Here, have another thing? This is part of a series I
was doing a couple years ago, and I’m thinking of getting back into it
because it had some sort of coherency. Starship science fiction, Tales
from the Monomyth. It’s not really finished, but I think it’s good
enough to post. Or I don’t, but I should anyway.
(crossposted from Tumblr)
——
My eyes are open but it’s too dark to see. I cannot tell where I am, or what the size of the room I am in is. I am sitting in a chair. It is cold and hard against my body and there are cuffs fixed into place around my arms and ankles. There is someone standing behind me - I know this because I can feel two hands in metal gauntlets at the back of my neck. I know why this person is here and it makes me want to shiver, but moving will not help anything.
“Ari.”
The person who said my name is not the person who stands behind me. I hear her footsteps on the floor. She is pacing. I would guess that the floor is made of concrete; it echoes like concrete. I can hear her footsteps all the time. Sometimes she’s close, sometimes she’s farther away. She is wearing boots padded with metal. Like mine.
“Tell me why you’re here,” she says. Her voice is cold, sharp, and clear. I think about the ice on puddles in winter.
I swallow hard and feel the metal hands pushing on the back of my neck. “Because you brought me here.”
As soon as I speak the answer, I know it’s wrong. It’s true, but it’s wrong. It isn’t what she wanted me to say, isn’t what she wanted to hear. Her footsteps get faster in the background as she paces and paces. I feel the metal fingers creep around my throat and I can’t breathe. They’re not choking me but I can’t breathe. My heart is not supposed to go this fast and I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.
I hear the footsteps in front of me now. I can’t see the woman they belong to. I try to imagine her and she is all shadows and light, black hair on white skin in my mind. I think maybe I have seen her before but I can’t remember.
“Tell me why you’re here.”
I try to forget the metal fingers and take one deep breath. The air smells stale. “Because of what I did.”
“Yes, and what did you do?” Her footsteps get slower until she is walking like the ticking of a clock. I think this is a good thing. “Tell me what you did, Ari.”
I don’t want to say it, but I think about the metal fingers and what they will do if I don’t answer. “I killed the scientists at the 36-B Morena Research Facility.” My voice comes out quiet and shaky.
The answer is too clear in my mind. I feel sick but I am not allowed to move. I close my eyes even though nothing looks different.
“How did you kill them?” I think she sounds pleased. Maybe because I answered that question right the first time. I imagine she has painted her lips, a flash of red against the shadows and light, red curling into a twisted smile set in her white face.
“I made myself look like a visiting student.” I remember gently sliding the sleeves of the white coat off the arms of the dead girl, the dead girl who was as small as I was. I put her into a sitting position against the brick wall of the alley and folded her hands in her lap. I took her glasses because they weren’t the kind that make you see better. I did not take her name tag because she did not look like me. I would pretend I had lost mine. Then I went to the facility. “A man let me in and I told them I was new. I told them my records had gotten lost. They made me new papers with my fake information and over the next few days I poisoned them.”
“Tell me how you poisoned them, Ari. Tell me.” The footsteps have stopped somewhere in front of me. I feel a hand on my shoulder and I think she has leaned in very close. I hear her breathing.
“I used the Violet Beta 23 compound that was made here. I used it because I made myself immune.” I remember taking small dosages of the paste, dosages that they swore wouldn’t kill me. I do not remember shivering and screaming and vomiting but they told me it happened. I took them until they told me I wasn’t getting sick anymore and that I needed to take larger amounts. It went on like this for a very long time until they told me I would be safe from it forever. “I put it in their food - very little, so they wouldn’t notice.” Violet Beta 23 is bitter and I swear I can taste it on my tongue right now. “And I smeared it on the doorknobs and their workstations so it would soak through their skin. Most of them wore gloves but it worked anyway.”
“And what happened to them after that, Ari?” She sounds excited. I am afraid of her but I am not supposed to show any fear.
“It was slow. They thought they were sick at first, and that there must have been something going around the facility. The number of people who came to work slowly dropped until it was only me.” I remember taking a walk through the empty building, expecting to hear people who thought I was one of them say hello to me, but no one did. Sometimes I played with the animals in the cages because Violet Beta 23 is only poisonous to humans. I am not sure why the scientists kept them because they never did experiments on them. “I read newspapers and called houses until I knew everyone was dead. I checked their names off on a list I made and then I left.”
In the dark I imagine her smile. White teeth behind red lips. I think her eyes are dark and that they are shining. “Tell me why you did it, Ari. Tell me why you killed them all.”
“Because I was ordered to,” I say, and my spine freezes because I know I have just said the wrong answer again. The metal fingers get tight around my throat and I want to scream. I want to scream but instead I gasp, “Because they all deserved to die.”
I do not believe it. I do not believe it because the scientists told me they were trying to help people and they were all very nice to me, but it is the right answer. I know it is right because the metal fingers leave my neck.
I imagine the woman smiling. “You’re learning fast, Ari.” She takes her hand off my shoulder. I hear the clicking and sliding of a mechanism and then the restraints around my arms and ankles are gone. She takes my hand. Her fingers are thin and smooth and she helps me stand. I feel stiff and sore but I know better than to complain.
