Witness [A First Contact Romance]

4. First Friend On Earth

Earth

2017

Rory had lost track of time.

General Price pressed a wet cloth to her forehead and pushed her hair back from her face. It was his first time coming to see her since the interrogation began.

"I'm sorry, Rory." His voice was heavy.

Her vision swam. She'd expected something different than drugs and disorientingly loud music, like physical pain. Strangely, Rory thought she might have been better equipped for that. The unsettling feeling of the medication gave her the chills.

All she could think about was how she told them to get it over with. What kind of person would react the way she had? Familiar. Rory knew suffering and she knew not to expect anyone to show her mercy. But why?

She hated being a mystery to herself.

Fire ran through her veins, rushing into her from the IV hanging over her head. The general had turned off the awful music that had played on repeat and dimmed the harsh overhead lights, but her heart was still pounding out of her chest and her thoughts were hard to catch. The drugs had stolen her mind from her. What little of her mind she had, at least.

At some point she'd realized they were trying to keep her from being able to lie and then track the lies. All the details they asked, the way they rephrased the same questions, and did so with her under the influence, seemed like they wanted to catch her red-handed.

Rory wasn't lying though.

"Did you remember anything?" He asked.

She'd apparently trained with their guns, but that would not lessen her suffering to say. "No." Rory met the general's eyes, searching for truth, because she had so few places to look for it.

"The way you've handled yourself is reminiscent of someone who's been interrogated before, or trained to resist it."

"I don't understand any of this." Sobs that she couldn't release thickened her voice. "I'm broken into pieces that don't fit together."

"You've studied Earth and you're experienced with interrogation. Yet you're here alone with nothing at your disposal. It's seemingly more and more likely that you're a refugee. The alternative, that you're a trained specialist, worries me."

"Me too." Crazy enough, it did worry her. This wasn't her planet but it was full of people who didn't deserve what could be coming. The phantom pain of an unknown past stoked her fear for this planet.

"We truly are just children." Her voice cracked. "Children beating each other with sticks. Such nonsense. I wonder if we learned from our parents... Or if they grew past our ways..."

She thought General Price was going to speak again, but he only turned and left her alone in this room. Left her broken beneath the weight of more pain than she could comprehend.