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COLLECTING DATA
by
Faith Bicknell-Brown
The executioner wiped the guillotine blade and motioned for the next sentencing to begin. Denise observed from behind the gallows, marveling at the senselessness of death. There was no use for her to feel pity for these people; she was here to perform her duty.
The townspeople packed themselves tightly together, moving toward the gallows, desiring a closer view of their doomed monarch. The guards exited the prison and marched the sobbing, woman up the gallows steps.
Denise didn't dare shake her head in sympathy, or the throng of people would be upon her like rabid dogs, and her pretension was to remain hidden. Her head joining the others in the basket would result in an aborted mission.
The crying monarch was forced to kneel, her neck placed in the notch and fastened. Hair hung in her face, her tears dripping upon the wooden planks. The richly embroidered clothes she favored had been replaced with a drab gray dress, her velvet-slippered feet now bare and dirty.
"Kill her!" a beggar woman screamed in the crowd.
Others echoed her words, the angry blood lust drifting upon the rancid air.
The warden read the woman's sentence, and the death-hungry mass cheered. The drum roll began, the blade whooshed down, and the queen's head parted from her rigid body with a wet noise. It tumbled into a gore-splattered basket. Two men lifted the corpse and carried it down to a wagon full of pateless bodies.
Yelling joyously, the crowd milled around, discussing justice, celebrating revenge. Denise observed them quietly, waiting for a servant to bring her the basket. Finally, she made her way into the prison with the heavy, gruesome load. She set it outside a door where someone would skewer the severed heads on pikes as examples.
Denise's artificial skin began itching again. She couldn't wait to shed it, allowing her own smooth, silver skin to breathe. Grimacing, she glanced down the corridor and extracted the monarch's head along with the king's. After focusing her energy on two peasant skulls, they soon represented the missing leaders. No sense in causing unnecessary suspicion.
With the hair of the pates in each hand, Denise hurried down the long passage, glad her mission was finally completed. She inspected the queen's sightless eyes. The woman had been executed for saying, "let them eat cake". There must be some power in this "cake" since it caused hate and death. It warranted further investigation and Denise would include this in her report she presented with the specimens. It was easier to impart information from a decapitated head than by abducting the entire person. What remained in the brain played like a video when reason and emotion were absent. Discovering why humankind delighted in death and chaos was essential for future cohabiting.
When Denise reached a dark storage alcove, she sighed happily, delighted to return to the Mother Ship. With the queen's and king's heads, she disappeared in a flash of light.
***THE END***
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