Radio

Detective Flynn entered the building and was instantly met by fellow detective Terry.

“What’s the situation?” Flynn asked him as they walked briskly.

“Still refusing to talk… said he won’t talk to anyone about it,” Terry answered.

They got to the interrogation room and Terry opened the door. There were two policemen waiting for them.

“Detective,” the burly man held his hand out for a handshake.

Flynn took it. “How are we looking?” he asked and glanced at the fellow from the glass pane.

“Ay, the little bugger just won’t talk. Terry here was about to snap,” the lady replied.

“Rightly so,” Terry muttered. Flynn walked up to the door. “Let me have a crack at it.”

“Knock yourself out.”

Flynn opened the door and walked in. There was a file on the table, and he could see the name.

But he didn’t need to see it. “Connor Grey,” he said and sat down in front of Connor. “How are we doing?”

Connor lifted his head. “They sent another one…” he muttered.

“I’m happy to see you too,” Flynn smiled. He knew how to deal with this sort of person. “So, why are we here?”

“Don’t bullshit me,” Connor calmly replied. “My friend’s dead, and you think I–”

“Disappeared, not dead,” Flynn interrupted. “There’s a certain difference between the two.” He placed his hands on the table.

“He’s dead,” Connor replied. “If he had disappeared, why haven’t you found him yet?”

“And if he is dead, why hasn’t his body been found?” Flynn answered. “Ever think of that?”

Connor was silent.

“Why don’t you tell me what really happened?”

“I already did. It’s in there,” Connor said. “You have my file, don’t you?”

“This?” Flynn lifted the file up. “No, I want to hear it from your mouth.”

Connor gripped the table. “I don’t want to repeat–”

“I don’t think you have much of a choice, kiddo.” Flynn wasn’t taking no for an answer from a kid, and he was a kid. Flynn looked at the eighteen-year-old boy in front of him. Shaggy black hair, red eyes, as well as bags underneath them. He looked nothing like the picture Flynn had seen earlier.

“He was my best friend, Jeremy. I called him Jerry. We lived close to each other ever since our childhood years, so we grew up as brothers. Jerry loved exploring, and soon, I grew into it. We’d go out into the woods and explore just for the heck of it. As we grew older, we continued finding stuff. We’d hit the junkyard on weekends for anything that looked cool: scraps, headlamps, rotors, anything…”

Checks out, Flynn thought.

“You know the woods, right?” Connor looked at Flynn.

Flynn nodded.

“It’s got some sort of a marshy pit, kind of like a swamp thing, right on the edge of the woods.”

Flynn had heard about it. “What about it?”

“Our parents told us not to go around that area. We thought we were kids; that’s why we weren’t allowed to go there. And when we asked our parents, they just insisted we listen to them, to which we did.”

“You did?” Flynn raised a brow.

“For the most part. As we got older, we kind of forgot about it… until recently. We were in the woods looking for junk, and we stumbled onto the pit.”

An accidental discovery… Flynn glanced at the pane. He hoped the officers were getting this.

“We looked around it, and I didn’t see anything really eye-catching, so I turned to go. But Jerry said he saw something pop up in the pit. I took a good look and saw it too…”

The radio…

“Right in the middle was a radio,” Connor shifted in his seat. “I’m a science guy, okay? So when I saw it, I knew damn well it was creepy. First off, all the locals in this town talk about how toxic that pit is. So seeing a radio in perfectly good condition right in the middle of a hazardous swamp was a red flag.”

“That’s right,” Flynn agreed.

“That’s what I thought, so I told Jerry we should leave since we didn’t find the parts we were after. But next thing I know, he’s got a long branch, and he’s reaching for the damn thing.”

“So he got it out of there?”

“He got it out of there,” Connor frowned. “It’s in good condition, and we decided to check it out. But before we left, I thrust one end of the branch into the pit, and it fizzled. This confirms my assumption that it’s toxic, and that radio is bad news.”

“Then why didn’t you tell Jeremy?”

“He was right there when I poked the swamp, and he said it’s all the more reason we should check it out.” Connor folded his fists. “My parents are the strict type, so we took it back to the basement at his place. It’s where we keep all our discoveries and junk.”

“We tried to turn it on, but it didn’t respond, so we figured it was the battery. We opened the battery compartment, and there was no battery in there, as we suspected. It’s late, so we decided to get batteries the next day and try it. I saw this as a sign to get rid of it, but Jerry was too invested in this thing to see my logical point.”

“What happened next?”

“I woke up to a phone call from him, and he was excited. He told me that the radio turned on. I was half asleep, so I told him he was probably dreaming about it, but then I heard him running down the steps, and I heard the most cursed noise I had ever heard in my entire life. It freaked me out so much that I ended the call,” Connor winced.

“I went over to his house later that day, and the radio didn’t turn on. I asked him what played, and he said it was just a bunch of static. Then I figured he was probably pulling my leg and had actually put some batteries in there, but he denied it. We camped around it to see if it would come up again, but it didn’t.”

