Good Morning everyone! I hope you are all having a lovely day on this first Friday of the year! Here is my daily writing prompt work for the day! Day three with many to go! Today I am going to do a little bit of Dialogue practice, using a generator to give me the first line from which the dialogue progresses.
If you have any suggestions for writing prompts or anything you’d like to see me do, feel free to leave a comment, I am always interested in exploring new ideas.
Please leave your feedback, I would really appreciate it! If you have your own response to this prompt, feel free to share it! If you like what you are reading here, check out my other writing exercises and my books!
Prompt: First Line Dialogue Prompt: “Am I under arrest, or not?”
Genre: Science Fiction/Mystery
Source: Random Dialogue Generator
Time Spent: 90 minutes
Word Count: 2980
Prompt: First Line Dialogue Prompt: “Am I under arrest, or not?”
“Am I under arrest, or not?” said Cass, the young woman squirming in a cold, metal chair, staring defiantly across the cold, metal table at the face of the interrogators in front of her.
The two women who were questioning looked at each other, looked back and Cass, and shook their heads ‘no’ as they continued pouring over the files in front of them. The two looked nearly identical not only in dress but also in face and haircut. It was difficult for Cass to tell their age, they had an ageless and smooth quality to their faces, but there were hints of lines and creases of much care and experience when one look closer.
Cass, who was of average height and athletic, was wearing jeans and a tshirt. She was cold, uncomfortable, and wanted to go home and have shower and sleep. “In that case, can I go?”
The two interrogators again looked at each other, looked at Cass, shook their heads ‘no’, then continued their reading.
“Then what am I doing here?! If I am not under arrest, I don’t think you can hold me!” Cass exploded after a few more minutes of silence.
The interrogators looked up and regarded her for a long minute before the one on the left spoke, in a calm, almost monotone, voice. “You are not under arrest, but we have questions to ask you about the crime you reported. For that purpose, we can hold a person for up to 24 hours.”
“I want me lawyer!”
The two interrogators looked up again, and this time the other one spoke while the first address Cass. “That will not be necessary.”
“You can’t do this to me. I know what my rights are! If you don’t allow me to have a lawyer you are breaking the law, and I am going to sue the police department.
The two looked up again and each raised an eyebrow. When they responded, in the same dull speech, Cass could not even tell which figure it was coming from. “We are not the police, Ms. Loomis, we take care of more specialized concerns, and the normal rules do not apply to us.”
Cass was unnerved by this but kept up her questions as for the moment her curiosity was overriding her discomfort. “Did I do something wrong?”
The response was quicker this time. The left interrogator resumed reading, but the right had put the reading material at way and was more focused on her. “No, Ms. Loomis. You have committed no crime, but you have witnessed things that no doubt you imagine as being odd, and we need information.”
Cass sat back into her chair heavily, and regarded the women opposite her for a moment, before saying, “you can call my Cass, I guess. What am I to call you? what crime are you talking about.”
The right-hand woman straightened up in her seat and after another shared look with her partner and, Cass guessed, sister, she responded, “Thank you for your cooperation Cass. Our names are of little consequence as you will soon forget this place is here. Now, did you recognize the accident on 41st St. where a male jumped from a high building, severely damaging several cars and people, but then hopped right back up and ran away before anyone could help or question him?”
That one was easy for Cass to recall, it was only three days previously, and even in a large city it was far from every day for someone to leap out a window, cause large amounts of damage and harm, and then simply walk away. “Yes, I did see that. I still have no idea how he lived form that? I had heard it was from the 71st floor. I would have thought that any such fall would be terminal.”
“Good. Can you remember anything about the person who fell? What did he look like? Was there anything unusual about him?”
Cass racked her brain for this, leaning back in the chair again and staring at the season. “The press said he was a man, but that wasn’t clear on what I saw. All I saw was a greenish-brown blur, zipping past her in the fraction of a second before the body slammed into the car. At first, we all thought him dead, with several people taking pictures as we tried to clear the rode and helping those that were injured in the impact. Without warning, the body breathed heavily, sat up and looked around, and on seeing us, ran away with speed that was surprising given how he was limping.”
“Hmm, what was he wearing? What did he look like?”
Cass shrugged, “I remember seeing a lot of greens and browns. I think it was his shirt, or maybe a coat? There was something odd about his face thought. . .”
Cass trailed off and the two interrogators just started at her, without moving a muscle. After a moment of this, one of them prompted, what was odd about his face?”
“I guess I would say it seemed longer and bonier that normal, his skin was an almost greyish color, which was another reason we thought him dead, with skunked eyes that were almost red in their irises. It was hard to tell with his clothing ripped up, from the fall no doubt, but when he ran way his legs and arms seemed strangely long and thin.”
