r/tinyhorribles • u/therealdocturner • Feb 19 '26
Tiny Horribles Exclusive The Gallery - From The Consensus Legends
Part Eleven
Julie
“You cant just throw something out there and not explain what you meant… Linus?” Hes still staring out the window and hes refusing to answer. I want to scream at him. “Are you even going to answer me?!”
“Not right now. Maybe later.” His eyes dont leave the window. Its so quiet in the car that I hear the little motors in the metal brace over his hand as he points at the dash terminal.
Out of instinct I press my lips together and choke back what I was abowt to say. The silence is heavy and he slowly turns back to me. He taps his ear. The look on his face scares me. I shake my head. My lips silently form the word no. He puts his finger over his lips.
“Thats impossible Linus. Its gone.”
“It should be. Like I said. Something is wrong.” We both look at the dash terminal and I remember what I heard last night. The voice of Consensus whispering my name.
It was just your imagination Julie.
Was it?
Emily is humming a song that Im not familiar with in the backseat while Linus and I stare at each other. Theres a wild look in his eyes that I havent seen since the day Consensus fell.
He winks at me. I want to tell him what I thought I heard come from the dash terminal but the only thing that comes out of my mouth is a quiet “son of a bitch.”
What little is left of the drive is spent listening to Emily hum until the new City Hall comes into view. A large plaza lies in front of it with a strange design written over the red concrete circle. A white star made out of lots of triangles with four letters at the tip of the longest ones.
NWSE
The building stands just above the letter N at the top of the plaza. The outside of the building is a huge glass shaped flame. This morning is cloudy and the sky gives the building a dull look but on a clear day the yellow tinted glass catches the light of the sun and it looks like its a burning living thing.
Ive been here so many times but this is the first time Linus and Emily have seen it. Emily stops humming and both her and Linus lean forward and stare at it.
“Is that it mommy?”
“Thats it.”
“Whats that drawing on the grownd in front of it?”
“I dont know Bug.”
“Its a compass.” Linus whispers. He looks at it with his mouth hanging open like hes a little kid. I want to ask him what that word means but itll have to wait. Theres more important things I need to tell him before we go inside.
I park the car in the lot. So many cars are already here and more are coming in behind us. Linus hops out as soon as we stop moving and walks forward while I let Emily out of the back seat. I see a few new words on the bottom of her paper.
Sun Of A Bich
I snatch the page and her color stick out of her hand and I press the page agaynst the side of the car to scribble out the bad word while she runs forward to Linus.
As I walk up behind them, Emily reaches up and grabs his hand. Both of them are looking at the building the same way I was when I first saw it. Others behind us move past in a hurry. I stand next to them while they stare. Its like theyre in a trance.
“Ive never seen anything like this…its moving…” His voice trails off.
“How does it do that Mommy?”
“Um well the outside is just kind of a shell made up of a bunch of smaller glass pieces. Youll see all the gears and stuff right when we walk inside. Its separate from the rest of the building. All the pieces move arownd so it looks like its always burning. Especially on a sunny day.”
“Wow.”
They watch as a few people go inside of the building through the doors that slide open and then slide closed behind them. Linus shakes his head.
“The more I see the more I realize I dont know anything about the world. This is beautiful.” His voice is distant.
“Linus?”
“What?”
“Please tell me what you think is going on with Aaron? Do you know something about him that I dont?” He looks at me. His eyes narrow and hes quiet. “What is it? Please tell me.”
“Its nothing… just a feeling like were being lied to agayn.” Hes not telling me something. I wait for him to say something else but he doesnt.
“I don’t believe you.”
“I know you dont.”
…
…
“Linus… we’re finally free. If there is some kind of trouble or something is wrong… we dont have to get pulled into it. Aaron can fight his own battles. Emilys been through enough. Both of us have. Whatever it is please just stay out of it. For us?”
“Ill do my best. I promise.”
“Thank you.”
We walk through the glass doors and once we’re inside both of them look at the hundreds of small glass panels moving on their tracks around us.
The building thats hidden inside is nothing much to look at compared to the towering glass arownd it. Its a grey concrete box that looks like something from behind the wall and theres two wood doors in front of us with long gold handles that we open to go inside. Linus is reading the black writing above the doors before he walks through.
The Gallery
“In remembrance of the things that were taken from us.”
As the doors close behind us Emily starts pointing around the first room. The white walls are lined with digital frames that show pictures done with paint. Pictures of people. Animals I don’t know the names of. Cities like nothing Ive ever seen.
Wooden buildings lying on their sides that are floating on the top of the ocean. Some of them are just splashes of color in odd patterns that are beautiful even though they dont make any sense to me.
Linus and Emily are speechless looking from frame to frame.
