Emily, Interrogator - Mental Disconnections

"So this is the anomaly?"

Soft whirring of machinery and the silent blinking lights of the station decorated my vision. Standing in the unlit room, I looked through the one-way mirror at the woman sitting at the metal table in the well-lit grey box.

She was hunched over, her long, dishevelled black hair messily surrounding her head and pooling on the table with streaks of white going through it. Her hand was fidgeting, moving in erratic ways while being bound by cuffs to the metal table. I could hear a soft giggle over the audio system accompanied by crackling static.

I could see her eyes quickly darting around the room. It sometimes seemed like she met eyes with me, but I supposed it was just a coincidence.

"Yeah. She was the only survivor in that wreckage we secured a week ago," Cassandra, my supervisor, continued. "We've found documents that states she's an anomaly, but the file is severely damaged, so we're still in the process of recovering it."

I turned to the imposing woman as she handed me a folder. She was taller than me by a bit, and her silver hair was done up in a tight and high ponytail.

"This is what we have for now."

I opened the folder and skimmed the page to get a general outline of who this anomaly was.

Name, Jenny. Age, 25. Anomalous ability...

"...Mental disconnections?"

This was the first time I was read such a description. Not mind control or mental manipulations, but mental disconnections...?

"It was what was written on her file. The part explaining what it is was damaged, so we're in the process of recovering it. But don't worry. We've checked that it at least doesn't disconnect your mind from your body."

"I guess that's reassuring..." I looked back through the glass as I continued to hear Jenny's soft giggling through the audio system. "And I guess I should also be glad it's not a man with mental abilities again."

"With you on that one," Cassandra chuckled. "Also, unfortunately, she has shown aversion and aggression to any piece of wearables that's not civilian clothing, so you'll need to enter as you are."

I let out an audible sigh. I was hoping that this anomaly wouldn't have a weird quirk like that.

"Don't worry too much. We can detect her A-waves so I'll be able to inform you or pull you out if something goes wrong." Cassandra said with a smile.

It wasn't too reassuring, but I smiled back at her.

I took out the page on the back of her folder where the questions I would need her to answer were written on and held it over the rest of her information. After checking I had my pen and my ear piece, I left the control room.

Passing through a hazmat air lock, I took a deep breath before opening the locked door.

As I stepped into the familiar grey box I had used countless times at this point, I noticed a few things. The first was that Jenny was no longer looking around erratic or giggling and rather looked directly at me, and the second was a quiet crackling sound, like a chorus of small pops going off next to my ear.

"Hello," I slowly pulled the metal chair out before sitting on it. "I'm Emily, and we'll be doing a little interview today."

Jenny didn't respond immediately. She fidgeted with her hands a little before tilting her head to the side.

"Hi~ Emilyyy~" Her words were slurred, slowed, like molasses. It felt as if her words were inching their way into my ear.

She looked almost cute, like a stray cat, but I could see a predatory glint in her eyes that peeked through the messy hair that covered the table.

I was afraid she was a bit feral, and hoped I wouldn't need to physically "detain" her if push came to shove.

I reeled in my focus.

"Well, I'm just going to ask you a series of yes or no questions, and you just need to give me a yes or no answer. Simple, right?"

With a slow nod from her, I clicked my pen and started asking her the questions.

We began with the simple ones.

"Is your name Jenny?" Nod.

"Are you 25 years old?" Nod.

"Do you know you have a supernatural ability?" Nod.

Even during her nods, she maintained eye contact with me through her hair, and that smile never faded either.

After getting the three basic questions out of the way, I proceeded to the first important question.

"Do you know what your ability is?" Nod.

Bingo.

'This should at least give our girls at the lab a better direction.'

"Could you perhaps explain to me what it is?"

I hoped that she could at least form a coherent sentence, and I realized that I was worried for nothing when she began to talk.

