In a small room containing nothing but a table, a chair and a one-way mirror, behind which was another room where two police officers were watching and about to take notes on whatever Fables—who was sitting there casually—might say.
"Not going to use the bad cop, good cop routine, are you?" I asked, grinning at the police officer sitting opposite me with a stiff and serious expression; she broke eye contact and reached under the table to take something out, slamming it down hard onto the table. "Oh? Even a woman like you still plays with dolls, do you?"
On the table lay a wooden doll shaped like a small child, dressed in colourful clothes and a pointed hat; the doll's eyes looked incredibly lifelike, creating an uncanny effect that sent shivers down my spine. "But you have terrible taste, don't you?"
The police officer, named Ciel, growled in annoyance, his hand still clutching the doll's head far too tightly, as if holding back all his emotions there. "Just so you know, this wooden puppet is called Pinocchio and he's no ordinary puppet—he's a lie detector!"
"…Pinocchio? Even your choice of name is terrible, isn't it?"
"I didn't name him!"
"But I've never seen a device like this before."
"That's because it's no ordinary device—it's the Everafter—"
Ciel immediately clamped his mouth shut as if he'd just let slip information he shouldn't have revealed; my eyebrows furrowed at that, and I immediately leaned forward, resting both arms on the table. "What do you mean, this thing is Everafter? Have you swallowed your pride and finally asked a Fable for help?" I smirked, and that made Ciel even more annoyed.
The door suddenly opened and in walked a burly man wearing a tight-fitting police uniform that clearly showed off his muscular physique; his greying hair and beard and the wrinkles on his face suggested that he had been through a great deal in his life.
"Just as Ciel said, you really do like to tease him, don't you?" the man walked closer and stopped right beside the policewoman, who was wearing a clearly bored expression. "Allow me to introduce myself—my name is Geppetto. I'm one of the officers here, and this child…" his hand reached up to the wooden puppet's head.
"This boy is an Everafter and also my son," the man added, and I almost laughed but held it back—the idea of an Everafter being his son was something I'd never heard of before.
"And let me guess, what you've sacrificed is your common sense?" I couldn't stop myself from making such a comment, though Ciel already looked as if he'd had enough of all this. "But there's no need for you to answer, as it's time for me to answer the question this lady has asked."
Ciel, who had been growling, let out a long sigh, trying to calm himself down, his eyes turning back to me. "Put your hand inside this doll's mouth, and if you're lying, the nose of this wooden doll will grow longer," he explained, pushing the doll closer to me.
I was sceptical about how this puppet worked, so I turned the wooden puppet to face Ciel before speaking. "Try it on yourself first," I requested, and Ciel immediately put his hand into the mouth of the wooden puppet called Pinocchio. "Apakah semua penjelasan yang kau katakan tadi, benar?"
"No," Ciel replied, and at that very moment, the doll's nose immediately stretched forwards, which both startled me and convinced me that the thing really was a lie detector. "And this doll's nose will shrink back if the person who puts their hand in says something honest." No sooner had those words left her mouth than the doll's nose did indeed shrink, providing immediate proof.
I gave this doll a chance; I pulled it closer and opened its mouth—I actually still felt uneasy about having to put my hand in there, but I wanted to get this over with quickly. "You can leave now, and rest assured, I'll look after your son well," Ciel ordered, and Geppetto nodded, somewhat hesitantly.
"Very well, I'll be off then," the man said, walking out of the interrogation room and leaving only me and the woman, who was still gazing at me intently, as though she were trying to predict my every move in case I tried to escape.
"Are you going to stare at my face like that until nightfall, or shall we start the interrogation?" I asked. Realising I had no intention of resisting, her shoulders slumped slightly and her expression relaxed—she was very worried, wasn't she? It was quite amusing.
"First question: what is your purpose, you Fables—especially those of you working with Mother?"
"We simply want to secure the future that was almost snatched away before our very eyes, and we're working with Mother to repair the Fables' tarnished reputation in the eyes of the public."
I glanced sideways and my eyes widened instantly at the doll's elongated nose; my head snapped back forward to meet Ciel's gaze, which had grown sharper as he'd detected I was lying—I paused for a moment before realising where I'd gone wrong.
"What I said before was true, but with one addition… We need money; everyone needs money, don't they?"
The puppet's nose shrank back to its normal length; I let out a long sigh—it turns out even a small lie is spotted straight away, doesn't it? I turned towards the one-way mirror and I was sure that behind it, someone was already taking notes on this conversation.
"Second question: do you know the true identity of this woman called Mother Goose?"
"No."
That wooden nose grew long again, and it was gradually getting on my nerves—I really wanted to pull out my Everafter and burn it to ashes. "I only have assumptions," its nose shrank again—bloody puppet.
"Can you tell me what your assumptions are?"
"I'm afraid not. No matter how much you force me, I still won't utter a single word—because an assumption without clear evidence is merely a theory that can lead people to overthink things."
The doll's nose didn't grow any longer—a sign that I was telling the truth. Ciel looked as if he wanted to press me, but he abandoned the idea and moved on to his third question. "What do you think about the way people view the Fables?" I fell silent for a moment, trying to choose my words carefully, because even the slightest slip of the tongue would see me immediately branded a liar.
"Essentially, we are people who possess abilities that sometimes go beyond human comprehension"
"Their fear of us is understandable, but what I can't stand is when they insult us and discriminate against us simply because we are different from them."
"Because we, too, were once human, just like all of you, and it is true that some of us are wicked and lack a sense of morality—but that is precisely why we, the children of Mother Goose, want to prove that we are not a threat."
"We still queue up when we want to buy that food everyone's been talking about; we sometimes still forget to tie our shoelaces before leaving; and we still pay tax too! That proves we're not entirely different from you lot."
"We are wretched souls who have been taken pity on by the God of Casualty and given a second chance to live our lives with the responsibility of protecting others so that they do not end up like us."
"I still remember when a girl wanted to thank me, but her mother immediately pulled her away from... Do I need to spell it out?"
"Love comes naturally, whilst hatred is taught!"
There was absolutely no change in the doll; its nose was still the same size and hadn't grown a single inch. Ciel fell silent, at a loss for words, and her blue eyes glanced towards the one-way mirror to her right; she took a deep breath before speaking. "Could you please leave that place?"
On the other side of the glass, the two people who had been watching exchanged confused glances, weighing up whether or not to do as he asked. "PLEASE, JUST GO!" Ciel shouted, catching me off guard; I hadn't expected her to go that far.
Shortly after, we heard the sound of a door slamming shut, leaving a long silence to envelop us—there was a question that truly weighed on my heart, from the one who hadn't hurled abuse at me as a Fable and who seemed to genuinely understand us. "Tell me… What's happened to you?" The question lingered in the room, unanswered.
"One last question… Do you recognise or know anything about a Fable with thick body fur and large horns like a goat?"
That question left me shocked and speechless; I'd never seen or heard of such a creature. My gaping mouth finally managed to utter a sound. "…No—not at all," I emphasised, and as I'd expected, the wooden puppet's nose didn't grow.
I was very curious as to why he had suddenly asked that, but my mind immediately recalled the moment when Ciel had let her emotions spill out whilst recounting how her family had been slaughtered by a Fable. The woman stared down at the table, deliberately avoiding eye contact with me—her hands were clenched tightly and she was beginning to break out in a sweat.
After summoning all her courage, she finally let out a sigh and, in a voice so quiet that only she could hear it, she whispered, "…Would you like to hear a Christmas story?"