A bell rings and hundreds of students flood into a hallway. The laughter, yelling, and chatter of the high school children make it hard to hear even your own thoughts.
In one of the classrooms, with his head down on the desk, was a skinny student. He was just as tall as any other student, taller than most, even, but despite his height, nothing could conceal the sight of his ribs and his sunken cheeks.
This student wasn’t alone in the classroom, but the others also had their heads down on their desks. No teachers would wake them up here. Most were busy making sure the students weren’t causing a mess in the cafeteria, while the rest were eating lunches of their own.
Students like these, who used the time during lunch to sleep, usually found themselves eating small bites of snacks or sandwiches during classes held later in the afternoon.
Kicking open the door from the hallway and dashing over to the desk of the skinny, sleeping student, an equally as tall, though much sturdier student began to yell, interrupting the pleasant dreams of most of the students in the room.
“WAKE UP! WAKE UP! You all HAVE to see this shit!”
Seeing that the skinny student he had run up to hadn’t budged, yet, the large student began to yell again as he swung his hand towards the back of the skinny student’s head.
“I mean you, too, Reggie! This shit is fucking insane! OPEN YOUR FUCKING EY– FUCK!”
The yelling stopped with an abrupt cuss and a loud knock. The hand that had been flung towards the head of the skinny student called Reggie had missed its mark as Reggie shifted his head at the last second, allowing for the hand to slap the desk at high speeds.
“What the hell do you want, Kyle? Can’t you see that there are people trying to sleep here?”
The student named Reggie finally spoke up. A grin had formed on his face, most likely at the expense of the student that injured his hand on the desk.
Looking into the eyes of Reggie, Kyle rolled his eyes and spoke to him, though he was still loud enough for the rest of the students that had been sleeping to hear.
“Maybe if you went to bed like a normal student you wouldn’t be failing most of your classes. You might also know what's happening right now, instead of having to rely on me.”
“Just spit it the fuck out, Kyle. I got some Z’s to catch up on.”
“Yeah, Yeah. Whoever has the remote, turn on the room's holoview. It doesn’t matter which channel, everyone – literally everyone– is broadcasting this shit.”
The light clicking of a remote sounded and the small holoview stationed on the teacher’s platform at the front of the room powered on.
Immediately seen was a beautiful brunette sitting behind a long curved desk holding a small tablet-like device. The projection focused on the woman as she began to announce whatever had made Kyle so excited.
“At 9 o’clock this morning, Federation Court Investigators caught and arrested the two suspects behind the break-in at the Federation Central Court. While it is still unknown what prompted the break-in, some sources have disclaimed a unique artifact within the Central Court.
Had the two thieves managed to escape, the unique artifact could have netted several billions of credits within the black market.
The Central Court Investigators have announced their intentions to broadcast the execution of the two thieves behind the break-in. Stating that ‘despite the recovery of the artifact, to break into the Central Court is an extreme insult to all Court Administrators and Security. To dissuade potential break-ins, those responsible for last night's attempt will be promptly executed, live, for the whole of the Federation to observe.’
From here we will transition over to Central Galactic News’ Reporter Manny, who is present at the grounds of execution in the Federation’s District 1.”
As the beautiful brunette finished speaking, the projection flickered as it transitioned to a just as handsome blonde reporter.
As the reporter spoke, Reggie turned towards Kyle to speak.
“Shit, man, you weren’t kidding. The last live execution was, like, thirty years ago after the District 3 bombings. And that was because those big financial corpos forked out billions to the government for permission.”
“That’s what I was trying to fucking tell you, Reggie. Shit, it looks like they’re about to start.”
As Reggie turned back towards the holoview at the front, the projection focused on a group of men and women in the Central Courts battle suits. Completely black in color, the only symbol on the clothes was a Golden Sword and Scale at the center of each individual’s chest.
The man at the front was likely the strongest or highest positioned of the Investigator Group, as he was the first to speak to the crowd of reporters.
A cold voice sounded out as he started on a long tangent as to why the execution of the two thieves is an inevitable necessity. He detailed how the execution would play out, and how the Court Investigators would treat any thieves that decided to try to take on the Central Court in the future.
Lastly, the cold leader began to ensure that the investigation of the break-in was yet to be finished.
“There is nothing more important to the Central Court and to the Investigators than ensuring that all those who were behind the break-in will be apprehended. The last thing that the court wants is to leave those who conspired to break in to give it another try with a new crew. Be assured, if there are any more individuals who were involved, they, too, will be deemed as the most heinous of criminals and executed.”
