Author’s Note: I don’t have much to say here except… Poor Tynan.
Tynan had never been good at following time in any sort of linear fashion. He was a distortion of time and space, always had been, so he had no way of knowing how long he had been imprisoned. They kept him incapacitated most of the time, and even if he wasn’t coping with massive amounts of pain threatening to tear him apart, he would not have known how much time had passed.
He missed Luna. If he could have said goodbye, if he could have told her…
If he had only known what he needed to know before he left, if he’d been able to say that he was not ruining her life or keeping her from things she wanted, if he’d had the answers that her father had demanded of him, then perhaps none of this would have happened.
He thought it was because of the cylinder he’d eaten. He’d gotten too much attention then, and he’d felt different, like he’d made a mistake, like he’d eaten too much. He should have known that it was enough to lead them to him.
He had made so many mistakes, and now he would pay for them. He did not know how much longer he could take this, though. He did not know how to cope with this much pain. He could not live like this. He thought he must be close to the death they wanted for him.
“Please. If you must do this, I will accept whatever fate you plan for me, but you must stop this. I will not make any attempts to escape. I will do nothing to harm anyone. I just want a few moments of peace before you kill me.”
“Your kind knows no peace.”
He would not try and convince them that he was different. They were not going to listen. He should stop talking.
He could not. Talking was all he had left. “Will you give me a trial? I remember seeing a broadcast where another child of the vortex was given one, and if that is going to happen, I want to start. I want a chance to get a message to Luna.”
“You want to speak to a satellite?”
“Luna’s name may be synonymous with the moon, but she is not as simple as an orbiting space body trapped in an endless loop. She’d never let that happen to her.”
“Quit talking to me. You’ll pay for it. Stop talking, or you will suffer more.”
Tynan frowned. “If you do not care about me, if I am nothing but a monster, then why would it matter if I suffered more? You would want me to suffer. You would want me to be in agony. You would want nothing but a painful death for me.”
The guard stared at him and then backed away. “They didn’t tell us how deceptive you were.”
“I don’t lie,” Tynan said, trying to get the guard to listen, but all he got was more pain, and he closed his eyes. He would not be able to make them see reason. He could not help thinking that there was no way to continue. He’d be quiet, let the pain fade, and if they spoke to him, then he’d answer. If he could get them to see that he would cooperate—all he wanted was to tell Luna he was sorry. He wanted to tell her that he’d enjoyed every minute he spent with her, how much he’d learned from her, and that she was the best friend he’d ever had.
He wanted to tell her so many things, but he didn’t know how he could do that. They wouldn’t let him free. He should be dead by now, and he did not know why he wasn’t. None of it made sense. Why were they keeping him alive only to torture him? Was it worth that risk? What if he was different? What if he did destroy everything?
He almost wished he could. He’d hurt them, make them all feel the same pain that he did, but he wasn’t like that. He wasn’t like them. Not at all.
“I miss you, Luna.”
Ow, ow, ow. Oooooooooh!
Yeah, poor Tynan.