*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧—prologue: ready to comply

August 23rd, 2021
North Kill Police Department
North Kill, Upstate New York

CASSIDY HACKETT SQUINTS, PUTTING UP A HAND TO SHIELD HIS EYES AGAINST THE LIGHT. The room was too dark—color-wise—for his liking and he did not want to be here right now. It gave off bad vibes. He remembers this interrogation room. He's visited it once before with his father a few years ago. Travis had taken someone he was arresting into custody, and brought them here to be interrogated. Cassidy had gone with Travis, just for the experience. But he never knew that one day he'd ever be interrogated himself.

It was like every other interrogation room. Walls bare, or painted one solid color, or half and half. Concrete floors that bore cracks and chips. A one-way mirror was embedded in the back wall. In the middle of the room was an old metal table that creaked when pressure was applied to it, a few screws in it were loose. On top of the table was a tape recorder, a manila folder with some documents, some papers, and a black ink pen. On either side of the long ends of the table were two metal chairs. In one of them, sat Cassidy. In the other, sat a police officer he didn't know, but they were someone that knew his father.

Cassidy shut his eyes for a moment, trying to clear his head of everything that had happened last night. So much had happened in such little time, yet it felt like it all happened within one second instead of a span of hours. Everything had been going good and then it all went to shit.

The gruesome images of their bodies flash through his mind and he's quick to squeeze his eyes harder, as if that was supposed to help make them go away any faster. The visions. The voices. The blood. He doesn't want to see it. He doesn't want to remember. He just wants it to stop.

He opens his eyes, only to find himself red faced and on the verge of tears. The tears weren't ones of sorrow. They were tears of pain. Gut-wrenching pain that made his stomach twist in knots. The kind that made him physically feel sick. The kind that made him nauseous.

He glances up at the walls, staring at a surveillance camera in the corner. The small red light was flashing, recording the interrogation that hasn't even properly started yet.

He glances back toward the door. It was made of solid steel. Durable, but not bulletproof. Harder to open than most doors. He wasn't planning on leaving, though. Not like he needed to. He was here for a reason.

Cassidy's eyes fall down to his lap. His hands were still covered in blood from the previous night. There was still blood on his face, too. And he had made a several failed attempts to wipe the blood from his hands off in his jeans. He felt dirty. He needed a shower.

"Do you need a moment, Cassidy?" the officer questions. This officer was nice, Cassidy notes. Normally, they weren't—they tended to have attitudes if you didn't comply immediately.

He nods, not saying anything. His thoughts were all over the place. And he wasn't calm at all. He needed a moment to collect his thoughts anyway.

It takes about three full minutes before he sits up in the chair. "I'm ready," he says quietly, "to give you answers."

The officer nods, before glancing down at the tape recorder. Three buttons were down: record, play, and pause. Pause had been pressed first, so nothing was actually being recorded just yet. He releases the pause button, and the tape starts, but he waits a few seconds before speaking. "Interview with Cassidy Hackett. Monday, August 23rd, 2021." He had to choose his next words carefully if he wanted answers from the young man seated before him. "Cassidy, could you tell me what happened last night?" His tone was calm.

He does not meet the eye of the officer sat in front of him. Why should he? He doesn't want to talk, even though he promised him he would give answers to his questions. He rests his chin in the palms of his hands, staring down at the folder with a solemn expression on his face.

"Cassidy, I need you to answer me, please. I don't want to have to repeat myself."

Brown eyes flick upward, staring directly into the dull green eyes of the police officer. Cassidy sighs as he sits up, resting his hands on the table, tapping his fingers against it in a continuous rhythm. He glances up at the camera, then at the door, then at the one-way mirror, before looking back at the officer. "No," he answers finally, before looking back down at the manila folder resting on the table. He can see the corner of a picture, hidden beneath the tab. He doesn't know what's exactly on the photo, but he can only assume it might be a dead body.

"The sooner you recount the events of last night, the sooner you get to go home and rest, all right?" The officer reassures, a warm smile on his face, through he seemed a bit nervous. As if he knew trying to reassure Cassidy wasn't going to work. As if he knew that maybe Cassidy didn't want to be helped. Because in all honesty, they both knew Cassidy Hackett did not want to be here. "This'll benefit both of us, got it?"

Silence.

"Cassidy, I need you to answer."

"Why don't you ask someone else that was there? Like, my friends? Or even my girlfriend, huh?" Cassidy speaks up, leaning across the table. The table creaks under the weight being applied to it. "Or even ask my goddamn family yourself!" He snaps, his blood boiling with rage.

The officer tsks, tapping his pen against the table, before writing something on a piece of paper. "Okay, we'll try this again," the officer looks back up at him. "I need answers from you, Cassidy. If you don't tell me, we'll get nowhere and we'll be here all night. And you don't want that, do you?"

He shakes his head.

"Good," the man replies. "Now, why don't you start from the beginning?"

Cassidy leans back in the seat, sighing. He crosses his arms over his chest, trying to waste even more time, but he soon found his attempts futile. He was getting bored. He might as well start complying.

He looks back up at the officer before speaking.

"It... started six years ago, when my cousins made a grave mistake..."

author's note
ayo ⁉️⁉️

07.09.22