Witholding

A response to Nathaniel Lee's "One Night Only" in Mirror Shards.

My scene, "Withholding":

Chan blinked at the spotlights. A half-chewed dumpling laid like a stone in his mouth as he peered at the blackness beyond the ring of spotlights. Where was his apartment and the rest of his dumplings?

"Welcome Chan," said his interrogator through a voice-modulator that left an unnatural voice like the rumble of a subway with an overtone squawk of metal on metal. "Don't squirm, you don't want to fall."

Chan's chair balanced on the tip of a pedestal that rose out of the darkness. He swallowed the half-chewed dumpling and asked, "Why am I here?"

"You are withholding information from us. Your soul is at risk." Okay, this had something to do with The Church. "We know about your overt meeting with the splinter group and need to know who you met with."

"What meetings? A splinter group?" Chan was confused, what reality was this?

"Sue gave us your name. We need others."

---

Juan blinked at the spotlights, sleep still haunting him...