The two interrogators turned and looked at each other, and after a moment, turned back to address Cass. “Is there anything else you would like to tell us? Did you see any blood? Did he say anything? Did he have anything on his person?”
Cass stared back at the two women. Surely, this all had to be in the police and eye-witness reports. Come to think of it, she had told all of this to the police, except for the strangeness. She was perhaps too shocked to remember at the time, and even now was not sure she was not imagining the strangeness because of how shocking the event was. Her annoyance returning, she nevertheless took a moment to think before looking back at the interrogators and saying, “I don’t reca. . .”
She had not noticed before, but the two women had beautiful, violet-colored eyes that almost seemed to be glowing in the harsh light of the room. There was something both soothing in their unblinking stare and hypnotic. Cass felt ease come over her body and her memories of the event seemed to start playing themselves in slow motion and she began to narrate.
“I had just gotten a cup of coffee and a donut and was on my way to meet a friend in the park. I had stopped to look into the window of a souvenir shop when I heard a high-pitched screech, almost painful to the ears, and something green and brown in appearance plummeted into a car that was trying to park. The sudden stop caused several other cars to run into the back of the first, the driver was critically injured and there were injuries to the two cars that ran into the back and multiple people had cuts and scrapes from the glass that flew from the car. I dropped what was left of my coffee and ran toward the seen to help. The body that hit the car was dressed in jeans, a black shirt, and a green and brown jacked, ripped up from the impact. His arms and legs with at least a foot longer, and his torso half a foot shorter, than looked normal. His face looked almost like a skeleton, but with a skull that was half as wide as any humans I have ever seen, and twice a long. The cheek bones and eyebrow ridges were unusually prominent and the nose virtually non-existent. The skin was a grey-green hue, the eyes were a red-orange, and the cuts I saw revealed blood that was also green. I saw no signs of breath, so I moved to help a woman who had been standing nearby that had been badly cut, when I heard a gasp. I turned and saw the man sit up, retrieve a rectangular device out of his pocked. I phone I guess but unlike any I had seen before. He pressed a few buttons, there was a sharp, ringing tone, and then he got up and ran away before disappearing down an alley.”
The light dulled in the eyes of the interrogators, and Cass slumped in her chair and let out a breath as if she had been holding her breath the entire time. Her eyes were dried and sore, she was not sure she had blinked at all, and there was a dull ache in her head that was slowly receding. As it ebbed, her annoyance began to replace it. She looked up to see that the two women were, once more, merely staring into each other’s eyes.
After watching this for a moment, slowly coming to a boil over the fact that she was seemingly being ignored now, she finally burst out, “what did you just do to me? What did I witness? Is this some kind of joke or prank? A hidden camara show? What is going on here!?”
The two women turned back toward her in unison. When they spoke next, she was surprised to discover that both of them were talking at the same time, with the same tone, voice, and cadence and she was suddenly questioning whether they had always spoken together when addressing her. “What you witnessed, Cassandra Loomis, was an extra-terrestrial (as you would say) refugee hiding here on earth. A Polerian, if you wish the specific name, although it is not important. Why he jumped and where he ran to is what we are trying to ascertain. The device he pulled out, and the ringing tone, was an attempt to erase any memory of him. We apologize for having to pull the full story out of you like that, but it was the only way to get the information we needed.”
“An alien? Surely you must be joking? Who put you up to this prank? Was in Sammi and June? This had Sammi and June written all over it. Tell them that I respect how quickly the put this together, and the little magic trick of hypnosis you did, but I cannot be fooled that easily!”
“We are not joking, Cassandra Loomis, and we have no association with Samantha and/or June Roman.”
Cass raised an eyebrow,” oh really? And how did you know their names? And what, I suppose you are going to tell me you are aliens to?”
The two women responded in the same, perfect unison, “that is correct, we are a race called the Geminin. You may have noticed that we are identical. Our species is always born in pairs and while we can act independently, we always have a link to one another, which we use to communicate. Among other things this also allows us some ability to influence the mind of others, as you just saw.”
“Well, I have to admit, you are creative,” chuckled Cass. “Okay then, not Sammi and June. Who did you get to tell you so much about me? Why do you no so much about me. What, am I being kidnapped and going to be probed by you?”
The two ‘Geminin’ raised an eyebrow. “You are not being kidnapped, Cassandra Loomis, and our organization put an end of the experiments on your kind some decades ago. We are a group that facilitates the settlement of displaced extra-terrestrials on earth, and monitors their wellbeing.”
“What, like the Men in Black?”
