vive l'interrogation

I hadn't expected this. I don't know what I had thought would have happened but definitely not this.

in my years there I had never seen the insides of that room before, and if I never set eyes on it again I shall die a happy man.
it was cold, unnaturally so. the floor was lined with a discoloured, threadbare worn, cheap carpet as stained as it was old. the walls were bare with the paint peeling in a variety of places. in the dim light of a lone, naked, flickering bulb I could just about make out the silhouette of a flimsy little plastic chair besides an even smaller table.

I shuffled over.

"bonjour monsieur ordinary, asseyez-vous s'il vous plait"

the voice from the darkness seemed to be coming from a severe bun perched on top of an almost inanimate, desiccated and menacing scowl. if she was trying to intimidate me she had failed miserably. I was much too terrified by the entire ordeal to be intimidated by anything in particular.

I heard little else that was said during that meeting, my fear pounding in my chest, pulsing in my ears. I kept thinking, "this is how it all ends. right here, right now"

I remember mumbling responses. I tried to say as little as possible. the less you say, the less you have to remember, right? "self incrimination is the real killer here" that was the other thing going through my mind. apart from that, it was all white noise. white noise and a nasally drone, barking out an interrogation in french of all languages.

I was broken by the time they released me. the clocks around me said I had been detained for twenty minutes. I knew they had been tampered with. it was all part of the trick. the endless mind game.

a few friends, fellow inmates mostly, gathered around. my fractured mind couldn't begin the comprehend their barrage of questions. my tongue was heavy in my mouth and my head pounded on the verge of bursting. and then, as though hearing a stranger speak I heard my own voice saying,

"french oral really isn't that bad, but we'll just have to wait until results day."