The Inquirer

“Hello?”

“Lily, there’s a woman in the inquiring room. We’ll need you.”

“Okay. I’ll be there.”

The elevator opened, and in a few seconds, she was facing the huge, white painted room with office desks. Brilliant of Harry to come up with this idea, she thought for the millionth time, walking through the desks where mannequins were busy typing on their computers.  Anyone who pointed a binocular through the long glass windows – which happened once in a while before they were caught red handed – would see nothing unusual but busy men and women staring at their computers or reading documents. She glanced at the sunlight peeping through the windows and opened the door in the far corner of the hall. A woman, she thought walking along the dark corridor.

‘Inquiring Room – Cameras and microphones are not active’ appeared at the door, recognizing her arrival. She opened the door to find a woman behind the table, handcuffed to her chair, struggling to get rid of them. The woman stopped in a sudden – her eyes turned to the slender young lady in a black suit gazing at her emotionlessly.

“Ha! Now a woman, how silly! None of those cursed men could take a word out of my mouth, and they thought I’ll confess to a brunette beauty? How are you going to make me talk, dolly bird?”

Lily said nothing. She walked to the table, seated herself facing the woman with blonde hair, who seemed in her mid-twenties. There was no need to look at the document for this insolent blondie’s name, Ruby Philips.

“Struggling is pointless, Ms. Ruby Philips,” Lily smiled, putting Ruby in a puzzle. This voice was familiar, but she could not remember whose it was.

“I see you’ve tried your best to get yourself off the handcuffs, but that wouldn’t do. They will come off themselves once you answer our questions.”

“Then make me talk, you witch! All of you are treacherous creatures! You should have never been born!”

Still, Lily’s face was emotionless. She stood up, and took off her black-framed, rectangular glasses. She leaned forward slightly, and looked into the ocean blue eyes in front of her. Ruby could not move her eyes – and her whole body – as if she was charmed. The sight of two young ladies staring at each other under the neon yellow light was eerie.

Lily could see Ruby in a restaurant drinking hot chocolate with a fair skinned, short haired man. Then they were riding in a crimson car, talking to each other. Next, Ruby was standing alone on a sunny rooftop wearing a black leather jacket, pointing a binocular at another building stood nearby. The scene switched to a girl’s bedroom painted pink, where Ruby in a school uniform, stood in front of the mirror. She punched her own face a few times and bruised her hands with a stone. She seemed satisfied with herself, smiling to her own reflection in the mirror.

Lily blinked.

Eyes closed, Ruby breathed hard. She looked away as if to avoid contact with her inquirer, while trying to wipe away the sweat off her face with shoulders. What happened? Ruby wanted to know. She wanted to think about what happened. But her head spun. She looked at Lily, who was still leaning forward, fixed eyes on her. A disgust, Ruby could see a look of disgust in Lily’s eyes. Why?

“Memories,” Lily smiled, wearing her glasses back. “Private galleries, aren’t they? Even though we may not be able to capture some special moments through a camera, memories do it for us. An issue is we can’t choose what to keep and what to delete forever, right?”

“What the hell are you…Did you go through my memory?”

“Exactly. I can read your memory. The thing is, I can choose what to read and what to change.”

“Change?”

“Yes, and to erase, if I want.”

“What? Who do you think you are? That’s illegal. That’s…”

“Not to us. When No-Pows like you can’t stand our powers and take us for monsters, we have to shield ourselves from your guns.”

“You all really are monsters! How could you take control of someone else’s mind and do what you want? How could you spit fire and destroy villages? How could you kill innocent people who’ve got no powers to fight back?”

“Then how about you?”

“Me?”

“Yes, looks like you’ve forgotten what you did years ago. You falsely accused one of your classmates punching and wounding you. You reported her to the principal for working in a nightclub, and that was a lie too. Do you remember now?”

Ruby’s eyes widened. Her cheeks went pale, sweat covered her face as she wetted her lips. How does she know? How?

“Is…is that you? Emma?”

“Yes, that’s me. Emma Collins, the girl who got stuck in your trap like a stupid monkey, as you called me.”

