Duke paused for a moment, glancing at the woman again after she spoke his face showed surprise at the words of the middle-aged woman and realised that something was wrong with her.
She had done something earlier when she had scuffed her boots on the floor, but he had been so focused on her face and body language that he hadn’t paid attention to her feet. The air felt colder for a moment, his breath increased slightly when he finally noticed it.
Magic. Real-life magic. The rules guide me. Cheers mum.
It was her black leather boots; they weren’t touching the ground but floating above it slightly. Her feet weren’t touching the ground. His breath sharpened as he breathed in hard, and his hands felt sweaty for a moment as he wondered how she did that trick. Something softly stroked his mind as though to calm him down. A simple magic trick, nothing to be impressed by came a feeling from deep within him. His breath slowed, realising that whatever trick the woman had used to levitate it was still nothing special. Until she began to float around the concrete floor.
The rules. Follow the rules. Duke firmly told himself. He needed to keep a firm grasp on reality. To panic was to create fear, and that led to unintended consequences. A normal person would show signs of panic and gasp at this point. He felt a sense of curiosity and a vague familiarity. It reminded him of
Duke instead smiled at the woman. He tried his best to come across as a personable and friendly human being. If he did that then she wouldn’t become annoyed and this whole matter would be dealt with promptly. At times like this, he wishes that his mentor was still around, but she had left some time ago.
The woman showed traces of annoyance on her face at the lack of reaction from the young man. She decided to try a different approach to see if it would shake him up and get a decent reaction.
‘Would you like to know a secret Duke?’
He responded calmly with a toothless smile on his face. With his hands resting on his lap he tried his best to portray a relaxed and comfortable posture.
‘No, thank you, ma’am.’
‘You really should know it. A closed mind is like a book that has never been read before.’
‘I do not know that phrase but I will try and remember it for the future. Thank you ma’am.’
‘How about we bring in a few friends to join you as well? Marcus and Zarisa. They seem to be good friends of yours.’
Duke stiffened at the sound of the strange woman saying their names. His hands clenched into fists, but he tried to regulate his breathing slowly to keep calm and stop his face from showing any traces of anger. Although he followed certain rules it didn’t mean that he entirely lacked emotion. His colleagues, whom he supposed were also his friends were several people aside from his mentor who was able to tolerate him.
The rapid movement and physical reaction of the young man did not go unnoticed by the woman in the black jacket. Her feet softly touched the ground making concrete dust rise into the air.
Duke stared at her eyepatch, attempting to control himself better. The shape and design of it made him feel annoyed, as though he wanted to change it, his heart rate increased as he began focusing more on it. He felt something from the eyepatch, a noise that only he could hear. A small voice that resonated with him asking for an unknown favour.
It angered him as though he was being taunted by an unknown voice that he couldn’t hear property aside from a sarcastic tone. The voice continued to try and plead with him, not through words or thoughts but shards of emotions. His anger gradually increased although he was extremely careful not to let it show on his face. These were not his emotions but an outside force trying to influence him.
‘It seems a shame to have all those police waste their energy just for one person. did you know that your friends are currently under police custody? Guilty by association with you. All it takes from me is a single word and you could all have a new experience of harsh police methods. No physical violence though, not yet anyway.’
‘I don’t like you.’ He replied. Trying his best to keep his tone of voice level and calm. ‘I don’t know what you want, but I’m sure of that at least.’
The woman stopped talking as though she had originally thought that the young man in front of her lacked all traces of emotion.
‘Don’t you have any questions for me?’ The woman moved towards the table and sat down on the metal chair opposite. She leaned forward on the table putting her arms down and entering a crouched position, her legs folded beneath her.
Duke decided that giving a non-verbal response might work better in this situation. While he could fight back, he didn’t think that it would be a wise choice. He focused his attention on the connecting parts of the table. Specifically on the joints that connect the legs. Crossing his arms he straightened himself up once more but kept his eyes focused. The previous noise that he had heard from the woman’s red eyepatch immediately ceased as he concentrated. A small trickle of sweat began to run down his forehead.
The chair opposite screeched across the floor as the woman dragged it away from the table and towards the wall.
The woman dropped the chair and leaned it against the wall right next to the open door in the interrogation room, then she leaned right back so the chair legs were off the floor. A sound came from the chair, as one of the joints connecting a leg broke apart with a small wrenching movement. It seemed like the chair was simply old and had broken when the middle-aged woman had placed her weight on it at an angle and put too much stress on the frame.
‘Oops. The chair just broke. A shame that.’ The woman had a grin on her face as she suddenly rocked forward and lightly jumped off the chair just as the leg broke off it. The now-broken chair lightly clattered down with a soft metal sound onto the concrete floor of the room.
Her boots failed to touch the floor again and standing up she began hovering above the ground slightly. Her grin faltered as she became aware of the complete lack of interest or expression coming from the young man who had continued sitting down.
Duke remained focused sitting straight up and failed to notice either the chair breaking or the woman talking. The screeching sound of the chair being dragged across the room hadn’t elicited a response either as he was heavily concentrating and sweat began to form on his brow. He was too focused on making the connections with the chair legs break, his anger fading slightly as he lost focus.
The table this time began to shudder slightly as the connecting bolts began to loosen before they halted. It was as though four invisible hands had reached out and used a tool on the table legs and then stopped their work.
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The deep grin dropped from the face of the woman as her boots thudded onto the floor. The sheer degree of concentration on the face of the young man made her face tighten as she licked her lips.
Reaching into her leather jacket pocket, the woman took out a purple-wrapped chocolate bar before tossing it onto the table.
‘Here you go. Everyone likes chocolate.’
