Juliet's Tryst

Chapter 15: The Council, The Final Part

The Kyrion made a noise that sounded like a swear. She ran, zigzagging through rows of corn, trying  to make sure the path was impossible to follow. She did not care what was in that hole. It looked like a perfectly dug grave. Dee mentioned danger. A grave in the middle of nowhere was Danger. 

Juliet tripped, falling into a large muddy puddle. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She was terrified and soaking wet, but not incapable of fighting or running. Her clothes were now not unlike the color of the ugly Kyrion's suit. A look behind her revealed only corn.

When she looked forward, and he was standing in front of her. She screamed as loud as she could.

"I don't understand what you are scared of," he said, once she finished screaming. It was an unusual amount of time to wait. 

"You're... You're... going to bury me alive! That was a fucking grave!" Her words were barely discernible. "You expect me to just get inside my own grave? I haven't even seen Phantom of the Opera live yet." She could stall, convince him that she wasn't worth killing.

Riyuklanin placed his fingers on his temples, a motion he learned from his human emotion modules. 

"It is not a grave. It is a transport capsule. You will be transported to the location of the council."

"A transport capsule to my death. So...like a coffin?"

"I have no interest in killing you. I told you that I came in peace. Where is this misunderstanding?"

"That's something a killer would say," she flicked a broken corn leaf off of her sleeve. 

"Since you do not want to go the more  comfortable way, I will simply have to do this." 

Juliet didn't even see him move, but instinctually threw her hands out in front of her. He took out some small baton and shoved it into her stomach. A second later, she was submerged an unrecognizable substance. If she was capable of breathing, she would have screamed in pain. The substance had to be hand sanitizer or petrol. It was forcing its way into all of her orifices; eyes, ears, nose and mouth. She fought it, but the sheer force of the sludge pried everything open. 

Juliet succumbed, disintegrated. Then, she found herself standing, soaking wet with scraped knees, on some sort of examination table.

It was a medical facility aboard a spaceship. She only knew this because she glimpsed a tiny window, the blue glow of Earth peaking through. There were Kyrion standing around the table, their faces almost meeting hers despite the added height. Juliet groaned in pain, gripping her mouth, nose and ears in absolute agony. 

"Riyuklanin, what have you done?"  These were nothing but foreign clicks and noises.

"She didn't want to use the transporter. She tried to run. I had no choice."

"You idiot! We are not completely sure that humans can survive the palirtern."

"Well, now you know."

"Grab the doctor." 

Juliet was scrunched into a tight ball, at the mercy of the burning everywhere. It wasn't just burning on her skin, but every atom in her being felt like it was on fire. Her scraped knees were infant-play now. Moments later, there were cool hands on her, stretching her out and restraining her arms. She wailed with each movement. Even the whiz of air as machines floated around her was irritating her sensitive atoms. The pain was increasing each millisecond. Yet, her body functioned. She did not pass out, no matter how desperately she wished to. 

"Dinaeressin cannot be alerted to this incident. We did not mean to cause harm." 

"I told the human that but she did not understand."