The Forest's Secrets

Chapter Twelve: Yes?

After the girl had put the shirt back on again, Jamie Brooks opened the door. He lead her down a small hallway with doors in even rows on both sides. At a door near the end, he stopped and took out a key.

Eli studied the door, it seemed heavy. She could see that it was made out of metal, with bars in a body-height window in the middle of the door.

"Interesting design", she said, as the officer opened the door.

"How come?", the man questioned.

"This room is like the letter 'I'", the girl answered.

"What's that supposed to mean?", Brooks asked. He was tired and not in the mood for jokes.

Yet, Eli still smiled at him, as she replied:"Everyone is being 'I', there's as many 'I's as there's creatures on this planet. But every 'I' is unique."

"Just get to bed", Officer Brooks growled and pushed the girl into the small room with a thin bed and a chair.

The door closed shut behind her and the man left without anther word. It was dark in the room, the only light was coming from somewhere beyond the hall. Eli sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed.

With a deep breath, the girl let down her shoulders and her jaw unclenched. Her slouched position got straight, and she faced the door, waiting for security to make his rounds.

She didn't wait for long either, a few long and silent minutes later quiet steps sounded down the hall, stopping every now and then. Eli leaned her back onto the cold wall behind her and closed her eyes to listen. By the pattern of his steps she guessed that he was probably stopping at every door to check if everything was alright.

As he came closer, Eli stood up and stepped up to the door.

"What are you doing up, it's lights out", he hissed as he saw her standing there.

"Brooks just brought me", she replied calmly.

The man sighed and responded:"Well then scram. It's night and you're supposed to sleep. You're not getting out and I'm not letting you out."

Eli scoffed and asked:"Do you really think you could hold me in here?"

"Yes", the man replied confident," I don't care where you've gotten out of already, this'll be the last time you'll try."

With that he turned around and took a few steps, as Eli kept talking:"You can't hold me here."

The man scoffed and turned around, but immediately froze with shock. The girl he had just seen behind the bars now stood in the hall.

"How did you do that?", the officer said loudly, getting his gun off his belt and pointing it at Eli.

The girl heard rummaging behind many of the doors now, only a few stayed quiet. She heard the man cock his gun, she heard people gasp.

Then she got shot. Or well, there was blood everywhere. The man still stood there, his anger had turned to fear, his hands shook. There was blood on the walls of the hallway, on a few of the closest doors, some even in the cells, if the rain of blood had passed the bars of the window. There was blood on the ceiling and Eli.

As the man shot again, nothing happened. The bullet past the girl by more than an inch.

The blood that was splattered across the hall wasn't from the security guy or Eli, both of them were in the same condition as before. There was a stain of blood on the front of the girls shirt, but she shook it off as Brooks being unable to handle anything when tired, much less bandages.

Eli turned and a moment later was gone. The man didn't see her open the door of the cell, he also didn't hear it. But as he rushed to see what was going on, Eli sat on the corner of her bed, stretching.

"How did you do that?", the man yelled at her.

The girl laid down and replied:"I went out, I went back inside again."

Before the nightguard could get a chance to reply, the girl turned her back on him.

"We're not done yet", he growled. But as there was no reply, he thought the girl must have fallen asleep, and decided to keep going after his routine.

The sun went up just a few hours later. As Jamie Brooks came to pick the girl up early in the morning, Eli had trouble holding back her laughter. The man looked as if he had just fallen out of bed, Eli on the opposite as if she had a good night's sleep and plenty of time to get ready.

"Why do you look so awake?", Brooks asked. The man's voice was slow and raspy, everyone would be able to tell that he was tired.

"Because I am", the girl replied as the officer lead her down the hall and into the room with the mirror again.

Gesturing to the chair facing the mirror, Jamie sat down in front of the seat designated to Eli. The girl sat down slowely, unsure of what was about to happen next.

Jamie started:"Elisa, we will talk about what happened with Fate, what has been going on in the past two weeks and what happened last night. Where do you want to start?"

"My name", the girl replied stoic.

"What about your name?", the man asked unbothered.

The girl took a deep breath and said:"Call me Eli, or I wouldn't mind Waters. Just not the whole deal, please."

"Why is that?", Brooks kept asking, mildly interested.

After a few silent moments, Eli replied quietly:"It's androgynous."

"Why do you want your name to be androgynous?"

"It just, it feels better?", the girl replied. She sounded unsure.

Brooks decided to ignore that and now asked:"Ok, that is out of the way. Now, what happened with Fate?"

"Nothing you wouldn't know of."

"Tell me everything again."

Eli groaned and said:"Fine. We're in the same class, always have been, and she went missing. Then she got back, and I wanted to help, but she apparently saw whoever kidnapped her in me, which is basically impossible, then I suddenly was under suspicion of murder. That made my dad angry and I stood home for two weeks. Then ya'll wanted me here for whatever reason and after that I went into the forest, where I hurt myself in some sort of way, and I found you working at that funny little cabin. Now we're here."

The room was quiet for a few heartbeats, until Brooks continued:"That's all of today's topics in short. But we'll need more detail. Let's start with yesterday, how did you get hurt?"

After the officer finished his question, it was silent again for a bit.