“Day after day, Jerry would tell me how the static was slowly clearing out, and he could actually hear some words from it. Another red flag.”

“Why’s that?” Flynn asked.

Connor looked at him. “Jerry’s house is downhill, plus the radio is in the basement. There ain’t no way you’re getting reception from underground, except you’ve got a good antenna. And this thing doesn’t have any antenna. I searched the damn thing to see if it’s inbuilt, but it’s not.”

“Okay… then what?”

“Then Jerry becomes withdrawn. He’s the kind of guy who can make a joke that can lighten up a funeral service. So after days of having that radio, I knew something was wrong. I told him we needed to throw that thing away, and he disagreed. We had a fight over it…”

“A fight?” Flynn raised a brow.

“Yeah, a fight. So what?” Connor eyed him. “We don’t throw hands, though. We just jab at each other with words. I grabbed the radio and told him it’s for his own good, and he told me I just needed to listen to what it says. I didn’t buy it, though. I took it to the junkyard and tossed it into the scrapper.”

“I went back home and slept over it,” Connor started shaking. “Then I woke up to… oh my god…”

“What?”

“The radio!! The damn radio was playing in my room!!” Connor yelled. “Worse still, I see my best friend IN MY ROOM!! Sitting there, just staring at me with bloodshot eyes!!”

“Calm down…”

“Then he got up and started DANCING!! DANCING TO THE FUCKING MUSIC PLAYING ON THE RADIO AND STILL STARING AT ME WITH HIS RED EYES!! JERRY NEVER DANCES!!” Connor was yelling loudly.

“Deep breath, Connor. Deep breath,” Flynn tried to calm him down, and it seemed to work. “Then what?”

“I just watched as he danced, and the radio suddenly stopped. Jerry stopped as well. The radio started beeping loudly, and Jerry dived out of my window. My room’s on the second floor, by the way. I just sat on my bed, unable to move. Then I passed out,” Connor exhaled. “And when I woke up, I found myself in a hospital bed, and a bunch of cops were talking to my parents.”

“So the radio…” Flynn began.

“No, I’m not saying anything again. You’ve had your story.”

“Story?”

“Yeah, your cop buddies think I’m making it all up. Especially your friend Terry.”

“He’s not dead, okay? We haven’t found a body yet, so we can’t conclude he’s dead.”

“Say what you want…” Connor reclined in his seat.

Flynn looked at the glass pane. “The radio, what was it saying?”

Connor kept silent.

“Why don’t we listen to it together?” Flynn suggested, to which Connor shot up.

“What do you mean?”

Flynn reached under the table and took the radio out.

“Why do you have that?!” Connor asked him.

“It’s evidence, boy. It’s for the investigation.” He placed it onto the table and looked at Connor. “Let’s–”

Connor began screaming. He rushed to the door and tried to force it open. Flynn stood up and tried to hold him, but the kid was surprisingly strong. He couldn’t latch onto him, so he looked at the pane and motioned for them to intervene. The door opened, and Terry rushed in with the handcuffs.

“You don’t know what you’re doing…” Connor rambled as Terry tried to cuff him.

“We have to restrain him,” Terry said and pushed him to the wall. “He’s the only witness; we can’t have him hurting himself.”

The two other cops came in, and they successfully cuffed Connor. As they took him out, Flynn looked at the kid. Connor looked genuinely scared, and he was apprehensive about it.

“Leave it at the swamp…” Connor muttered as the door closed.

“Well, that was a doozie,” Terry said as they walked out, and Flynn couldn’t agree more.

“Checks out with his official report?”

“Not as in-depth…” Terry said. “I think he likes you.”

Flynn scoffed, “Not as much as he liked Jerry.”

“You’re not saying…” Terry stopped.

Flynn turned around, “What?”

“He knows where Jeremy is.”

“How are you so sure? I mean, right now, I don’t know what’s what anymore,” Flynn said. “My phone could suddenly start ringing, and I’d be too scared to answer it after hearing that.”

They laughed at this, but they knew it was true. Connor’s statement had scared them shitless.

“Here.” Flynn handed the radio over to the evidence room.

“Okey dokey,” the security guy said and placed it on the bottom shelf. He attached a note to it. Flynn and Terry walked out of the building.

“What now?” Terry asked.

Flynn sighed, “We have to keep digging. For now though, I’m gonna dig into some lunch.”

“It’s past lunch,” Terry smirked. “Not for me,” Flynn replied. “See you tomorrow,” he said and walked away.

The next day, Flynn walked into the police building. He was early, and he wanted to check up on Connor.

“Morning detective,” the security guard greeted him. “You’re here early.”

“Decided to get some work done,” Flynn smiled. Then he remembered, “Anything… strange happen last night?”

“Not really…”

Thank goodness, Flynn thought as he walked away.

“…I mean, just a bunch of static noises coming from the evidence room…”

Credit: Franky D

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