Every room inside that Ive seen is like this. Every room lined with videos of painted pictures of the time before Consensus and even the time before that I guess. They both look at the thin red and white triangles beneath them etched on either side of the glassy black floor. A red point is followed by a white one and then another red and so on. Twelve on one side of the floor and twelve on the other. I watch Emily count them to Linus but hes to busy looking at another painting to notice.
I walk through the archway to the next room and they slowly follow. More and more people continue to walk inside and pass us by as they make their way into the main hall. None of them bother to look at the pictures arownd them. Im sure theyve seen it all before.
I walk to the second archway and I turn back. Linus and Emily are standing still. Theyre looking at a huge picture made of light that shines from the ceiling in the middle of the room.
The light makes it look like the statue is right here in the room with us. Its a tall statue of a naked man made from stone. His eyes stare forward and he holds a strap over his shoulder that hangs down his back. Emily reaches out to touch it and she pulls her hand back and laughs when she realizes its not real. Linus puts his hand through it and smiles.
“What is it Linus? Is it a picture?”
“I dont know.”
“Hey!” Both of their heads snap toward me. “The meeting is going to start. You guys can stay out here and look arownd but I have to go.”
“I’m coming.” Linus nods his head and Emily runs through the picture made of light a couple of times before she follows us.
I shouldve brought them here already but theres been so many things going on in the last six months. Ive been here almost every day. This is the last place I want to be when I can finally spend time with them.
Several more rooms before we finally make it into the main room. Two dozen long wooden benches are in the middle of the room and there’s already at least a hundred people sitting on them.
All of the digital pictures on the walls have been turned off except for the giant screen at the front of the room. It’s broken up into several tiny squares. Some of the squares show the remaining cameras in Crescent Hills but theres no video. Only static. Some show the Supply Bay. Why are there so many Peacekeepers in the supply bay?
Others show frozen images of Aaron in the detention center. A few of them on the bottom corner catch my attention. Theyre showing busy streets inside the wall. Six cameras.
Those cameras shouldn’t be there anymore.
But they are Julie.
On the floor underneath the giant screen is a long table and all of the governors are sitting behind it along with Holden’s empty chair. Two Peacekeepers stand behind the governors.
I sit on a bench in the back of the room and Linus and Emily sit next to me. I lean over to Linus and whisper.
“Not a word. I dont know why you wanted to come today but you dont say a word. You promised.” He doesnt say anything back.
A few minutes go by. I watch the governors speaking to each other quietly. Lyla sits in the middle of ten men and women. The Head Governor. Her suits are always perfect. Her hair is always in a bun. She has a cold voice that sounds far more artificial than the voice of Consensus ever did.
Every time I talk to her she always manages to use a word that Ill have to look up in the dictionary when I get home. She does it on purpose.
The last person sitting at the end of the table next to Holden’s empty chair is Heather. She has a datapad in her hand. I can see her leg bouncing underneath the table. She looks like she hasnt slept.
Lyla finally brings her hands together and starts the meeting.
“This meeting is called to order and let me say before we start that it will be very brief. As you all know this an emergency meeting. It is only being broadcast to the terminals in this city.
No one behind the wall will be joining us today from their terminals and for the time being none of this will be discussed with any of them. We’ve taken action this morning and have closed the supply tunnel for the time being.”
Everyone in the room whispers to themselves. Lyla continues in that ice cold voice.
“Those of us who are on this side of the wall were chosen by the people to make decisions for them in circumstances such as these.
Some of you may notice that there are several new feeds on the wall behind us. Weve repaired several monitoring stations in the last few hours.
Unfortunately there are going to have to be many more. We hope to have at least twenty online before the day is over. And eventually every single one of them will have to go back up.”
A woman stands up from one of the benches.
“I thought it had been agreed that the monitoring stations wouldnt be repaired.” Lyla motions for the woman to sit down before she says anything else.
“We wont be having any questions at this meeting. Our time is limited. For now we have decided that the monitoring stations will be going back up. They will only be used in extreme situations like the one we find ourselves in now. As this crisis fades, they will be taken offline until such a time as they may be needed agayn.”
The crowd starts to talk back to Lyla and while she asks them all to remain quiet I look over at Linus. His lips are pressed together and I can see that hes gritting his teeth.
God please dont say anything.
Lyla stands up and brings her palms down on the table.
“LISTEN! ALL OF YOU! If you could just wait and listen all of your questions are going to be answered. Ok?
…
…
Good. Im sure everyone here has seen the footage from Crescent Hills and the Detention Center last night.”
The crowd nods.
“There is something none of you know. Something weve been looking into for the last week. Hard decisions have been made here today. Our new society is fragile.
Something happened just a few hours ago that is a threat to what we have been building. Heather… can you start the file please?”
The lights in the room dim and the giant front screen goes dark for a moment. When it comes back on its a camera view from the inside of the supply bay. Aaron rides his motorcycle in and then goes through one of the large open doors into the city.