“No, no, it can’t be. You look different. How did you…”

“How did I survive and end up like this? You thought my life and my dreams would end once you managed to eliminate me from the school. I thought so too, until I was accepted in SPAT High School.”

“SPAT High? That prestigious school?”

Lily, or Emma smiled again. The disgust in her eyes turned to a sense of victory.

“It’s not just a prestigious school. It’s Super Power Academy for Teens. They accepted me and trained me to control and use my power, which I did not know to have in me until I enrolled in that school.”

“What in the world are you talking about? That’s impossible…” Ruby’s eyes widened again, realizing something.

“What are you going to do to me? You can’t do anything. You CAN’T!”

“I can. And stop yelling. I want you to reveal everything about that No-Pow organization you’re in. I know you’re in a secret society formed to hunt people with super powers. I know you date a man with telekinesis to find out the whereabouts of super power schools and academies.”

“No, I won’t tell ANYTHING. I’m just an unarmed woman with no powers to fight you back. You can’t accuse me of anything without proofs.”

There it went again. The two women were staring at each other under the neon yellow light. Ruby in a restaurant drinking hot chocolate with a fair skinned, short haired man. Then they were riding in a crimson car, talking to each other. In a second, the road took a turn to left, but the man could not control the car. It went straight forward, and off a cliff.

“NOOOOO!” Ruby gave out a deafening cry, but she could not take her eyes off Emma or avoid what she was seeing. The car hit hundreds of huge, pointy rocks and rolled over. Splash! The emerald ocean with white, foamy waves were shining under the bright yellow sun, and the drowned, crushed crimson car seemed unfitting as if someone had worn a bright red dress to a funeral.

Lily blinked, again. Ruby breathed hard, and burst into tears.

“No, NO! What happened? What happened to him?”

“I’m sorry, but he died. They came just in time to save your life.”

“PAUL, NOOOOO!” Ruby shrieked. “Why can’t I remember?”

“Because I erased your memory of waking up in a hospital. But I won’t erase your memory of the accident. You were the reason of that accident. If not for you, he wouldn’t have taken that road. You kept talking, not letting him to look out for the cliff. You killed him. How many will be killed because of you?”

Ruby was sobbing. Her cheeks were soaked with tears and she tried to wipe them off with her shoulder. But Emma showed no sympathy.

“Since you were afraid of being second to me, you tried to scatter my dreams and my education. But I survived. I know you set fire to a village and killed innocent people since you could not stand being second to people with superpowers. Then you gathered people against us and hunted some of us. You are the monster, not us. If you really had a feeling for Paul, just tell us everything.”

Ruby looked at Emma, as a helpless animal.

“Okay. I..I’m sorry, Emma.”

Emma said nothing. She pressed a button on the table, and turned back.

The door opened and a tall young man with fair skin and brown hair waited outside.

“Have you finished?”

“She’s ready. You can start inquiring.”

The man looked stunned.

“What? We thought you’ll read her memory, just like before.”

“I’ll get going, Harry. See you later.”

She walked back along the dark corridor, leaving the man in a puzzle. He wait for her to disappear into the darkness, and took his mobile phone. He searched for ‘Lily’ in his contacts and called her.

“Hello?”

“Lily, where are you?”

“At home. I took a day off, didn’t’ I tell you?”

“What?”

He hanged up. In a minute, two men in gray suits entered the room and started inquiring. The cameras and microphones were on, while Ruby confessed to them about what she had done and she wanted them to say sorry to Emma for her, once more.

After the inquiring, men in gray entered the room next door for a discussion with Harry, about the intrusion.

“Her name is Emma Collins, an old girl of SPAT High. Do you know her, Harry?” One asked.

“Yes, but I haven’t met her in years.”

“A shape shifter, eh?”

“No, not just a shape-shifter.” Harry stopped. He looked serious.

“No, then what? Only a shape shifter can change appearance. ”

Harry smiled.

“Not only the shape, she can absorb the power.”

“What?”

“She altered Ruby’s memory, didn’t she? That was her true power, which remained a secret to most of the school. Shape and Power Shifting.”