Sonya stared across the room into the eyes of a mad man. The light shined the darkness and reflected back a twisted version of herself. Warped by the curves of madness and obsession. They watched one another in a moment of silence, neither truly wanted to speak first, but the eerie quiet needed to be broken, lest the guard take her away.
"Why have you come here?" He stared, fingers patted his lips as though he had a cigarette, but there was nothing to suck but the stale air around them.
"Who the fuck do you think you are?" The vitriol bubbled in her speech and spilled onto the desk for him to drown in.
"I'm that guy that helped get those little girls killed." He repeated, "pleaded insanity. Got it, but the police have sought after a death sentence since."
"Rightfully so."
His eyes reached forward for hers and pinched her tighter into an uncomfortable squint. The upper ridge of his teeth began to scrape his bottom lip along a line he was most familiar walking back and forth along.
"You sang for me." She recalled the eerie moment the night before, the song her father would sing, the way he sang it. Everything was exactly as he had done, right down to the tone of his voice.
"I don't know you." He maintained this, what she believed to be a facade.
She stared. No response.
The whites of her eyes scraped across his mind like a concrete canvas he could cut his hands on and bit his lip with discomfort before his own needed to cast down at the table.
"We're not the only ones here, you know." He spoke low, as though he didn't want someone to hear but them. Their little secret.
"The guard and Dr. Newman are outside the door." She answered, but he shook his head.
"A spirit." He added, "see, sometimes I get these moments of dissociation. I can see the past, the present, and speak to the dead, and those from beyond this realm."
"That's bullshit."
"I don't remember much from it, but lately, since word came out that I'm scheduled to sit down on that cold chair and be electrocuted, the spirit's been taking over more frequently. I've been letting him."
"This is a fucking waste of my time." She pulled up from her seat, but in a moment of shock at her anger, he recoiled into the seat and she watched as Jordan pulled at his hair, slow, methodical until it extended down to his eyes and he focused his gaze at her, deep into her eyes, right through her soul.
His lips pinched tight into a smug grin, into a cruel curve that spoke to her in a low tone, "my beautiful Sonya. I have been waiting to meet you."
She watched, unable to move. The room's temperature dropped and trickled down her back and shoulders like icy spiders. All she could do is watch.
"I have heard so much about you."
She refused to respond, so he sat up, confident, and grinned.
"Where are my manners, I am Shang Tsung, sorcerer of Outworld."
"Bullshit." He next step brought her right to the door and her hand turned curled to knock on the heavy barrier between her and the real world, but as she reared her knuckles to strike, she heard her father's voice.
"Firecracker." He spoke to her, reached out with her voice to turn her by the shoulder.
She dared not.
"Look at me, Sonya." His voice was stern, and commanding, just as the captain he was and so she peeked back. Jordan's demeanor in the chair had changed. Straight, curt, and eyes like fire that could turn her into a child with the kind of glare only a father could give.
"No!" The sorcerer wailed in anger and the man's face reddened, his hands clutched like claws that scrapped the edge of the desk. Jordan then leaned back, nails dug into his cheeks and scraped downward to mar the others as he hissed through gritted teeth, "no one gets to speak to her, until I get a deal!"
His eyes were red, blood shot and bitter. There was fear in those eyes. A deep dark fear that only death could bring.
"Don't estimate my fear of that chair!" He growled. "Tell the captain that my insanity plea was true. Keep me in here, and I'll let you speak to them!"
"Consider it done."
"No! I want you to do it now!"
The next moment, her cellphone, large and clunky was in her hand and her Lieutenant on the line. His voice crisp like the radio for Jordan to hear.
"Lieutenant Stryker?"
"What is it, Sonya?"
"I'm with that guy, the crazy one."
Jordan bit his lip and crunched his eyes, a twitch in the right, a scrape of his nails on the veins of his hand as she spoke. He listened intently.
"What about him? Guy's fucking nuts."
"You're right. I need you to send a message to the captain."
He listened intently. Curled up on the chair like a bitter teen that's desperate for what he desired, he toyed and bruised his body as she spoke to this lieutenant. When the phone was at her side again, she stared back so he would reposition himself.
"Bullshit." He imitated her.
"I don't deal in bullshit."
"Then why are you here?"
"To prove you are insane."
There was a pause, a long, ugly pause between them. Jordan let his heart rest, his breathing settle, and his face drain of the blood that fueled his rage.
"You don't get to speak to your father, until I know for a fact that I don't go to that vile, cold chair."
"You have my word."
He changed position in the chair, and the sorcerer as he was visualized through Jordan's demeanor came back.
"Sonya Blade." His voice was low, serious, and his eyes stared deep into her as though he knew everything and yet nothing about her.
"How do you know Kano?"
"I have seen this Kano through the eyes of a more powerful sorcerer that controls him."
"That answers nothing."
"I don't have much time, my beautiful Sonya. You will have to believe me."
"Where is Kano?"
"Right now? Boarding a plane to Hong Kong."
"Hong Kong?"
"There he will take a ship to my island and compete in an ancient tournament known as Mortal Kombat."
"I've never heard of that."
"My island is in a far plane known as Outworld."
"Do you run the tournament?"
"I used to, my wonderful Sonya. Now Quan Chi does."
"And yourself?"
"His prisoner."
"How are you speaking to me then?"
"Through the few souls I still hold within me, including your father, Sonya Blade."
"Bullshit!"
She pulled back and turned for the door. With three heavy knocks she signaled to leave and as the door cracked back into reality. The voice discerned as Shang Tsung reached out to her one last time.
"Compete in the Mortal Kombat tournament, Sonya. Free me and I will free your father. I will give you Kano."
She paused. The doctor helped her through the threshold of insanity and the door closed on Jordan as he screamed and wailed and banged his body against the door.