(crossposted from Tumblr)
——
My eyes are open but it’s too dark to see. I cannot tell where I am, or what the size of the room I am in is. I am sitting in a chair. It is cold and hard against my body and there are cuffs fixed into place around my arms and ankles. There is someone standing behind me - I know this because I can feel two hands in metal gauntlets at the back of my neck. I know why this person is here and it makes me want to shiver, but moving will not help anything.
“Ari.”
The person who said my name is not the person who stands behind me. I hear her footsteps on the floor. She is pacing. I would guess that the floor is made of concrete; it echoes like concrete. I can hear her footsteps all the time. Sometimes she’s close, sometimes she’s farther away. She is wearing boots padded with metal. Like mine.
“Tell me why you’re here,” she says. Her voice is cold, sharp, and clear. I think about the ice on puddles in winter.
I swallow hard and feel the metal hands pushing on the back of my neck. “Because you brought me here.”
As soon as I speak the answer, I know it’s wrong. It’s true, but it’s wrong. It isn’t what she wanted me to say, isn’t what she wanted to hear. Her footsteps get faster in the background as she paces and paces. I feel the metal fingers creep around my throat and I can’t breathe. They’re not choking me but I can’t breathe. My heart is not supposed to go this fast and I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.
I hear the footsteps in front of me now. I can’t see the woman they belong to. I try to imagine her and she is all shadows and light, black hair on white skin in my mind. I think maybe I have seen her before but I can’t remember.
“Tell me why you’re here.”
I try to forget the metal fingers and take one deep breath. The air smells stale. “Because of what I did.”
“Yes, and what did you do?” Her footsteps get slower until she is walking like the ticking of a clock. I think this is a good thing. “Tell me what you did, Ari.”
I don’t want to say it, but I think about the metal fingers and what they will do if I don’t answer. “I killed the scientists at the 36-B Morena Research Facility.” My voice comes out quiet and shaky.
The answer is too clear in my mind. I feel sick but I am not allowed to move. I close my eyes even though nothing looks different.
“How did you kill them?” I think she sounds pleased. Maybe because I answered that question right the first time. I imagine she has painted her lips, a flash of red against the shadows and light, red curling into a twisted smile set in her white face.
“I made myself look like a visiting student.” I remember gently sliding the sleeves of the white coat off the arms of the dead girl, the dead girl who was as small as I was. I put her into a sitting position against the brick wall of the alley and folded her hands in her lap. I took her glasses because they weren’t the kind that make you see better. I did not take her name tag because she did not look like me. I would pretend I had lost mine. Then I went to the facility. “A man let me in and I told them I was new. I told them my records had gotten lost. They made me new papers with my fake information and over the next few days I poisoned them.”
“Tell me how you poisoned them, Ari. Tell me.” The footsteps have stopped somewhere in front of me. I feel a hand on my shoulder and I think she has leaned in very close. I hear her breathing.
“I used the Violet Beta 23 compound that was made here. I used it because I made myself immune.” I remember taking small dosages of the paste, dosages that they swore wouldn’t kill me. I do not remember shivering and screaming and vomiting but they told me it happened. I took them until they told me I wasn’t getting sick anymore and that I needed to take larger amounts. It went on like this for a very long time until they told me I would be safe from it forever. “I put it in their food - very little, so they wouldn’t notice.” Violet Beta 23 is bitter and I swear I can taste it on my tongue right now. “And I smeared it on the doorknobs and their workstations so it would soak through their skin. Most of them wore gloves but it worked anyway.”
“And what happened to them after that, Ari?” She sounds excited. I am afraid of her but I am not supposed to show any fear.
“It was slow. They thought they were sick at first, and that there must have been something going around the facility. The number of people who came to work slowly dropped until it was only me.” I remember taking a walk through the empty building, expecting to hear people who thought I was one of them say hello to me, but no one did. Sometimes I played with the animals in the cages because Violet Beta 23 is only poisonous to humans. I am not sure why the scientists kept them because they never did experiments on them. “I read newspapers and called houses until I knew everyone was dead. I checked their names off on a list I made and then I left.”
In the dark I imagine her smile. White teeth behind red lips. I think her eyes are dark and that they are shining. “Tell me why you did it, Ari. Tell me why you killed them all.”
“Because I was ordered to,” I say, and my spine freezes because I know I have just said the wrong answer again. The metal fingers get tight around my throat and I want to scream. I want to scream but instead I gasp, “Because they all deserved to die.”
I do not believe it. I do not believe it because the scientists told me they were trying to help people and they were all very nice to me, but it is the right answer. I know it is right because the metal fingers leave my neck.
I imagine the woman smiling. “You’re learning fast, Ari.” She takes her hand off my shoulder. I hear the clicking and sliding of a mechanism and then the restraints around my arms and ankles are gone. She takes my hand. Her fingers are thin and smooth and she helps me stand. I feel stiff and sore but I know better than to complain.
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