Samantha slowly walked back in front of Jaco, showing him her demented grin. "But you don't really have to worry about him. He's the healer, not the fighter. I'm the one you should worry about, and maybe you should start thinking about telling me where the hell you people saw him last!" She yelled that last part, with such force the glass on a table top started shaking.

Jaco's face suddenly went from defiant to hesitant. I walked towards him, staring straight into his eyes, and saw fear. Fear of what not I will do to him, but of what Samantha might do to him if he did not cooperate. From her still dangling pistol to his fearful eyes, I knew that all we needed to do was give him a slight little boost.

Was I willing to beat him up even more? Was I willing to hurt even him more? If I did this, we'll get the answers we need to help my Other.

There was no other way.

I breathed in deeply, then shoved his chair to the side, letting it thud to the floor. Jaco grunted, and I saw Samantha's surprised eye in my periphal vision as I knelt down next to Jaco. "You really don't want mess with her, buddy. You have one last chance." Then I lifted him back up, and gave him a disguised smile. "I suggest you cooperate, and we'll leave you be."

Jaco looked from me to the still grinning Samantha, then finally chuckled. "Hm. I suppose you leave me no choice, then." His accent suddenly disappeared, replaced by a very smooth and dark voice. He looked up into my eyes, and I saw a flash of yellow.

He rasped. Daniel and Rose lunged forward.

"Raixien."