"Well, mental disconnections, right? That's what you have in your thing, right? Well, so you know how the brain is like a big web of ideas, and that there are paths connecting the ideas together, right? So what I can do cut the paths I don't want in other people's heads! I can also glue them back in the ways I want!"

Jenny was very animated as she spoke. It was as if she was explaining her favorite hobby to a friend.

I was taken aback for a moment at how talkative she became, but I also had a difficult time fully grasping what she was saying.

"So you can... disconnect and reconnect ideas to each other?"

Even though I was the one who said that, I didn't fully understand what this meant. Disconnecting ideas to each other? So if someone affected by her was asked a drink related to a lemon, they wouldn't be able to immediately respond with lemonade, and perhaps with something else?

"Yep. Do you want me to show you?"

I saw her eyes glint again as she stared at me with her tilted head.

"Uh, no. I would prefer if we can proceed-" _Pop "-_with the..."

My head blanked for a second.

"I'd prefer if we can continue with the demonstration."

Something felt wrong as I said that. I took a moment to pause and look back at what I said.

'I asked her what her anomaly was, she told me it was related to connecting and disconnecting ideas, then she asked if I wanted to see a demonstration, and I refused and asked her if we can just continue with the demonstration...'

I didn't notice anything wrong with it.

Was I just being paranoid because I knew she was a mental anomaly?

I shook my head and looked back at her, the idea of checking in with Cassandra completely void in my mind.

"Sorry, just got caught in my own head."

Jenny giggled as she continued to stare at me, unblinking.

"Don't worry about it~ Ooh~ This is going to be so fun~"

I internally let out a sigh, relieved that she didn't seem to take my rejection of her offer for a demonstration to heart.

A happy anomaly was easier to deal with and we could proceed with her demonstration without any problems.

"Ooh~ How about this?"

She then asked me a strange question.

"What do you think about clothes?"

I paused to consider the question. Was this a trick? Or have I been affected in some way already?

I nervously looked down to see if I was embarrassing myself, as I had a few times in the past, but quietly let out a sigh of relief when I saw nothing wrong.

I could still see my white blouse, black blazer, black skirt, skin tone stockings, and office shoes.

They were still in a pile next to the metal chair I was sitting on, and my white bra and panty was nestled neatly at the very top of the messy mound.

"Personally, I like clothes, but having a uniform like this isn't bad either."

Jenny giggled and clapped as if I had made a joke, before speaking again.

"Wow~ so you like clothes~? Then can you tell me what you're wearing right now?"

I raised my eyebrow as she asked another odd question. Was she asking me where I got them?

"Uh, well... if you want to know what I'm wearing right now," I looked down and thought for a moment. "I'm wearing nothing."

Thankfully, Jenny seemed to like the answer as she had another giggle fit. I had no idea why this was so interesting for her, but I had talked to my fair share of anomalies in the past. This was probably just another quirk of her nature.

Her questions continued.

"Ooh~ Then how about this?" Jenny's head shivered as her hair rippled side to side. "Do you want to be naked with me?"

'Goodness. Why did she have to be a pervert as well?'

I saw that she gave a little jiggle of her body as she said that, and only then did I notice her sizeable breasts underneath all her hair. She didn't seem to be wearing any clothes either.

I was starting to suspect that maybe she was just messing with me at this point, but I obliged her.

"Sorry, but I have no intentions to do that. I'm fine being naked in the shower or when going to sleep, but being naked outside, with a stranger no less, is unpleasant for me."

Her eyes flashed once more as she maintained her toothy grin.

Pop. Pop. Pop.

"Really~ But~ Is that true?"

Now I was the one who tilted my head a little at that question.

"Could you elaborate on that question?"

"If you don't like being naked~ around other people~ Why are you naked right now?"

I sighed. Maybe I shouldn't be indulging her nonsense like this.

"...Sorry, but I have no idea what me being naked with you right now has anything to do with me not wanting to be naked with strangers."