“I miss being a child. Life was so much simpler back then. A new toy would have made my entire week. Now, everything is just so complicated. I… I don’t even know what could make me happy anymore. I don’t even know what I’m living for. What is my purpose?”

“You’re gonna leave the lights on, right?”

“Are you trying to be funny, miss?” the police officer glared at her.

She gulped and shrunk herself on the chair.

“No, sir.”

“Why do you think you are here? Why do you think you’re in this interrogation room? Why do you think you’re in the police station right now?”

“I- I didn’t… I didn’t do it,” Jessica stuttered, “I would never.”

“Evidence does not lie! The knife we found had your fingerprints on it. You have no alibi during the time of estimated death, and now you’re claiming it was some ghost that did the murder? Do you know how it sounds like to us?”

“It sounds crazy, but I swear it’s the truth.”

“There has been a lot of lies being told and swore in this very room, young lady. Do you wanna know what I think? I think it’s a crime of passion. So when you reported to the police, you hoped that it would remove you from the suspect list, didn’t you?”

“You got it all wrong, officer…” Jessica whimpered.

“Why? Did you and she disagreed on something, huh young lady? So you decided to slit ?”

“No…”

“Or did she steal your boyfriend?” the officer continued to jab at her.

“No…”

“Huh, did she sleep with him?”

“NO! IT’S NOT THAT! WHY WON’T YOU LISTEN TO ME!?” Jessica exploded, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Because it doesn’t make sense! Yume hasn’t had a murder in decades; you just broke that prized streak! Little miss, you better keep a grip on your tone, you wouldn’t dare raise your voice at me if-”

“Alright, that’s enough,” another officer in his blues entered and interrupted, closing the door behind him, “Let me have a word with her.”

With a grunt, that brute of a policeman stomped out of the room, giving Jessica some room to breathe and relax.

“Officer Jenkins…” Jessica greeted.

“Hey… remember what I said about formalities? Just Jenkins, Jessica.”

“Sorry, Jenkins.”

“So what’s the story, Jessica?”

“You’re doing the good-cop-bad-cop thing on me, aren’t you?”

“No,” he shook his head, “No, I saw you and I know you. You’ve been in this town for years, and I know you couldn’t have done this. So I wanted to step in, you know, to get insight of what’s really happening.”

“She was my best friend, Jenkins. I would never...”

“Okay,” Jenkins took a seat across Jessica and took out a sheet of paper from the briefcase, “I won’t antagonize you, Jessica, don’t worry. I know the situation must be hard on you, but I need you to be strong, okay? It’s the only way you can help yourself from this mess.”

“Alright.”

“Can you repeat what happened?”

“I gave a statement earlier.”

“I know,” Jenkins looked at her, “I know, Jessica. I want you to say it again, you know, gather your thoughts precisely.”

“I… I don’t know where to start…”

“Start wherever you please, and build up from there.”

“The… the uh… shadow warned me. It warned me that it would take someone close to me, and- and that happened just moments before I found… I found…”

Jessica couldn’t complete her sentence.

She couldn’t focus.

Jenkins tapped her shoulder, asking her to rest and take a breather. He left the room, leaving Jessica alone. He closed the door softly and Jessica began crying to herself. She covered her face with her hands and let the tears roll down her arms, slowly dripping onto the floor, one painful drop at a time.

The situation was so screwed up, it was surreal.

She looked down on her thighs; she did not want to look straight and see herself in the one-way mirror. She looked horrible; her hair was in a mess, her eyes were red, her face was dirty and oily.

She sat alone in recompense. She was framed by that monster, that supernatural being, but how was she going to convince that she was innocent?

The door opened and Jenkins appeared. He brought two cups of deliciously fragranced coffee in his hands. He placed one on his side and the other in front of Jessica. Jessica’s mouth watered with the smell. She was so thirsty and cold; the hot coffee would hit the sweet spot.

“Go on,” Jenkins prompted, “It’s for you. I hope you like it with milk and sugar.”

She nodded and took a sip quietly. It was hot, but it was welcoming. Her sips gradually became continuous and larger in volume. She was so thirsty that she finished the cup in one shot. She placed the cup down and wiped the foam off with her sleeves.

