Witnesses (Part 2)

Happy Friday! This is the second in a series I'm writing so if you haven't read the first one please do here and please follow me if you enjoy reading my work.

The next thing I knew I was looking at a blank white wall. My head was pounding but when I went to lift my hand to hold it I couldn’t. Immediately I was concerned for the use of my limbs I could feel them moving but they only struggled against what felt like metal. Even my head was pinned by this immobilizing material.

Panic coursed through my entire body but I just breathed deeply though my nose as my eyes darted around the room for some semblance of an answer to all the questions spinning my head faster than the drugged hangover was.

I never noticed the pounding in my ears until the screeching whine of a metallic door popping off of its frame as it opened entered them. It was like a thousand cats screaming at once along with my heart trapped in my head. I closed my eyes to get my bearing back while the mysterious person shut it.

“Mr. Forsythe, I hope you’re comfortable.”

I opened my eyes to the gleaming teeth of a suited man. His glasses reflected the only light behind me and pierced through to the pounding, only making my head worse.

“Don’t worry,” he said cheerfully at my slight flinch, “that will wear off in a little bit. But I could make it worse for you. Do you have an answer for me?”

“And what would that answer go with?” I was surprised at the faintness of my speech. The air scratched against the chords on its way through, like I hadn’t used them in a long time, or used them too much.

His smile broadened as if this was a pleasant conversation among old friends. “What did you see out in the dessert?”

His words ran together and, against the drumming in my temples, it was near impossible to decipher what he actually said. “What?” As soon as the word was out of my mouth a pinching shock ran through my body, almost like tiny needles were pushing into my skin. I heard a scream come from somewhere in the room. I was concerned for whoever was making it. Then I was out of breath and hunching as well as my shackles would allow.

“I’m not going to ask again.” His tone was suddenly disapproving. “What did you see in the desert, exactly?”

“My wife and I were driving from our honeymoon. I don’t remember what all happened.” I shook my head as well as possible to get rid of the haze that surrounded it, desperate to remember the answer to his question so he wouldn’t torture that poor person again.

“Mrs. Forsythe made a phone call at the diner you and she stopped at. What was that about?”

“Jean.” Yes, Jean. What was it she called about? She was so desperate to do it. Was it her mother? No, there was something else. Why else would I be strapped to something in a cold blank room?

“Mrs. Forsythe is just fine. You and she can get along with the rest of your vacation as soon as we’re done here.” He disappeared behind me while he spoke. “And that depends solely on you.”

“I was filling the car while she ran for the phone. Then we sat down to eat.” What happened before that? The fog was lifting slightly.

“What happened before that? William, this is important. For your country, for your wife, you have to remember.” He appeared again, suit jacket gone to reveal suspenders against his white shirt. In his hand was some kind of device. “I don’t want to use this.” The grin on his face said otherwise.

“We were driving. We had gone to, damn where did we go?”

“Corpus Christi.” He answered helpfully.

“Yes, and we were coming back through New Mexico. Desert.” My forehead wrinkled against the strain of trying to remember. “Blank endless miles of desert. I saw something odd. I remember Jean saying she was hungry and didn’t want to stop. She didn’t trust my new car, damn woman.”

“Go on, William, you’re almost there, I can feel it.”

I could too. Dark images were in place of what I really needed to see. My tongue scraped against the roof of my mouth. I was dry and it was like cardboard. I coughed. Thankfully the gentleman placed a paper cup to my lips. The back of my head told me not to drink it but my body was so desperate for refreshment. I gulped down the liquid that tasted like water as fast as he could tip it into my mouth.

Once the cup was away from my lips I felt so much better, my head was clearer and hurt so much less. I thought back to the dark figures in the desert. “These two people, one male and the other female, were jumping too high. I saw them from the highway in the distance. At first I thought it was grasshoppers closer to the side of the road but when I focused back on them they were much further away and much bigger.”

I focused back on my interrogator, fueled by his promise of release. “I stopped the car and went as far as I dared to see them. By the time I got there they were done jumping but the cliff I was on was hundreds of feet high. How could they jump that high?

“Then I saw light stream out of their hands. The rocks it hit burst like dynamite was inside. Jean convinced me that she should call someone at the next stop. I didn’t want to stop for a long time but we needed gas and it was close to meal time anyway so we stopped at that café.”

“Do you think you could describe them?”

“I don’t think I could forget them. They looked human but they were doing things that humans shouldn’t be able to do. They both had dark hair. Actually except the different sex they looked almost identical, like twins. I wasn’t too close to them so I couldn’t decipher their exact features but I would be able to pick them out on the street.”

 “Thank you, William, we will be in touch soon.” A soothing sensation crept up my arm and I became drowsy. I fought against it. I wanted to stay awake. Who knows what other nightmare I might wake to the next time?