Seen

9.

When Jake finally emerged from the interrogation room about an hour later, he looked as if he was on the verge of puking.

He did..

After he'd cleaned up and got to feeling more like himself, they ordered us to go back into the dark room together this time.

I was getting tired with all the questions at this point and decided to let Jake take over the answering this time.

"Where are your parents exactly? You both mentioned them before but where are they right now?" The man with the suit started up again.

"They're...they're dead. My moms still at my house and his mom should be back at his house too." Jake answered slowly, while looking down at the table.

"Are you making this up?" The doubting cop asked but he actually sounded like he believed us for once. Or maybe he just likes Jake more than me.

Jake started making sounds suddenly and I looked over at him. His shoulders were heaving and low quiet sobs were escaping from his direction.

He was crying. I'd never seen him cry before.

It was my fault. If I hadn't dragged him into this, his mom would have still been here and he wouldn't have to be here right now.

"Alright, alright. I'm listening. Both of you tell me your own stories on how your own parent died. Okay?" He actually sympathized.

We nodded before blurting out our own sides and parts and without interrupting, the cop listened thoroughly.

After containing all we had said, he explained what was next.

"Alright, perfect. I'll take my crew to the lab and we'll do some scans on our victim to try to identify him. We'll see if your stories add up. By the way, don't feel bad. It's not like we don't trust you, we just need to be our absolutely surest. Just sit tight for now." He stood.

He called in a women using the name Maggie to address her.

She appeared in the door way moments later. Her face was flawless and her hair was long, black, and straight. She had sunglasses a top her head and a fitting dress. Her figure was perfect.

She smiled at me and I lost it.

Jake saw where this was leading and took it upon himself to pull me out of my daze.

I hadn't even noticed we were supposed to follow her until he started pulling me along.

She led us into the lobby and behind the front desk. I'm not sure why but when we were behind the main desk, it felt like we weren't supposed to be there.

There was a door behind it, an office looking place with a desk and beanbag chairs.

The room had a tv with a very large screen hanging in the corner of the wall but the best part, was that she had snacks.

Maggie had already set up the beanbags in front of the tv and stacked snacks upon snacks in between them.

She turned on the T.V and handed me the remote.

Finally! A remote!

***

As we relaxed for the first time in two days, I realized that I never really knew what being tired and stressed felt like.

My mom was gone, my friends mom was gone because of me but yet two twelve year olds managed to escape the murderer who killed both of them.

The thought gave me the strength to not feel sorry for myself.

I look over at Jake.

As I see him laughing as his eyes were locked on the screen, I can't help but smile and thank God he was here.