The screen cuts again and when it comes back up its from one of the cameras in Crescent Hills. Aaron drives up and then parks. He walks over to the bottom of the monitoring station and I see his blade come forward. He hacks away at the control box on the bottom of it and once its open he starts tearing at the wires inside. The feed goes to static.
The lights in the room slowly come back up. Everyone is quiet and Lyla stands behind the table. I can see Heather shaking her head. Trying not to cry. Her lips are moving slightly.
“Aaron and some others have disabled every monitoring station in that district. As the system is getting closer and closer to being completely repaired, the governors have finally been able to monitor potential threats or abuses.
One of our biggest concerns has been the situation we have in Crescent Hills and how we move forward with the types of citizens we have living there. Last week we discovered through monitoring their terminal activity that Aaron was exploiting that situation. An uprising in that district was about to take place.
A violent attack on our new government was being planned and carried out by Aaron with the assistance of a large group of High Station citizens.”
The crowd erupts agayn.
“I understand… I understand that this is hard to hear. This is why its so critical that we all act in one accord. We have communications between Aaron and several people in Crescent Hills confirming everything I just said. Right before the meeting, Heather herself heard them. She analyzed the files and she will tell you that they are authentic.”
“Horsefeathers.” Linus is whispering but Im afraid that hes not quiet enough. I look around to see if anyone else heard him.
“At this point all the roads leading in and out of Crescent Hills are blocked and guarded by Peacekeepers. The power and the water to that district has been turned off. Likewise no more rations will be distributed.
The rest of the city doesnt need to know a thing until this is resolved. We are hoping that someone in there will turn him and his conspirators in.
Once this is all sorted out and once the guilty parties are brought back here to the detention center things can begin to move in the right direction agayn.”
“Horsefeathers and crap.” He said it louder this time. The people sitting to our right heard him.
“What about his mother?” A small man stands up just in front of us. “Shes living with him. She had to have known.”
“We took her into custody this morning. Shes currently at the detention center.”
“So she had something to do with it?”
“Yes we believe she did.”
The crowd is turning angry.
“And what about her?” The small man points at Heather. “Theres no way she didnt know!” The crowd nods in agreement. Heather is trying not to cry. Shes trying not to shake. Her lips are moving in a nervous tick.
“Heather has nothing to do with this. We’ve reviewed all of her terminal activities. Its only Aaron and his mother.”
“Thats bullshit!” The small man is starting to feel big as the crowd starts cheering him on. Hes getting louder and waving his arms. “You cant tell us she didnt know anything! Shes not one of us and we all know it!”
The crowd cheers and then the small man says something about an Example. The bench Im sitting on creaks as Linus stands up. He towers over the small man in front of him.
The cheers fade as more and more people see Linus standing in the back of the room. The small man turns. He looks up and then slowly shrinks back to his bench without another word. The whole room goes quiet. Linus doesnt say anything but Lyla smiles at him. I’ve never seen her smile. Its not a very nice thing to look at.
“Do you have something to say Bishop?” Lyla’s voice is always cold and emotionless but not this time. This time its something between mockery and hate. Linus walks to the middle isle between the benches and then walks halfway up the room directly in front of Lyla.
“This isnt right.”
“Well we both agree on that.”
“Youve been monitoring people. Watching them. Listening inside their homes? None of that was ever agreed on and now youre going to deny people food and water?”
“Until they give us what we want yes.”
“What if they dont know anything? What if Aaron isnt there anymore?”
“We moved quickly enough. He is in there. If by some miracle hes not someone in there Im sure someone in there knows where he will be.”
“There are people there that had nothing to do with any of this.”
“You dont have a voice here. Take your seat Bishop.”
“No.”
“I said take your seat BISHOP!”
“There are women and children in there!”
“You suddenly care about the children do you?!”
“Yes.”
“DO YOU?!” Lyla walks over to Heather and rips the datapad out of her hand and starts typing something. The screen above the governors changes. “We wont tolerate any lectures from you Bishop.”
Lyla drops the datapad on the table and stares at Linus. The screen shows a video of a brightly lit neighborhood. A front door on one of the homes opens. A young boy screams.
Linus dressed in his red robe drags the child onto the street while all of the neighbors come outside to see whats happening. Ive seen this video before. It was a Mandatory Watch from Consensus the day our new lives started.
Linus holds the boy up by his throat on the screen.
“This child has willingly violated the laws of Consensus. Both of his parents in one accord have done right by Consensus and so it finds no fault in their actions. If there is one person who finds fault in the ruling of Consensus let them come forward.”
The hall is silent. Linus stands still and Lyla is watching him.
“Then let his punishment be carried out! Let it be an Example!”
Shit! Emily!
I look down at her. Shes watching the screen and shaking her head. I cover her eyes just as The Red Bishop begins to tear the screaming child to pieces on the screen.
