“Morning Miss Food Lady.” Skylar greeted the plump woman with red curls close to their head. Names weren’t really allowed.
“Morning Skylar.” She smiled, her teeth crooked and yellow.
“What’s the menu today?”
“Porridge.” She sighed. “I’d say enjoy it, but, we both know it isn’t made to be enjoyed.” Skylar chuckled as they took the bowl of porridge.
The people who guarded the door were cool too. They put up with hearing all the knock knock jokes Skylar knew, even asking where Skylar had learned them all. When Skylar told them the internet, they laughed. Being able to read the websites on the back of their eyelids kept things interesting.
But there was one person Skylar hated seeing. The broad shouldered, thick muscled, head a little too small, man who escorted Skylar from their room to the questioning cell daily. They had heard their name at least: Mr. Ferguson. Beyond the required announcement for Skylar to follow him, the man didn’t say anything. He didn’t laugh at jokes, and he certainly never smiled. In fact he mostly scowled, or glowered, or frowned.
The only person to give off a more malignant aura was Robert, and that mostly came from him not believing a word Skylar said. Insisting Skylar had bad ulterior motives, asking, no, demanding Skylar give up their plans for taking over the world.
But one day, Skylar did a double take.
“Time to go for questioning.” The muscular guy standing in the doorway looked like Mr. Ferguson. Sounded like him too. But his face, for a moment, less than a split second, a moment Skylar literally replayed on their database, his lips quirked up. It wasn’t quite a smile, but it was almost a smile. “Come on.” His gruff voice was impatient.
“Coming.” Skylar ran up, and as he followed the man into the hallway, they licked their lips. “Knock knock.”
“Who’s there?” Skylar blinked, heart racing.
“Al.”
“Al who?”
“It’s Al Lean to you.” And Skylar leaned into the man’s back, feeling the breath hitch before Ferguson grunted and shook them away.
Skylar licked their lips and placed their hands in their pockets. As Ferguson opened the door to the small interrogation room, Skylar looked up at them. They clicked their tongue against the roof of their mouth. Ferguson glanced both ways before opening their mouth and showing their tongue going through the motions but without noise.
Finally some hope this might just be the last interrogation before going home.
Word count: 414
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