“That, Cass, is a fanciful piece of human creativity, based on scraps of truth your species has sporadically run across over the years. We are less police and enforcers and more social workers. We will restrain, if we lack other options, and will modify memories and remove evidence, but that is merely to protect both the humans and other life on this planet, and those extra-terrestrials in our charge. We have never kidnapped, tortured, harmed, killed, or made anyone disappear.”
Cass was becoming less and less sure that this was some elaborate prank, but she also did not know what it was. “Okay, you say you are from outer space, fine, but that does not explain why you brought me here and why you know so much about me.”
The two women nodded their heads before responding. “We have two purposes for bringing you here, Ms. Loomis. The first was to get a clear account of what happened so we can track the Polerian, who is no doubt hurt and scared. The second purpose, and the reason we collected so much information about you in the last few days, is that this is what you would call a job interview.”
“A job interview? What job? Why are you interested in me?”
“We are interested in you, because alone of the nearly fifty eyewitnesses, only you included any details of the person that fell in your report to the police. That indicates that the attempt at memory modification only partly worked on you. We confirmed this by the fact that we were able to pull everything out with a little help. That intrigued us because very few humans have the mental fortitude to avoid effects like that. When we learned more of you, we discovered that you are a caring, supportive person, who has gained multiple first aid certifications purely to make sure you could always help people. Your mental performance score are impressive, you are creative and open to new ideas, and you are looking for your place in the world. With all of those traits, we do think that you could be a great asset to us. Our agency is mostly made up of extra-terrestrials that were either once refugees themselves, or their offspring, but it is helpful to have humans in our organization as well. You help us understand the nuances of your culture and navigating your world and at times can go places and check on our charges where we would have difficulty.”
Cass was gob smacked at this and merely stared open-mouthed at this. She finally found her voice to ask, “will that mean cutting off contact with my friends and family? And erasing my identity?”
The two extra-terrestrials rolled their eyes together, “why would you need to do that. Obviously, we do not want anyone told of what we do as modifying memories is, literally and figuratively, a headache and doing so would be potential grounds for dismissal, if not approved to do so, and there is a cover for our organization that we will ask you to stick to, but otherwise outside of your working hours, which may at times be long and will likely be arduous, you may live your life, see your friends and family, engage in your hobbies, etc. as normal. So, Cassandra Loomis, would you like a job?”
“I mean,” began Cass, stunned. “Yeah, I would. But are you sure that I am really on that smart? I was an average student at best, my testing was okay, and I haven’t even used my degree.”
The twins Geminin responded quickly enough that they seemed to have been expecting this, or they were reading her mind again. “I believe it is well know, even in your own society, that the structure of your educational institutions and various standardized knowledge and intelligence tests, are poor measures of a person’s actual intelligence as they rely far too heavily on rote memorization, repeating ideas, and fitting a particular definition of success and intelligence. You often even put standardized in the very name of them. I believe you are also well aware of the limitations of pursuing ones interests that your current society and economic model put on the individual. Far more important is your creativity, flexibility, and empathy and your natural mental fortitude will allow training to effectively navigate and see through the various means those in our charge use to hide themselves from human eyes. So, what do you say, Cass?”
Cass still couldn’t half believe it, but it was too good an opportunity to pass up, even if she was sure that some catch was coming. “Yes, yes I do. I would enjoy learning more about you and your charges and actually working a job that helps me out. Although, I should probably ask about the pay?”
The extra-terrestrial women shrugged, “money is of little concern to us. We have selectively repackaged and patented elements of our technology, through various means we do not understand ourselves, but we are well funded. Tell us what you need, and I imagine we can make it work.”
“Great, well, I would like to talk to someone in more depth about that soon, but yes, consider me ready and willing to work.”
The twins smiled for the first time, “that is the outcome we hoped for. The day is late, and I believe it is almost your window of leisure, which I believe you call a weekend. We will drive you home and if you come to our main building at 229 Montcalm Street on the day you call Monday at 9:00 in the morning. The building and our agency are called the United Friendship and Opportunity Society. We look forward to working with you in the future.”
As the Geminin stood (still in unison) and left the room, Cass stood and stretched herself. This was definitely not how she expected the day to go, but she was excited for the new opportunity, curious as to what the future would hold, and glad she never had to return to the call center she worked at again.
Alright, this one definitely expanded further than I anticipated, and this is a short story that I can definitely say I did not know what was going to happen until I got to it. I had no plan when I started, only to come up with a mystery, I did intend a sci-fi theme, and then just tried to write the two sides of the dialogue as true to what I had in mind for their characters as I could.
Please, leave your thoughts, comments, and feedback. A like and follow of my website would be great and I would be psyched if you check out my other writing and my books!
I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day; you get the chance to do or experience something creative, and I’ll catch you all on the next one!
– Jon
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