The Watch – Part 244:

(Tom’s perspective)

I was pulled out of my sleep when someone splashed a bucket of freezing cold water all over my face, forcing its way up my nose and into my mouth, causing me to cough and open my eyes. That’s when I found myself dangling with my arms strung up above me with ropes.

After regaining my breath back, Dr Amanda stepped forward.

‘Being immune to those chemicals is a bit of an inconvenience. It appears we have to find other ways to get those answers from you,’ she said blankly. I remained silent. There was nothing I wanted to say.

She continued, ‘we only asked a fraction of the questions we want answered, and I’ve got as long as it takes. I understand that you are waiting for someone to come and collect you, but you don’t know when he is arriving, which means I don’t know when he is arriving,’ she stepped to the right of me, just out of my main vision and into my peripheral. I turned my head to see what she was doing, and I watched as she picked up a hammer and twirled it around her hands before setting it back down again next door to a few other devices. She was clearly threatening me with what will happen if I don’t talk. ‘Which means,’ she concluded, ‘I had better act quickly. Now, if I am going to act quickly, that may mean you will hate this so much more than you would have if I was allowed to work at my normal speed, so you had better talk now or…’ and that was all she needed to say. I knew what she meant.

‘You really think torture is the best solution,’ I said as strong as I could.

‘I’ve already explained that you didn’t want to… let’s say participate in our first plans, so you really give us no choice in what we must do. If you are going to be this awkward with everything that I say, you really are not going to like this.

‘How do you know that this won’t work either?’ I asked.

‘Well, now that you’ve mentioned it, we don’t, but like before, we tried it.’ What can I say to make her change her mind? I really don’t want her to do this, but I don’t want to talk either. I know that I didn’t care less whether I did or not before, but how can I be sure that it wasn’t the chemicals making that decision for me.

‘What will you do if I agree to tell you everything I have?’ I asked in a desperate voice.

‘We have to believe you first,’ she said.

‘So even if I agree to tell you everything, you’re still going to go through with this to make sure that I wasn’t lying. That’s disturbing, even for you.’

She stepped forward. ‘You know nothing of me to make that statement. You dare try and get inside my head with your words. You may say that you will give me what I want, but those words could mean nothing just to make us untie you. You haven’t asked me whether we’re going to let you go once you have given us what we want.’

‘I don’t have to. I already know that answer,’ I said.

She just smiled, ‘then give us what we want.’ Now she is trying to be clever. She’s trying to make me think that I will be let go after I’ve given her all the answers, but I know that she won’t. I don’t know how long I can keep this talking going before she starts. I can tell that she is trying to wait until I’ve ran out of things to say before she gets bored.

‘Now, your friend. You said that he would only be dangerous if we got in his way. Does he know how dangerous we can be if he gets in our way?’

Oh, she has no idea. But, there is one thing that doesn’t add up.

‘How do you know what I said if I said all that stuff in a dream?’ I asked. Again, she smiled.

‘We have our ways,’ she answered vaguely. ‘This is a secret organisation; we have access to certain pieces of technology that so many people dream about having. I am really intrigued as to what technology you have over in your universe, that is, if you are telling the truth about being in another universe. For all I know, you could be making all of this up to grab as much attention as you can, hence the procedures.’

‘You can’t be serious that I am making this all up. You have advanced technology way beyond anything the general public has but you don’t have the basic lie detector tests?’

‘The results came back inconclusive, if you must know.’

‘And when did you do this test.’

‘Again, we have our ways.’

‘Then why don’t you do it the simplest way then. Would the results be inconclusive then?’

‘Nice try, Tom, nice try, but I am not untying you until I have what I want.’ She truly is demonic. I thought Zaylor was mad, but she takes the biscuit and eats it, as well as the cake. I can’t believe she got people working for her. They must be either brainwashed somehow or just as insane. In a twisted way, I hope that she isn’t the one that is administering the strikes, because, if she is just as brainwashed as her employees, then it is no fault of her own, but if she is doing this all herself, then there may be no hope for her recovery.

‘You appear to be a little vacant, are you getting bored?’ she asked, walking back over to the table where the equipment laid.

‘All I am going to say,’ I said, wanting to make sure that I said this correctly with no stumbles, ‘is when he arrives and sees what you did to me, there is no place, no time, no universe where he won’t be able to find you.’ That was a bit of a lie, but it did make her respond in silence.

‘Then we shall begin,’ she said, picking up the hammer once more.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)