The light slamming noise that it made on the table resounded with the table shuddering for a few seconds before it finally stopped. Duke dropped his head forward as his eyes feel onto chocolate bar on the table. He was in need of a taste of the mixture of sugars and fats and the cocoa which would settle his lack of energy.
More out a mental than a physical need he wiped a sleeve across his forehead to remove any traces of sweat, and leaned back in his chair with a feeling of pure emotional exhaustion.
‘Thank you, ma’am.’
‘You’re welcome. Do you need a towel as well or a drink of water?’ The woman began grinning again like a certain cat who saw a girl called Alice.
He reached out to the table and picking up the chocolate bar, cradled it between his hands. Duke noticed the label said milk chocolate and was a standard store-bought brand.
Nothing special but it was something that he enjoyed eating sometimes when he wanted to cheer up. He had a bit of a sweet tooth sometimes; it helped him to deal with difficult situations when he felt stressed.
The rules were hard to follow sometimes, that had been the case in the convenience store earlier when he had been escorted outside by a pair of police. He hadn’t meant to cause such a disturbance, but he hoped that the mess would be tidied up with his sincere apologies. It was the professor that he was afraid of upsetting, she had grown so old now.
‘No, thank you.’ A small part of Duke wondered why the woman hadn’t responded but then again, he realised that he had violated one of the specific rules that his mentor had instilled in him. He felt ashamed of his actions, he stood up from the chair and used his hoodie to wipe his face before dropping back down into the metal chair.
The woman slowly reached into her pocket again before pulling out a flip phone, holding it up she stepped forward several times with slow measured steps before placing it on the table in front of Duke and going back to her original position next to the open door.
‘Your friends….’
The woman started to speak before Duke interrupted her. He realised that his actions may come across as rude, but he felt the need to drive forward a point. Everyone had their limits.
‘I told you that I don’t like you. I need to know if they’re both fine. You could be a police detective but right now I don’t care, I’ve not had a phone call or had my rights read to me. Tell me.’
‘They’re fine. If you’d like to see them Marcus and Zarisa are just in the cops’ break room waiting. But of course if you don’t trust me then feel free to call them. Numbers are on the phone.’
Duke reached forward for the phone before pushing it away again. He decided to eat the chocolate bar first to get some energy back in himself, performing an act of luck had always drained him. It tasted surprisingly good, sugary, and soft.
The woman looked at him. ‘It’s good, right? Way too sweet for my taste but you look like you’re enjoying it.’
Duke with a mouth full of chocolate just gave back an affirmative grunt.
‘You have a sweet tooth don’t you young man? Do you think Marcus and Zarisa like to eat sweet snacks as well?’
He responded by shaking his head as he continued to eat the sweet, sugary mess in his mouth. He neatly folded up the foil and paper wrapper and placed them on the table.
‘I’d like to ask if you’ve heard of an old name before Mr Duke. Mar-‘.
It was at this time that a loud shouting noise came from the corridor outside of the interrogation room. A heated discussion was going on before a voice yelled with an extremely angry tone.
‘WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING? THIS WAS NOT DONE UNDER MY AUTHORITY. RELEASE ALL OF THEM. YOU’RE PLAYING WITH FIRE THIS TIME, MORE THAN FINGERS CAN GET BURNT.’
Pausing for a moment as though a discussion was going on Duke strained his ears to listen.
He relaxed more in his chair and rested his hands on his lap. The outside conversation had nothing to do with him. He worked in a museum basement cataloguing and deciphering materials that were passed onto him by his colleagues and approximate friends.
The woman dressed in black with boots froze for a moment. She suddenly stood up straight as though she had been lifted by a rope and forced to straighten her spine.
‘OH, DID SHE? WELL, PASS ON MY SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS. GET ON WITH IT. NOW.’
The voice outside echoed into the room through the open doorway.
A pair of police officers walked back into the room and seemed surprised to see that Duke was sitting in a chair eating chocolate with a mobile phone in front of him. One of them picked up the broken chair and carried it out while another placed a bottle of mineral water and ripened yellow banana on the table along with a small green backpack.
One of the pair was a young female police officer no older than her early twenties who walked up to the middle-aged woman whispering to her quietly before stepping next to the open doorway.
‘Damn it.’
The woman with the red eyepatch growled out loud. Her tone showed her sheer frustration.
‘Someone called her. It’s too early. I just needed a bit more time.’ She thought inwardly.
Her thoughts had a keen frustrated edge to them as though she was always in a state of mild anger and impatience.
‘We’ll talk later kid. Great chocolate, right? Feel free to ask for more. A uniform here will be free to help you as long as you don’t scare her off with one of your little tricks.’
The woman said to Duke giving him a final wink with her one remaining green eye before she walked out of the door leaving a single police officer in the interrogation room standing by the door on the side.
The police officer standing by the door cleared his throat. ‘Ahem. Mr…ah…Duke… You’re free to leave. Your friends can be found in the break room. Apologies for this minor case of mistaken identity.’
Duke felt stunned for a moment. This was turning out to be an odd afternoon. He could only think of one way to respond to the police officer.
‘Yes. Can I have another bar of chocolate?’
The officer showed signs of sweat on her brow before she nodded repeatedly. Her hesitation in leaving the room showed, curiosity getting the better of her direct instincts.
It was at this point that the metal table in the room collapsed to the floor, legs falling off and the crash to the ground made the officer reach towards his sidearm.
The police officer appeared to be well trained despite the shock as she didn’t immediately react but kept her eyes on Duke the entire time.
Interesting. No visible reaction or questions to ask. Or threats.
Duke was amused rather than annoyed. This one was interesting. A police officer with an inquisitive mind.