Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Something Happy

The brochure said they would work with her to find a good match, and they had not been lying. The first day they had eased her into her new life with a gentle hand. She had met the humans, but had not been forced to interact with them. She had been given a room based on her request, somewhere quiet and away from the agitation of too many people.

This was the least amount of panic she had experienced in several cycles, but that was almost to be expected. Now that she was able to relax from traveling, at least the fear seemed manageable rather than crushing. She had been given an intercom that would connect her to the outside world if she wished, and it would flash if someone wanted to speak with her. Sometimes it simply flashed a few times before announcing something, giving her a good warning beforehand rather than startle her.

It was a nice change of pace.

Everything seemed to be within her control.

The light blinked to let her know it was mealtime. She had the option to go to the cafeteria with everyone else, or she could take a meal in her room. Of course, the doctor let her know that option would not always be available. Her treatment plan would eventually encourage her to interact with people again.

But that might be a long time in coming.

So she accepted something to eat in her room, cringing away in the corner when the slot in the door opened up and her tray was pushed through on request. She wasn't stupid, she knew how much it resembled a jail cell, one in which she had self imprisoned herself, but she couldn't bring herself to be bothered by that fact.

At least now she was safe.

She didn't sleep very well, her dreams marred by sporadic nightmares of overcast red sky and falling ash heralded by choir of the damned raising their screaming voices to the sky.

It wasn't something generally conducive to sleep.

But the following day, her light blinked with a request for the doctor to enter her room. She sat with him for a long while. He urged her to talk about her greatest concerns, outline what made her worry, what her fears were. It wasn't an easy discussion, and there were still some things she couldn't tell him, but they made headway. She didn't have it in her to go to lunch, her emotions were to scattered for that, but she did feel well enough to continue treatment after the mid day meal.

The next phase of treatment began with a small room with a door on either end, each half separated by a partition of glass cutting its way down the middle. She was able to sit on one side, while on the other different humans were brought in to sit on the other side of the glass.

Again she noted the soft shoes, and the mittens.

The doctor might not have known this, but this wasn't the first time she had seen a human, but it was the first time any human she had known had ever attempted to look unintimidating.

The last humans she had met, seen, had been predators. They had greeted each other by showing their teeth and slapping each other, either hand to hand or hand to shoulder. They had wrestled in the dirt and openly mocked each other for fun. They had been aggressive, and violent.

And then on that horrible night, they had come, encased in metal and whirring with the roar of machines, pulled apart and put back together again. The thought brought her back to a panic, and they had to halt the treatment for a moment as she hid under the nearest chair and shook in fear.

It wasn't the humans that scared her though, not really.

The humans had saved their lives.

It wasn't even the Drev that scared her.