As the man finished speaking, the projection came off of the group of investigators and focused on the two thieves. Both thieves had their heads down, but it could be seen that they were very attractive individuals. Both thieves had heads of dark, black hair. And despite one being a man and the other a woman, it could be seen that they both had very athletic builds and were very tall.
“Before we proceed with the execution, do either of the criminals have any final words?”
A woman wearing the battle suit of the Court Investigators spoke to the thieves, raising her hand to the sky, palm sharp like a blade.
As the woman finished speaking, the two thieves raised their heads towards the reporters in the background. Their sunken cheeks, deep and dark eyes, and sharp jaw lines reflected into the projection in the class. Looking towards each other, they shook their heads simultaneously and looked back towards the reporters, each of them winking once at an unknown individual.
Seeing the two shake their heads, the leader of the investigators gave a single word, “Proceed,” and the woman with the raised hand dropped her sharp palm. As the palm inched close to the neck of the two thieves that were kneeling with their heads lowered next to each other, a red, yet illusive, blade formed out several feet. The woman’s hand returned to her side, but the cameras focused on the two thieves whose heads had separated from their bodies. No blood was gushing or spraying as it could be seen that the both sides of the cut had been cauterized at the time of the cut.
“That was FUCKING INSANE!! Reggie, you realize that we may never see another fucking execution like this live again, right?”
Kyle was still fixed on the scene on the projection while he addressed Reggie. Upon hearing no response, Kyle turned towards the skinny student next to him to see a pair of hands gripping tightly on the desk. Looking further up the arms, Kyle could see the pale face of Reggie, along with the pupils that had been constricted into two small dots.
Kyle’s forehead scrunched, confused at the reaction of this friend of his. “Dude, you fucking sick or something. How can you look like that after seeing something so fucking cool?”
Finally realizing that someone was talking to him, Reggie loosened his grip on the desk and turned towards Kyle.
“Hm? What do you want?”
“Nothing. You good?”
“Oh, yeah. Just gotta shit. Real bad.”
“Fuck that. Better take care of business then. You still got time left before the next course.”
“See you.”
Saying that, Reggie stood up and walked briskly to the classroom door. Walking through the door that had been kicked open earlier, Reggie turned right towards the school bathrooms. Walking down the hall, Reggie looked over his shoulder towards the classroom, before walking past the bathrooms and towards the stairway.
Hitting the stairs, Reggie began to run towards the back exit of the school that was usually unlocked. Noticing that the door was open, Reggie slowed to a walk and pushed open the door. Seeing a couple of the school's resident mechanics out for a smoke, Reggie gave them a nod and turned around the corner before breaking into a sprint towards a side street near the school.
Making it a few meters, Reggie stopped before keeling over and retching everything he had eaten while awake at 2 a.m..
Stopping only a brief second to wipe his mouth, Reggie continued towards the spot where he had requested for an AutoTaxi to take him home.
The AutoTaxi arrived just as he was, allowing Reggie to board quickly. It was only a five minute flight to the large apartment that he lived in. Most of the time it was just him, but back when he was young it was where he and his family spent most of their time.
Punching the code into the door, Reggie burst into the apartment and began to storm through every room in the place.
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It took all but two minutes to comb through every inch of the place, and when he ended he was in front of the refrigerator. It was a more archaic form of technology, but it was hard to beat something so efficient in cooling drinks and snacks.
Posted on the fridge was a photo of Reggie and his parents. It was a fairly recent photo, unlike all the others that were dated to several years ago. In the photo, Reggie was as tall and skinny as he is now. His dark hair was unkempt and the dark bags under his deep and dark eyes were reflective of the long night he had spent doing everything besides what he was supposed to.
Next to Reggie on both sides were his parents. Both slightly taller with beautiful, dark, black hair. The sunken cheeks of the two were reflected in the cheeks of Reggie.
Punching the fridge once, Reggie yelled out. Punching it, again, he yelled out once more.
Punching it the third time, Reggie gripped the photo before sinking to his knees.
Bringing the photo to his forehead, tears began to rain silently down onto the floor.
Reggie spent several minutes on the floor before the tears began to clear up. Bringing the photo in front of his face, Reggie took one more long look before standing up. Reaching out to put the photo back on the fridge, Reggie stopped his arm to check the watch that began to beep on his arm.
Tapping the screen of the watch a few times, a projection showing the outside of the apartment's front door came up. Looking at the projection, Reggie could see a group of men and women, all wearing the familiar black battle suits holding the golden insignia of the Central Court.
