NUMB

Day Forty-Nine (pt. 4) - Jet

Beck comes for me in the middle of my shift. He looks more pissed off than usual, his mouth a thin line and there's this vein on his forehead that's on the verge of bursting open. I smile at him, try to make a joke about how serious he looks, but he doesn't play along with it.

"Jet, you're gonna have to come with me." His fingers twitch where they're resting on the clip that keeps his stun gun on his belt. I eye it carefully before nodding.

"Sure. Is everything alright?"

"You know I can't answer that question."

I shrug. "Doesn't hurt to try."

Beck puts his hand on my shoulder, guides me towards the main doors of the Compound. Another Warden takes my place in the courtyard. We wait in the hall for the elevator to come down and once we're inside, Beck presses the button for the sixth floor. My heart stops for a beat. I knew this was coming, but it still makes my fingers go numb and my head go fuzzy.

I'd prepared for this. For something to go wrong with Elyse and Krysta's plan. I knew there was a chance it wouldn't work and I would be called in, but I still hope that this is just a "we need to take your version of the story" kind of deal.

///

"I told you, I don't know anything about it!"

"Listen, Jet, there's really no use in these blatant lies. We have you on video with the girl, so you have to know something about it."

I shake my head even while my heart drums harshly against my chest. "I swear, I don't know a thing. I don't care what you have on video, it's circumstantial. Anyone could be on video with her. Why are you talking to me about this?"

Beck presses a button on the desk, almost like he doesn't really want to but does it anyway. A screen comes down from the ceiling and an image is displayed on it. The room is dark, but there's enough light from the window to easily see what the video is showing. My gut twists uncomfortably, my heart beat slows to a painful thump, heavy in my chest. The me in the video climbs into the bed with Elyse.

It's weird, seeing myself from this angle. My fingers twitch as the video plays on and I see Elyse move closer to me. God, I can still feel her breath on my skin and I have to look away at the twist my stomach gives.

"Still going to deny being involved?"

"So I was in her bedroom. It's really not as big of a deal as you guys are making it out to be."

Beck looks to the other Warden, they have a conversation with their eyes and then they both turn their eyes on me. It's the other guy who talks though. "Care to explain what we're seeing here then?"

It's not hard to lie, I find. It's actually surprisingly easy to pull something off the top of my head to say about what is going on in that video. "It's exactly what it looks like, I can assure you. Maybe a slip of judgement on my end," There's an uptick of the corner of Beck's mouth and I know I'm on the right track here, "but I mean, look at her. She's attractive. Can you blame me? She didn't say no, so I thought there wasn't any harm in it."

The other Warden, I wish I could remember his name, doesn't say anything. He stares at me, his eyes digging their way into my mind, trying to find out whether or not I'm being honest with him.

"So this is purely physical on your end?"

"Yeah, I mean nothing happened between us in the end, you can watch the rest of the video if you want to."

Beck writes something down on his pad of paper and then looks back up at me. "So your relationship with this girl is?"

"It's not really a relationship. I mean, she's a Level Three. The conversation alone is pretty one sided." The lie sits in the pit of my stomach, makes a lump form in the base of my throat. I want to vomit. "It's one-hundred percent me trying to get some from a pretty girl. You can't tell me I'm the only one who's ever tried, right?"

The two of them share a look with one another. It's the kind of look that says, "Wanna tell him that we know he's bullshitting us right now?" and I know that I'm not as great of a liar as I think I am.