#wow peter u rlly slayed that ....

[masleys]

with : @classcursehq ; police interview location : an interrogation room at the local station when : 0900

IT'S TIMES LIKE THIS that made peter feel like a soldier again. the moment he stepped into the room, he was alert, cautious . . . detached, even. every fraction of a movement he made, every breath of air he released, every single answer had to be calculated. if he showed even the slightest sense of discomfort, he'd be showing weakness — and he was trained better than that. he was a soldier. this was nothing. ( except, peter wasn't a soldier when christopher disappeared, and he wasn't a soldier when he swore to keep that night a secret, and he wasn't a soldier when he was just a dumb eighteen year old boy with nothing figured out, and in some ways, this moment took him back to that kid again — that kid who was more shy than he let on, more timid than his memory allowed him to be, that kid who didn't understand his place in the world and only wanted to have friends and be popular, just like christopher — maybe peter was once a soldier, but he was also once a kid, and even eight years of army training and drills and deployments and combat couldn't drown old habits completely, not like they all drowned chris — ) peter had to remind himself to breathe. just breathe.

𝚆𝙷𝙴𝚁𝙴 𝚆𝙴𝚁𝙴 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙽𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃 𝙾𝙵 𝙲𝙷𝚁𝙸𝚂𝚃𝙾𝙿𝙷𝙴𝚁 𝚆𝙸𝙻𝙳𝙴𝚁'𝚂 𝙳𝙸𝚂𝙰𝙿𝙿𝙴𝙰𝚁𝙰𝙽𝙲𝙴 ?

there's tension in the air — peter can feel it, and he's sure the officer across the other end of the table can, too. of course it had to be him who got called — it was only fitting. peter was one of the first to return to lincoln, one of the first to face the ghosts of their small town, and thus one of the first forced to confront the class of 2014's demons. his gaze was steady, eyes flickering over every detail of the room. it was a habit ingrained into the man through countless hours of surveillance in hostile, foreign territories — much like this one felt. " well, officer, " peter began, " i remember it was around the time of our graduation, so we were all celebrating. the gordon's threw a giant end-of-the-year party at their place. everyone was there. " his tone was measured, his posture straight. peter had been trained to lie straight from his throat and out through his teeth, courtesy of the u.s. military. " i spent most of the night with my girlfriend at the time, zahra burch, and my buddy, felix langdon. i was there all night — i think the party started around 8:00 p.m., and if memory serves me right, it was just after midnight when i left. " his response was delivered with the precision of a well-rehearsed drill during morning formation — yet there was a quiet intensity about petef, and beneath it all laid a boy bound down by fear. " that was a decade ago, sir, so forgive me if my memory is a little foggy on the details. "

𝚆𝙷𝙴𝙽 𝚆𝙰𝚂 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙻𝙰𝚂𝚃 𝚃𝙸𝙼𝙴 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝚂𝙰𝚆 𝙲𝙷𝚁𝙸𝚂𝚃𝙾𝙿𝙷𝙴𝚁 ?

" honestly, officer, it's hard to say, " he continued. peter held his anxieties at bay, willing himself to follow instruction with an unwavering obedience — but it all felt so off, and he couldn't quite shake that feeling. why would he, of all the people in lincoln, be chosen for an interview ? he'd been here for nearly two years. what evidence could they have possibly found, ten years later, that called for him personally to be interviewed ? no written dares could have survived that long, and surely his name wouldn't have been brought up in conjunction with christopher's. he took a breath. " i remember the party being packed, and i didn't have much of a one-on-one with him. we might've crossed paths while grabbing snacks or drinks, but nothing significant comes to mind. "

𝚆𝙷𝙰𝚃 𝚆𝙰𝚂 𝚈𝙾𝚄𝚁 𝚁𝙴𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽𝚂𝙷𝙸𝙿 𝚆𝙸𝚃𝙷 𝙲𝙷𝚁𝙸𝚂𝚃𝙾𝙿𝙷𝙴𝚁 ?

despite the weight of suspicion hanging in the air and bringing him down to his gut, peter maintained a respectful, cool demeanor. " chris and i were both on the track team, so we knew each and other and were friendly — but we weren't close, " he started. " we went to a lot of the same parties and all, but i never personally hung out with him. classmates, teammates . . . but not much else. just had our own circles, i guess. " as the interrogation drew to a close, he felt a sense of relief tempered by the lingering unease. his past was rattling within him — he couldn't change things, and he couldn't face them, either. " i wish i had gotten the chance to know him better. " they were the first truly honest words peter had uttered since the interrogation began.