Chapter 12:

Mistake

Twist


Ramon confessed.
     When he was taken to the interrogation room, he told the police exactly what they wanted to hear; after all, it was the truth. He'd kidnapped the only son of the Arai family and had hidden out in a hotel that he had already forgotten the name of. 
     Every detail that he could remember about his crime, he told them exactly. He made no attempt to make himself look better. When it came to his motive, he simply told them that he thought he knew better than the kid's parents, and that if he forced the Twist removal surgery on the boy he would save the kid's life.
     Strangely, confessing his crime in its entirety wasn't the end of the interview.
     "Who are your parents?" Asked one of the officers.
     Ramon was slightly surprised, but considering that he was the one who'd kidnapped a kid, he wasn't going to question it too much.
     "Eduardo and Maria Cortez. They're both dead though."
     "Where do you live?"
     Ramon tilted his head a little bit at that.
     "I live in America."
     The interrogator slammed his fist on the table. Ramon blinked twice rapidly.
     "Where in America?"
     He was having a hard time seeing how this was relevant.
     "Texas." 
     The interrogator didn't look happy.
     Ramon realized he hadn't actually seen many Japanese people that looked happy; though that might've been because he was too busy spiraling into his own mind most of the time.
     "Look at me." The interrogator said firmly.
     He refocused his gaze on the interrogator's piercing blue eyes. 
     "Where do you work?"
     "I work on the Twisthunter Task Force for the UN." He replied calmly.
     "Where in the task force?"
     "I'm a Twisthunter." He was pretty sure that the interrogator was the same officer who'd seen his badge get confiscated.
     "You think you're above the law." The interrogator stated.
     "I turned myself-"
     "Quiet." 
     Ramon did as he was told.
     "You hunt down innocent civilians believing that you can do what the police and government cannot, don't you?" 
     Ramon was extremely sure that the questions he was being asked were irrelevant to the kidnapping of the Arai kid, which was really the only thing he was guilty of.
     "I do what I'm told, sir."
     "Except if you're told not to kidnap people by our government." The interrogator stated again.
     "I turned myself-"
     "Quiet."
     Ramon slowly closed his mouth.
     The police interrogator stood up and slowly walked around the table. Each step was careful and methodical. 
     "Stand up."
     He did as he was told and faced the interrogator.
     His jaw hurt.
     The interrogator lowered his fist.
     "Sit down."
     Ramon's eyes were wide, and in his stupor he didn't obey the interrogator immediately. The interrogator swung at him again. 
     Ramon pivoted back on his heels instinctively, causing the punch to barely miss.
     "Stand still." The interrogator's voice was calm and even. 
     "I confessed; what more do you-" Ramon asked, rubbing his jaw.
     "Quiet." The interrogator swung at him again. Ramon dodged. 
     Two more policemen entered the room. The interrogator nodded at them, and they immediately approached Ramon. They moved to restrain him. 
     As they grabbed at his arms, he dropped to the floor and quickly rolled away from them, before standing up again. He hadn't been expecting anything like this from the police.
     "If you continue resisting, your sentencing will only become more severe."
     "Sir, I've confessed to the kidnapping; what more do-"
     "Quiet."
     The two policemen went for Ramon's upper and lower body simultaneously. He let one grab his legs, but fell over to avoid the one going for his torso, and he used the momentum from his fall to pivot himself out of the grip of the one holding his legs. He stood up and looked at the three men again, his expression firm.
     "Where's my lawye-"
     "Quiet." The interrogator said again, and he held up his right hand to stop the other policemen from advancing. Ramon paid attention to the interrogator's left hand, and his eyes widened when he saw the interrogator pull out a baton and point it at him.
     "Hold still." The interrogator's voice was measured and even. He gestured for the policemen to go and try to grab Ramon again. 
     Ramon took a moment to think about his situation as the two policemen approached him.
     He had been willing to serve his time in prison; he had expected there to be a brief interrogation where he would confess to everything, followed by a few months awaiting trial, and then he would be sentenced to prison. After all, he was a criminal who had kidnapped a child, and that was a crime that deserved punishment. 
     However, as the two policemen tried to restrain him, another thought appeared.
     He hadn't been given a lawyer, he hadn't been allowed to call anybody, and despite having given a complete confession, he was about to beat on by his interrogator. There was no denying that what he'd done was awful, but he hadn't been expecting his punishment to be so primitive. 
     He dodged the two policemen again. 
     The interrogator swung the baton at Ramon, and Ramon replied by grabbing the baton and tossing it underhanded into the other corner of the interrogation room.
     "Are there laws about-"
     "Quiet." The interrogator's voice was calm, but it sounded constrained.
     "About police brutality, or-"
     "Quiet." The interrogator went to pick up his baton, and the other two rushed at Ramon again.
     He jumped off the wall and over them, and kept talking.
     "Is this part of the punishment for kidnapp-"
     "Quiet." The interrogator grabbed the baton; Ramon could see the muscles in the interrogator's hand tensing up. 
     "Kidnapping? If this is ordered by the civil magistrate or the government, then I guess-"
     The interrogator threw the baton at Ramon, who tilted his head to the side to avoid it. 
     The baton hit one of the other policemen square in the forehead, causing him to slump to the ground from the force of the blow.
     Ramon laughed, then covered his mouth.
     "S-sorry, that was mea-"
     "Quiet!" Shouted the interrogator, who opened the interrogation room door. "We need more men in here!"
     "I just want to know what my rights here are! Usually Percy tells me about stuff like this, but I kinda ditched him-"
     "Shut up!" The interrogator turned back to Ramon, his eyes full of vitriol.
     "Well, now I don't want to." Ramon said with a smirk.
     The policeman that hadn't been knocked out by a baton lunged at Ramon and wrapped his arms around his waist. 
     Ramon responded by bucking his hips forward at an angle and immediately broke the policeman's grip. As he did, three more police officers entered the room, all holding batons. 
     Ramon bit his lip.
     "All this, and I don't even want to avoid prison." He mumbled as the officers rushed at him.