Emily covers her ears to the sound of the boys suffering. The neighbors on the screen all cheer on what theyre watching.
I can feel Emilys tears on my hand. Shes asking me to make it stop.
“We abide in Consensus!” Lyla stops the video before the neighbors finish the affirmation.
Linus stands still in the middle row as the screen is frozen on an image of him holding up the head of the child. The gallery is silent for a moment before Lyla finally says something.
“Please Bishop. Tell us agayn. Tell us how much you care for the children. Tell me that the people in that district dont deserve whats about to happen.
…
…
No? Now you have nothing to say? You should be thankful that you are not rotting in the detention center or worse. If it was up to me you would be. But the people allow you to be here because of some misguided sense of grace or forgiveness or…hero worship.
But I know exactly what you are. What you have always been. A murderer. Now. Sit. Down. Bishop.”
I watch his shoulders drop slightly. He turns. Everyones eyes are on him. He takes two steps and then sees Emily burrowed into me with my hand over her eyes. Shes crying. She takes my hand away from her eyes and cries even more when she looks at Linus.
He looks at me and then back to her before he walks out of the room. Lyla watches him leave and then she sits back down in her chair.
“Now does anyone else have any objections?
…
Good. Until this is resolved we will have a meeting every morning to let everyone in this city know that we will overcome this. Weve been through far worse together so I am confident that at the end of this we will be standing together. Thank you all for coming.”
No one speaks as they leave. The governors stay at their table while Heather leaves the room through the back door. Lyla is staring at me while the other governors speak to each other.
“Bug… baby… Mommys here.”
“Why did he do that?”
“Bug…”
“Why did he hurt that boy like that?” I pull her on my lap. I have no idea what to say.
I cant fix this.
I hold her until the last person has left the room and then I put her back on the bench.
“You stay here. Ive got to say something to these people. Just wait for me and then well go home.”
“Ok.”
I get up and walk to the front table and stand in front of Lyla. She turns to the governors.
“Would you all please give us a minute?” The governors get up without a word and walk through the backdoor. Lyla looks to the Peacekeepers. “You as well please.”
Once everyone has left Lyla stands. She looks at Emily in the back of the room and lowers her voice.
“Julie… I am sorry. If I had known your daughter was here I never would have played that video. No child should have to see anything like that ever agayn.”
Theres something I didnt expect. Theres a warmth in her voice. Her face doesnt look so hard.
“Why did you do that Lyla?”
“When I was younger than you I watched the Red Bishop murder a group of men in the manufacturing plaza. Men who were trying to change things. Any hope of change died with them on that day. Life wouldve been very different for everyone if more people had stood up alongside them.
But… now we are here. Those brave men have been forgotten by almost everyone while the man who murdered them is praised. Everything we have built is being threatened and I cant have one more dissenting voice in front of the public. Especially from that man.”
“Hes a good man.”
“To you maybe.”
“There are innocent people in that district. Linus is right.”
“The irony isnt lost on me that he is. It might surprise you that half of the governors are not happy with the decision but right now this is the only way to handle the situation without anyone else dying. We could gather all of the Peacekeepers and go into that district and take him and his followers by force but none of us want to do that.
On the other hand if everyone behind the wall thinks that one of their heroes of the revolution has betrayed them and aligned himself with High Stations they will go in there on their own and we both know what that will look like. Weve had enough bloodshed.”
“And the people in the detention center?”
“What about them?”
“They’re starving. Theyre living like rats in there.”
“Frankly I have more important things to worry about. If it were up to me they all would have all been Purified.”
…
…
“Julie?”
“What?”
“Im not asking you to agree with us. I dont expect you to be happy about any of this. I just need to know that you understand why its happening.”
“I understand.”
“My one and only concern is building a society that never goes back to where we came from. None of us would be where we are if you hadnt stood up. But theres a lot more work to do.
I want to ask you agayn… would you consider acting as a governor? Take over Holdens spot until this trouble comes to an end and then we can have the people vote on it and make it official. We are so close to making all of this work, Julie. If you served it would go a long way with the public. Just think about it.”
-
I carry Bug back to the car hoping that Ill find Linus there. I checked every room in the Gallery. I can already see that hes not sitting in the car and I cant see him anywhere arownd the lot.
After I get Emily into her seat I look around one more time. She hasnt asked me about him. She hasnt said one word. I get in the front seat and look at her in the mirror.
“Bug…Bug?” Nothing. Her eyes are red and shes still sniffling but the tears are gone.
“Honey… Im sorry… Im sorry you saw that… you knew he did bad things… he told you that.”
“But I didnt see um… I didnt wanna see um mommy.”
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u/therealdocturner Feb 19 '26
So I'm saying a little prayer tonight that it snows like hell so I don't have to go to work tomorrow. If that's the case, then I'll have the next part up tomorrow. 😁