Folding the photo and placing it into his pocket, Reggie began to walk towards the door, intent on letting the Investigators in, knowing that they were here to search the home that had belonged to his parents, the thieves behind the Central Court break-in.
As Reggie turned down the hallway towards the front door, a silent concussion blasted the door several meters forward in the blink of an eye, colliding with Reggie, knocking him onto the floor nearly unconscious. As his eyes began to close, Reggie could hear the man at the front start to speak.
“Suspect apprehended. Beginning Transport to IGC for Travel to secondary location.”
With that, Reggie’s eyes closed and the surroundings faded away.
***
Hours, maybe days, later, Reggie’s closed eyelids began to twitch, signaling his impending return to consciousness.
Opening his eyes, confusion overtook his face as he began to view his surroundings. Four gray, metal walls. Only one with a thick, locked, sliding door. No windows. Low lights. Empty.
Shifting to stand and walk towards the door, Reggie was stunned and pulled to the ground. Groaning, Reggie looked towards his wrist and ankles, both wrapped in thick metal chains. Turning to lay on his back, Reggie shouted out, desperate for someone to come. The memory of the Court Investigators, of the flying door, and of man speaking as he faded asleep came to his mind.
Reggie knew what his parents had done. In fact, he knew for a long time what kind of work the two did. He also knew just how good they were, and how smart. Smart enough to know that breaking into the Central Court was nigh suicide.
Reggie was smart, too, though his grades may not reflect it. There was really no reason for the Central Court to come after him like they did. No matter what they said about coming after those who assisted with the break-in, it would be easy enough to see that Reggie was in no position to be involved with his parents' work.
No. There was only one reason why the Investigators would take him in such a forced manner.
‘They lied to the Federation. They said they recovered the artifact, but they would only come after me if they thought that I knew where it was.’
As he realized this, Reggie also knew that as long as he kept quiet about the missing artifact and admitted that he knew nothing he could go home.
“HEY! HEEEEYYYY! IF ANYONE IS LISTENING, I HAVEN’T SEEN OR TALKED TO EITHER OF MY PARENTS FOR A YEAR! I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT THEY DID!
Yelling into nothing, Reggie paused to catch his breath. Getting ready to yell again, Reggie had only opened his mouth as the sliding metal door opened. Walking through were two men and a woman dressed in the Uniforms given to the Investigators stationed on the Central Courts Inter-Galactic Cruisers.
“Thank goodness! I don’t know where you all got your information, but I haven’t nor have I ever had anything to do with my parents' work. I didn’t even know they were thieves 'til I saw the broadcast–”
Reggie began to lie through his teeth before the woman leading the two men interrupted him.
“Quiet criminal. Nothing you say can clear you of this charge of treason. We found the note you hid in your pocket.”
Looking down Reggie noticed that he had been changed into a gray prison suit. Thinking back to what the woman had said and what he had in his pockets earlier, Reggie’s eyebrows nearly connected with how scrunched his face became in confusion.
“Don’t lie to me. Any note found in my pocket was planted by you guys. All I had in my pocket was a photo of my parents and I. So don’t think you can–”
“Let me be clear, criminal. I meant it, when I said nothing will clear you.”
Saying this, the man to the right of the woman in charge took something from the pocket on the inside of his Uniform. It was only after he tossed it to Reggie that he realized it was the photo he had taken from the fridge. It was only after he was about to plead his case once more that he saw the back of the photo.
Several words written in black. A riddle, or clue. Something that only Reggie and his parents would know.
Our Honeymoon. Our Anniversary. Our Future.
Our Little Corner of the Planes.
Our Love. Our Life.
Love,
Mother and Father.
Seeing these words, Reggie's eyes began to tear up as he clutched the photo in a fist.
The woman ordered something to the two men next to her, yet what it was Reggie didn’t know, nor did he care.
The men grabbed both of Reggie’s arms and the woman tapped a few times into her watch. The chains that were around Reggie’s wrists and ankles fell away and he was carried into the hallway of what he now knew to be a IGC. A Ship belonging to the Federation capable of forming directed wormholes, allowing for travel between systems within the Galaxy. Reggie wasn’t sure how long it took, but eventually the trio of Investigators re-chained him in a new room. This time, his arms were chained upwards, in a Y formation. Now, however, the Investigators had peeled down the prison suit so that all of Reggie’s upper body was exposed.
