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Trinity
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There were seventeen people that we needed to interview. That was more than there had been earlier in the night. And it was already starting to get really late. Or was that early? It was going to be getting light out soon. the kids would be waking up soon. Well, not as soon, since they weren't going to school yet. This stuff wasn't over yet, so I couldn't risk their safety. I needed to make sure that the kids were safe at all times right now. I don't know if or when those higher ups would retaliate against us for taking their people from them. I was sure that they would though. And that was why I needed to find them first.
I had let some of the others go to sleep a long time ago. We were going to need some of them in the morning when the rest of us were all dead tired from working all night. At the moment, it was just me, Reece, Shawn, Dietrich, Gabriel and Trevor. The six of us and the guards, that is. We were dividing up the interviews so that we would all have three. And I technically interviewed Armina, so she counted as my third one. I think that the others were trying to prove themselves. I was the only one that had gotten information from the other prisoners, so now they wanted to be the ones that learned something. They wanted, in a small way, to show me up. It would make them feel better about themselves.
The next person that I was to interview was a man that was named Gustav. He was with the men that were at the hotel. He wasn't as stony faced as some of the others when I went into the room. In fact, he was so scared that he nearly screamed at the sight of me.
“W..w..what are you going to do to me?” He was almost crying. “You killed the others, didn't you? Claud and them, they're dead. I just know that they are. Their marks have stopped reporting.”
.....
“Their marks?” I eyed him curiously as I sat at the table. “What marks are you referring to? Would that be the Jaegan mark that was on all of you?”
“YES!” He practically screamed at me. “They stopped transmitting, so I know that you had to have killed them.” He was so scared and worried about his family. I know that he thought that we were killing them all, and that I was here with him meant that it was his turn to die.
“Gustav, you have nothing to worry about. Would it help you if I showed you the others? To prove to you that they are still alive? We are not out to hurt any of you. We just want your family to stop killing our people. Our people, our children, they have been killed by your family. And for no reason at all. They had done nothing to your family, they were innocent, and now they will never get the chance to live their lives. Your friend or cousin, or whatever he is to you, Claud, he didn't just ritualistically kill a girl in California, he raped her as well. He tormented her in a way that no one should have ever done to another person. That was horrible. And yet Claud is in the other room, awaiting his official arrest by the FBI so that he can be taken to his new prison cell. He will be tried by a jury and punished for his crimes. He will spend the rest of his days in prison. I do not plan to kill any of your family. Not unless they attack me. Or if one of you attacks one of my people in front of me. I do not have any intentions of harming any of you. I want the killing and the heartache to end. Not to cause more of it.” I was doing my best to explain all of this to him, but I didn't know if I was getting through to him.
“I..I..I don't know what to believe.” He truly looked conflicted.
“Come here, Gustav. I will show you where the others are. Then we can come back here and talk.” His eyes went wide, but he nodded.
“I..I need to know that they are alive. I can't let them all be dead. I..I..I wouldn't forgive myself if I knew that I had a chance to save one of them.”
“Come on then.” I beckoned him toward me. He didn't have a weapon on him, so I wasn't worried that he would hurt me. Plus, if I showed that I trusted him, it would make him trust me even more.
I took Gustav to the hall and down toward the room that I knew Claud was in. He was the one that I had interviewed earlier, so I knew that he was safe and unharmed. When I opened the door, I saw that he had fallen asleep while sitting in the chair. He wasn't chained to it anymore, but he was still sitting there. He even had a big puddle of drool forming beneath him. It was pretty much all the proof that Gustav needed. Someone that he thought was dead was here and very much alive.
“Y..you didn't even hurt him.” He looked at the man's face and saw that he didn't have a scratch or bruise anywhere to be seen. “He is really OK.” The look on his face when he turned to look at me was one filled with aww and confusion. “But I sensed that he had died. His mark was gone.”
“If you're referring to the Jaegan mark, I changed it. I didn't know what it did, and I didn't want anyone that we had arrested to take their own lives. I saw what Angus did in California, and I didn't want that to happen again.”
“S..so you didn't kill Angus?” I could tell that Gustav had thought that we had killed the man without even giving him a chance to live.
“No, Gustav, we didn't kill him. And I didn't want anyone else to do what he did.”
“I just don't understand this.” I took him by the arm as he started to contemplate these things. “We were told that you would kill us all. We were told that you had no mercy for us.”
“Well, Gustav, you were lied to. And it seems to me that the only ones that have no mercy are the ones that told you to kill my people without provocation.”
“You are right.”
Gustav started to sob at that moment. Large, wailing sobs that were accompanied by fat tears of despair. The moment that we were back in his cell, he collapsed to the floor and started to rock back and forth. He was clearly not doing well at all.
“Wh..what have I done?”
“Gustav, have you killed any of my people?” I needed to know to what extent that he was involved in the crimes. I needed to know how much I could use him here.
“N..no. I never killed anyone. I..I..I was their watcher. I was supposed to keep an eye on them. That is why I had the eye rune. I was supposed to be able to see where they were at all times.”
“Do others have that rune?” I needed to know if I had led the elders in the family right to my door.
“Th..they do. B..but I think that this place messes with the runes. I stopped sensing them all when they were here. I can't even sense the administration anymore. It is like they are gone completely. But I know that they aren't. Th..there is just something about this place. I can't sense it at all.” He was looking around the room like it was something that was in here with him.
“It's just magic, Gustav. I have done nothing to any of your family. This place is filled with a lot of very old and very powerful magic.”
“I..I think that I can see that.” He was still crying, but he was starting to talk normally again.
“I need to get a friend of mine. I am sorry, but I need him to tell me if you are telling me the truth. If you haven't hurt anyone, Gustav, then we can talk about something else.”
“What?”
“Just wait for a moment.” I held up a hand and silenced him. “I will be right back.”
I left the room in a hurry and saw that Gabriel was just heading into his second interview. I needed to stop him so that I would be able to know if Gustav was telling me the truth.
“Gabriel?” I called out to him. “I need a favor.”
“OK.” He looked a little wary, but came over in a hurry. After making sure that the door to the cell was closed tightly. “What is it?” He asked me with his left eyebrow raised.
“I need to know if this guy is telling me the truth. I think I might be able to crack him, but I need to know if I can trust him.”
“Alright.” He nodded and finally smiled. “Let's go find out. But you owe me.” He grinned.
“Fine.” I laughed at him. “You can have my last interview if you want it. I am sure that I will have my hands busy here.”
“Now you're just passing your work off on me.” He laughed again.
“You don't want it?” I questioned him.
“I didn't say that.” I knew that he would want to interview them. He was the type of person that always wanted to gather information. He was like a sponge that way.
