The Turing Test

Chapter 1

April

"Can somebody please tell me what's going on here?"

Shaking legs. Fidgeting hands. Averted gazes. Silence. The clock behind our heads seems to grow louder with each tick.

The man straightens his uniform, "Alright, so none of you are going to explain how your friend ended up in here? Not one person knows? Or, is it just that you don't want to tell me?"

My eyes wander down to the blood on my shirt. They stay fixated on that one crimson stain for a long time. Images of the body flying out of the car windshield replay in my head to the incessant sound of ticking from the clock on the wall.

"Was there alcohol involved? Is that why you're not telling me?"

Kai looks up and meets the officer's stare, his swollen eye making him look even more intense, "No."

I exchange glances with Wes, who's sitting in the chair to my left. Jimmy just stares at the wall with glazed-over eyes. None of us add anything to what Kai says.

The officer exhales gruffly, and gets up to walk around the other side of the desk. The disheveled office is too small for the six of us. He sits down in the swivel chair, and as it bounces underneath his weight, he begins to sift through papers on the desk. He reads them with a furrowed brow, and then starts, "I'm just going to tell you what I've been told, so we can make sense of this together. Last night, April 5th, you were all at a party. Is that correct?"

We nod in unison.

"So what happened? How did your friend....Dean Reynolds, correct? How did he end up here, and how did you all end up looking like this?"

I glance over at Kai with his black eye, purple and swollen. I see the cuts on Klara's forehead. In my peripheral vision, Wes wipes blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. Jimmy still has red stains on his arms from the blood, and like me, it's all over his shirt.

The officer stands up from his seat, and plants his hands on the desk, "Someone better speak up. If you won't tell me what happened, this could get ugly. We'll have investigators, and the entire police department will get on this case. I need information so we can make this easy, do you understand?"

"Please," Jimmy adjusts his glasses. "Can we just see him?"

"Once you start talking, yes."

"You can't hold us in here against our will. You can't force us to say anything, we don't have to tell you anything," Wes ticks with frustration.

"Do you think this is some kind of game?" the officer leans forward, and I feel everyone beside me tense up.

The clock ticks behind us.

"I'm not sure you realize how serious this situation-"

"It was just an accident," Kai growls.

The officer turns to Kai. "Just an accident? It was just an accident? Then how come your friend is in the other room with fifteen broken bones, a cracked skull, and internal bleeding? Does that sound like just an accident to you? If I ask your friend Dean, do you think he'll say it was just an accident?"

Kai's knuckles are white as he grips the arms of his chair. Jimmy's whole body shakes, his jaw clenched forcefully.

"What, do you not care? Your friend is dying in this hospital, and you're just going to sit here with your mouths sealed shut?"

"He's not dying," I murmur.

"What?" The officer's eyes lock with mine. Everyone looks at me, and suddenly it's like there's not a sound in the room.

"It wasn't like that," is all I say, and then look back down at my blood-stained shirt.