The Tribunal

An Unexpected Recollection

    “Where’d Hilda go?” Dennis asked as the remaining four sat at breakfast.

     Del glanced around, concern furrowing her brow, “Maybe I should check on her, see if she’s alright.” She pushed her chair back and began to stand.

     “She has left the Animavero hotel and casino,” Memori informed them.

     “What?” Allen shouted, “When? How come she got to leave?”

     Memori stood at the head of the table, “Hilda Maverick left last night. It was her time to leave.”

     Allen stood tossing his spoon down, “Why can’t it be my time to leave? I need to get out of here.”

     “Don’t worry, I’m sure we’ll be getting rid of more of you today,” Sors assured, strolling into the room playing with her knife again. “Not many people last more than three days, in fact most people are gone by the second night.”

     Tension and apprehension filled the faces in front of her and she grinned, this was always her favorite part. “I have something planned for all of you today, so after you eat, pop on down to the poker room.” She poured herself a mug of coffee and sauntered back out of the room.

     “What is she going to do to us this time?” Dennis asked wide eyed.

     “Sors is the Activities Director,” Memori said.
                               
                                 ...

     One modified game of poker later – in which body parts were bet rather than money – Sors handed Memori a new stack of papers.”

     “Here you go. You should have come and watched, that was one of the best games in a long time, we usually don’t have that many people,” she gushed as he shuffled through the papers. “The looks on their faces when they realized they’d actually lose the body part was priceless.”

     Memori’s lips thinned. What Sors didn’t realize was that in reading the papers the entire game played out in his mind’s eye, like a movie playing in his head; one of the abilities of a Vitari.

    He could see Dennis lose his left eye, and Susanna lose a rib. He could see Allen’s face twist as he lost a kneecap, and Del’s scream as she lost her right ear. Of course none of the exchanges were permanent and all body parts returned to their proper places at the end of the game. Still anguish filled him as he saw her pain as clearly as if he’d actually been there. Long ago he’d developed the ability to compartmentalize and separate himself from the Patrons, shutting off his empathy to their pain. But when she came, all of that went in the trash.

     “We have two moving on,” Memori said, cutting off Sors who was still rambling about the game.

     She smiled, “Who and where?”

     “Susanna Harwell will be Recycled,” he shuffled the papers a bit staring intently at the next one, “and Allen Burman will be Reused.”

    “Cool we’ve got at least one of each this time around, don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen before.” She leaned back against Memori’s desk on her elbows, “Well, I think we should be rid of them all by tomorrow night at this rate.”

    Memori’s chest tightened at her assessment, “You are so eager for them to leave.”

     “Well yeah. Humans are just a nuisance, they never know what’s going on and they’re just annoying most of the time. Why wouldn’t I want them to leave?” she shook her head in disdain, “They’re just little specs in a universe they know nothing about.”