Interrogation

• Liam Archer, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2022

We clink bottles, laughing and sharing jokes and stories of old. Tanush serves us more drinks, pouring a different serum into all our glasses. We all reply “No thanks.”

Suddenly, the whole bar is chanting “Chug! Chug! Chug!”
And Jacob burps and throws up his hands and turns to the audience.
“YEAH!!!” he cheers.

We walked out of the bar until Jacob collapsed onto the concrete. I cry in surprise and bolt to him. I check his pulse, and he was dead. I weep over his dead body, turning back to my friends. Kai, Eric, and Steven's heads are covered in bags. Before I can shout or scream, the world turns dark.

A light turns on. I squirm around, but my mouth is covered and sealed with tape. I swipe my head around to find all the others are taped too. An Agent walks from one of the shadows with the CIA logo on the front.

“MMf mmmmmmmmFF” I squirm and wriggle in my chair, we are terrified. The Agent holds a taser… by his side. He pulls it out and starts with Tanush.

Tanush gulps loudly, sweat runs down his cheek.
“Tanush, did you kill Jacob Tonge?” he says menacingly.
“MMmFMmf” Tanush shouts. The Agent rips off the tape.
“OW!” Tansuh screams.
“Why do you care so much? He snaps.
“Wrong answer” The Agent growls. The powerful Taser buzzes on. Pained screams echo around the room.

When the screams finally stop, I squint open my eyes. Tanush was gone. And when I mean gone, I mean where was is now an opened trapdoor.

Steven, panting heavily, eyes wide at the spot where Tanush was. Kai has his mouth and eyes closed shut tightly, weeping. Eric and I are holding our chairs so tight our knuckles turn white.

“Tanush is gone, released and his body fed to the bears, the poison used to kill Jacob was a rare type. Only found in Libya” says the Agent.

I almost jump out of my chair when I hear a deep bears growl at the bottom of the trapdoor.

“I’ll be back,” says the Agent. Steven immediately slid out of his bonds using a knife. He had an odd glint in his eyes.

Steven ran to me and pointed the knife at my throat.

“Uh-uh-uh. Not. A. Word” he said dangerously, with a hint of malice in his voice.
“I killed Jacob, not Tanush. What a shame, I wasn't planning on Tanush dying, but one gets in my way. He whirled and threw the dagger swiftly at the security camera, deleting evidence. He pulled another dagger from his pocket. Everyone stared at Steven.

Steven shot a creepy smile and bolted out the door, stabbing the Agent on the way out. Steven smiled as the alarm went off, eyes shining with delight and energy. I swivelled my head to see my friends, terror spreading across their faces. Is this the end of something, or the start of something else?