Все главы The Boy who Circled Time: Глава 201 - Глава 210

There was a body on the floor. There was a grey ceiling above Emmet, grey walls all around him, and a grey floor below him. There was no door to let anyone in, and anyone out, only a single, hand sized vent at the top of one wall, bordering the ceiling. There was a corpse on the floor. There was no way in, and no way for anyone to possibly escape this place. They were bricked into this tiny box of a room, the prison cell only allowed to be opened from the outside, nothing on the inside allowing him to get out of this place, walls made from grey, grey metal, seemingly unable to be pierced, damaged, or scratched. There was nothing but a dry husk left in the bricked up catacomb basement cell here: the pale, pale, deathly grey skin of the body stretched over the too sharp and distinct bones of the body. Emmet felt as if he was going to be sick, and fell to the floor, backwards, and landing on his tailbone, swearing in pain as he was unable to tear

Jasper looked... so small. With his legs semi stretched out over Emmet's, they fell short on the other man's body, their length only reaching about partway through where Emmet's shins began and ended, a category of length that Lila's legs fell into, much to her pride on at least some level. But, seeing the size difference between them, just like this with Emmet leaning over Jasper and shielding his body like a yawning cave, Jasper looked so small. He had been reduced from an admittedly lithe man with not much in terms of figure or shape that couldn't be defined further than slightly stick like, to becoming nothing more than a skeletal husk, made of nothing but sharp angles and an even sharper effect on each and every person in the prison cell with him. He was far too small and Lila was sure that she could make an anatomically correct diagram of the human skeleton through the direct observation of him and him alone.  His once tan skin, onl

Lila stood up and pushed the time machine towards the loving couple, Emmet with tears in his eyes and Jasper playing only a fascimile of life in his dehydrated and starved state. Her past self, even without the knowledge of the two men's arrival, would still have all the necessary medical equipment to provide the two of them with, and she wouldn't exactly be upset by their presence, even if she would at least put on an act of complaint and annoyance at first. Making sure that the time machine was, in fact, physically touching Emmet and Jasper both, moving one of Jasper's arms - which had curled inwards into his body - to press down onto the top of the time machine, his fingers lightly curled over the front edge of the devise as the back of the metal casing was firmly pressed into Emmets legs, scrunching up the fabric of his trousers as it did so. The two of them looked as if they could belong to a painting, and with a heavy heart, Lila let herself step back,

"MY GREETINGS TO THE LADY WITH THE TIME MACHINE," a bland, toneless voice rang out echoing around the corridor and straight into Lila's incredulous mind.   "WE INVITE YOU TO COME OUT FROM HIDING AND JOIN US UPSTAIRS WHERE WE WILL SPEAK IN PRIVACY ABOUT THE SITUATION AT HAND. WE PROMISE THAT NO HARM WILL COME TO YOU."   Lila silently scoffed when she heard te magic phrase tacked onto the end, and instantly did not believe that the people, who transplanted human flesh cooking devices into the backs of their prisoners, would not hurt her and would not attempt to hack into her body with a meat cleaver to quarter her if she immediately came out.   "I AM THE TRANSLATOR AI THAT ALLOWS US TO COMMUNICATE. IF ENGLISH 21ST CENTURY IS NOT THE LANGUAGE THAT YOU UNDERSTAND, THEN OTHER LANGUAGES MAY BE USED. WE UNDERSTAND THAT ENGLISH IS NOT THE MOST POPULAR LANGUAGE ON THE PLANET, BUT WE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT IT IS AN INTERNATIONAL STANDAR

The office was just as dull as Lila had imagined.   There was a grey ceiling hanging above her head, with grey lights embedded within it. Their particular colouring and shade, unfortunately, were not grey by dirt or grime or build up, but seemed to have been deliberately set to that particular dreary setting, leaving all sorts of strange and twisting half shadows to roam around the office, moving far more animatedly over desks and chairs and computers and other furniture far more animatedly than their caster's seemed to be capable of.   It was almost beautiful.   Almost.   It was another obvious enough cost saving measure that made this place even more miserable to be in.   There were desks arranged all around the room, their fronts all facing into the centre with each desk seemingly being a different workstation, each containing a different task to be completed, and a single emp