“Are you hungry?”

She nodded.

“Alright, hang on a minute,” he said and took off once more. When he returned, he brought a small red and white coloured pack in his hand. He passed it to Jessica, smiling sympathetically.

“Here, these are for you.”

Taken aback by his generosity, she took the pack from his hands, thanking him. She opened it and there were six chicken nuggets, fried golden to a crisp, warm and fresh, greeting her. Goodness, the smell was so tantalizing to her hungry body that for a moment, she totally forgot about the circumstance she was in. She took the first piece and bit a portion off, chewing slowly and savouring it. Just as she did with the coffee, she gulped all six pieces of nuggets one go. It was so good.

“You must be very hungry,” he said, observing that the nuggets were all gone.

Jessica nodded.

“Are you still hungry?”

“Huh? Oh,” she shook her head.

“What’s that surprised look on your face? You expected doughnuts. Come on, that’s a nasty stereotype. The police station also has many other types of food, you know?”

Jessica smiled at that ridiculous sounding statement.

“Ah, there you go. A smile,” he grinned satisfyingly.

But it did not last long. It was not long before the heavy situation rested on Jessica’s shoulders once more.

“I didn’t do it, Jenkins,” Jessica started, her voice was so soft that it sounded like a squeak, “It was a… a… a monster, who had nothing on his face but a mouth.”

Jenkins did not comment or interrupt.

“I’ve seen it before, a long time ago, perhaps more than a month past. The first time it came to me in a dark alley, calling my name. It knew my name.”

“Was this before or after the break-in that you reported?”

"After.”

“What did it want?”

“Nothing… it just… it just told me that I should acknowledge it because I brought it to life. It said that I was the reason for its existence.”

Jessica left out the part where it out the light from all the bulbs around wherever it stood. She did not want to make it sound crazier than it already was.

“And you did not contact the police?”

“…no. Would you all have believed me?”

“Alright, it spoke right? Was it a male or a female voice?”

“I… I don’t know. It sounded distorted.”

“So possibly that person had a surgery, injury or was using a voice disruptor. Alright,” he jotted it down on a piece of paper, “You said it only had a mouth, and it was dark, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Is it possible that it, be it a he or a she, was wearing a mask? You know, like a full-face mask. Some of them can look very real.”

It was definitely no mask; it wasn’t even human, but of course Jessica played along.

“Maybe,” Jessica answered slyly.

“Alright. Can you describe the height and build?”

“I really don’t know, Jenkins. I’m sorry.”

“I’ll put an APB on that person, though there’s nothing much here to go on. If there’s such person, we’ll find him or her. Jessica,” he leaned forward, “Didn’t you think that you should have come to us sooner? We- we could have done something.”

‘I sincerely doubt that,’ Jessica thought inside her.

“Maybe,” she replied, trying to act straight.

“Could this be the same person who broke into your house?”

“I really don’t know.”

“Hmm. This person sounds dangerous. We’ll ask around if anyone else had seen, or has been disturbed by that person.”

Jessica wanted to add in, but she was interrupted by a sudden loud electrical surge and buzz, rudely barging in the audial atmosphere. It was loud and it sounded like it was traveling through all the electrical equipment, the lights especially, making them flicker and groan with its passage. The sole fluorescent lamp overhead shimmered and nearly went out to blank darkness before coming back to life unsteadily.

“Woah,” Jenkins commented, looking up at the light, “Power’s a little jumpy today, isn’t it? The storm is hitting real hard.”

Jessica looked around with a growing fear in her. Could it be? Now?

A second, louder wave of surges came relentlessly almost immediately.

This time, it rang so very shrilly as it completely crippled the equipments that it had passed, creating a massive power outage in the police station, one segment at a time. Jessica could hear the explosion of the light bulbs and the static shock of the electrical gears as they died out systematically.

Within less than a minute, the interrogation room Jessica was flicked to black. Gasps were heard by both of them, startled. The red emergency lights came to life, rescuing them from pitch darkness.

Jenkins was perked up from his relaxed position earlier, scanning around.

“Woah,” he exclaimed, “Must be fuse, blown.”

