Things that doesn't wash away - Dead Logic

The interrogation room of the police station was smaller than Shinichi thought it would be. Shinichi had expected it to be bigger. This room was really tiny. It was nothing Shinichi had in mind when he thought about a place where police officers ask people a lot of questions. Shinichi looked around the interrogation room.

This place was not tiny in a way but it was small because it was meant to be that way. The walls were white. They had some light scratches on them where the chairs had rubbed against them too hard. There was a table in the middle of the room. The table was a rectangle shape. Two chairs were on sides of the table one chair was a little closer to the door than the other chair. A light bulb was glowing on the ceiling. The air had a smell that was a bit like disinfectant and also like old books.

The police officer was a middle- man who sat across from him. His face was very calm. His eyes were the kind of eyes that had seen a lot of things. The police officer had seen people panic times before so he knew what it looked like. He could recognize the patterns of panic in people.

"Listen boy, you are safe here." the officer said, his voice was even. "Take a breath first. There is no rush to do anything. Take your time and tell me what happened to you? What about this gang you are talking about?"

The man slid a cup of water across the table to the person who was really thirsty. The glass of water was what the person needed at that moment.

"Drink some water. Then start from the beginning."

Shinichi nodded. He took a breath. Then he took another one. His hands had been shaking before. They stopped shaking when he put them together under the table. He clasped his hands together tightly under the table. The breaths he took were long breaths. His hands were steady now.

"Drink water? Given by police? Never. Police rooms are designed to make people slip, right? Isn't it? Nothing in this room is neutral. That is pretty clear when you look around the room.This chair I am sitting on, is angled just enough to make me lean forward when I speak. The light is really bright and above my head which means…they can see my expressions clearly. My fingerprint, my DNA…they will get it all with that glass."

Shinichi thought.

The water just stayed there it was completely untouched. Shinichi believed it might be used that way. Even though his throat burned, he avoided the glass.

Shinichi spoke, lowering his voice,"I was taken by people who're part of a street gang. They told me that I owed them money. When I refused, they captured me and…took me in that place. I got to know that they were working under another large underground gang."

The officer kept listening and wrote something down.

"They locked me in that basement. That was a scary place. There were people down there with me. I think something bad happened between the people who locked me in. They started yelling at each other. Then they started hitting each other. After that I heard gunshots. They were shooting at each other."

His voice faltered for a moment, "When I got out the people were all dead. The people I am talking about were all dead."

The officers pen just stopped moving.

"You did not touch anything?" he asked, shifting his eyes towards Shinichi from the notebook.

Shinichi shook his head. He said "I was really scared of the situation. I just got up. Ran away from that place."

The officer looked at the him for a second longer than he needed to then he moved the water a little bit closer to him again. The officer did this so Shinichi could reach the water easily. The water was now closer to him.

He said to me "You are shaking," and he said it in a gentle way.

Shinichi smiled a little. He said "I will drink later."

The officer did not insist.

Shinichi stepped out into the night after everything was said and done. There were a lot of questions. None of them were really answered. The station doors closed behind Shinichi with a sound as if they were closed for good.

___

Home was lit. That alone made his chest feel a little better. It was not as tight, as before his chest loosen slightly.

His mother was in the kitchen. She was standing by the stove with her sleeves rolled up and her hair was loosely tied. When she heard the door open she turned around to see who it was. His mother looked at the door then she looked at her son, the person who had just walked in. The kitchen was warm and cozy and the smell of food was coming from the stove where his mother was cooking.

She finally found him. Said "There you are." Then she took a look at his face.

The smile, on her face went away fast. The smile just disappeared like that.

"Where were you? You made me really worried."

Shinichi was taking off his shoes. He was doing it really slowly. Too slowly.

"Put that plate away from your hand will ya? Then I will tell you." Shinichi said.

His mother did as he said so and eagerly waited to hear his words.

"I was taken away against my will. Someone kidnapped me."

The word sounded really strange when he said it out loud. It was just too heavy, for that hallway. The word itself was what sounded strange.

She looked at him waiting for him to say something.. He did not say anything. Her hands started to shake a little. The woman was waiting for the joke for the part but Shinichi did not give her the punchline.

"What are you talking about? Kidnapped?" she asked in a lowered voice, still refusing to believe, "Who did this to you?"

"I somehow escaped and went to the police…"

That only made the woman more scared. She was really afraid. The plate washing sponge fell to the floor as she loosened her grip because of the shock. There could have been a plate in the place of that sponge. It would have been completely shattered. That's why Shinichi said to put the plate by side beforehand.

"Why didn't you call me after that? You were in such a danger…" she asked,

"Because they took my phone." Shinichi immediately reacted..

She gave him a hug before he could even say anything else. For a moment Shinichi just stopped moving.

___

Shinichi went to his room upstairs. The room was really dark when he walked in. He could not see a thing in his room.

He did not turn the light on. He lay on the bed with all his clothes on looking at the ceiling where faint shapes moved as cars passed outside. He just kept staring at the ceiling.

The basement was always there. Every time he closed his eyes the basement came back, to him. He could not get the basement out of his mind. The basement was a place that he did not want to think about. Every time he closed his eyes the basement came back.

The smell of blood.The echo of gunshots bouncing off concrete.

The way peoples bodies fell was not really dramatic, it was actually pretty awkward. They fell like puppets whose strings had been cut the way. It looked really strange like bodies falling down without any control, like the people were puppets and something had gone wrong with the strings that were holding them up.

He swallowed. His heart was beating fast then it got slower then it started beating really fast again.

"This is really nothing," he said, consoling himself. He thought about it. He still felt that this situation was nothing. He thought that this is really nothing.

"People kill people all the time. It is a sad thing that happens in the world. People are killing people and it is just something that we hear about every day." Shinichi kept telling in his mind.

The thought did not comfort the boy. He was still feeling really bad about the situation. This thought was not helping him to feel any better. The thought was actually making him feel worse, about what was going on with the thought.

He turned onto his side. Pulled the blanket up. Then he pushed the blanket away again because the blanket felt too tight around him. The blanket was really bothering him. He did not like the way the blanket felt. He pushed the blanket away. That felt better.

"I didn't tell a lie to the police. The police had asked me some questions. I told them the truth."

That line once crossed, it does not go back to the way it was before. The line does not uncross itself. Shinichi stared into the dark until the sky outside began to lighten, wondering when exactly his life had slipped into something that no amount of washing would ever make clean again.

Chapter 39 - Things that doesn't wash away