Retaliation: the beginning

Chapter 56: "Interrogation"

The basement looked like a wine cellar, there were ancient brackets for candles every few feet, but it has been so long since they were used that there wasn't even any waxy residue on them. Elias wrinkled his nose, it smelled musty but in the dim light provided by the single bare bulb that dangled from the ceiling he couldn't see any water seeping in.

At five foot seven he was hardly a giant but he had to keep his head bowed as he walked around it. It was larger than it seemed from the doorway, and there were some alcoves built in. Clay's eyes swiped the place before every step, Elias had noticed, and he wasn't the only one; Aaron was walking so slowly that he almost bumped into him when they stopped.

Elias looked up where the seer was chained into a chair; cautiously taking a few steps closer. She lifted her head to look at him then tried for a small smile "I was expecting you."

He frowned deeply pointing at himself "Who? Me?" he asked before he got interrupted by Clay.

"Were you waiting for this?" He started "Waiting for Isaac to get arrested, to get him out of the way."

The seer's smile tuned slightly into a smirk "Don't you think it's better than the fate he feared."

The way she phrased that made his shoulders tense. "Fate?" he echoed. "You mean the one you told him?"

Elias winced, loosing track of the conversation. "What fate? What is she talking about?"

"Well your father's death of course." The seer told him.

Isaac sneezed as he listened to the sheriff lecture him about his responsibilities as a father and how following Clay Tomson was getting him off the right path.

What does that even mean?? The man wondered, the sheriff must have them confused; because if someone is getting the other off the right path, it's Isaac himself ruining Clay's life.

And he knew it.

The sheriff didn't seem to be giving up after two hours of talking while his younger brother made fun of him, and the more he talked, the more Isaac realized how unaware he was of the situation.

First, he laid three pictures in front of him; two he didn't recognize and the third was Derek Jacobs, of course, he didn't tell him he knew him from the day they met at the seer's cave.

But he didn't have to say anything; the sheriff did all the talking. He told him that the first two pictures belonged to the Goodwin brothers; they were the center of the media attention a while ago. It was said that the Goodwin brothers killed three of their classmates; two freshmen and a senior. After crucial evidence was found condemning both of them, the two teenagers were found in their cells and the cause of death remained unknown.

However, Isaac knew the true story, he examined the bodies himself before the report even reached the sheriff himself. He concluded at the time that the Goodwin brothers were possessed by Darkans, Darkan demons were known to possess humans simmered with envy from the silliest thing, blinding their reason and it only made sense that they would kill the people infusing their jealousy. When they got arrested, the demons probably got bored and exited their bodies looking for another pray.

Isaac snorted to himself, typical, he thought.

"Are you laughing at me?!" The sheriff hissed making him almost fall of the chair he swung in two legs. "You're not in position to laugh!"

"I didn't do anything," Isaac repeated for the hundredth time "so unless you have something that says otherwise I'd like to go home."

"You will go when you help me understand why every unsolved murder in the past few years since the day you walked out of this town leads back to you!"

"Maybe if you did your job right, the unsolved would be solved wouldn't it?" Isaac retorted then he thought maybe if he continued to stare at him, he would give up and leave him alone.

But he didn't.

"If you're not saying anything I'm bringing down that Tomson guy too, I bet he's the master mind behind this," The sheriff said gathering the pictures he laid on the table earlier. "I wouldn't be surprised if he turned up to be a cold blooded serial killer."

Isaac wanted to launch himself across the flimsy table at his ignorant brother.

How dare he say that Clay wasn't a good person? That he murdered people? Well, granted, Clay was a killer, but not of people.

He had no idea of how many people Clay had saved over the last few years. How many evil things he had destroyed, Clay was the only reason why the town didn't turn into one of the valleys of hell. If he knew, he would have brought him to that lousy excuse for a sheriff station.

"Good luck with that." He managed to say after the sheriff stormed out of the room and came back again with a pen and a notebook.

"You have thirty minutes," he said placing the objects in front of Isaac "last chance to spill what you've got."

Isaac rolled his eyes "Already told ya." He said, he had already found 3 ways out of that room, without even thinking about it. The only thing stopping him was not knowing what was going on with this murder case and how he got involved.

"No, this time I want every detail you know about Clay Tomson." The sheriff told him "If you cooperate, I'll let you go."

He wants me to turn against Clay? Fill in some blanks for the police report? Isaac again restrained himself again from attacking the man looming over him and shifted in his chair.

So he decided to play along and 'fill in some blanks'. When he saw him restrain a little smile as he seemingly gave into his questioning, he looked down at the table as he started the bullshit story.