“No,” Jessica shook her head quietly, “It’s here.”

“What’s here?”

“It’s never gonna let me go.”

“Who? The person you spoke of?”

Jessica’s silence to that question confirmed it.

“Jessica, I can assure you, this is the safest place you can get. It’s a police station, for crying out loud.”

“How can you protect yourself from something that you can’t touch or see?”

“It’s the storm, Jessica. Look out. It’s a freaking hurricane out there.”

“No… please… it’s here. We’re all gonna die…”

“Whoever it is, Jessica,” Jenkins said confidently, “He is made of flesh and blood, and thus, a few bullets would do the trick. It always does.”

Right.

He had not seen what she had saw.

This was a grim reaper they were dealing with; a harbinger of doom.

Jenkins still sat at the seat right across the table from Jessica, which actually made her feel a slightest bit safer. His right hand was primed and held onto his sidearm. There were some faint thudding that could be heard from beyond the room; thudding that sounded from the central segment of the station, but still quite far away.

Then, out of the blue, the one-way mirror shook and startled both of them. Jessica’s reflection of the glass tremored violently with every slamming sound it made. Something was being pinned against the one-way mirror on the other side, being smashed repeatedly, over and over again, against it. Something…

Bang. Pause. Bang. Pause. Bang. Pause. Bang.

It continued up till a point that it being spine-chillingly eerie. Both of their reflections were jolting up and down uncontrollably with each slam.

Jenkins got up and stared at the reflective glass. His breaths fastened.

“Stay here,” he instructed, “I’m going to check what the hell is going on.”

“Take me with you! It’ll find me!”

“No, Jessica,” he rejected sternly, “You’ll be safe here.”

“…no, no I won’t,” Jessica whispered to herself.

He walked to the door and opened it, peeking outside. Jessica could peep from where she sat that the walkway outside was dark, save for a few red glows from the emergency lighting. From his expression, Jessica could tell something was very wrong. There were two policemen guarding the entrance of the room when Jessica was brought in, but now they were nowhere in sight.

He walked out and closed the door behind him, leaving Jessica alone.

“Jenkins! Hey! Don’t leave me alone in here!”

She got up to her feet and walked to the door, trying to pry it open but it was locked tight from the outside. She used her weight repeatedly to try pulling the metal door open but to no avail. It was pointless; the door was sturdy as hell, but not nearly sturdy enough to make her feel safe.

“! Jenkins! Jenkins! Open up! GODDAMN IT!”

Jessica kicked the door in anger.

The red dim light from the small bulb overhead was extremely uneasy on the eyes. She paced around uncomfortably, waiting for Jenkins to return. He was her only hope out of here. Never had she felt such uneasiness pounding on her body; like a helpless rat trapped in a cage.

Five minutes had passed and Jessica was still pacing around. The thudding and smashing sounds had stopped, now it was back to its soundless environment.

Then the door unlatched and creaked open.

Jessica gasped in fear of who… or what was behind the door.

She sighed in relief when she saw that it was Jenkins, with all the colour from his face drained to pale.

“We better get moving,” he said.

“What’s going on? What’s happening out there?”

“Something bad.”

Jessica nodded and followed his lead out of the forsaken room; a place she would never want to ever step foot into again in her life. When she stepped outside the interrogation chamber, she couldn’t recognise the place. It was havoc all over. The red blinking emergency lights were illuminating overturned desks, torn papers and at the edge of her sight, she saw blood.

“Dear God…”

“Yeah,” Jenkins nodded.

Jessica walked to the observation room next door, curious of what made the sound earlier against the one-way mirror. Her steps were light and insecure, unsure of what she would find. She knew that she did not want to know, but she had to. Her curiosity was killing her; it always had.

“Jessica… Jessica!”

“Yeah?”

“I’m not sure you want to do that…”

“Why…?” she asked, entering the room, “What’s in-”

Jessica’s face turned blue.

She gagged. Inside the observatory, there was a dismembered head, squashed flat and splattered against the mirror; that was the source that was shaking the mirror to bits. The headless body was sitting on the chair, with its lifeless hands lying on the armrest, bod