One of the men asked a few questions that Reggie didn’t register. Waiting several seconds, the lead Investigator called in another woman. As the new woman walked into the room, she approached a work bench behind Reggie.
After several seconds, the woman came behind Reggie and injected something into the middle of his back, in between his shoulder blades. All Reggie could feel for a moment was a cold surge at the point of injection, before something cold and metallic began to move inside him, like it was alive.
The pain came a second later, but there was enough time for Reggie to realize what they had put inside him. Long banned for personal use, chained nanocrawlers were a form of technology that had been created solely to inflict the most amount of pain on a target.
Once inside, the small pieces of technology could be remotely controlled through the watch that most people wear nowadays. All of the crawlers are chained together and are surrounded in small serrated blades. Wherever they move, they tear and rip apart everything they touch.
As the chained crawler moved through his body, all Reggie could hear was the voice of his parents speaking the words he had read on the back of the photo that was only being held tighter and tighter in his hand as the torture continued.
The Investigators continued with their questioning, and their words continued to flow through Reggie’s ears. The woman behind him continued to play with her watch, guiding the bladed nanobots inside him. Tears were flowing down his face, yet even Reggie didn’t know if it was from the pain of the torture or the pain of losing his parents.
Seconds, minutes, hours– maybe even days– passed as the torture continued. The questions were asked but never answered. Reggie knew that the torture would stop if he told them what they wanted to know. If he confessed what the words on the photo meant. He also knew that all that would come to him was death.
How could he betray his parents if death was coming either way. Whatever they took would be buried with them all.
As these thoughts continued, Reggie found himself being thrown into a new room. This time, no Investigators entered with him.
Reggie looked around with blurry eyes. This room had two doors. One in the direction of where he had come from, and the other behind him. The first door shut and through its window the investigators that had accompanied him so far could be seen. Smiling, Reggie knew what kind of room he had been thrown into. Looking behind him, a second door with a window could be seen. Through the window, a beautiful expanse of space could be seen. Endless arrays of stars laid in front of his eyes, and the cloudiness within disappeared. Reggie knew this would likely be the last thing he ever saw. It was best to take it all in. To its fullest. Turning back to the Investigators, a new man came forward. This investigator's uniform was slightly different. It seemed he was in charge of everyone else.
The man said a few words to the four other Investigators before shaking his head and looking towards Reggie.
The man and Reggie made eye contact that seemed to last several seconds. Reggie let out a sigh, releasing all air from his body only to see the man mouth a single word, ‘Proceed.’
The door facing the expanse of space opened and Reggie was ejected.
A crippling cold overtook his entire body.
Reggie could feel his skin bloat, as the moisture inside began to evaporate.
The most painful part, however, was the boiling feeling on his tongue.
Still, as painful as it was, Reggie recalled the pain from the chained crawlers that had chewed his back open from the inside out.
Frozen blood began to swirl out and around Reggie, all coming from the wounds that had formed on his back.
If he had been able to live, to survive, it would have made for an epic series of scars. A source of trauma for sure, but also something to brag about. An amazing ice breaker, for anyone that would listen.
That was just a dream though, one that began to form at the 10 second mark, as Reggie’s consciousness began to fade for good. At 11 seconds a blue glow covered the IGC before it disappeared instantly before his eyes. Probably returning to District 1. Reporting everything– or the lack of it– that they had gathered from Reggie.
At 12 seconds, Reggie’s eyes cleared once more. The swirling supernovas in front of him seemed to be never ending. Colors he had never seen or heard of. Colliding and combining with each other. There were certainly worse places to die.
‘This must be the clarity before death that I’ve heard of. Still, it is truly, truly, a beautiful sight.’
At 13 Seconds, tears began to fall from his eyes. Everything from the past however many days seemed to hit him all at once. The loss of his parents. The feeling of torture. The experience of losing a full life. The inevitability of death.
At 14 Seconds, Reggie lost the strength to keep his eyes open.
At 15, Reggie’s consciousness slipped away.
At 30 seconds, a frost continued to form on his body.
At 1 minute, the frost had stopped the wounds on his back. The blood was still swirling around him.
At 1 Minute 30 Seconds, a small blue mark formed on Reggie’s wrist. From the mark, a blue glow began to encompass his body.
At 1 Minute 55 Seconds The blue glow fully wrapped around his body. The glow slowly became brighter and brighter.
At 2 Minutes, the glow reached its climax. Reggie vanished. There was blood. There was the beauty of the surrounding space.
There was a photo, one that had fallen from the unconscious hand of one Reginald Porter.